Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Reboot/Sequel

Since I knew this would be a long post I have been nibbling away at it for a few days now. It seems now that things have changed.

Originally I heard that there was to be a Buffy reboot – it now seems that it will be a continuation rather than a reboot. You can read about it here. All I can say to that is ‘Woohoo.’ I am so glad that the reports were wrong. Nevertheless I am not going to let my work go to waste. So anyway here is the post I have been working on. I wonder what the new series will be like.

The other day I heard that they are going to reboot Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My response was quick and concise ‘For the love of God why?’

I am sick of reboots. Battlestar Galactica was a good reboot. However there is a big difference in rebooting a cancelled show from the 1970s compared to Buffy which was a success. I am forced to wonder if Hollywood has either run out of ideas or if they are so afraid of failure that they are not prepared to try anything new.

There was TV series in the 1960s called My Mother the Car. I have never seen it and it was probably awful but they tried and heck it got made. Taking changes may lead to duds but it may also lead to great things. Doctor Who was first made, in part, to fill a gap in the schedules and ran from 1966-1989 in its first run. People took chances back then and now almost all media is either a prequel, reboot, sequence, or adapted from a book.

Apropos of nothing Incredibles 2 was great.

Why reboot Buffy? I could understand rebooting something like Blake’s 7. It was a good show but made on a nothing budget and looks so dated today. Although improving Avon would be tough.

However Buffy stands up very well, ran for seven seasons, and in my opinion had very few bad episodes. There are a couple of clunkers in season 1 but even Go Fish is a bit of candy episode (A term coined by TPN on You Tube. A better way of saying guilty pleasure) for me. Although I can’t disagree with anything he says here:

I Robot you ,Jane introduces Jenny Calendar – no link as page is spoilerific! I don’t think I would skip any episodes. And there are not many series I can say that about.

So here are seven ideas that are better than a reboot – beyond the obvious of maybe actually, and you can call me crazy for this, ACTUALITY COMING UP WITH SOMETHING NEW.

Number 1 – Make Ripper

This is the most obvious one as it was a proposed series years ago. If Antony Head was available he could narrate. We could see early Giles and see how he went from a rather dangerous young man to the man we know as Buffy’s mentor.

Number 2 – The Watcher’s Council.

How about a series focusing on the Watchers? We could see the history of the council perhaps in an anthology series – with some framing device to hold it all together. From before its creation, maybe some background about the first slayer, up till the death of the slayer before Buffy. We are taking a couple of thousand years lots of stories.

Number 3 – Quentin Travers

This one is a little out their but why not explore this character. He is a believer in the ends justifying the means, and the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few. It would be interesting to see who he was. From how he was first told about vampires to how he became the man we saw in Buffy. We could delve a little deeper into the test given to Buffy In Helpless – how and when it was decided it was needed.

Number 4 – Go somewhere else.

This is a general one I’ll be more specific in the next three. After Buffy we have hundreds of slayers. Make a series that can run alongside the comics. There are around 200 countries in the world it could be anywhere. Even if only in the US there are lots of possibilities. What about in the Arctic Circle? Haft the year it is always night. What would vampires do there?

 

 

Number 5 – Africa

Set the series in Africa. Make the slayer be from a poor background. It would be an opportunity to tell new stories. Maybe delve in to the mythology of African nations to influence the story. Doing this would, I think, would be interesting. Rather than having a Slayer living in a typical American town we would have an African village and the day to day problems would be more interesting because the Slayer’s life would be so different to what most of the views know. Also remember that Kendra was from a place that understood what it was to be a slayer.

Sidebar – I am mindful of the need for diversity in fiction. But I don’t really think much is gained just by having Black Buffy – make her her own person.

Number 6 – Mars.

Take the story somewhere unexpected. There was a comic about a slayer in the 23 century so this might step on the toes of that but here is the basic idea.

It is the 25th century and Mars has been terraformed but much of it is still being explored. They one of the people working on the building of a new city is found dead – vampire. And on Mars there are not supppsed to be any.

In this time period the slayers are known to the world, like the CIA, MI6, so a Slayer team is sent to investigate. They discover a Hellmouth on Mars and the series goes from there.

Number 7 – Firefly

This may seem like a bit of a non sequitur but Firefly is another Joss Whedon program. It and the subsequent film were very good. Firefly didn’t get a chance to develop and grow. Rebooting this would make sense. And I know it would have an audience.

These are just a few ides I had. As I said at the top it looks like we are now getting an actual new show. So my frustration has been transformed into quiet optimism.

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I just wanted to say that I have checked this post. I really have. Unfortunately my particular combination of dyslexia and dyspraxia makes it really hard for me to spot typos. Please enjoy and I’ll try not to make too many errors.