Blake's 7 given the go ahead by Syfy

[Mr. Adventure]

Am I the only one who does not really see much similarity between Firefly and Blake's 7?

Oooh - howzabout
Marena Baccarin as Servilan!

I was going to suggest Rebecca Riggs.

How about we get someone who hasn't already played the role?

 

[RAMA]

I'd like to see a modern take on it. Blake's 7 was on of my top 20-25 best science fiction shows list. I'd like to see them refrain from being too depressing...the original show had the foresight to make them breezy and fast paced, with some humor to punctuate but not dominate episodes.

 

[Candlelight]

I'm hoping for six humans and Zen, as was broadcast. I hope it's not just a 'dumb' ship and the seventh member is a human.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

No, let's have him lose his wife. Yeah, that worked so well on John Carter, so let's do it again.

Umm, it worked pretty well in Deep Space Nine. And Inception. And Up.

And Babylon 5, I know. The difference is those were all original shows/movies, while with John Carter (and this new B7) it's an adaption with the dead wife added for drama.

The other thing is: "Blake - who is mourning the loss of his dead wife Rachel". Apparently, modern lead characters need to be traumatized wrecks. And the trauma has to be personal. Branded a child molester?! Nah, that's not close to the heart at all. Hunted by the government as Enemy of the State?! How unrelatable is that. No, let's have him lose his wife. Yeah, that worked so well on John Carter, so let's do it again.

Well, I stumbled over that detail, too, but if you think about it it actually was part of the original set-up of the show, as well, in some way. In the first episode, Blake learns that the tapes he's been receiving from his family are fake and that they're all dead (I hope I'm remembering this correctly). Also, Blake should have been pretty traumatised in the original show, too. After all, the government messed with his mind and memories, all his friends and family are dead and he's on the run from a totalitarian regime. It just never played a role in the original show because at the time such things were hardly ever portrayed in any realistic way.

You know, I'd be fine with it eating at him, but I'd hate to see it make him an emo. The success of NuBSG and its emo approach makes me worry in that regard. Yeah, have him mourn his loss, but don't make him a passive, self-pitying pussy. He's the leader of the rebellion, dammit.

 

[xortex]

How 'bout Ewen McGregor? Whatever happened to Paul Darrow as who didn't love him.

Though six aliens and one Human sounds interesting.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Oooh - howzabout
Marena Baccarin as Servilan!

I was going to suggest Rebecca Riggs.

How about we get someone who hasn't already played the role?

I like casting against type. Mary McDonnell.

 

[diankra]

I'm hoping for six humans and Zen, as was broadcast. I hope it's not just a 'dumb' ship and the seventh member is a human.

Nation's idea always included Zen, it's just that neither he nor Blake were counted as part of the Seven.
So it was effectively nine central characters, and sometime during scripting of the original episode four they realised that wasn't going to work, at least for the series budget, resources and episode length they had.

 

[Star Wolf]

I'm hoping for six humans and Zen, as was broadcast. I hope it's not just a 'dumb' ship and the seventh member is a human.

After Data, the Doctor and Andromeda the sentient ship does not have the wow factor it once had. Maybe some more play with the Moya concept can work for Zen.

 

[Candlelight]

I'm hoping for six humans and Zen, as was broadcast. I hope it's not just a 'dumb' ship and the seventh member is a human.

Nation's idea always included Zen, it's just that neither he nor Blake were counted as part of the Seven.
So it was effectively nine central characters, and sometime during scripting of the original episode four they realised that wasn't going to work, at least for the series budget, resources and episode length they had.

I'm aware of the original backstory and Arco and all that, I just like the idea that there's a computer running the ship that's part of the seven.

Maybe it's a homicidal computer that destroys a whole bunch of pursuit ships in the pilot, and sides with Blake and his crew.

With the whole dead wife thing may actually work really well; a respected family man who loses his wife to a Federation attack or officer (think Gan's original backstory) and it starts to eat away at him. But in trying to bring those responsible to justice he's trumped up on the charges of being the one responsible, further pushing him down a dark spiral of resentment against the Federation.

I guess he would have to have some background as a military man, I can't see civilian Blake leading a rebellion solely because his wife died.

 

[cylkoth]

I'm guessing that the choice of B7 will doom the Robert H Wolfe space opera that was in the running for a shot at a pilot. I hate being pessimistic-there's no real reason why there can't be more than one space show on at a time-or at least, on during a single Calender season. But with Syfy's current attitude, I just don't see them green lighting another expensive show after deciding on co-producing/financing a Blake revival.
Personally , as much as I like B7, going with something new and original would've been better (for me that is...but I can see the business logic in going with a pre-existing property over the scary prospect of launching another all new series, as in the upcoming Defiance).

 

[Starkers]

Tough roles to fill will be Avon and Servalan.
I could see Alex Kingston as Servalan, but who could be Avon.

The only person I've seen lately who I've got an Avon vibe from is actually Peter Dinklage.

Kingston might actually be too good a fit as Servalan, if that makes sense, as would Baccarin.

Left field suggestion from me would be Amy Acker. I'd ignore the camp/glam side (Because even Kingston can't quite do it like Jacqui) and focus on the manipulative side, and Acker's a good enough actress to convince as a doe eyed innocent who flips into a cold hearted killer at a moment's notice, then smiles sweetly as she stabs you in the back.

I hope they keep Blake as a fantatic...

 

[Sindatur]

Tough roles to fill will be Avon and Servalan.
I could see Alex Kingston as Servalan, but who could be Avon.

The only person I've seen lately who I've got an Avon vibe from is actually Peter Dinklage.

Kingston might actually be too good a fit as Servalan, if that makes sense, as would Baccarin.

Left field suggestion from me would be Amy Acker. I'd ignore the camp/glam side (Because even Kingston can't quite do it like Jacqui) and focus on the manipulative side, and Acker's a good enough actress to convince as a doe eyed innocent who flips into a cold hearted killer at a moment's notice, then smiles sweetly as she stabs you in the back.

I hope they keep Blake as a fantatic...

Amy Acker could be an intresting Servalan, but, one of the best things about Servalan played by Jacqueline Pearce was the sweet side. There was a slight underlying "phony" quality to it. I think Anna from "V" played by Baccarain was an absolutely perfect rendition of Servalan.

Amy Acker, from what I've seen might play the sweet side too convincingly, which may not be a bad thing, but, it would be different.

Avon, yea, he's gonna be a tough character to find the right actor delivery for, and so much of the original Blake's 7 depended upon Darrow's delivery

 

[Christopher]

I don't think I ever realized it before, but Baccarin's Anna from the V remake was a very Servalan-like character. And since Anna was the only non-awful thing about that show, it might be nice to see her do the same thing in the context of a better series.

Still, the similarity strikes me as a reason not to cast Baccarin in the role, or at least a reason why she might not agree if it were offered. It would be redoing something she's already done, and she might feel that didn't sufficiently challenge her or advance her career.

 

[marillion]

If they 'get' what makes Blakes 7 so great they might be onto something, but somehow I doubt they will. Forget the setting, forget the Federation or the rebellion, forget even Liberator, Zen and Orac, at its heart Blakes 7 was about a bunch of people, most of whom weren't especially noble, and most of whom, at best, respected each other and at worse down right loathed each other, trapped togeather by circumstances, and half the fun stems from the character interactions. Lose that and however good it is, it won't be Blakes 7.

I hope they don't make it too light and fluffy, but similarly if they try to go for NuBSG levels of grittiness I feel it'll fail just as surely.

And I immediately went to Firefly... Seriously sounds very familiar...

 

[Captaindemotion]

Still, the similarity strikes me as a reason not to cast Baccarin in the role, or at least a reason why she might not agree if it were offered. It would be redoing something she's already done, and she might feel that didn't sufficiently challenge her or advance her career.

Not to mention that if she's starring in a global hit like Homeland, I would have found it unlikely that she'd be overly keen to return to more niche audiences such as Syfy just yet.

 

[Starkers]

Tough roles to fill will be Avon and Servalan.
I could see Alex Kingston as Servalan, but who could be Avon.

The only person I've seen lately who I've got an Avon vibe from is actually Peter Dinklage.

Kingston might actually be too good a fit as Servalan, if that makes sense, as would Baccarin.

Left field suggestion from me would be Amy Acker. I'd ignore the camp/glam side (Because even Kingston can't quite do it like Jacqui) and focus on the manipulative side, and Acker's a good enough actress to convince as a doe eyed innocent who flips into a cold hearted killer at a moment's notice, then smiles sweetly as she stabs you in the back.

I hope they keep Blake as a fantatic...

Amy Acker could be an intresting Servalan, but, one of the best things about Servalan played by Jacqueline Pearce was the sweet side. There was a slight underlying "phony" quality to it. I think Anna from "V" played by Baccarain was an absolutely perfect rendition of Servalan.

Amy Acker, from what I've seen might play the sweet side too convincingly, which may not be a bad thing, but, it would be different.

Avon, yea, he's gonna be a tough character to find the right actor delivery for, and so much of the original Blake's 7 depended upon Darrow's delivery

But in some respects that might work better, I agree that there was always a phony quality to Baccarain as Anna especially, I think I'd like to see a Servalan who was, to an extent, like Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle. I thought she was the best thing about the third Bats film, and loved the way she manipulated everyone around her by going from weak and feeble maid to arse kicking criminal and then back to doe eyed damsel (the bit where she runs out of the bar is superb)

I don't think I ever realized it before, but Baccarin's Anna from the V remake was a very Servalan-like character. And since Anna was the only non-awful thing about that show, it might be nice to see her do the same thing in the context of a better series.

Still, the similarity strikes me as a reason not to cast Baccarin in the role, or at least a reason why she might not agree if it were offered. It would be redoing something she's already done, and she might feel that didn't sufficiently challenge her or advance her career.

Trouble is she's playsed that character a few times now, in stargate, in The Mentalist, in V...so she might well do it again, I just think it would make Servalan a generic villain, and one thing Servalan should never be is generic.

By the way I may be being unfair to her re V as I've only just started watching it so I'm only half a dozen eps in so far so it may be she becomes less obviously EEEvvvvilll soon...

If they 'get' what makes Blakes 7 so great they might be onto something, but somehow I doubt they will. Forget the setting, forget the Federation or the rebellion, forget even Liberator, Zen and Orac, at its heart Blakes 7 was about a bunch of people, most of whom weren't especially noble, and most of whom, at best, respected each other and at worse down right loathed each other, trapped togeather by circumstances, and half the fun stems from the character interactions. Lose that and however good it is, it won't be Blakes 7.

I hope they don't make it too light and fluffy, but similarly if they try to go for NuBSG levels of grittiness I feel it'll fail just as surely.

And I immediately went to Firefly... Seriously sounds very familiar...

There are differences, as has been noted upthread, the crew of the Liberator/Scorpio are more mercenary than Serenity's crew (except maybe Jayne who I've always thought of as Avon if Avon was an idiot--that is meant as compliment btw!) and as far as I recall Whedon claimed not to have ever seen Blakes 7.

the other show often overlooked as being somewhat familiar in tone to B7 is Andromeda (particularly in the early days) with Hunt as Blake, and Tyr as Avon, but then I tend to see Blakes 7 elements in the most unlikely places (resists urge to revisit my 2nd Season Voyager is Blakes 7 theory...)

 

[Captaindemotion]

Crusade, the Babylon 5 spin-off, had some B7 elements, not least of all that archeologist character who was a bit of an Avon clone. I don't think JMS made any secrets about his love of Seven, to be fair.

 

[Starkers]

Good point, heck Excalibur even looked a little Liberator'ish

 

[Sindatur]

I'm surprised Farscape isn't trumpeted as often Firefly as being similar to Blake's 7. I think Farscape is far closer to Blake's 7 then Firefly is. Funny thing is, when I see someone trying to sell someone else on watching Farscape,the Blake's 7 comparison is often brought up, but, in cases like this, it's infrequent that Farscape is referenced.

And yea, Captaindemotion, I don't think I've ever thought about it much, but, some parts of Andromda are very Blake's 7-ish, nice call on Tyr as Avon and Dylan as Blake

Regarding Morena Baccarain, yea, I realize she's done that character several times, and I wasn't necessarily voting for her to be Servalan, just pointing out, I think her portrayal as Anna would be perfect for Servalan. If there's a Biopic "Making of Blake's 7", Morena would definitely get my vote to play Jacqueline Pearce

 

[Starkers]

Hey that was my line