You guys gotta read this. It's a review of the script for the new BSG miniseries. I'll post the links to the petitions to klill the show at the end. What a travesty...
This new miniseries is as closely related to Galactica as the Hunt for Red October would be a remake of Star Trek if you put two engineers aboard the sub in Star Trek costumes and had them stand in the background.
The new show paints an allegory between Terrorism and the United States, that basically says the world should blame America for terrorism.
Worse still, the logical details in the remake badly conflict with each other, from the useless destruction of a meeting place called Armistace Station to the nearby detonation of a nuclear device that should have lethally irradiated everyone on the Galactica. The warship is reduced to a useless transport after destroying its own missiles through a ceremony that utterly defies reason. This Galactica hasn?t used its main engines in 20 years, reviving the rather weak and overused template from Star Trek of always starting out a new vessel as being either incomplete or not quite up to specs in some area.
Even the intended shooting style demonstrates that you?re not watching Battlestar Galactica. The original series suffered from the repeated overuse of the same special effects shots. As cliché as that became, that flaw pales compared to the remake?s plan to use split screens to show space effects shots, providing up to five different views at the same time. Additionally, the space effects will be shown without sound effects, something that will help reduce the spending budget but will badly violate the viewing standards established for space shows. Soundwaves don?t travel through space, but since we live in a world with soundwaves, not hearing sound distances the viewer from the action. Split screens will further change many critical shots from something that draws in the viewer and helps him follow the action, to something little better than a security camera display.
The altered nature of the Colonial military actually illustrates the missing spirit of this miniseries. Where the former Colonials were proud to be warriors, embracing bravery and strength as a way of life to be praised, the new ones are petty and self-absorbed. They are defined by their weaknesses not their strengths. Throughout the first two hours of the miniseries, you actually hope the Cylons get them and kill them all. The storyline and characters do improve through the last half of the miniseries but they don?t become any more ?Galactican?. To some degree, the second half reads better simply because the first two hours has already stomped over the entire Galactica universe and there?s little left to insult or destroy.
Rom Moore trashed two of the three main characters, Starbuck and Boomer, by making them females. He claims he wanted strong female characters but the new ?Starbuck? (her name is really Kara Thrace) isn?t a strong character. She?s just a bltch. If her actions and dialog were imposed on a male character you?d conclude he was an unrelenting a$$hole. Yet, because she?s female, the viewer is supposed to think she?s a tough and a strong character.
Ron has given us Lee Adama, who actually is the perfect example of an unrelenting a$$hole. This is ?Apollo?, someone who comes off as both hateful and annoying as he drives emotional knives into his father throughout the entire first half of the series.
Superior to both in character is the new female Boomer, called Sharon Valerii. Dereliction of duty is acceptable as long as you are shagging someone cute. There?s no reason for this character to be female. She?s not the strong female type Ron Moore claimed he wanted by changing the character?s sexes. She?s a bit of a goof and reads as the closest thing to Jar-Jar Binks you?ll find in this production, although I doubt you?ll find Jar-Jar bopping some hanger worker in the next Star Wars movie.
Like the missing Adama, you also won?t be seeing Baltar. There is a character by that name but the new Baltar is totally swayed by sex. I have no idea how the actor will actually portray this character. He?s following behind John Colicos who did a marvelous job with what was admittedly a very comic book character in the original series. Where the original Baltar was a man driven purely by greed, the new Baltar is driven by his sexual weaknesses and his own amorality. Like the original character, he shares a deep self-centered view of the universe but that similarity really seems like an accidental parallel rather than a real character trait. I can?t imagine the old Baltar wanting to call a lawyer to save him when the Cylons start to launch their attack. That?s exactly what the new one does. To some, details like this might bring more believability to this character but they also rob him of the charm the viewers enjoyed in seeing the old character on the screen. The new Baltar isn?t a villain you love to hate. Instead, he?s a bit creepy, like a guy who just walked out of an adult video store with a large paper bag and wants to stand a little too close to you while you both wait for the bus..
The nature of space travel has also been altered in this version. Where initially the script seems to be jumping closer to the Star Trek need to introduce warp drive, this new miniseries actually seems to be thieving from the Dune series, demanding a mechanical engine to ?fold space?. Since this is truly an icon of Dune, this alteration hits you square in the face. The original series had faster than light (FTL) drives in the major ships. Maintaining that premise would have been transparent. Diverting the engines to this new purpose doesn?t seem to add anything to the storyline and provides another reminder that the viewer isn?t watching Battlestar Galactica, despite the title he saw in the beginning.
The new Colonial Viper uses machineguns instead of pulsar cannons.
The Colonies, after suffering the Cylon attacks, are nuclear wastelands, wiped completely clean by the Cylon invasion. The plight to find Earth, proves to be nothing more than a lie invented by the new Adama to keep everyone focused. In this lie, both President Roslin and Adama opt to mislead the people ?for their own good?. This is a startling contrast to Lorne Greene?s patriarchal Adama who leads people to the promised land of Earth where they can regroup and then face and defeat the Cylons and regain their home. In the miniseries, ?home? is a smoking nuclear hole. The Colonies aren?t taken over by the Cylons. They?re vaporized by them. Through these two elements, Ron Moore transforms the basic theme of the show from a quest to a group of survivors bumbling around in the dark, occasionally grabbing a feel when they think nobody is looking.
The article in it's entirety:
http://www.cylon.org/bsg2003/remake-bsg-review-01.htmlAnd the links to kill this horrific monstrosity before it pollutes our society with useless anti-american trash talk: Signed by over 18,000 people and counting...
http://www.petitiononline.com/eulogy/petition.html http://www.petitiononline.com/bsg1/petition.html http://www.petitiononline.com/bsg2001a/petition.html http://www.petitiononline.com/bsgffs/petition.html http://www.petitiononline.com/nrfbsg/petition.html 
Topic: OT: New Battlestar Galactica: Female Lt. Boomer = Jar-Jar Binks! (Read 2347 times)