Regarding the B7 revival, I can tell you what I know, but I think there are a few holes in the chronology that I’m not 100% sure about. I know that the producer originally approached Paul Darrow, who agreed to get in touch with Terry Nation’s widow Kate and his agent to obtain Terry’s B7 rights. Bear in mind that the rights to B7 are divided between the Nation estate and the BBC, but I don’t know who owns what; in fact, I don’t think anybody is entirely sure, which has probably caused a lot of the legal problems these past couple of years. Anyway, in return for obtaining the rights, Darrow was also going to appear in the initial part of the project, which would be based on Nation’s ideas (Avon as a Napoleon-like exile), but I don’t know if he would be killed off, written out or appear sporadically in the subsequent series revival. Darrow was also going to be made a producer on the project, which would give him a vested interest in the project.
Here’s where things get really sticky. As far as both parties were concerned, I believe they each felt they owned the DVD rights. The BBC went ahead and hired Kevin Davies to dig up archive material for the DVDs as well as create a huge four-part behind-the-scenes documentary that would run over all four DVD sets. I’ve seen some of the footage and it was immensely enjoyable, and I know Kevin did his best to contact every cast and crew member he could. I actually went to the recording studio with Sheelagh when she was being interviewed, which I believe was between Gareth Thomas and director Pennant Roberts, and I remember seeing Kevin’s interview schedule, which was pretty lengthy. The one notable exception was Paul Darrow, who declined to participate in the DVDs because he was involved with the other camp, who apparently also believed they owned some of the DVD rights and reportedly planned to issue their own release once the legal questions were ironed out.
Just before the first DVD set came out, the situation got worse. Apparently the other party believed he owned the interactive rights to B7, which would include the DVD rights, which generally featured interactive menus, special features, etc. I’m not sure this would have held up to a legal challenge, but the BBC ultimately decided to strip out most of the special features from their DVD releases, which is why the final releases were nowhere as comprehensive as what was originally promised. Most of Kevin’s material was thrown out, with a few bits re-edited and added back in; part of Sheelagh’s interview for example, appears on the season three set as a separate feature. I know Kevin was heartbroken, because he had spent a number of months busting his ass on the project, and most of it got thrown out.
As for the mini-series, I can’t say with any authority if anything actually happened. There may or may not have been one or more scripts done on spec or deferred payment, but I don’t know if anybody connected with the project ever made a dime. I seem to recall there being a question about whether or not the Nation estate ever got paid for the rights in the end, which would basically have invalidated all of the above plans, but I’d have to call Kate to find our for sure, and I suspect she probably wasn’t all that happy with what ultimately happened. Right now, I don’t know if the rights have reverted back to the Nation Estate, or if in fact they’d formally changed hands.
As for Darrow, I think he eventually realized that he had been badly used. Not only did anything seem to be happening, but by committing himself to the wrong side, he had basically cut himself off from some of the B7-related projects that were actually happening. At some point, he did get in touch with Kevin to talk about participating in the DVDs, but at that point, I think that ship had sailed. I know he regretted the chain of events and his involvement in them because of some comments that he subsequently made to my wife and I. He just made some bad choices, which is unfortunate for everyone, but I think he felt he was doing the right thing, which was to try and help get a B7 revival off the ground.
That’s about as much as I know. My gut reaction is that the B7 project is not only dead in the water, I’m not all that sure it was ever happening. And until the rights issue gets unsnarled once and for all, I doubt anything will happen. Opinions may differ.
