Walking Dead: The West Wing
What happened to the government when the zombies rose? While not revealed in either the comic book or the television series, this question prior to World War Z has rarely been answered in zombie tales, preferring to focus the everyday men and women who are caught in a world that is falling apart around them. But what of the men and women who were responsible for preventing the collapse of society? Where are the President and his Cabinet? What are they doing to end the zombie apocalypse? The Washington Post reported that President Bush after the 9/11 attacks had, "... set up a shadow government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work outside Washington on a rotating basis to ensure the continuity of national security. Since then, a program once focused on presidential succession and civilian control of U.S. nuclear weapons has been expanded to encompass the entire government. From the Department of Education to the Small Business Administration to the National Archives, every department and agency is now required to plan for continuity outside Washington." While set up to prevent nuclear or biological attack, these contingency plans would be even more effective in a zombie outbreak as portrayed in The Walking Dead. The US government would have had time to evacuate and as long as they managed to keep out the infected out of their bunkers, they would have a pretty good chance of being able to ride out the end of the world. This concept opens a wealth of story idea ideas. How do you conduct a war against an enemy that won't surrender, can't be negotiated with and sees its military might grow every time one of your men, military or civilian dies? How do you go about rebuilding a society when everything has ceased to operate and law and order have broken down? How do you manage to keep control over a bunker filled with politicians, the elite and the privileged? This is a concept that would definitely provide a different view of the world of The Walking Dead and would give an opportunity to look at the "big picture" issues surrounding the end of the world.
Conclusion While it is easy to come up with ideas for a Walking Dead spin off, coming up with storylines that are different, can attract audiences and aren't simply rehashing stories from the original series is far more challenging. While I am looking forward to having a twice weekly dose of zombies on AMC, I am not optimistic that the spin-off will be as good as, or better than the original.