I must say I was a bit disappointed with this. The last series was slow moving with a rush of action in the last five minutes. The first episode of the second series looked more like a cross between "The Last Train" (that scene in the hospital reminded me of the other lot trying to get out of the tunnel) and "Lost" (Greg's flashback scenes of his life before the death). I feel that these episodes are too slow moving and spend too long looking into the character's backgrounds. The re-make of "Day of the Triffids" over Christmas was far better. I think it's about time they bought Bernard Huxley into the episodes (or Berry as he was known in the book) just to remind us that this series is loosely based on Terry Nations novel.

Are you new to Survivors, or watched since the 1970s? Since the re-runs on UK Gold

sandra francis says that she no longer views this as a 'remake' and I have to agree. If you look on this a similarly themed, if inferior, series then it is not so aggravating to watch.

I re-watched the episode and I didn't think it was as risable as the first series. Yes there are stupid plot holes but that's the modern BBC for you - all mouth and no trousers. They say they want to produce top quality drama when in reality they hire class mates with no real idea of how to hang a story together. I wouldn't be suprised to find that this series is popular as it is reasonably entertaining if you don't think about it.

Sadly, I think the days of thoughtful TV drama are over.

"Sadly, I think the days of thoughtful TV drama are over"

Sadly Pete, you are 100% correct in what you say.

When it was announced several years ago that there was to be a new Survivors series, I hoped it would be a "continued 30 years later" story, made in a similar style to the original but with the better technical quality that is available today...then came the "Re-imagining" & "re-making" announcements....I thought, no, this has already been done - to perfection in fact - why do it again.....they could have saved the Licence payers a lot of cash by just having another "End of life as we know it" saga, called it EG "Only the Criminals & Murderers survive" & done complete with orchestra & chorus virtually the same rubbish - without sullying the Original Survivors or Terry Nation's name.

This proves to me completly now, that the makers of modern TV are unable to make correctly: Drama, Sci-fi, Comedy or even Variety shows....most of the Xmas entertainment (worth watching) was performed by the late, lamented DEAD.....

Only the predictable soaps, in their predictable sets, with their predictable arguments go on!
the rest of the sked filled up with cant cook, bodge up a house & racing around the streets in cars with the cops following speeding, drugged up drunken yobs who LOVE performing for them!

Just a few good old progs, mainly on ITV3 & 4 - again most of them are now dead - to give us a bit of entertainment......& of course hours of Snooker.....

Such is broadcasting in the year 2010......
Bye
Bob

Hi Bob,
I think a big problem is that we no longer make British TV. There has been a fashion for a while now to make programmes in what the BBC thinks is the American style. The Americans do it well (usually) and we do not. Ours always come out as a sad pastiche.

This is, in my opinion, because as in in the great days of British television and the BBC the American TV companies are far bolder and prepared to "push the envelope" they may not stick with things (it all being accountant driven) but they give it a go. They also, and this is crucial, employ teams of talented writers so that you get a richness of ideas which is also sadly lacking in our poorly written, poorly conceptualised recent output. I have picked on Russel T Davies previously but he is a good example of someone full of vague ideas who when working largely alone and given free reign produces unbelievable claptrap.

Sadly society reflects the television we are now given. We live in a shallow, vacuous, so called celebrity worshipping culture in which someone who "airs her dirty linen" in public, flashes her genitalia and grotesque plastic breasts to the media at every opportunity is considered a celebrity and someone who tragically much of the teenage female population would like to emulate.

The result of all this is that TV reflects the society in which we live. Empty airheads are elevated to national heroes and real heroes in all aspects of life are ignored. So we get Celebrity this and Celebrity that and shallow mindless television ........the worst part of all is that the beeb and other TV companies only make this twaddle because the great British public demand it and watch it in their droves .....and that my friend, is really sad!

Hi John
Thanks for your reply, I'm afraid I cannot agree with you that the Yanks are better at TV than The BBC & UK TV in general, I think they are equally dire.....the creation by Desilu of the orignal Star trek & before that Whirlybirds, was the last time The Americans were truly original in their creation of TV.
They have followed it with other "Pip squeezing" epics - TNG & DS9 & even Enterprise, but as you point out, Celeb worship has caused many problems.

With regards to Soaps, the viewing sheep out there, will always watch this garbage, but why not scrap the old Coronation & Eastenders etc, & create some new ones.....Perhaps one based on life in a Norfolk village or town, or even one set in Wiltshire. There is a lot of room for change on the currently Boring TV screen - just someone with some imagination needs to wield his/her Axe!
Bob

Hello Bob,

I didn't mean US TV in general because I can't really comment, I don't watch any of it. That said, what might be called "Genre TV" and specifically SciFi I do watch and I think there has been some truly dramatic and imaginative television from across the pond.

A few from the last decade or so would include "The X Files" (brilliant at it's best) "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (much copied, never bettered), "Lost" (must be one of the most original and imaginative ideas ever to grace the screen - big or small) and Battlestar Galactica (the new one).

What American TV has is grand ideas, big budgets and writers and production teams who know what they are doing.

I used to think and argue that Brit' TV was the best in the world and it was a widely held view, that is certainly not the case nowadays. I tend to visit quite a few TV related websites and recent flagship productions such as Survivors and Triffids are very poorly recieved in the wider market. I firmly believe that this is because trendy young TV producers and directors are trying to copy US style productions and failing miserably.

Our Survivors, Triffids, Edge of Darkness and Quatermass weren't trying to copy anything. They were written by talented writers and produced by experienced teams who's only remit was to produce quality British drama (for home consumption) An accidental benefit is that our American friends tend to love these programmes as much as we do.

From my perspective the BBC seems to have lost it's way completely, but as I said previously I think the British public seem to have gone with it. (not sure which is the chicken and which the egg ). They seem to be giving the public what they want ....that's always the claim anyway!

We seem to have the society we all crave and the TV which reflects it and thus we deserve

I suppose the trendy youngsters at the BBC clutching their degrees in Media Studies would consider you and I as dinosaurs. There is no turning the clock back however much we might want it.