Topic: OT: Battlestar Galactica miniseries boycott

[WDLL]

The spaceship looks very familiar.  Almost like I have seen something much bigger than it somewhere, but similar design.  I will check if there are DVDs of the series for region 2 anywhere.  Thanks for the links.

[FormerDM]

Little known fact: Space 1999 was originally season 2 of UFO. Alpha Moonbase was intended to be SHADO HQ.

The investors became skittish after UFO ratings drooped a bit in NY and LA markets. Gerry Anderson resold it (they had done much preproduction work on sets, etc) as a new concept. Thus was Space: 1999 born.  

[WDLL]

Damn!  What is that UFO series?
 

[Baker]

 Wow that's one heck of a moon, if it  can travel faster then light and have the ability to be steered. Kinda makes all those starships look rather dull and pathetic doesn't it.

Well since I was born in 1981, I missed out on things like the original BSG and TOS, so I will watch it since it will be the first BSG that I come across.

[FormerDM]

Quote:
Damn!  What is that UFO series?
   

It aired in 1970. You can get in on DVD from A&E. Good fansite at http://www.ufoseries.com/

Premise:
         In the year 1980, a secret military organization named SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation) becomes operational. Its purpose is to defend the Earth from Aliens who've been coming to Earth and kidnapping humans. It is believed that these Aliens are a dying race, and are transplanting human body parts to extend their own lifespans.

SHADO's main headquarters is hidden beneath a film studio near London England. SHADO also has a base on the moon (Moonbase) and a fleet of submarines (Skydiver). Incoming UFO's are initially detected by an Earth orbiting satellite named SID (Space Intruder Detector). An initial interception attempt is made in space with three Interceptor craft launched from Moonbase. A second attempt is made in the Earth's atmosphere with a fighter plane (Sky One) launched from Skydiver. Landed UFO's are tracked down with ground Mobiles.

The episodes are typically about SHADO's attempts to thwart the Alien invasions, and the various Alien strategies to disable SHADO or kill its commander. Recurring themes include maintaining SHADO security, keeping SHADO properly funded, and the         effect that the secrecy has on the personal lives of SHADO's operatives.  

[WDLL]

Damn!!! It sounds like the games XCOM!  

[Cleaven]

Of course the UFO idea really started with Captain Scarlet.

Or maybe not, but at least I think they had a similar premise.  

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Karnak,

Ahem ....

Quote:

<snip>
I like the way the Colonials are no longer idiotic dupes; especiallly, the politicians.

What is so unbelievable about it?

The Twelve Colonies of Man intervened in a war between the Cylon Empire,
and one of the Colonies close neighbours,

The Cylons had extreminated their Reptilan Cylon Creators,
and had resolved the exterminate non-Cylon lifeforms and extend the Cylon Empire, ad infinitium,

Thus, the Colonial intervention commenced the "1000 Yarheen War",
the Colonials were initially successful, but the Cylons just kept manufacturing Cylon Warriors around the clock,
the Colonies were eventually worn down into a "Stalemate Frontline",

After 1000 Yarheens of War ... Colonial society had incorporate "the War" into their daily lives,
the Colonial economy went on,

The foolish (last) Colonial President decided on a "Neville Chambelain" peace process,
We know the rest,

Frankly ... I find the storyline quite believable, and "timeless"...


GeneralWolfe

Quote:
BSG Early Draft scripts:

**** WARNING!! Lotsa Potential Spoilers!! ****
http://www.galactica2003.net/archives/scripts.htm

If you go through the scripts I think you will find the new stories to be intriguing.  It makes you do a lot of thinking which is a sign of a good series.  I think the intellectual quotient has been expanded many times fold over the classic BSG.   I like the way the Colonials are no longer idiotic dupes; especiallly, the politicians.  Instead they are compromised by their own character flaws but not their intelligence.  Moore uses Balter as the symbol for how intelligence can be compromised by personal character flaws like being too self-absorbed (cf. Londo Mollari in B5, Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars, Gul Duhkat in DS9). Other than looking for a reference for the head baddie of the Cylons (ie. Star Wars mentioned the Emporer 30 minutes into the film, DS9 brought in the Female Changeling early on, Borg Queen appeared in First Contact), I like what R. Moore has done with the franchise.  It's kinda hard to hate the Cylon 6 model, hehe.

IMHO, I think it has a chance of meeting original B5 standards and putting Enterprise in trouble.  Another thing in the new series' favor is the casting of the Apollo character.  It's played by the actor that did Archie Kennedy in the Horatio Hornblower mini-series.  That shows that BSG is serious about getting young, hungry, quality actors on the potential level of Patrick Stewart in the series.  I'm also a Hornblower fan.  

[FormerDM]

Quote:
Of course the UFO idea really started with Captain Scarlet.

Or maybe not, but at least I think they had a similar premise.  

In a way, yes. More of an evolution really.

UFO was the first Gerry Anderson series to feature actual actors instead of puppets.

Very abridged production order:
SuperCar->Fireball XL5->Stingray->Thunderbirds->Captain Scarlet->UFO->Space 1999  

[Captain KoraH]

Oh alderon how little thou doest know about how the world turns....   "Fan Boys" have every right to effect a tv show they are fans of. And I suppose you would be called a "Fan Boy" of SFC by those who think it's an overrated game, like Gamespy does. Does that make you feel like you have less claim to ask Taldren to keep patching it?  What a fool...

[Dogmatix!]

Quote:
Space: 1999.  A base is on the moon.  Mostly science station, but they dispose of nuclear waste.  Something goes wrong and there is a massive explosion propelling the Moon out into space.  Before long they are out of range of earth and stuck on the moon.  They then encounter various aliens, and stuff as Moonbase Alpha continues on it's course, they are hoping that they will be able to reach a planet that is habitable by humans before they run out of supplies, etc.  

...and anyone interested in watching Space 1999 can now pick it up on DVD.  I have acquired half of the episodes so far, myself.  Loved the show as a kid...still very fun to watch.  It's a pretty expensive series to own in its entirety, though.

[Dogmatix!]

Quote:
Little known fact: Space 1999 was originally season 2 of UFO. Alpha Moonbase was intended to be SHADO HQ.

The investors became skittish after UFO ratings drooped a bit in NY and LA markets. Gerry Anderson resold it (they had done much preproduction work on sets, etc) as a new concept. Thus was Space: 1999 born.  

I didn't even know that.  I have all of UFO on DVD.  That's a fun watch...very 60's in its sociology.

[FormerDM]

and back to the dangerous topic of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries....

SciFi.com has posted four video clips of David Eick, Ron Moore and cast-members at Comic-Con International 2003 discussing their approach to the miniseries and fan reaction.

http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/downloads/  

[Aldaron]

Quote:
Oh alderon how little thou doest know about how the world turns....   "Fan Boys" have every right to effect a tv show they are fans of. And I suppose you would be called a "Fan Boy" of SFC by those who think it's an overrated game, like Gamespy does. Does that make you feel like you have less claim to ask Taldren to keep patching it?  What a fool...  

Try to follow me here. If I'm a fan of SFC and encourage Taldren to patch it I am not taking anything away from anyone. However if I hated the game and went on a campaign to have it removed becuase me and a few SFB fans found it offensive to what we consider SFB as sacred then I would be partly responsible in having it taken away from people who did like it. See the difference!

Having the new BSG air without interference from "fan boys" takes nothing away because you can simply not watch. However if it's taken off the air and I like it how can I watch it?!

[Captain KoraH]

Uhm... no, you're totally off the mark.  What were talking about here is much more like Activision releasing a patch for SFC3 that totally changes the game for the worse. For instance, what if they decided that it would be cool if photon torpedoes were really just big tomatoes flying thru space? And what if they decided that the theme song from Hee-Haw would be playing instead of the SFC theme music. And what if they decided that all the ships should look like carrots with spoons tied to them using bailing wire? That's what were talking about here Alderon, someone is taking our baby and horribly mutilating it. And you know what, I bet some lunatics out there would actually like flying vegetables instead of SFC ships, but I doubt you would just sit back and play the game anyway because they said it's better to have an open mind. Come on man, stop arguing and wake up! This is bad! You don't just sit back and let something bad happen if you can prevent it:


"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

 

[Hertston]

Quote:
I'll watch it if it makes it over to the UK. Oh, and I'm almost 39 and I really enjoyed Firefly, yet I've heard it's cancelled after one season?  

Didn't know that, pity.  It was a lot better than most of the sci-fi channel rubbish.

The only thing that puzzles me about a "new" Battlestar Galactica is why anybody would want to bother.

A boycott seems pretty stupid IMHO.  So they upset a few (and there can't be more than a few, can there ?) fans of the old series, who presumably have the same access to the "off" switch as anybody else.   If the 12-25 year olds not lumbered with memories of the original series do enjoy it, let them, and don't try and kill the show off just because YOU don't like it.
 

[Aldaron]

Quote:
Uhm... no, you're totally off the mark.  What were talking about here is much more like Activision releasing a patch for SFC3 that totally changes the game for the worse. For instance, what if they decided that it would be cool if photon torpedoes were really just big tomatoes flying thru space? And what if they decided that the theme song from Hee-Haw would be playing instead of the SFC theme music. And what if they decided that all the ships should look like carrots with spoons tied to them using bailing wire? That's what were talking about here Alderon, someone is taking our baby and horribly mutilating it. And you know what, I bet some lunatics out there would actually like flying vegetables instead of SFC ships, but I doubt you would just sit back and play the game anyway because they said it's better to have an open mind. Come on man, stop arguing and wake up! This is bad! You don't just sit back and let something bad happen if you can prevent it:


"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

 

You're right and you know what I would just stop playing the game, end of my problem. Just like all you have to do is not watch the show, end of your problem. Oh sure I might rant a little but I don't think I'd try to boycott Taldren to have it taken off the shelves so that those that do enjoy it wouldn't be able to get it anymore. Don't try and dictate what should and shouldn't be out there if people like flying carrots instead of ships.

I didn't like SFC3 before it came out because it went away from what I and several other people wanted and I hated the TNG direction. But you know what?! I gave it a chance and bought it anyway. It's OK but it's still not my cup of tea and I feel SFC is dead as far as I'm concerned. I still have SFC2: EAW that fit what I want just like you have the old BSG.

[Eltanin]

I loved BSG and Frankly I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT THEY'VE DONE WITH IT!!  It just opens up so many possibilities by makings some of the changes they're going ahead with.  A human looking cylon...that's just a plain cool idea (and a logical strategic choice if you ask me...).  Starbuck as a woman!  Why not?  Again, great new possibilities for character depth.  EJ Olmos for Adama...the man's just a GREAT actor.  The only think I've seen I don't like, and it's the same with every SF tv show it that....everything is so clean!  The vidcaps I've seen are aweful, the art director should be shot.  Where's the grunge?  People sweat in more places than just their face!  

The only thing that does kind of get me is how they torpedo'd Hatch who's been busting his hump for years.

Ah well...I'm counting the days till it's on.

[EmeraldEdge]

Human looking Cylon has already been done, in Battlestar '80.  Ugh.  Sucked then, and probably will now.  I think the thing that get's me most, is that without the specific names in the title, and models used for ships, how much is it really like the original.  They could easily have just not put that in and it would have been completely new thing that a lot of people might have been able to get behind.  It might have sparked a lot of (Hey, remember Battlestar Galactica?  Boy, wish we could have both of these shows).  What they have done though is taken something and changed it almost beyond recognition.  Personally I don't have a problem with some of the character changes.  Boomer, don't mind that she's a woman, but Starbuck?

I agree with the clean comment as well.  Everything looks very generic sci-fi, with a sterile feel to it.  No character at all.  I feel really bad about it too, because I like some of the actors attached.  (I was always wondering who could do Adama after Lorne Greene, but I think Olmos certainly could pull it off.  It's too bad it's a halfway version of BSG)  Imo, they should have just made it look and sound that last little bit (since it's already away) different and called it something else.  

[IntgrSpin]

The more people shriek "BOYCOTT!" the more I want to check it out.

Sure I watched BSG as a kid. I watched Dukes of Hazzard and Buck Rogers too. Know what? They all SUCK as high art.

Know what else? Star Trek with it's winky dink dime-store philosophy and new age preachiness sucks too. If I want philosophy, I'll read James, Nietzsche, Sartre or Kant, not watch some dopey show from the sixtes shoveling around philosophy 101, hoping people will be impressed.

What do I want in media entertainment? I want Captain Kirk fistfighting with some latex dinosaur. I want some green chick mudwrestling with some orange chick. I want big explosions and a thrilling soundtrack. I want cheap thrills and cheaper laughs.

I like things that offend people, and maybe makes them wonder why they're being offended. It is just a stupid TV show after all. Don't like it? There are about 300 other channels that aren't playing it, but that's not quite good enough is it? You also want to make sure nobody else watches it either! "Oh they changed a bad TV show from the seventies and made it into a bad TV show for today, BOYCOTT!"

Some of you guys are SO cute...