New Battlestar Galactica information

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/1...

Adama now wears glasses (yes we can make starships but can't fix eyes), but more importantly:

While the original series' thematic core remains -- the human struggle for survival -- a lot has changed.

Gone is the space fantasy with the dashing caped warriors of old. Now they're handsome heroes in uniforms akin to Air Force fighter pilots. The aluminum Cylon enemies look more like humans, complete with feelings, including one with rabid sexual desires.

The aluminum Cylon enemies look more like humans, complete with feelings, including one with rabid sexual desires.

And this is a problem because... ? If I''m going to be killed by a robot, it might as well be a sexbot.

We''ll find out in a few hours.

Aside from character names, does it really have anything to do with the orginal? I''m not a big fan of the series, or anything, but it just seems like they used the name to get some publicity, then made a completely different show.

Well... it was neither as good as I had secretly hoped for a bad as I actually feared. Over all it was not bad. Stupid space physics but hey nobody ever bothers to that sort of thing right. Acting was pretty decent over all IMO... WIll see how things pan out tomorrow. The probable could stand to hire a few military consultants, but I hope this turns into something that will be good long term.

"Kriegshund" wrote:

Aside from character names, does it really have anything to do with the orginal? I''m not a big fan of the series, or anything, but it just seems like they used the name to get some publicity, then made a completely different show.

The story picks up 40 years later.. there is definitely some inconstancy''s from how a remember the series ending but they do seem to be trying to build off the original show... I thought they did an ok job with the idea over all.

You know, I really didn''t have a problem with the show. I thought it found an interesting story to tell, and as long as you weren''t too wrapped up in the original series, you could find a fairly compelling tale. I''ll be watching tomorrow night.

I liked what I saw of the first show... I''ll watch it on tivo tomorrow and just try to let go of the comic book guy in me and enjoy it.

FWIW, to say the reviewer at IGN hated it would be putting it mildly.

FWIW, the reviewer at IGN is a little too worried about the fact that the new miniseries isn''t a cheesy 70''s sci-fi show. I mean:

Original series creator Glen A. Larson''s multifaceted, allegorical epic

Is he serious? Has he watched the original series with a critical eye recently?

I missed it. How was the sexy robot?

edit: I''m sure that will increase our hit count from the robot fetishists out there. Is there a single word for robot fetishists? Cyborphile? Robophile?

I found her to be kind of an interesting character. She could have very much been a blatant femme fatale with no complexity, and while I don''t think the character is Ophelia, they did manage to incorporate some depth to the character beyond just a sexpot with a glowing spine. She ultimately serves to make the story of Baltar much more interesting.

Yeah, she was a sexpot with a glowing spine that takes a shine to snapping babies'' necks.

If you get past the first half-hour''s over-sexiness, the story becomes much more interesting.

All right, some more indepth thoughts:

The Good:

Edward James Olmos: I seem to recall people making cracks about Miami Vice when they heard he was cast as Adama. Well, eat crow folks, because he is damn good in this role.

The FX: Many people are put off by the new style of ""space cinematography,"" but I liked it. It was different, not unlike the FX of Firefly (I think the same people did the FX for both shows). Not to mention the physics and hearing voice traffic.

Colonel Tigh: At first I''d thought I''d hate the boozed-up, washed-up version of the character, but frak me, this worked too. Here we see a man who''s personal and professional lives are in a death spiral and has to pull it together in the clutch.

The massacre: It worked well without showing millions of people getting vaporized. Watching the news people getting nuked on Baltar''s TV worked just fine.

Boomer: This is going to be the breakout character of the show. From watching her reaction to the massacre of her fellow pilots to leaving Helo behind on Caprica, her performance was terrific to watch.

Military accuracy: This show managed to out-do Space: Above and Beyond in that department.

The homages: The teases of the original theme. The musuem pieces featuring the walking toaster and the original basestar (I heard they wanted to have the original Viper, but those were destroyed at the end of the series). The brief shot of Serenity flying over Caprica City. The innaguration ceremony on Air Force...er...Colonial 1. The numbers 47 and 1701. Little things that caught my eyes and ears.

The iffy:

Starbuck: I didn''t have a problem with changing the character to a female and you can get some glimpses of the old Starbuck in the card game scene. However, after that, her character was a little stale. Hopefully, it''ll pick up as the conflict rages.

Number Sex...er...Six: Like Ely said, she could be just a lame femme fatale, but her seduction of Baltar served a purpose. I think what gave her character a lot of depth was snapping that babies'' neck. It sort of said, yeah the Cylons know a lot of things about humanity, but they''re still alien. Still though, her behavior in the second part will determine my overall opinion of the character.

The Teacher President: They''re teasing us with bigger conflicts between her and Adama (wouldn''t it be funny if she was a math teacher?). What we did see of her when she was just Secretary of Education worked, but I think we''ll see a different character in the second part.

Baltar: Most people seemed put off by the fact he wasn''t uber-evil as they remember him from the original show. Recall though that even he became a sniveling wimp a few times. This Baltar hasn''t had enough screen time for me to judge his ""evilness""; at this point he could just as easily end up being a good guy.

The Bad:

Apollo: By the Lords of Kobol, did they ever castrate this character. He''s just being pissy for the sake of being pissy, having no assertiveness whatsoever.

Presidential Aide Mike Brady: People said there wasn''t going to be any 70''s cheese, but here you go!

Stripfest 2003: By the time Chief Tirol and Boomer started going at it, I was yelling enough is enough.

The Ugly

Sci-fi Channel''s new shows: Crap crap crap, nothing but crap!

Serously, where do I sign up to join that military outfit, I need to get me some.

They need to go no sound in space, they were a little iffy with that... they headed in the right direction but then chickened out. ""I think we have enough inertia..."" Huh, it''s space how exactly are you going to loose inertia? Really though I liked it and am looking forward to tonights. My wife did have to ask what would have happened if they had sent a female officer to meet at the diplomatic station :).
Fear the robot dog, it must be coming.

Just the fact that they had a fighter rotate 180 degrees against its inertia and shoot back at a pursuer was enough to make me like it. None of that ""I can''t shake it off my tail!"" b.s.

I don''t know how anyone can have any nostalgia for the first series except for maybe the theme song. IMO it didn''t even have any of the elements that make bad sci-fi good. They can change around as much of the plotlines and characters as they want in this new version and I won''t mind a bit.

I just can''t stand when people change things for the sake of changing them. It''s like they don''t feel that the original could have just had bad writing and leave everything else alone.

WARNING! COMIC BOOK GEEK TALK APPROACHING:

It''s like that dumb-ass show based on the Birds of Prey comic book. The comic was solid, had good writing, and was interesting. But then they tried to make a show about it and changed every damn thing about it except for the fact that Oracle (Batgirl) was in a wheelchair. I didn''t watch episode one and apparently a lot of other people didn''t either and it was canceled.

Same thing with the Lone Gunmen show. They added an idiot and a supposedly attractive woman because they felt the three leads wouldn''t be able to carry the show. Well, if you feel that way then why make the damn thing?

I just thing they changed stuff just for the sake of changing it and making it ""hip."" I''m sorry but crap writing is still crap writing no matter how many boobs you stick on screen.

Also, the whole ""The robots look like us!"" bit I liked when it was called ""Terminator,"" or to go back further, ""Invasion of the Body Snacthers.""

I''m sorry but crap writing is still crap writing no matter how many boobs you stick on screen.

That summarizes about how I feel on the original series, though I''d use ''boobs'' in a less sexually charged way as in to mean buffoons. Listen I love the nostalgia factor of the original BSG, and I like that it helped pioneer the genre on television, but let''s not pretend it was epic television. It was a mediocre serial drama set in space, with average acting and writers. It was the A-Team with lasers. I''m not saying the miniseries is the second coming, but its writing is, generally speaking, superior.

Hang on! Let me slip this flame {ableist slur}ant suit on. Man is this thing charred. Old Burny I call her. Fits like a warm glove made of fire repellant material. Oooh, little snug around the midsection.

Ok, ready. Burn me baby!

I enjoyed the new show. I was never a BSG fanboy, so maybe it is easier fro me to watch and enjoy?

I plan on watching more tonight.

That summarizes about how I feel on the original series, though I''d use ''boobs'' in a less sexually charged way as in to mean buffoons. Listen I love the nostalgia factor of the original BSG, and I like that it helped pioneer the genre on television, but let''s not pretend it was epic television. It was a mediocre serial drama set in space, with average acting and writers. It was the A-Team with lasers. I''m not saying the miniseries is the second coming, but its writing is, generally speaking, superior.

Oh don''t get me wrong. I was not a big fan of the old series either. It''s just when they changed things like genders and ethnicities for no real reason other than to show more women in tight shirts that I take offense. They could have improved on the writing without the need for that.

Well, IIRC, none of the main characters in the original story were female. So maybe there''s a little bit of justification of flipping some genders so that there are female characters that aren''t just girlfriends/wives/sexy robots.

Well, I did like the original series, it had aliens and guns and swords and space ships shooting other space ships... what was not to like... of course I was like 8 so there you go. I don''t find liking the original is interfering with my enjoyment of the new series though... Some folks (ur and um movie companies and well game companies and hmm well a long list really) seem to need to live in the past and can''t enjoy anything that dose not continually cookie cutter recreate the original faithfully, which of course is all but impossible. I''m actually surprised they have branched off at all with the new story (though they certainly captured the those who do not learn from history ar doomed to repeat it). Honestly though I wish they would either make it hard core porn or back of the whole everybody knocking boots in every closest on the ship thing.

"Elysium" wrote:

FWIW, the reviewer at IGN is a little too worried about the fact that the new miniseries isn''t a cheesy 70''s sci-fi show. I mean:

Original series creator Glen A. Larson''s multifaceted, allegorical epic

Is he serious? Has he watched the original series with a critical eye recently?

Tell me Lloyd Bridges as the Commander of the Pegasus wasn''t cool. Tell me that Starbuck''s friendship with a Cylon culminating with the Cylon''s death in defense of Starbuck''s life didn''t show that all thinking life can go beyond that which they were programmed/raised to believe, that prejudice and hatred can be overcome by mutual understanding through shared experiences and circumstances.

Plus, they had Fred Astaire.

Well, IIRC, none of the main characters in the original story were female. So maybe there''s a little bit of justification of flipping some genders so that there are female characters that aren''t just girlfriends/wives/sexy robots.

I agree. Most of the women of the original series were of the very damsel in distress variety, and had no real teeth. Having seen the part one of the miniseries, I think the decision to make Starbuck a girl has very little to do with sex appeal. I think it has to do with making an interesting character choice. And, I tend to agree with what was said before ... Boomer is the breakout character of the show. It''s more than randomly changing genders and ethnicities. I think it''s about developing some fairly static stereotypical characters (Black sidekick #7, Love Interest #49, Wise Cracking Pilot #775, and so on) into a retelling of the fundamental story. I didn''t want to see some cover band faithfully rerecording the same hit I''ve already heard. I wanted the basically interesting tale recast through a new and creative eye. I think, for the most part, I''ve gotten that.

Tell me Lloyd Bridges as the Commander of the Pegasus wasn''t cool. Tell me that Starbuck''s friendship with a Cylon culminating with the Cylon''s death in defense of Starbuck''s life didn''t show that all thinking life can go beyond that which they were programmed/raised to believe, that prejudice and hatred can be overcome by mutual understanding through shared experiences and circumstances

Cool concepts, but I don''t feel like they were executed very well. The ''Enemy Mine'' concept has been around in fiction of all kind for quite some time now, and has been done better. And the other elements that you note have more to do with cool guest appearances than a strong story arc.

Well, IIRC, none of the main characters in the original story were female. So maybe there''s a little bit of justification of flipping some genders so that there are female characters that aren''t just girlfriends/wives/sexy robots.
I agree. Most of the women of the original series were of the very damsel in distress variety, and had no real teeth.

You''re forgetting Sheba, played by Anne Lockhart. She was also a pilot who was involved in a lot of their ""adventures."" More often than Boomer anyways. And towards the end she was developing into a love interest for Apollo.

There was also Aurora, and ex-girlfriend of Starbuck, who was part of a mutiny on one of the other ships.

They are there, they just weren''t as noticeable as the male leads. They could have turned Sheba and even Cassiopia into stronger characters in the new mini-series. They didn''t do anything interesting with Starbuck except change him to a her.

It''s like making a Justice League movie and changing Batman and Superman into Batwoman and Superwoman rather than using characters that already exsisted and brining them to the forefront.

I personally liked it a lot...but then again, considering how Trek is now firmly in the sh*tter, I''m desperate for a good SF series.

I have just finished watching both of the episodes of the mini series and have to say that I thought it was excellent. It does have some minor problems but it is one hell a show, and I hope that Sci-Fi continues to make more.

Starting to sound like a full series or second miniseries is inevitable...

Tuesday''s installment was the most-watched show on cable for the night and also beat broadcast networks UPN and The WB in total viewers. It was Sci Fi''s best night of the year in total viewers and all key demographics.

They sure as sh*t better not turn Battlestar Galactica into a series. Not becuase I don''t agree with much of what they have to offer, but because one of the ""reasons"" they gave for cancelling Farscape and for not resurrecting Babylon 5: Crusade was due to the special effects budgets needed for ""space shows.""

Yeah, they thought ""space shows"" were too expensive. They''re only the f*cking Sci-Fi network! If they shell out money for this to turd to be turned into a show I will be royaly pissed.

"RumbleFish" wrote:

They sure as sh*t better not turn Battlestar Galactica into a series. Not becuase I don''t agree with much of what they have to offer, but because one of the ""reasons"" they gave for cancelling Farscape and for not resurrecting Babylon 5: Crusade was due to the special effects budgets needed for ""space shows.""

Yeah, they thought ""space shows"" were too expensive. They''re only the f*cking Sci-Fi network! If they shell out money for this to turd to be turned into a show I will be royaly pissed.

You know, if Crusade had beaten Queer Eye in the ratings, we''d be watching it right now. Prepare to be royally pissed...

I liked BSG better then Crusader, but well not as much as B5 taken as a whole. I hope they do make a series, and make one that will do well, it could start a trend to bring us many good things.