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The best show ever is about to be released with new vfx, alongside a load of other goodies...

New vfx? Isn’t the old vfx the charm of the show?

Really enjoyed Blakes 7 - thanks for the heads up

Yep. Looking forward to this!

I had a feeling there would be the odd fan here on Dakka.

I'm excited about a remastered version... Considerably less excited about updated VFX. Really, really wish they would stop doing that to classic sci fi shows.


Here's hoping they do it they way they did with Doctor Who, including both the original and crap-CGI versions on the disc.

 insaniak wrote:
I'm excited about a remastered version... Considerably less excited about updated VFX. Really, really wish they would stop doing that to classic sci fi shows.


Here's hoping they do it they way they did with Doctor Who, including both the original and crap-CGI versions on the disc.

It's good to see Blake's 7 getting the Doctor Who treatment, but I understand what you're saying about the effects. When a show becomes a period piece it should remain as such, in all it's old fashioned effects glory. However the the Captain Pugwash style animation that was used for some Liberator's external scenes (including the title sequence) were a botch job at the time so are ripe for an upgrade (plus, those Federation Cruisers look great in their glow-up in that trailer).

The trailer is promising, as they’ve not reinvented the effects, so much as recreated with a hefty spit and polish.

I don't mind vfx being updated when it comes to over-use of stock footage, as they don't quite get to show the events as originally intended. The Star Wars trilogy didn't need anything doing to it at all, but Star Trek: The Motion Picture felt unfinished while Blake's 7 and Battlestar Galactica would rely heavily on re-used shots from earlier episodes, or even other shows and films.

I've already watched B7 to death and enjoyed - even laughed at - the vfx efforts from the late 70s, so I'm happy to see it get a new make over. Could it be a warm up for a new series perhaps? "Blake's 7: The Next Generation"?

SamusDrake wrote:
Could it be a warm up for a new series perhaps? "Blake's 7: The Next Generation"?

Avon ducked.

Its alright, there are those who can carry the torch...

This is one of those series I've heard about for decades and told myself "I should try and see it some time" but never got around to it.

Rewatched this a few years ago, and while the first season still holds up, the limitations and conventions of TV making at the time really take their toll after that.

Would be nice if renewed interest led to a remake, a more modern storytelling style would do wonders.

Oh, Dayna, who was played by Josette Simon in the last two seasons, is in the new Crow movie as well as the first Wonder Woman movie.

I watched it on DVD last year for the first time since seeing it on UHF in the 80s and...

Yeah.

It was very, very well written for the 80s. And there was a cloud of moral ambiguity from the first episode that really clicked for me.

And I will give them credit for the costumes, sets and FX they did with the budget they had.

And Avon and Villa were fantastic. Eclipsed entirely by Servalan.

But BE WARNED, sub Dr Who FX and costumes, wooden acting, laughable stage fighting, inconsistent world building...

Watch it like you'd watch Star Trek TOS, ramp down expectations and imagine a modern take on it.

And I say this as a real fan.

I checked out the first couple of episodes on some streaming service or other a few months back... think I got three episodes in before it was removed from the service, but was enough to bring back some fond memories. And, yeah, the acting is a bit iffy, but it's a fantastic glimpse into TV sci-fi of that era made on a shoestring budget... which is exactly why I would rather watch it as-is, instead of with updated effects.

Thinking back, though, I don't know for sure if I ever saw all of it as a kid... given that TV back then involved actually sitting in front of the screen at the right time on the right day, there were a lot of shows I only saw bits and pieces of. I had the novelisations though, and they were on my frequent-read list.

Having grown up with Davidson-McCoy Dr Who? I find a lot of these shows stand up plot wise, because they knew their effects budget was miniscule. And so rather than effects being the wow factor, it had to be the plot.

Also worth keeping in mind that around that era, most movies wouldn’t have effects that noticably better, as Star Wars and the Trek movies were the exception.

I saw this in the eighties too. The cheesy effects were part of the charm, in my opinion. Put me in the camp of 'not sure I WANT better special effects in my Blake's 7.'

Of course, I suppose now you CAN do vastly improved special effects over the original on a bog standard desktop computer with shareware, so it's still pretty cheap FX. It's just the standard of what constitutes 'cheap' has changed quite a bit.

I guess I can live with it... so long as they don't do any creative editing of the REST of the show.

I think it wouldn't be so bad even if the new special effects were outstanding, but they tend to cheap out with them and they don't wind up looking any better (or potentially just look worse) than the originals... Like when they released the 'updated' versions of Star Trek TOS with all of the original space scenes replaced with really obvious CGI. That's not an improvement! Stop it!