Concept art for Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome

[Jade Owl]

Here’s a look at the first concept art.

I have to say, it looks nice. Judging by the second picture, they may be following on a particular plot element... Spoiler

...from The Shape of Things to Come, the final minutes of Caprica’s series finale.

We may be getting Terminator style skinjobs instead of Blade Runner style skinjobs this time around.

The Cylon snake’s success will depend entirely on how good the special effects are.

Finaly, that robot in the final picture doesn’t look like a Centurion to me. Could it be some sort of civilian Cylon? Like a worker drone or something?

[jollyreaper]

Let this series die already, ok? It's decayed about as bad as Trek and in only a fraction of the time. There are so many ideas out there that could be great fodder for a new series. Christ, there are books out there just waiting to be adapted. Siffy execs, you like the attention Dexter's getting? Did you realize the first season was an adaptation of an original novel? Yeah, that's right. How about True Blood? Liked the first two seasons? Loosely adapted from original novels. Read a goddamn book and you might find your next big idea.

Hell, you know what Siffy could really do to get the fans interested? "Suggest our next show!" Open up the forums and have people suggest their ideas. Let the readers vote. Use the best ideas. Open up the whole development process. Let the fans see the auditions from applying actors, let them vote for their favorites. You could generate so much buy-in.

Or you could continue to produce the cheap shit, ghost hunters and wrasslin'. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[GuppyShark]

Glad to see there's going to be plenty of action. One disappointing run doesn't need to kill the franchise.

[Thanas]

The infiltrator....hmm. If the Cylons were using terminator style infiltrators already, that makes the colonials even more stupid when they go all "they look human now. PANIC" in BSG.

[Gandalf]

The infiltrator....hmm. If the Cylons were using terminator style infiltrators already, that makes the colonials even more stupid when they go all "they look human now. PANIC" in BSG.

They'll have to write it so that anyone who knows about the infiltrator dies before they can spread the word.

An easy dodge for crap show running.

[Sarevok]

The nBSG time line makes Marvel and DC comics look internally consistent. So better turn off your brain and watch the explosions folks. Trying to make sense of Cylon history will just give you an aneurysm.

[Thanas]

The infiltrator....hmm. If the Cylons were using terminator style infiltrators already, that makes the colonials even more stupid when they go all "they look human now. PANIC" in BSG.

They'll have to write it so that anyone who knows about the infiltrator dies before they can spread the word.

An easy dodge for crap show running.

That assumes the infiltrators will always succeed and take zero casualties. Dumb.

[Marcus Aurelius]

The infiltrator....hmm. If the Cylons were using terminator style infiltrators already, that makes the colonials even more stupid when they go all "they look human now. PANIC" in BSG.

They'll have to write it so that anyone who knows about the infiltrator dies before they can spread the word.

An easy dodge for crap show running.

That assumes the infiltrators will always succeed and take zero casualties. Dumb.

It's not that bad if you have only a very limited number of infiltrators and not a masses of Terminators walking around a grimdark post-holocaust scenery with their phased plasma rifles in the 40 W range.

[Gandalf]

The infiltrator....hmm. If the Cylons were using terminator style infiltrators already, that makes the colonials even more stupid when they go all "they look human now. PANIC" in BSG.

They'll have to write it so that anyone who knows about the infiltrator dies before they can spread the word.

An easy dodge for crap show running.

That assumes the infiltrators will always succeed and take zero casualties. Dumb.

Exactly.

It's a shitty concept incredibly hampered by existing continuity. I imagine it's just so there can be an antagonist aside from the faceless centurions.

[Stofsk]

Eh, it's a borderline retcon, depending on how they do it, but I bet the impetus is to put a 'face' on the enemy.

I don't think it's really necessary though. The show did a good job of making the centurions pitiless killers just fine.

[Marcus Aurelius]

It's a shitty concept incredibly hampered by existing continuity. I imagine it's just so there can be an antagonist aside from the faceless centurions.

Yes, but it's good for drama to have an antagonist that is not a faceless robot. The other option would be to have a human traitor, which I suppose could work, even if it stretches SoD quite a bit as well. So unless you think that you can make a show with just the good guys shooting bad guys in every episode, there is no really good solution for the problem. The classic "asshole commanding officer" plot does not carry too many episodes, either, so it's not really a substitute for a real human-like antagonist.

On other words I kind of disagree with Stofsk as well, especially if this show is meant to last more than one season.

[Stofsk]

It's a shitty concept incredibly hampered by existing continuity. I imagine it's just so there can be an antagonist aside from the faceless centurions.

Yes, but it's good for drama to have an antagonist that is not a faceless robot. The other option would be to have a human traitor, which I suppose could work, even if it stretches SoD quite a bit as well. So unless you think that you can make a show with just the good guys shooting bad guys in every episode

Let's be honest - that's exactly the kind of show the nerds want.

EDIT I'm waiting for Vympel to chime in here with 'i want band of brothers in SPAAAAACE'

On other words I kind of disagree with Stofsk as well

[Marcus Aurelius]

It's a shitty concept incredibly hampered by existing continuity. I imagine it's just so there can be an antagonist aside from the faceless centurions.

Yes, but it's good for drama to have an antagonist that is not a faceless robot. The other option would be to have a human traitor, which I suppose could work, even if it stretches SoD quite a bit as well. So unless you think that you can make a show with just the good guys shooting bad guys in every episode

Let's be honest - that's exactly the kind of show the nerds want.

EDIT I'm waiting for Vympel to chime in here with 'i want band of brothers in SPAAAAACE'

Yep, except he can't have it. The based on real events part is essential for realistic war shows. You just can't make up a nerdy space war and then pretend to make it "realistic" like a depiction of a real historical war. Sure, you can show similarities to real wars like was done in DS9, Babylon 5 and nBGS with tough decisions, casualties and the like, but not a long series which concentrates on the combat aspects of the war. In any case, BoB and Pacific only work so well because they are long miniseries rather than multi-season shows.

[jollyreaper]

What you'll end up with is silly wank like Space Above and Beyond where fighter pilots are also infantry grunts or Starbuck being a top viper pilot and a top sniper. Say whaaaa?

You also get ridiculous writer wank like "I wanna do a story about occupying Iraq!" and you simply can't convince him a storyline like that isn't possible while on a ship in space fleeing Cylons. No, you have to force them to land on a planet so they can be occupied by Cylons and you can have humans suicide-bombing robots that can just resurrect whenever they feel like it.

The writers don't understand and respect their own shows so they don't show any respect for the audience.

[Stofsk]

What you'll end up with is silly wank like Space Above and Beyond where fighter pilots are also infantry grunts or Starbuck being a top viper pilot and a top sniper. Say whaaaa?

It's almost as bad as Luke Skywalker being a Jedi Knight as well as an X-wing pilot, or Captain Kirk beaming down to an unknown planet every week when he should have stayed on the Enterprise. Or Flash Gordon being saviour of humanity when he's just a pro-footballer and should have stayed in a stadium.

[Thanas]

You also get ridiculous writer wank like "I wanna do a story about occupying Iraq!" and you simply can't convince him a storyline like that isn't possible while on a ship in space fleeing Cylons. No, you have to force them to land on a planet so they can be occupied by Cylons and you can have humans suicide-bombing robots that can just resurrect whenever they feel like it.

The writers don't understand and respect their own shows so they don't show any respect for the audience.

Hey now. The NuCap stories were awesome.

[jollyreaper]

What you'll end up with is silly wank like Space Above and Beyond where fighter pilots are also infantry grunts or Starbuck being a top viper pilot and a top sniper. Say whaaaa?

It's almost as bad as Luke Skywalker being a Jedi Knight as well as an X-wing pilot, or Captain Kirk beaming down to an unknown planet every week when he should have stayed on the Enterprise. Or Flash Gordon being saviour of humanity when he's just a pro-footballer and should have stayed in a stadium.

Barbarian kings led from the front. Modern leaders do not. If you want to create a story in a modern setting with a head of state on the front lines, you are really going to have to work hard to rationalize it.

Even though our system of government is heavily influenced by Greece and rome, you couldn't write a modern story with a senator given a military command in one of our provinces. Generals go into politics but politicians don't go to war. You could do it in alternate history fiction but not in anything that's supposed to be reality.

[Revy]

You could do it in alternate history fiction but not in anything that's supposed to be reality.

How is Battlestar Galactica reality?

Besides, we're not really talking about a civilian politician doing the job of a soldier, we're talking about a soldier multi-tasking the job of another soldier. Both fighter pilots and snipers are different roles, but they're both military combat roles. Comparing them is hardly the same as comparing a Senator and a Tank Commander.

[ray245]

What you'll end up with is silly wank like Space Above and Beyond where fighter pilots are also infantry grunts or Starbuck being a top viper pilot and a top sniper. Say whaaaa?

It's almost as bad as Luke Skywalker being a Jedi Knight as well as an X-wing pilot, or Captain Kirk beaming down to an unknown planet every week when he should have stayed on the Enterprise. Or Flash Gordon being saviour of humanity when he's just a pro-footballer and should have stayed in a stadium.

Barbarian kings led from the front. Modern leaders do not. If you want to create a story in a modern setting with a head of state on the front lines, you are really going to have to work hard to rationalize it.

Even though our system of government is heavily influenced by Greece and rome, you couldn't write a modern story with a senator given a military command in one of our provinces. Generals go into politics but politicians don't go to war. You could do it in alternate history fiction but not in anything that's supposed to be reality.

You do know that the Senators are the one who was given command of the legions right? At least in the early Empire.

[Thanas]

He does. He was speaking about modern times.

Though modern is relative - it really took the civil war to stop politicans getting appointed to commands.

[PeZook]

You know, SAAB was even self conscious of the whole things, with McQueen berating the cast for complaining they are used for groundpounding tasks

Anyway, why would one inevitably end up with SAAB style duality if writing Band Of Brothers...in space? It's a question of writing, not some inherent quality of hypotethical sci-fi warmovies.

[Skylon]

Hell, you know what Siffy could really do to get the fans interested? "Suggest our next show!" Open up the forums and have people suggest their ideas. Let the readers vote. Use the best ideas. Open up the whole development process. Let the fans see the auditions from applying actors, let them vote for their favorites. You could generate so much buy-in.

Yes, because fans plus internet polls are sure to produce a hit.

[Uraniun235]

It's a shitty concept incredibly hampered by existing continuity. I imagine it's just so there can be an antagonist aside from the faceless centurions.

Yes, but it's good for drama to have an antagonist that is not a faceless robot. The other option would be to have a human traitor, which I suppose could work, even if it stretches SoD quite a bit as well. So unless you think that you can make a show with just the good guys shooting bad guys in every episode, there is no really good solution for the problem. The classic "asshole commanding officer" plot does not carry too many episodes, either, so it's not really a substitute for a real human-like antagonist.

On other words I kind of disagree with Stofsk as well, especially if this show is meant to last more than one season.

I dunno, Stormtroopers seemed to work well in Star Wars.

I can see where you're coming from but in a sense it only highlights the incompatibility of the setting with the kind of story they probably want to tell. If you want a nuanced drama where the perspectives of both sides are fleshed out and explored, a setting where one side is comprised of killer robots may not be the best match.

[Coyote]

Hell, you know what Siffy could really do to get the fans interested? "Suggest our next show!"

Yes, because fans plus internet polls are sure to produce a hit.

I don't know about that; considering the buckets of fucking dog barf the Siffy producers have been shoveling at us lately, a fan poll would produce Hemingway by comparison.

[Gil Hamilton]

This has the stink of failure on it already. Caprica didn't work with many fans because it had the severe problem of not being Battlestar Galactica, but a show that was repurposed to sort of include some Battlestar Galactica terms in it when the prequel that fans seemed to actually want was First Cylon War Toaster Killfuck Time, starring Bill Adama being pimped like a whore that trades exclusively in being awesome. The problem is that that is kind of a terrible show and that looks like what "Blood and Chrome" is going to be.

They ought to leave the franchise alone for a while. Give it a few years for fans to forget the awful parts of nBSG and let nostalgia build up some. After things have settled for a bit, THEN bust out the Cylon v. Battlestar Starship Porno Series. Or better yet, make it a movie. Of better still, stop doing BSG all together and let 25 years pass until someone else Re-Imagines this one, making Battlestar Galactica the science fiction equivalent of a comet that comes around every few decades.