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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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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!
--
This sig is inoffensive.
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.
I was young and impressionable when Blake 7 first came out, I really liked it at the time, but why bother trying to revive it now.
Anyone under 25 or most Americans will have no idea what it is. I can't remember much about it myself. So it is just playing on the sentimentality of a few.
Considering the state of SF in general nowadays it would be nice to get something new rather than rehashes of old ideas, we have plenty of them already. As far as I can see this is just £7M down the pan.
Avon (the character played by Paul Darrow) was a huge influence on me, altho' I was too young to realize it at the time. He was a dark and complex character, a technology expert who could clearly and rationally see that he could make the most money and wield the most power by betraying his comrades... but he could never quite bring himself to do it. He'd always set off with the intent of doing so, then change his mind at the last minute and use his superior intellect to save the day, then hate himself for it afterwards. He got most of the best lines too. Oh, and he may or may not have been shagging Blake's arch-enemy, the head of the secret police. Certainly they were both up for it, and even avoided killing each other for that purpose while remaining nominal enemies otherwise.
There simply aren't characters with this kind of depth in modern scifi, even in relatively intelligent shows like B5. I can't wait to see the new episodes.
This programme was so cool! Not for the fact that it was a top notch sci-fi soap but that it had great characterisation. The first anti-hero in Avon. The D&D rogue character in Villa. Now obviously, its almost certain that the new show will be a pile of steaming... but let me just wallow in dreams that it will be good... P.S. Not nostalgia, got all the vids!!
the rights were not purchased by that perspex box with the flashing lights or they may have trouble getting the project off the ground
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
When the show ended there were arguments over whether or not Avon actually dies in the final scene. He is surrounded by guards, it cuts to black and there is a lot of gunfire....
:)
Presumably he is gunned down like the rest of his crew BUT he could have survived... Somehow? Surely? Maybe?
According to the article the actor that played Avon (Paul Darrow) will be the only actor to return. Set 25 years after the last series hopefully the question of Avon's survival will be answered.
Apologises to anyone that didn't no what happened to Avon at the end and has been slowly working their way through the series
Sigh of relief when I saw that it was Paul Darrow. To be honest, I'm not really a fan of Blake's 7, but I worked with Paul on the CGI voiceover that he did for Deathtrap Dungeon and I was impressed with his professionalism and enthusiasm. He seems genuinely to care about the projects he works on, and I'm content that this will be a labour of love rather than a cash-in. Huzzah.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
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!
Its be like remaking Space 1999
:-)
Frankly, given the situation on Moonbase Alpha in the original, the chances of them doing a Next Generation are looking pretty slim!
-MT.
They've set up an official web site for the revival here.
Unfortunately it uses Flash but there's more information about the plans and there's a cool new Blake's 7 logo.
John.
C'mon, surely you realise that Blakes 7 is just the legend of Arthur (and the classic medieval character cast) relocated to the future? I mean they "stumble" on The Liberator (Excalibur) and it is only Blakes "purity" that enables him to defend against Zens defences (ie pull the sword from the stone). The other characters start with the basics, the giant, the maiden (originally Dayna), the rougue the anti-hero and then the wicked witch )Servelan.
Having said that, love the show, and the best settings are always ripe for a revisit. IMHO, the Liberator must be involved for it to succeed.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
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.
Yes let us remember the heady days gone by, remember if you will the playground and chatting with your mates about how good blakes 7 was....
then remember things like thunderbirds 2017 and all the other failed programmes that tried to make a triumphant return.
If it does come back (i sort of hope is does not) the only way it will survive is if it gets real good real fast, i mean lets face it the first season of ST:TNG was bollox (bad acting, wobly sets terrible sfx) but look how great it was in the end.
I think i agree with one of the earlier postings, i think a new twist on Dr Who would be a lot better.
just my two pence worth (3.2 cents)
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
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
The trouble is, most remakes are a letdown.
Even if the films/shows are good in their own right people remember the original serties' with great fondness and nothing can live up to that memory.
Take Randall and Hopkirk Deceased for example. The original show was fab, and the remakes with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer were rahter less than fab.. However, I knew people who had never seen the original and actually liked the recent series.
I have no sig yet I must scream.
But unlike Blakes 7 they actually had decent some special effects in Space 1999! For the time (mid
70s) some of the space scenes weren't far off being cutting edge and not too far behind
the effects in the original star wars. Shame they couldn't have extended the budget to the monster costumes though , they sucked!
This was simply the coolest show: not the decor or effects, which were brutally minimalistic, but the characterisation and writing, which was so good that it felt real, every time.
The day that the series was killed was so traumatic that I almost kicked off TV: 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.
Glad to see the show will be back.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Didn't they call it "Farscape" of something?
Who needs decent FX? It's possible to do mature character based SF drama with minimal effects - and no rubber monsters - if you have the courage of your convictions.
See Ultraviolet as an example of a recent UK miniseries that redefined a genre for those lucky enough to watch it. Ultraviolet is to Buffy as Hamlet is to Melrose Place.
I believe that Paul Darrow - a bona fide actor - has the potential to do something similar with Blake's 7. In fact, as Farscape picked up where Blake's 7 left off, I'd expect him to want to do something different.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Paul Darrow is a die-hard fan so there's some hope...
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Series one is supposed to be released on DVD in a couple of months in the UK: don't know if it's available anywhere else already.
When you think about it, or at least when I do - most future spaceships must be almost completely controlled by computer - not with some gits standing on a bridge for effect like they do in the thoroughly rung out Star Trek. At most a human would be suggesting the general strategy of any sort of engagement, and then wiping their brow 14 nanoseconds later when it was all over. Generally this is what happened on the original series of Blake7, with the occasional 'manual control' for dramatisation. They let the computer get on with driving the hardware, and they got on with the scheming on how to overthrow the corrupt Federation and each other.
I really hope they spend most of the money on good script writers who give the characters the depth that they had in the original series, and just enough on the sets/cgi to get by.
Hey, and model the new ship on the old one, I thought it was cool!
Two alternative explanations: ...Gunshots...Servalan/Sleer saunters in...
"How could you all miss?"
(resumes bicycle tour)
or
Soldiers gather in circle around Avon, aim laser rifles, Avon ducks, soldiers in circle all shoot each other...
(resumes bicycle tour)
From
this page - so good it had to be posted.
* Trust is only dangerous when you have to rely on it.
* Reality is a dangerous concept.
* There is no logical reason why aliens should be hairy.
* I am not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm not going.
* No good deed goes unpunished.
* It is frequently easier to be honest when you have nothing to lose.
* Civilization has always depended on courtesy rather than truth.
* On Earth it is considered ill-mannered to kill your friends while committing suicide.
* The art of leadership is delegation.
* All that patience gets you is older.
* Show me someone who believes in something, and I will show you a fool.
* Regret is part of being alive -- but keep it a small part.
* He who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.
* Infallibility depends on your point of view.
* There are times when even the most cynical must trust in luck.
* Heroics seldom run to schedule.
* Dignity, at all costs, dignity.
* The choice is very simple -- either you can fight, or you can die.
* In the end, winning is the only safety.
* Power usually makes its own rules.
* Some days are better than others, Section Leader.
* It is not necessary to become irrational in order to prove that one cares; indeed, it is not necessary to prove it at all.
* While there's life, there's threat.
* Luck has nothing to do with it.
* Strategic withdrawl is running away, but with dignity.
* Idealism is a wonderful thing; all you really need is someone rational to put it to proper use.
* Nobody is indispensible.
* Everyone's entitled to one really bad mistake.
* In the end, your word is all there is, really.
* There are other rules, but you'll find out what those are when you break them.
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
However, Paul Darrow has been pitching this around for a couple of years now (the original plan was for a movie, and then it became a pilot and now it seems to be a treatment) and I really hope he keeps behind the cameras as he seems to have become an old luvvie in the ensuing years.
Jacqueline Pierce.
That role did her in. I listened to a BBC radio doc about her a while back; AFAIR she apparently got into the role so deeply she became more Servalan than herself and the character took over her life. I think she's had a nervous breakdown or three in the intervening years, all caused by this, so you can't be too harsh on her. Respect - if you were into dominant babes in the 80s, she's still an icon.
No Virginia, Mrs. Thatcher wasn't a babe. Never liked her, did we precious?
For example, the first season is due out on 22nd September. Region 2 (obviously), but shouldn't be a problem. I think I'll order mine, never got my VHS tape collection complete... :(
"Fix it? It has been disintegrated, by definition it cannot be fixed!" - Gru in Despicable Me.
But it was okay because the announcer said "... and Blake's Seven will return in the Autumn"
of course, it never did
Orac, where are yooooooo?
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
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.
Surely they just needed 1/8th of a cube and a couple of mirrors?
you can remember with fondness the original "Dr. Who" and think that William Hartnell was the only "true" doctor. After that, even the original "Star Trek" series pales into insignificance.
I remember racing home from school each afternoon to see what trouble the Doctor would get himself into or whether he would recover the key to his Tardis (the original Doctor lost the key quite a lot).
"Dr. Who" is real science fiction. "Star Trek" is future history. Everything else doesn't count.
I haven't seen Blake's 7 on TV in over a decade. (I even have a Tivo search for it). Maybe the sequel miniseries will prompt someone to reair the original series. BBC America at 2am? Anyone???
From the website:
A Rebellion Reborn
Paul 'Avon' Darrow remembers Terry Nation's early ideas for a revival and sets the scene for a Rebellion Reborn.
As we have established against all odds; nobody wins, and if Blake's 7 in the 1980's ended with the triumph of 'Establishment Terror' and the least likely of a hopeful group of dissidents left to oppose it, then Blake's 7 three decades later, must spring forward from that unpromising base.
The good/bad guy is beaten. All's wrong with the World/Universe. When has this been the case before? In Earth's history, many times.
Terry's idea for a later reworking of his Blake's 7 concept was, as before, inspired by his previous work(s). A bleak Universe where if you're rich and powerful - or useful to those who are - you're in a kind of corrupt paradise. Then, out of nowhere, comes one man, then another and another and so on. Hope springs eternal, but (and it's a big but) are these new heroes truly heroic? Not in Terry Nation's Universe. They are, as before, recognisable misfits... Colin Wilson's Outsiders.
Having said that, outsiders are those who trigger, either by default or design, the greatest of changes for those on the 'inside'. There is such a thing as a one-man (or in this case seven man) army and armchair enthusiasts will cheer them on, win or lose. In fact, it makes the enthusiasts feel a lot better if 'they' lose. It saves the insiders collective conscience and excuses them from taking up the mantle of outsiders. Until, of course, the next adventure.
Therefore, Terry's concept for a TV Movie/Mini-Series with a view to develop into another series of Blake's 7, was as follows;
The basic storyline was that the Federation, while still seeming all-powerful, would be rotting from within (cf, collapse of the Soviet Empire). Out of the past comes yesterday's man. But all our yesterdays are viewed with nostalgic affection. So, through no fault or will of his own the sole survivor of the original Blake's 7 becomes the catalyst for the creation of its successor. Terry likened this to Napoleon emerging from Elba and fighting his last hundred days. He was always going to lose, but he'd put up one hell of a fight. Glorious defiance is very appealing.
Avon, imprisoned for 25-years, has in the minds of the average citizen essentially 'disappeared'. The Federation's propaganda machine has gone to great lengths to ensure that Blake and his compatriots are remembered simply as outlaws and certainly not hailed as martyrs. Information suppression plus the amount of physical time passed makes Avon a forgotten man. That said there is of course an underground network of dissidents for whom he represents the voice and potency of resistance and in many ways Avon will become the unwitting figurehead to their movement a reluctant El Cid.
The new seven are like a wind, divine or not. Sometimes welcome, sometimes not, the wind is never static, it always moves on.
Whereas, the mores and values of the TV audience of the time tempered Terry's vision of 'The Dirty Dozen in Space' playing more like 'Robin Hood in Space' the new series must be grittier, more believable, and possess an almost epic and mythic feel to it that will raise it above the 'SF bubblegum' that often predominates our screens.
A good analogy for the series going forward would be West Wing meets The Dirty Dozen where the gloves are off and the rules of engagement ill-defined and thereby the outcome of any conflict either in battle, emotionally or politically, unpredictable!
Woopty Doo Basil, what does it all mean?!
Did Zen run lunix? That might be why nobody could understand how he worked, and why the (clearly Microsoft using) Federation was so keen to track him down. ORAC was prissy, self opinionated and not half as smart as he thought he was. Clearly a Mac.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Richard E. Grant as Doctor Who shouldn't be wasted on animated web cartoons. This should be on the big screen as Withnail in fucking space! It's ideal - Withnail was already dressed up suitably as the doctor. It would certainly liven things up if the Doctor turns up drunk in Skaro demanding the finest wines known to humanity^W Dalek-kind. Another episode could have the doctor and assistant searching for 'matter' in the Tardis kitchen sink. Of course plastic bags wrapped around the feet would provide suiable protection from harsh alien environments.
--
Reverse outsourcing: it's the future
I don't see it as the Arthurian theme. If anything, it was more of the Robin Hood theme.
The problem with either of those comparisions is that Blake is not in a lot of the episodes.
I guess you could make a "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" comparision. But that has problems because there isn't an original story for the characters to be from. Just a theme.
I liked it because it was different. In Star Trek, the crew is always right and good and more enlightened than everyone else in the universe.
In Blake's 7.....
AVON: Only seventy kilos... Vila, strip off the insulation material in the cargo hold. [Vila turns.] Vila! [Avon takes some small object from a panel and hands it to him.]
VILA: But that's plastic. It weighs nothing.
AVON: Get rid of it anyway.
VILA: A kilo and a half if we're lucky.
AVON: Do it! We've got five minutes. [Vila turns and heads out.] Not enough! Not nearly enough! Dammit, what weighs seventy kilos?
[The door can be heard opening.]
ORAC: Vila weighs seventy-three kilos, Avon.
[The door closes.]
[ Avon fetches his gun and gets a determined look on his face]
AVON: [Whispering] Vila!... Vila?
I was actually thinking of Blakes 7 when i saw Farscape - don't know why really, its not that they have that much obviously in common - apart from a group of people on the run from the police state.
Blakes 7 was also unusual in that our heros were usually dealing from a position of strengh. Usually writers hate to make their people to strong because then they can't write their way out of it later (bad writers perhaps?) - but the ship "The Liberator" was the fastest ship in known space (only its sister ship was as fast, and it was only see twice and quickly met an untimely end), the ship has regenerative properties and could restore itself even after the most heavy of attacks. It had teleportation ability over wast distances, something that the federation had never been able to work out. The (almost) sentient computer Zen had wast amounts of knowledge about most things they ran into, and the ship was well stocked with copious amounts of food, clothes and valuables (in the form of gems, precious medals, and currency) - and at the end of season one they manage to aquired "Orac" before the federation does. A supercomputer of a special kind, its dying inventor originally invented the chip and computer principles that all computers in exsistance are based on - because of this the sentient Orac is able to tap into any computer system at all and control it.
But that didn't really stifle the creativity - perhaps because there was always a certain amount of internal strife.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
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!"
$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."
His behaviour during the series indicated that, if offered a position of power and low risk (Servalan offered him power, but not safety) he would betray any principles he may have been using at the time.
And yet... and yet...at the last, Avon stands over the fallen corpse of the only man who understood him but trusted him anyway, and choses certain death to make a final, pyrrhic, defence...
Part of what was so cool about Avon was that he was genuinely at war with himself and so his motives where not always clear, even to him. After Blake left his darker side seemed to grow almost unchecked (remember him trying to throw Villa out the airlock late in the day, when in previous years he would often defend Villa against outsiders?) -- until that fateful ambush where the apparant triumph of his dark side in fact opened the door to his redemption...
What side will Avon be on? I suspect not even Avon will know... And that'll be worth watching.
"Just once, I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets." -- The Brigadier, Dr. Who
Red Dwarf didn't suck due to budget. It sucked because the gestalt entity of Grant Naylor was split into Rob Grant and Doug Naylor.
Together they produced some of the best britcom that I have seen. Just compare Backwards and Last Human. Both have funny bits but are lacking something.
I don't know if Blake's 7 can capture what it had before without Terry Nation. We shall see - or won't see as is common with british revivals (Red Dwarf movie, New Doctor Who series not produced by Fox, etc...)
Really,
In terms of sheer personality, traits, quirks, strenths, paranoias, I haven't seen any screen representation of a real Hacker that even comes close.
A Hacker's Hacker. Hmmm, maybe I just like the sound of the word... hacker's hacker, going to get pint of a Hacker Pschorr...
Kremvax
--- Little Atomo - The Amazing Thinking Robot from Atomocom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIP9KisHi4k