ALTERNATIVE: SCHOOL

Another "what if" alternative for LOST: going to school.

If LOST was set in a school environment, how would the premise and characters change?

It is noted that there were several educators and highly skilled people in the cast of characters: Arzt was a science teacher, Juliet a medical researcher, Jack a physician, etc.

If we put the characters in a small liberal arts college in an isolated forest in a small rural outback setting, during the summer when the campus is at its bare minimum of staff and students, what would happen?

We could imagine the faculty including Jack, Juliet, Artz and Ben (from his sideways role).

We can imagine summer students who need to bump up their grades: Hurley, Claire, Charlie, Boone, Shannon and exchange student Sayid.

We could have the intense grad students in Daniel and Charlotte.

We can imagine staff or administrators like Eloise and Widmore running a very bureaucratic and controlling university.

If the premise of this show is "what is the meaning of life," this tranquil college setting could turn on its head when a military-industrial experiment goes terribly wrong - - - and a smoke monster is created that terrorizes the campus community.

The Others, or in reality the nearby rural town folk, get upset with the mysterious but dangerous things happening to their people that is traced back to the university. Many of the townies seek revenge on the administration and student body, i.e. a mob of Ethans going after college students and staff members. Locke may be their leader, making bad decisions that increase tensions and cause more problems.

The campus, now totally isolated and cut off from the world by the Others sabotage, (no communications, no cell phones, no internet, no access to roads, etc), now must pull together their own personal ambitions and agendas to "work together" in order to survive the brewing summer war.

In this plot setting, there is a clear understanding of what is happening to the main characters. The cast can still have their individual traits, flaws, character problems, manipulations and back stabbing twists, but at least the sides are known and the dangers have realism.

This alternative story universe could have worked and eliminated the need for red herrings like time travel and sideways alternative worlds.