Battlestar Galactica

Dragon1

Rear Admiral
Ok, so I was in Blockbuster Video the other night and came across the Battlestar Galactica miniseries from 2003. Now previously I had never given the new Battlestar Galactica a chance because of my low opinion of the original series. I just can't get Lorne Green out of my head, and that is a bad thing!

I decided not to go with the typical b-movie crap that me and my girlfriend usually rent. I decided to go bold and try the new Battlestar Galactica.

WOW, totally different than any other sci-fi show that I have ever seen. Much to my own shock, I found that I actually liked the thing. Four days later, and I find myself re-watching it. I don't watch TV, but I heard the show is still on and is in its third season. On Tuesday I plan on going over to the local Best Buy and picking up the first season on DVD. Any thoughts? What are your guys' reviews of the series?
 
I do not find the show spectacular enough, to much concentration on the individuals,
more like a soap opera. I have the original series on DVD, and it's more cinematic.

it's on dutch TV these days... and euhmmm was that catscratch i saw?

I like to see things explode, that's my primary target in playing wing commander.
 
Oh things do explode, especially cafes. Thhere was one good episode where the Pegasus destroyed a Basestar. Pretty good fireworks there.
 
MajorCamKollent said:
Oh things do explode, especially cafes. Thhere was one good episode where the Pegasus destroyed a Basestar. Pretty good fireworks there.
Yeah, tons of stuff blows up in space in the second season. They gota bunch more money for that kind of stuff. The huge cloud of explosions that surrounds Galactica during the second season just about made me have an accident. Like, wow. The fireworks.
 
Frack!
Remember the episode where (I forgot who) encounters like 12 cylon copies of herself?I liked that one. :)
 
I don't watch TV, but I heard the show is still on and is in its third season. On Tuesday I plan on going over to the local Best Buy and picking up the first season on DVD. Any thoughts? What are your guys' reviews of the series?


It's still in the second season. The first season had some wierd low number of episodes, but the show is currently at season two episode 18. They've been greenlit to shoot season three though.

The first half of season two (until midway in the pegasus two-parter) wasn't bad. But since the show is utter shit and there really hasnt been much of any action since. (there was one ok episode about tracking down a cylon ace). THe whole thing just kinda disolved after that pegasus show. What a horrible copout on the part of the writers regarding the end of the episode. And since, it's like the show is now some hokey political thriler instead of inctergalactic action adventure. THe whold thing just kinda falls off its rails. It seems like the writers realized that when they earlier got signed up to do season three they said "what the hell are we doing. We better write filler episodes because otherwise what the hell are we gonna do next year!" Seriously, there's been more than 10 episodes without any indication that they are remotely even trying to get to earth.

I'm about to sit down and watch fridays episode. Hope it's better.
 
Agree, AD. I still want the show to have my babies... but season 2, post Resurrection Ship part 1 (2x12), has not delivered. The episodes are suffering from filleritis, trouble in the editing, and especially trouble in the writing. Perfect example: episode Black Market. It was bad... real bad. I listened to the commentary for that episode, and it was really interesting to listen to the executive producer examine exactly why the episode sucked. There is a lot of suck leading up to and some following that episode.

Episodes after that have still been largely 'filler', they've been generally well done. The one with the Cylon ace didn't really go much of anywhere and was fairly conventional, but was edited in a really interesting and engaging way. The one with the incompetent commander on the Pegasus was pretty conventional too... but it had another Big F---ing Space Battle, which is always fun. So it's not a total loss...

Looking forward to the 2 part season finale; hopefully it will bring back the 'wow, stuff is happening' feeling.
 
I do not like Battlestar Galactica.

As I've expressed before, I find it wholly generic. Look at the discussion in this thread -- ooh, big explosions, sex robots, etc. These things alone are not entirely bad, but Battlestar Galactica has also somehow managed to convince masses of fandom that incredibly generic things it does are somehow brilliant. That alone bugs me. If it were the most entertaining show in the universe - and it's not, it's a very very generic drama that's set in space - it would still have had no clever commentary whatsoever. It's ER at its worst in space.

I've been thinking about all this lately, and it's begun to crystalize in my mind that modern mass media science fiction is very, very selfish. It's my generation wanting something fast and cheap.

Think about it -- when we were kids, why did we get into science fiction? Because there were shows like ST:TNG or movies like Star Wars that we could enjoy on our level while our parents loved them on another. Now we've grown up, we're in charge and what do we want? Sex, violence and language thrown in our face as quickly as possible to remind us we're *adults* now!

That, plus continuity - we want as much continuity as possible. If our modern shows aren't making us feal special for having watched them and read their novels and such then to heck with them! Look at Enterprise, look at the new Star Wars movies. We like to stroke our little beards and damn them for X, Y or Z reason... which are valid only in so far as the same vauge criticisms can be applied to any genre production ever ('plot', 'character development', etc.). In reality, the reason we damned them was because they're not the giant expanded continuity blob we made up for ourselves. No Romulans?! No Z-95 Headhunters? Well, after 25 years I suddenly care about dramatic concerns...!

We took over the game and we're running it into the ground. There's no next generation od kids playing with Battlestar Galactica action figures and dreaming about being Viper pilots... because Battlestar Galactica is a stupid useless make-you-feel-good-for-doing-nothing production that's symbolic of everything that's wrong with us.
 
The miniseries was okay. I got into season one and found myself watching it only to see what the "new" Commander Adama was going to do next. When they turned him into a panzy I lost all interest and stopped watching.
 
Well, at first I found the pilot (miniseries) to be quite an incredible disappointment when they first aired. (See the original thread here at the CIC). However since then I have bought and watched all of the first season and am currently almost done with the second season (bought that as well). Simply put, I love this show. Is it different than the original series? Absolutely. Do I like the changes? Hell no. In fact when I analyze this show I find myself utterly amazed that Colonel Tye is the only character on the whole show that I actually like. Everyone else I am either ambivalent about or find a total disgust for (See President Rosilyn). Despite that, I find the show boasting some of the best special effects ever done for a television show, some decently written plots (I will cede to the validity of Loaf's point that the plot ploys and devices are not ground breaking but they are however decent enough to keep me from throwing popcorn at the screen). What I do like about the show is that they don't forget things they've introduced earlier. Case in point, President Rosilyn's cancer, it would have been easy to totally forget about that later into the series but in the most recent episode I watched they followed up saying how its progressed and she has like three weeks + or - to live. (I'm personally hoping its minus as I hate her with a passion. :) ). There are however a number of things wrong with the show from a technical standpoint and an emotional standpoint. Despite all of these I stand by this show and say its every bit as good as any of its recent contemporaries.
 
Maj.Striker said:
...owever since then I have bought and watched all of the first season and am currently almost done with the second season...

... In the most recent episode I watched they followed up saying how its progressed and she has like three weeks + or - to live...

No you're not almost done season 2. Season two has almost twice the number episodes of season one and it hasn't even all aired yet.

http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/episodes/
The first 10 episodes of the season aired though and there was a few months it seemed in between before they started with more episodes again in january (or was it december?). To bad it only goes downhill from where you are.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I do not like Battlestar Galactica.

As I've expressed before, I find it wholly generic. Look at the discussion in this thread -- ooh, big explosions, sex robots, etc. These things alone are not entirely bad, but Battlestar Galactica has also somehow managed to convince masses of fandom that incredibly generic things it does are somehow brilliant. That alone bugs me. If it were the most entertaining show in the universe - and it's not, it's a very very generic drama that's set in space - it would still have had no clever commentary whatsoever. It's ER at its worst in space.

I've been thinking about all this lately, and it's begun to crystalize in my mind that modern mass media science fiction is very, very selfish. It's my generation wanting something fast and cheap.

Think about it -- when we were kids, why did we get into science fiction? Because there were shows like ST:TNG or movies like Star Wars that we could enjoy on our level while our parents loved them on another. Now we've grown up, we're in charge and what do we want? Sex, violence and language thrown in our face as quickly as possible to remind us we're *adults* now!

That, plus continuity - we want as much continuity as possible. If our modern shows aren't making us feal special for having watched them and read their novels and such then to heck with them! Look at Enterprise, look at the new Star Wars movies. We like to stroke our little beards and damn them for X, Y or Z reason... which are valid only in so far as the same vauge criticisms can be applied to any genre production ever ('plot', 'character development', etc.). In reality, the reason we damned them was because they're not the giant expanded continuity blob we made up for ourselves. No Romulans?! No Z-95 Headhunters? Well, after 25 years I suddenly care about dramatic concerns...!

We took over the game and we're running it into the ground. There's no next generation od kids playing with Battlestar Galactica action figures and dreaming about being Viper pilots... because Battlestar Galactica is a stupid useless make-you-feel-good-for-doing-nothing production that's symbolic of everything that's wrong with us.

I'm really having a hard time not laughing at this post. I find it especially hilarious that the writer of the Wing Commander Ship List, Time Line, etc. argues that we are too hung up on "continuity".

If I wrote a 5 paragraph manifesto about how much the Wing Commander movie sucks (it does & I own it, figure that one out), I'd be banned faster than you can say "Stupid-looking Kilrathi".

If you like the show, great. If you hate it, fantastic! It's not your critisizm of the show that's suspect. It's the veiled implication that anyone who watches it is a shallow, vaccuous drone with no intellect.
 
I'm really having a hard time not laughing at this post. I find it especially hilarious that the writer of the Wing Commander Ship List, Time Line, etc. argues that we are too hung up on "continuity".

Then shouldn't I be in exactly the right position to judge? We are absolutely too hung up on continuity - in terms of weaseling out everyone else because they don't know it and we do. It's a candy, not a meal. I have a lot of fun making lists of ships and timelines and arguing about when and where Secret Missions 2 happens... that is exactly what sci fi fandoms have been doing for their own entertainment forever.

What we're doing now, though, is co-opting the general product because of what we enjoy in our private little groups. No future Wing Commander product should *ever* be beholden to my ship list or my timeline or anything of the sort. It should be an engrossing story first, not some attempt to turn off everyone who doesn't care beforehand that Blair served a 24-hour stint on the TCS Gilgamesh first thing out of the Academy...

If I wrote a 5 paragraph manifesto about how much the Wing Commander movie sucks (it does & I own it, figure that one out), I'd be banned faster than you can say "Stupid-looking Kilrathi".

... because we've *never* had a movie debate here before? Get over yourself.

If you like the show, great. If you hate it, fantastic! It's not your critisizm of the show that's suspect. It's the veiled implication that anyone who watches it is a shallow, vaccuous drone with no intellect.

I didn't say anything like that. Clearly *I* watch the show -- I wrote Super Neon Battlestar 2000 (or at least I watched it until the recent midseason - and I didn't stop for any perceptable shift in quality, I simply missed the followup to the Voyager-meets-evil-Voyager two parter and never picked it up again).

That said, yes, I think there is a very negative group mentality assosciated with Battlestar Galactica -- there are lots of internet jerks patting each other on the back and telling themselves they're brilliant for liking the sex robot show.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
We took over the game and we're running it into the ground. There's no next generation od kids playing with Battlestar Galactica action figures and dreaming about being Viper pilots... because Battlestar Galactica is a stupid useless make-you-feel-good-for-doing-nothing production that's symbolic of everything that's wrong with us.

I kinda figured that there's no next generation of kids because B.G. as a movie was incomparable to contemporary classics like Star Wars in terms of effects and storyline. Even though it had potentially similar plot (strong evil attacks weak good who run for their lives until they can reach some goal against heavy odds) it just didn't feel to me like those who made it were even trying. SW had emotion and drama. It had sympathetic, underdog heroes and cool villains. Even Star Trek which came 10 years earlier and was very close in the special effects department has a stronger following (although maybe not back then) because there is a story and characters to live along with.

BTW, I do realize that there is a lot more to a movie then special effects but it definitely goes a long way towards attracting and interesting people.
And by people I mean me. ;)

If this is unclear let me know when its not barely morning. Or don't. :)
 
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