I think that the 1960s feel is entirely unsurprising, given that it's almost a straight remake. In part, this is why I found The Quatermass Experiment unsatisfying. The world has moved on since the 1950s/1960s, and the genre expectations of SF have become more sophisticated; at the time they were made, both Quatermass and AfA were a step above contemporary space opera, but the SF tropes they use are now mainstreamed to the point where the audience for a C21st remake of AfA will most likely have seen one of the thinly-veiled copies that I mentioned above. Put simply, there would be no shock of the new.
The case should be made for the adaptation of more recent British SF for a BBC Four audience; keep retreading old plots, and you're in danger of making highbrow SF look more like period drama. I think that the Langford Blit stories could be suitably adapted, being thoughtful and not overly reliant on special effects, as might Charlie Stross's Laundry stories.
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Date: 2006-03-28 10:04 am (UTC)The case should be made for the adaptation of more recent British SF for a BBC Four audience; keep retreading old plots, and you're in danger of making highbrow SF look more like period drama. I think that the Langford Blit stories could be suitably adapted, being thoughtful and not overly reliant on special effects, as might Charlie Stross's Laundry stories.