
The new WD show hits on the outbreak/public health aspect even harder, pushing WD ever further from the zombie universe of George Romero. The Night of the Living Dead movies mostly just ask us to use our imaginations, with some prompting from the imaginations of the characters. That works.So the Walking Dead zombie cause is something biological, which drives me fucking nuts the more I think about it. But it's also better than at least one alternative, which is something like magic zombies. That would just be boring. Magic avoids the problems of rules and consistency by avoiding them in the first place. Magic can be anything at anytime for the simple reason that it's by definition unobservable. It's magic.So, yeah, definitely overthinking things here. The CDC episode was necessary to reassure the WD world that the zombies are really for reals "dead" and consciousness-vacant: unthinking machines. But it also set up a universe of contradictions. Which is maybe my problem and not the series's, though, at the same time, it may be what keeps me watching the shows in the first place.In any case, I'll take the Fortitude zombies. As homicidal, animated wasp-nests they're creepy and gross enough, with about the same epidemic potential. But they're also alive and we're left to guess just how alive that actually is, which is an unease not present in the WD universe.Still, traditional zombies are fun and interesting, and I think they're fine story devices as long as their presence isn't explained with bad science. As with superpowers, I think you have three basic options for dealing with zombie origins without resorting to magic. 1) Don't explain it. One of my favorite moments in Shaun of the Dead is when a newscaster is about to announce the cause of the zombie outbreak and the main character gets bored and changes the channel. 2) Be vague. Say it was a virus or radiation, but don't try and explain how the science works. I'll assume in whatever parallel universe that allows dead people to move has a virus that can make it happen. 3) Invent new science. You're world; you're rules. I only care about the misuse of real world science. Though you should give some sort of nod to how your invented science is new.
