Yea, I hope, if it comes off, and they get the right tone. You gotta keep the one step forward, two steps back (and occasionally two steps forward and one step back), for sure. you gotta keep the manipulation behind the manipulation, behind the scheme kinda thing. It would certainly be wrong to make it TNG Happy, but, I wouldn't want it to be NuBSG depressing. It could certainly have the dark moments of NuBSG, but, you've keep the Avon wisecracks humor in it, to keep it from getting too depressing. I think the darkness of DS9 or B5 would be fine, just make sure that no matter how hopeless things get, that you keep little bits of humor
Blake's 7 was a very dark show to begin with. Take Killer for example. The entire planet's population is wiped out by a plague, but Avon is only concerned with the theft of the crystal. Or at the beginning of Star One, when the Nova Queen collides with the freighter, killing 4000 innocent people and the resulting crash destroys half a city on the planet below. This ignores all the incidents of Federation atrocities (like the massacre at the very start of the series, or the pacification drugs used on civilian populations throughout the show). Humour can and will be used, especially if Vila stays as he is. My only concern is how they handle the Liberator. She's an iconic vessel, and Zen's reference panel - despite looking like a dance floor - is still cool. I absolutely hated what they did to KITT in the new Knight Rider series.
I am positive overall about this news but I don't really want a remake. I would have preferred Terry Nation's idea for a sequel where Avon escapes from an Elba-like island and leads a new band of terrorists towards a final Waterloo-like showdown against the Federation.
Oh, absolutely it was very dark, and there were consequences felt throughout the rest of the series, but, the humor/wisecracks, kept the show from wallowing in it. And the Series Finale was the most hopeless, dark finale ever, but, you didn't know that until the final 3 or 4 minutes (or less) of the final episode
The ending of the final episode of B7 is a classic. Fade t black and just the sounds of shots being fired.
That would've been fine - 30 years ago, as in that would've made for an excellent launching point for a fifth and final series. But I would prefer to leave the original series as just that now and start again.
^ Since Avon didn't actually seem to *care* about the Federation - only getting himself rich - I wonder why he would bother doing that. Guess he could have a change of heart (or, in his case, actually getting one).
It's not really on till somebody buys the show. Hard to say what it will be like till the buyer is announced. The CW would be very different from Starz. SyFy is the only place I could see a TNG toned series airing. Even TNT is going pretty dark now with Falling Skies, and they're one of the more broadcasty cable channels. Did B7 ever air in America? The fact that there arent even any DVDs available might scare networks. it would be smart to release DVDs first and use them to assess interest. Also, I hope by network, they really mean both broadcast and cable. I don't think even a huge name space opera like Star Trek or even Star Wars could survive on broadcast now.
They'd be better off not worrying about the original series when trying to sell it in the US. The production values were SO BAD on the original (even for a show if its era) that no American broadcaster would take it seriously. I tried watching the series but the poor production values were a real distraction. They make Lost in Space look high quality (and that was made a decade before B7 ). Actually, they probably don't need to worry about selling it in the US. Its a good bet that BBC America would snap it up given the chance. At this point they show more scifi than Syfy.
Gotham, if you find the production values so distracting, you are probably better off just reading the episode transcripts. You can find them here: http://www.hermit.org/blakes7/Episodes/scripts/index.html
Yes, we don't know why Avon would have a change of heart. Most of what we know about the proposed Elba/Napoleon sequel came from this Terry Nation interview: http://www.hermit.org/blakes7/news/TVmovie2.html There was this from the last aborted sequel attempt, too: http://www.hermit.org/blakes7/Convention/Reports/CultTv99a.html
Paul Darrow also said this in an interview once: PAUL: At the end of the series Avon was left standing, and Terry had this idea, that he'd come back like Napoleon after Elba, but he's going to loose. The last 100 days, but he puts up a good fight. And he's provoked into coming back. He's quite happy where he is, he's been there for twenty years, but suddenly a new government has come in, a new Federation and they are going through the computers and someone says, "What happened to him?" and the other guy says, "Oh we killed Blake." So they go on a bit further and then he says, "And what happened to this one?" "Oh dear! We forget about him," and so they go and get him and of course they can't get him, and that kicks it off. That was the idea, basically. And we are taking it from there. We've developed it in a slightly different direction.
One last clue about the direction a sequel would take (mods please forgive me for posting four times in a row): Over the last few years reports have been circulating about a new big budget version to be made by the BBC with Paul Darrow as the only surviving member of the crew from the original show. Before he died Terry Nation wrote a plotline involving a young rebel calling himself Blake rescuing Avon and Villa from a federation colony. Life is good for our favorite misfits; they have every comfort in exchange for a few pro federation statements. As you can imagine they are none too pleased at being rescued and whipped halfway across the universe so the adventure begins again. This idea may have died with the shows creator in 1997, but only time will tell. http://www.cultv.co.uk/blakes7.htm Interestingly, we seem to know a lot more about the hypothetical Blake's 7 sequel than we do about Star Trek 2013 at this stage. :-)
I suspect this will be a true reboot and not a continuation of the old series. And maybe they'll come up with their own version of how to get out of that fmaous cliffhanger.
The Orange County CA. PBS station once aired it. I was watching when we got to the point of some invasion where Blake joined forces with the Federation, if my memory serves the plot correctly. Then there was an extended pledge break and it seemed like the show returned to a new season
Hmmmm if this were meant for British television, I'd half like to see Benedict Cumberbatch as Blake and David Tennant as Avon.
That would make more sense switched around, but I also think they're both a bit too famous now, especially Cumberbatch given Sherlock/Trek...he may soon be beyond TV. I'm very unsure about this. No offence is intended but I think Blakes 7 has a very British sensibility and I'm not sure the US could really do it justice (in the same way a British Star Trek or a British Western would likely feel tonally odd) and the tone of B7 is vitally important. Soften it and you end up with something cheesy, harden it and you end up with NuBSG levels of nihalism and frankly I've been depressed enough. I agree with people who said DS9 or B5 for the tone, I'd throw in Angel as well (and not only cos they have similarly brilliant endings). The casting has to be spot on as well, in particular Avon, Servalan (if in it) and Vila. It'd be very easy to make Avon an emotionless robot, which'd kinda miss the point as clearly he's very emotional, he just doesn't feel the need to show it. Servalan has to have just the right mix of camp and threat, and the ability to wander alien planets in an evening gown) and Vila needs to stay a weasly coward (most of the time) with occasional flashes of out of the blue heroism.) But, like Lonemagpie, I'll believe it when I see it...