Everybody's re-imagining old science fiction franchises, from Battlestar and Bionic Woman to Star Trek and Terminator. (Can you remember when you had never heard the verb "re-imagine?" Now, it's the only verb I ever use.) But some of the greatest classics are still waiting for their extreme makeovers. It's time to give Hollywood a little push! Click through to vote for the best fixer-upper.
Which Scifi Franchise Cries Out For A Re-Imagining?
10:53 AM on Fri Jan 25 2008
By charliejane
30,022 views
117 comments













Comments
Space 1999. Imagine a CGI Maya transforming.
SeaQuest. I had to. That show was crazy, what with the dolphins and the deep sea voyaging...
Just restart SG-1 and we'll pretend the cancellation never happened.
AUTOMANN!
I love the "Escape from..." idea. But he has to wear an eyepatch.
[Votes Buck Rogers, knowing full well that it will get the Flash Gordon Treatment]
I'd also like to see a modernized Logan's Run (TV series).
@emilia: Dang, I should have included Space: 1999.
Not even contemporary VFX can make me suspend my disbelief enough to accept the moon getting blasted out of the earth's orbit and then being able to cruise at like, a thousand times the speed of light through the galaxy. Besides, you just can't top Joan Collins in a mini-toga in the episode with the cannibal ark.
I vote for both Seaquest and Blake's 7
Wait, can I retcon my vote? I want to vote for Airwolf.
Logan's Run
Ok, I totally love that as of my vote, there is a tie between Buck Rogers and special K in the drinking water. Maybe someone should combine both ideas...But seriously, I'm ready to get back to some just plain imagining. Hollywood's stuck, and I don't think I can handle another reboot or reproduction of a show I didn't much care for to begin with.
@rrich:
Here! Here!
@mitchel_stevens: YES. Except they shouldn't update the special effects too much.
I'd like to see Logan's Run or Buck Rogers redone.
Although, they need to keep the spandex, disco, and capes in each if they do it.
I'd like to see some new adaptations of some good sci-fi books or series.
Like Honor Harrington, 1632, or pretty much anything by John Ringo or David Weber.
I'd especially like to see Ian McDonald's "Out on Blue Six" turned into a movie.
@emilia: Of course, it would have to be Space 2099. I always liked Alpha's layout and the design of the Eagles. If they kept those and came up with some updated costumes and a better and more manageable story-line, it would rock!
@charliejane: Easy to forget. There weren't that many episodes, and Season 2 was forgettable compared to Season 1, though Maya was a great addition.
@emilia:
Return to the Devil's Planet!
(Not Safe For all Work):
[video.google.com]
Duck Dodgers!
Why not take something that was made poorly and make it good? I'm thinking Tank Girl or Prayer of the Roller Boys
How about a re-imagined "The Greatest American Hero"? Well...a re-imagining of everything BUT the theme song.
instead of "re-imagining"...why now a mash-up style of raping the past...how about a Noir Detective in a Jules Verneish steampunk world?* or a medieval frankenstein?*
@Dillenger69: Is John Ringo any good?
I keep getting drawn to his books by their covers, but then don't quite know what to make of the book descriptions...
* patent pending.
I hated all of these ideas. Please,please,please do not EVER attempt to be a television or movie writer. It would be teh suckage.
airwolf would be hot.
all current tv and movie scifi with which I'm familar seems tediously unimaginative.
I've an idea that could be used for an updated and re-imagined Star Trek or something Trek-like. I call it "Thinking outside the brane."
@dbcooper.eu: Wow, that was spectacular.
Can't we just resurrect John Collicos and have "The Sci-Fi Retro Hour With John Collicos", in which he re-enacts all the neato-stuff he did. But this time, he'll also be a detective from an alternative past on another planet, who is a sometimes pimp, with prophetic powers, activated by his addiction to government mandated drugs.
No one's mentioned Uncyclopedia's remimagining of MST3K yet?
[uncyclopedia.org]
Days of Our Lives
/demon possession? Teh stupidest evar!
Not a reimagining but I've always wondered why Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" series didn't get the movie treatment.
Logan's Run could be awesome...
@NefariousNewt: Agreed, the Eagles are one of the best Spaceships in all of SciFi!!
I want to see a Blakes 7 remake with James Nesbit as Blake.
And Dillenger - I want a 1632 movie or miniseries starring Nathan Fillion as Mike Stearns.
Misfits of Science!
I think yerall thinking too small. How about "The Starlost" With new CGI effects a hundred-mile-wide-ship on a collision course with a black hole would be cake. Besides it would give Walter Koenig (The Alien Oro) something to do since he did such a great job as "Bester" the psi cop in Bab5. Starlost is a renaming of "Pheonix from the Ashes" by Harlan Ellison and would have been great if the technology had been there at the time rather than using egg-crate-foam on the walls and furniture of all the sets.
Bionic Six
A live-action Macross series. A Running Man series (based on the Bachman novel, not the terrible, terrible movie). Ooh, Streethawk!
Actually, I'd take the Special K-laced water over anything else.
Beauty And The Beast? Vincent, Catherine, romantic angst, punkish kids living under NYC.
A Gawker commenter's avatar just reminded me of an SF series I really would like to see rebooted:
Red Dwarf! You know, without the awkward time and plot skip halfway through the series. When you force somebody to read the synopsis of the season that wasn't made, you have ****ed up royally.
Thundarr the Barbarian, yo. LIVE ACTION. just kidding. how bout instead or re-imagining Buck Rogers, they just start playing the old ones again.
@MOFF - that looks REALLY familiar. What was that called?
Actually Live action Thundarr would be hot.
Starship Troopers.
A reimagined Blake's 7 might end up looking an awful lot like Firefly. So it's a wonderful idea.
@SunZhiQian: That would be Small Wonder.
@mgoldfarb: If you don't mind eBooks, Baen has a smattering of his stuff that is free (as in beer).
I recommend "March Upcountry", "There Will be Dragons", or "A Hymn Before Battle" for starters. Out of everything he's done I actually like the 1632 stuff the least, although it's still good.
Out of these I guess Buck Rogers would be coolest.
But there are two properties that are both SCREAMING for reworking, and I am not sure which would be better if done well, or worse if fouled up. At any rate: Star Blazers and V.
Odyssey 5!. I want to know more about the cabal, and the Martian AIs, and even more importantly about the internet evolved AIs. That show was implemented a little strangely but man it had some big ideas.
second one of these polls and still no "Lost in Space"
@zeppelined: Now Airwolf, there's an idea I can get behind.
Mork and Mindy
> A reimagined Blake's 7 might end up looking an awful lot like Firefly
Or Farscape.
If the reimagine Buck then just make sure Twikie's head doesn't look like a circumsized dick.
I vote for Space 1999 and Red Dwarf, and RD should be shot in Tom Green's basement.
My Favorite Martian, Logan's Run (make it like the book), Lost in Space.