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I'm watching the 2005 remake of The Quatermass Experiment. The original was made over 50 years ago although it looks like most of that series was lost in the same way that many Dr Who episodes have been lost. A feature film version from 1955 exists, so I suspect that the 2005 version is some sort of anniversary version. The '55 version is pretty lame in terms of SF and the dramatics. It was lame when I saw it in the '60s. But it was important in terms of the acceptance of SF as a viable TV theme. Without a successful Quatermass there would not have been Dr Who and all that followed. It is lame because it is slow moving and dated. Not only in terms of the science but in terms of the wooden dramatic style favoured in those times.
The remake could have gone several ways. They could have kept the name and essentially rewritten it from scratch, just keeping a few character names and plot points. There are plenty of examples of this approach and they are almost always bad - BSG being the only example I can think of that actually works. They could have made it a modern continuation - new stories keeping the as faithful as they can to the spitit but not the latter of the older shows. That works well for Dr Who. They could have taken the old story and kept as close to it as they could but with updated effects, acting, pacing and science. This is the approach I would have favoured - the modern version of Solaris shows how that can work (yes I know both were based on the book but the point holds).
With all those options, what did they chose to do. They remade it as if it was still the 1950s. OK, maybe you could do it with the '50s levels of science. But did they really have to keep with the slow pased dialogue and wooden acting. All they have done is reproduce the "lame". You could argue that they are showing reverence for a classic show. Sorry, but that does not work for me.
The remake could have gone several ways. They could have kept the name and essentially rewritten it from scratch, just keeping a few character names and plot points. There are plenty of examples of this approach and they are almost always bad - BSG being the only example I can think of that actually works. They could have made it a modern continuation - new stories keeping the as faithful as they can to the spitit but not the latter of the older shows. That works well for Dr Who. They could have taken the old story and kept as close to it as they could but with updated effects, acting, pacing and science. This is the approach I would have favoured - the modern version of Solaris shows how that can work (yes I know both were based on the book but the point holds).
With all those options, what did they chose to do. They remade it as if it was still the 1950s. OK, maybe you could do it with the '50s levels of science. But did they really have to keep with the slow pased dialogue and wooden acting. All they have done is reproduce the "lame". You could argue that they are showing reverence for a classic show. Sorry, but that does not work for me.
