Winter and a new series

[vilakins]

It's been a lovely long mild autumn, but today, though still sunny, is suddenly winter. The temperature dropped to 6C overnight, and we weren't ready for it at work. I had to sit in an unheated meeting room for two hours this morning and the air was so cold my lungs hurt for the hour afterwards that it took me to warm up in my office.

I want to stay home tonight by the heater, but I booked another bead-working class. I'm sure it'll be fun when I get there, but I so don't want to go out.

In other news, found on B7 mailing lists, is the promising announcement that Kudos, who made Life on Mars and Spooks (which I haven't seen) are making a new SF series, Outcasts which sounds very like Blake's 7, and deliberately so. I'm a little concerned about the reference to one of them being a deviant (please don't give us a real pervert) and the comparison to the new BSG. I hope they don't go for the shaky hand-held badly-focussed mock-doco pseudo-realism of BSG (which uses it even in the CGI shots) which I found seriously distracting and annoying, or the thinly-disguised contemporary politics and issues but In Space which both bored and depressed me till I gave up.

I'll definitely give this a go though in the hopes it won't be another Torchwood.

Comments

[hafren.livejournal.com]

It does sound more promising than the recent "revival".

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And it's not pretending to be B7.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Deviant has other meanings, Vila is a deviant since he is a thief and that deviates from the 'norm' of his society. But I agree with you I hope they don't make it sexual deviance. This sounds good, if they keep to their plans

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

True. I hope that's the meaning they're going for.

[kerravonsen]

Yeah, it could be good, it could be awful. We'll see.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

In the meantime we can hope.

I made another necklace and two pair of earrings!

[kerravonsen]

I made another necklace and two pair of earrings!

8-)

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Sorry your temperatures have plummeted, so have ours. It was only 7° yesterday during the day, and it’s practically summer here

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've got a cough now which I'll probably have all winter. Sigh.

Oh, that's a pretty icon! [deploys her own autumn one]

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I hope your cough doesn't linger :0(

Yours is pretty too :0)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Me too. I'm increasing my usual meds in the hopes I won't have to go onto steroids. :-(

Thanks!

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

It sounds frighteningly promising. But then I thought that of Rusty and New Who because I loved Queer As Folk... ah well, if they won't let Chris Chibnall write any episodes, it ought to be good. Crotchwood isn't hard to beat.

*Huggles*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

"Life on Mars" is a good advertisement for them and I've heard people really like "Spooks", but as you say, that's no guarantee.

Crotchwood isn't hard to beat.

No indeed. But if they give us 'gritty realism' a la BSG, I'm not watching. 'Gritty realism' always means something not entertaining and very depressing. I use those words as a 'keep away' warning.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Blake's 7 got the right level of Depressing Fascist Stuff--it was there, but it wasn't constantly kicking you in the face but was spread out throughout seasons. Even if I liked and agreed with the points in the Prisoner, I find I'm not able to watch it for fun.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

B7 had some very bleak stuff in it - brainwashing, slavery, the grading system, corrupt justice, organ harvesting - but they didn't dwell on it. We also got humour and SF and wonderful characters. BSG only managed the last and it wasn't enough.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

I hope it doesn't become like "Lost", in Space with mystery goings on etc.
Considering Australia etc were originally settled by convicts I suppose it shows nothing changes.

Like any other story it is going to hinge on 3 things.
The script
the director
and of course the actors involved.

With those three being good you can ignore deficiencies of special effects.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I like 'Lost'. They'll need some sort of plot; I'm just hoping it won't be political. I know a lot of people like that but it bores me unless it's done with wit like 'House of Cards' which I adore. I prefer escapism or comedy in my fiction, not current issues but In Space.

And if they preach to me, I'm out of there.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

A lot of Blake's 7 and Star Trek TOS dealt with current politics but not in the heavy handed ways some shows do.
So long as its got a good storyline and isn't characters emoting all over the place (which put me off "Lost" and "Torchwood")
Babylon 5 is the only show in Space I think that really did politics well - Turning up in Earth Space with a big fleet is one hell of a political statement.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I loved B5. Its politics were always interesting and never overdone.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

It was freezing yesterday, wasn't it. It was actually hurting me to breathe in the morning, which wasn't nice. :(

I hope you feel better...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It wasn't. It was hurting me too. My chest was sore almost all morning. :-(

I'm pretty much back to normal apart from the usual winter cough.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

As one of the journalists said, the coldest day of Test cricket recorded in England yesterday was good practice for the trip to New Zealand in February.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Hey! February and March are our best months! It gets hot and sticky up here anyway.

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

I really like Battlestar Galactica. My worry is that this will be overly-grim in the way that British SF can be if it's trying to be grownup. I'm reserving judgement until I've seen it, but at the moment I'm excited - and Kudos has produced some excellent stuff.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I really liked BSG's season 1. S2 bored and depressed me so I gave up about 2/3 of the way through.

If this is grim or 'gritty' then I won't bother. I like to be entertained. :-)