I was going to make this post a month or two back, but I was too preoccupied to get around to it, might as well as do it now eh?
So, Robot Wars, a program I've found myself surprisingly nostalgic for over the past few years. Having to sit through so many iterations of the Pre-Apocalyptic freak show they call Britain's Got Talent (which I am sure will be on the list of crimes that will be answered for once my Reich is established) I began to think about the many evening programmes that vanished never to be heard again, but this was the one stuck in my mind for so long.
Back before usable broadband appeared in my area and began the process of relegating the television to the duty of background noise, it was one of those shows I'd always make sure to watch every evening. It was the thing you'd always watch while having dinner, and looking back on it, it's surprisingly fitting as dinner entertainment. It wasn't exactly cerebral by any stretch of the imagination and in later series the producers began to question if your memory was greater than 5 seconds, but in a way that's why it worked. You could just sit there knowing you didn't need to fully focus on it, just enjoy remote controlled blocks with increasingly over the top weaponry attempt to destroy each other while you ate.
The reason I bring it up now is that over my last college term, I came across the whole series online and just started watching it at dinner. From beginning to end. For some bizarre reason, I watched the whole thing, though skipping a fair bit of filler. Okay, it wasn't the best show on the BBC at the time, but it had always had a low-key charm to it, there wasn't any sob-stories about how the teams entire families were killed in a clown-car related incident or condescending 'inspiring' stories. Just "Here's our Robot, it has an axe, we think its good" and straight into the fights.
Another thing it has over the other competition shows out now is that you actually need a set of skills to do well. In order to build a robot with a remote chance of winning, you'd have to have at least a basic understanding of Applied Physics, Robotics, Electronics and Engineering, and that's just half the battle. No matter how good your robot was, it'd be screwed without a good driver to operate it.
In a world of Competition shows that come down to how media package-able you're life is or just pointing at a random box Robot Wars still stands tall in a twisted sense. I never really understood why it suddenly ended, no announcement of it stopping, just there one day, gone the next.
But now more than ever is it such a great time for it to come back. First off, with the rise of live streaming for competitions and tournaments it would be a great way for the BBC to get a foothold. Then you'd have the promotion of technical skills that the government should be seizing. Along with the lower cost of production, it should be obvious.
So, would anyone else here find themselves sitting down to watch it if it came back? Or am I just jaded?
So, Robot Wars, a program I've found myself surprisingly nostalgic for over the past few years. Having to sit through so many iterations of the Pre-Apocalyptic freak show they call Britain's Got Talent (which I am sure will be on the list of crimes that will be answered for once my Reich is established) I began to think about the many evening programmes that vanished never to be heard again, but this was the one stuck in my mind for so long.
Back before usable broadband appeared in my area and began the process of relegating the television to the duty of background noise, it was one of those shows I'd always make sure to watch every evening. It was the thing you'd always watch while having dinner, and looking back on it, it's surprisingly fitting as dinner entertainment. It wasn't exactly cerebral by any stretch of the imagination and in later series the producers began to question if your memory was greater than 5 seconds, but in a way that's why it worked. You could just sit there knowing you didn't need to fully focus on it, just enjoy remote controlled blocks with increasingly over the top weaponry attempt to destroy each other while you ate.
The reason I bring it up now is that over my last college term, I came across the whole series online and just started watching it at dinner. From beginning to end. For some bizarre reason, I watched the whole thing, though skipping a fair bit of filler. Okay, it wasn't the best show on the BBC at the time, but it had always had a low-key charm to it, there wasn't any sob-stories about how the teams entire families were killed in a clown-car related incident or condescending 'inspiring' stories. Just "Here's our Robot, it has an axe, we think its good" and straight into the fights.
Another thing it has over the other competition shows out now is that you actually need a set of skills to do well. In order to build a robot with a remote chance of winning, you'd have to have at least a basic understanding of Applied Physics, Robotics, Electronics and Engineering, and that's just half the battle. No matter how good your robot was, it'd be screwed without a good driver to operate it.
In a world of Competition shows that come down to how media package-able you're life is or just pointing at a random box Robot Wars still stands tall in a twisted sense. I never really understood why it suddenly ended, no announcement of it stopping, just there one day, gone the next.
But now more than ever is it such a great time for it to come back. First off, with the rise of live streaming for competitions and tournaments it would be a great way for the BBC to get a foothold. Then you'd have the promotion of technical skills that the government should be seizing. Along with the lower cost of production, it should be obvious.
So, would anyone else here find themselves sitting down to watch it if it came back? Or am I just jaded?
