With King Faisal ruling the country until his death in 1984 ITTL, we're strongly hoping for OBL to be in the family business up to Present ITTL. I didn't know his father has 11 Wives? Well when you're practicing the religion of Islam, you can have as many wives as long as you can sustain your extended family.
Blue Skies in Camelot (Continued): An Alternate 80s and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
Strictly speaking you’re only allowed four wives at a time. Which is why he regularly divorced and remarried the fourth wife.
Well, this is Verse IV:3 of the Qu’ran:
It’s interpreted by many as allowing up to four wives, I believe. Though others disagree - they say it’s basically saying only marry one wife because nobody could ‘deal justly’ with more than one wife.
Great update.Chapter 155 - Who Can it Be Now?: (Another) Changing of the Guard in MoscowAbove: The view from Red Square - state funeral for Mikhail Suslov, January 28th, 1982 (left); Grigory Romanov, Suslov’s eventual successor as Chairman of the Presidium and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (right).
“Who can it be knocking at my door?
Go 'way, don't come 'round here no more
Can't you see that it's late at night?
I'm very tired and I'm not feeling right
All I wish is to be alone
Stay away, don't you invade my home
Best off if you hang outside
Don't come in, I'll only run and hide
Who can it be now?
Who can it be now?
Who can it be now?
Who can it be now?” - “Who Can it Be Now?” by Men at Work
“Sometimes, history needs a push.” - Vladimir Lenin
The rise of Solidarity in Poland (and the political and economic turmoil it portented) created another “crisis of confidence” in the Kremlin. The authority of the Polish United Workers’ Party (that country’s ruling communist party) eroded significantly, and there were some in Moscow who feared that Poland might break away from Soviet-style communism altogether. Acting in his role as head of the Politburo, First Secretary Mikhail Suslov created (and subsequently chaired) a commission on how to handle the “Polish situation”.
Beginning on August 28th, 1980, the commission began to consider Soviet military intervention in order to “stabilize” the region. This course of action was favored by defense minister Ustinov, but opposed by Suslov and Gromyko, the other members of the “troika” leading the USSR at that time. It was also opposed by Wojciech Jaruzelski, First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party. Jaruzelski was able to persuade the commission that a Soviet military intervention would only aggravate the situation.
Suslov would write of his decision not to send in the tanks, “If troops are introduced, that will mean a catastrophe. I think that we all share the unanimous opinion here that there can be no discussion of any introduction of troops.” The First Secretary did manage to persuade Jaruzelski to declare martial law in his country until the situation could be contained, however.
The election of Robert F. Kennedy to the presidency of the United States posed a further problem for Moscow. Though both candidates had been hawkish on the campaign trail (by American standards), the troika had strongly hoped for a victory by Ronald Reagan. Reagan was seen as a “lightweight” on foreign affairs, whom the troika and their allies could have “dealt with quite easily”. After all, his inflammatory rhetoric would have made him look, in Gromyko’s words, “like a buffoon” on the international stage. Bob Kennedy, on the other hand, was well-known in Moscow for his “cutthroat nature” and “ruthlessness” while simultaneously enjoying widespread respect and stature abroad. Under Kennedy, the US would once again begin to seriously challenge Soviet influence across the globe.
Suslov made plans for how to “counter” Kennedy, especially after the American president survived the attempt on his life by Mark Chapman, but before the Kremlin could enact them, Suslov developed a coronary thrombosis - the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. Four days later, on January 25th, 1982, Suslov died of arteriosclerosis and diabetes just after four in the afternoon, Moscow time. He was 79 years old.
Though little mourned by the Soviet public, Suslov would be missed dearly by many on the politburo. He was widely regarded as the party’s foremost expert on Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy and theory, a true ideologue, committed to communist revolution.
In the immediate aftermath of Suslov’s death, Konstantin Chernenko - his deputy - ascended to the position of “Acting Chairman of the Presidium and Acting First Secretary” until such time as mourning for Suslov could be completed and a new Chairman chosen. Chernenko himself was no spring chicken, already 70 years old in January 1982 and reportedly in poor health. During Suslov’s funeral, Chernenko struggled to be heard, even while mic'd, as he read the eulogy. Chernenko was also ethnically Ukrainian; not a deal breaker for a Soviet leader, but, by the unspoken rules of Russian supremacy within the USSR, not ideal.
Above: Konstantin Chernenko (left); Dmitry Ustinov (center); and Andrei Gromyko (right); the three men who attempted to restore order to the Kremlin in the wake of Comrade Suslov’s death in early 1982.
At the time of his ascent to the country's top post, Chernenko was primarily viewed (as Suslov himself had been) as a transitional leader who could give the Politburo's "Old Guard" time to choose an acceptable candidate from the next generation of Soviet leadership. By this time, they had already more or less settled on their man: Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov.
Romanov was born on February 7th, 1923 in Novgorod Governorate into a peasant family. Romanov served as a soldier in the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War (World War II). Romanov later joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1944. He graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute in 1953, and became a designer in a shipyard. He fulfilled several important posts in the party committee of the enterprise he was working at and later in the Leningrad city and regional party committees. In September 1970 he was elected as First Secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the Leningrad Region. In this position, he gained a reputation of being a skilled organizer and well versed in economic matters, winning defense investment for Leningrad over other regions and attracting the attention of the party’s upper echelon, including Yuri Andropov, who subsequently brought him to Moscow and helped promote him in June 1979 to the very prestigious and influential post of a secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU responsible for industry and the military-industrial complex. Throughout the last few months of Andropov’s tenure, Romanov became seen as one of his closest allies.
Indeed, contrary to subsequent evaluations of Romanov by both western observers and the hardliners themselves, it is perhaps more accurate to describe Romanov as a “moderate” than a “conservative”. An ardent supporter of Andropov's comprehensive program for the reform, renewal, and further development of socialism in the Soviet Union and beyond, Romanov simply believed in the Andropov style of reform (economy-first) in contrast with others, such as Gorbachev and Tereshkova, who also favored various degrees of political liberalization.
What Romanov succeeded in, however, was blending in with whatever group he found himself in politically. He made himself into a chameleon, shifting his rhetoric to placate and woo whatever faction he happened to be speaking to at any given time. This, combined with their perception of him as “sympathetic to conservative views” led Chernenko, Ustinov, and Gromyko to favor Romanov as the Union’s next leader.
Following the four days of mourning prescribed by the Soviet constitution after Suslov’s death, Chernenko summoned the politburo and put forth the motion to name Romanov to all positions of leadership. Some questioned the wisdom of handing power to this relative “newcomer”. After all, Romanov had only been a member of the central committee for the last two and a half years. If nominated, his would be the most rapid ascent in the history of Soviet politics. At 57 years old, he was the second youngest member of that body (ahead of just Mikhail Gorbachev - 49). But Ustinov and Gromyko supported the move, believing that not only was Romanov “one of them”, but also that they could “mold” this “naive newcomer” into governing as they saw fit. With any resistance to the motion, tokenistic or hidden (as was the case of Gorbachev), the motion passed. Grigory Romanov became the first leader of the Soviet Union to have been born after the Revolutions of 1917. This was truly a watershed moment in Soviet history and politics.
Above: Grigory Romanov’s first official portrait after being sworn in as Chairman of the Presidium and First Secretary of the Soviet Union on January 30th, 1982.
Somewhat insecure in his new role, Romanov did not rock the boat immediately after entering office. By the beginning of 1982, the stagnation of the Soviet economy was obvious, as evidenced by the fact that the Soviet Union had been importing increasing amounts of grain from the U.S. throughout the 1970s. As soon as President Robert F. Kennedy revoked the grain embargo, the Soviets not only resumed their orders, but increased them. This staved off popular revolt over the availability of bread and other essential goods, but did little to improve the Soviet Union’s prestige and influence abroad. Again, Romanov, like his mentor Andropov, understood the need for reform, but the economic system was so firmly entrenched that any real change seemed impossible.
Eschewing any radical economic or political reforms then, Romanov’s immediate domestic policy leaned heavily toward “restoring discipline and order” to Soviet society. He promoted a small degree of candor in politics and mild economic experiments similar to those that had been associated with the late Alexei Kosygin's initiatives in the mid to late 1960s. Simultaneously, he launched an anti-corruption drive that reached high into the government and party ranks. In an attempt to “model” his new ideal for Soviet leadership, Romanov lived modestly. Eschewing the "decadent dachas" of his predecessors, he favored a simple townhouse in Moscow. He began a public relations campaign to show himself as a “new” kind of leader: professional; efficient; and able to restore the Soviet Union to its “rightful place in the world”.
Unfortunately, the new leader’s situation abroad was no better.
Romanov immediately faced a series of foreign policy crises: the hopeless situation of the Soviet army in Afghanistan; the aforementioned threat of revolt in Poland; growing animosity with the People’s Republic of China under Hu Yaobang; the Iran-UAR war in the Middle East; and brewing trouble in eastern and southern Africa.
Above: Soviet troops battle insurgents in Afghanistan, circa 1982 (left); Mujahideen rebels, also circa 1982 (right).
By 1982, the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan had increased to approximately 125,000 soldiers as fighting across the country intensified. The complication of the war effort gradually inflicted a higher and higher cost on the Soviet Union’s treasury as military, economic, and political resources became increasingly exhausted. Despite the best efforts of both the Soviets and their allied communist regime in Kabul, resistance to their control over the country not only persisted, but intensified.
To begin with, the political situation shifted, first in 1977, when Pakistan (the USSR’s ally in the invasion) withdrew from the conflict following new elections, which saw the ruling PPP’s leader toppled from power, replaced with an antiwar prime minister. The new Pakistani government renounced their previous war-aim of founding a “client state” of “Pashtunistan” and instead welcomed “any Pashtuns who wished to join Pakistan” to do so. With the withdrawal of Pakistan, many ethnic Pashtuns no longer saw the invading Soviets as their defenders or liberators, and instead began switching sides, joining and supporting various resistance groups. The conflict took on an increasingly religious tone for the Afghani people, who saw the Soviets as “godless communists”, hell bent on subjugating their country to “forced secularization and imperial domination” from Moscow.
Though the resistance groups were by no means united (they fought amongst themselves almost as much as they fought the Soviets), they held a number of key advantages over the invaders.
First, most of the resistance fighters were either from Afghanistan or had at least lived in the country for several years. They were thus far more familiar with the country’s mountainous geography than the Soviets. They fought with a mix of religious zeal and national fervor, willing to give anything, including their lives, to defend their home. Finally, since 1975, the rebel groups had been receiving aid in the form of financial support, arms, supplies, and military training from a coalition of states, including: the United Kingdom; Saudi Arabia; and, mostly through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the United States.
President George Bush famously called the Mujahedeen “freedom fighters”, a phrase which would be repeated by Ronald Reagan on the campaign trail in 1980. While Mo Udall had felt “uneasy” about arming and aiding them directly, when Robert Kennedy took the oath of office in 1981, he did not share Udall’s reservations. Though Kennedy did not arm just anybody looking for American resources (he explicitly forbade the CIA and its director, former head of Naval Intelligence and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, from meeting with anyone but indigenous Afghan mujahedeen, let alone arming, training, coaching, or indoctrinating them), he did authorize nearly $5 billion in aid throughout the course of the program - codenamed Operation Hurricane. This was all part of his administration’s renewed commitment to “containment”, as opposed to the “détente” of the last decade and a half.
Above: America’s 39th President, Robert F. Kennedy (D - NY), widely viewed as Grigori Romanov’s “great international nemesis”.
The most critical threat of all to Romanov and the Kremlin was the “Kennedy Doctrine” launched by the American President at the start of his term. After years of gestures toward peaceful co-existence and treating the Soviets as an equal, Kennedy was, essentially, calling their bluff that Soviet communism in any way seriously rivaled American capitalism and democracy. This was apparent in the “Second Space Race”, but also in international relations. Through a combination of flexing American soft power, technological superiority, and increased diplomatic, financial, and economic pressure (as recommended by the likes of his “wise man” - George F. Kennan), Kennedy’s long term geopolitical strategy aimed to break apart the Soviet Union along ethnic and national lines, and win the Cold War once and for all without firing a single shot. This, in Romanov’s mind, could not be allowed.
But Romanov was playing a very dangerous game. He quickly found himself in the same spot Yuri Andropov had before his ouster: knowing full well that the USSR’s current course was unsustainable and also knowing that he was, in a sense, powerless to alter it. Thus, Romanov’s main response to the Kennedy Doctrine was, unsurprisingly, raising military spending.
In 1982, defense gobbled up an astonishing 70 percent of the USSR’s national budget, and supplied billions of dollars worth of military aid to the United Arab Republic (UAR), Libya, South Yemen, the PLO, Cuba, and North Korea - all “sworn enemies” of the United States. That aid included tanks and armored troop carriers, hundreds of fighter planes, as well as anti-aircraft systems, artillery systems, and all sorts of high tech equipment for which the USSR was the main supplier. Romanov's main goal was to avoid an open war while also placating Dmitry Ustinov and Andrei Gromyko back home. But even this left the Soviets coming up short.
Stated Soviet military spending in US dollars for the year of 1981 came to about $75 billion. Though the actual amount was probably higher (given the sheer size and scope of the military establishment in that country), it still accounted for less than half of US spending - just north of $155 billion heading into 1982. America’s allies in NATO also outspent the USSR’s in the Warsaw Pact, while simultaneously devoting smaller percentages of their national budgets to defense. The cracks in the “paper tiger” that was the Eastern Bloc were beginning to show.
Still, Romanov pressed on.
Above: Soviet Mil Mi-24 helicopters (left) and state of the art MiG-31 jet fighters (right); both aircraft were flown extensively during the latter phases of the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
Despite privately recognizing that the Invasion of Afghanistan “had been a mistake”, he continued the occupation and counterinsurgency campaigns. He did dispatch foreign minister Gromyko to explore options for a negotiated withdrawal from the country, but these attempts were quickly dismissed as “half-hearted” by Western observers. So too did Romanov cease even the pretense of working toward arms-reductions with the United States. When asked by a Western journalist in 1982 if there would be any negotiations on the subject before the next scheduled summit in Geneva in 1985, Gromyko (speaking for Romanov) flatly denied the idea. The consensus in the Kremlin was that vague, nebulous “peace movements” in the United States and other Western countries would force an American surrender in the Cold War before the Soviet system collapsed. This line of thinking was either naive or delusional. It was also potentially catastrophic, a proverbial ticking time bomb that threatened to destroy the Soviet Union from within.
Yet, few at the time were willing to admit as much.
Even as some within the political sphere (particularly Mikhail Gorbachev) attempted to raise the alarm about the costs associated with dedicating so much of the Union’s stagnating treasury to “propping up” satellite states around the world, who contributed essentially nothing back to the USSR, nothing meaningfully changed. Romanov liked Gorbachev personally. He even felt that Gorbachev might make for a fine successor to Gromyko as foreign minister once the latter retired. But he could not stomach the idea of pulling back Soviet spending anywhere in the world. To do so, to Romanov (and Ustinov and Gromyko) would represent “surrender” to the West and admitting that the Union was not as strong as it claimed to be. Strength was the only thing holding the Soviet bloc together, Romanov and the hardliners believed. It was not unlike the “useful opulence” strategy employed by the Ancien Regime in France just prior to the French Revolution.
That is to say, all of this was a recipe for disaster.
Sure enough, a pair of them erupted before the end of Romanov’s first years in power: The October Crisis of 1982 (including the so-called “Hårsfjärden War” with Sweden of all places) and the September and November Crises of 1983, which would, once again, bring the world to the brink of thermonuclear war.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: President Kennedy Tackles the Crime Epidemic
01. When did Romanov die IOTL? We need Gorbi as soon as possible to salvage the Union (new Union? because Communism's fall seems inevitable now).
02. With hardliners leading the USSR, will Able Archer be as severe as the Cuban Missile Crisis?
03. We need an update from South America leading up to the Falklands War.
04. Also, because Zia ul-Haq didn't come to power in Pakistan in 1977, you can plausibly butterfly away the Taliban, 9/11, and the War on Terror. (Entirely up to you, of course.)
Xman1287
Banned
Ban
Please Don’t forget to prevent John Belushi’s death and add
Which was was right around early 1982 when Dan Aykroyd got the idea for ghostbusters or in this timeline GhostSmashers Co directed by Ivan Reitman and John Landis and effects done by BOSS FILM STUDIOS then known still as Effects Entertainment Group but in this timeline they team up with Industrial Light and Magic, Apogee and Jim Hensons Creature shop put those four effects businesses together under a super business and blow up the industry as a mega effects company
Don’t forget to put out the futuristic swat riot gear wearing GhostSmashers Starring Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz John Belushi as Peter Venkman Jeff Goldblum as Egon Spengler Eddie Murphy as Winston Zeddemore John Candy as Louis Tulley Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett Sandra Bernhard as Janine Melnitz and Paul Reubens as Ivo Shandor aka the GhostSmashers interdimensional Employer and Slavitza Jovan as Gozer the Gozerian Ruler of the sixth dimension there final battle in a hellish reality and their Vehicle that all Black 1976 Cadillac ambulance with purple and white strobe lights for the theme song have Peter Aykroyd Hughes and Thrall NRBQ Lindsay Buckingham Huey Lewis Ray Parker Jr Kenny Loggins in a mashup music group for the theme song also for the other GhostSmashers Add both John Lithgow Christopher Lloyd and Christopher Walken Harold Ramis Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson Yaphet Kotto Richard Pryor and Jim Belushi yes John Belushi’s brother Michael Keaton Steve Guttenberg Chevy Chase Michael Richards Robin Williams Tom Hanks and if he is still alive and not dead from his suicide Freddie Prinze as the other GhostSmasher teams and for a couple laughs have Rick Moranis and Annie Potts as The Married couple who encounter Slimer who will be known as OnionHead.
If you need ways to describe the smashers
Jeff Goldblum’s take of Egon Spengler a mixture of his Dr. Ian Malcolm character from Jurassic Park with the monologue but sense of humor as dry as Spock from Star Trek but much drier and the only one who knows besides Ray who how to work the equipment and drive the Ecto 1
John Belushi’s Peter Venkman more like his animal house Blutto who enjoys women sex smoking eating and drinking a lot and playing poker and the one who enjoys being able to help the team when the cards are down.
Eddie Murphy’s Winston Zeddemore an Ex Air Force Demolitions expert who knows his way with explosives and weapons and a wise cracking joker who hopes the team and by the team meaning him gets paid for their efforts who loves to cause trouble in more than one way while laughing over the smallest matters
Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz a bit more stern than his original timeline but at certain times can relax after a few beers but the amount of ghosts cause from the tear in the dimensional veil reality envelope has caused a lot of stress for him and his team he is usually very reserved on his morals and will make sure his team can get clients over the other ghostsmasher teams
Paul Reubens’ Ivo Shandor a interdimensional shrewd recluse deceiving, Business man who manages all the GhostSmasher businesses it later reveals he has angered Gozer the Gozerian a ruler from the sixth dimension by imprisoning their beloved pet Shandor cares very little for his employees his office is dark and lined with game trophies of Bats,rats, lobsters etc he is described as wearing a black businessman suit with what looks like a mix between as a mosquito bonnet head net and a beekeeper helmet that covers his entire head and face from being seen till near the end of the movie after the smashers defeat both him and Gozer and send Gozer back to the sixth Dimension with their pet zuul
John Candy’s Louis Tulley a swinging portly Bachelor who loves to party and he knows how to do it he initially was on Venkman’s bad side at the beginning but the two found out that they both had a lot in common when it came to certain things like poker drinking and women
Sandra Bernhard’s Janine Melnitz the GhostSmashers sarcastically dramatic secretary who could give less of a damn about her job and more about filing her nails chewing gum or smoking cigarettes which she steals from Venkman when the team is out on a bust
The uniforms are pretty much navy blue boilersuits black combat boots with black utility gloves with particle throwers that extend tad longer than original time ones utility belt that holds a compartment that holds a ghost trap that releases when the leg is jerked and the helmet is riot control helmet with transparent visor with various settings from thermal vision night vision ecto vision and a lot more
The car is a 1976 miller-meteor criterion Cadillac ambulance that used to serve the city of New York and New Jersey but was abandoned for a long time then found by Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler who repaired restored the car to working order the car was given a full Pitch black paint job and the once red emergency lights were replaced with purple and white strobe bars given it a ultraviolet aura and the siren was replaced with a siren that sounds like a low inhumane moaning growling sound the roof was mounted with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos that help the team out one of which is disillusionment that turns the car invisible the switch that can be flipped from inside the car the other is a inter dimensional interceptor which allows the team to travel out of their home dimension and back again safely door panels have slime green no smoking symbol over a fanged ghost which theirs a shield version on the sleeve patch above the elbow on the Smashers jumpsuit
The base of operations for the GhostSmashers they are based in what was once a very large busy firehouse before it closed down their employer operates from what was a sanitation garage the containment unit for ghosts they capture is stored inside the bodyshop of what was once a successful now run down and abandoned Sunoco Gas Station
Please note that this I have never seen any of What Dan Aykroyd’s first ghostbusters script as both He and Ivan Reitman lost their copies of that script years ago and it’s still has not been found so this is my take on what all I would love to see for Ghostbusters II aka GhostSmashers II i would say try to do make it work with the Scotland idea with the underground Fairy ring and Banshee with Vigo as their King wanting Dana as his Bride idea for Ghostbusters III HellBent aka GhostSmashers III HellBent what was supposed to be the third movie and best of all is Chris Farley who doesn’t die gets to work alongside his idols John Belushi and John Candy both stay alive TTIL Belushi who immediately joins on including Goldblum and Murphy and Chris Farley is Joined by Ben Stiller Chris Rock Freddie Prinze Jr Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci as the new ghostbusters Alec Baldwin as Luke Siffler merge both 1997 treatment and the newer stuff from what was supposed to be that film so include the fleet of Ecto Ambulances from Cadillac Ambulances to Buick Ambulances to Packard Ambulances and Hearses years from 1930s to 1980s along with Ecto 2’s the motorcycles and motorbikes and the Ecto 3’s helicopters and gyrocopter Ecto 4 industrial trucks Ecto 5 Boats and Ecto 50 a large industrial truck with its very own Containment unit GhostSmashers IV basically basically Ghostbusters Afterlife but with Egon still Alive but doing a Luke Skywalker Force Awakens Exile move bit and taking on Gozer Again which gets Egon to move back to New York with his Daughter and grandchildren and GhostSmashers V pretty much Ghostbusters Frozen Empire with the the smashers old semi old and new teaming up taking down Garraka in a wildy awesome showdown
Also add William Atherton and Jeffrey Jones as two loanshark bureaucrat type jerk wads who are after the smashers for the gear.
Also add this song is from the dragnet movie that starred Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks implement Dance or Die as well as that song was a repurposed Ghostbusters reject theme song and it is catchy
Note I know that this seen but after seeing frozen empire you would be thinking like i am right now
Which was was right around early 1982 when Dan Aykroyd got the idea for ghostbusters or in this timeline GhostSmashers Co directed by Ivan Reitman and John Landis and effects done by BOSS FILM STUDIOS then known still as Effects Entertainment Group but in this timeline they team up with Industrial Light and Magic, Apogee and Jim Hensons Creature shop put those four effects businesses together under a super business and blow up the industry as a mega effects company
Don’t forget to put out the futuristic swat riot gear wearing GhostSmashers Starring Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz John Belushi as Peter Venkman Jeff Goldblum as Egon Spengler Eddie Murphy as Winston Zeddemore John Candy as Louis Tulley Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett Sandra Bernhard as Janine Melnitz and Paul Reubens as Ivo Shandor aka the GhostSmashers interdimensional Employer and Slavitza Jovan as Gozer the Gozerian Ruler of the sixth dimension there final battle in a hellish reality and their Vehicle that all Black 1976 Cadillac ambulance with purple and white strobe lights for the theme song have Peter Aykroyd Hughes and Thrall NRBQ Lindsay Buckingham Huey Lewis Ray Parker Jr Kenny Loggins in a mashup music group for the theme song also for the other GhostSmashers Add both John Lithgow Christopher Lloyd and Christopher Walken Harold Ramis Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson Yaphet Kotto Richard Pryor and Jim Belushi yes John Belushi’s brother Michael Keaton Steve Guttenberg Chevy Chase Michael Richards Robin Williams Tom Hanks and if he is still alive and not dead from his suicide Freddie Prinze as the other GhostSmasher teams and for a couple laughs have Rick Moranis and Annie Potts as The Married couple who encounter Slimer who will be known as OnionHead.
If you need ways to describe the smashers
Jeff Goldblum’s take of Egon Spengler a mixture of his Dr. Ian Malcolm character from Jurassic Park with the monologue but sense of humor as dry as Spock from Star Trek but much drier and the only one who knows besides Ray who how to work the equipment and drive the Ecto 1
John Belushi’s Peter Venkman more like his animal house Blutto who enjoys women sex smoking eating and drinking a lot and playing poker and the one who enjoys being able to help the team when the cards are down.
Eddie Murphy’s Winston Zeddemore an Ex Air Force Demolitions expert who knows his way with explosives and weapons and a wise cracking joker who hopes the team and by the team meaning him gets paid for their efforts who loves to cause trouble in more than one way while laughing over the smallest matters
Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz a bit more stern than his original timeline but at certain times can relax after a few beers but the amount of ghosts cause from the tear in the dimensional veil reality envelope has caused a lot of stress for him and his team he is usually very reserved on his morals and will make sure his team can get clients over the other ghostsmasher teams
Paul Reubens’ Ivo Shandor a interdimensional shrewd recluse deceiving, Business man who manages all the GhostSmasher businesses it later reveals he has angered Gozer the Gozerian a ruler from the sixth dimension by imprisoning their beloved pet Shandor cares very little for his employees his office is dark and lined with game trophies of Bats,rats, lobsters etc he is described as wearing a black businessman suit with what looks like a mix between as a mosquito bonnet head net and a beekeeper helmet that covers his entire head and face from being seen till near the end of the movie after the smashers defeat both him and Gozer and send Gozer back to the sixth Dimension with their pet zuul
John Candy’s Louis Tulley a swinging portly Bachelor who loves to party and he knows how to do it he initially was on Venkman’s bad side at the beginning but the two found out that they both had a lot in common when it came to certain things like poker drinking and women
Sandra Bernhard’s Janine Melnitz the GhostSmashers sarcastically dramatic secretary who could give less of a damn about her job and more about filing her nails chewing gum or smoking cigarettes which she steals from Venkman when the team is out on a bust
The uniforms are pretty much navy blue boilersuits black combat boots with black utility gloves with particle throwers that extend tad longer than original time ones utility belt that holds a compartment that holds a ghost trap that releases when the leg is jerked and the helmet is riot control helmet with transparent visor with various settings from thermal vision night vision ecto vision and a lot more
The car is a 1976 miller-meteor criterion Cadillac ambulance that used to serve the city of New York and New Jersey but was abandoned for a long time then found by Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler who repaired restored the car to working order the car was given a full Pitch black paint job and the once red emergency lights were replaced with purple and white strobe bars given it a ultraviolet aura and the siren was replaced with a siren that sounds like a low inhumane moaning growling sound the roof was mounted with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos that help the team out one of which is disillusionment that turns the car invisible the switch that can be flipped from inside the car the other is a inter dimensional interceptor which allows the team to travel out of their home dimension and back again safely door panels have slime green no smoking symbol over a fanged ghost which theirs a shield version on the sleeve patch above the elbow on the Smashers jumpsuit
The base of operations for the GhostSmashers they are based in what was once a very large busy firehouse before it closed down their employer operates from what was a sanitation garage the containment unit for ghosts they capture is stored inside the bodyshop of what was once a successful now run down and abandoned Sunoco Gas Station
Please note that this I have never seen any of What Dan Aykroyd’s first ghostbusters script as both He and Ivan Reitman lost their copies of that script years ago and it’s still has not been found so this is my take on what all I would love to see for Ghostbusters II aka GhostSmashers II i would say try to do make it work with the Scotland idea with the underground Fairy ring and Banshee with Vigo as their King wanting Dana as his Bride idea for Ghostbusters III HellBent aka GhostSmashers III HellBent what was supposed to be the third movie and best of all is Chris Farley who doesn’t die gets to work alongside his idols John Belushi and John Candy both stay alive TTIL Belushi who immediately joins on including Goldblum and Murphy and Chris Farley is Joined by Ben Stiller Chris Rock Freddie Prinze Jr Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci as the new ghostbusters Alec Baldwin as Luke Siffler merge both 1997 treatment and the newer stuff from what was supposed to be that film so include the fleet of Ecto Ambulances from Cadillac Ambulances to Buick Ambulances to Packard Ambulances and Hearses years from 1930s to 1980s along with Ecto 2’s the motorcycles and motorbikes and the Ecto 3’s helicopters and gyrocopter Ecto 4 industrial trucks Ecto 5 Boats and Ecto 50 a large industrial truck with its very own Containment unit GhostSmashers IV basically basically Ghostbusters Afterlife but with Egon still Alive but doing a Luke Skywalker Force Awakens Exile move bit and taking on Gozer Again which gets Egon to move back to New York with his Daughter and grandchildren and GhostSmashers V pretty much Ghostbusters Frozen Empire with the the smashers old semi old and new teaming up taking down Garraka in a wildy awesome showdown
Also add William Atherton and Jeffrey Jones as two loanshark bureaucrat type jerk wads who are after the smashers for the gear.
Also add this song is from the dragnet movie that starred Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks implement Dance or Die as well as that song was a repurposed Ghostbusters reject theme song and it is catchy
Note I know that this seen but after seeing frozen empire you would be thinking like i am right now
Hmmm... what is more important aspect of an AH tl? Cold War or random popculture changes?
You were asked last month to please stop posting this message. I’m sure the author knows what they have planned for Ghostbusters since the front page of this thread has a variation of the Ghostbusters crew, so let’s just wait and see what happens.
Which incidentally features Belushi very much alive in 1984 so it's pointless to keep bringing it up as it's a done deal anyway.
That as well. Which ought to be interesting as (at the time) he was one of the few with the comedy chops to keep up with Ramis and both Blues brothers.
You were told. by me, twice in this very thread, to stop spamming this same thing over and over, and over.
You didn't.
I can only assume you came here specifically to SPAM on this, non AH, issue.
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If you talk about NAOTMAA, they were murdered in 1918. Way too late for them.
I mean no disrespect with this sidetrack, but I love how the picture is almost crudely, yet masterfully, drawn as its own punishment. Like a spamming message that was so obnoxious, they don't even deserve a good picture of them being banned. They should be punished as harshly as they are being booted.
That being said, I WISH I was as good with drawing as that ban hammer is, That's just beautiful there.
Not my work.
Someone in the Polandball thread community came up with it for me a few years back.
I meant Grigori Romanov, not the German family masquerading as Russian /s.
Because to save the Soviet Union, we need Gorbachev in by at least 1987. And the Fall of Communism and the Revolutions of 1989 are a foregone conclusion now.
The best case scenario is the Union of Sovereign States and the worst case scenario is something like the Death of Russia
I forgot that Romanov is common name in Russia. In that case, he died in 2008.
Gorbi can plausibly take over with Thereshkova in 1985. This is because Ustinov kicks the bucket in 1984 and both Gromyko and Chernenko kick the bucket in 1985. This leaves Romanov and the hardliners exposed. Considering the network those two have been building, we can see a Reformist Coup in 1985.