Survivors

Survivors is the first post doomsday drama on British television, echoing the pessimistic world view of 70s science fiction feature films such as The Andromeda Strain, The Omega Man or Planet of the Apes. Of course Survivors obviously also owes a lot to the grandmaster of British Science Fiction, John Wyndham with some dialogues almost verbatim taken from the day of the Triffids. But that does not have an impact on the quality of the programme. Like in Romero's Crazies the bureaucracy just fails terribly and the world becomes overrun by a deadly virus. Helpless attempts at stopping it are made but it all ends with a whimper. So a group of survivors from all different walks of life meet and group together. The disaster brings out the best and the worst in people: the hamprered housewife turns into a leader, the leader into a fascist and a rich woman into the bitch from hell. So a lot of the drama comes from the dynamics between the people and all the dilemmas you face in this situation. For viewers of todaya it takes a while getting used to the much slower pace of narration of the 70s. Long scenes, no hand camera and sparingly used music. That makes it look dated but once you accept it, it really makes very good viewing because the pace matches the helplesness of the people. Theonly drawback for me is that as with a lot of 70s and especially 80s British TV the outdoor scenes and the studio scenes were shot on different material so that as a viewer you experience really harsh differences in term of the picture.

When an enigmatic unnamed scientist accidentally infects himself with a lethal engineered virus he unwittingly spreads it world wide via air travel. Focusing on London, England we see the effects of the virus as millions succumb and civilization collapses accordingly. The story hones in on a handful of emotionally scarred survivors who come together and attempt the difficult and painful reconstruction of a new society no longer able to depend on supplied science and technology. In one episode entitled "Law and order" the survivor's group are faced with a rape and murder of one of their number following a raucous celebration. An intellectually disabled member is falsely accused and sentenced to death with the killer himself voting for the man's execution. After one of the group leaders carries out the killing, he learns the identity of the real killer and is forced to allow him to stay in the group and withhold the information as the news of the tragic error would permanently splinter and destroy what they fought, against enormous odds, to create. Survivors is gripping stuff; well acted, cleverly written and creatively directed - if you like character driven Sci - Fi drama then this is for you.

Aside from the occasional inexplicably stupid decision, flares, dubious supporting cast, flares, horrendous interior decoration and flares this is very good BBC SF. The story, if slow, is certainly plausible and is much better than the atrocity of the remake.

While apocalyptic tv shows like The Walking Dead and Z Nation are the vogue today, this show (remade in the 2000's) is absolutely terrifying because this could really happen. When a virus is accidentally released, it spreads world wide quickly and 90 percent of humanity is killed off. The survivors take one a few different ideas; banding together and attempting to recreate a civilization, becoming raiders on others, or simply dying off. A really brilliant and terrifying show.

A plague wipes out 99-point-something percent of the human race and the survivors have to start again from scratch. The quality of the episodes varies but for me it was never less than good and I'd really put the best ones up there with 'I, Claudius' and the original 'Upstairs Downstairs' at the very peak of classic British TV drama - most notably an episode from the first series revolving around capital punishment and one from the third that's like a cross between a western, a horror movie, The 39 Steps and a Breughel winterscape, with philosophical interludes.

It does have flaws. Some interesting characters are written out too soon, and series stars left without their characters being written out, leading to that unsatisfactory situation I remember from other 70s shows where there are rumours of sightings of them and hints that they may return eventually.

Personally I liked that there was a mix of different types of stories, from adventure to character clash to ideas-based to ones based around technical ingenuity and the resolution of simple problems of coping without infrastructure, even that in the second series there were episodes or portions thereof that were almost idyllic where the major conflict was competing visions of the future. Most of the core characters were middle-class, old-school British, optimists, can-do types, planners, builders, and their belief that they could pull things together again, determination to make the best of things, even excitement at the chance for a fresh start helped make things bearable. But there's plenty of tension, menace, challenge, it's downright harrowing at times, and the deprivations the survivors undergo are a salutary lesson in not taking for granted all the things you tend to. I remember the relish with which I ate an egg after watching an episode where they're an incredible luxury.

If you like (surely the wrong word) John Wyndham's apocalypses or are fascinated by Robinson Crusoe daydreams of 'What would I do if...?' this is especially for you. Avoid the remake like the plague.