How does this premise sound?

I don't know if this is the right forum for this, but I have a question. I have some ideas on story premises, but I'm not sure if they're simply too unbelievable or cheesy.

1) In one day, an alien attack from space infects the entire population of the world's twenty largest cities and turns them into mindless slaves of the aliens, who are remaining in orbit above the Earth. Every day, spores emanating from the infected population infect more at a rate that will eventually result in the entire world being infected in six months if it goes unchecked. The apocalyptic story starts here and follows a small population as they try to either stop the infections or make peace with the aliens.

variation on 1) The same as premise 1, except that it is not aliens, but rather a quasi-scientific cult, and the nature of the infections is slightly less severe. (I am not talking about flesh-eating zombies, but rather people who lose all sense of identity and free-will.)​

2) An English businessman gathers an A-Team/Mission Impossible style team in the mid-1800s with science fiction elements. (Yes, it's basically a steampunk Mission Impossible.)

 

I had thought that the first premise sounded overdone as well. It was more of a way of of bringing about an apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic scenario without nukes or zombies. As for the second, it's a secret society that was brought together by the London factory owner and philanthropist Ulysses Foster in order to defend the Empire (Great Britain in the 1870s) from foreign and domestic threats, particularly those of a paranormal or arcane origins. I don't have the characters fleshed out right now, but it would be a series in an alternate history that includes inventions in the vein of Verne and Wells, but also Lovecraftian villains.

 

Ah, thank you so much for that. I think that I'm going to focus on premise 2, since I'm more interested in the steampunk genre than actual futuristic stories.

 

Thanks for the help in ironing out my premise. Here's the basic blurb I have for my idea:

When London constable Ezekiel Jones nearly murders man he mistakenly believes to have murdered his wife, he is publically disgraced and dismissed from the police force. Out of work and unable to pay his rent, Zeke is recruited to help investigate unexplainable occurrences and defend the British Empire from enemies that have not been imagined as possible since ancient times.
Thinking that he is simply going to be humoring a rich factory owner’s eccentricities, Zeke moves to Ulysses Foster’s country estate to work with private investigator Lucian Griffiths and a specially organized team, he soon realizes that the danger is all too real…and even more dangerous the thieves and killers of London’s streets.