Mmmm Brains – Trek Vets Doing New Zombie Show

Last week we linked to fightingthedead.com without explanation. Now we can reveal it is for a 2008 TV series called Alive from the brains of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and starring John Billingsley and Gary Graham.

Alive is set in a world that has faced a ‘zombie apocalypse’ where just a handful of people are holed up in a continuity of government bunker called ‘Falcon Rock.’ A global pandemic has converted the rest of the world into the brain eating undead. Trek novelists and Enterprise writers Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens co-created the series (along with Matt Vancil) and will be the show runners. They are getting some help from some other Trekkers in the form of Mike Okuda as the scenic designer and Denise Okuda as the video supervisor.

Gary Graham (ENT: Soval) stars as the the leader of Falcon Rock, Colonel Jonathan Manwary (pictured below) and John Billingsley (ENT: Phlox) plays the enigmatic Pastor Mordecai Webb (pictured above). Rounding out the main cast will be Andrew McGinnis who had guest spots on Charmed and Angel and Lia Johnson who Judy and Gar spotted in the indie film I’m Through with White Girls where she co-stared with Enterprise’s Anthony Montgomery (In a strange Trek coincidence, unbeknownst to the Reeves-Stevens, she had a small part in the recent Star Trek New Voyages episode "World Enough and Time.").

 

See the ‘pre pilots’ this month
The show premieres in about a year so to build buzz they are doing ‘pre-pilot’ short teasers in the form of fictional video podcasts from the survivors of the apocalypse at Falcon Rock. Soldiers have weapon cams and helmet cams and they share what they learn with other survivors. The first one went live today and two more will be available later this month leading up to Halloween. Afterwards FalconRockCommand.com will be updated with new info on the show including blogs.


Click to see first ‘Falcon Rock Podcast’ from Alive

 

Modern Zombies
Although best known for sci-fi, this will not be the first time in the world of horror for the Reeves-Stevenses. In fact Garfield has written a number of horror novels and Stephen King even referred to him as the "The Tom Clancy of horror." The Reeves Stevenses promise that their zombies are "different zombies." One thing is that is out is the slow, shambling, easy to run away from type of zombies. Such things have fallen out of fashion with recent zombie projects like 28 Days Later. "We have drawn from everything that exists and taken it another step which is even scarier," says Garfield. But they are sticking with some classic elements – their zombies are still lovers of braaaaaaiins. And they also promise to have a bit of humor in the series. "Horror and comic relief always go together…it makes the horror that much sharper" says Judith.

Alive premieres in the summer or fall of 2008 mostly on various cable channels around the world (more details on where and when in a future update).

 

 

42 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

This will be cool,,

and,,

FIRST !

John Billingsley must always be on TV. It should be the law.

TV has always been brain dead…this is a logical progression. At least no laugh track which has always bothered me…and you would think that dvd releases of sixties sitcoms would remove them.

zombies have had such a massive come back this decade – all thanks to 28 Days Later (2002) and the supercharged ‘zombies’ (not that they are ever called that in the film..)

Then came Dawn of the Dead 2004 remake (with the 28 style zombies), zom-rom-com Shaun of the Dead…Romeros Land of the Dead…28 Weeks Later..

Sure theres been some more as well.

Graham and Billingsley are superb actors. I’ll be watching this just for them. It should be a cool show too though.

Fingers crossed this’ll be good. An on-going story is the most interesting way to tell a zombie story, in my opinion.

Oh, and go read “The Walking Dead” It’s awesome.

Brain and brain! What is brain?!

Looks promising. I enjoyed Graham’s work in the Alien Nation series and Billingsley is interesting to watch in any role. I’ll be following the ‘podcasts’ with interest.

#3: Some sitcoms do remove them–MASH has the option of watching without the laugh track, and Sledge Hammer removed them all.

As far as this series, I wonder if they’re trying to get it in before Max Brooks’ “World War Z” hits theaters?

Actually, the running, talking zombies who crave brains came from humorous “Return of the Living Dead” in the early 80’s. “28 Days Later” and the Dawn of the Dead remake just followed it’s lead.

Sounds like the show is a direct sequel to the “ROTLD” world.

Fraggle Rock used to be such a happy place. So sad to see it overrun by zombies.

This looks fun. Billingsley is a scene-stealer wherever he goes. (Got in some great Star Trek jibes during his appearances on Stargate SG-1.)

This website juest became perfect because as much as I love Star Trek, I also love the Zombie genre. It’s a prerequisite when you’re from Pittsburgh, home of George A. Romero.

I’ve always thought that a TV series about the “zombie apocalypse” would be interesting. The only potential problem would be keeping the plotlines fresh (pardon the pun).

The Reeves-Stevens’ are talented writers, and they’ve got some good people on the cast and crew. Fingers crossed and best of luck to everyone involved!

Graham and Billingsly look great. They were always a highlight on Enterprise.

This looks like fun.

I’ll keep a look out for it.

Actually, Billingsley was the ONLY reason to watch Enterprise.

The rest of the cast and the writing…not good!

Can zombies eat other zombies? How else do they survive as the human population shrinks?? Ooops. Didn’t mean to use my brain. Now I’m lunch.

Heh, I can’t say I like horor much, but it’s nice to see Billingsly make a bit of a splash. He’s a good actor and I’m certain he’ll do a fine job on the show… even if i’m not going to be watching it.

MAJOR NEWS FLASH!!!!

SPECIAL EVENT: Remastered “Menagerie” in Theatres!

Nov 13th only, Check startrek.com for info

I am so there….

Get to see what those uniform colors will look like on the big screen!!!

The Colonel needs a Haircut…

But then again…He is a Colonel.

Glad to see these two back to work.

Is it true there was an attack of brain-eating zombies at the Paramount exec offices… but, they starved to death?

CmdrR. funny as usual. They shouldn’t have to worry about starving, though, as they can all go buy Happy Meals with all the dough that they make off the DVD sales of various Trek incarnations.

Oh, wait a sec. The Paramount execs aren’t zombies. They’re bloodsuckers.

Just saw Resident Evil Exinction an hour ago so I am stoked to hear about this new show.

Met both Mssrs. Graham & Billingsley last year. Both are incredible thespians and gentlemen to boot. I wish them unending success.

This story is kind of a spoiler for 24 fans. Billingsley is supposed to appear in 24 this season. I guess this implies his character isn’t expected to live to the next season. Hmmmm?

Okay, so it definitely wasn’t Jonathan Frakes OR Leonard Nimoy. Graham and Billingsley will undoubtedly bring a lot of class to the series, however.

Judith and Gar have written a bunch of great horror style books. My favourite has to be ‘Dark Matter’. It’s a little twisted and makes me squeemish in parts but I’d heartily recommend it. It’s more of a ‘thriller’ with horrific moments (the protagonist likes to kill and dissect people’s brains, or his pet cat while still alive!) and while I dont usually like horror, I could not put this down! It’s a rip-roaring thrill ride from start to finish!

No one mentioned Day of the Dead. This series most closely resembles that superb George A. Romero film. Gary Graham takes the “Rhodes” role.

Mm, mmm, mmm!! Gary Graham is looking HOT in that screenshot!!

I always wondered what he looked like w/out all the Vulcan makeup on.

Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|

Although there is much that was wrong with ENTERPRISE, you can not possibly say the John Billingsly and his Character Phlox were one of them. He always shined, whenever he had a chance to do anything supstantial in the show. I loved him in Dr. Doctor, and in Similitude with the young Trip (The moment right before surgery when Trip says “You were a damn good father”, and phlox says “you where a damn fine son” will be one of my favorite trek moments.)

So all that said, Billingsly should do well in this part.

Oh god… I can only shake my head and hope for the best. As a die hard zombie fan this looks lame.
If they had a writer that has previously done the Zombie genre backing this, such as George Romero (Night of the living Dead), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Robert Rodriguez (Planet Terror), Shinji Mikami (Biohazard aka Resident Evil video games), S. D. Perry (Resident Evil Novels), even Dan O’Bannon (Return of the Living Dead) or Max Brooks (World War Z), I might say this is a good idea.

The quote by Steven King is laughable, the closest Stephen King ever did to Zombies was his book ‘Cell’ which really was not that good.

Starting off the post apocalyptic zombie survival in a military encampment like Mount Weather in Virginia makes me go “ARG!” Show me the surivors in a large city such as new york or los angeles or chicago or san fransisco the entire first season trying to escape the city. The next season attempting to make it to a remote part of the country maybe coming across an encampment along the way like a prison. Then the third season reaching an infected rural military outpost in the Rockies that they must clense before being able to use it. Once they have a base of operations the survivors should be raiding outlying rural towns for supplies, contacting other survivors/ refugees, contacting other encampments then possibly organizing a way to fight back while struggling with internal conflict as well as the never ending never resting never sleeping zombie threat. They SHOULD NOT start the series already at the base with pleanty of technology, rations, and weaponry already in their inventory! In my mind those that are clever enough to escape the initial onslaught in the most dangerous areas without the use of firearms, motorized transportation, or specialized survival training are the ones that would make the best overall character driven story on how to stay ALIVE.

Is there going to be ANY social commentary what so ever? You really want to draw on something, go to a Zombie Walk.

Anyone want to discuss or network drop me a line at acg92582@yahoo.com I’d be more than happy to talk zombies with you and plan the best horror show never to be made on television. What I want to know, is where can a college nobody (me) that has incredible creative potential go to to write a horror tv show?

Ummm, this looks like a very real threat and I’m a little nervous. The only sword that I own is a claymore….

is it just me, or does this sound the Umbrella Corporation complex(es) from “Resident Evil 3”?

OH – Vulcanista – you can stop wondering what Gary Graham looks like as a human. Go buy “Alien Nation: The complete Series” on DVD.

j. scott

you want to see a real zombie series? come to myspace and see HEAVEN’S GATE – the series

myspace.com/heavensgateseries

this is my nightmare, the way i feel it would happen

maybe it’s just me, but i’ve had pretty high rankings in a few different contests, and i’ve been working on this for quite some time. it’s funny how this show pops up all the sudden.

i know i did not invent this, i’m not even going there, but something still doesn’t smell right.

either way, i have done mine with no budget and have a sick ass story line and a lot of great actors. If somepne was going to beat me too it ( must be nice to have money), they could have at least used some good acting, and for Christ’s sake, some decent zombies

ZOMBIE HUNTER A – you sound like you know your shit. sounds like we could use you on our team brother

so what ever happen to this show?

what happened nothing about being delayed or did it go ahead?

Anthony – Any updates to this?

Usually I don’t read article on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do it! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thanks, very nice article.