Survivors

[RottingCorpse]

Nacho has got me hooked on this 1970's BBC drama about the survivors or an infectious plague that wipes out 99% of humanity.

Damn him!

[nacho]

Survivors rocks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors

One of my favorite post apocalypse series.  So terribly manhandled, but that's thanks to Terry Nation leaving after season one...to do Blake's 7, which is one of my favorite sci-fi shows and about 10 times more brutal than Survivors.  A show whose main character dies horridly...twice?  Yep.  Easy.

Anyway, been on my mind lately because of the big announcement, now that the BBC has realized that sci-fi can sell again:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7107597.stm

The remake has me pretty hot:

On 22 November 2007, the BBC announced that they were going to remake Survivors, as written by Adrian Hodges, to be shown on BBC One.[2] The new version will be based on Terry Nation's novel rather than the series[3], which covers the same ground as the opening episodes of series one before following the lead character's search for her son, Peter. By adapting the novel, the BBC are hoping for a tighter and more focused series that will be true to Nation's original conception prior to the changes made by Terrance Dudley and his team of writers.

Nation's idea was even being fucked with when he was there...so going with the novel is just going to be amazing, because it's horrible, dark, and everyone dies.

There are some ace episodes coming up, RC, once they get the community going.  Man... You learn to hate everyone.

[RottingCorpse]

It's very British, but very good.

The situations the characters find themselves in seem like one survivors of a mass human extinction would deal with.

[nacho]

Shit, this is going to rock.

New Survivors cast announcement:

A trio of former Who actors – Freema Agyeman (Martha), Shaun Dingwall (Rose‘s dad from “Father’s Day”, “Rise of the Cybermen” and “Age of Steel”) and Paterson Jospeh (from “Bad Wolf”, as well as Neverwhere, Hyperdrive and Jekyll) – have all been cast in the BBC’s remake of 1970s series, Survivors.

They join Julie Graham (fresh from Life on Mars creator Matthew Graham’s new series Bonehunters but best known for the comedies William and Mary and Meet the Braithwaites), Max Beesley (Hotel Babylon) and Phillip Rhys (24, Nip/Tuck) in the show about surviving in the aftermath of a disease that has killed off most of humanity.

"Survivors is about what it means to be human," says writer and executive producer Adrian Hodges (of Primeval fame). "It asks questions about our nature and confronts us with our deepest fears. When everything else is stripped away, would we band together and find the best in ourselves, or would we fall apart and retreat into barbarism and savagery?

"Survivors is about adventure, fear, love, loyalty and friendship. But above all, it's about new hope."

A somewhat old (December 07) interview that I missed:

Hold the front page! The BBC isn’t remaking the ’70s Terry Nation post-apocalyptic series Survivors. Well... not technically anyway.

Don’t worry. The Corporation hasn’t already cancelled its recently-announced new version of Survivors. But when SFX had a natter with BBC Head of Series and Serials Kate Harwood recently about the series (and boy, is she excited about it) she revealed this interesting little nugget:

“We’ve brought the rights to the novel – so, of course, we’re adapting the novel… It’s quite complex, and probably I shouldn’t go into too much detail, but Terry Nation wrote a very fine novel based on the first series, and that’s what we have the rights to. There are some scripts that he wasn’t involved in later ion the series. But I think the novel is very much the key to the series, really.”

So, the BBC is creating an adaptation of a novel based on a series that was originally broadcast on the BBC. The world truly is run by lawyers. Still, it shouldn’t really make much difference to the final outcome.

SFX also asked Harwood about whether the new show would replicate the famous opening credits sequence from the original show, which spookily showed each week how a killer virus escaped from a lab and spread around the world. After all, opening credits seem to be a dying art these days.

“I think they’re coming back into vogue actually,” says Harwood. “The last three things that I’ve exec-produced have had them. We had an opening title sequence for Cranford, Oliver Twist and Bleak House. In this busy, busy world where everything started to have film-style titles with the credits over the opening scenes, I think we’re coming back to properly-designed titles. And I agree, the titles for the original Survivors were fantastic, and much imitated. But I don’t know. We haven’t got that far. We’ll see…”

Basing it on the novel is perfect.  That means everything that's good about the first season will be...better.  And we'll lose the insane quest for the son, and the stupid comic add-ons to the team.  Just a stark, hopeless, horrible post apocalypse.  The first half of the first season seeing our heroes constantly missing each other, but slowly coming together into a cohesive -- and always threatened (from within and without)-- group.

[RottingCorpse]

Dude, I'm on it!

[nacho]

Nothing new here, just more of the same buzz...

Just weeks before the Daleks are scheduled to return to the BBC to wrap up the current season of Doctor Who, another sci-fi series conceived by their creator is returning to TV.

Terry Nation's Survivors originally ran from 1975 to 1977 while Nation was still writing the occasional Dalek script for Doctor Who. Set in the present day, the sci-fi drama was a predecessor to post-apocalyptic shows like Jericho. The program's titular characters lived in the aftermath of a devastating virus that wiped out their friends, families and most of the world's population.

The new series will run along those same lines and will include Doctor Who's Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones). Along with Torchwood, Survivors will be Ageyman's second sci-fi series roll since leaving full-time duty on Who.

It'll be a busy viewing season for the Terry Nation estate as another one of his sci-fi creations, Blake's 7, is also set to return to TV next season.

I love the old book cover:

[nacho]

A bit more on the casting, and a release date (soon!):

Freema Agyeman as Jenny; Nikki Amuka–Bird as Samantha Willis; Max Beesley as Tom Price; Shaun Dingwall as David; Julie Graham as Abby Grant; Paterson Joseph as Greg; Phillip Rhys as Al; Zoe Tapper as Anya and newcomer Chahak Patel as 11-year-old Najid.

Survivors is currently filming in Manchester with an intended broadcast in the UK of Autumn 2008 on BBC One. No word yet whether the show will make it over to the US.

So Jenny was the London girl in the fur coat, RC, who kept missing Greg during her long march into the countryside.  Tom Price was the guy trying to put together the community (ultimately ending the series as the King of England).  Abby Grant was the house-burning blonde. 

Freema's a good choice for Jenny -- that kind of wide-eyed, gosh I'm alive thing that morphs slowly into the strong female presence (after Abby left at the start of the second season).

[RottingCorpse]

I'm psyched!

[nacho]

A bump!  The new Survivors premieres at the end of this month.  RC -- you and I really need to plan a Survivors marathon.  We really only need to do the first two seasons, as series three sucks.  Though you may appreciate the world-rebuilding aspect of series three... Hard to say.  We could do the final three episodes or something.

Or we could have an all day marathon after the new one premieres.  Do series one, which is cloesest to what Terry Nation wanted, and then see the pilot as Terry Nation actually intended.

Anyway... Some Saturday in November? 

[RottingCorpse]

Is the premeire date for the new one set?

[nacho]

The Beeb never announces premiere dates until the week of, because they're cruel and demented.  But it's going to be the "end of October," which is an upgrade.  Up until October first, it was still "autumn 08."  Typical.

[RottingCorpse]

Will it be available on the Beeb's U.S. channel that I get or will I have to have you download it for me?

[nacho]

It'll come to BBC America eventually, sure.

[nacho]

BBC press office launched this little radio tidbit: 

Set in the present day, the drama series focuses on the world in the aftermath of a devastating virus which wipes out most of the world's population.

What would we do? How would any of us cope in a brave new world where all traditional 21st Century comforts – electricity, clean running water, advanced technology – have disappeared?

We should have an air date any day now.

[nacho]

Newsflood!

Region 2 DVD release is scheduled for Jan 9th, which will be a few weeks after the final episode airs.

The original Terry Nation book is being re-released on November 6th.  No word on when it'll be out in the US.  Probably later in November.

The internal release of the first episode is being talked about.  Russ Davies was praising the hell out of it, and there's this from The Culture Show blog:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thecultureshow/2008/09/survivors-1975-and-2008.html

The first episode of the new Survivors feels more dynamic and less dark than the original - there’s a lot more action and the budget is clearly that of a big BBC One drama. There’s no attempt to shy away from the starkness of the situation, but there are already faint notes of optimism which just weren’t there in the original.

Lots more at the link.