Well, even though this article is mostly about translating TV shows to theatrical movies, it makes valid points that could easily apply to any future version of DS. For instance:
"Yet I think nostalgia of any kind is a double-edged sword," adds (Frank) Spotnitz (an executive producer and writer on "The X-Files" (both the show and the 1998 movie), whose fall show, "The Night Stalker," is an update of a cult early '70s program). "When people see a TV show title from their youth, they're looking for a piece of that old experience to come back, and the truth is, they'll never recapture it."
This is very true. Anyone who might look to any future versions of DS - or even to the '91 series - as a means of recapturing the same experience as watching the original DS is dooming themselves to a huge disappointment. And it's not the fault of the newer version because nothing could ever recapture that same experience. It couldn't even be recaptured if someone miraculously devised a way to have a new version with the same set of actors, returned to the ages they were when they were originally on DS, supported by a similarly youthified crew, and playing the exact same scripts. Things coalesced the ways they did during the original production and it's impossible for them to ever coalesce that same way again.
That having been said, though, it doesn't necessarily follow that any new series version of DS is doomed to failure or to exist as nothing more than a pale copy of the original. Any new versions, regardless of the form they take, need to be judged and accepted/rejected on their own merits, not by how they measure up to the original DS series. As I've said in the past, no new series version of DS should be looked on as a replacement of the original. Yes, of course it's completely understandable to believe that nothing can ever come close to recapturing the same magic of the original DS. But at the same time, there's no reason not to believe that something different, but possibly equally special could potentially be created - not to replace the original - but to coexist alongside it. That's the way I see the '91 series. And I'm still hoping that any possible future series versions of DS might turn out to be something even more interesting. After all, valuable lessons were learned with the '91 series, and one can hope that the next series version would both build and improve upon them.
But to get back onto the subject of turning TV shows into theatrical movies, though the following quote is about sitcoms, I think it's even more valid for soaps:
"Sitcoms, which are based on character relationships, build a rapport with audiences over many seasons in a way that movies just can't do," says Tim Brooks, author of "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows."
For the very reason Mr. Brooks points out with regard to sitcoms, if a new theatrical movie version of DS was to ever be produced, the chances of it being able to recapture the same experience as watching the original DS is significantly less than it would be with even a potential new DS series. In the limited scope of a film there's simply no way to explore character or build a rapport with an audience in the same way that having characters develop and relationships build over the course of 5 days a week, 52 weeks of the year can. (Though at the same time we could sure as hell hope for more character development than there was in the released version of hoDS!
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