The BBC has confirmed that it has concluded a deal with the estate of the late Terry Nation to create a new version of the cult 70s science fiction show Survivors. Nation, well-known to SF viewers for Blake’s 7 (creaky sets, often hammy acting and yet many of us still loved it), not to mention creating the Daleks for Doctor Who, devised Survivors which ran for three seasons on the BBC from 1975 and which followed a small group of people who had survived a sudden pandemic which had wiped out much of humanity. Drawing on a strain (sorry, bad virus pun) of British SF which looked at the downside of scientific ability rapidly expanding faster than the ability (or morality) to use it properly the series hinted that the virus was man-made, playing on Cold War fears of biological attack. Sadly that’s a fear which didn’t die with the end of the Cold War and one we all have to live with in the post 9-11 world, so I suspect a new version of Survivors could work very well in the current climate of the threat of biological attacks by terrorists or the natural pandemics such as bird flu.
(Lucy Fleming in the original 1970s Survivors by Terry Nation and the BBC)
The new series will be written by Adrian Hodges who adapted Philip Pullman’s Ruby in the Smoke for TV (starring former Doctor Who actress Billie Piper) and time-travel/monster show Primeval. Commenting on the announcement, Hodge said “Survivors was one of the bravest and most exciting programmes of its time and I’m thrilled to be involved with re-imagining it for a new audience. I remember its original impact vividly and I hope we can make a similar impression with the new version.” It will be interesting to see how they update the show while still keeping the impact of the original; personally as a youngster I remember the opening sequence being pretty disturbing in itself.
As the Survivors: a World Away site notes this confirmation comes after much speculation, citing news items from the Guardian and SFX from 2006 confidently proclaiming the series was about to return; Kate Harwood, head of series and serials at the Beeb’s Drama Production, did say that the negotiations had taken ‘months’, which probably won’t surprise many Brit SF fans since similar delicate negotiations had to be held with the Nation estate over the use of the Daleks for the revived Doctor Who. Still, welcome news for fans, a potentially very zeitgeist kind of story and further proof that TV bosses continue to be very interested in science fiction.
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