Battlestar Galactica Review

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2003-12-09 06:36am

Patrick Degan wrote:It's nearly impossible now to remember what a cool network SciFi once was.

What's different about them now? What I mean is, seeings as I don't get Scifi down here in Aus I have no frame of reference to base an opinion on. What was Scifi like before it's present crappy form? Why have they changed? Is it another case of lunatics running the asylum?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-12-09 06:51am

Sci-Fi's choices of programming and even their general appearence and feel has changed quite drastically several times over the years.

I started watching Sci-Fi in September of 1996, and they've changed their format and programming about 3-4 times since then...

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-12-09 07:22am

Stofsk wrote:
Patrick Degan wrote:It's nearly impossible now to remember what a cool network SciFi once was.
What's different about them now? What I mean is, seeings as I don't get Scifi down here in Aus I have no frame of reference to base an opinion on. What was Scifi like before it's present crappy form? Why have they changed? Is it another case of lunatics running the asylum?

When they started out, they ran good classic material; not only Star Trek and Dark Shadows but also Doctor Who, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons, and The Thunderbirds as well as all the classic syndicated shows that used to be the backbone of UHF programming in the 60s and 70s. They would run critically acclaimed but rare programming such as the BBC's Moonbase, The Prisoner, and uncut episodes of Max Headroom. They had good movies instead of the Channel's made-for TV derivitive/plagerised drek which has become today's standard fare. And they had SF media programming covering the latest developments in the con scene, movie and television productions, genre literature, comic books, and a commentary spot with authour Harlan Ellison.

When SciFi acquired The Twilight Zone, they made a HUUUUGE splash for the fans: a weekend marathon and special intro "bumpers" featuring the episode title, season catalogue number, and original airdate. When they got Star Trek back, they made a really big deal out of that by running uncut "Special Edition" 90mn. airings hosted by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, with interview/commentary spots with the actors and writers. That was five years ago.

Then, USA Network bought out SciFi. At first, it wasn't too bad: SciFi cut the deal which brought Babylon 5 and Crusade to the lineup and acquired Farscape and Lexx as original programming. Viacom then bought USA Networks and things still weren't too bad, though the cheapness started setting in. Then, Viacom sold USA Networks to the present ownership based in Paris. It was then that it all turned to shit. They it were who essentially instituted a scorched-earth policy and began eliminating all programming they didn't own except for the highly rated (Cthulhu knows why) Stargate SG1 and certain "high profile" shows like the original Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Babylon 5 and anything that still has a long syndication contract. They will still run big fan-favourite movies like Blade Runner, Dune —any sort of "big event" presentationwhich produce a ratings splash. But they've now filled every available timeslot with garbage like Scare Tactics, Crossing Over, and now UFO pseudodocumentaries and these half-assed TV movie ripoffs of big feature SF/fantasy movies because the network owns those shows outright and they're cheap to produce. They've also made SciFi unwatchable 3/4 of the time now. Total garbage.

Suffice to say, SciFi is now a palsied shadow of its former self. Went to hell in just five short years.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2003-12-09 07:24am

Crap, connection glitch. Could a mod delete the redundant post, please?

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2003-12-09 07:43am

Patrick Degan wrote:*snip*

Damn that's depressing. I'm rather pissed off at them for cancelling FarScape, but on the other hand I'm glad the show ended while it was still good - some shows continue on and on when the right thing to do would be to kill it (Buffy should've ended after season 5, if for no other reason than because Buffy died at the end. Buffy's not the only show which overstayed its welcome - VOY and DS9 did, even B5's season 5 could've been avoided).

Crossing Over? That's the one with that creepy psychic dude, isn't it?

This post is getting close to a thread hijack. To bring it back on topic, I heard that Ron Moore is one of the cretins responsible for this mess. What else did he write (I know he was in ST, but I can't think of any episode names - can anyone help with this at least)? Was he the only one at fault here, or has the network executives established too strong a grip on the creative process? (it's easy to blame the writers, and in this case it's probably warranted - but TV and film being collaborative it only seems fitting to share the blame, so to speak.

)

To be honest I'm not too knowledgable about the original Battlestar Galactica. I've seen the pilot and I think the episode directly after it, and remember being ... uh, unimpressed. Sorry if that offends people. But I just wonder why they didn't go with a continuation of the storyline - like TNG was for TOS - or go to the plan B, which was remake the original and just modernise it (at least, I thought that was one of the options being considered before the PTB at sci-fi channel decided to make a 're-imagining.')

Gosh I hate rambling sometimes.

Tragic · Post by **Tragic** » 2003-12-09 08:49am

I thought it was good. It could have been better but none the less it was worth watching.

If most of you thought it was so bad in the first hour or so, why the hell would you continue to watch it??? half the time i don't understand you people. I would have figured if you all thought it was so bad why did you continue watching the rest.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-12-09 08:51am

Tragic wrote:I thought it was good. It could have been better but none the less it was worth watching.

If most of you thought it was so bad in the first hour or so, why the hell would you continue to watch it??? half the time i don't understand you people. I would have figured if you all thought it was so bad why did you continue watching the rest.

Gah, I so fucking hate that argument...

We watch things we don't like partially because some of us like watching things we don't like.

Also, I personally don't like to not finish something, which is why I plan to continue seeing it until it's done.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-12-09 09:09am

Tragic wrote:I thought it was good. It could have been better but none the less it was worth watching.

If most of you thought it was so bad in the first hour or so, why the hell would you continue to watch it??? half the time i don't understand you people. I would have figured if you all thought it was so bad why did you continue watching the rest.

Because one usually think something can be improved and thus the first hour is not a good estimation.

That and how can you critque something if you've only seen it partially?

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-12-09 09:10am

Base stars. What do the new base-stars look like?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-12-09 09:14am

NecronLord wrote:Base stars. What do the new base-stars look like?

Like this:

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2003-12-09 10:25am

Am I the only one who wishes they'd simply used the original ship and tech designs? Was there anything wrong with them? They're just as timeless as the original Star Wars designs, IMO. Why change them?

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-12-09 10:52am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Base stars. What do the new base-stars look like?
Like this:
http://www.cylon.org/bsg/2003-baseship-01.jpg

These people are evil.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2003-12-09 10:54am

Between Enterprise and this shit, will it FINALLY dawn on TV people NOT to hire the fuckheads that has had ANYTHING to do with modern day Trek?

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2003-12-09 11:06am

Lord Poe wrote:Between Enterprise and this shit, will it FINALLY dawn on TV people NOT to hire the fuckheads that has had ANYTHING to do with modern day Trek?

Really. Is it just me or does the new Galactica look kinda like Voyager.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-12-09 12:10pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
NecronLord wrote:Base stars. What do the new base-stars look like?
Like this:

..............................................................

It looks like they stuck together two of those critters from "Pitch Black(dark/whatever)" that VanDesiel movie about the people trapped on the multi-sun planet with a total eclipse coming.

What happened to the HourGlass of Doom? Those at least made some sense, as the hemispheres could rotate to bring more weapons to bear.

Post by **Kuja** » 2003-12-09 12:39pm

LadyTevar wrote: What happened to the HourGlass of Doom? Those at least made some sense, as the hemispheres could rotate to bring more weapons to bear.

Consider it a casualty of historical revisionism.

Sam Or I · Post by **Sam Or I** » 2003-12-09 12:52pm

Didn't see, I had some one record it. I am afraid.

Galvatron · Post by **Galvatron** » 2003-12-09 01:00pm

At least Battlestar Galactica continues the tradition of of its predecessor in that it totally rips off of contemporary Star Wars designs...

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-12-09 01:40pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Like this:
http://www.cylon.org/bsg/2003-baseship-01.jpg

Garbage. Total fucking garbage.

Damnit, I missed it. This is like a bad accident that happened down the street; your neighbors are talking about it but you wish you could have seen it for yourself.

Typhonis 1 · Post by **Typhonis 1** » 2003-12-09 01:40pm

hmmm it would have made more sense if the Cylons hadn`t hacked the computer networks and instead launched a MASSIVE assault on the colonies I mean 3 or 4 basestars per colonial battlestar then sebveral more for the planets themselves?

They have had 40 years to build the things they could have used the old designs for carries while the new ones could be the bombardment ships.

Start the series off with the destruction of the outpost and #6 arriving on Caprica go from there the attack doesnt occur till the next episode but have little things start poping up, transports missing ,sensor ghosts in secure areas .Galactica is sent back to Ragnar dock to be refitted to fight since fleet command expects something is up THE we see the Cylon attack and its aftermath not only do they use nuclear weapons but bio as well, which could be why the new pres is dying she got caught by the weapon and her cellular structure is degrading. (( This happened to Sheba in the origional but the scene was cut from the pilot ep))

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-12-09 01:53pm

Patrick Degan wrote:It's nearly impossible now to remember what a cool network SciFi once was.

I don't know, they still do some decent programming amid all the reality dreck. I think Children of Dune was fantastic and God Emperor should be just as good. Babylon 5 has been treated well as has Crusade (better than it deserves really).

But all in all, it has gone down hill. I'm still ticked about Farscape since it had such potential and it made no sense at all to kill it.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-12-09 02:04pm

Hmm. My general observations; and a disclaimer. I missed the first half hour or so, so I appearently missed all the sex and the baby thing what ever the hell that was. I came in with Baltar and #6 just as he was phoning a lawyer and she was saying it was not necessary.

one- The overall atmoshpere was a curious mix of entertaining and boring. The pace was WAY too slow (as others have pointed out). That whole two hour deal could have been easily crunched into an hour. I didn't like the CGI of the Galactica nor the CGI of the Cylons. The only CGI I found convincing were the Vipers. Perhaps since they had life sized model's built for scenes, the animators had better designs or visual input to build the CGI versions for.

I did like what little of the battle scenes they did show. The dialouge and actions of the characters durring the battles was good. 'set condition one', 'spin up the FTL drives', as well as an assortment of Naval-speak worked well for me.

two- The characters were BORING. When not engaged in battle, they just kind of stood there and delievered lines.

Fuckers. And what the hell is it with this total abortion of the characters. What ever happened to having HERO's?

Ok, ok. I'm ok with some of my hero's having some character flaws. I don't like every single fucking one of them having massive flaws though. Apollo is a whining bitch, Adama is the stereotypical hard ass quite guy, shot through with guilt. Starbuck, well I'll talk about that in a minute. Tigh is a weak willed drunk with a power trip.

Can I have one decent person who remains a decent person through the fucking show. Everyone has flaws, but not everyone is a virtual physical and emotional WRECK.

Women. Did these fucktards even watch the original? There were multitudes of chicks in there. You need a tough charater thats female, WHY NOT REVIVE THE CHARACTER OF ATHENA? Oh, but no. Lets turn the womanizing, swashbuckleing character of Starbuck in to a feminazi's dream of what could have been. Again,

.

In the original, they formed a whole female squadron. Granted, they could incorperate them in the new version but why neuter and feminize already set characters? Bring in already set female characters or create some. Fucking Boomer too. Pretty girl, why couldn't she be Aroara?

Someone mentioned Jolly, I didn't see him/her in the show. What about GreenBean?

three- The ships. I like the interior sets of the Galactica. Neat, comtemporary feel. 1MC's and the like. Niffty displays. My fear of the all to present Trek style touch screens were not appearent. Good stuff.

The Galactica exterior. Blah. The GCI sucked imo, and the design reeked of Trek. The engine cluster was changed and resembled warp engines. The Langing Bays didn't look right either. Total lack of surface detail too.

Cylon raiders. Again, Blah. These are suppost to be original? They look like the Kilrathy (sp?0 from Wing Commander, and reseamble ID4 ships with a Romulan Warbird for a nose. The side to side red light made me want to vomit. One of the most recognizable symbols from the original got reduced to the space version of KITT car.

Colonial One was kind of different and neat. Still waiting to see if any of the original ships gets in the show as an easter egg.

Shuttle/AWAC. Stupid looking wannabe Star Trek shuttle pod thingy. I've always hated the ST shuttles. They always looked too small and to fragile. Why do we have a ST shuttle on BSG?

All and all, the show surprised me. I expected it to absolutely suck. It was only medicore to crappy. If this goes on to a series it is fixable. However, I have little faith that Sci Fi will put people in charge able to fix it. They will, most undoubtedly, put in B&B clones and fucking ruin this series too.

If you hacks do read this, listen up. Put back some of the mythology back into the series. Quite with the feable stereotyping of the characters. Show some fucking tragedies. BSG is about a tragedy and the small hope that keeps them going. So far I really don't feel to bad for the Colonials because I've seen very little of their suffering.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2003-12-09 02:05pm

http://www.battlestargalactica.com/kobol/primer.php

Why do the Cylons feel so strongly that they must wipe out humanity that they're willing to chase them across the galaxy? 'Well...... because they're EVIL.' That didn't seem like a very satisfying answer during the original run and it seems even less satisfying now. To just write it off to Cylon 'programming' also seems rather dull and vaguely Borg-like.

ARRRRRGHHH *tears out hair*

And why the fuck can I not find a single goddamn picture of Galactica herself on the official website? Hell, I bet that's Moore's doing too; 'hurr hurr i dun wan the ship to be a character that's star trek hurr hurr'.

All I can say is FUCK YOU, MOORE.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-12-09 02:06pm

Typhonis 1 wrote:hmmm it would have made more sense if the Cylons hadn`t hacked the computer networks and instead launched a MASSIVE assault on the colonies I mean 3 or 4 basestars per colonial battlestar then sebveral more for the planets themselves?

They have had 40 years to build the things they could have used the old designs for carries while the new ones could be the bombardment ships.

Start the series off with the destruction of the outpost and #6 arriving on Caprica go from there the attack doesnt occur till the next episode but have little things start poping up, transports missing ,sensor ghosts in secure areas .Galactica is sent back to Ragnar dock to be refitted to fight since fleet command expects something is up THE we see the Cylon attack and its aftermath not only do they use nuclear weapons but bio as well, which could be why the new pres is dying she got caught by the weapon and her cellular structure is degrading. (( This happened to Sheba in the origional but the scene was cut from the pilot ep))

Yeah. They made too much about #6's mission. It could have still been in there but not such a pivitol piece.

Death from the Sea · Post by **Death from the Sea** » 2003-12-09 02:09pm

I caught this last night and I have to say it is not near as bad as some of you are making it out to be. While it is not the greatest series ever, it is decent. I swear you people are full tilt on everything around here, either you worship it or you hate it so much you can't stand it. Unless you are bitching about it being over-hyped, but then again these days what classic series or show that gets remade isn't overhyped? so the over-hype is expected IMO.
While there could have been some improvements made to make it better, it is still enjoyable in my opinion.