There's no time like the end of time to start your story. Because if there's one thing television has taught us, it's that the apocalypse needn't mean the end of the world. Whether brought forth by nukes, disease, aliens or zombies, the apocalypse has proven a popular jumping-off point for many dramas – including the sometimes impressive, sometimes unwatchable Falling Skies, which returns to FX for its second series tonight. So what are the key lessons that apocalypse dramas teach us about navigating those tricky doomsday scenarios? We take a look …

Employ a criminal

With humanity down to its bare bones you can't afford to be snotty about who you break bread with. The collapse of law means that criminals may have certain skillsets invaluable to your cause. Thief Mick Sizer quickly became leader of the survivors on The Last Train, for example, and Falling Skies sees hardened felon John Pope go from prisoner of the Second Massachusetts Militia to head of its Berserker Unit. If housebreaking, hotwiring and weaponry skills are on your CV, your job prospects just skyrocketed.

Get hidden

Sanctuary is endangered mankind's first priority and never more so than for the 50,000-odd survivors on board Battlestar Galactica, flitting around space being chased by genocidal robots they created. New Caprica looked a great enclave as it was covered by a dense nebula, making it invisible to Cylon tracking equipment. And, while it didn't exactly end well the good times gave humanity a chance to regroup, recharge, build relationships and feel the soil under their feet. People need reminding exactly why they are fighting to survive.

Befriend a survivalist

It's an unfortunate truth of the apocalypse that crazy people who spent their previous lives reading survivalist literature, sleeping in hollow logs and living off roadkill have the whip hand over those who have to Google how to switch their phones off. Foraging, woodcarving, twine-making and ferret skinning make you a guru when civilisation goes Cro-Magnon which is why it was so important in the The Walking Dead, for instance, for Rick to make an ally of quick-tempered hick Daryl – a man who spent nine days as a child living off berries. The kind of bushcraft beaten into you by hard living is the kind that stays with you when shuffling goons roam the Earth eager to eat your flesh.

Come ready salted

When the sirens sound and the mushroom clouds start peppering the horizon most people's thoughts won't automatically turn to salt. It turns out this is quite an oversight. Control of the salt mines in post-nuclear drama Jericho was central because in a survival situation it's the chemical compound that just keeps on giving. As Mayor Johnston Green from the show explained "It's a preservative. It's an antibiotic. You need 1,500mg of it a day to survive. Romans actually used it as currency. Whole African empires were based on the control of supply of it. Wars have been fought over salt." He may also have added how it's a dentifrice, a cleanser, an abrasive, a fire-retardant and a defroster. And doctors still tell us how bad it is for us. Speaking of which...

Be your own doc

The medical professions will be very much in demand – but tending to the broken, mutilated, infected mass of humanity without the drugs or equipment you need is never less than dicey. That's why post-apocalyptic medicine is often practised by the patient – Ruth on Threads giving birth alone then cutting the umbilical cord with her teeth, for instance, or Merle on The Walking Dead cauterising his stump with a gas stove having sawn off his own hand. It's a suboptimal solution, but in the kingdom of the blind the one-handed man is king.

Government will be evil

It's a totally understandable instinct to throw yourself at the mercy of whatever government rises from the ashes, but while emerging democracies may be exciting they are rarely your friend. The surviving government in Threads brought in capital punishment, for instance, and you might find that death by firing squad quickly becomes as much a danger as radiation poisoning. Likewise, Jericho's postnuclear Allied States of America administration is peopled by constitution-shredding brutes happy to enforce its will by any means necessary. When everything goes to hell you're better staying off-grid. The Man don't give a figgy pudding.