SF Signal: Tube Bits for 04/25/2008

Tube Bits for 04/25/2008

That quintessential British SF comedy series, Blake's 7, is set to be revived by satellite channel Sky One. Elaine Pyke of Sky One says, "At a time when science fiction shows often discard good story-telling for overblown visual effects - and following the lead of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica - 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." Sadly, I've never actually seen any episodes of this show, or Red Dwarf. Is it worth it to find them?

Staying with the international flavor, any of our New Zealand readers are encouraged to sign this online petition to bring the Sci Fi Channel to New Zealand. And if you are from NZ, let us know!

In celebration of the upcoming X-Files movie, Fox is releasing yet another X-File compilation DVD set entitled The X-Files: Revelations. The episodes span seasons 1 - 6 and include one of my favorites "Clyde Bruckmans Final Repose".

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, and AZCentral.com, explains how to fix Fox's Terminator series. I think I sort of agree with all of the issues, except the time travel one. Time travel doesn't really bother me, unless and until it becomes too common place (I'm looking at you various Star Trek incarnations).

Space Westerns and Screenrant offer us competing theories as who is the final cylon on Galactica. At this point, it had better be Lorne Greene...

Sy Fy Portal asks are networks afraid of the f-word (frak)? Caution, strong language is used in the article, as you might imagine.

The Fine Brothers bring us the latest in their LOST parody videos, "What will happen next?"

Red Dwarf is worth it. Extremely funny.

I've tried at least four times to watch "Blake's 7." I've never made it to the fourth episode. It's...boring. Trite. Pretentious. AWFUL special effects. Terrible acting.

It makes Flash Gordon (the late SciFi Channel series) look good, that's how bad it is.

(Of course, I have friends who actually LOVE Blake's 7, so there you go...)

Morjana

Posted by Morjan on Friday April 25, 2008 at 1:51 AM

My opinion is the opposite of Morjana's!

I used to watched the boys from the Dwarf religiously back in the early 90s, and started buying the DVDs when they came out. Sadly, I don't find them as funny as I used to, and I'm not sure why. I think I don't sympathise with the characters as I once did -- Lister in particular is always so ****ing mopey. But it's been a few years so maybe I should revisit the Dwarf?

Blake's 7, on the other hand, I only caught the tail end of on its original run. I bought the first series on DVD a couple of years ago and loved it. Yes, you have to make allowances for the wobbly sets and sometimes wobblier acting (but then I grew up on Doctor Who of that era so that's not hard for me). But some of the acting is very good (Avon and Vila esp. get very sharp dialogue) and all the legendary scheming and backbiting is just so much fun. I'd buy the rest of the DVD sets except they are so outrageously expensive here

Posted by Brett on Friday April 25, 2008 at 2:36 AM

Er, Blake's Seven wasn't a comedy. At least, it wasn't meant to be. LOL I enjoyed it in the beginning, but then it got so every single damned episode involved Servalan. I mean, didn't the woman have an empire to run or something?

As for Red Dwarf. You're. Kidding. Me. You've GOT to watch it. It's witty and charming. I adore Rimmer (Chris Barrie aka Lara Croft's butler) and the series really took off once Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) joined the ensemble. When we have our home automation project finally up and running, we're calling the main computer "Holly".

Posted by Kaz Augustin on Friday April 25, 2008 at 2:39 AM

Posted by Kaz Augustin on Friday April 25, 2008 at 2:40 AM