Topic: Another review of Galactica 2003

[CptCastrin]

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So let me get this straight...

1) Cylons were created by humans? Lame.   Hasn't that theme been utterly beaten to death?

Hasen't the whole "strange alien race has come to destroy us for no good reason other than they are ____ and we are human" plot device been beat to death too? I.e. the whole primis of Battlestar Galactica, the original series. In SciFi writing there is little that hasn't been done and been over and over and over again.

The current, popular, theme for scifi movies is the whole "technology run amuck" plot style as apposed to the "alien invasion" style but you can see examples of both curently. BSG is just using that instead of the original but both pretty much play the same in my book so it's a wash.

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2) The war has been going for a whole 40 years now? Wow!    

How long is long enough? WW2 lasted 6 years (roughly) and destroyed 2 countries, guted 2 others and changed the economic landscape for over 40 years. WW1 was only 4 years and did basically the same thing (though the effects were shorter or longer depending on ones opinion) in less time.

Using a ST/SFB comparison the General War lasted 14 years and ended only after all sides were exausted and there was little point in continuing.  

Or are you saying that 40 years is TOO long. On that I'd probably agree. I'm rather supprised to see 40 years as the length as in my mind there would be little left of industry or normal consumer goods and standard living condition levels would likely be low for the most part. 40 years of war would suck an economy dry, even a interstellar one IMHO.

   

[Rat_Boy]

The Dominion War was only two yarns...er...years.  In my timeline, the War of Pacification was also two years or so, and the Andromedan Invasion is three years.

[Death_Merchant]

I believe that complaint about a 40-50 year war in the miniseries is that it was 1000 yahrens in the original.  

[762]

What DM said. The Lizards-making-robots-that-killed-them-and-now-want-to-kill-us schtick is at least a new twist on the alien conquest theme, which still has not been beaten to death as badly as the Blade Runner/Terminator/Matrix/insertyourfavorite60'sscifistoryhere theme.

The 1000 yahren history of the war may have seemed a little fantastic, but it gives you a yearning to learn more about the history of said war. Ditto the  Galactica itself, which has supposedly been around for 600 or so years herself.

40 years? Yawn.

[CptCastrin]

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I believe that complaint about a 40-50 year war in the miniseries is that it was 1000 yahrens in the original.  

D'oh! Forgot about that ... but what is a "yahrens"? Did they ever define it as a "year" or was it just some doppy "stardate" rip off? Honestly I'm not a fan boy of BSG (though I do like it) so I'm hopeful that some one can answer that.

   

[CptCastrin]

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What DM said. The Lizards-making-robots-that-killed-them-and-now-want-to-kill-us schtick is at least a new twist on the alien conquest theme, which still has not been beaten to death as badly as the Blade Runner/Terminator/Matrix/insertyourfavorite60'sscifistoryhere theme.

The "lizard" theory was mostly fanboy stuff. AFAIK the cylons were always cybernectic / robotic in nature and didn't have any lizard inside piloting it around. Now there was one thing that fed the lizard theory and that was the look of the "Imperious Leader". I won't get into the counter theories but I can understand where they all came from. Guess that's what you get for only having 1 season to draw from.  

As for one being over done than the other, that's an opinion. Remember there is more than just the last 10 years to draw from (though I see a nod to the 60s pulf horror / scifi films). However I will take exception to the inclusion of Blade Runner in that list, it never refered to the replicates as wanting to take over Earth. The rest are fine though.  

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The 1000 yahren history of the war may have seemed a little fantastic, but it gives you a yearning to learn more about the history of said war. Ditto the  Galactica itself, which has supposedly been around for 600 or so years herself.

40 years? Yawn.  

Well I give you that but then in the 70's no one had heard of "space junk" and the damamge it could cause. Nor had there been any real scentific information on what kind of ware and tear objects take when travaling through open space (orbital space is quite different than that which lies between earth and other planets).

But that's all just fine. 40 years or 400 yahren ... either works for me.

   

[BortaS]

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What DM said. The Lizards-making-robots-that-killed-them-and-now-want-to-kill-us schtick is at least a new twist on the alien conquest theme, which still has not been beaten to death as badly as the Blade Runner/Terminator/Matrix/insertyourfavorite60'sscifistoryhere theme.

The "lizard" theory was mostly fanboy stuff. AFAIK the cylons were always cybernectic / robotic in nature and didn't have any lizard inside piloting it around. Now there was one thing that fed the lizard theory and that was the look of the "Imperious Leader". I won't get into the counter theories but I can understand where they all came from. Guess that's what you get for only having 1 season to draw from.  

As for one being over done than the other, that's an opinion. Remember there is more than just the last 10 years to draw from (though I see a nod to the 60s pulf horror / scifi films). However I will take exception to the inclusion of Blade Runner in that list, it never refered to the replicates as wanting to take over Earth. The rest are fine though.  

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The 1000 yahren history of the war may have seemed a little fantastic, but it gives you a yearning to learn more about the history of said war. Ditto the  Galactica itself, which has supposedly been around for 600 or so years herself.

40 years? Yawn.  

Well I give you that but then in the 70's no one had heard of "space junk" and the damamge it could cause. Nor had there been any real scentific information on what kind of ware and tear objects take when travaling through open space (orbital space is quite different than that which lies between earth and other planets).

But that's all just fine. 40 years or 400 yahren ... either works for me.

     

There was an episode where they explained that the cylons were once reptiles and were killed by thier machines.   The imperial  leader according to books wore the skin of one of the lizards around his machine body.

[Death_Merchant]

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There was an episode where they explained that the cylons were once reptiles and were killed by thier machines.   The imperial  leader according to books wore the skin of one of the lizards around his machine body.  

I don't know about the second sentence, but the first was explained in a scene from the pilot (part 2 of "Saga of a Starworld" I believe). Apollo explained this to Boxey (his first of many stow-aways...) in a Land Ram on Carillon as they approached the casino.  

[EmeraldEdge]

Heh, it's been a while since I saw it, but I knew there was something official that told what the cylons were.  Funny, the guy couldn't even be bothered to watch the Pilot of the original series.  OUCH.  No wonder it strayed so far.  Looks like they didn't bother to give the original a chance at all.  

[S'Raek]

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<snip> Do current naval vessels use these types of phones?  I only saw reference to using these phones in industrial plants, and for visitation phones in correctional facilities.  </snip>  

Yes, current U.S. Navy vessels use sound powered phones.  Mainly for fire-fighting situations, but also for other types of inter-ship communications.  Many moons ago I used to get to sit in my squadron's ready room and listen to the chatter on the sound powered phones and record when our planes took off and landed.  (To track flight hours.)    

[Death_Merchant]

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Heh, it's been a while since I saw it, but I knew there was something official that told what the cylons were.  Funny, the guy couldn't even be bothered to watch the Pilot of the original series.  OUCH.  No wonder it strayed so far.  Looks like they didn't bother to give the original a chance at all.  

In "Lowdown" and in online interviews, Moore says he rewatched Saga and was struck by how dark and effective the first part (destruction of the Colonies and the initial exodus) was. He then criticized how quickly the Colonials seemed to forget all that and start gambling on Carillon. I guess he missed/forgot/didn't care about that small Apollo/Boxey scene with the short Cylon origin chat.

From http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/updates/extras/scifimag2.html
 "When I sat down and re-watched the original pilot," Moore says, "I was struck by the fact that, at its core, Galactica had a very, very dark premise. It may be the darkest premise of any pilot I've ever seen."

As in Moore's version, the original series begins with the destruction of its characters' entire civilization. "Our heroes are running away in the pilot," says Moore. "Their families are destroyed, their friends, their world. Everything they know has been destroyed by the Cylons, and they have to escape into these vessels and hunt for what might be a mythical planet for new hope."

Having established that dark premise, though, the original series seemed immediately to back away from it in favor of a more traditional action-adventure motif. "Even in the two-hour pilot, they play a couple beats of 'Oh my God, our homes are gone,' which are really pretty effective," says Moore. "But then the second half of the pilot is taken over by the casino planet, and everybody seems to have forgotten what happened just moments ago!"
 

[Rat_Boy]

Good news or bad news, depending on your opinion: TV Guide gushed over the new series, with one of their reviewers giving it a 9 out of ten and their pink movie section gives both hours 3 out of 4 stars.

[Rat_Boy]

From Eclipse Magazine

Certainly sounds more cheerful than the Ain't It Cool News review a few weeks ago, but I'm still hedging my bets.

[Rat_Boy]

Anyone watch the Sci-Fi "documercial" about the new miniseries?  My resistance to it is starting to slip either because the new show looks good or Sci-Fi put on one good propaganda film.

[Death_Merchant]

I saw it.
Some things I liked, and some things made me cringe.

And one thing made me laugh out loud: The actress playing Starbuck, turning to the camera and saying, "I play Starbuck, deal with it."  

[EmeraldEdge]

There will undoubtedly be some cool things in the new series.  The graphics look GREAT, but is it Battlestar?  Couldn't they have left Battlestar alone, and told the same story?  Certainly they could have.  

[Rat_Boy]

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And one thing made me laugh out loud: The actress playing Starbuck, turning to the camera and saying, "I play Starbuck, deal with it."  

I thought her talk with Dirk Bennedict at a Starbucks shop was the best part of the whole show.

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There will undoubtedly be some cool things in the new series. The graphics look GREAT, but is it Battlestar? Couldn't they have left Battlestar alone, and told the same story? Certainly they could have.

Then they would've been accused of ripping off Galactica.  It's a lose-lose deal.

[EmeraldEdge]

I doubt that they would have been slammed too much about stealing from Galactica.  If the ships looked different, and the names were different.  I believe it was said they were going with a single planet rather than 12 colonies at one point, which would also have helped.  Man's creation comes back to kill them to the near point of extinction, isn't exactly Battlestar, not by a longshot.  Tons of series and sci-fi have a holocaust of some kind that forces "man" off their original world, but they aren't thought of as clones of Battlestar.  Since most of the "villains" look human, and if they had gone with a non-cylon looking metal villain (they are practically there anyway) I just dont' think it would have been there.  Different names, different look, different concept = different show.  

[CptCastrin]

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There will undoubtedly be some cool things in the new series.  The graphics look GREAT, but is it Battlestar?  Couldn't they have left Battlestar alone, and told the same story?  Certainly they could have.  

I don't see the issue of remaking BSG. I understand the angst of seeing many parts totally re-written and the back story changed but after reading many reviews (including the early, rabid, fan-boy ones) I can see that the story has more grittiness and realism. Sure thay could have "expanded" from the end of the existing series but post Aliens and other "hard" sciense movies / series ... I think fewer would be interested than you think.

BSG does not need to be turned into a BSG:TNG thing. Been there, done that. What I think is needed is a true to physics, realistic, space warfare flick. Several have tried and most have failed. But what BSG has that the others don't is a proven look / feel, the fans have proved that.

I have been a fence sitter on this but after watching the SciFi channel "the Lowdown" preview I now really look forward to the mini-series. It has that hard edge, real combat in space feel (and anyone that thinks that "bullets" in space is crap don't know physics) and the horrors that would cause. The viewing public are trired of seeing stuff that they know can't exisit in the next 10 - 20 years IMHO. Put an understandable weapon (rail guns, missle batteries, AA "cannons") on a ship in space and people see it for what it is, a warship  that is built and ready to kick some butt, and that is a cool thing to see and watch in action.

Dec 8 I'll be ready to give it the acid test ... it should be interesting.

   

[Javora]

The thing that bugged me about the new Galactica series is the whole "... but this time it's a girl !!!" mentally.  That whole male/female thing is way past old.  Also using the fact that men and women are in combat together now a days is no excuse to change the characters gender any more than that lame "Romeo and Juliet" excuse was.  Hello people every rendition of Romeo and Juliet that has ever been produced still had Romeo as a male and Juliet as a female.  I'm sorry but the reasons for changing the gender roles in the new Galactica is as flimsy as the reasons for canceling Farscape.

The other thing that caught my eye is that seine where the shell blows up after spinning around on the floor.  Now I know that shells in today?s navy can do that but in space?  The whole reason for rifled barrels is for better, more accurate range in an atmosphere.  I do not see any real advantage for a rifled barrel in a space conflict.

Who ever made the point about how the cylons came about is right.  The people making the series should have paid more attention to the old series.