Author Topic: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot  (Read 21734 times)

Offline sanman

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Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« on: 07/21/2017 04:30 am »
I'm curious to know which older space sci-fi that people might want to see rebooted or brought back in a more updated form. What older sci-fi would you pick, and what changes would you like for the reboot?

I was just thinking about Space:1999 recently, and thought that might be worthy of a reboot - with a suitably updated title, of course - especially since there's increasing focus on spaceflight activity for the Moon in real life. Perhaps this would make a rebooted show more topical and current.

The thing with reboots is that they often end up re-working significant portions of the original plot premise, to stay in tune with contemporary audiences (or to conveniently shoehorn/retrofit some vaguely useful script onto the original story brand)

I was thinking that a Space:1999 reboot would not have the Moon leaving the solar system, but would instead revolve around geopolitical intrigue centered on a fight over the Moon, which is suddenly discovered to have some extremely valuable resources, including particularly some kind of "unobtainium" (eg. Helium-3?)
Moonbase Alpha would be a sprawling scientific research station established by international collaboration and hosting a variety of international participants.

What the reboot would retain from the original would be the iconic Eagle spacecraft, while also featuring other newer and interesting types of spacecraft. A reboot would perhaps be set in the year 2039.

What other space sci-fi might be worth rebooting, and how?
« Last Edit: 07/23/2017 10:49 am by sanman »

Offline Ben the Space Brit

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #1 on: 07/21/2017 10:57 am »
FWIW, I started plotting out a reboot of Space: 1999 (called Space: 2099) that had some elements of Christopher Nolan's Intersteallar and Star Trek - Deep Space Nine. The 'Meta' object turns out to be some kind of exotic matter asteroid on a collision course with Earth. When detonated by leaving all the nuclear waste in its path, it creates a wormhole entrance in near-Earth space (maybe at the EML4 or EML5 point).

From there on, you have ships from Earth and the moon going through the wormhole to see what's on the other side. As a somewhat- arbitrary constraint, the wormhole is only semi-stable and the far end relocates randomly every few weeks, leaving the protagonists only a limited time to explore the system on the far end before the wormhole shifts and anyone still on the far end would be marooned.

I had thought of three running themes:

1) A fusion with UFO with the aliens (whom I arbitrarily named 'Zetans') coming for a second shot at Earth;
2) There is a Earth spacecraft marooned in the first system the wormhole led to which is relatively close to Earth (Epsilon Erandi, perhaps); work is underway to try to develop a FTL drive to mount a rescue mission (reference to both the Voyager neutron beam drive and the Super Swift warp drive in Space: 1999);
3) It just turns out that some of Earth's neighbours (the Dorcans, a major interstellar empire charcterised by the exploitation of other species in various horrible ways, introduced at the end of season 2 of Space: 1999) are beginning to sniff around with less-than-friendly intentions. There would be the possibility of a 'The enemy of my enemy...' alliance-of-desperation with the Zetans in the long term.

UFO could also profitably be rebooted, especially if concepts used in the X-COM reboot games could be licensed for use.

I also think that you could also reboot Lost in Space by merging it somewhat with Passengers - The Robinsons, Major West and Dr Smith have been awoken early (was it a malfunction or was it Dr Smith's sabotage at work?) and must survive until the main ship (which would be a relativistic colony ship like the Lenora Christine in Tau Zero) arrives at it's colonial destination many decades in the future. As most of the ship's stores are inaccessible, they have to occasionally do fly-by visits to habitable worlds to pick up supplies to keep them going. Of course, the far lower Isp of the Jupiter-II heavy lander (think of a merger between the Ranger and Lander from Interstellar) means that they need to leave at a particular time to catch up with and dock with the main ship in a reasonable time-frame.

Naturally, eventually, they'd miss an window and you'd end up with a few episodes, maybe even a fair chunk of a season, that is entirely the Jupiter-II at a full burn to catch up with the main ship (something that could take years, shipboard time) with the crew having 'show in a can' adventures on the shuttle when Robot periodically wakes them up to do maintenance tasks as well as ensure that their health isn't being impacted by long stays in the short-duration cryo-stasis system on the shuttle, which was never intended to work for as long as the more advanced models on the main ship.
« Last Edit: 07/21/2017 11:08 am by Ben the Space Brit »
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Offline Svetoslav

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #2 on: 07/21/2017 11:02 am »
I'd like to see the Half-Life 2 sci-fi game rebooted, according to modern technology. But probably will never happen.

Other than that? Space Odyssey rebooted, with a mission around Saturn instead of Jupiter.

Offline Archibald

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #3 on: 07/21/2017 07:43 pm »
FWIW, I started plotting out a reboot of Space: 1999 (called Space: 2099) that had some elements of Christopher Nolan's Intersteallar and Star Trek - Deep Space Nine.

Brilliant.
Han shot first and Gwynne Shotwell !

Offline savuporo

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #4 on: 07/21/2017 07:53 pm »
Inquest of Pilot Pirx

« Last Edit: 07/22/2017 09:12 am by savuporo »
Orion - the first and only manned not-too-deep-space craft

Offline landlubber

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #5 on: 07/21/2017 07:57 pm »
It would be nice to see a film / TV reworking of The Silver Locusts / Martian Chronicles. The 1980's Rock Hudson version was / still is brilliant but I always felt it lacked a bit of the poetry that the book conveyed.

Offline KelvinZero

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #6 on: 07/22/2017 12:49 am »
I also keep thinking of Space 1999 reboots, and like a lot of posts here Im always thinking about how a hardSF tv series could work.

For Space 1999 I had a couple of ideas that I admit are not very hard SF.

---(1)---
The first was just to replace the astronomically implausible notion of an explosion that sends the moon carreening through space to orbit a different earthlike planet every week. The show had such great somewhat plausible models, and potential for all round plausibility, then they gave it to the pilot and he threw it out the window.

A minimal change would be to just say "It was aliens". It is a cop out, a blatant plot generator like the stargate, but then everything else could plausible human technology. I was thinking that the collision that formed the moon from the earth could have been with some huge almost indestructable alien machine, say 100km across, and the moon formed around it. Humans find it and this triggers a vast international scientific project, with bases from different nations sort of like Antarctica. There is also a lot of political intrigue and suspicion of spies embedded in the teams.

Our alien plot generator gets triggered, and the moon begins to jump to unknown destinations, similar to the stargate plot generator. It always replaces a singularity or other body of the same mass at the destination, so the destination is not disrupted by the gravity.

So you actually have 3 plot generators:
(1) The stargate plot generator
(2) Alien secrets still hidden within the moon itself.
(3) All the cooperation and intrigue between the various bases that are now cut off from earth.

---(2)---
The second idea could be slipped into (1). What if it was a parallel earth that found this alien artifact, not us. Suddenly the moon in our sky is replaced with a colonised one. The culture on that moon is pretty much the present day as envisioned by people in the 1970s. There would be some comedy, with 1970s culture next to ours, but also they would represent what we could have been. They were the ones that made it.

Offline Gliderflyer

Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #7 on: 07/22/2017 07:11 am »
Even though the original was close to perfect, I always thought that a Destination Moon remake with modern special effects would be pretty cool (assuming it was done right).

I tried it at home

Offline MickQ

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #8 on: 07/23/2017 01:26 am »
Space: Above and Beyond.  Originally planned to run 5 seasons but cancelled after only one due to poor ratings.
I liked it and I thought it had great potential.  Rebooted with 20 year newer technology it might be a winner.

Offline Blackstar

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #9 on: 07/23/2017 01:55 am »
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Just do it already!

(There have been several efforts to either bring it to the big screen or TV, all abandoned. You can even find Tim Minear's TV script online.)

Offline sanman

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #10 on: 07/23/2017 11:56 am »
I also keep thinking of Space 1999 reboots, and like a lot of posts here Im always thinking about how a hardSF tv series could work.

For Space 1999 I had a couple of ideas that I admit are not very hard SF.

---(1)---
The first was just to replace the astronomically implausible notion of an explosion that sends the moon carreening through space to orbit a different earthlike planet every week. The show had such great somewhat plausible models, and potential for all round plausibility, then they gave it to the pilot and he threw it out the window.

A minimal change would be to just say "It was aliens". It is a cop out, a blatant plot generator like the stargate, but then everything else could plausible human technology. I was thinking that the collision that formed the moon from the earth could have been with some huge almost indestructable alien machine, say 100km across, and the moon formed around it. Humans find it and this triggers a vast international scientific project, with bases from different nations sort of like Antarctica. There is also a lot of political intrigue and suspicion of spies embedded in the teams.

Our alien plot generator gets triggered, and the moon begins to jump to unknown destinations, similar to the stargate plot generator. It always replaces a singularity or other body of the same mass at the destination, so the destination is not disrupted by the gravity.

So you actually have 3 plot generators:
(1) The stargate plot generator
(2) Alien secrets still hidden within the moon itself.
(3) All the cooperation and intrigue between the various bases that are now cut off from earth.

---(2)---
The second idea could be slipped into (1). What if it was a parallel earth that found this alien artifact, not us. Suddenly the moon in our sky is replaced with a colonised one. The culture on that moon is pretty much the present day as envisioned by people in the 1970s. There would be some comedy, with 1970s culture next to ours, but also they would represent what we could have been. They were the ones that made it.

Gee, I like yours and BenTheSpaceBrit's ideas better than mine.  :D
You both should come up with a plot synopsis for a pilot episode.

I too had thought about Alien_Technology™ being hidden inside the Moon - perhaps even deep below Moonbase Alpha itself - and that could even be the Big Secret - the hidden reason why the Moonbase was established, with nearly everybody on Earth being kept in the dark about this.

Your idea of connecting it with the collision that originally formed the Moon sounds cool. That would make for a very large and nearly-indestructible alien spacecraft/structure.
Alternatively, using the other origin theory of the Moon having been a wandering satellite that was captured by Earth's gravity, could then make for Space1999-in-reverse (ie. a Moon that had previously wandered through other solar systems and perhaps collected various things from them) It also creates the possibility that the Moon somehow selected the Earth as a destination, perhaps deliberately sent to Earth with the goal of fostering life/intelligence (a la 2001 monolith)

Having a large alien spaceship/structure embedded inside the bowels of the Moon reminds me a bit of that old movie Forbidden Planet, which featured highly advanced technology hidden deep underground by a lost civilization.

Maybe investigation/examination of the Alien Technology beneath the Moonbase inadvertently triggers some signal/beacon, which then summons who-knows-what from parts unknown. Or maybe it accidentally triggers some kind of doomsday device, or awakens a bunch of frozen aliens who have their own agenda.


Offline eric z

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #11 on: 07/23/2017 01:02 pm »
 A lot of the "Juvenile" Heinlein stuff could make nice movies. "Tunnel in the Sky" could be re-imagined in quite exciting style. "Podkayne of Mars" is one I always think of, too, especially when everyone is talking about these ITS ships going back and forth. "Citizen of the Galaxy" could be done as a great epic... All of the Tom Corbett books have wild plots worth rehashing.
 But, and this is a Big But for me, I am not a big fan of the over-blown, modern special effects and shallowness of character-development, IMHO, in modern films; so I would hate to have my mental image of one of S-F's classics ruined by a poor job... but, you never know- it could turn out fine! I'm quirky- I much prefer the classic Godzilla to the modern big-budget ones.
 We've had a lot of Mars films lately, so maybe the Moon could get back in the game; yes, Blackstar's right: MIAHM would potentially be awesome and a plot where we just have to have a Mercury exploration for some wild reason would be nice, too!---Asimov had the super-neat "Lucky Starr" stuff that would be fun to see, not to mention early Ben Bova.
 For more stimulation A.E.van Vogt, Clifford Simak, Eric Frank Russell: Hollywood- get busy!
« Last Edit: 07/23/2017 01:09 pm by eric z »

Offline jgoldader

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #12 on: 07/23/2017 10:22 pm »
Space: Above and Beyond.  Originally planned to run 5 seasons but cancelled after only one due to poor ratings.
I liked it and I thought it had great potential.  Rebooted with 20 year newer technology it might be a winner.

Wish there was a Blu Ray of this.

I'd pay real money to see a faithful adaptation of Starship Troopers.  Or Have Spacesuit Will Travel.
« Last Edit: 07/23/2017 10:24 pm by jgoldader »
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Offline sanman

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #13 on: 07/24/2017 05:44 am »
Space: Above and Beyond.  Originally planned to run 5 seasons but cancelled after only one due to poor ratings.
I liked it and I thought it had great potential.  Rebooted with 20 year newer technology it might be a winner.

Wish there was a Blu Ray of this.

I'd pay real money to see a faithful adaptation of Starship Troopers.  Or Have Spacesuit Will Travel.

There was a CG-animated series adaptation of Starship Troopers, called Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles. It had the power-armor, Marauders and everything.

Offline QuantumG

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #14 on: 07/24/2017 06:59 am »
I watched all of it on my GP2X.
Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline KelvinZero

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #15 on: 07/24/2017 11:46 am »
Just remembered this one:

Could we justify Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom with just a bit of time travel?

Or to put it another way, how Barsoom-like could Mars have been at the very beginning, when it very possibly had oceans, a thicker atmosphere and more oxygen than today? That is really the question I want to delve into.

(The method of travel to Mars was clearly just a plot enabler. The hero travels there in a drug induced dream from memory. It could easily have been through time as well as space. I think there was only one mention of telescopes on Mars seeing people on earth. Apart from that there was no interactions between the planets. Time travel could also explain human-like martians alongside more alien varieties. Humans from earth could have been scattered across various time periods, some far enough to have evolved significantly to the planet, others differing by little more than skin color.)

(edit: some links mentioned in following posts)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_ocean_hypothesis
Earth 4000 million years ago

I thought of an addition to this idea afterwards. This could tie into the H.G. Wells war of the worlds book also. The gate back to Mars could create a paradox that traps the martian civilisation on Mars, because if they had advanced to colonise the solar system present day earth could not exist in its current form.

In some ways they are very advanced, but they are also strangely stunted technologically by this paradox leading to magical technology but never mastering open ended colonisation or even a truely global economy. The adventure could encompass the entire ancient solar system but everything they do eventually is wiped out by catastrophe and conflict.

To escape this trap, martian warlord scheme to bury their tripod war machines, built to last a 4 billion year sleep, and simultaneously strive to infiltrate Earth through the gates to destroy them, breaking the paradox trap, at which point the war of the worlds would begin. Some sort of "League of extraordinary Gentlemen" fight these infiltrators with steampunk-style technology reverse engineered from martian tech.

The series would never actually show the war. I's beginning would probably be the end of the series. There would just be lots of foreshadowing.
« Last Edit: 07/24/2017 11:48 am by KelvinZero »

Offline Ben the Space Brit

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #16 on: 07/24/2017 11:57 am »
In Alan Dean Foster's Moore's second 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', the story starts with the final battle of a Barsoom/Mars world war with the Wells Martians (aka the 'Crustaceans') being driven off the planet by a coalition of all the planet's other intelligent species that were being led by John Carter.


[edit]
Oops! My err!
« Last Edit: 07/24/2017 12:22 pm by Ben the Space Brit »
"Oops! I left the silly thing in reverse!" - Duck Dodgers

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Offline KelvinZero

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #17 on: 07/24/2017 12:21 pm »
Sounds cool. I honestly hadn't heard of that. Only thing I know about "League of extraordinary gentlemen" was the movie. Do you mean Alan Moore? I liked his "Ballad of Halo Jones" also. (Which stole a bit from "Forever war")
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen,_Volume_II

Offline jebbo

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #18 on: 07/24/2017 12:30 pm »
Most of my sci-fi favourites haven't ever been given film or TV treatment (to my knowledge) so I'm not sure they'd class as re-boots.  A few that spring to mind:
- The Moon's a Harsh Mistress (has been mentioned above)
- Rendezvous with Rama
- Eon, Greg Bear
- Downbelow Station, CJ Cherryh

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Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: Older Space SciFi Worthy of Reboot
« Reply #19 on: 07/24/2017 12:48 pm »
Gerry Anderson's 'UFO' almost got a reboot in the early 2010's - even had a pretty flash-looking website for awhile. But that site is now defunct. If written, cast and directed well; I still think it would make a formidable film trilogy (which was the plan in 2009):  http://www.starburstmagazine.com/movie-news/4304-movie-news-ufo-film-still-a-go

Something else I'd like to see done someday is a 'When World's Collide' remake. Astronomers reckon that there may be thousands of rogue planets wandering the galaxy. Having one on course to hit the Earth or Moon would seriously muck things up! A race to build an Ark or couple of Arks for humans could be a dramatic story if scripted and directed well. In the original film and novels; I think it was actually a pair of worlds that came blundering into our inner solar system - a big, frozen Earth-like world and it's big moon or smaller planetoid. One of them hits the Earth and the other slips into a stable orbit a little nearer the Sun. The people on the Arks make for the new world that is thawing out after millions of years in deep space. It has, somewhat conveniently I suppose, an Earthlike atmosphere once it starts thawing.

The Ark colonists have to survive on the high-ground of an icy world - which will stay that way for a couple hundred years until it thaws out. They find the remnants of a long-dead civilization and technologies that will help them.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Worlds_Collide_(1951_film)
« Last Edit: 07/25/2017 12:09 am by MATTBLAK »
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