According to today’s Media Guadian:
Sky One is to remake the science fiction series Blake’s 7, following the recent reimaginings of Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman.
The satellite channel has given the go-ahead for the development of two 60-minute scripts with a view to a potential “event series”.
Elaine Pyke, the commissioning editor, drama, at Sky One, Two and Three is working with Andrew Mark Sewell at B7 Productions on the project.
“The time is ripe for a revival of a show that represents the best traditions of the genre, not to mention one of the best-loved and most successful dramas of all time,” Pyke said.
Created by sci-fi legend Terry Nation, Blake’s 7 ran for four series on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981, and followed a band of rebels in their fight against the totalitarian system that ruled the galaxy.
Although the production values of the original series have dated, the show has proved both influential and enduringly popular.
B7 Productions is a subsidiary of B7 Media, the company that owns the licence to the show.
In recent years it has developed the brand with a series of Blake’s 7 audio dramas, featuring actors such as James Bond star Colin Salmon and This Life’s Daniela Nardini.
The prospect of a new Blake’s 7 follows Russell T Davies’s highly successful reworking of Doctor Who for the BBC, and the new Battlestar Galactica, the fourth and final series of which is currently showing on Sky One.
NBC’s revival of Bionic Woman, starring former EastEnders actor Michelle Ryan, has been less successful, with the show expected to be axed after just one series. Bionic Woman is broadcast on ITV2 in the UK.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
(ahem!)
Less dramatically put, Blake’s 7 was great, between 1978 and 1981.
I remember watching an episode of Blue Peter – (British Children’s consumer TV show still running, albeit a bit crappy now) -where they made the Liberator’s wrist communicators/teleport bracelets out of pieces of plastic bottles, little using toothpaste tube tops and the like for the controllers, and it was an exact duplicate of one’s used in the show. Exact. In every detail. The BBC fx unit must have just passed over the blueprints.
And the sound made by the teleports? Classic BBC Radiophonic Workshop fx. Wishooo, wishy wishy wishy wishy (or something like that)
But updating it? The track record does not bode well.
The Bionic Woman is a fiasco of glib scripts and discontinuity, which is a shame as it looked very promising. The new Doctor Who is passable, at least attempting to appease the old fans whilst grabbing the new ones by the scare muscle and shake it thoroughly. My five year old daughter just laughed at the Sontarans being described as “Talking Baked Potatoes.” The only one worth its salt is BSG – triumph, but that is strictly down to the writing and producing talents of Ronald D. Moore
But if Sky try to make a Blake’s 7 which bears a striking resemblance to BSG, which they probably will, it will not make it past a pilot.
For the love or Orac, Liberator and all those whooshy sound effects, leave it alone, Sky. Step away from the 7.