Despite the approximately 749 streaming services that have already popped up looking to part us all from our cold hard cash in exchange for some combination of shiny new shows and films plus a big back catalogue, someone else is looking to muscle in on the action. That someone is NBCUniversal, which has decided that "Peacock" is a really great name for a service. But the big headline from its announcement is word of a new Battlestar Galactica series headed up by Mr. Robot's Sam Esmail.
This is not the first time Battlestar has returned – the original 1970s series was superbly retooled by Star Trek: The Next Generation veteran Ronald D. Moore for a miniseries and then series that explored the show's concepts in more mature form. The show wasn't always perfect, but it certainly worked. News of yet another reboot (Universal has been looking at various show concepts and movie ideas for a few years) certainly gives us pause, but Esmail has a good track record of his own, and you just know the show will be very different, as Esmail has already tweeted.
In related news, the NBU service will also be digging into the nostalgia pouch for Saved By The Bell, which readers who grew up in the 1990s will recall as the school-focused sitcom that set the likes of Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffany Amber Thiessen, Lark Voorhies and Dustin Diamond on paths to varying levels of stardom. The new series will update the concept today and find Lopez and Berkley as parents of high school kids. The story runs thus: "When California governor Zack Morris (Gosselaar, if he signs on) gets into hot water for closing too many low-income high schools, he proposes they send the affected students to the highest performing schools in the state – including Bayside High. The influx of new students gives the over privileged Bayside kids a much needed and hilarious dose of reality." 30 Rock's Tracey Wigfield is the person responsible for getting that one up and running.
And those two are just the tip of the TV iceberg for the service, which will also carry The Office and a new adaptation of Brave New World. See more details via Variety's story on the announcement.