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Comment by cerealbad | Hacker News Reader

The Prisoner (1967-1968) is mesmerising.

Le Voyage dans la lune - Georges Méliès 1902 (link provided) holds up after 115 years. Don't be so surprised! Timeless storytelling and design transcends it's delivery medium.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk

To the people questioning whether good television is still being made, yes of course it is, it might just take you a few years to find it. True Detective, Fargo, Utopia are all great. A la carte streaming (eg select any 10 shows, 10 movies, $10/month) is the future for media consumption. Which platform will deliver this first only time will tell. At the moment original content is the model and there are some evident growth pains.

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Is there a place here for Blake's Seven, (esp the early episodes) and of course Tom Baker's Dr Who incarnation? Incidentally, for those who didn't know, Douglas Adams wrote some classic episodes and was script editor (head writer) on Dr Who for at least a season or so.

And I think Dad's Army remains a classic, about the Home Guard in WWII, with some of the finest comic actors.

There's even a case to be made for The Sweeney and the Professionals which dealt with grittier more modern reality stories, darker sides of law and intelligence enforcement which is often glossed over in the modern glitzier procedurals.

Aha, and though maybe it was largely in the 80s, how about Minder?

I did want to bank this thread skywards, but of course there's "Star Cops".

Is there any other hard science fiction series set in space?

The sets are a tad shoddy, but they are good enough; a shame about the last episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWWFwLWJZEc&list=PL5nu0EE47Y...

Blakes Seven had great characters and a fantastic concept. I binge-watched the whole run about 5 years ago. It had great moments in the first couple of series, but like a lot of TV back then the pacing was painfully slow at times. That's one of the big advances in the last decade or so, the best TV now is paced almost like a movie.

I feel compelled to add "Yes Minister" to your list, if only because of the excellent writing and characterisation of Sir Humphrey & Jim Hacker.

(There was a recent remake; it is not worth watching.)

That's a great point. I have no idea why I also didn't mention Fawlty Towers, possibly the greatest sitcom ever made.

And I'd make a case for The Saint though https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saint_(TV_series) informs me that it was actually shot during the 60s.

To anyone who loves Star Trek, Firefly, BSG etc: I want to highlight Blake's Seven for you as a really great series that's well worth a watch:

Imagine a gritty British version of the original Star Trek.

In this story, the federation are evil, and the crew aren't all that nice either, and basically just want to survive having lucked out on finding a ship at the right moment. They're forced into cooperation by necessity.

It's not about exploration or Tribbles, it's about a bunch of people just trying to stay alive and eventually organise a rebellion.

The primary antagonist (Servalan) is a) female b) fairly competent at her job

Two of the characters in the series are artificial intelligences.

The ending of the show is excellent.

There are audiobooks that tell further stories in the Blake-i-verse. Amazon has most/all of them. There seem to be quite a few episodes on Youtube (Blakes7Movies) if you're curious to watch.

If you like the genre of 'space warship crew on the run', you may also enjoy LEXX and The Expanse.

It's hard to believe that B7 hasn't been rebooted.

The Box (RIP) was a torrent sever dedicated to British programming, and turned me on to a bunch of amazing shows from the 70s.

My favorite is Secret Army, an espionage thriller about a Belgian resistance unit during WWII that I devoured over the course of a few months. It stars Bernard Hepton, who also appears in the sequel series, Kessler, as well as in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People.

Colditz is from the early 70s and perhaps a little more dated as far as production values go but still great. There was a recent HN post about the story of the Colditz glider, built by British prisoners to escape the castle they were held prisoner in by air.

I loved The Prisoner! I especially enjoyed how they would change certain details from episode to episode. It's like gaslighting the audience: highly appropriate, given the subject matter.

Can you give some examples?

    To the people questioning whether good 
    television is still being made

There are people questioning that? All the best TV i know is from the 21st century (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, new Battlestar Galactica, Orange is the New Black, GLOW, Rick & Mortey etc).

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