Summer Talking Meme #5

[lost_spook]

From evelyn_b: Recommend something with one of your favorite actors in it for an old-TV newbie (me).

Well, I gave this matter about two seconds of consideration before I knew there was only one answer. I know that evelyn_b has been enjoying everything she's seen of Doctor Who so far - and also likes I, Claudius (and Julius Caesar?), so what else could I say

Comments

[persiflage_1]

Sapphire and Steel is UH-MAZING!

I think remaking it is a very bad idea!

[lost_spook]

It is! I was reminded all over again making this post. (I saw the clip in my vid when Sapphire & Silver & Steel arrive back hand in hand and my heart went ♥ ♥ ♥ just like it did the first time I ever saw it. MY SHINY OT3!!!)

I have mixed feelings, but I think it is something that could be made again and be great, but I do not have any faith that it will be and I am not sure I can cope with a non-Collings Silver. That's just a step too far!! *whimpers*

[persiflage_1]

I guess I could watch it if they did it with David Warner and Susannah Harker?

[lost_spook]

Some how I doubt they will, though! ;-)

[astrogirl2]

Everything you say about B7 is, of course, true.

And, oh, yes, Sapphire & Steel. I may or may not have said this on LJ before, but it always makes me think... There's this (usually unstated) principle in SF, or at the very least in SF TV shows, that while you can be creative in coming up with alien characters and technologies and settings, they can never be too genuinely alien, because they have to be comprehensible to the audience and to be usable for the kinds of storytelling human beings understand. This principle is clearly, obviously, fundamentally true... and S&S ignores it completely. And somehow, despite all logic, it works. But I can't see how it would be possible to remake it. It shouldn't have been possible to make it the first time!

[lost_spook]

I think maybe the audios have made me think that you could possibly pull off a new S&S - if you did it right. (I'm not sure how right would be. The new 21st C weird/mysterious, I suppose.) However, I really don't have a lot of faith in people having the nerve to swear off explanations and human characters. The details are all here.

while you can be creative in coming up with alien characters and technologies and settings, they can never be too genuinely alien, because they have to be comprehensible to the audience and to be usable for the kinds of storytelling human beings understand. This principle is clearly, obviously, fundamentally true... and S&S ignores it completely.

*nods* They are so genuinely other, and yet it does work - and it's this fascinating Outsider POV on the human race and I just cannot think of anything else I've seen that pulled off anything remotely similar, not to the same degree. I'm sure there are probably some books somewhere, or something, but certainly not TV.

Everything you say about B7 is, of

[astrogirl2]

I've listened to one or two of the audios, and they were pretty good, but a remake... Well, yeah. I don't have that faith either. And if it was more human and explicable, it wouldn't be Sapphire & Steel! There surely has never been anything like it on TV.

[a_phoenixdragon]

Some things do NOT need to be remade. The originals are quite sufficient (and excellent)!!

[lost_spook]

I know, but will telly peoples listen?? No! The S&S one is a terrible idea on the face of it, but they've got Neil Cross who wrote Hide doing it, but it's just so hard to imagine that a modern TV show really would be brave enough to have genuinely non-human leads who are a mystery and an outsider POV on the human race. I've never seen any other show come close to what S&S pulled off with that.

*wibbles*

[clocketpatch]

I agree with all of these (and fully support you continuing to foist them on those willing to listen, and frequently! Because it took me long enough to listen and watch B7 and look how things snowballed from there...)

A re-make of Sapphire and Steel? That is a terrible idea. I can't think of a single way that would work out well. A re-make of Blake's 7 I can at least kind of think of a few ways they might managed it, but S & S? No.

[lost_spook]

I just feel slightly bad about all the oppression, but B7 and S&S, while undoubtedly not for everyone, are awesome enough to justify it. And, yes, look at you!! ;-D

Okay, the news about the remake is here. I can see it working more than B7, but only if the makers have a real nerve and a brilliant pair of leads and I do not know if anyone could ever pull it off again. (I think the fact that the audios worked - that if you can hit the right note, the fact that S&S now look different is kind of irrelevant to them, but I just don't trust modern TV to do S&S).

I think with B7, they should make a hideously bad one and then cancel it & it won't spoil our fun, but will wake up a few extra people to look into the original and how much more awesome it was, even if the SFX was more terrible than they could possibly have imagined. Maybe!

[learnsslowly]

Excellent - Although I was just slightly obsessed by Sapphire and Steel and especially Blake's 7 the first time round, so I probably didn't actually need your eloquent recommendation!

[lost_spook]

A person of taste, obviously! ;-)