Dark Earth Timeline Discussion

[Simon Darkshade]

Where Are They Now ? A Special 1976 Edition

Chuck Norris
World champion karate exponent, burgeoning Hollywood action star, a veteran of a highly secret special forces team, noted charity fundraiser and family man Norris is having a good middle of the 1970s, having broken through to mainstream success with his role as Wal-Kar the Ranger in Conan the Barbarian. He also has a different role away from three screen, similar to his good friend Bruce Lee.

Michael Jackson
A shy and talented young singer who has experienced some local success with his family group, The Jackson Five, although their music hasn’t had a great deal of airtime on mainstream radio, and his older brothers serving their terms of conscription in the U.S. Armed Forces has somewhat stymied their career. Michael himself is quietly dreading his call up notice on his 18th birthday in a few short months.

Bo Darville
Perhaps the finest driver in America, ‘Bandit’ Darville is enjoying a well earned sabbatical with his new wife Carrie, having successfully made a delivery of Bostonian clam chowder to Atlanta last year. He bears a quite striking similarity in appearance to his distant cousin Burt Reynolds, which is the cause of no end of bemusement to his circle of friends.

Robert Redford
One of Hollywood’s brightest stars, 40 year old Redford is at the height of his acting powers, with his twin Best Actor Oscars of 1973 and 1974 and dashing All-American good looks making him one of the world’s most significant box office draws. Perhaps the one criticism of his oeuvre to date is that the majority of his roles have been heroic types which haven’t truly stretched him. His erudite commitment to various liberal causes has caused a number of many in smoky rooms to ruminate on certain possibilities.

Endeavour Morse
A newly promoted Inspector in the Oxford City Police, Morse has been identified as one of the most capable and perceptive detectives in Southern England by certain Scotland Yard officers, and as a man to watch for potential future roles beyond the city of the dreaming spires. He is recently married to his longtime sweetheart Joan Thursday, the daughter of his now retired former commanding officer.

Sebastian Holmes
Son of the famed detective, at 52, Holmes is London’s leading consultant private sleuth and has built up quite the record over the last 30 years for his cool deduction, incisive intellect and a raffish personal touch quite different from his father. Like many private detectives in the imperial metropolis, he maintains a working relationship with the yard, and has a mobilisation commission in the Special Operations Executive, and is a long time correspondent with Carl Kolchak.

James Bond
Commander Bond is a semi-retired legend within the restricted echelons of the Secret Intelligence Service, having undertaken twenty-five significant missions since the War, against such disparate threats as Nazis on dinosaurs to deranged Chinese mad scientists and from SMERSH renegades to would-be Egyptian dictators. Eventually, when he finally does decide to spend more time in the garden, he will likely be granted a new identity, whilst his old name lives on in a new, younger vessel.

Paul Kersey
An award winning architect who lives and works in Chicago with his wife and daughter after moving there from New York City in the aftermath of an attempted robbery of his apartment. Lieutenant Frank Ochoa made note of Kersey's resemblance to the 'New York Vigilante' responsible for the shootings of a dozen street criminals several years ago, but concluded that the reports were mistaken.

Travis Bickle
Hero taxi driver Bickle, the saviour of Iris Steensma in 1972, has come up and along in the world in the aftermath of his valiant actions, having married his sweetheart Betsy Shepherd, settling down in a brownstone at 14 Parkside Lane and receiving substantive help and counselling for his wartime experiences from the USVA. He works as a driver for the folk singer Harry Chapin and his band, along with promoting Smith & Wesson products in magazines.

Vito Corleone
Executed in the electric chair in Sing-Sing prison in 1920 for the murder of a rival neighbourhood hoodlum in New York City's Little Italy.

Clive Lloyd
31 year old captain of the West Indies Test cricket team, Lloyd is one of the finest and most punishing batsmen in world cricket, and is known for his effortlessly strong striking of the ball over the boundary or, on occasion, out of the ground entirely. Upon succeeding Gary Sobers as captain, Lloyd has continued to guide the Windies on their seemingly inexorable rise to the pinnacle of the cricketing world. He is well known, loved and respected across the West Indies, and is known for his characteristic unflappable leadership.

Randle P. McMurphy
Convicted on statutory rape in the third degree, public indecency, resisting arrest, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, displaying obscene materials, assault in the second degree, criminal trespass, interference with agricultural research, offensive littering, juggling without a licence and public drunkeness and sentenced to 20 to 25 years hard labor in 1961. Currently incarcerated in the Oregon State Penitentiary and assessed as being highly resistant to rehabilitation efforts to date.

Harry Palmer
One of SIS's most reliable field agents, 43 year old Palmer is a veteran of Korea, military intelligence and the little known WOOC(P) before being transferred to SIS under the initiative of Alec Leamas, who successfully argued for the frontline Berlin Station to be reinforced with experienced paramilitary types for organisation of operations beyond the Iron Wall. He is something of a Renaissance man, combining good tradecraft with a knowledge of food and drink, painting, classical music and military history. He is something of a doppelganger for the Security Service's officer John Preston.

Howard Beale
Highly respected anchorman on the MBS network, Beale has been a fixture on the MBS Nightly News since 1950, and offers his plain-spoken interpretation of the day's major events in his conclusion to every broadcast. He is happily married to Edna and many people have observed that he has a notably lighter edge to his character after giving up drinking a decade ago.

John Shaft
A New York based black private dick who is renowned as having an appeal to the ladies and as one who would risk his neck for his brother man, he is a cat who won't cop out, when there's danger all about. A self styled bad hombre at times, he's a complicated man, but no-one understands him but his woman. Shaft's private investigator's license was recently reviewed by the NYPD's liaison section due to his conviction for jaywalking, but his misdemeanors were viewed as being counterbalanced by his helpful work during the 'Pelham One Two Three' incident.

Arthur Fonzarelli
A pillar of the community in Milwaukee, former mechanic Fonzie has come along in leaps and bounds in recent years, including over a live tiger shark on water skis, with a little help from Reverend Elvis Presley, and works as a youth leader, Big Brother and disability advocate. His solid work lead to him being invited to the White House last fall to meet President Reagan alongside other upstanding young Americans from across the country.

Carl Sagan
Cornell Professor Sagan is best known for his popular science books and radio talks, and for his position as a spokesman for the SETI Program. Since the interstellar signal of 1966, the Program has been one of the most popular parts of the general space program, and Sagan's briefings and televisual explanations have been part of that. Behind the scenes, he is a consulting scientist to Project Blue Book. He currently resides in Luna City on Earth's largest moon.

Evel Knievel
Knievel is perhaps at the peak of his national and international fame and commercial profile, with his action figure still one of the best selling toys for young boys across America. His next major project is planned to be a jump over the Panama Canal at the widest point of the Culebra Cut, effectively jumping from North to South America. He has also used his fame and fortune to work as an undercover special narcotics agent for the Federal Government, having been recruited by Reverend Elvis Presley, and recently foiled the machinations of wicked drug lord Stanley Millard.

Steve Rogers
A US Marine veteran of Haiti and Vietnam, Rogers had been intent on traveling the countryside in his conversion van seeking inspiration as an artist, and had denied the requests of his acquaintance Dr. Simon Mills to inject an experimental serum fashioned from his father's DNA, codenamed Full Latent Ability Gain. Fate intervened in the form of a car accident at the hands of nefarious villains, leading a badly injured Rogers to choose to take the serum and take up his late father's mantle and moniker.

Steve Austin
Austin, a Vietnam veteran U.S. Army helicopter pilot who transferred to the USAF and NASA astronaut, was most notable as a crew member of one of the earlier Orion missions until 1967. After being badly injured in the crash of an experimental lifting-body aircraft on May 9th of that year, he was repaired and rebuilt using innovative new bionic surgical methods and special implants to augment his capabilities beyond their previous undamaged levels. The total cost of the surgical procedures has been reported as 6.7 million dollars, and he has subsequently been seconded to the Office of Strategic Intelligence.

Geoff Capes
The 6'6" winner of the Olympic gold medals in shotput and the 200 metres at the New York City Games and winner of 1975's inaugural 'Britain's Strongest Man' competition, Capes is Britain's most famed athlete of the 1970s and is considered a household name for his charitable work on children's television, which he combines with his day job as a police constable. His daily diet of eight pints of milk, two loaves of bread, a dozen eggs, three steaks, a pound of butter, a pound of cheese, a family sized tin of baked beans, three tins of sardines and a leg of lamb is looked up to by budding trencherboys across Britain.

Big Bird
Star of the Children's Television Workshop hit show Sesame Street, Master Bird is a kindly 8ft tall polymath, noted for his ability at skating, dancing, swimming and unicycle-riding, as well as his excellent drawing skills and near mastery of the alphabet. A friend and role model to the children of Sesame Street and broader New York City, Big Bird is regarded as something of a genuine public treasure.

Detective Jimmy Doyle
NYPD Detective Doyle is a rough-spun, hard-bitten policemen with a great knowledge of the streets and the criminal class. He has been responsible for a number of notable arrests and successful cases, including that of notorious French smuggler Alain Charnier, who is now serving 15 years for the illegal importation of brie; Doyle's severing of the 'French Connection' has made him the avowed foe of some of the Big Apple's more unscrupulous chefs.

Salvador Allende
The former Prime Minister of Chile is plotting a political comeback, having enriched the electoral coffers of his party through a speaking tour of the United States in the aftermath of his dismissal. Whilst he bears an understandable grudge for the circumstances of his departure from office, he remains committed to the parliamentary system.

Isaac Rabin
Minister of Defence of Israel, Rabin is regarded as the most obvious successor of Prime Minister Dayan when he chooses to retire. A former Israeli Army field marshal, Rabin has recently given up his long term smoking habit, which has resulted in occasional frayed nerves.

[jemhouston]

Thanks for the update

I see you used Steve Austin's background from the original novel.


Is there any timeline where Haiti isn't an issue?

[Simon Darkshade]

His origins in the book make much more sense from a DE perspective, with an Air Force pilot needing a bit more work to turn into a bionic man with superhuman powers than a mere $6(.7) million can buy.

As for the question of Haiti, as of the aftermath of the US invasion ordered by JFK, this one. Zombies have seemingly been wiped out, voodoo made illegal, good government put in place and the 1960s American version of colonisation put in place, what with a hose of development dollars and a near permanent military and law enforcement presence.

[Simon Darkshade]

Looking ahead, what won't be happening in December 1976?

- The punk group called the Sex Pistols swearing on live television and ending Bill Grundy's career (No rock and roll means no punk, in addition to public language being held to the different earlier standard)
- Angola being admitted to the UN (The Portuguese colonial campaign still going here)
- Libya buying 10% of Fiat
- Cuban constitutional changes (No independent Cuba means no constitution)
- An RAN Able Seaman destroying 12/13 of the RAN's S2 Trackers
- Tip O'Neill being elected Speaker of the House (There will be a very small Republican majority)
- Aboriginal land rights legislation being passed by the Australian Federal Parliament
- Attempted coup d'etat in Afghanistan
- Marcos announcing his intent to charge the US rent for Philippines bases
- Denis Healey get a 2.3 billion pound bailout package from the IMF
- Theft of the coronation sword of Charles X of France
- The Bank of America changing the name of its credit card to Visa
- Dictatorial constitutional amendments in India
- Murder of the former Foreign Minister of France
- Various democratic reforms in Spain (unnecessary in the absence of Franco)