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Blakes Seven To Return
Clownfush writes "Blake's 7, magnificent UK low budget high drama Sci-Fi from the early 80's is to return, as a former star acquires rights to the show. "
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One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
..they need to bring back another low budget sci-fi, that being Doctor Who.
Don't give them too big a budget, otherwise it'll turn out like Red Dwarf series 7...
Humour, good characters and a neat set of sub-plots is all it take to make a good, fun Sci -Fi romp. CGI special effects and shiny costumes? Naaah!
If you consider Canadian SF - The cube didn't have a big budget.
Blakes 7 with good sfx would seem wrong somehow. If were willing to suspend disbeleif enough for FTL travel we may as well suspend disbelief that a red platic esky is a high tech tool kit. The strength of the show was in the characters (well those that were at least 2D), and since it worked well as a radio play recently, lots of expensive visual effects are not required.
I think it stands as one of the few self-consistant SF TV programmes ever made. I also liked the digs at the Trek utopian federation - the trek symbol at 90 degrees and the federation as a police state.
According to the FAQ, essentially they have no money (yet), no script (yet), no cast (yet) and no broadcasting rights (yet).
Trading on the nostalgia zeitgeist? The plan sounds as shaky as one of their sets!
No money?
Well, I can think of a few fans who'd like to see a new series based in the Blake's Seven universe. And if there are fans willing to see it then there will be production companies and broadcasters willing to back it. %5-6 million for a TV show, especially one that already has a cult following, is peanuts - do you have any idea how much the rubbish that fills the channels right now even costs?
If nothing else, it has a particular resonance right now, thanks to the Orwellian Federation, etc. Just like Star Trek's morality matched the 60's, the new Blakes Seven series is tailor-made for the times that we live in.
No script?
Well, jeez, that's the end of the world. How will they ever make anything?
But wait, here's some news just in: apparently, there are these things called scriptwriters. Throw them some cash and give them some time and they'll write a script for you! What a stroke of luck!
No cast?
OMG, another disaster! How will they cope?
Huh, what's that? There's an original cast member involved already? And there are these guys and gals out there - we'll call them actors - constantly looking for new work? And even people - let's call them casting agents - who'll pick the right actors for your production! Genius!
No broadcasting rights?
Well, perhaps you should RTFA. What bit of "Paul Darrow, who played the ruthless anti-hero Avon, is in a consortium that has acquired the rights to the show", didn't you get?
Seriously, money, a script and a cast can be found. But the first step was always going to be getting the rights. If you have the rights you can find the money, a script and a cast. But if you have money, a script and a cast but no rights then you're screwed. It really is that simple.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
No, Farscape was a remake of Buck Rogers without all the sauce.
That was classic intercourse!
Interesting to note that Terry Nation's widow holds the rights to Blake's 7. The BBC holds most (all?) rights to Dr Who, and they're content to sit on them until nobody cares any more rather than sell or license them. Sigh.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Think about it - these are people who monitor the every footstep of these actors, who attend every theatre performance, tape every television appearance. These are not the sort of people who would exactly miss a large-scale purchase of rights, the forming of a consortium, and the gearing-up to work on a mini-series.
These fanzines have the inside scoop on many stories, long before they reach the mainstream media. Assuming the story is even thought worthy, by the mainstream media.
That they say nothing - not even that there are rumors of negotiations - tells me that either the fans fell asleep waiting for the BBC to do anything, or that the BBC story is not entirely honest.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
the show's producers simply, and without warning, arranged for the entire cast to be killed in one gruesome and bloody ambush.
After years of arranging narrow escapes for our favourite characters, this was just incredibly insensitive
Yeah, but it was realistic. Let's face it, if you're a dissident under a totalitarian regime, and there's no outside power with enough strength or influence to make your government think you might be worth keeping on ice for a while, that's exactly>/b> what will happen to you when you're caught, and kudos to the BBC for accepting the brutal logic of the situation and not opting for some wimpy happy ending.
Blake's 7 were doomed from the start, you knew they had to be, but it was watching them try to defy their fate that made the series so magnificent.
B7 challenged TV viewers by constantly focusing on the dark themes surrounding unbeatable opression. And in the end they had the guts to finish it on a minor chord which solidified its distopian vision. With that ending it became a noir classic, and I don't want to see that screwed up by adding a "Phantom Menace" years later
SINARS is not a recursive sig
And Red Dwarf actually started to suck (as in "chest wound") the more budget it got. With no budget, you have to rely on obsolete FX like "plot", "dialogue" and "acting".
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Avon is one of my role-models, up their with Mr Burns. An A1 kick-ass bastard. :-)
That and Zen, Slave and Orac were pretty damned cool too.
Now if we could just get rid of those tree-hugging, moralizing, shrink-visiting, dickheads who write scripts for the ST universe...
"Smithers! Release the hounds!"
Beyond that, yeah they were just your typical space rogues doing anything for a buck. However, I think there was a good balance between episodic stories and long-running story arcs. The problem is that the longer plots didn't get a chance to play out before the series got cancelled.
$1.67 - Doctor Who
$0.33 - Blake's 7
I remember watching both shows (and growing up on Tom Baker when Dr. Who was broadcast on the local PBS station in the early 1980s) and remembering, as a four year-old, "that doesn't even look like a real spaceship" (in reference to Blake's 7).
While CG special effects have gotten better and cheaper over the years, one wonders if they're going to try and overcompensate for past gaffes by over-SFXing the new show. If it ever ets off the ground.
The really tough part is that they might have to, because the first thing that many think of when you play word association with Blake's 7 is "whoa, the effects."
It's been a long time since I've seen Blake's 7, so forgive me if my memory is a little faulty on this point, but didn't the series end with Blake shot (by Avon), everyone other than Avon shot by the authorities, and Avon surrounded by said authorities defiantly holding a weapon? Given those circumstances, it seems a new series which remained true to the previous in more than name would be totally justified in only bringing back Avon. Of course, calling it "Blake's 7" with Blake dead seems a little sketchy.