The “dirty dozen of space” have found a landing base as Deadline is reporting that the Syfy network has signed on to develop a reboot version of the British sci-fi cult classic ‘Blakes 7′.
‘Blake’s 7’ was the brainchild of Terry Nation, the same person who created one of the most feared villains in ‘Doctor Who‘, the Daleks. The series followed the exploits of a group of renegade and convicted criminals as they travel through space trying to stay one step ahead of their enemies and wage war on the evil Federation. The series aired for four seasons and while it was considered a low budget show, ‘Blake’s 7’ was an international hit and continues to have fans even to this day.
Syfy has given the project a script-to-series commitment meaning that if the network likes the script, then it will green light the show for a 13 episode series bypassing the pilot process. Since the series will be written by Joe Pokaski (‘Heroes‘, ‘CSI’), the likelihood that the show will be on air is very promising. Also on board is features director Martin Campbell (‘Green Lantern‘, ‘Casino Royale, ‘ ‘The Mask of Zorro’) who will be directing the episodes.
While no plot details have been disclosed, it remains to be seen what form the ‘Blake’s 7’ reboot will take or how faithful it will be to the original. There are ample opportunities to add some modern day political and social allegories into the series as was done in the original and the genre could do with another televised space opera since the cancellation of ‘Battlestar Galactica‘.
This is definitely a project we’ll be keeping our eyes on and we’ll make sure we keep you informed on the progress of this series!
