Slashdot Mirror
Blake's 7 Remake In the Works
bowman9991 writes "Remember the BBC's Blake's 7? Looks like the classic space adventure series is being reworked by Sky One. If they get it right (like the recent Battlestar Galactica revamp), this one has massive potential. 'As part of a drive to invest more in homegrown drama, Sky One has ordered scripts for two 60-minute pilot episodes. If successful, it will be expanded into a six-part series.' Created by Terry Nation, the man responsible for the Daleks in Doctor Who, Blake's 7 ran from 1978 to 1981 and had cult appeal. The effects were average, but the story and characters were compelling."
IIRC for most of the series there was only five of them, and none of them was Blake. Cervelat the villainess was hot though.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
That is being quite kind if I remember Blake's 7 correctly (unless NASA have suddenly discovered that cardboard is a really good material to make spacecraft out of)
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
And she'd have you killed for that.
I moseyed on over to the BBC website in hopes of a NBC, ABC or even Comedy Central style of ad based hosting. No luck. I couldn't download and install the iPlayer either. I realized that cost Brits a pretty pound to produce so no hard feelings there. But there wasn't a low quality flash version for me. None. Nothing. I cannot figure out how to enjoy this programme legally.
Their site has two questions in their FAQ in regard to this: Can I download programmes from outside the UK?
The BBC uses Geo-IP technology to identify where your are based on the location of your internet service provider (ISP). This ensures that only internet users in the UK can enjoy programmes on BBC iPlayer.
If you download a programme to your laptop or a portable hard drive, you can watch this wherever you are in the world. However, you will only be able to download new programmes once you return to the UK. And Can I use BBC iPlayer outside the UK?
Rights agreements mean that BBC iPlayer television programmes are only available to users to download or stream (Click to Play) in the UK. However, BBC Worldwide is working on an international version, which we will make available as soon as possible.
Radio programmes are available outside the UK in addition to podcasts at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/. ÂMany BBC News programmes are available for viewers outside the UK at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm and BBC Sport highlights are available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport.
Do make sure you check for news on BBC iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/. I do hope that changes in the near future. In the meantime, does anyone know the best way to get ahold of episodes of new Dr. Who, The Mighty Boosh & (soon) Blake's 7?
My work here is dung.
Describing the effects as 'average' is a bit of an exaggeration - they were absolutely terrible. Some of the acting was pretty dire too. The really compelling thing about the series was the fact that the characters were believable. Vila, for example, was the archetypal coward and was rewarded for his cowardice by being the only character in all of the episodes, while more aggressive characters tended to die off quite quickly. Blake was on a mission to save everyone, but everyone else was out for themselves. The people behaved like people and the politicians were interested in expanding their own power, rather than acting in the interests of their people (except on Auron, but they all died). It was a refreshing counterpoint to Star Trek.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
It was the Firefly of its day. Avon was the epitome of sarcasm.
There is no sense in copying someone's work with better graphics and crappier (yet 'hip') actors. For the love of god is it so difficult to make a rip off rather than a remake? At least a rip off has a greater chance of deviating from a cookie cutter plot and having more dynamic characters. Maybe it's just because Hollywood screws over all its writers with 'creative accounting'. Hell, even Cloverfield was a Godzilla rip-off, yet is was done extremely well and with enough deviations to merit it's own new title. Don't even get me started about how much crap the comic book movie craze is. How much crap about genetic mutation can you have? The only good movie based on a super hero so far is "Spawn", and it was done way before the craze.
Help fight spam
From http://techwatch.reviewk.com/2008/04/blakes-7-poised-for-sky-comeback/ I feel sure that if you can remember the TV series âBlakeâ(TM)s 7â then you most probably have fond memories of it. It was, on balance, an interesting mix of adventurous television making on a very low budget. In fact, I well recall a comment made, I believe, by the producers that a single episode of âBlakeâ(TM) had about the same budget as a âStar Trekâ(TM) coffee break. So letâ(TM)s see. What do I remember. I recall flimsy sets and even flimsier acting; grandiose title music; perhaps one of the first series where the writers felt free to kill off main characters; at least one whole series of âBlakeâ(TM)s 7â with no Blake, or, for that matter, only 6 of them (I believe); the irascible ORAC; Servalan (who could forget her or her haircut?) and, of course, Avon - to mention just a few.
Thought the Liberator looked a cool design for a spaceship. Who would've thought that an air freshener and some washing up bottles could make a great looking spaceship. Blake was a deeply cynical space opera, with every character angling for their own objectives. I get the impression that is what Whedon tried to do with Firefly.
The new Doctor Who is a huge leap forward too, Ecclestone and particularly Tennant have been good Doctors, and the special effects have been good enough to capture the audience, which is all thats required. Some episodes (e.g. Blink, The Satan Pit and just about any other Stephen Moffat script) have been superlative.
I'm afraid that I haven't got into Battlestar Galactica. The production values are excellent, and the plot is good too, so I don't know why I can't get to love it. Maybe what's wrong is that it just takes itself too seriously.
Star Trek is much too clinical. Only the Ferengi seemed to have anything resembling a true to life approach to matters, but unfortunately they were also the comic relief.
I hope they manage to preserve the essence of Blakes 7 (idealism corrupted?) in the remake.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
In Blakes 7, however, while there are monsters of the week, and problems are solved with guns, The drama depended upon the characters and the actors ability to convey tension. At first this was Blake and Avalon, and then we were lucky and go Servalan. A magical ship flying around the universe would not be as interesting if it were a simple military order. I suspect there are few females who can look dangerous in an evening gown. The show had it's reprieve when it was allowed to continued after series two. It was given a honorable end when all major characters that were not dead died in the correct fashion and in the correct order, most critically by the death of Blake at the hands of you know who. I know that deaths were left ambiguous in case the show continued, but for me it was the end, as poignant as Black Adder Goes Forth.
There must be a new idea somewhere in TV land. I fear this will ruin a perfectly happy, though corny, idea, just like the Bionic Women is now ruined. And it will be the same reason. Trying to send in a child to do an adult's job.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
There ought to be a way to link up all TV stations on the same network, like how all web sites from all over the world are linked on the internet. This way, TV stations can offer their programming and compete internationally. You can subscribe to magazines from around the world, get newspapers from around the world, you can buy books from around the world and see movies from around the world. There's also the internet. It seems all media is internationally available except TV channels and even certain TV programs.
Living in Canada, I would very much like to subscribe to channels such as Nickelodeon, TV Time, Disney Channel, Comedy Central, and Cartoon Network. I don't want Teletoon or any approximations, I don't even want a Canadian branded version or whatever. I want the original with the original programs, because that's the aesthetic that I like, that's the content that I like, and that's the presentation that I like. I know there are certain regulations in regards to how much local content must accompany foreign content, but that's just bullshit. If you want Canada to get some equal funding, then tax the foreign channels or make better programs so people actually want to pay for them and watch them too. But don't limit what I have access to, that's a little fascist for my taste.
On another note, it would even be helpful to get local news broadcast all over the world, it would give people insight and perspective, as well as allow people from abroad to stay more in touch with their roots and their friends and family who they may have left behind.
Twinstiq, game news
Dr. Who wasn't a remake, it was a revival. It's all still part of the same continuity and often quite good. I wish they'd pry the keyboard away from Davis' cold, dead hands and let other writers do more episodes. Some of the strongest episodes were penned by who was it, Moffit? Moffat? The guy who wrote "Girl in the Fireplace" and that other one with the stone angels that could kill you when you weren't looking. That's some classic who right there!
But this remake frenzy, why? After a while, nostalgia just ain't what it used to be. Galactica died an early death and so I can understand the urge to see it again. The current effort's been a mixed bag, some are in love with it and some are just shaking their heads wondering what RDM was smoking when he came up with that shit. But please, where are the new ideas?
When Babylon 5 came about, JMS didn't say "Ok, so I'm going to rip off Star Trek and put it on a space station." Hell, no. He said "Look, I'm going to borrow a bunch of shit from the best brains in the field, I'm going to mortar those bricks together with a bunch of my own ideas and then I'm going to put something on the screen that nobody's ever seen before outside of a novel." And sure enough, that's just what he did. Firefly was the same way.
I guess what the suits are thinking is "hey, this concept was good enough to get the greenlight decades ago, maybe we'll be able to make money with it now. Certainly less risky than trying to do anything completely original, right?"
I can't wait until we can start financing this stuff directly, no more need to involve fuckhead suits. Pull 10,000 geeks together on the net and we can back the damn project, $20 at a time.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
For those of us on the other side of the pond, who haven't a clue who Blake is, let alone his 7: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake's_7.
The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development
I was stationed in the UK with the USAF and caught the last 2 seasons of B7. I loved it. Sure, the production value wasn't great, but I loved the dark characters, especially Darrow's Avon. These weren't the clean white knights of some quest, these were the gritty, angst riddent, heavily flawed humans. There were no clearly the white knight hero, but there was clearly one single evil, Servilan. God, for the longest time, anyone mentioned "clip haired bitch" I would picture her.
When the show ended with the dreamscape shoot out, I was among the thousands that sent in a plea to continue the show. Even offering a way out of the apparent slaughter of all the crew.
Now, I appreciate the killing off of major characters for the sake of the story. Love "MI-5" ("Spooks"), "Life on Mars" (oh, isn't there a 80's follow on to "Life on Mars"?), and "Torchwood". But, can't stand the new "Robin Hood" with ninjas, an arab female version of Wesley Crusher, and way too much modern crud.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4158237/Doctor_Who_2008_S04E04_The_Sontaran_Stratagem_%5BBBC_One%5D_%5BXvid%5D.a.4158237.TPB.torrent Thats currently the easiest and best way outside of the UK far as I know.
This is frankly a poor idea - the sole substantial flaw in the original B7 was its production values, and that's always the flaw in aging sci-fi. The writing was basically spotless, and there's very, very little room to improve on it. B7 has aged pretty well, aside from its effects.
That's a very different situation from BSG, where the original was a good idea that was undone by pretty relentlessly cheesy aesthetics and a sense of writing that often did leave something to be desired. BSG aged poorly and rapidly. A re-imagining thus made sense there, because there was room to work and stuff to jettison as well as keep. It was possible to make a new BSG that a fan could look at and say "Wow, that's better than the original." Not all fans did, but a lot did, and that's significant.
That's going to be very, very hard to do with B7. Frankly, it'll be hard to get a casual fan to say that, little yet a hard core one.
And the other route for a SF revival - the Doctor Who/Star Trek:TNG route where you just continue in-continuity from where the old one left off is, as the article notes, closed to B7.
Making this a poor property to revive.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
This is being done by Sky, that channel with such great programmes, such as..... mmmm..... Simpsons repeats, Star trek repeats...
Have they actually made anything worthwhile before?
They only have a very small share of the UK audience so it's understandable
Then I remembered, there are just so many channels to choose from, that each one gets a very small percentage of the viewing people who cought up wads of dosh to Rupert Murdoch's empire every month.
Oh, thats for the footy(soccer to US readers).
Disclaimer, I don't have SKY and will never do so. In a former life, I was a printer who lost his job when the times went to Wapping.
Ironically, today,marks the closure of the News Corp Wapping site.
What goes around etc..
... but awhile back, both Terry Nation (who created B7) and Paul Darrow (who played Avon) talked about the idea of a revival. Not a remake a la BSG but a continuation a la the new Doctor Who. The premise I've heard talked about by both was to be that Avon - and only Avon - had survived the final scene, and, years later (20-30, I'd say!) escapes from a Federation prison and takes one last can't-win-but-try-anyway shot at it.
Think Napoleon escaping Elba and the battle of Waterloo, only hopefully without the hemorrhoids.
If this is what Sky is commissioning, and if it's done well (and with Paul Darrow and hopefully Jacqueline Pearce reprising Servalan), then it'll be the fitting finale to Blake's 7 that fans have been waiting for since the series wrapped decades ago.
The series doesn't need a remake or a reboot - what it does need is for the loose ends to be tied up.
Nope.
The 80s follow-up to Life on Mars is Ashes to Ashes and it is bad.
1) The main character (female John Simms replacement) is unlikable. Not a bang on the actor but the writers.
2) Gene Hunt et al are given too many hero shots. Long pauses while they strike a pose and music plays for them. It turns what was believable and enjoyable in LoM into a parody.
3) The ambiguity is gone. In LoM was he dead, coma, actual time travel? In AtA, there is no mystery. So, one of the dimensions of LoM is instantly gone.
As for B7, I agree Avon was the best part of the show. I got the DVDs a few years ago but the show had aged so badly I couldn`t make it through the first season. I assume the remake will be like most new SciFi remakes. The producer will have a political agenda to push that will distract and undermine the show.
I always thought that Farscape was Blake's 7 done right. Same basic story idea, same basic characters, much, much better execution.
Loved Blake's 7 as a kid, but saw it again a few years ago and it hadn't held up as well as my memory of it had led me to believe.
Last I'd heard Paul Darrow (who played Avon) had bought the rights to the series from Terry Nation's estate and that he was looking to restart the series. That was at least three years ago and I haven't heard anything since. I'd love to see this back on the air but I really think that he's too old to play the same character.
Here's hoping they don't ruin the remake like Battlestar Galactic did, by relying so heavily upon "shakeycam" to try and achieve a "you are there" effect. It's been done, it's not novel any more, it's just annoying and distracting. Let your writing, acting, and special effects carry themselves without making the viewers nauseous...
Thanks...
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Of course the baby boomers now colonising slashdot will surely remember that Gareth wotsisname Thomas screwed the whole series when he went off on a Luvvie sabbatical to spout Welsh poetry somewhere probably in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Then the BBC shot everyone in the end - yes everyone, which I considered abuse of the audience at the time.
BSG was on around that time and to be honest, I think the re-imagineered version is quite good, if you can make a cup of tea during the scenes where characters engage in Shatneresque soul-searching. But once again, like so many American shows it is no more than a post modernist metaphor for the present day.
A bit like Doctor Who, the continuing story where you can't be a character unless your wearing Burberry or are representative of some minority group. You can tell it is Science Fiction though, cos although it is all shot in Wales, it never seems to rain...(obligatory old-git section now follows.)
Doctor who was of course much scarier in the sixties, when I were a lad, long before slasher movies Sam Rami, Tobe Hooper and Hannibal Lector - but then we were all so young and innocent then....
I wish, I wish I had said something funny or informative in this post... No wait! They should do a remake of Dr Who and the Web of Fear. Now that was classic tv and curiously coincided with England winning the World Cup in 1966.
CUE: sounds of the fourth wall breaking. With apologies to the elipsis.
Posts, MyBio or Sig, may contain satire, sarcasm, bolded nouns be sardonic or even witty & be Church of SD
nobody, but NOBODY can replace that voice. As iconic a voice as Tom Baker. I'd rather see the original "remastered" with digital effects that loose Paul Darrow.
They made a spoof a while back called "Blake's Junction 7", but I've never managed to find it anywhere. The series actually has a lot of potential. They need to make it gritty. e.g. Are they freedom fighters or terrorists? (think Aeon Flux, the Animation). It shouldn't be black and white. There could be a lot of excitement and intrigue with operations behind enemy lines etc. I suppose it all depends on the budget they get. Will there be enough money to make a decent series, or will it be wobbly spaceships again?
The worst thing they can do is aim it at kids, with Orac as a cute robot or something awful like that.
I hope they don't go the BSG route. We don't need any more Star Trek Voyager character rehashes with extremely poor writing that is slipped past it's audience by confusing them with unnecessary zooms.
Much better would be to give it the Dr. Who treatment. The special effects can be total crap, but make the writing good, and do be to pretentious.
There were always seven on the "good guys" team. However, you sometimes had to count the AI running the Liberator and/or the obnoxiously arrogant computer they stole and put to use. One way or another, there were always 7.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
A bit like Doctor Who, the continuing story where you can't be a character unless your wearing Burberry or are representative of some minority group.
Christ, hit the nail straight on the head you did.
I just recently started in on the show. I grabbed the first season, and I'm about half way into the second episode. When I saw the Blake's 7 title, I decided it was finally time to get a Slashdot account and start speaking.
It seems like a pretty cool (if a bit campy) show so far. It's definitely living up to the song that got me into it (Intergalactic Space Crusaders by Star One).
Far as the remake goes, I may watch it, I may not. If it's successful, I imagine the sci-fi channel will be all over it, as they seem to have a good viewership for "Doctor Who". I might watch it if I don't have to go through any effort to see it, basically.
I'm sure Murdochs Sky TV will change the imagery. The opening sequence and episode that introduced the federation as bad guys did it by showing ubiquitous surveillance. In fact some of the stuff the federation got up to wasn't half as bad as things the good guys do on TV now. At least they made the effort of giving Blake a trial before being sent off to prison camp...
for a second season. In case anyone didn't know.
It will be in the fall lineup, not the mid-season lineup next year. Day and time will probably change.
Cameron will be back!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I'm a little surprised, though not disappointed, they chose to remake this, as the show's protagonists are essentially a small group of terrorists hell-bent on revenge against the government. They were rebels, underdogs, and guerrillas; committed to fucking The Federation's shit up, proper.
I'd like to see the new creators replicate the sense of mortality and dread they had in the original. The audience had enough time to grow attached to the characters and maybe form a favorite crew member, just to watch them die in Blake's Ahab-like quest for blood and vengeance.
Blake was convicted of child abuse in the TV series. The Federation using it to silence political dessent since it is a crime so dificult to defend against. Wonder if a remake will keep that?
And ORAC the bloody minded AI computer who went out of his way to show how stupid the rest of the crew were, like a super IQ Victor Meldrew.
A remake could be very good but has to be done carefully.
didn't blake disappear for most of the series then reappear the last episode just in time for everyone to be killed?
i might be remembering wrong though. i watched it on PBS when i was quite young.
Have to agree about Life on Mars, easily the most ineresting plot, and acted brilliantly. Ending was just awesome, new show is called ashes to ashes and features Phillip Glenister as Gene Hunt.
It's called _Firefly_.
For my money, the guy who made the original series hang together was the script editor, Chris Boucher. He was the one with the knack for razor-sharp dialog, who guided the stories to remain as true to the characters as possible, and generally kept things on track.
He went on to make "Starcops", one of the best grown-up SF series ever (despite the cheesy title), with even sharper scripts and characters.
If he's still available to keep an eye on things, then the B7 formula has a great deal of potential to be "updated" for contemporary sensibilities and politics...
Your two home computers are called 'orac' and 'zen' :)
I remember that one of the very few occassions as a youngster that I was allowed to stay up 'late' was to watch Blakes 7 on the TV. Fortunately my Mum was into Sci-Fi so she used to let me stay up past my bed-time to watch it. It was usually on an hour or so after Doctor Who had finished, so it used to be a double dose of Sci-fi goodness. Watched the first episode of Blakes again a year or so ago and my god has it aged! I am not really sure a re-make is a good idea - I think it may just ruin the memory."They looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined"
INFORMATION!
All they have to do, is improved the special effects and hire actors as go as the originals (if the originals are not available). This was one of the most underrated shows in TV history!!!
END OF LINE
Here's a spoiler. Blake finally shows up at the end of the last episode. Everyone dies in the last few seconds of the last episode.
I'm still bitter about the whole ending. Lamest ending for any series ever.
"I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm NOT GOING." - Kerr Avon
"Ain't no right way to do a wrong thing."
Thanks for ruining it, turkeybreath.
I've never seen (or actually even heard of) Blake's 7 before today, but from your description, it sounds like some of the basic plot of FarScape came from this show. No?
And don't say I can't call you Shirly.
Blake never went around acting crazy for no good reason at all....
He did it for freedom....
Certainly no character on Farscape can rival Avon.
With B7, I could not predict how the plot will move, who will live and die.
With Farscape, I didn't care. It was interesting, but not worth any emotional investment.