quote:OnToMars said: The whole thing has gotten me itching about my own personal fantasy of a reboot.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is: Pick any classic scifi story from the past and give it a makeover.
What series or movie(s) would you pick for a reboot , how would you go about it and what would it be like?
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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Dibs on Buck Rogers. I'll explain my thoughts later.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
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OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
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Huh, I actually considered starting up a new thread with essentially this goal, but focused on Star Trek, as essentially nothing more than a thinly shrouded attempt to give myself a reason to talk. But this works too. More later.
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
My thoughts on the ideal properties that a property should have in-order to lend itself to a good reboot:
* Messy continuity : The show should have a continuity that is so messy or uninspiring, that it would be better off without it (ex: X-Files)
* Good premise: The whole point should be to "do the show better". Thus shows with a good premise but lousy execution are good candidates. On the flip-side good shows with a lousy premise are horrible candidates (ex: Due South (A mountie in Chicago??? WTF? ))
* Age: Rebooting is very controversial, thus a show should have had some time to lie fallow. Note that BSG had lay fallow for about thirty(?) years, yet there is still quite a bit of upheaval by hard-core fans on the Internet. An exception might be if the project can some legitimacy by someone connected to the original production. (ex: Babylon 5 could probably only ever be rebooted by JMS in the near future) We can also avoid snarky comments this way (ex: Voyager/Enterprise sucks so much it much, we should throw it away and reboot it)
* Possibility for improvement: There should be some possibility for improvement beyond just better SFX (ex: Hitchhiker's reboot). Whether better actors, better stories, there should be some coherent plan as to why the reboot is better. (ex: The Omen reboot ... why did they bother?)
While tossing around these in my head, I can think of several contenders.
X-Files: Really crummy continuity almost begs for a reboot, but for an admittedly uninspiring premise (FBI agents go around hunting down paranormal activity?) the actors and execution were pretty good and still hold up today. Plus, they really did mine out the potential stories. Bad candidate.
Andromeda: Good concept but amazingly horrible execution even as of the pilot. The only thing stopping this from being a good candidate for a reboot is its young age and thus it has still left a horrible taste in the viewer's metaphorical mouth.
Earth: Final Conflict: Good concept, horrible continuity, bad execution excepting some of the SFX and little details. (For the shoe-string budget, I thought the SFX was pretty good at accomplishing what it needed to. Plus unlike Star Trek, they did an pretty good job showing how advanced technology should affect many parts of life/industry rather than be totally isolated) Good candidate. Plus, it had an erhu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhu
Sliders: Very horrible continuity marked by a horrible descent into mediocrity after the death of Arturo. However, it did have a great premise which lends itself very easily to a reboot. There are still a lot of good potential stories to tell. Plus, the series' decline is widely acknowledged which would greatly reduce fan upheaval.
Mmmm, I'll actually call dibs on Sliders, I'll post more after thinking about it more.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yep there definitely needs to be a Sliders reboot. I used to like that show when they gave it on FOX. Then it went to Sci-Fi and things went from bad to worse. I still like the premise though.
Plus there's Quantum Leap. Supposedly Sci-Fi was to something with the show (I don't know if it was a reboot) but I haven't heard anything since.
Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Shik: Dibs on Buck Rogers. I'll explain my thoughts later.
Oh, I've got an idea (well, half an idea) for Buck Rogers too. You tells us yours, I'll tell you mine.
Actually, I have a lot of basic concepts in mind. Here's one.
Space 2099. A Reboot of Space 1999
Obviously we can't reuse the same title. We're 7 years past 1999 and nowhere near the technology.
An interesting concept, the moon being blown out of orbit with people stranded on it. Terrible execution a the time (poor science, b-rate stories, etc...)
I would set the story 100 years later, keep the Eagles (love those ships), update the base set and start fresh with the cast. Maybe keep the same names (why not?)
My concept is a more darker, gritter Space 2099. At the dawn of the next century, mankind finally has established a small, permenant settlement on the moon. This station is used as a launching point for exploring the rest of our solar system, as well as deep space telescopic exploration.
The premise/pilot centers around the discovery of an ancient alien artifact buried on the lunar surface. Nations of the Earth go crazy with this discovery, acutal proof of extra-terrestial life. And this life had visited Earth sometime in the past.
But not everyone on Earth is happy with this news. Religious extremeists feel this discovery is the beginning of the end. Some feel this is a message from God, and others feel this is a harold of doom. Prophecies depicting the Moon turning to blood are rediscussed and applied to this discovery.
All media attention turns to the excavation project. School groups of children, political dignitaries and other officals are on hand to witness this historic event.
Unbeknownest to everyone, a religious terrorist has secreted himself among the lunar populace. His goal is to stop this excavation at all costs.
The extremist, either working with the excavation crew or sneaking his way there, makes his way to the excavation site and approaches the artifcat. Strapped to this terrorist is a nuclear device.
The nuke is detonated. Instead of exploding, the energy is absorbed by the artifact. The artifact then causes a spacefold on the lunar surface that transports the moon...
...elsewhere...
Now the remainder of the series will focus on the crew discovering that the moon has moved, that the artifiact is really an alien spacefold device, and trying to get the moon back to earth.
How was the device able to transport the entire moon? Was it "designed" to do that?
By channeling sufficent energy from the moonbase's reactors, the artifact can be energized and create a spacefold.
But how is the spacefold controlled? Why does the spacefold even work?
Who are the aliens that created this device? Are they still around? Is there evidence of their existance or other artifacts out there?
These question and more would be answered over the course of the series. Each week (or every so often, depending on story development), the moon would spacefold to a new planet.
Crews from the Moon would explore these planets, collect any supplies needed (food, water, oxygen, medicines, etc...) and search for clues that would aid them in returning home.
I dislike the concept of the alien artifact, but I needed some way of transporting the moon. The original series didn't address this at all. There has to be some "plausable" way to move the Moon FTL week after week.
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posted
I'm sorry, but The X-Files is stone awesome, and the fact that it all fell apart in the end, and dragged to a whimpering finish, doesn't change the fact that it was the best show on television for some unspecified number of years. (Certainly until the movie, and I'd argue even after that, though the signs of trouble began to appear. But how great was it when that junior FBI agent showed up and was all "I am such a big fan, but how exactly did you guys get out of Antarctica?") Anyway, any show that produced "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" and "Clive Bruckman's Final Repose" and that one where the aliens were drilling into the dude's teeth. . . that show has transcended criticism.
re Space 1999, perhaps scientists discover FTL, but it paradoxically becomes easier the more mass you try to move, so that moving a spacecraft is practically impossible, but moving a planetary body is surprisingly easy. Maybe the Moonbase discovers this fact only after running their first test. ("Hilarious Bloopers of Science.")
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Shik: Dibs on Buck Rogers. I'll explain my thoughts later.
I think Farscape beat you to that one already.
quote:Originally posted by Mars Needs Women: Plus there's Quantum Leap. Supposedly Sci-Fi was to something with the show (I don't know if it was a reboot) but I haven't heard anything since.
I think it was/is going to be a sequel series, with Sam's daughter (concieved in the past) leaping around trying to bring him back. Not sure if it's a dead project or not, but quality wise I think it could go either way.
I think they recently tried to reboot Lost in Space again too, but that didn't get past the pilot. I read somwhere that the sets they built for it ended up on Battlestar Galactica.
Personally I think Blake's 7 is about due for a reboot.
posted
Please...no "mysterious alien artifact buried on the moon" story.
I've seen that movie and fell asleep. All your sries will be is subtitled "that 2001 rip-off".
That old show Voyagers! might be fun to reboot: I'd start with the lead character Phenias Bog as being both very smart and very biologically superior- a specially grown and tailored body that allows him to time-travel without that watch trinket (thus avioding the inevitable :"oh no! They stole the watch AGAIN!" storyline.
You could even have the show be a coninuation of the original with a new cast by making Bogg a older, wiser (and newly re-incarnated via science) version of the old TV character that is sernt to find his old time travel device (omni) that was taken by his (and presumably that annoying kid's) murderer.
You could sub-plot the whole thing with a mystery as to who Bogg's masters are and what their agenda is....mabye make him a tad afraid of them.
I'd do a, lot of stories focusing on times history ignores for lack of info: (Dark Ages, aincent Summeria, etc.) rather than dwell on the over-done "lets visit Mark Twain" type of typical time travel cameo stupidity....and make new characters in those times to serve as supporting cast for Bogg when the shit hits the fan.
Mabye I'd have Bogg discover that what we think of as the "normal timeline" is some agency (possibly Bogg's masters) manipulating time to some sinister purpose, have Bogg rebel and start fixing all history's great injustices (thus fucking up the timeline) in an effort to stop his (now former) masters.
Then I'd have said "masters" re-make that annoying kid (but grown up obviously) to go back and stop Bogg.
Kinda like re-popping Dr.Who freom the Master's perspective and finding out there was a good resaon for all that bad stuff he did.
All the supporting characters would have to decide which side they should be on.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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Having never watched Farscape past the first...5 episodes or so? yeah.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:On the flip-side good shows with a lousy premise are horrible candidates (ex: Due South (A mountie in Chicago??? WTF? ))
I must take issue with this. Due South was an excellent fish-out-of-water premise. In fact, you could argue that a premise is only as good as the content it lends itself to, and Due South was excellent in that regard. I wouldn't advocate a reboot, though. It has to be Paul Gross, and he won't do it any more. Alas.
That said, Earth: Final Conflict is my personal fav for a reboot. Especially if we can keep the first season, because it rocked ass. I myself would rebel at doing it without the original cast, though, so maybe it should wait a while. Maybe we can reboot Andromeda and EFC at the same time.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Shik: Dibs on Buck Rogers. I'll explain my thoughts later.
The nuke is detonated. Instead of exploding, the energy is absorbed by the artifact. The artifact then causes a spacefold on the lunar surface that transports the moon...
...elsewhere...
Now the remainder of the series will focus on the crew discovering that the moon has moved, that the artifiact is really an alien spacefold device, and trying to get the moon back to earth.
Sounds like Star Trek: Voyager - but with a moon.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Sol System: I'm not really sure why you have to apologise. What you said doesn't really disagree with what I said...
Omega: To each his own I guess, one man's "silly" is another man's "excellent". I'm just trying to say that if you take shows and sum up their premise in one line, Due South does not exactly stand out. However, I would not take this as an insult towards the show. In fact, I'm actually more impressed that they managed to do such an incredible job with a limited premise. In any case, my point is that it would be hard to recapture the lightning in a bottle, so to speak.
Another point is that candidates for a reboot have rich premises that are insufficiently explored for a variety of reasons whether bad writing or studio interference or cancellation.
Sliders:
In my view, Sliders had many strengths, a good and likeable cast, an amazingly rich premise, quirky humour, and an irrepressible sense of fun. From what I understand, many weaknesses were due to studio interference link These weaknesses include a horribly messy and arbitrary continuity (in order to get rid of actors and so forth), the loss of the Professor for a "military" character, the limited range of existing episodes (most shows exist in the quirky and fun range with a few notable examples), and the arbitrary repetitive plot structure (see the Sliders in a wacky teaser world, see them slide to a new world and get caught in a crisis, see the Sliders solve the crisis, see the Sliders slide off never to be seen again).
For a reboot, I would like to see some episodes with the same quirky humour but more episodes with more serious stories.
I would also try to slow down the Sliders, giving them more time on each world, and thus allow the writers to explore each world more thoroughly and in a more realistic fashion, perhaps using the three episode mini-arc structure pioneered by the last season of Enterprise. Hopefully, this will give the writers more time to think through the premises and they definitely would have to be banned from using the very silly "movie ripoff worlds." It would also be interesting to try to focus on worlds where a minor change to Earth history results in many profound changes, making Sliders more of an alternate history show.
Perhaps a limited ability to revisit worlds would allow for greater continuity. More example, revisiting the world where the Professor was responsible for introducing the atomic bomb. It would also be fun to see re-occuring factions that have the same screentime as say the Tok'ra or Asgard factions in Stargate.
Finally, it would be necessary to reboot the elements that worked, but were dropped or badly explored in the original series, such as Logan St. Clair, the possiblity of Arturo being replaced by a double and Quinn's double who introduces him to sliding before making a big mistake.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I'd reboot Blake's 7. It had a great cast and premise, but zero budget and some of the BBC's worst SFX ever (cool ship though). Fantastic ending- no american sci-fi show could pull that one off!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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