Heroes: The Five Years Gone route

[Joe Washington]

After going through yet another disappointing episode of Heroes, it made me mourn the potential of what could have been if Heroes had taken the risk of marching towards the Five Years Gone future after the first season finale. Seeing our heroes fighting to prevent the terrible future only to realize that their actions are contributing to its fulfillment. Like Dollhouse and the Epitah One future.

Peter becoming more jaded and dangerous over time but struggling to hold on his faith in good and his desire to help people. The inevitable reveal of the metahumans to the general public. The developing rift between Peter and Nathan. Sylar inevitably killing Nathan and taking the political climb to the Presidency. The romance between Peter and Nikki. Matt becoming corrupted and morally ambigious like Noah used to be in the beginning. Mohinder torn between his sympathies for the metahumans and his desire to protect normals from their most dangerous abilities....

Just thinking about it makes me angry and sad at the same time. I bet it would have been as good as Lost. Maybe better if in the final season, they had the rock monster Uluru who appeared in Isaac's vision be the final Big Bad who may have been secretly pulling the strings of the heroes' lives from behind the scenes like Fake Locke.

What do you guys think? Would you watch this dark, apocalyptic version of Heroes? What would the thing you would have been look forward the most if Tim Kring did went this direction?

 

[startrekwatcher]

I'm pretty sure remembering reading back in season one from weekly Q&As from the writers that was where the season was heading and that a take on that future would drive year 5 and that the rock monster would play a role in the story but would only mysteriously hint at its role.

But I guess things changed after season one.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

My thoughts exactly Joe, I always enjoy your alt. timeline/ what if threads. And I totally agree that this is the route they should have stuck with in terms of an over arc-ing story. Them laying out the foundation, show us glimpses of the future of what could happen and slowly progreasing towards it with a lot of backstory on The Company and the characters. Primatech would have been the antagonists the whole time. Such a squandered opportunity on what could have been a damn near epic show, instead of these damn standalone "Disaster of the Year" volumes. I'm with you though. It angers me too, yet I keep watching. What the eff.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Yes, yes, yes...it seems so obvious that 5YG should have been the organizing principle for the show that I didn't even consider that they intended anything else.

Time travel could have been neutralized as a storykilling plot device by having the timeline be a stubborn thing that wants to go in a certain direction. It's like water flowing downhill - block one stream and it just finds another path, and keeps going in the same direction.

Peter becoming more jaded and dangerous over time but struggling to hold on his faith in good and his desire to help people.

Complicated by his attempt to learn how to use time travel effectively by taking Sylar's powers, which renders him dangerously insane. That was an interesting direction for the show to take and should not have been rescinded before it had any time to develop!

The inevitable reveal of the metahumans to the general public.

Yep - going into S5 is the right time for it too.

The developing rift between Peter and Nathan.

Nathan needed a much better reason to start shipping everyone to Mutant Gitmo. Blowing up half of NYC for real would have done it.

Sylar inevitably killing Nathan and taking the political climb to the Presidency.

Yep. I don't even mind the Nathan masquerade idea.

The romance between Peter and Nikki.

Eh - no, I found that unconvincing. Nikki just has no purpose in the story. They should have booted her and subb'ed in Micah.

Matt becoming corrupted and morally ambigious like Noah used to be in the beginning.

Definitely! And he's a cop so his choice of sides in 5YG makes sense. He should have been allied with Nathan and against Peter, Claire & Mohinder. (Mo would be waffly, tho.)

Mohinder torn between his sympathies for the metahumans and his desire to protect normals from their most dangerous abilities....

Yes, and he's a scientist so he has a vital role in the story as the guy who keeps trying to develop a means of eliminating or repressing powers. He should never had gotten powers himself - that was dopey.

Maybe better if in the final season, they had the rock monster Uluru who appeared in Isaac's vision be the final Big Bad who may have been secretly pulling the strings of the heroes' lives from behind the scenes like Fake Locke.

Rock monster?!? This is the first I'm hearing of that. (I must have forgotten that scene - when did that vision occur?) I don't think there's any particular reason to have a behind-the-scenes factor here. All they need is people with powers, who handle those powers well or badly, mainly some degree of badly, and the larger public, who handles finding out about those people badly. Plenty of story there! How could they have botched it like they did? Sigh.

 

[Aragorn]

I don't remember a rock monster either. But considering the way the show's budget has gone, the rock monster will either be entirely off screen or look as horrible as a special effect from The Asylum.

 

[Vendikarr]

I don't remember a rock monster either. But considering the way the show's budget has gone, the rock monster will either be entirely off screen or look as horrible as a special effect from The Asylum.

The Rock Monster was on the cover of one of the issues of 9th Wonders, the comic book written and drawn by Issac Mendez.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

i think also shown as a painting too, post Isaac death. Maybe the Rock Monster is where they were originally going to go with Samuel, but due to major budget cuts nixed that idea.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I don't remember a rock monster either. But considering the way the show's budget has gone, the rock monster will either be entirely off screen or look as horrible as a special effect from The Asylum.

The Rock Monster was on the cover of one of the issues of 9th Wonders, the comic book written and drawn by Issac Mendez.

Oh if it wasn't in the show, it doesn't count. Which is good. Sounds like a terrible idea, and this is one show that doesn't need more terrible ideas.

Or do you mean the comic was glimpsed in the show? Well, who's to say that everything Isaac came up with was from a vision? He's allowed artistic license!

Maybe the Rock Monster is where they were originally going to go with Samuel, but due to major budget cuts nixed that idea.

Maybe the Rock Monster was a metaphor for Samuel? I hate visions that are boringly literal!

 

[Brikar99]

Maybe the Rock Monster was a metaphor for Samuel? I hate visions that are boringly literal!

Everything else he saw was pretty literal... all the way down to specifically composed images like Hiro's first jump to NYC and that advertisement for the Nissan Versa.

 

[Joe Washington]

I'm just saying that the rock monster being the final Big Bad would give the show more of an over-arching story feeling like as if the creators had that planned out from the beginning.

After watching Five Years Gone, I imagined a not-so-detailed outline of what's going to happen at the end of each season of the series for the next four years, believing back then that it was going to go down that direction. It went like this:

Season 2: The season ends with the downfall of the Company and the metahumans being revealed to the known public.

Season 3: The season ends with Nathan's death and Sylar taking his form.

Season 4: The season ends with Sylar becoming President of the United States.

Season 5: Events not so dissimiliar from Five Years Gone unfold.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'm just saying that the rock monster being the final Big Bad would give the show more of an over-arching story feeling like as if the creators had that planned out from the beginning.

There needed to be some coherent explanation for the powers - a latent tendency in the human genome, perhaps, that expressed itself at various times in human history. There could be some metaphysical hand-waving explanation for why it happened all at once (as long as the eclipse remained only a metaphor).

That would have provided some coherence. But I don't see the need for any single character to serve as an organizing principle.

Here's my overarching plan:

Season 2: The metahumans split up and attempt to pursue normal lives, and either ignore or integrate their powers into their lives. This is when Peter should have been a paramedic and Matt should have tried to ignore his powers but been unable to - how are you not going to read the mind of someone who might know where a kidnapped child is being held for instance? And of course the sudden increase in success for Peter's paramedic unit is going to be investigated.

Meanwhile, Nathan is savvier than the others and knows they're all headed for trouble. Planning ahead, Nathan pushes his political career forward so he has the clout to rescue his dumb little brother, and the others, when it all goes south.

I'd kill off Nikki and D.L. but in a way more directly tied to the danger of being a metahuman and trying to live in the real world. This leaves Micah an orphan, living by his wits on the street. By the end of the season, all the metas are in trouble and in need of going into hiding.

Season 3: The season begins with the metahumans having been forced to turn to the Company for help/hiding out. I'd bring in Danko as the meta-hunter with Senator Petrelli privvy to what is going on there, and able to arrange things to feed Danko only the "bad" metas, while surreptitiously protecting Peter, Claire, etc.

I'd also bring Arthur Petrelli back into the mix, played by Peter Coyote, an actor who's far better at playing the glib, charming villain than that guy they got. Arthur swiftly takes over the Company, to the chagrin of Nathan, who fears that Daddy will frak up the delicate balancing act he's maintaining. I dunno if I'd go with the whole Gabriel Petrelli thing, but if I did, I wouldn't lamely rescind it later on. I do like the idea of Gabriel competing with Nathan as the heir apparent to the Company, and he should be Nathan and Peter's half-brother. I'd keep Virginia as his bio-mom.

I'd also keep the plotline where Peter grabs Sylar's powers in order to use time travel properly, to avoid some huge looming catastrophe, but goes insane in the process. Halfway thru the season, the catastrophe happens - half of NYC gets blown up for real. This shocks the hell out of Nathan, who feels guilty for his half-assed attempt to protect metas. Now he believes that there's no room for compromise - good or bad, they all must be locked up for the good of everyone. He and Danko go whole hog with hunting down metas.

Season 4: The metas are in hiding or locked up while Nathan's high profile in the public crisis propels him into the Presidency. Mohinder creates a treatment that will suppress but not remove powers, which Nathan uses to restore Peter's sanity.

The treatment could also "cure" Gabriel but I would not have him turn into a pollyanna as a result - instead, he's still power-hungry and ambitious but sane enough that he can take over the Company and become a necessary evil that Nathan is forced to cooperate with. (I'd have Nathan work with Gabriel to overthrow Arthur - Nathan knows he can never trust Dad - but at the cost of having to be allies with his dangerous half-brother.)

However, Gabe hates losing his powers so much that he'd rather go off the wagon and return to glorious craziness. Nathan doesn't realize he's stopped taking the treatment and has become dangerous so that, as you have it,

The season ends with Sylar becoming President of the United States.

Season 5: Events not so dissimiliar from Five Years Gone unfold.

And the series ends with that kick-ass battle between Peter and Sylar that we were promised! Dagnabit!

 

[Joe Washington]

Have you ever thought of doing a fanfiction series on this? You could count me down as a potential enthusiastic reader.

 

[Anwar]

Meh, that all sounds too "X-Men" frankly. I'd just stick with Kring's idea of having each season be self-contained stories about new casts until they just want to end the show.

 

[Joe Washington]

But the difference between this and X-Men would be that Heroes would have ended with a post-apocalyptic future and stayed with it while X-Men usually reboot to the way things were before such a future could occur to keep things safe.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Which is essentially what we got but with the same cast and I'm sure x-men was a huge influence

 

[Skywalker]

I'm just saying that the rock monster being the final Big Bad would give the show more of an over-arching story feeling like as if the creators had that planned out from the beginning.

There needed to be some coherent explanation for the powers - a latent tendency in the human genome, perhaps, that expressed itself at various times in human history. There could be some metaphysical hand-waving explanation for why it happened all at once (as long as the eclipse remained only a metaphor).

That would have provided some coherence. But I don't see the need for any single character to serve as an organizing principle.

Here's my overarching plan:

Season 2: The metahumans split up and attempt to pursue normal lives, and either ignore or integrate their powers into their lives. This is when Peter should have been a paramedic and Matt should have tried to ignore his powers but been unable to - how are you not going to read the mind of someone who might know where a kidnapped child is being held for instance? And of course the sudden increase in success for Peter's paramedic unit is going to be investigated.

Meanwhile, Nathan is savvier than the others and knows they're all headed for trouble. Planning ahead, Nathan pushes his political career forward so he has the clout to rescue his dumb little brother, and the others, when it all goes south.

I'd kill off Nikki and D.L. but in a way more directly tied to the danger of being a metahuman and trying to live in the real world. This leaves Micah an orphan, living by his wits on the street. By the end of the season, all the metas are in trouble and in need of going into hiding.

Season 3: The season begins with the metahumans having been forced to turn to the Company for help/hiding out. I'd bring in Danko as the meta-hunter with Senator Petrelli privvy to what is going on there, and able to arrange things to feed Danko only the "bad" metas, while surreptitiously protecting Peter, Claire, etc.

I'd also bring Arthur Petrelli back into the mix, played by Peter Coyote, an actor who's far better at playing the glib, charming villain than that guy they got. Arthur swiftly takes over the Company, to the chagrin of Nathan, who fears that Daddy will frak up the delicate balancing act he's maintaining. I dunno if I'd go with the whole Gabriel Petrelli thing, but if I did, I wouldn't lamely rescind it later on. I do like the idea of Gabriel competing with Nathan as the heir apparent to the Company, and he should be Nathan and Peter's half-brother. I'd keep Virginia as his bio-mom.

I'd also keep the plotline where Peter grabs Sylar's powers in order to use time travel properly, to avoid some huge looming catastrophe, but goes insane in the process. Halfway thru the season, the catastrophe happens - half of NYC gets blown up for real. This shocks the hell out of Nathan, who feels guilty for his half-assed attempt to protect metas. Now he believes that there's no room for compromise - good or bad, they all must be locked up for the good of everyone. He and Danko go whole hog with hunting down metas.

Season 4: The metas are in hiding or locked up while Nathan's high profile in the public crisis propels him into the Presidency. Mohinder creates a treatment that will suppress but not remove powers, which Nathan uses to restore Peter's sanity.

The treatment could also "cure" Gabriel but I would not have him turn into a pollyanna as a result - instead, he's still power-hungry and ambitious but sane enough that he can take over the Company and become a necessary evil that Nathan is forced to cooperate with. (I'd have Nathan work with Gabriel to overthrow Arthur - Nathan knows he can never trust Dad - but at the cost of having to be allies with his dangerous half-brother.)

However, Gabe hates losing his powers so much that he'd rather go off the wagon and return to glorious craziness. Nathan doesn't realize he's stopped taking the treatment and has become dangerous so that, as you have it,

The season ends with Sylar becoming President of the United States.

Season 5: Events not so dissimiliar from Five Years Gone unfold.

And the series ends with that kick-ass battle between Peter and Sylar that we were promised! Dagnabit!

Win.

Now if we could just get Hiro Nakamura to show up and take you back in time so you could steer the show in this direction...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Have you ever thought of doing a fanfiction series on this? You could count me down as a potential enthusiastic reader.

I haven't dabbled in fanfic since the old DS9 days but after Heroes is over for good, I think I might just have to rally the troops and organize some giant-ass fanfic do-over for this show. If only to work out our frustrations.

I even thought of a reasonable purpose for Hiro (a character whose purpose has always stymied me). He can have a parallel story that only intersects the main story occasionally. While everyone else is running around futilely in quests, for good or ill, for power and political control, Hiro realizes he can use time travel to discover why all this is happening. He might occasionally meet a princess or two for a romantic interlude, but his main purpose is to travel through the ages and discover the secret of meta-human-ness. Ando can be his sidekick on this journey of course.

This way Hiro doesn't come off as a self-indulgent child but as a guy who is wiser than all the rest of the metas put together - he puts himself above of the fray and discovers the secret that saves them all at the end! (Actual secret TBD. Suggestions welcome. ) Everybody is obsessed with the who and what of it all, but only Hiro has the sense to ask why.

Hiro might travel to the future, but he learns early on that attempting to change the future or past is a fool's errand and doesn't try. This puts him in direct conflict with Peter, who he meets when Peter is time travelling to the future, with Sylar's powers and Sylar's insanity, to prevent the world from being destroyed. Hiro tries to reason with him, but of course Peter is pigheaded and being nuts doesn't help. He only manages to postpone the destruction of the world and sets into motion the destruction of half of NYC which in turn sets Nathan off on his Mutant Gitmo kick.

And Heroes has always been "X-Men with people who don't want to wear tights or have secret identities," so any similarity is of course mandatory.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I know I sound like a broken record but I'd like to see The Company as a major powerhouse, kind of like Wolfram & Hart or Rossum, if you will. Baggin and taggin all the metas, being damn near at the source of either why metas exist or around the discovery of more and more metas other than Adam Monroe. Him being one of the founders, of course as they try to keep everything from the public

 

[Guy Gardener]

I was posing the other day how Hiro still has his Japanese accent, when he's more than capable than acclimating into American culture if he needs to like we discovered early on in season one.

Even though the American Accent isn't the first choice for most civilized people.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I would have continued to stick with "Heroes" if they had gone the route posed by either Joe or Temis the Vorta. Both proposed interesting scenarios that would have had me continue be a faithful viewer. The show just lost me during season two. I attempted again to watch during season three but lost focus and dropped it. I would introduce villains like the show attempted to do but have the Company and federal government attempt to coerce the metas to band together to capture them.