Slashdot Mirror
What SciFi Should Get the Reboot Treatment Next?
Not long ago Wired ran their own list of which SciFi (not SyFy!) shows were in need of another go 'round in this era of the reboot. Well, it looks like many fans had their own opinions resulting in another list of reboots including everything from Firefly (please?) to The Outer Limits. Which SciFi stories could use the breath of life, and which ones might actually succeed it getting it?
Blake's 7. I was in the USAF for the final 2 series. Incredible characters and stories. Horrible sets.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
do a BSG style multi season show based on against a dark background by Banks
Reboot should get a Reboot!
That was a great cartoon.
Maybe C.O.P.S too! Fighting crime in a future time!
What part of Firefly do you think needed a reboot? The whole point of these reboots is to drop the decades of cruft that have dogged down a series and made it impossible to create anything new thanks to all of the baggage. Firefly has a (too) short lived TV run and a movie. There's not really any baggage to drop.
The only thing I'd change is the dumbass execs that cancelled it before its time.
I read the internet for the articles.
I'd rather see the nice old b&w Twilight Zones, grainy old BSG, the 1 or 2 seasons of Firefly, than ALL NEW DISNEY PIXAR TWILIGHT ZONE 3D ON ICE !!eleventy!!!
Lets get some NEW stuff - the enjoyment from the show should come from the plot/characters/message rather than the latest special effects or rehashes of To Serve Man.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Because the original set of sequels did so much damage to the original (awesome) films, that a series reboot could go nowhere but up.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
How about none? There's a million* SF ideas out there that have never gone much beyond the printed word. Why do we have to keep rebooting old franchises? How about turning the Vorkosigan saga into a miniseries? Or something by Cory Doctorow or Charlie Stross, if you want to be a little more up-to-the-minute? How about a miniseries based on Hyperion, or A Deepness in the Sky?
Or even just forget about things that have already been written -- commission Doctorow or Stross (or someone) to create a TV miniseries based on new SF material.
* Not precisely 1 million.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Well this got a reboot in the 80s with the movie, maybe a re-reboot is in order?
There are too many sci-fi stories out there that need to hit the screen before we get reboots of old ones. Where is? Ender's Game, Antares Dawn, Startide Rising, Fire in the Deep, Armor?
I'd love to see Ender's Game in 3d. "The enemy's gate is down..." and our orientation would switch appropriately....
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
Oh wait. That'd be Heros.
Maybe screenwriters and filmmakers could come up with an ORIGINAL idea for a change. Getting tired of inferior remakes, all they do is cause me to download and watch the original again.
Princess Ardala, Col. Wilma Deering, and little robots that want to be your best friend.
What more could any nerd boy want?
Get off my launchpad!
maybe anchor it with a hip contemporary comedian?
i'm sure it would make lots of money
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
...although supposedly a movie is in development, slated for a 2012 release. I think a series/mini-series might be a better fit for the subject matter.
I'm not popular enough to be different.
Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
The original was prophetic in more ways than I can count, and groundbreaking in many ways while being entertaining. I would love to see what they'd come up with this time.
I'd love to see that done with darker, grittier feel.
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
Would make for a couple of life injections.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
The mind boggles: We are reading an article about another article about which TV Shows should be re-done. Is there not one self-respecting Creator of Original Stuff left? Is this why Young People Today are so angry about the length of copyright?
You are seriously "just making a childhood memory better than it really was". I watched it through a few months ago. Honestly it is best left in your treasured childhood memories. For me, Star Trek the Animated Series wins hands down as worst piece of crap that I liked when I was a kid.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
A canadian animation that took place initially inside of a game console, although the second series also included the internet. A bit like Tron, but with a richer world inside the computer hardware.
Bob the guardian, his girlfriend Dot and the great villains Megabyte and Hexadecimal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReBoot
Actually it looks like they are reviving it already, so -asked and answered as they say.
-I'm just sayin'
Far Out Space Nuts
You know you want it.
But, seriously, I agree with others who say "Do something new".
How about some retro space opera? Lensman or Perry Rhodan? Maybe a Stainless Steel Rat series?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
That and un-kill Wash and Sheppard Book.
Oh, and get rid of the whole Miranda bullshit. The people who ply the lanes of space would neither "overlook" nor "forget" an entire main planet over the course of less than 20 years. Nor could such a thing be hidden as, outer-most or not, it would show up on everybody's orbital computations as a huge perturbation in their plots. Let alone one ten-year-old with binoculars.
Oh yea, and drop that whole "all the planets orbiting one sun" nonsense since it isn't workable. Miranda would have been frozen ice-ball _or_ the "inner planets" would be molten slag.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the show. The movie needs to be declared out-of-cannon before the series would be workable.
I could have come up with a better "reason for the reavers" in my sleep. The original one from the series (mental erosion from facing the emptiness of space etc) was good enough. Hell, the movie contradicted the series directly. If the Pax caused reaverdom, the the episode where the one guy got tortured and became a reaver himself woudln't have worked unless the reavers carry a supply of the otherwise secret Pax around and deliberately pre-expose potential recruits to it before deciding who to kill, rape, and eat (in that order, if you're really lucky).
So yea, it needs a reboot.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
I always wanted to see this series completed. never happened. and the series had issues, like the music, and the main actor was Mr. Brady from the Brady Bunch movies, but it had potential until TNT execs tried to turn it into "Wrestlemania/Sexromp in Space"... ironically, SyFy channel has since been plagued by the meme of the same execs. :)
http://www.beanleafpress.com
Starwars. Episodes 1, 2 and 3 especially.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Logan's Run could use some reboot loving it was a fairly entertaining serie with potential for some good "revival"
Here were my ideas.
1) from the series, yep, some people go crazy when they spend too long on the edge of that much nothing.
2) in the series it was mentioned that, despite the rumors, there have never actually been any aliens or alien artifacts found. What if there were something so alien way, way out there, but attractive enough to draw people in, that was so alien that it broke the mind. (Would have dove-tailed in with River being prescient and mad, suppose the blue-hands were working from "the only reliable evidence" ever beamed back, trying to unlock the secrets and abilities of the thing without bringing on reaver madness.)
3) Evil government experimentation, version "not-dumb", something infectious. Call it Pax if you want. Give it the same reason and history, but instead of a "chemical" or in _addition_ to it being a chemical have raverdom be an Infectious Prion form of the original chemical (see mad cow disease). Still need to drop Miranda and the one central sun, but now being force-fed a little reaver flesh would maybe make you one of the family. Hell, "The Miranda" could have been a freaking cruise ship and the thing would work, but not a planet.
At a minimum, some serious retcon needs to take place to repair the plot damage the movie inflicted on the franchise.
I just wish they would ask me about this stuff before the script goes into production. 8-)
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Isn't it just a split timeline in the multiverse? That's how I see it. The original continuity exists but a few Planck distances away... I generally don't like time travel stories, but I have to admit using it to reboot a series *was* sort of an interesting idea. I just wish the villain had more reasoned motivations.
For God's Sake, can't we have something original? Reboots are for tired old franchises that have a diminishing following and need a kick in the pants to get going again. Otherwise, it's a remake, not a reboot, and I'm frakking (reference intended) sick and tired of seeing stories from 30 years ago rehashed yet again. So just stop it, ok? We all act like there's only 10 or 12 properties in all of science fiction.
That said, I would have to vote for Firefly returning. A reboot is absolutely not necessary -- I do not need to see the same stories with different actors -- just continue the story, perhaps as a limited series of 6 to 13 episodes once a year, like they do in England.
I think the problem with Heroes was that they just plain ran out of story. The first two seasons worked because they had a preplanned story arc. The last seasons are floundering because they don't. Rebooting will not help -- it'll just move the problem to a different set of actors. Let Heroes die and allow us to remember the first seasons -- when it was still good -- with fondness.
In the case of Star Trek and James Bond, a reboot was necessary if we were going to have more of these franchises. Not having more of these franchises was -- in my opinion -- an acceptable alternative, but the idea of a reboot was interesting, and proved fruitful. Continuing with increasingly elderly actors and every film trying to be exactly like the previous film was clearly not working.
Here, I'll give you an idea for free that combines a story that hasn't been done yet with a current franchise, making it simultaneously new and marketable. Make a series from Andre Norton's "Star Rangers", but make it part of Trek canon. It's thousands of years in the future, and a old limping spaceship from the broken fragments of a federation crash lands on a planet that used to have a high level of technology. The survivors of the crash attempt to survive from the remnants of old technology found in the dead cities. At the end of the story, (first season) they stumble upon Star Fleet Headquarters and realize they've found Earth.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Used to race home from school to watch this. I wanted them to fire the wave motion gun in every episode. :-)
http://www.starblazers.com
I've said it before, but I'll say it again -- the darker re-imagined ALF would be a blockbuster (I'm seeing this version of ALF as a movie, just to be clear).
We could establish with the big effects piece: the destruction of Melmac. We could shock the audience right away by killing off Lucky. Pretty soon it's a hunted man movie -- this year's District 9 -- and away we go!
We'd do all the big character surprises, too. Willie would be a female, maybe a hard-drinkin' fighter pilot with a bit of the reckless sex streak. The nosy old lady next door could be a transvestite (very edgy). Before the first act is done, ALF is halfway across the country -- a vast break from the original series, I should add -- and has left a trail of broken lives and broken promises behind him. There would the climactic fight. Willie avenging her dead cat. Lots of dialogue -- total ripoff of Kill Bill's climax. And the final blow. ALF is dead.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Do it right this time; the world is ready for power armor.
Do it for the Lieutenant!
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
On Naboo with JarJar. George Lucas needs to outdo his last Christmas Special.
... no seriously. Slashdot needs to have a reboot with a younger cast. The cast of Slashdot had too little diversity. I'd like to see some more female leading characters... maybe a range of ages and some interesting quirky characters. The whole "Evil Bill" thing got old too. Perhaps we could make a new enemy?
[signature]
I would really like to see the definitive version of the Dune saga done right ; without the sort of budget and casting constraints that have crippled previous outings (i.e. "the original" which was a David Lynch 80s style film and the SciFi channel remakes which, while better and more ambitious, still suffered from obvious budget constraints). The Dune saga really deserves better treatment than it has received at the hands of previous studios and directors. The success of Avatar has proven the market for high-quality 3D "epic" Science Fiction films and Dune would look really great if it was done in a similar fashion; with the budget and length required to do justice to the story. IMHO, either James Cameron or Steve Jackson would be good choices to direct, but others may have different opinions. If Lord of the Rings can be done well, then so can a sophisticated and high-brow SciFi epic like the Dune saga.
The Stainless Steel Rat could be a lot of fun.
The only Star Wars movie that didn't suck, The Empire Strikes Back, was written by a woman named Leigh Brackett.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
What about Sliders? Fun show, great ensemble cast, interesting concept that postulated about alternate Earths. The first couple of seasons were great, but then they changed the tone to become a lot more dark and dreary. They whacked John Rhys-Davies, added Kari Wuhrer and started ripping off various sci-fi films for plots. Cleavant Derricks's character became serious and less of a comic relief character. They started fighting an unnecessary recurring antagonist, the cro-mags. Sabrina Lloyd was written out, Jerry O'Connell got his brother on the show and then they had some weirdness about two Quinn Mallories merging or something.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
This show is a sit com in which Schrodenger's cat was explained.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory#U.S._standard_ratings
The reason most sci-fi tanks is that it's so poorly done.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I imagine most of you have never seen this excellent British SF Series but you should. Despite those elements which date it horribly, it was still far far ahead of its time. This was my favorite show as a kid without doubt and in many ways its still an excellent show and aged well. It deserves a reboot if anything does.
However, it needs to be redone by the British, not Americans, or at least a co-production. Letting American writers and producers loose with it would ruin the show I think - it had an air of understatement that American TV shows and Audiences seem unable to maintain. A US production would be totally over the top and I think that would be a mistake.
By far the best show in the entire list - and amazingly ignored in all the comments I read.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
The Titanides from the Titan series by Varley are the perfect application for the motion-capture and facial animation technology developed for Avatar.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
Just think--the graphics in the dream scenes where Alf fillets the family cat would be killer!
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Had they stuck with the Trek story, and had the Temporal Integrity Commission go back and set things right, again, great movie.
No, that would have been awful, because it would have meant we're stuck with the forty years of canon that has been bogging the series down so badly. The series was toppling under its own weight, but trekkies wouldn't let go of a single scrap of that history. Such that their opinion of any Star Trek media is based almost entirely on how well it sticks to that history to a tee. Ugh.
Splitting off the timeline, freeing the series from that history while simultaneously respecting it, was the best thing that could have happened to Trek. And if doing that means going against Trek's standard temporal theory where time is linear and the Time Cops come around and "fix" it whenever someone mucks with it, then so be it. Actually, expunging that piece of Trek canon was in and of itself a great move by itself. Because when your sci-fi series shares the same theory of time travel as a Van Damme movie, that's a hint that your theory is dumb.
Thank God JJ Abrams came along and saved the series from the Trekkies.
The enemies of Democracy are