Televisual British SF or fantasy

Dean wrote: Logan wrote: Another later children's one I recall had some kind of spacecraft that kids found (a brown and sleek one). For quite a long time I was looking into the children's shows as there was this scene of a pyramid that kids find from I think a British show that was stuck in my head as a child. I seem to remember the Thames theme coming up at the beginning.   Neither of those ring any bells with me. Thames series I do remember are 'Ace of Wands' and 'Shadows', with the latter being an anthology of single episode stories is a possible contender, then "a group of kids find..." is the basic premise of most kids' SF programmes is it not?  The last children's TV series I watched with any regularity was 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' though I did manage to catch a couple of episodes of 'My Parents Are Aliens' (staring Carla Mendonça and Tony Gardener) and 'The Demon Headmaster' A few from your list that haven't been mentioned yet that I really enjoyed: 'Sapphire and Steel' - aside from the gaff that neither sapphire nor steel are elements it was a pretty cool concept. 'Doomwatch' was essential viewing - especially the episode where Toby attempted to defuse a nuclear bomb, and of course the opening episode (Mutant 59 - The Plastic Eater). I quite liked that it reminiscent of  'Quatermass', though I was too young to have seen the original 'Quatermass' tv series, I had seen all the film versions. By 'Survivor' do you mean either or both of the 'Survivors' by Terry Nation? I haven't seen the recent remake but the original was great. The best SF series of recent years won't fit in with any of your polls because it was a German/British/Canadian production: Lexx ... it went a bit flat later but the first two series were excellent. Oh, I voted The Prisoner ... nothing will ever beat it as far as I'm concerned. A visit to Portmeirion while on vacation in Wales a few years back didn't disappoint either. Unfortunately the reboot was as forgettable as the original was unforgettable. [edit: nnggg...typing this with pre-migraine aura flashing in my field of vision has resulted in silly typing errors and some dreadful grammar, sorry... not looking forward to the next few hours much... ]

I'm sorry about the migraine. And Survivor was a silly typo on my part, I meant the original Survivors.

That is typical premise, but that's all I remember. I may have dreamed up the pyramid thing as I think it may be an amalgamation of shows that a saw when I was wee. Doctor Who's Pyramid's of Mars meets Tomorrow People meets Land of the Lost, maybe, but I think not. As for the other show, I'm sure I could find that with a quick search. I saw that when I was older. A lot older, looks like it was Acquila from the late 90s.

As for Lexx, I was big fan of that show. I forgot that it was part British, so I did add it to the other poll. EDIT: I thought I put lLexx in te other poll, must have edted it out be mistake,like with he Tomorrow People In this poll.

I had done some webwriting work for its Canadian production company regarding another show which is how I found out about it. I agree that the first two series were best. I got complaints from a certain actress for photo-shopping in a less than flattering way. I was looking to see if I could find some of those those photoshops, but I lost that image account years ago, and deleted the ones deemed offensive. I did find an exceedingly lame idea of mine for a continuation of the series after the Lexx was destroyed, which is not worth repeating here called The Adventures of Little Lexx: Tales from the Erogenous Zone. http://littlelexx.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=794

"There is a third zone. It is a dimension, not only of sight and sound, but of mind. It is a universe found between light and shadow, between the Dark Zone and the Light. They have now entered The Erogenous Zone...."

I actually particularly enjoyed the first Lexx series, and for me I Worship His Shadow is one of the best sci-fi debut episodes every made. A quite disturbing, raunchy and very funny show.

And yes, the Prisoner is amazing. I'm glad that Patrick McGoohan didn't become James Bond.

Edited by Logan - May 18 2016 at 15:09

And series three of Lexx was brilliant! I agree the last series was a push but it had some terrific episodes and is also worth a another look at.
Especially the way new Doctor Who and other recent shows were more family orientated than how far Less used to go.

Edited by AZF - May 19 2016 at 01:04

AZF wrote: I grew up with Doctor Who from the 1970's, but I had to vote for Sapphire & Steel. Never rebooted visually, never bettered. Always mocked by the media but six stories broken down into half hour (For some stories or "Assignments") episodes. Please invest in the complete box set it's really rewarding! Assignment Two really is as great as it's made out to be and you'd never get anything like that from America, or sadly Britain these days.

Assignment 2 is great. I'll look into getting the complete box set.

AZF wrote: And series three of Lexx was brilliant! I agree the last series was a push but it had some terrific episodes and is also worth a another look at. Especially the way new Doctor Who and other recent shows were more family orientated than how far Less used to go.

I liked Series 3 a lot too (Prince was a satisfying character), and series 4 is worth looking into again. I think I have all of the episodes on DVD in storage as someone with the series gave them to me. It did have some good episodes. My complaint at the time with Series 4 was that it was too farcical and not satirical enough, but I don't think it was a very justified complaint. Season 4 was a very interesting premise considering the events of season 3.

^ not ageing well is a common problem, especially on low-budget TV productions.

Probably not what you had in mind when the thought of British SF/fantasy was presented but you can't have British syfy without mentioning some of these:

Dean wrote: On a related note, it amused me to realise that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is set in a future that is over 40 years in our past making it an Alternative History rather than Speculative Fiction.

Or even Cold War Postulation.

I do sometimes track sci-fi theory to see how well it's doing ~ 2001, Star Trek, whatever ~ and obviously the vast majority of speculative sci-fi has been either wrong and/or still too far ahead to tell.   Suffice to say events move (or don't) in unexpected ways and there's barely a sign that intergalactic travel, matter transference, perfect humanoids, or even Arthur Clarke's epic conquest of the solar system will come to pass at any foreseeable time.   Even things like Terminator or Blade Runner which have some basis in reality were rosy in their technologic predictions if grim in their societal ones.

But that's fine with me--  something tells me life on this good Earth, as is, is much better than anywhere else or other reality.  I don't care how many planets I could visit or monsters I could battle.




Edited by Atavachron - May 20 2016 at 19:22

I don't know if anyone will remember this, but I also liked Orson Welles' Great Mysteries that appeared briefly in the mid-70s. Memorable theme song...

Dean wrote: Logan wrote:   I think you're altogether right about the Prisoner in Bondage (not an original pun of mine). By the way, you probably know this, but his particular Catholic sensibilities meant that he didn't like the promiscuity of Bond, nor did he like guns (despite Fall Out where one may discern in an ironic fashion that not only is all you need love, but happiness is a warm gun). MacGyver! He disliked guns and always found a way of utilising them in non-firearm ways - one that made me laugh out loud was in an episode (featuring Robert Englund) where a nuclear reactor was heading for melt-down so he dismantled a revolver to use as a spanner...

Late response. Oh yes, MacGyver was very good at jury rigging. It was made locally, so I often saw them filming, and spoke to Richard Dean Anderson at length on a location shoot up a mountain that made me very late for work (my brother became friends with him). Very nice fellow.

Anyway, I'm posting because I realize that I missed an excellent zombie meets Big Brother mini-series that I have mentioned before, but only finished watching yesterday: Dead Set, which was created/ written by Charlie Brooker. Charlie Brooker is behind the superb Black Mirror (will be a series 3 this year).

Also Psychoville (loved it) and Inside No. 9 should be here (guess I hadn't quite discovered those shows when I made it). And I rather think Garth Merenghi's Darkplace should be here.





Edited by Logan - July 08 2016 at 14:15

I am still working on getting to 40 points to contribute to the polls, but my vote would without a doubt be The Prisoner. I absolutely love that show, it is my favorite television show ever. I have the complete series on blu-ray. I'm a bit obsessed with it, and I have been seen I first watched it as a kid with my dad.

My one friend is absolutely obsessed with Doctor Who, she collects anything and everything related to it, I tried to get into it myself but it does absolutely nothing for me. Anyways, a little off topic but another show that I love that is like the prisoner a little was the original Avengers series with John Steed and Emma Peel.


Edited by BunBun - July 08 2016 at 16:16

BunBun wrote: another show that I love that is like the prisoner a little was the original Avengers series with John Steed and Emma Peel.

Been watching it late nights on the weekends, it's a kick, soooo 1960s English kitsch with mind-control and robots and zombies and flesh-eating plants .   I'm guessing that's not what Special Branch was really up to.