Battlestar Galactica!

I'm not, but my husband is salivating.
Soon-to-be-BG-widow,
Cree

I grew up with the original BG. I haven't really given the new show a chance. I feel like I watch too much tv already. My must see's are Dr. Who, LOST, and Smallville, and, of course, football. I've heard some realy great things about the new BG, but I miss 'ol Lorne Green.

Do they use the same characters? Starbuck, Apollo, and the rest?

Diana Hignutt said:

I grew up with the original BG. I haven't really given the new show a chance. I feel like I watch too much tv already. My must see's are Dr. Who, LOST, and Smallville, and, of course, football. I've heard some realy great things about the new BG, but I miss 'ol Lorne Green.

Do they use the same characters? Starbuck, Apollo, and the rest?

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You might give it a try, Diana. It's going to b running right after Doctor Who this season. It's really quite good.

Yes, the original characters are there, but they've been reimagined. Even Baltar is back. Edward James Olmos is great as Adama. And I was pleasantly surprised not only that a female Starbuck could work, but that she'd become my favorite character, just as her male predecessor was on the original show.

sorry, it jumped the shark for me and my hubby in the season finale.

talk about bad writing...

Like Diana, I can't get into the new one at all. I tried watching it, but it was a big zero for me. Maybe it's because there's no Face, er...Starbuck.

Also, Voltar was awesome in old one.

Somehow my brain confounded memories of the BG series with Buck Rogers (I was 6-ish).

Bidibidibidi.

dragonjax said:

OCTOBER 6!!! Who else is eagerly awaiting the season premiere?

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Me!

Honestly, I don't know how the show hasn't gotten cancelled. That's what usually happens to shows I love this much. But I'm not complaining.

So why don't they wear capes anymore?

Good and Bad

The new show does a great job in some areas, and chokes big-time in other areas.

The Good:

• Baltar's character is much better developed and more convincing
• the Cylon concept is better imagined (more depth)
• the surprise attack which kicked the series off was MUCH, MUCH better than the original (I really liked how they did the whole shut-down thing for the newer tech, allowing the "obsolete" Galactica to still operate)
• the politics of the show is MUCH better, including...
• I really like the president - I forget the actress' name, but she does a GREAT job with that part!
• Olmos is good as Adama. No complaints there. However...if Lorne Greene were still alive, I think they should've gone with him.
• Generally speaking....the writing is far, far better. The old series started off great and then went downhill fast with its plot lines and character interaction. So far, the writing has been great - and shows signs of (if anything) getting better.

The Neutral:

• I don't agree with Hollywood's super-infatuation with youth, and its insistence that, if you're over 40 or over 50 - you're too old (generally speaking) to be the lead role...unless (of course)...you're extremely well established (Harrison Ford, etc) Therefore....I don't think they needed a new actor for Apollo. They could've gone with Richard Hatch. And even if youth and image is a big deal....Give him a personal trainer and a good make-up artist, and you can make him appear 20 years younger than what he is! That having been said....the new actor who plays the new Apollo does a good job. So, I have mixed feelings on this point.
• I don't like their reimagining the new characters to the point that they are changing genders, and this includes "Boomer." However, I really do like what they're doing with the new "Boomer" character. I just wish they had made up a new character for her.

The BAD:

• Sorry, BUT I do NOT like their changing Starbuck's character and gender! That does NOT work for me! Not that the new Starbuck character isn't colorful and interesting....but make her a different character. Create a NEW role for her to fill. Stick with the traditional, MALE Starbuck. That they ruined Starbuck is, by far, my STRONGEST objection to the new show!
• I like the old uniforms, including the old dress uniforms - with the capes. Those were cool. Why did they have to get rid of them?
• The old Cylon fighters - the discs - were awesome.
• The old Cylons themselves - shiny, silver with the red eye going back and forth - were the BEST! I don't dig the new Cylons nearly as well.

So....all in all....I like the new series. Were it not for the Starbuck thing, I would like it a lot.

I'm really looking forward to it. I grew up on the original and I prefer the new series. I dig the female Starbuck.

I do have a few issues with it, too, much as I love it. My main pet peeves are that many of the costumes and especially the ground vehicles are far, far too much like ours. Do they really think that a civilization this long removed from ours would develop something that looks exactly like our cars, right down to license plates? And suits with neckties? Come on, guys -- use your imaginations, will you?

The writing and the acting usually more than make up for it, though.

I don't have cable, but eagerly watched the regular broadcast of about six hours of the first season. I found it captivating. The concept of the cylons as biotech rather than just machines made the whole story-line more compelling. Now one cannot KNOW who is a Cylon and who is not, not even the individual Cylons.

The rebellious nature of Starbuck is still there despite the addition of breasts. I am generally in favor of breasts, so there was no big shock in that.

As to how the Galacticans dress and the presentation of technology, it's okay with me that they wear neckties and have registration tags on their automobiles. The capes were silly in the first place. In our society the necktie has centuries of costume history even after any purpose for the device has vanished.

(As an aside, I believe the necktie to be the silliest dress convention ever subjected upon mankind. Women complain about panythose, but at least those would serve to keep the legs warm when needed. The necktie has no such utilitarian purpose.)

Anyway, I wish they would start broadcasting the series like they did Stargate.

Having cars and other technology that looks like ours has never phased me about the new version. Yeah, realistically, they wouldn't have developed stuff that looks exactly like ours, but realistically, they wouldn't be speaking English either. I think the point of it is not a lack of imagination on the part of the show's creators so much as it's an attempt to say, "Look, these are people just like us" and to keep things like capes and strange-looking costumes from distracting from the story. While a lot of genre fans want and expect to see an other-ish look to things, there are also people who are turned off by a lot science fiction because they can't get past what I've heard people dub "the silly names and the silly costumes."

I watched and enjoyed the original series when I was younger, but the gender changes of the characters don't bother me either. They've totally changed the personalities for the most part, so after that, changing the gender as well doesn't seem like a huge deal. And to me, the original Starbuck's character--the charming rogue--has been done to death. And I love Starbuck in the new version. She's a tough cookie, but she's also flawed and has a very realistic vulnerability to her.

Battlestar

I've tried to love the new Battlestar, but it usually bores me to tears.

Jamesaritchie said:

I've tried to love the new Battlestar, but it usually bores me to tears.

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At last! Someone else who shares the same sentiment!

Bibsy said:

but realistically, they wouldn't be speaking English either.

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First, the disclaimer:

I hated the original Battlestar Galactica. I felt it was a cheap, rushed attempt to rip off Star Wars/Star Trek and even then wasn't done very well. I have a visceral dislike of it from being a wee child.

I *loathe* the new Battlestar Galactica - not just based on the concept of redoing a series I already hated but because when I've tried to watch it, it did bore me to tears and was generally just so freaking bad that I couldn't imagine why they would choose to produce that over "Farscape". (And it doesn't help that those who brought it back are former 'Trek' producers and I saw where they trashed 'Trek' in comparison to "Galactica" in early interviews.)

However, I'm responding to this bit of quote above. I've heard that many times in my long fandom of sci-fi to the point where I stopped considering someone a friend when he proudly declared that "America had won" because the official Federation language is "English" and had people scoff at Star Wars because the main language spoken is "English".

What bothers me about such statements (including the one above regarding the 'Galactica' people not speaking English) is that it's not like we're actually watching a show where people are speaking English anymore than the characters through the last two thirds of "13th Warrior" have switched from Arabic and Swedish (?) to English. Anymore than I think the characters of "Hunchback of Notre Dame" are speaking English or that the characters on Pern are speaking English (or at the very least, the same dialect that we know!). The thing of it is this: they aren't speaking English, so much, as their own dialects/languages. We just 'hear' it in English because who would watch a show where the characters were all speaking in a made up/foreign language that the vast majority of viewers most likely didn't understand and were forced to read subtitles all the time?

So when it comes to "Galactica" or all the others mentioned, I immediately assume that they are speaking some other language, it's only been 'translated from the original' in order for us to understand it. I can't defend the suits/ties and/or cars, but at least I can defend them on the language bit!

And the president's still alive? Didn't she have a pretty evolved terminal illness way back in the first season? One that they kept bringing up as if it would kill her late in the episode, or later into the other episode? I did like the end of the one (first season?) episode where Starbuck befriended the Cylon that she was supposed to 'interrogate' and the president had airlocked into space. At the end, Starbuck went to her locker and prayed to her Greek gods. That was something in the original series that I always thought got glossed over too much. Or at least in my very limited experience of the original series.

Rabe...

I think the point I was trying to make about the English thing didn't quite comes across. I actually do the same as what you said with shows like this--assume they're not speaking in English, because yes, it would be ridiculous to create a new language and make viewers read in subtitles. My point in bringing that up was that just as I'm looking at English as "translation" of whatever they'd really be speaking if this were a real world, I'm also looking at the cars and the suits and ties as a type of "translation". It's an easy (and admittedly production budget conscious) way of saying these people are in a world similar to what we know.

But just as there are some people who don't watch some things because of the strange names and costumes, I understand why some people might be turned off by the lack of them with this show. I'm not particularly bothered by either, but to each his own.

Rabe said:

And the president's still alive? Didn't she have a pretty evolved terminal illness way back in the first season?

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Highlight to read, since it's a big season 2 spoiler:

Boomer and Helo's baby was born a few eps before the finale. In it, the ship's doctor discovered that the baby's unique physiology/blood had healing properties. He tested it on the Laura and she was cured of her cancer. They also decided to tell Boomer and Helo that the baby died, and they shipped the infant off to a woman somewhere in the Fleet.

Honestly, that was my only real complaint about season two (okay, that and Lee's little flirtation with Dee, ugh). It had a bit of a Starchild effect and felt cheap, but I understood some of the storytelling reasons behind the decision.

That said, I adore this show. I never watched the original in first-run, and viewing reruns on Sci Fi every now and again, I usually laugh my way through the entire episode. It is a classic show, but if someone tried to air that today, as is, it would get canned after three episodes. And it must say something if the original series lasted ONE season. To SF fans, it's a classic. To the rest of the TV audience, it's just silly camp.

Marketing the new BSG to a broader audience was brilliant. The humans are enough like us that we can identify with them (neckties and license plates), but also different enough (praying to Athena) that we never mistake them for us. They don't have to wear silly costumes and weird Egyptian helmets in order for us to believe that it's a SF show.

It can be an emotionally draining show, but that's why I love it. I know I can watch it, and be affected by fiction every single week. Affected by the story and the characters. Few shows can guarantee that, fewer novels, and even fewer movies. Adama and Apollo have one of the most complex father/son relationships out there. I adore the father/daughter relationship Adama has with Kara Thrace (who is, in a way, a completely different character who just happens to have the handle "Starbuck").

Plus any show with a naked Jamie Bamber gets points from me.

The one thing I still don't get are the conversations that go like this...

Me: Have you seen the new Battlestar Galactica?
Them: That show is terrible. The original is so much better.
Me: Have you actually watched an episode of the new one?
Them: No.



Reminds me of my six year old nephew. He refused to try tomato saunce on his spagetti because he didn't like it. "It's gross." He had to have it with butter only. Funny how he'd never once tried it with tomato sauce, so how did he know he didn't like it? Then one day he gave it chance, and loves it!

Hmmm....

But I digress.

My number one reason for loving this show, and why it's better than most TV on air today: there is not always a happy ending.

There, I said it. I hate it when there is always a neat little solution to every week's problem, wrapped up with a bow on top. That's why I don't watch sitcoms anymore. I want something with an edge, with emotion and with impact. Maybe I don't like every storyline, or every direction they choose to take the show, but its brilliance far outshines its flaws.

chaostitan said:

Highlight to read, since it's a big season 2 spoiler:
The one thing I still don't get are the conversations that go like this...

Me: Have you seen the new Battlestar Galactica?
Them: That show is terrible. The original is so much better.
Me: Have you actually watched an episode of the new one?
Them: No.



Reminds me of my six year old nephew. He refused to try tomato saunce on his spagetti because he didn't like it. "It's gross." He had to have it with butter only. Funny how he'd never once tried it with tomato sauce, so how did he know he didn't like it? Then one day he gave it chance, and loves it!

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My husband was a huge fan of the old show, and everything he saw about the new show turned him off. Like me, he hates Hollywood's "It's just the same... only different!" attempts at ripping off old shows.

A friend of his had the same feeling that you do, that if my husband would just watch the show, he'd love it. So he loaned him his tapes, and Hubbie watched the entire first season.

When he returned the tapes, Hubbie said, "You were right, it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was worse. This show is terrible, and I would hate it even if it didn't have familiar names slapped on the characters. The people are so stupid I started cheering for the Cylons to wipe them out."

He did like Olmos as the new Adama, though. He said that was the one and only thing that rang true.

LeslieB said:

A friend of his had the same feeling that you do, that if my husband would just watch the show, he'd love it. So he loaned him his tapes, and Hubbie watched the entire first season.

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Actually, my point wasn't "if you just try it, you'll love it."

My point was "don't say you hate it if you haven't tried it."

Everyone has the right to like or dislike a show. It just bothers me when people condemn something they haven't even tried (doesn't matter if it's a book, a movie, food, or rap music). I know I don't like CSI, because I tried to watch it. Not for me. I know I don't like red beets, because I tasted them. Yuck.

Some people like CSI and red beets. It's what makes the world go 'round.

Bibsy said:

point in bringing that up was that just as I'm looking at English as "translation" of whatever they'd really be speaking if this were a real world, I'm also looking at the cars and the suits and ties as a type of "translation". It's an easy (and admittedly production budget conscious) way of saying these people are in a world similar to what we know.

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You make a very valid point about the costumes and props. And actually, when one thinks about it - since the people of BG *are* humans, colonists that have fled Earth so long ago for whatever reason and are now seeking the myth of Earth, it can be discussed that they have kept the traditions that they know. Licensing and registring transports, suits and ties for men, dresses and other formal wear for women. It could easily be argued what time period the original colonists left Earth is the same time period where they had registered cars and ties and the like.

Kind of like how the really nitpicky chide sci-fi shows for having ships blow up when there's 'no atmosphere in space'. Except, they always seem to forget that flame, ionization and the like don't require atmosphere, but fuel which is found aplenty on spaceships with artificial environments.

So the next time someone gets uppity about BG characters wearing ties and the like, just go into the long explanation of how the colonists left Earth in the late nineties, settled their planets for hundreds of years and kept the mores that had when they left Earth.

Rabe...

I would be looking forward to the new season, were it not for the fact that I do not get Sci-Fi Channel.

Which is sad, when it comes to the new version of BG, but it is not so sad when it comes to the majority of other shows that channel presents. (Not the old shows that they present, but the Sci-Fi Original shows. The majority of them just do not seem to have the quality that most F/SF shows on network television used to have.)

Separating the BS from BSG

I like the new show...

It has a few glitches, it makes a few sacrifices... but it has robots, heroism and suspense. Half SF, half stellar soap opera – it may not be the way I would've remade it (which, of course, would've been the best way), but it's good enough distraction to be worth an hour a week.

Ahem. Bring back Firefly.

Thank you.