Re: Anyone catch the new Battlestar Gallactica last nite?

**freekyE** · 01-08-2006, 09:35 PM

i really like the new bsg .....it IS TONS better than any other sci-fi series
(including firefly...ugh i cant stand joss whedon)

its really gritty and character driven...case in point, the episode where sharon is gonna get raped had me on the edge of my seat until the next week

thats my opinoin

**Wulfyn** · 01-09-2006, 06:46 AM

I like the BSG remake. I thought the original was fairly 'meh', and typical of the time. Did anyone doubt they'd eventuallly find earth and go through the whole culture difference thing. yug. One day they'll land in asia first as well.

anyway - things i like about the remake are the way the story really digs into the characters. Yes there are times when the acting falls very flat, and I admit the spinny camera work gets a bit frustrating, but they are the first sci-fi show in a long time to have real guts in the production department. So many shows are unbelievably safe that it gets dull. Maybe that's why I went from strongly disliking Frscape to being a real fan. The lead character went mad - not in action hero i'm so annoyed I'm going to kill everyone yarr!! but as in he was properly losing it. This alongside the loss of characters that were largely popular created a sense that you just never could predict what might happen. That's a big risk.

Same in the new BSG. They have taken a lot of risks that they are aware people may not like, and it may turn a lot of people away. But that's the coolness and in my opinion the art of it. It doesn't look like they are trying to be popular, they are trying to present a gritty tail. Even right at the beginning when they were counting how many humans were left alive, and you had the clock ticking down until the next jump... there was never a time when it seemed safe.

All in all I have to say thanks to Babylon 5 for this (later backed up by Farscape and 24). I was never much of a fan of that series (beyond the excellent interplay between Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik), but it broke the traditional 'star trek' mould of a series that consisted of a number of largely independent episodes and proved that people would be interested in a series with story and character development (even if that development is not as great as it might have been).

**Mirfee** · 01-09-2006, 07:03 AM

What Wulfyn said.

Amen.

**Coridon** · 01-09-2006, 07:08 AM

Dirk Benedict...

that name sticks to your intestines like red meat.

man i wish my hair feathered like that guys'....

and yes, it's 1207 GMT, and yes, i've consumed much more than i can hold, if i may quote one stephen patrick morrisey...

i've liked what i've seen of the new BSG...though where's the robotic dog??

**bruisersr1** · 01-09-2006, 07:32 AM

Ah yes the blonde cylon. Loved the ending and can't wait to see what happens next.

**Steeler** · 01-09-2006, 10:05 AM

Ron Moore, the series producer, came out of Deep Space Nine, where his crowning acheivement was turning the last 3 seasons from episodic "temporal anomaly of the week" into serialized political drama. He spent 2 months on Voyager, but they were having none of that narrative crap, so he left.

His big thing about BSG is, look at the first 5 episodes of the original series. The twelve colonies get wiped out. Mankind is on the run. There are murderous robots chasing them. Fighting has broken out among the refugees and the noble classes over food supplies. And at the end of the pilot, what are they doing? Partying down in an alien casino while Starbuck leers at the blond girl.

Moore said that, in addition to updating the production value from the cheesy 70s Love Boat style camp to something more modern, they should explore the serious consequences implied by the original story. Nobody ever dies on Star Trek. Loads of people die on Galactica. Because they are at war, for crying out loud. And that uncertainty, the thought that the series might not be quite the same after each and every episode, lends it a certain tension. Soooo good.

**Root** · 01-10-2006, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by Beatnik

Don't judge the new one by the pilot. The depth of the characters goes way beyond what the pilot would indicate.

The depth of the characters aside, it doesn't change the fact that Boomer isn't a woman, and neither is Starbuck. If you *absolutely insist* on remaking something, at least stick with the plot, and get the characters right. The old cylons were hardcore, the new cylons suck imo, and as for the ship changing it's callsign to airforce one, that was just flag waving crap. And as someone quite rightly pointed out, it isn't BSG without Muffit.

I've *never* seen a remake that was in any respect vaguely worth watching, be it mission unplausable, batman, BSG, charlies angels or anything else you care to name.

If they'd started where the old show left off (ie having found Earth), then I'd have a lot more time for it.

**Steeler** · 01-10-2006, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by Root

The old cylons were hardcore, the new cylons suck imo...

Oh, you haven't seen the episode where the centurion raiding squad boards the ship.

"All I see is bodies down here!"

I've *never* seen a remake that was in any respect vaguely worth watching, be it mission unplausable, batman, BSG, charlies angels or anything else you care to name.

Have you seen the new Doctor?

**Root** · 01-11-2006, 05:10 AM

Originally Posted by Steeler

Oh, you haven't seen the episode where the centurion raiding squad boards the ship.

Yes I have. The old ones even LOOKED cooler.

Originally Posted by Steeler

Have you seen the new Doctor?

I rest my case about remakes. What a load of utter rubbish. A northern prat who has conveys absolutely zero personality (but fortunately a friend of the guy making the show), who's then replaced by a boring prat (who also happens to be a friend of the guy making the show).

Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, *Tom* Baker, McCoy. Everything else is sub-standard.

**KeithMann** · 01-11-2006, 11:35 AM

Give it a chance and don't think of it as a remake, Root. You're depriving yourself of some great SF.

I'm surprised by the negative comments; I love BSG. I enjoyed the last ep -- spoiler question: who was the Cylon that Kane saw on the resurrection ship when she zoomed in tight on Starbuck's recon photo?

**ScratchMonkey** · 01-11-2006, 01:48 PM

The old Cylons reminded me of Cybermen, who were only slightly less clunky than Daleks. Did anyone else think their skirts were silly? What were they, Scottish robots? Then where were their bagpipes?!

**Root** · 01-11-2006, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by ScratchMonkey

The old Cylons reminded me of Cybermen, who were only slightly less clunky than Daleks. Did anyone else think their skirts were silly? What were they, Scottish robots? Then where were their bagpipes?!

The old cylons, together with the cybermen and daleks, are some of the most bad ass villains ever. Of course nothing will knock the guy with the black outfit and the asthma problem off the top spot.

**Wulfyn** · 01-12-2006, 08:36 AM

I can see your point root about not feeling right about the sex changes to Boomer and Starbuck, but to be honest I think it really works. Especially for Starbuck, and let's face it apart from a few more curves has the character changed much beyond being less cheesy and more gritty (in line with the whole series). Cigars, poker player, ace pilot who lives for the fight, and totally no respect for anything anyone ever tells her (especially if the person telling her something happens to outrank her). Sure she doesn't go around leching at everything, but the Mr Benedict, was a lov-ah and not a fight-ah.

But then look at the pilot again. There are a huge amounts of nods to the original series. Go watch the minin series again, and try and spot how many of these there are, from the use of an original Cylon battleship model in the museum, to mention that the previous commander was a Commander Hatch (Cpt Apollo being played by Richard Hatch in the original series). They even put the freaking theme tune on Baltar's news programme.

Maybe it's just me tho - I like the new cylons. Maybe I'm fed up of seeing costumes of men in metal suits. And the bit where they found earth was where they made their biggest mistakes originally, and where I stopped watching it. But hey, let's send Starbuck and Apollo into yet another random space-casino where they can lech at women and get caught by Cyclon patrols whilst trying to find that errant Daggit whilst some other trivial problem on board ship had to be sorted out (like Adama losing a sock in the wash).

Each to his own!

**TheFeniX** · 01-13-2006, 11:10 PM

Never seeing more than one episode of the original series, I love Neo-BSG because it's about the characters and their struggles against themselves and other characters. You just don't get that anymore.

Tonight's episode was awesome and it actually got my heart-rate up.

Sidenote: Notice what the Colonial Marines were carrying as their primary weapon? Beretta Storms. Hehe, thought that was cool as Hell when I noticed it.

**ScratchMonkey** · 02-07-2006, 10:34 AM

John Ringo on the new BSG:

http://www.johnringo.com/Abyss/Default.asp

Much as I like the show, I do have to agree with him. But TV is run by the "visual" people, not the writers. If a show looks good, who cares if it makes any sense? Sigh.