UK TV trade magazine Broadcast has reported that BBC1 aims to repeat the success of Life on Mars with a new high-concept series from Kudos set in space.
In Outcasts, penned by Spooks writer Ben Richards (the series is known as MI5 in the US – he also wrote the BBC’s Party Animals and Channel 4’s No Angels.), the future of Earth looks increasingly precarious and the race is on to find an alternative home in the universe.
In return for their liberty a group of social misfits and criminals — ranging from a “brilliant deviant” to a “petty thief” — are sent into space to be the pioneers of a large new settlement on a nearby planet and tasked with building the conditions for a new life.
“The colonisation of space is only a matter of time,” feels Kudos joint managing director Jane Featherstone. “Ben Richards’ brilliant vision of what life will be like when that happens offers a dramatic, original and entertaining new drama arena.”
The series is currently in development with BBC Wales boss Julie Gardner, whose department is responsible for Doctor Who.
This looks promising – let’s just hope it isn’t treated like Phillip Hinchcliffe was on Star Cops, the BBC’s last big attempt at a SF mainstream show not linked with Doctor Who, way back in 1987!
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Science Fiction, Television
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