Blake's 7

[palmer_eldritch]

Syfy is apparently planning a remake of Blake’s 7, a show which will be familiar to British posters of a certain age (possibly just me). Martin Campbell, director of Casino Royale, is on board to direct the pilot.

Blake’s 7 ran for four seasons from 1978 to 1981 on the BBC. It’s set in a future where earth and many colonised planets are ruled by the totalitarian Terran Federation, which keeps the masses docile by dosing their food and water with drugs.

Rog Blake is a dissident who is framed for a criminal offence but escapes, along with a bunch of fellow criminals. They travel the galaxy in their ship the Liberator, fighting the Federation and generally having adventures.

Here is a seven minute documentary about Blake’s 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pn-LZApBBE

A lot of the fun comes from the fact that some of his crew really are criminals and don’t want to be dragged in to Blake’s war. In particular, Kerr Avon despises Blake’s idealism and thinks his determination to fight the Federation is going to get them all killed. But unless he can take control of the ship for himself, he’s stuck with Blake.


The show is also remembered for its chief villain, the glamorous and sadistic Servalan, and the dramatic final episode.

Blake’s 7 involved many people who had worked on Doctor Who, and the creator, Terry Nation, was the person who originally created the Daleks.  You could dig out some old episodes on YouTube, but I think if you don’t already have fond childhood memories of the show, you’d need an open mind to enjoy it today. The special effects are not good and some of the scripts and acting went downhill in later seasons.

However,  the original Battlestar Galactica had its faults and the remake was superb so who knows.

[Ironwood]

a show which will be familiar to British posters of a certain age (possibly just me).

You haven't been paying attention.  I'm a huge fan and have admitted as much before.  My Avon Love knows no bounds.  I even met him.  True story.

[Khaldun]

The difficult thing to figure out here is how to do a remake that has any tonal shifts. You can't "dark" or "realistic", the show's already there. I suppose you could make the Federation's oppression more directly relevant to present politics, etc., but that kind of update for "relevance" has as much chance of going awry as otherwise.

[luckton]

Syfy's actually putting quite the effort into revitalizing space-based sci-fi shows.  Along with Blake 7 (which, yes, did occur before my time, but only by a year or so  ), they've got two more shows on tap in development.

http://www.scifistream.com/2012/08/syfy-headed-back-to-space-with-clandestine/

Clandestine is described as “a swash-buckling space drama/adventure and revolves around mercenaries who masquerade as part of an Intergalactic fleet,” according to Deadline. The show would be produced by Universal Cable Productions, and is currently being written by Todd Stashwick (Heroes, Justified) and comic book artist Dennis Calero.

John Shiban (Hell On Wheels) is supervising the script and is attached as executive producer, according to the report.  Stashwick and Calero will co-executive produce.

...

Also on the development slate is High Moon, set in “a future where the countries of Earth have established colonies to mine the Moon’s resources,” according to a Syfy press release. “When a new life form is discovered, chaos erupts as various factions race to uncover and exploit its powerful secrets.” The series is being developed by Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) and Robert Halmi (Farscape, Flash Gordon).

There's some other non-space based stuff in that article too that Syfy's doing too; a time-travel show, an alien/apocalyptic non-space show, and a show about "proof of life after death" with M. Night Shamalama-Ding-Dong and Marti Noxon. 

[apocrypha]

I loved Blake's 7 when I was a kid, but tried to watch it again recently and did find it had dated very badly. Except for Avon of course. Avon was, is and always shall be awesome.

I don't have any faith at all in Syfy doing a good job of a remake. The Battlestar Galactica remake is a case in point - the mini-series was OK but it rapidly, rapidly turned to utter shite after that.

Still, I'll keep an open mind, would be nice to see it done well.

[Khaldun]

I don't think the BG remake going shitty was Syfy's fault, though. That's pretty much up to the showrunners. I don't think Syfy was pressuring them to start making prophecies without having the faintest idea of how to pay it all off, etcetera.

[Soln]

Awesome.  One of the few unpredictable shows I can remember growing up.  Makes BSG look like Caillou or something.  B7 is very "unAmerican" for the plot reasons mentioned above.  Today it is probably more mainstream but I hope they will keep to the distopian theme.

AVON 2012

[Surlyboi]

Had huge schoolboy crushes on both Jenna and Servalan. Obviously for different reasons, but I still find women that can rock a buzz cut unnaturally hot.

[Arthur_Parker]

Stargate Universe was funny because it had a similar plot to Blake's 7, team of misfits finds an ancient awesome starship.  Of course Blake's 7 didn't stick the cast in a universe without humanoids, because that would be stupid, and they also didn't take 24 fucking episodes to find the Bridge of the ship.  Because that's beyond stupid.

[luckton]

To be fair, they 'did' find the bridge earlier than that.  Robert Carlyle is just an egotistical dick, in every role he plays 

[Teleku]

I don't think the BG remake going shitty was Syfy's fault, though. That's pretty much up to the showrunners. I don't think Syfy was pressuring them to start making prophecies without having the faintest idea of how to pay it all off, etcetera.

Also, he's wrong.   

From the mini-series forward, the series got rapidly better and better until it peaked right at episode 4, season 3.  Then it was a long, slow, painful ride downward from there.

Because of that, I'm very willing to see what space shows Sci-fi can put out (since nobody god damn else seems to be!), but it will be entirely the shows runners/writers who will make it good or bad.  So, total crap shoot.