Please don't steal anyone's ideas without their permission.
I'll start with one of my stranger ideas:
"The Big Bang Theory"/The Dresden Files.
Yes, I'm talking about crossing a sit-com with a gritty, noir-ish apocalyptic urban fantasy series. I've written before, in passing, about the merits of crossing lighter, fluffier series with darker ones, as long as you take care not to let one approach overshadow the other. Its a balancing act, but you can get a lot of mileage out of the contrasts, and the clash between the two styles- contrast ultimately being the heart of both drama and comedy, depending on how you play it, and thus in a sense the core of all narrative fiction.
My idea was to make use of the surprisingly large number of secondary and tertiary Dresden Files characters who have ended up in California over the course of the series: Elaine, Warden Ramirez, Thomas's sister Inari and her ex-porn actor boyfriend, the general influence of the White Court vampires over the media, whatever. Have them run into some of the Big Bang Theory cast.
Particular plot-points include:
1. Trying to convince the "scientific" Sheldon and Leonard that magic is real. Would likely involve a Soul Gaze at some point.
2. Carlos Ramirez hitting on Penny while she's working as bartender.
3. Sheldon arguing contract technicalities with a fae.
4. Having Penny, as the most physically aggressive and competent of the BBT main cast (she's canonically gotten in a full-blow brawl with another woman, did Jr. Rodeo and target shooting for sports, and kicked a cybercriminal in the nuts), become a Dresden-style badass in-the-know mortal. There's a recurring theme in Dresden Files of ordinary mortals learning about the supernatural and becoming quite dangerous. Maybe even have her end up playing the Murphy to Carlos's Harry.
5. Penny getting tangled up with White Court bullshit during one of her attempts at an acting career.
Batman in the Matrix.
I just feel like this would really work. Particular points of interest include the clash between the military pragmatism of killing people who might be controlled by Agents vs. Batman's refusal to kill (especially if a Batman ally gets taken over by an Agent), and Bruce trying to come to terms with the fact that the city he's dedicated his life to saving doesn't actually exist, except in a computer.
Would explicitly not be Batman as the One. Would probably feature Barbara Gordon heavily later on, but would perhaps focus more on her role as a hacker than as Batgirl, given the setting.
Serenity if it took place in the "Game of Thrones"-verse (TV version for GoT, of course, since I'm more familiar with it than with the books). Serenity would be a sea-going trading ship, her crew would be from various GoT backgrounds. I'm not sure if I'd have it follow the canon plot of GoT, with the Serenity crew just going about their lives while the big events happen in the background, or allow their introduction to the setting to change canon.
Possible characterization/plot points include:
1. Mal Reynolds is now Malcolm Reynes (of "The Rains of Castamere"), last survivor of the house Tywin famously destroyed, who was smuggled out as a child by a loyal retainer. Or maybe a bastard who took the family name because there's no one left to tell him no. This would take the place of the destruction of Mal's home planet in his backstory, and give him a cause to be a rebel against the powers in Westeros, in keeping with his character. He eventually escaped to Essos and lived as a sell sword for a few years, until he made enough money to buy a ship- the ship, as per canon Mal, represents freedom to him.
For the rest of the main cast (names adjusted as necessary to fit into their new setting)- Zoe would be his first mate, of course, from some far off part of the world. Inara would be a high class whore from either King's Landing or Essos. Wash would be a sailor/navigator, possibly of Braavos. Jayne would be an Essosi sell sword. Kaylee- would be just a general odd-jobs person from some Essosi city, I think, since there's no real equivalent for "engineer" for her in GoT. Maybe her main job is to repair the sails and rigging. Shepard Book would be a former sell sword in the service of House Lannister, who converted to a minor off-shoot of the faith of the Seven. Simon would be a former Maester or Maester-in-training specializing in healing, who left to protect his sister as per canon. River would be some sort of seer, of course, possibly experimented on by Qyburn, prompting Simon to take River and flee the life of a Maester.
Either the Maesters want to kill River to cover up Qyburn's experiments (don't know if this would fit canon at all), or her mental/magical powers let her see something she really shouldn't have. Or both.
Possibly, to tie it into the main GoT plot, River was in proximity to Cersei and/or Jaime at some point, read their minds about the incest, and let something slip in her crazy ramblings, so now Cersei wants her dead. Or she reads Littlefinger's mind, and Littlefinger wants her dead. Or, even better- she read from someone the truth about Jon Snow/Lyanna/Rhaegar. This would basically undermine the entire justification for Robert's rebellion and kingship (just like canon River's knowledge of Miranda threatens the Alliance). Or all of the above.
White Walkers in place of Reavers, naturally.
Either Jaime or Ned could take the role of the Operative, though they are both somewhat different characters. The key similarity is "basically well-intentioned warrior doing something they know is wrong out of misplaced loyalty, who will eventually be forced to see the truth, and be shattered and possibly redeemed by it".
Mal's backstory would include working with Davos as a smuggler smuggling supplies to Stannis during Robert's rebellion. He stuck around for the Siege of Storm's End because at that point, the Lannisters hadn't yet turned against the Targaryens, and Mal was hoping to help defeat them. Storm's end is this version of Mal's equivalent of the Battle of Serenity. The twist is that in this version, his side won- But Mal still lost, because Tywin joined the rebels at an opportune moment, slaughtered a bunch of innocent people, and remained the power behind the throne. That should be enough to give Alternate Mal the necessary cynicism and bitterness for the character.
Edit: Apologies, also, if this is the wrong place to put this topic. Its just something that struck my mind, in part because fanfic provides so many new avenues to explore SF universes from new angles.
