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"Blake's 7" to be re-booted by Sy-Fy channel

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  • "Blake's 7" to be re-booted by Sy-Fy channel

    Cult classic sci-fi series Blake's 7 is to be remade for the Syfy network, it has been announced.

    FremantleMedia International said 13 hour-long episodes will be written by Heroes writer Joe Pokaski.

    It added, in a statement, that Casino Royale and Goldeneye director Martin Campbell was also on board.

    The original series, which ran on the BBC between 1978 and 1981, followed the exploits of a group of renegades and convicted criminals.

    Roj Blake, played by Welsh actor Gareth Thomas, was a political dissident arrested, tried and convicted on false charges by a brutal totalitarian government, and then deported from Earth to a prison planet.

    Stealing a spaceship, Blake and his team conducted a campaign against the ruling Terran Federation.

    Peak audience

    Servalan, the Supreme Commander of the Terran Federation was a villain
    Comparing Blake's 7 with the hit US sci-fi series Star Trek, The Independent said in 1998: "No 'boldly going' here: instead, we got the boot stamping on a human face which George Orwell offered as a vision of humanity's future in Nineteen Eighty-Four."

    At its peak, the series was watched by 10 million viewers and was sold to 40 countries. A range of Blake's 7 merchandise including books, magazines, annuals and toys were also released.

    A radio adaptation, featuring This Life's Daniela Nardini as villain Servalan, was made in 2006.

    According to FremantleMedia, the new series will be set in 2136 and will "tell the story of seven criminals - six guilty and one innocent - on their way to life on a prison colony in space, who together wrestle freedom from imprisonment".

    It continued: "They acquire an alien ship which gives them a second chance at life and become the most unlikely heroes of their time".

    Chief executive officer David Ellender said: "Blake's 7 was such a forward-thinking concept that the show continues to have resonance with audiences today."

    The latest announcement is not the first time a remake of Blake's 7 has been attempted.

    In 2003, a miniseries was shelved after actor Paul Darrow - who played Kerr Avon in the original show - left the project.

    Later in 2008, Sky One announced it had commissioned two 60-minute scripts for a potential series but two years later said it had decided not to proceed.
    Blake's 7, the classic sci-fi series, is to return with a new 13-part series for the Syfy channel, it is announced.



    I was a Blake's 7 addict as a kid. It tends to get mocked for its wobbly sets (what do you expect when your budget is about £4.50?) but it was a sharply-written series with a strong and bleak story.
    The genesis of the "evil Finn" concept- Evil, evil Finland

  • #2
    I hope they can do it justice.
    Jon Miller: MikeH speaks the truth
    Jon Miller: MikeH is a shockingly revolting dolt and a masturbatory urine-reeking sideshow freak whose word is as valuable as an aging cow paddy.
    We've got both kinds

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    • #3
      I've not seen it, but bleak is what I look for in entertainment.
      Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
      "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
      He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny View Post
        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22079232


        I was a Blake's 7 addict as a kid. It tends to get mocked for its wobbly sets .
        although that was part of the charm, shakespeare would stage a battle scene with a couple of helmets and shields implying everything, the Blake 7 audience was intelligent enough to realise that, like Dr Who

        I hope they keep some of the cheap fakery

        I never miss Red Dwarf, equally low budget
        Any views I may express here are personal and certainly do not in any way reflect the views of my employer. Tis the rising of the moon..

        Look, I just don't anymore, okay?

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        • #5
          Originally posted by MikeH View Post
          I hope they can do it justice.


          SyFy doing B7 will be a strong and bleak story.
          No, I did not steal that from somebody on Something Awful.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by SlowwHand View Post
            I've not seen it, but bleak is what I look for in entertainment.
            Find the original series. It's great.
            No, I did not steal that from somebody on Something Awful.

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            • #7
              Blake's 7"


              Viagra infomercial?

              ACK!
              Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust!

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              • #8
                Well, several of the characters were, in fact, dicks.
                No, I did not steal that from somebody on Something Awful.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Interesting. Never had the chance to see the original.

                  Another last, best hope for televised science fiction? Here's hoping...
                  Apolyton's Grim Reaper 2008, 2010 & 2011
                  RIP lest we forget... SG (2) and LaFayette -- Civ2 Succession Games Brothers-in-Arms

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by -Jrabbit View Post
                    Another last, best hope for televised science fiction? Here's hoping...
                    I'm kind of hoping that Defiance will be worth watching. It starts on 4/15
                    Keep on Civin'
                    RIP rah, Tony Bogey & Baron O

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                    • #11
                      I liked Blake's 7. I also liked the first season of Red Dwarf.
                      There's nothing wrong with the dream, my friend, the problem lies with the dreamer.

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                      • #12
                        Come to think of it, Ben is kind of the Rimmer of the OT
                        Any views I may express here are personal and certainly do not in any way reflect the views of my employer. Tis the rising of the moon..

                        Look, I just don't anymore, okay?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny View Post
                          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22079232


                          I was a Blake's 7 addict as a kid. It tends to get mocked for its wobbly sets (what do you expect when your budget is about £4.50?) but it was a sharply-written series with a strong and bleak story.

                          & a buxom lesbian with a crop barnet. Saw her at Coventry's main theatre once. V. impressive close up. She was in Hammer's 'The Reptile' too, I seem to recall...
                          Vive la liberte. Noor Inayat Khan, Dachau.

                          ...patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. Edith Cavell, 1915

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                          • #14
                            I recall her being in one of the most gratuitous displays of full frontal nudity I've ever seen on pre-watershed TV, when a "Where are they now?"-type show just happened to drop in on her as she was moonlighting as a life study model. There she reclined, stark bollock naked and fielding inane questions with all the cool of liquid nitrogen. Respect was certainly due.
                            The genesis of the "evil Finn" concept- Evil, evil Finland

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                            • #15
                              Paul Darrow was excruciatingly hammy and melodramatic as Avon, ISTR.

                              Enjoyed it at the time, though. One of the week's TV highlights.

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