POLL: classic Brit sci-fi rebooted

[Marc]

None of those premises sound worth bothering to revisit for their sakes alone. And the premise isn't why something gets rebooted. It's because of the recognition value of the name. None of the names really reach that level. Remember, a reboot doesn't necessary have anything to do with the original material.

Not that Wonder Woman looks any more worthwhile.

Such a Negative Nelly today....

Temis traditionally doesn't appear to have a high regard for British Sci-Fi TV, which is fair enough as I suspect we tend to apply rose-tinted goggles to our native offerings.

Blakes 7 would be the series that I'd most like to see rebooted. However, the UK TV climate is such that it's even less likely that such space-opera offerings would be green-lit here than in the US. I believe that Sky had tentative plans to develop Blakes 7 but they were probably canned as not being commercially viable.

Even the most recent B7 audios seem to have died away. There've been some "Early Years" releasd but nothing since the 3 main B7 audios (Rebel/Traitor/Liberator) came on 2007 and there's nothing on the website to indicate there's anything new coming in the mean time

 

[lurok]

Best to kill DW off for modern audience and allow new character to develop....

Sorry, Kestrel. Don't why I said that. Moment of madness. Of course DW must continue...I think what I meant was let DW rest for a while and allow new SF character(s) to fill void....

I appreciate not everyone who visits this thread may know characters/series, but this is classic Brit SF, so a quick google will yield info. And it's less about 'man, that's so dated' rather than 'that's a really cool idea'....and thinking "how would I do that if I was a TV exec?" (this is all fantasy anyway . And who knows...)

 

[Starkers]

Part of me is glad the proposed Blakes 7 reboot has died a death, but I would love to see the show return, and I still don't see how it couldn't continue rather than having to be rebooted.

The trouble is how well cast it was originally (whether intentionally or by accident) and its amazing just how fine a line many of the characters tread.

Aside from the odd moment of heroism Vila remained a coward for the entire run of the series, yet Keating still made him likable. The only modern day character who comes close is Rodeney McKay, but he got to be brave and heroic and get the girl far more often.

Avon was, and remained,a cold hearted bastard. There might have been chinks in his armour on occasion, but he remained cold and sarcastic to the end, yet again Darrow made him engaging.

It's hard to see the BBC or any other UK produced making another space opera anytime soon, especially after Outcasts (which wasn't really space opera per se) was so spectacularly knifed in the back by large portions of the media and fandom alike without being given enough of a chance to show it could improve. I think the only way a space opera would get done these days would be as a spin off of Who, and that doesn't seem likely.

Second to B7 I think there's still a lot of potential for Sapphire and Steel, but the casting would need to be spot on (didn't Big Finish do some with David Warner and Joanna Harker?) and whoever made it would need to accept that they wouldn't get stellar ratings.

Another show missing from the poll would the Avengers/New Avengers, although again its hard to see anyone coming close to Mcknee's portrayal of Steed.

 

[Harvey]

Blake's 7 always sounded like a good idea for a series. And, if it were remade, perhaps the original would finally be released on DVD in the United States!

 

[Brent]

Only one I know from that list is Blakes 7, so that one.

 

[Lonemagpie]

So...Quartermass, I've heard of from many people, and this thread made me curious what exactly it was, so I went to IMDB, and apparently there's some from the 1950s and 1970s? So, how does one go about approaching Quartermass? Is one version schlock while another is really good?

There were three 1950s serials - The Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass II, Quatermass And The Pit - each better than the last, and they're available on DVD (well, the two surviving episodes of the first series, plus the second and third series)

Then there were Hammer remake movies of those three - The Quatermass Xperiment (aka The Creeping Unknown in the US), Quatermass II (aka Enemy From Space in the US) and Quatermass And The Pit (aka Five Million Years To Earth) again each is better than the last, and the third one is the first colour version.

There was an ITV series in 1979, with John Mills, just called Quatermass, or sometimes The Quatermass Conclusion, but it's crap.

Then there was a live remake of The Quatermass Experiment in 2005 (with David Tennant and others) which is OK...

I'd say grab the the third movie, and if you like it, then get the Quatermass Collection DVD set with the survivng BBC episodes.

 

[KB24]

I picked Blake's 7 of course, but not for reboot or remake, but for something that continues or adheres and upholds to the original as much as possible.

 

[Starkers]

So...Quartermass, I've heard of from many people, and this thread made me curious what exactly it was, so I went to IMDB, and apparently there's some from the 1950s and 1970s? So, how does one go about approaching Quartermass? Is one version schlock while another is really good?

There were three 1950s serials - The Quatermass Experiment, Quatermass II, Quatermass And The Pit - each better than the last, and they're available on DVD (well, the two surviving episodes of the first series, plus the second and third series)

Then there were Hammer remake movies of those three - The Quatermass Xperiment (aka The Creeping Unknown in the US), Quatermass II (aka Enemy From Space in the US) and Quatermass And The Pit (aka Five Million Years To Earth) again each is better than the last, and the third one is the first colour version.

There was an ITV series in 1979, with John Mills, just called Quatermass, or sometimes The Quatermass Conclusion, but it's crap.

Then there was a live remake of The Quatermass Experiment in 2005 (with David Tennant and others) which is OK...

I'd say grab the the third movie, and if you like it, then get the Quatermass Collection DVD set with the survivng BBC episodes.

Yeah I love the film version of Quatermass and the Pit. The John Mills version was ok, but it was very lates seventies. The notion of why the aliens were doing what they were doing was pretty depressing though.