Blake's 7 reboot back on again

[Guy Gardener]

5 minutes ago on perception, he was blonde.

Did not not know who I was leering at.

but his accent was much more agreeable than in that scifi clusterfuck from last year about the colonists.

 

[auntiehill]

... Benedict Cumberbatch as Blake and David Tennant as Avon.

That would make more sense switched around...

I really don't see how. To each their own, I suppose.

I see it the other way around, as well. To be Avon means at times being cold, sarcastic and calculating---Cumberbatch is great at that. Blake has to be inspiring---a Robin Hood/Everyman type who is capable of delivering an inspiring speech---that's much more David Tennant. Your mileage may vary, of course.

To be honest, I have a hard time imagining ANYONE being as good an Avon as Paul Darrow. He was perfect for that role; anyone who takes it on will have a very, very hard time pleasing fans.

eta:
I love this fanvid someone made about Blake and Avon. I think it sums up the complexity of the relationship rather well.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atuNdPgM8eY[/yt]

 

[Guy Gardener]

I just hope they keep Blake's "I went to jail on charges of kiddy fiddling." because that was down right evil.

Blake is part of the .00000001 percent.

Something about an alpha class citizen.

That's the only reason he was allowed to think until they decided that he should stop.

The every man of the 3rd century new calendar is a drug addled idiot slavishly obedient to the fuzz.

No change there then.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

I only heard about this during the week, the news popped up again with a note that the reboot (if produced) is heading for the SyFy channel. I guess that's SyFy in the US, we have it here too in the UK but BSG ended up on Sky. I guess it depends if anyone helps co-fund it.

Would audiences be interested in something potentially more depressing than BSG, that doesn't even have an uplifting ending? I guess though they probably won't repeat the original's ending, if enough people find out how it went down.

To be Avon means at times being cold, sarcastic and calculating---Cumberbatch is great at that

Cold as his portrayal of Sherlock? I think Avon needs to be ambitious too, not just someone who's happy to sit back and dissect everyone else's mistakes.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^I think that, like the writers of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes or the Nicholas Cage Wicker Man (and boy, aren't they great company to keep! Hopefully that's not an omen...), the writers of the new B7 will be so conscious of the iconic power of the ending of the original show that they will try to avoid a simple replica of it.

Whether or not they match, never mind top it, is a different thing.

 

[Yminale]

I hope they rethink this. Blake 7 is such a product of it's time, I don't think a modern version would work. Very few people care about an all seeing, all powerful police state anymore in an age of Facebook and CCTV.

 

[DWF]

I hope they rethink this. Blake 7 is such a product of it's time, I don't think a modern version would work. Very few people care about an all seeing, all powerful police state anymore in an age of Facebook and CCTV.

I don't see why the idea couldn't work nowadays. But I do think that a lot of younger sci-fi fans will similarities between Blake's 7 and shows like Firefly, Farscape, Andromeda and even Lexx and cry rip off.

 

[MacLeod]

I hope they rethink this. Blake 7 is such a product of it's time, I don't think a modern version would work. Very few people care about an all seeing, all powerful police state anymore in an age of Facebook and CCTV.

I would disagree, I think people still care about not living in a police state.

People are only willing to tolerate so much survelliance intruding into their life.

Records kept of every website you visit, of where you recieve your-emails from etc..

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Yes, surely, if anything, those themes have more relevance than ever today.

 

[Sindatur]

^Yes, surely, if anything, those themes have more relevance than ever today.

Yea, I don't think it's a matter of people not caring, I think it's just that many just don't realize the full implications (And really, not much they can do it about it anyways). A Series spelling it out for them, could be a frightening wake up call.

 

[MacLeod]

You only really miss something when it is lost.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I just hope they keep Blake's "I went to jail on charges of kiddy fiddling." because that was down right evil.

Some believe this is what's happening with Julian Assange right now (minus the kiddy part).

 

[Kegg]

Very few people care about an all seeing, all powerful police state anymore in an age of Facebook and CCTV.

It occurs to me that an interstellar and highly monitored social media network is precisely the kind of thing a new dystopian space opera could do that hasn't really been touched on much in television. From birth on any planet or habitat, each citizen of the Federation has their... profile. Deceptively benign, even banal, but a method of control all the same. And so on.

I don't see why the idea couldn't work nowadays. But I do think that a lot of younger sci-fi fans will similarities between Blake's 7 and shows like Firefly, Farscape, Andromeda and even Lexx and cry rip off.

That really depends how much 'younger' you mean. I wouldn't be surprised if many geeky twelve year olds, for example, don't have any experience with any of those series. It's certainly been my experience that these shows are much less known now then they were ten years ago (for the unsurprising reason that they are now all ten years older, and all of them haven't done anything new in well over a half decade.)

 

[JD]

Well, that last bit isn't entirely true. The last Farscape comic came out last October, and the last Serenity comic came out in November of '10. So they hadn't had anything on screen in five years, but those two franchises have stuff coming out during that time.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ Young people read comics?

 

[Butters]

Hmmm. Hope they do this well.

Wonder if they'll use the Daleks this time as the extra galactic threat.

 

[Kegg]

^ Young people read comics?

Bingo. I wasn't counting comics for reasons I trust are obvious (comics based on cancelled or completed TV series are usually targeting people who are already fans).

Truth is whenever I've talked to geeks around a decade younger than me they don't know half the series I'm mentioning. Claudia Black is that woman who voiced Morrigan in the fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Origins. So it goes.

Wonder if they'll use the Daleks this time as the extra galactic threat.

I'd be very surprised if this ties into Doctor Who at all beyond a wink and a nod, even if the Daleks are Terry Nation's intellectual property.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Young people read comics?

More to the point (and already raised by Kegg), young people read comics based on cancelled tv shows? 'Twould be nice to think so ... but I doubt it.

 

[DWF]

^ Young people read comics?

More to the point (and already raised by Kegg), young people read comics based on cancelled tv shows? 'Twould be nice to think so ... but I doubt it.

The very young won't be the target audience at any rate, but the people who do remember those shows will be.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^Speaking as one of those who remembers those shows ... I wish I counted as young...