Battlestar Galactica

[blackjohn]

I watched the rest of the BSG: The Miniseries last night (3+ hours long!). That ending sequence where they're all making the jump to light speed with cover fire from the Gallactica is probably one of the best space battle sequences I can recall. George Lucas, for all his adding of ships and background to the space sequences to the new SW movies didn't capture what I perceive as the chaotic nature of dogfight battles interspersed with cover fire from capital ships as well as they did in this little mini-series. (Although the opening scenes of Episode 3 were pretty good.) Plus the tribal drums with minimalist musical touches really made it stand out for some reason. You wouldn't think primal drums would make any sense at all in a space battle, but it just seemed to work.

We also got another cool insight into Starbuck's character. I think she alone would make this series interesting to watch for me. Add Olmos and the Baltar character and it looks to be a worthwhile waste of time. 

I agree with all you have said both in this post and in your other post under Firefly. BSG is a very good scifi drama, in most ways superior to Firefly. The odd thing is, with Firefly there are some episodes that stick out in my mind as being far superior to others. With BSG, its... like... how to put it into words...? Thus far, the overall quality is such that I'm having a hard time pointing to one episode and saying, "yeah, that one is great."

I guess I'd liken it to Seinfeld, in that, there are scenes you remember as being great, but it is hard to remember which episode the scene was in because taken as a whole, it is just like one long string of great scenes.

Last night I watched the first two episodes of disk 2 from season 2.5. The second episode ended at 10:30. I was still wide awake and would have been easily able to continue watching through to the end of the disk. That's how "on the edge of my seat" I was. Me, the traditional fall asleep in front of the tv at 8:30 guy was wide awake. (Awake... that reminds me of the one episode that does stick out in my mind). Yes, the show has drama! It gets deeper and more complex as it progresses, without asking me to suspend much disbelief.

Btw, that battle, as Galactica is leaving the supply depot providing covering fire for the fleet... I think it is my favorite space battle scene of all time!

[Caraccioli]

I think my grounding in the old series makes it doubly interesting for me. I was never a huge fan of the original series or anything, but I was a SW geek at the age where the old BSG sort of thing was a pretty watchable alternative (or at least reasonable filler). This new series appears to have layers of complexity that are beyond the original series and even beyond most other series'. Usually shows with characters of this much depth focus on a few (2-4) of them. But this show seems to have lots of characters to look at. It appears to have borrowed some good ideas from Firefly, though. The large ensemble cast and pretend swear words come to mind.

Starbuck is just cool. She's a tough ESTP chick whom I'll bet will be revealed to have a soft side that we'll only see rarely when the drama is most poignant. And Baltar...what a hoot. I suspect he's going to be one of those villains that you like as much as you hate. Sometimes I find that irritating, but they seem to have found just the right tightrope to walk with him. The Cylon memory implant chick really helps shunt your dislike of him away and funnel it into her character (even though you know she's right about him most of the time...that line from Raider's comes to mind... "It would only take a nudge to make you like me, to push you out of the light." And I've already gone on and on about how much I like Olmos. I've always thought he hit just the right notes in his characterizations, even back in the Miami Vice days. He underplays his roles perfectly - makes you want to know more.

The only fly in the ointment will be how much they can get from the situation before it becomes stale. I mean, floating in space looking for something they don't believe even exists can lose its edge after awhile. It did in the original series. The interplay of the characters will really be the sink or swim factor. It looks like swim to me. They've spent some time thinking this out.

You guys and gals are gonna bring me back to the sci-fi fold yet.

[Rumba Rue]

I tried to watch the show, but I totally lost interest. Too much dark, too much military stuff, not enough storyline to carry it, and it got old quick....at least to me.

[Sir Eric]

I've been watching the show since it first started airing, and in my mind it keeps getting stronger and stronger. It's not everybody's cup of tea, that's for certain, but what is?

Without detailing all the things I love about the show, what I think is best about it is the same thing that made "Star Trek" a fandom legend... the ability to take current day topics and turn them "against" the viewer. I don't want to post any spoilers for those enjoying the series on DVD for the first time, but this show continually questions our modern-day ethics and morality... sometimes the "good guys" are more despicable than the "bad" guys, and just exactly who are the good and bad guys to begin with? (An issue I think is coming to a major crossroads in the current season finale)

Great acting, great writing, good camera work, nice direction... easily upholding the long line of sci-fi channel greats. Babylon 5, FarScape, Firefly, even Eureka is fun in a different sort of way. (Oh, and I was an avid watcher of the original series, until they found earth, at which point it got really stupid really fast.)

[CaptainSatan]

BSG is my favourite tele show at the moment. It's so cool to have a space-show that's a drama first, and the robots and space ships are in the background. Don't think that the writing has been as good this season, but I'm optimistic...

-CS

Cylon Eye Candy

[Caraccioli]

BSG is my favourite tele show at the moment. It's so cool to have a space-show that's a drama first, and the robots and space ships are in the background.

Yeah, I think that's another thing I really like about it. It isn't all "gee whiz" sci-fi or "look at this interesting universe populated with bizarre, yet still vaguely human looking, aliens that we've created to mirror the one you live in." (I guess that means no Daggit, huh?)

Those bastages! Disc 1 of the first season ends in the middle of an episode involving Starbuck ejecting as her ship is going down! Grr.... Now I have to wait for Netflix. (Funny, so far they are recycling a lot of ideas that I vaguely remember from the original series. I guess the ideas make sense, though. Running out of water, discontent among the civilians and so forth. Gaius and Starbuck?! Eww...doesn't work for me. But I guess that's entertainment.)

[bTW, "bastages" is from the pretty entertaining movie Johnny Dangerously - the first show I'm aware of to play with disguised swear words. ["You lousy corksuckers. You have violated my farging rights. Dis somanumbatching country was founded so that the liberties of common patriotic citizens like me could not be taken away by a bunch of fargin iceholes... like yourselves." -Roman Moroni ]

[Caraccioli]

I finally got the next disc and found out what happened to Starbuck! The parachute thing was sort of cool. The Cylon cyborg thing is cool. The insight into Adamma's character was really cool. This show is pretty cool. Kewl.

[Caraccioli]

"No more Mr. nice Gaius!"

Oh, it's corny, but I loved it. I'd probably watch a whole mediocre episode just to get to a line like that. Heck, that was the only thing I really remember about the movie Wild, Wild West (Speaking of mediocre...bordering on bad.)

Not that that was a mediocre episode...the writing is really top notch on this show. (Except that absurd "Cylon glowing spine during sex" thing. The first time it was kind of cute - now it's just sort of dumb. Why would the Cylons build something into their human replicants that could potentially give them away?)

"No more Mr. nice Gaius!"

I laughed out loud, which I rarely do with media. (Now I want to listen to Alice Cooper...)

[blackjohn]

It seemed so appropriate, though, didn't it. I love his character, in all his "evil" quirkiness. Just you wait...

I agree about the spinal glow. Just goofy. Oh well. With that in mind, Jim Hawk(in)s said he read the following on a message board the other day. Some dude posted... "if 25 years ago you had told me I liked Battlestar Galactica better than Star Wars, I would've punched you right in the nose."

Wow. True. It really is.

Have you seen the one... naaa... never mind. I don't want to spoil anything for you!

[Caraccioli]

It's interesting how they borrow from current events on this show. I guess it sort of fits the concept and gives viewers a link. The religion thing is odd. I notice the humans are polytheistic and somewhat irregular in their religious habits and the Cylons are monotheistic and fairly unified and strict in theirs. (Would anyone like a side of subtle social commentary with their TV viewing?)

I wonder how long the story arc for the Cylon's plan (They have a plan.) can hold out? Usually those arcs are 2-3 years, right? If that's the case, I wonder where they'll go from there... It'd be great to be a Cylon actor - you can do all these fantastic and meaningful death scenes and just be back on set next episode without anyone questioning it.

[Caraccioli]

There was this scene where Apollo flies into the heart of a Cylon outpost on a world containing mine-able fuel in a attempt to blow up the outpost. He comes out of a tunnel or something and kind of floats there a bit, flips his ship over, finds his target and releases his bombs. Overhead is a bunch of Cylon cover fire and other activity. That was cool. They have some great visual space effects for a TV show.

I was watching the "political" episode about the election of the VP and figured, "Oh, this will be dull." Except, of course, it wasn't. I thought they captured the real-world trouble with trying to make rapid decisions to get what you want out of the process quite well. (Plus, after a heartbeat, I suddenly realized that the political "bad guy" (well - no one seems to be wholly "bad" on this show) was actually Richard Hatch! It made all those scenes with the new Apollo on the prison ship so much more poignant.)

One thing I wish they would tone down is the sudden, jerky camera close-ups. It sometimes adds an element of urgency to things, but it also sometimes adds an element of irritating amateurism when the close-up doesn't have a good reason for being used. I hadn't noticed it much before that political show. (Now I suppose it's going to irritate the heck out of me because I'm aware of it.)

[blackjohn]

I got a kick out of Richard Hatch being on the show. As a kid, being a lefty I didn't have many left-handed heroes to take pride in, so I thought Hatch as Apollo just rocked back in the day!

And... man! Season 3 is awesome! Ok, I've only seen the first episode, but dang! These guys know how to make good tv!

[Hester]

I thought Hatch as Apollo just rocked back in the day!

Yeah, back in the day, as a teeny-bopper, I thought Apollo rocked too! (Although I never noticed which hand he used):

And Starbuck was cool:

I tried to watch the new mini-series, but the first episode was really slow, and I couldn't get into it. I hear the full series is better, and they're going to run it from the beginning starting today on SPACE channel, so I might give it another try.

In the meantime, a friend has lent me her DVD set of Stargate: Atlantis, Season One ... and Major Sheppard is providing me with my current fix of SciFi eye candy:

(I guess I'm still a teeny-bopper at heart!)

[Caraccioli]

I just watched the last show in season one last week... They sure give you plenty of cliffhanger situations to consider, don't they? (Almost too many, actually.)

[blackjohn]

I just watched the last show in season one last week... They sure give you plenty of cliffhanger situations to consider, don't they? (Almost too many, actually.)

Tell me about it! The first two episodes of season three are total cliffhangers! And now I can't watch 'em back to back, since I'm watching them as they are being aired as repeats instead of on disk! Aaaaaahhhhhh! Dang this show is good!

[blackjohn]

Dang... season 3 gets better and better... the stuff the can make a Battlestar do with these 21stC special effects boggles my mind!

[Caraccioli]

I like the map to earth concept. It makes sense, but it also fails to clarify anything very well. Perfect for a show like this. (Although I do wonder how they got it there? Did the 13th tribe come back and set up the whole deal or what? Ah, questions, questions...) Curious thing about the girl in Gaius' head not being...well, I won't give anything away.

I have a feeling Baltar had something to do with the creation of the human Cylons myself. I'm surprised the tests didn't reveal a closed off portion of his brain where he carved his initials. Or maybe the initials "ZB."

[BriarRose Kildare]

Ah, The new Battlestar Galactica is one of my favorite sci-fi's to watch. Unfortunaltely with my schedule this past season I missed alot of episodes. I am looking forward to renting the season set.

Although the series can be dark it is very fasinating to see how it all plays out. Every episode is like watching a modern day Shakespearian play.

And I am truly curious about the cylons. I find their beliefs and attitudes very intriguing.

[blackjohn]

That bizarre religious twist of the Cylons is very interesting, isn't it.

The show is very dark, and generally I don't like dark shows. I think what this has going for it is the fact that it does a good job of examining how the characters react to that darkness, and by so doing gives us something to reflect upon.

[Caraccioli]

The show is very dark, and generally I don't like dark shows. I think what this has going for it is the fact that it does a good job of examining how the characters react to that darkness, and by so doing gives us something to reflect upon.

I am completely with you there. (I didn't even finish watching the movie Sin City because it was just unrelentingly dark in outlook and I got weary of it before the second story was even partway through.) They manage to walk a nice line between dark, reality and even humor and light in this show. The episode where Tyroll decided to building that ship was a nice touch.

(Baltar is going to do something stupid with or about that other ship's female cylon prisoner, isn't he? No, no, don't tell me...)

[blackjohn]

If I told you where it goes, you wouldn't even believe me. They took me totally by surprise, and that is all I will say.

[BriarRose Kildare]

Aye, now I must make certain for sure I pick up the season on DVD. Thank you BlackJohn for holding me in suspense......

[Caraccioli]

Is it what happens at the end of the 2.5 series? Because what he does in the beginning for his new found friend is just about what I expected of him.

[Duchess]

Well after much prompting from many sides I borrowed season one from a friend of mine.

Popped in the disk for an episode around 11:00pm and stayed up all night watching the whole damn thing. Good thing I don't have a job right now.

[Caraccioli]

I actually stopped short of watching the last disc in the series that's available. Based on their irritating tendency to stretch cliffhangers out for several episodes, I don't think I could stand the last show of the second season. So it's buried on my NF list, awaiting the release of season 3. (I've noticed that the majority of the stories on the middle discs are usually self-contained, so I stopped after disc 2 of season 2.5.)