Another old favourate returns?

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

The BBC doesn't own the rights to the characters or concepts of B7, only the actual production they made and the designs from it.

With the Daleks the look and the concept were pretty much bound together, if you made something that shaped people would call it a Dalek, if you tried to redesign a Dalek (going by their description) it would look pretty much that shape.

Nation held the rights to the concept and characters but the BBC held the rights to the actual version they paid for.

The Nation estate sold their half to B7 Media who have basically sat back and did very little with it.

They held the BBC to ransom over the DVD rights which is why it took so long for the show to come out on DVD.

And they made an audio version (in tiny chunks) which finally got an airing on BBC7 stitched together into long form.

If this show used designs from the original series the BBC might get something out of it (I'd imagine new fans would want to buy the old series again) but on the whole they don't stand to get a bean out of it.

The BBC has only itself to blame really it killed off both B7 and Doctor Who when they were still popular and stopped taking the genre seriously for decades.

They could have revived both long ago or started new quality science fiction shows but were more interested in making money rather than spending license payers money wisely.

Even Doctor Who and it's spin offs seem to be more about making money than telling good stories well.

The irony is that some of these old shows turned out to be real money earners on VHS and DVD (and associated merchandise) which is possibly the only reason they are getting the rival interest now.

[Joe Nazzaro]

I think I'm going to take this one with a very serious grain of salt for the time being. From what I've always understood, the rights to B7, as far as a possible television series is concerned, were co-held by the BBC and the estate of Terry Nation. Until I see the listing for an airdate, I tend not to believe it. And before anyone decides to point it out, yes, I know there has already been an audio drama, but I believe the rights situation for a film or TV version could be quite different.

[nottenst]

This could be excellent or it could be a disaster! They really need to get someone behind it that has a vision and the clout to carry it out. It took Russell Davies to revive Doctor Who and JJ Abrams to revive Trek.

Yes, a strong vision is definitely needed.

I hope they find someone good and this time they more clearly define where they want to go with it all...how it should end. In the original the Federation is all but destroyed and when they realized they didn't have an enemy any more they brought it back.

From what I read, they thought that the third season finale was going to be the end of the series and then were surprised when it was brought back. Then they thought that the 4th season finale actually was not going to be the end, believe it or not.

PS: The question is not what Avon's crime will be, but whether they will keep Blake's crime the same. Being declared a child molester might not go over well with current target audiences and demographics.

Except that it is clearly known by the viewer that the child molesting crime is manufactured. About Avon's crime - it was trying to steal five million credits from the Federation banking system. He was very proud of this crime and how he did it. What he was trying to do sounded more interesting at the time, but now is really dated.

Neil

[colonyearth]

This could be excellent or it could be a disaster! They really need to get someone behind it that has a vision and the clout to carry it out. It took Russell Davies to revive Doctor Who and JJ Abrams to revive Trek.

I hope they find someone good and this time they more clearly define where they want to go with it all...how it should end. In the original the Federation is all but destroyed and when they realized they didn't have an enemy any more they brought it back.

This has a lot of potential...I only hope they live up to it.

CE

PS: The question is not what Avon's crime will be, but whether they will keep Blake's crime the same. Being declared a child molester might not go over well with current target audiences and demographics.

[Doom Shepherd]

Emitting over his quota of CO2.

Can't you see it?

Official: "We're sorry, buit you've exceeded your allowable yearly CO2 emissions. You are ordered to cease all CO2 emitting activities immediately."

Citizen: "But... breathing emits CO2!"

Official : "Yes..." *sound of charging energy weapons* "...we know."

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

Embesslement and computer hacking are serious crimes now, they rank almost as high as smoking in the privacy of your own (well ventilated) home or reading a book not written by Dan Brown.

[B5_Obsessed]

It was a great show, though it did have its share of really bad episodes. I wonder what they will come up as Avon's crime this time around. His original one seems a bit dated these days.

Neil

Downloading bootleg movies?

[nottenst]

This one may be of particular interest to B5 fans as the original had a strong influence on JMS (apparently).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/24/blakes_seven/

They'd have to try very hard to beat this sort of genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWHLU8fwi80

It was a great show, though it did have its share of really bad episodes. I wonder what they will come up as Avon's crime this time around. His original one seems a bit dated these days.

Neil

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

This one may be of particular interest to B5 fans as the original had a strong influence on JMS (apparently).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/24/blakes_seven/

They'd have to try very hard to beat this sort of genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWHLU8fwi80