A reboot of Babylon 5 is in the works, but there are other spaced-based sci fi TV shows that would be better candidates for a complete reworking.
News broke this past week that a “ground-up” reboot of Babylon 5 is in the works at The CW. Creator J. Michael Straczynski is closely involved with the project and has tried to calm the fears of fans of the original series. But does a complete reboot of a classic like Babylon 5 really need to happen? (I will be looking at that in more detail in an upcoming post.) There are plenty of other properties out there much better suited to a reboot and that fans would certainly embrace. These typically were cut short or did not have the budget to fully bring to life their stories, and a modern version with current CGI technology would certainly be welcome. Here are five space-based shows that would benefit from a ground-up reboot and that would not necessarily tarnish what came before. And no, I am not including Firefly in the list because suggesting a reboot of that one would lead to a revolt of that very dedicated fanbase.
Blake’s 7 (Aired: 1978-81, BBC, 4 Seasons Totaling 52 Episodes)
This British series takes place seven hundred years in the future when the tyrannical Federation has a tight grip on Earth and its colonies. Blake is arrested on false charges and sent to a penal colony, but he and six other criminals escape and take charge of a powerful alien spacecraft they dub the Liberator. They become fugitives and rebels and they they fight against the totalitarian threat of the Federation. While this one is considered a classic by many, it has not dated well due to its low production values (typical of the BBC at the time it was made). It struggled to bring to life the concepts of its rather ambitious stories and it would certainly benefit from a reboot with modern day special effects. It would actually be quite good if they stuck close to the original stories, and just updated the visuals, but almost certainly a reboot would take it in different directions. There have been rumors mulitple times that this one is in the reboot queue, but nothing is currently in development at this point that I am aware of.
Andromeda (Aired: 2000-05, Syndicated/Sci Fi Channel, 5 Seasons Totaling 110 Episodes)
This show may be the perfect example of a long-running sci fi TV series that deserves a ground-up reboot. Based on a concept by Gene Roddenberry, it follows Captain Dylan Hunt who commands the powerful starship Andromeda Ascendant and both get caught at the edge of a black hole and are frozen in time for three hundred years. When they are awoken, they find the galaxy in ruins, and with a ragtag crew Hunt sets off on a mission to “rekindle the light of civilization”. This series combined some ideas from Roddenberry’s failed ’70s pilot Genesis II with some Buck Rogers and other sci fi tropes and actually had a decent premise along with some good characters. But it suffered from poor production values, poor writing, and frequent changes behind the scenes. It did produce a decent season or two, but overall the show’s run was unnsatisfying. It developed a small following but hardly counts as a sci fi classic. There are certainly those who would object to a “ground-up” reboot of this show, but I believe it would work. And it could be similar situation to the campy original Battlestar: Galactica getting rebooted into a show now considered one of the best sci fi TV shows of all time.
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Space: Above and Beyond (Aired: 1995-96, FOX, 1 Season Totaling 23 Episodes)
This military sci fi series takes place in the near future and focuses on the United States Marine Corps 58th Squadron of the Space Aviator Cavalry, aka the “Wildcats” as they fight against an alien species referred to as the “Chigs” that has invaded the solar system. The original series is considered somewhat of a genre gem and it still has a dedicated fanbase. But it would be hard to revive this one since twenty five years have passed since it was cancelled and a reboot would be the best way to revisit the show. And it does not necessarily have to be a “gound up” reboot as it could continue the war at a later timeframe than the original series. It would bring in new actors but continue the story of the struggle of humanity against the alien invaders. Or starting over again would be an option as well. They could completely reboot the series and retell the story from a fresh perspective with hopes that it could continue longer than the original truncated run and have a proper resolution. In either case, this one is definitely worth revisiting.
The Starlost (Aired: 1973-74, Syndication, 1 Season Totaling 16 Episodes)
This mid-1970’s TV series was set on the multi-generational colony starship named Earthship Ark that loses its way after abandoning a dying Earth. The people aboard live in domes that have been cut off from the main ship and they no longer realize that they are traveling through space. Three people learn the truth, though, and also discover that the ship is on a perilous course. The original series had a promising concept as evidenced by the award-winning Harlan Ellison-penned pilot script (later remade as a graphic novel), but it suffered from behind-the-scenes tinkering. The studio dumbed-down the vision for the show and cut the budget, resulting in Ellison removing his name from the production. But an updating of this with modern special effects and better writing could do justice to the original idea and potentially deliver a great sci fi series. There have been rumors that a reboot is in the works, but news has been sparse on that of late. (Read more about the series at this link.)
Flash Gordon (Aired: 1979-82, NBC, 2 Seasons Totaling 32 Episodes)
Flash Gordon is of course the quintessential comic strip sci fi hero who has fought against Ming the Merciless and other villains with the help of his companions Dale Arden, Dr. Zarkov, Prince Barin, Prince Vultan, and more. The character first appeared in the newspapers, then in movie serials, and is probably best known to modern viewers from the 1980 camp-classic film that starred Sam J. Jones. Among its TV incarnations, the 1979 Saturday Morning animated series is probably the best-remembered version. But there was also a live-action 1950’s series that is mostly forgotten, a ’90’s animated series that is best forgotten, and a disappointing 2007 live-action series that aired on the Sci Fi Channel for one season before disappearing (for good reason). So one of the greatest sci fi characters of all time, has yet to be featured in a good live-action series, and really only the first season of the 1979 animated series is worth watching. There is certainly plenty that could be done with Flash Gordon, and the character has name recognition worldwide. A reboot of Buck Rogers is currently in the works, and it certainly seems like bringing his comic strip counterpart back would be a good idea as well.
What space-based sci fi TV shows do you believe need to be rebooted? Chime in with your comments below.
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Just Like ABBA never performing Live again, ,, Blakes 7 should be left alone and not vandalized.
There is nothing wrong with it
Space Rangers was also a very short lived, low budget show that had a good premise. I really see a streaming service like Amazon being able to reboot into a decent show like they have when they saved The Expanse.
Captain scarlet and space rangers
Space Rangers definitely yes. Captain Scarlet was already rebooted.
A series that I thoroughly enjoyed and that was on in the same period as Space Above and Beyond (and also cut short after a cliffhanger season finale) was Earth2. While only partially space-based, I think it could fit on your list of productive reboots.
And with the success of Star Trek: Lower Decks and even The Orville, how about a space-based comedy? Quark anyone? The original is pretty much unwatchable for modern eyes ( I’m pretty sure it was unwatchable to adult eyes then too — I was 13, though, and loved it). The premise has potential, and with modern sensibilities and humor could be a lot of fun.
When I think of sci-fi comedy, I think of Red Dwarf every time.
I never found red dwarf funny at all. The ‘curry’ gag was not funny in the first season, or 20 years later. The only episode I found remotely funny was the one where Lister falls in love with an alien, which turns out to be a ‘trash slime monster’.
Yes, Earth 2 – definitely. Along with Blake’s 7, Space: Above & Beyond, and Andromeda, Earth 2 is a show I always include in my sci-fi options to get rebooted. I enjoyed all of them and would like to see all four of these, along with Earth: Final Conflict (Another Rodenberry based story) be brought back. I think they all have something unique to offer in connecting to todays society to make them relevant and enjoyable if done right. Being done right is always the tricky part.
Why not Blake’s 7 it was fun and exciting ?
There were rumours UK’s Sky network paid in for rights to Blakes 7. Not sure what happened but they then produced “Intergalactic” which is not only a very bad SciFI show but a blatant B7 rip off.
Don’t watch it, it’s bad. Like really bad.
I watched Intergalactic’s entire 8-episode run and feel like I’m the only person that actually liked this short-lived series. I didn’t find it to be a “blatant” Blake’s 7 rip-off either. Sure, the prisoners were being sent on a spaceship to a penal planet but that’s pretty much where the similarities end, they commandeer the ship but don’t even get to the penal planet. A couple of the prisoner characters were a bit much to take at first but further on the series delves into their backstory and history and you start to understand and empathize with their thinking and motivations. The show sported plenty of tense action along with some humor sprinkled in and good special effects. I thought the series showed a lot of promise and by the end of the last episode I wanted to see more.
There was a Canadian series called Star Lost had a good premise but low budget which would be perfect for a re-boot as there is no fanbase to offend 😉
Gary Anderson’s U.F.O could really benefit from some updated special effects (but please leave Space 1999 alone)
Gene Roddenberry also produced a loot of good pilots which never got off the ground… Planet Earth/Genesis 2, Assignment:Earth, The Questor Tapes, Andromeda, etc.
A couple of my personal guilty pleasures would be The Planet of the Apes or Logan’s Run series… but the hardcore fanbase would probably be too critical of them
My vote for a reboot would be Blake 7, StarCops and Space 1999.
The Starlost could be a winner but forget everything aired it was awful. From a new beginning it’s possible. The series was so freaking bad it’s an insult.
Reboot B5, Yay! How about getting Firefly running again, either rebooted or continued.
FAA Que. B5 was WAY better than all that garbage. And it will be again.
I think Star Maidens, Space 1999, UFO, and Project UFO should get reboots. We fans were left hanging with their final episodes. More could have been and should be done to these great Sci fi TV series.
Project UFO did get a reboot with Project Blue Book which aired for two seasons on the History Channel.
I vote for all of the above plus Logans run and Dinotopia.
Space 1999 and UFO! Of course
Nah, Babylon5 rebbot is the one I want.
Let’s not get down on B5 for being fortunate enough to get a reboot and chance for a more cohesive grittier telling in a universe full of ancient mysteries. This worked wonderfully for battlestar Galactica.
Now Andromeda is a terrible choice. From the start it was given a big budget and airtime other sci fi shows could only dream of. It also had an outstanding premise. But it has become an example if how NOT to do a sci fi show as it slowly unravelled and threw away whatever made it good in favour of lowest common denominator episodes and wisecracks in favour of good storytelling. I have tried three times to watch the five seasons and can never get past the start of season four.
Blake’s seven I would agree needs a relook. It was trying to make a more cohesive whole ( in a small way) at a time when that was not the norm. The jarring switching of environment between series was a downer in the original, but if given a modern treatment it could be an amazing choice.
Space above and beyond… Why? It was flawed from the ground up. A group of ‘soldiers’ who sometimes are grunts on the ground and other times flying fighter spacecraft? Please.
Buck Rogers I would favour over flash Gordon. They have similar origins and history and were popular movie theatre serials. I love me some Flash, but the man lost in time premise of buck Rogers has maybe more resonance today than the camp (but fun) Flash. I loved the original series. Yes it was terrible in many places but the central idea was strong. In Andromeda the lead actor Mr Sorbo was trying to always remove the heavier or thoughtful parts to make the show lighter and fluffier to its detriment. It’s ironic that in Buck Rogers, designed as lighter and fluffier, Mr Gerard was always trying to make his character have fewer wisecracks and more gravitas. He grasped that the key element of a man alone lost in a future he struggles to comprehend was the story, even if the studio and show runners rolled their eyes at that.
I agree with Buck as for Andromeda it was the studio that messed it up they did the same 2 Earth:Final Conflict.
I recall the first season of Babylon 5 to be rather slow. I thought the next three seasons were excellent. I remember the fifth season to be not as compelling as the previous three seasons. It seemed like there were cutbacks in production for the fifth season. The made for tv Babylon 5 movies were pretty boring except for “In The Beginning” which was solid. I found Crusade to be underwhelming.
Grittier? On the CW?
If these are my choices, l would want Babylon5. But I would like to see reboots of Sliders and Quantum Leap.
Sliders and Quantum Leap don’t fit the category they’re not space based.
Babylon 5’s wealth of storylines, from the political and religious to war and authoritarian government is so grand and epic, it would be hard to reboot. It’s not like Battlestar Galactica where the only main thread was run from the Cylons, leaving scope to build on elements that weren’t in the original. What is missing from Babylon 5 other than decent dialogue?
What about quantum leap or sliders
How about Ricket Robin Hood! It’s said a “braver man has never been born”.
It sounds like now that NCIS is done Scott Bakula is thinking about doing a continuation of Quantum Leap
Andromeda was horrible, watched it ad nauseam on CTV Space. The Star Lost would be an interesting take for a reboot.
Space 1999, of course renamed for obivious reasons, would be my choice.
I’m excited about the new B5 coming out, but would love to see a reboot of Space: Above and Beyond. I loved that series, had a Wing Commander feel.
I’ve always felt that Alien Nation should be redone. The Mandy Patinkin / James Caan movie only got 52% / 44% on Rotten Tomatoes (I thought it was better than that), but even their critic concensus was “Alien Nation takes the interesting premise of extraterrestrials living among us and doesn’t do enough with it.” They did set up a world that had potential for a lot of stories. It became a Fox TV show that was really starting to go in some interesting directions when it was cancelled on a major cliffhanger at the end of the first season. There were a few TV movies later, but they weren’t as good as the series would have been. I thought that a story of a large group of aliens who crash on Earth and effectively become refugees trying to integrate with our society might, you know, have some relevance in today’s culture.
B5 was always the series that I had the most attachment to, so I’ve had a lot of feelings of defensiveness about anyone trying to reboot it. (Sort of like whenever there are rumors of someone redoing The Princess Bride.) I’m having to remind myself that that station and those characters mean even more to JMS than they do to me, and if he’s choosing to do this, then he must feel there’s a story to be told. I’m going to have to have faith in JMS that he’s not going to F up Babylon 5. And faith manages.
Starlost was horrible! But it could be remade into something great. Hulu had a partial series called Arc that was a bunch of shorts starring Renee O’Connor, each with a new reveal, that was basically Starlost. It was really good as far as it went. They never finished it.
B5 deserves a modern reimagining. More than any you mention outside of B7.
Earth 2 should be rebooted.
I have Star Cops in a tie with Blake’s 7 at the top. Then Babylon 5, and Space: Above and Beyond. I wouldn’t care to see the others rebooted.
Before any of them, I would take a reboot of Star Trek: Enterprise minus the stupid Temporal Cold War. That show had so much potential but they couldn’t get through the first episode without throwing in the Klingons and time travel. The grittier, lower tech Enterprise with real exploration and first contact stories were great. Stick to that and let us meet the Klingons in due time. Ditch the lame gimmicks so we can watch humanity’s earliest journeys outside our solar system. No Q, no Ferengi, no Borg, no holodecks, etc. Piccard’s luxury liner Enterprise-D will have them centuries later. Give us about six years of Archer and his crew culminating in the treaty between Earth and Romulus.
Agreed. However, that Zindi season if “Enterprise” really went off on a lame tangent.
If you think a 1970s animated Flash Gordon is the best known version you are just projecting your own experience. The original live action version is, apart from the movie with the Queen soundtrack, the only version I even ever heard of. And you can’t reboot it, that genre is as dead as doornails. As for Blake’s 7, are you kidding me? The world is done with cheesy adventure serials, audiences are too sophisticated now. Even children. If you’re going to reboot something it needs to have a unique theme that is strong enough to survive being ripped out and placed in a much more mature and modern context with all the cheese left behind.
The only reboot worth a damn to date has been Battlestar Galactica. I think the core concepts of Babylon 5 are good enough to make that work, except that the original show was just too good and the original actors are irreplaceable. JMS should just have it remastered with better visuals.
Space: Above and Beyond….they were the “Wildcards”. Each pilot’s call sign was based on a card. Not the Wildcats.
Space Above and Beyond, for sure Dark Skies was also amazing but not sure it quite fits the bill for the post… I am looking up The Starlost now and am more than a little excited.
As I have commented before, a Blake’s 7 reboot would be hands-down my first choice. Space: Above And Beyond was also a great show that ended prematurely and unresolved. Dark Skies was another favorite of mine. What about a live-action reboot of the early ’60’s Japanese animation cartoon series 8th Man? That was my favorite cartoon when I was a kid along with Speed Racer.
I would like a Blake’s 7 reboot, but not if I have to choose.
Small nitpick… Space:Above and Beyond – They were the “Wild Cards” not wild cats. That said I agree with your list though it seems Star Trek Discovery is playing out the Andromeda premise since S3.
Blake’s 7 was amazing but if they did it I would want it as a Doctor Who spinoff since Terry Nation had planned to bring in the Daleks at one point.
Can we just stop with the rebooting nonsense? New stories need to be told. Honestly, most of these shows are outdated in more than just technology, but also in culture. These shows were social commentary about the society that existed back then. By the time you update the technology, rework the characters, and rewrite the story, it’s a new IP wearing grandpa’s clothes. Be brave. Write social commentary about the society we live in now.
Having said that, Six Million Dollar Man is my “eat an entire bag of Oreo cookies while binge watching” hope for a reboot. Sigh. I have no integrity.
These are terrible choices. Babylon 5 deserves a new generation of fans. Andromeda deserves to be erased from history and Firefly deserves a second chance.
Other suggestions perhaps?
Buck Rogers, would also be fun.
“in addition to” rather than “instead of.”
I agree about “Andromeda”. Although it had promise, it devolved into “brawl of the week” stories. (Boring!) I’m a huge B5 fan and I have *all* of the B5 scripts, etc. books) and look forward to seeing what JMS will do with a reboot.
That said, I would be delighted to see a “Space: Above and Beyond” reboot would look like. It clearly didn’t get the chance it deserved.
In addition, I think I’d like to see “Blake’s 7”, both the original and a reboot as JMS (Babylon 5 creator) is quoted as saying it was a big influence for him.
Bottom line: I look forward to any good (especially hard-core) Sci-Fi on television or in theaters.
The LEGO Roboticist
Totally agree