http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22079232

Just read the above... writing will be by the guy that penned Heroes, apparently.

Will be interesting to see how this turns out I think?

I have mixed feelings - my late brother was the SFX designer on this series, and it will bring back many memories of him.  He died in 2001.

Projects like this always raise a few questions for me.

1. What's the motive to attempt a re-make of a classic like this?

2. Who are they making it for? (existing fans? new audience?)

3. Have the people involved actually seen the entire original series, got excited about it and understood it's spirit, ideas & aesthetics?

4. Is there a commitment to complete the story and not just leave it hanging after the networks go cold about it?

Having recently sat through all three series of the original 'Survivors' (and loved it, dreary & laboured as it is) then compared it with the as yet un-finished modern re-make, I find myself wondering how it is the makers of the newer version managed to fall so far short of touching on the level of depth found in the earlier one.

In that original series there are stories & dialogues that are so interesting & involved with the imagined dilemmas of life during & after a world-wide pandemic, and on so many levels - practical, social, economic, political etc. with a great deal of thought & attention to detail & thinking of the time. So far the newer version, while dramatically more engaging, has fallen far short (to me) of engaging with those ideas.

So often the core components from original versions just get re-hashed without understanding the nature of the stories being told (well, that's how it seems to me), or the association between versions is so vague as to leave you to wondering why they even adopted the title.

In my mind if you're going to copy & enhance something that's already culturally rich, do it faithfully and make the new version 10x richer without diluting it's existing depth & spirit. If you're intention is adaptation that effectively presents a different set of ideas & narrative directions, go all the way and make it your own, and call it something different!.

Blakes Seven was a lot more 'entertaining' than Survivors to my memory, but similarly had depth of charcters & themes that I'd hope would be carefully thought through in a re-make. It was great Sci-Fi of it's time.

Feels to me that too often old ideas are re-hashed just to make money, without the appropriate investment to making fully-rounded projects. I'd prefer it if they saved the money for fewer really good projects and left us with the originals.

(probably more ranty than I intended)

Sorry about your brother Paul.

Quote - Sorry about your brother Paul.

Thanks - although it's been over 10 years, beacause he was involved in film and TV, I see reminders of him just about every day!   

I wonder if they can capture the mood of the original series. It was very fitting for the period in which it was made (1978-1981 during the cold war) and was a dystopia warning us of an all controlling central government.

I wonder how they would translate that with all  the changes the world has seen in the last 30 years (internet, smartphones, collapseof the USSR, etc.) Even if they set it 120 years later, the whole story would change.

Really sorry to hear about your brother Paul.  I have the original series on DVD as I loved it so much at the time and still return to it when time allows.  I hope the thought that he helped to produce something that gave people so much pleasure and interest then and still does today gives you some, if only token, comfort.

Paul, sorry to read about your brother.  

If it's written by the guy who did Heroes (Kring?) I hope he doesn't make it move along at the glacial pace that killed the aforementioned show.

Too many potentially good SF shows have gone south because the writers take a geological age to get a plot point made and spend too much time on filler episodes.  Viewers get fed up and switch off, the show gets canned and TV fills up with more "talent" shows, reality shows, cooking shows and soaps.

Slight divergence:  Falling Skies is/was (for all I know that got canned, too) absolute pants.  

I love Blake's 7.  In a roundabout way, it's the reason I took up Poser.  (I saw other fans using it to illustrate their fanfic.)

But I'm kind of scairt at what a remake will be like.  Frankly, I've been underwhelmed by the other Syfy remakes.

Thanks for the kind words guys.  A family suicide really is a bastard to deal with; sounds corny but you just feel angry and helpless and, well, angry again.  He was The Man though.  Appeared on Blue Peter as a 14/15 year old in about 1968 with a machine he'd invented to destroy the Daleks.  Ten years later he was doing it for real; also in about 1980 he was back on Blue Peter with a feature on how to make your own Blake's 7 wrist-gadget-thing; it involved Fairy liquid bottles and Lesley Judd, so of course it was all good!

Boy do you have my sympathy, suicide is such a waste and I can only begin to imagine the anger and helplessness it must cause.  As you can't really get into someone's head the question is often 'why'? as well.

I know that such wounds rarely heal but if we are lucky we learn to live with them a little better with time.  I wish you luck and I hope time is good to you. 

Sorry, feel like I've derailed the thread; just feeling a little blue.  Please carry on!

Sorry to hear about your brother Paul.

Although equally, its wonderful to hear about him.

The SFX on Blake's 7 were a massive source of inspiration to me as a kid and I remember that episode of Blue Peter.

Your brother was basically who I wanted to be as a kid.

Course my life didn't work out like I hoped... and now I pilot Space Trains for a living.

I kind of hope they don't remake Blake's 7 to be honest. The original was simply too good... and complete in itself.

I have been quite impressed by one remake of a 70s / 80s sci fi show... which was the Battlestar Galactica one.

I'm glad they won't be likely to remake Space 1999. Least not with the original title... surely???

Quote - Sorry, feel like I've derailed the thread; just feeling a little blue.  Please carry on!

Not derailed the thread it adds to the idea of Blake's 7.  I will certainly look at it in a slightly different light when i next watch it.

Quote - If it's written by the guy who did Heroes (Kring?) I hope he doesn't make it move along at the glacial pace that killed the aforementioned show. 

With you ln that Sam.

Heroes had a great start... most of the first series was pretty good I thought.

Then it fell off a cliff and turned into the biggest load of old bollocks it possibly could have... in my humble opinion ;)

Symptomatic of the whole Pilot Episode mentality being extended across whole series, perhaps... I think... maybe... whatever it is, it can really derail even the most promising project... it would seem.

But then creative ventures being driven by the bottom line, or rather being driven (too attentively) by people who believe money should be the bottom line, can tend to do that.

When I say "creative ventures" I guess I could be talking about this whole humanity "project" we're all involved in, of course ;)

But break the statement down to apply more microcosmically as well, by all means.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your kind words.  Jim was also the man I Always Wanted To Be; I guess if there is a life after this one I'll give him a stern talking-to! 

The last thing he worked on was HBO's "Jack and the Beanstalk" - he landed the gig after his work on "10th Kingdom", with Rutger Hauer.  I met Rutger later  in the course of my day job - he was so cool, and had some nice things to say about Jim - if you ever get the opportunity to speak to Rutger, I suggest you take it - he really is how he seems on camera, a genuine legend, aand he really could pass as a Replicant.

Jim was preparing to work on the movie version of "Red Dwarf" when he died - he'd done the TV version for years.

Like I said, I'm reminded of my brother every other day.  Sometimes it sucks, but sometimes it's glorious, like here where people appreciate his work and sometimes even remember him personally (Monkeycloud, take a bow!).  Rik Mayall takes the medal there, though - he asked my other brother, on a transatlantic flight, why he was going to the UK.  They were floored when they realised they were going to the same funeral, on the same plane; Jim was the SFX man on the Young Ones, Bottom and most of the Comic Strip films.  Memories, eh?  Apologies for name-dropping - it's just how life with my brother worked out.

Respect!

www.imdb.com/name/nm0290195

Ah, the Young Ones and Comic Strip.  Absolutely classic stuff.  Your brother was a top man indeed.

Quote - Ah, the Young Ones and Comic Strip.  Absolutely classic stuff.  Your brother was a top man indeed.

Sam, it was cool to grow up in them days!