Amid the explosion of remakes coming out of Hollywood, the irony of continually reworking old ground is especially notable in science fiction, where the whole point is to envision the future. With The Day the Earth Stood Still and a retro Star Trek about to debut, and with even more remakes like Forbidden Planet in the pipeline, Hero Complex, in a teaser for a longer piece in Sunday's LA Times, considers the dangers of continually mining the past to build the future. While the unwillingness of studios to risk venturing where none have gone before leaves new frontiers unexplored and risks degenerating into camp, hope remains for artistic creativity.
"Strong interpretations," says Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore, "build on the past, they don't repeat it." Given the layers of complexity and contemporary relevance he managed to add to that universe, he has pretty much reset the bar for sci-fi remakes. It's a fine line to walk though, and at the other end of the arc of possibilities lies the cautionary tale of the nearly unwatchable Lost in Space.