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JMS and the BBC...

darth_librarian

darth_librarian

Regular
He was in the UK a while back meeting the BBC, around the time he talked about new series. I have been wondering at the back of my mind what this was about.

The BBC currently love sci-fi and being unoriginal ponce's, will probably commission loads more until even I am bored of it, although their recent Jekyll was great. It seems Wheadon's Ripper has finally been commissioned by the Beeb.

So what was he up to?

Potential ideas:

1) A mini-series with US backing along the lines of Rome
2) Blakes 7. Come on, Blakes 7 !!!!
3) An episode of Dr Who
4) A BBC series based upon one of his novels of comics. Midnight Nation would be great.
5) Something Marvel related. Captain Britain series based upon Alan Moore's comics ?

Just a bit of idle curiosity.
 
I could go for something Blake's 7-ish; just the other day I was thinking: "It'd be nice to be able to actually see Blake's 7" <insert sigh here>.
 
vacantlook said:
I could go for something Blake's 7-ish; just the other day I was thinking: "It'd be nice to be able to actually see Blake's 7" <insert sigh here>.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's right. You're a younger one, and wouldn't have seen it on PBS back in the day, eh? I had piles of Dr. Who recorded on VHS (Almost everything from Romana 1 all the way through the end of the series, plus some other scattered eps here and there). After transferring all those to DVD, and finding one episode of Blake's 7 mixed, I found myself missing he series even more, and wishing I had recorded it on VHS as well, back in the day.
 
Blakes 7 can be found on youtube although it is not the best quality.

There was talk years ago about doing a next generation series with a couple of the original characters kids in it.

Would love to see anything related to Blakes 7 as long as it kept the quality of the original.One of the hardest sci-fi series ever and my favourite series ever as a kid.I know the BBC did a rerun of it a few years ago early on a Satuarday which fit in nicely with Football Focus which was a bonus :cool:

I wonder what it would be like with special effects :LOL:
 
Well, even if they did a remake and it really was horrible, it might encourage them to release the original, as well. :D

That's probably our best hope. :(

You know, there was a little gem of a tv-movie made for PBS one year a long time ago. It was of the novel Lathe of Heaven written by Ursula K. LeGwyn.

For years fans begged for it to be shown again or released on vhs, but it looked like it never would happen. It turned out there was some legal problem with getting the rights and all of that. Finally, like twenty years after it's original airing, was it available again.

I wonder if that's the problem with Blake's 7, or if they just don't know how much money it would generate?

Are we in a very small minority? I don't know. But EVERY sci-fi fan I know would "love to see it (again if they've seen it before)". It's a classic, and it just seems odd it isn't available for historical reasons at least.

Ah well. I guess I"m lucky they finally released "Lathe". :)
 
It's quite rare for American systems to handle PAL/Region 2 .. however, it is fairly easy to make computers handle European DVDs. All you need is DVD region free, or something equivalent.

If you, additionally, get yourself a TV out card and connect it to your TV, you can even watch the DVDs on TV like that :D
 
hypatia said:
Well, even if they did a remake and it really was horrible, it might encourage them to release the original, as well. :D

That's probably our best hope. :(

I wonder if that's the problem with Blake's 7, or if they just don't know how much money it would generate?

Are we in a very small minority? I don't know. But EVERY sci-fi fan I know would "love to see it (again if they've seen it before)". It's a classic, and it just seems odd it isn't available for historical reasons at least.
Click to expand...

I say we pass around a petition and all go to Amazon.com and punch the "Email me when this title is available button" with numerous accounts so it looks like there's even more of us :D
 
Yea, I for one can't play R2 DVDs though. The DVD/VHS player I have is the first I'd ever bought, and I thought all of them could be set for region-free or something. After reading about it online and asking others, it seems I have a type that is either not breakable or the "fix" would involve buying a remote control from the U.K. at great expense with no guarantee it would work, either.

Ah well.
 
For those people who can't watch the DVDs, then I have the next best thing,

:beer:WOBBLEVISION :beer:

To be found at http://blakes-7.co.uk/wobblevision/ it is the on going project to re-create all the episodes of 'Blake's 7' in photo form. I play Avon in 'Terminal' and Orac in 'Children of Auron'.
 
Don't rule out Blakes 7 just yet... there are a lot of people moving in the right circles who'd have an interest in working to bring it back.

JMS
The writers of Life on Mars
RTD

To name just three.

I don't think RTD will do it as he has been heavily involved in Doctor Who and I've heard he's stepping down at some point (although maybe that's why the BBC has come to the decision of changing the Doctor Who format for a year - to acommodate RTD and Tennant).

I think the Beeb would want to wait and see how Ashes to Ashes fares before letting the LoM team loose on a previously established franchise.

Could JMS be seeking to establish a network/funding for an existing project. It would obviously be a long way off... but if he was hoping to bring the B5 universe back from straight to DVD to broadcast... he'd be wanting to establish an overseas network that would be willing to give it regular screentime... and I don't think C4 would be as open as they once were - they seem to be heading more and more for the teeny bopper market when it comes to SF.
 
What do all of your abbreviations mean? :LOL: It's like trying to read code. :confused:

But it is great news to hear Blake's 7 might come out in region 1 dvd some day. :)
 
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