As a writer I am not really in favour of remakes or reboots. You tell a story once and move on. There are so many stories out there now, with one man and his dog, one woman and her cat, and one celebrity and their gerbil, writing novels – there is no need to repeat anything. Yet, there are loads of remakes (films) and reboots (series), almost as though there is no one having any original ideas. I have three novels myself (soon to be four hopefully) that could be used for a starter – as mentioned before, ‘Rewind’ was a screenplay at one time.

Currently there are a number of reboots of TV series that I do watch – one has to with terrestrial TV thinking that we can all survive on a diet of soaps, cooking, dancing, singing, antiques, sewing and dog grooming. Just to name three of these reboots we have; Hawaii Five O, Magnum and Macgyver. Okay, two of these have already finished their runs but Magnum is still going and is even on this evening.

HFO was not so much of a problem for me because whilst I knew of the original, it was never a staple viewing at home – the parents ran the TV – so I treated it more of a new show rather than comparing it. Macgyver was not a show I saw a lot of on TV in the 80’s when it was made but I caught up with it later – Richard Dean Anderson starred before Stargate. The new show was quite a bit different with more a a team than a one man band. Not very well known in the UK but the original is part of the culture in the US – Macgyver is an actually verb. To Macgyver something is to fix or cobble something together and I have heard it used in dialogue on other shows – Stargate included.

Magnum is also somewhat different than the original and I had trouble at first with the comparison – Higgins is now female and there is not as much antagonism between the two. Again, I watch it as a new show trying not to make a comparison. It is interesting that Rick (Larry Manetti) and T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) have both had cameos in the new show but Tom Selleck, who I once read would like to revisit the character, has not.

Yes, I watch them but then they are my type of shows, although I would have never had said they needed to be remade. I have two of the original series on DVD. Taking another show though, Charmed, which is from the 90’s – which I also have on DVD – the reboot of that which is not a patch on the original.

Of course, the other thing about reboots is the theme tune or lack of it. We all like a familiar catchy theme tune, the problem is programs are so much shorter now to allow fro adveritising, even when the old tune is used, it is shortened to about half its original length.

Anyway, what is it that turned my attention to reboots this weekend. Well, it was the reunion of the cast of Angel for the twenty year anniversary in 2019 which I only just saw for the first time the other day. For those of you who don’t know, Angel was a spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which had its twentieth anniversary in 2017. I have read a couple of articles stating that both of these shows are to be rebooted. Now why reboot and retell the old story? Why not progress on the old story? This from a guy who once write to George Lucas to suggest continuing the story of Luke, Han and Leia, and also wrote to Gerry Anderson to suggest a Space 1999 – Jorney’s End. I even had an idea of how to create The New Persuaders as a continuation.

In the Angel reunion one of the cast joked they were all ready for Season 6 and another suggested they at least do a follow up movie. Now in different articles the stars of Angel and Buffy – David Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar – have both said they will not be involved in the reboots. The main reason for the former is the fact that as a vampire he would not age and Angel finished fifteen years ago, the same issue holds true for the character Spike too. Well never fear, just leave it to a writer.

At the end of Buffy all the main characters survived and lived to fight aother day, although Sunnydale was just a hole in the ground. However, in Angel, everyone was in a battle to the death with the forces of eveil, one they were not expected to survive. What if, somehow, as a reward for their sacrifice, instead of dying the heroes are transported to another dimension where there are no demons. Angel and Spike would then become human and age like everyone else. Fifteen years later they suddenly have to come back to our own deimension. There you have it. All the cast fifteen years older and back to continue the battle with evil. (Meantime, Buffy has a daughter of her own who is coming up to the age of slayership and unlike her own mother, who was ignorant of such things, Buffy is very able to teach her. This would mean a super slayer which the dark side cannot allow so they have to take out Buffy before she can start.) All sorted, two series ready to launch with the original characters.

This is all different from the graphic novels which have continued the Buffyverse stories. I could not get into these myself. Really I am just pointing out that aging in a fantasy series can be relative and one does not need to rehash but indeed can go forward.

Of course, no one involved with these series will ever see this blog. When the reboots happen though, it will be here though, as proof there is another way.