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Post by fenris on Apr 9, 2006 16:22:14 GMT
Which other TV series would you have liked to have seen Hex crossover with?
Would you have wanted to see Ella compare notes with Buffy? Thelma lusting after all three of the Halliwell sisters? Or perhaps Jo travelling across the Atlantic to Point Pleasant, to act as a mentor to Elizabeth? How about Ella and Thelma using the Stone of Belial to travel back in time and meet Xena and Gabrielle? Or aiding the Doctor and Rose Tyler in fighting off an alien invasion?
Personally, I would liked to have seen a crossover with Strange, an extremely short-lived BBC1 series that was screened in 2003 without much fanfare. It starred Richard Coyle (best known as Jeff in Coupling) as ex-priest turned demon hunter John Strange, and Samantha Janus as nurse Jude Atkins, his friend and reluctant sidekick. There was a one-off pilot, followed several months later by a series of six episodes. Despite being screened in a primetime slot on Saturdays, the show basically just came and went without getting much attention. I hope one day It'll be released on DVD.
I think John Strange and Jude Atkins would have fitted very nicely into the Hexverse.
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Post by krusty ketchup on Apr 10, 2006 11:51:22 GMT
Which other TV series would you have liked to have seen Hex crossover with? Thelma lusting after all three of the Halliwell sisters? How about Ella and Thelma using the Stone of Belial to travel back in time and meet Xena and Gabrielle? Both of those would just be excellent. Especially the one about Charmed. I would have paid alot of money to see that!!!!!
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Post by kittygobonkers on Apr 10, 2006 17:44:49 GMT
Oh wouldn't Thelma and Willow from Buffy make the cutest couple
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Anhara
Hexen
Nephilim Queen
I'm not evil, just morally challenged.
Posts: 116
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Post by Anhara on Apr 12, 2006 19:31:00 GMT
I loved Strange so much. I missed the pilot and wouldn't have even known that the show was on if it hadn't been previewed in one of the Sci-fi magazines (Dreamwatch, Shivers, Starbust etc).
I actually thought the mythology of that show was very good and quite well defined and it was hilarious in places. Andy Lee Potts (the guy from the Specsavers ad who says "Your Mum seems nice") was brilliant as the computer geek and the banter between him and John was brilliant. There was a great 'team' feel to the whole show as well.
I am pretty certain that Canon Black was Asmoth, the guy who killed John's fiance (or wife, I'm not sure).
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Darkqueengalore
Hexen
MAGIC PIXIE
We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like.
Posts: 452
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Post by Darkqueengalore on Apr 13, 2006 14:24:39 GMT
Tara and Willow from Buffy having a love triangle with Thelma and Mya hee
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Post by krusty ketchup on Apr 16, 2006 18:41:33 GMT
Surely that would be a love square? ;D
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Post by fenris on Apr 23, 2006 14:00:34 GMT
Just thought of another TV show that could have made an interesting crossover with Hex. It was called The Wanderer and was a European co-production which was screened on Sky One back in 1994. As far as I'm aware it's never been repeated, nor turned up on another channel.
Australian actor Bryan Brown played a reclusive business tycoon named Adam. After surviving an assassination attempt, he started having visions in which he saw himself as a medieval knight. He eventually realised they were memories of a past life, when he had been a champion in the battle against the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, Adam's former arch-enemy and identical twin brother Zachary (Brown again) had also been reincarnated, and was responsible for the attempts on his life. Leaving the day-to-day running of his business empire to a colleague, Adam travelled off across Europe, using his newly-remembered combat skills to help people along the way, while being pursued by Zachary, who needed Adam dead in order to achieve godhood. The show's other main characters were Adam's ally Godbold (played by veteran character actor Tony Haygarth), a monk in medieval times, now reincarnated as a cheerful jack-of-all-trades and small-time professional wrestler; and Clare (Deborah Moore, daughter of Roger), formerly a noblewoman and Adam's lover, now reborn as a photo-journalist. Best of all though was Beatrice (Kim Thomson), Zachary's partner and an immortal witch who had killed Adam a thousand years ago, and had spent the last millennium accumulating wealth and power while waiting for the brothers to be reincarnated.
The series was far from brilliant, mostly due to it's status as a international co-production. The problems with such shows is that everyone who's put money into a series is going to want to sell it to their home audience, but viewers in different countries want and expect different things from a television show. Therefore, series like The Wanderer try to be all things to all people, but often just end up being bland and lacking any strong identity, and ultimately please nobody (other co-productions that suffered the same problem are Codename Eternity, Highander: the Raven, and CI5: The New Professionals).
Another problem was Zachary, who was portrayed as a swaggering, leather-trousered lout, instead of the dark overlord that he was supposed to be. Of course, it's impossible to know if this was Brown's interpretation of the role, or if he was merely playing the character as written in the scripts, but it seriously weakened the series to have an arch-villain who looked as though he'd rather be out on a bender instead of plotting to enslave mankind. Thank heavens then for Kim Thomson, who was terrific as the wonderfully evil Beatrice, and never failed to steal the show every time she appeared. The Wanderer was Thomson's second short-lived genre series within two years - she'd starred in BBC1's Virtual Murder in 1992, which had lasted only six episodes, while The Wanderer never returned after a single season totalling thirteen episodes.
Despite it's flaws, it was a show with an interesting premise, and full of potential (sound familiar?). With elements of swordplay, magic, witchcraft-practising immortals, and arch-enemies fighting each other across the centuries with the fate of Mankind at stake, it could have easily crossed over into the Hexverse.
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Post by orokiah on May 6, 2006 12:41:21 GMT
Just noticed that the pilot of Strange is being repeated on the Sci-Fi Channel on 11th May at 9pm, if anyone fancies checking it out.
I didn't watch it when it was first aired, so I'll be interested to see what it was like. Apparently Ian Richardson is in it (I think as a baddie?), which is as good a reason as any to watch since he's absolutely brilliant whatever he does.
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Post by DreamDangerously on May 6, 2006 16:26:48 GMT
I really enjoyed Strange, but it does suffer from lack of budget.
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Anhara
Hexen
Nephilim Queen
I'm not evil, just morally challenged.
Posts: 116
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Post by Anhara on May 6, 2006 21:45:50 GMT
It did have a smaller budget than 'Hex' but it made up for it in terms of characterisation and mythology. It really made you care about the characters and it had a great sense of wry British humour.
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Post by fenris on May 7, 2006 12:25:43 GMT
The fact that it was a BBC series, but Sci-Fi have bagged the repeat rights, instead of it being reshown on BBC3 or one of the two UK Gold channels (which are both part-owned by the Beeb), shows just how little regard the BBC have for Strange.
It also probably explains why the show has never been released on DVD. Did it really flop so badly?
I'm looking forward to the repeat run. For various reasons I missed some episodes first time round, so it'll be good to finally see the complete series.
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Anhara
Hexen
Nephilim Queen
I'm not evil, just morally challenged.
Posts: 116
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Post by Anhara on May 7, 2006 23:36:19 GMT
I missed the pilot and the second episode (I think it was the second one). I think Douglas, Craig and Justine from Clyde University's Parapsychology Department should have been investigating the odd goings on at Medenham. I love Sea of Souls, us Scots know how to do fantasy drama
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Post by fenris on May 10, 2006 19:16:40 GMT
I think Douglas, Craig and Justine from Clyde University's Parapsychology Department should have been investigating the odd goings on at Medenham. I love Sea of Souls, us Scots know how to do fantasy drama Talking about Scottish fantasy shows, have you ever heard of The Omega Factor? It was a ten part series made by BBC Scotland, screened in 1979, about a secret Government department which investigated the supernatural. Subjects such as ghosts, hauntings, psychic powers, possession, mind-control conspiracies, paranormal weapons being tested for military use, and demons all featured in the series. It was released on DVD last year, and I bought the boxset a few weeks ago. I've watched six episodes so far, and while the show is undeniably dated (it is over a quarter of a century old), in some ways it still holds up quite well.
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Anhara
Hexen
Nephilim Queen
I'm not evil, just morally challenged.
Posts: 116
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Post by Anhara on May 11, 2006 13:58:45 GMT
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Post by fenris on May 25, 2006 19:17:41 GMT
Back in 2000, Sky One screened a pilot movie for a proposed series called The Sight. An American/British co-production between Sky and Fox, it was written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (who's been responsible for the first Mortal Combat movie, Event Horizon, both Resident Evil films, and Alien vs Predator).
Andrew McCarthy played American architect Michael Lewis, who's in London to help renovate an old building. As he's driving through the capital one night, an old woman steps in front of his car and is killed. Lewis subsequently discovers that the woman was not only suffering from terminal cancer, but was also the owner of the building he's working on. Later, the woman (Honor Blackman) appears to him, reveals she had 'the sight' (the ability to interact with the dead) and that he has it too. It has laid dormant within him, but has now been activated by her death (which, together with his arrival in the UK, she had engineered). Lewis is now the earthy agent of all the ghosts wandering unnoticed among the living, unable to find rest until those responsible for their deaths are punished.
The remainder of the episode had Lewis investigating the murders of several children, leading to the discovery of a copycat serial killer and climaxing with a quite exciting confrontation in the cavernous London sewers. Other cast members included Amanda Redman, Alexander Armstrong, and a scene-stealing performance from Jessica Oyelowo (who would later play Rachel McBain in Hex) as Isobel, a flirty & teasing ghost who acted as Lewis's main contact with the spirits.
It's been six years since i saw The Sight, but some sequences remain lodged in my memory: the ghost of a little girl attending her own funeral, casually walking along the lid of the coffin in her wellington boots; Lewis's encounter with a young woman (played by Helen Lyons) who died in the Blitz and has been riding the Underground ever since; Lewis watching a group of children playing in mudflats next to the Thames, and realising with a shock that they're all the killer's victims; and the little girl ghost's reluctance to tell Lewis what the murderer said to her as he killed her, "because it's rude."
Throughout the pilot, Lewis starts receiving visions - psychic flashes showing the world either dead or in ruins - and the final scene has a man and a woman (the former played by the marvelous actor Jason Issacs, a regular in Anderson's films) watching Lewis from a distance and commenting that "he doesn't know how special he is." Clearly all foreshadowing for the series to follow.
The pilot obtained good ratings for Sky, and a series was indeed greenlit. I remember an interview with Amanda Redman in which she mentioned that she'd signed a contract to be a regular cast member. But something went wrong and it never happened. If it had, The Sight would have been Sky's first homegrown fantasy series, an honour that instead went to Hex.
The pilot episode of The Sight still gets repeated occasionally on Sky Three. It's worth watching, if only to wonder what might have been, if the series had proceeded.
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