Survivors is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC. It depicts the lives of a group of people who survived a virulent unknown strain of influenza which has wiped out most of the human species. According to the producers, the series is not a remake of the 1970s BBC television series Survivors (1975–1977), created by Terry Nation, but rather is loosely based on the novel of the same name that Nation wrote following the first series of the 1970s programme. Two series were produced of the new show: series 1 ran on BBC One and BBC HD in November–December 2008, and series 2 ran in January–February 2010, ending with a cliffhanger. The BBC announced on 13 April 2010 that due to poor viewing figures Survivors had been cancelled.[1]
The series premiered in South Africa on BBC Entertainment, in September 2009, in France on DTTV channel NRJ 12 on 12 January 2010,[2] on BBC America in the United States on 13 February 2010,[3] and in Australia on Channel Nine, on 21 March 2010.
Set in the 2000s, the series focuses on a group of ordinary people who survive the aftermath of a devastating viral pandemic – referred to as "European flu" – which kills most of the world's population by causing cytokine storms in the body's immune system.[4] The series sees the characters struggling against terrible dangers in a world with no society, no police, and no law,[5] led by the de facto matriarch of the group, Abby Grant.[6]
Sue Hogg, an executive producer at the BBC, was inspired to remake Survivors following the recent increase in concerns about future pandemics and diseases such as SARS.[7] It was decided that the show would be a re-imagining of the 1970s material made by BBC Productions rather than an external production company.[5] The BBC pursued the rights for Survivors from Terry Nation's estate so that the series could be revived.[8] The agreement, which was signed in 2007, took months of negotiations.[5][9] For legal reasons, the new series is billed as being based on Nation's novelisation of material from his episodes of the 1970s series.
In remaking the series, Adrian Hodges worked to avoid criticisms of the 1970s series, and he felt it was "important that a new version had a cultural and class mix that really represented the country as it is now";[10] to meet their needs, they created two new characters, Al and Najid.[11] The writers claimed that the new series retained the "spirit" of the 1970s show,[12] but Hodges concentrated on the hope and the humanity in what was said to be an attempt to make it "less depressing" to watch.[13]
The city scenes in the first series were filmed in Manchester,[5] while city scenes in the second series were filmed in Birmingham.[14]
To help create a world with no people, some scenes were shot very early on a Sunday morning, including a sequence where Al Sadiq drives his car at speed around the city centre. Producer Hugh Warren said this approach reduced the amount of computer-generated imagery required and allowed the budget to be spent on effects such as when the city starts to flood and burn.[citation needed] Other locations included a house near Helmshore in Lancashire, which doubled as the survivors' main base;[7] the disused Earth Centre in the village of Denaby Main near Doncaster;[15] and the Jaguar Cars test track in Nuneaton, which stood in for deserted motorways.[16]
The series was shot using 35 mm film. Warren said this was chosen over high-definition video cameras due to the low light levels that would be experienced when filming in a world without electricity and during an autumn filming period, and over Super 16 due to high-definition transmission requirements.[7]
The first series received a mixed critical reception, with some reviewers concerned that it was too derivative and predictable,[17] while others were more positive.[18] The producers were happy to have started well, survived the ratings lull in the middle, and ended with an upward curve in the last two weeks. Audience breakdowns indicate that a higher proportion of younger viewers were tuning in to Survivors than many other shows.[11]
The second season of Survivors was delayed because of the real-life swine flu pandemic in 2009 and thus was broadcast in 2010.[19]
While some characters were emphasised in the BBC promotional material, such as Freema Agyeman, most only appeared in the first episode as perishing during the viral pandemic.
As the "European Flu" virus spreads throughout the world, governments realise the scale of the problem. In just a few days, millions of people fall ill, including Abby Grant, Jenny Collins and her friend Patricia. The government minister in charge of the pandemic, Samantha Willis, MP, is told that at least 90% of the world's population will die. The virus is extremely virulent and kills the vast majority of the human race, leaving a small number of survivors who are either naturally immune or have caught the virus and recovered. Civilisation comes to a stop: broadcast media goes off the air, and the National Grid shuts down, leaving the country in darkness. The final national television broadcast is from Samantha Willis, who addresses the nation and urges the populace to keep calm and to wait for the government to retake control of the situation. Beneath her calm demeanour, however, she is fully aware of the catastrophic effects of the pandemic worldwide. One morning Al Sadiq, Anya Raczynski, Najid Hanif, and Tom Price awaken, they find everyone around them dead, and they struggle to find any fellow survivors. Abby awakens from her illness, to find that her husband David did not survive. She begins her search for her missing son Peter, believing he may also have survived. Eventually, the characters meet and realise they are going to have to stick together to survive.
A second series of six episodes was commissioned and began airing in January 2010. Adrian Hodges returned to oversee the project, and Julie Graham, Paterson Joseph, Zoe Tapper, Philip Rhys, Robyn Addison, Chahak Patel, and Max Beesley returned to their roles for the next series.[22]
The cliffhanger is quickly resolved, while the story of the lab plays through Series Two, telling more about the backstory of the virus and the lab's direct connection with that. The production team's intention was to spend more time exploring the details of survival in the post-virus world and how the various characters cope.[11]
Filming took place in various locations around Birmingham including Baskerville House (exterior) and the former ITV Central studios (interior) standing in for a fictional hospital.[23][24]
Tom and Greg are enslaved alongside dozens of other men in Mr. Smithson's coal mine. Meanwhile, the Family are desperately hunting for them. They encounter Billy again, and he invites them to his home base, a roadside inn. He introduces his girlfriend, Sally, who offers them food and drink. When questioned about Tom and Greg, Billy feigns ignorance and exits under the pretence of asking around while on his trading route, leaving the Family with Sally. Sarah forms a bond with Sally, and when a carload of men arrives at the inn, Sally warns the Family to hide. She reveals that Billy brings people to the inn in order to sell them into slavery. She also reveals that Tom and Greg are being held at the nearby mine and reluctantly agrees to help free them.
In mourning over the loss of one of their own, and with a new strain of the virus set to take hold, the Family find themselves battling on all fronts. They convene in the ruined Lab, discovering that Fiona has survived the outbreak of the virus. A vaccine is more important now than ever, and Fiona and Anya work to create it. But Abby's only concern is to find her son, Peter, previously glimpsed briefly outside the Lab.
Al, believing that he has nothing left to lose, volunteers himself to test the vaccine. Meanwhile, Whitaker, who has survived off the serum culled from Abby's blood, continues to hamper the Family's plans with lies and deceptions. He is eventually captured and held hostage in one of the test rooms within the ruined lab. Abby urges Tom to get him to tell her where Peter is, whatever the cost, but to no avail.
Fiona helps Whitaker escape, but as the two make their way to the caravan site where Peter is hiding, Peter inadvertently shoots and kills Fiona with the gun Whitaker gave him for protection. Whitaker takes Peter and attempts to flee but is stopped in his tracks by Tom, who tries to urge Peter to come with him by telling him his mother is looking for him. The situation is too much for Peter to bear, and he fires the gun a second time, causing a nearly fatal consequence.
Whitaker flees with Peter once again with the group hot on their trail, leading them to the abandoned airbase for a deadly showdown with the mysterious Landry, who informs the group that his pharmaceutical firm developed the genetically engineered influenza vaccine that mutated into the virus.
On disc one the Easter egg can be revealed by going to the main menu, highlighting episode selection then when the grey corpuscle appears press up and the corpuscle selects. This reveals around nine to ten minutes of behind the scenes footage.
To tie in with the broadcast of the series Terry Nation's 1976 novelisation was released as a new edition by Orion Books.[25] The 2008 series is credited as being based on this novel.
A website was launched to tie in with the series, entitled "Survivors Interactive", which included interviews with actors, clips from the programme and original character pieces-to-camera. The interactive component was based on visitors selecting characters from the show and then answering either/or dilemma-based questions, which are then profiled by what type of survivor they would make as they travel through the post-plague environment.[26]
The first series was released by 2 Entertain Video on DVD on 26 January 2009, and includes special features such as an Easter egg, A New World – The Making of Survivors documentary, character profiles and a Survivors Special Effects featurette.[27][28]
In 2013, when the show was added to the Netflix platform, it was the highest watched program and consequently, Netflix were in contact with the BBC for discussions on continuing the program. Nothing since has been heard of this rumour.[citation needed]
Classic TV Press published the book Worlds Apart: an unofficial and unauthorised guide to the BBC's remake of Survivors (March 2010), written by Rich Cross, shortly after transmission of the second series completes. The book incorporates: in depth synopses and reviews for all the episodes from Series 1 and 2; insights into the making of the series; examination of the similarities and differences between the new series and the 1970s series; a photographic guide to filming locations; and exclusive production shots.[29]
In the credits, the re-imagined series is said to be based on the 1976 novel by Terry Nation; however, there are a number of differences between the series and its source material. In the novel, Jenny Richards survives, whereas her counterpart in the 2008 series, Jenny Collins, does not; this means that Greg Preston and Jenny cannot have a child as the years unfold. Abby Grant still falls in love with Jimmy Garland; however, in the book, he eventually dies from septicaemia.
There is a Tom Price in the 1970s novelisation and series. However, in the novelisation, he was a Welsh tramp who witnessed the climactic accidental killing of Abby Grant by her son, Peter. In the television series, he was an escaped convict who joined Abby's community.
The television characters Anya Raczynski, Najid Hanif, and Al Sadiq have no direct counterparts in the book. Samantha Willis does not appear in the book, either, but her television characterisation incorporates and parallels some of the personality and leadership ambitions of the book character Arthur Wormley, a "ruthless former trade union leader," who establishes a paramilitary organisation called the National Unity Force which is responsible for Abby's community's eventual decision to leave Britain for the Mediterranean in the latter chapters of the novelisation.
At the end of the book, Peter Grant, who has joined a nomadic gang of feral adolescents, accidentally shoots and kills Abby, whom he has not seen for the last four years. However, at the end of the incarnation of Survivors series 2, Peter shoots but doesn't kill Tom, and Abby is finally reunited with Peter, without her accidental death.
The television portrayal of Sarah Boyer is probably the closest character to her portrayal in the novelisation. In the book, her companion was named Vic, not Bob, and in the 1970s series, she was named Anne Tranter. Vic's fate is not revealed in the novelization, but it can be inferred that he starved to death. In the 2008 television series, Bob survives his initial abandonment.[11][30][31] In the 1970s series, Anne (Sarah in the 2008 version) leaves during Episode 11; in the 2008 version, she dies from a mutated version of the virus.
Lokasi Pengunjung: 3.22.249.35