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New Episodes Of Battlestar Galactica?
sawilson writes "I was surfing over at scifi.com and noticed a link to a story called '
New 'Galactica' To Look Ahead'.
I loved this show, and never missed an episode." I liked this show when I was little, but recently watched a marathon of it, and was pretty disappointed. (I'd like to see a marathon of Buck Rogers and see if (A) It was as cool as my childhood wants me to think it was and (B) If Erin Grey was as hot as I remember). The new Galactica is
tied to Bryan "X-Men and The Usual Suspects" Singer, so it certainly has potential.
Eddie was a teenage boy who was highly intelligent, very into science fiction, and generally depressed with life -- a description that could probably fit a lot of people here. Except that Eddie was way ahead of his time; he was so wrapped up in Battlestar Galactica and so unable to find anything else in life to relate to, that when the TV series was cancelled in 1979, Eddie committed suicide.
I never knew the kid, but I've known how he felt, and my heart goes out to him and his family.
No, he is American. I couldn't find anything stating JM Straczynski's place of birth in a quick search, but you can easily find audio interviews in which he has a clearly American accent. (His name is obviously not British either, not that that means anything)
Even if he was British, I would tend to think the important thing in determining what country a television show is from is the country for which it was produced. Babylon 5 was produced for American television, and that makes it an American series, regardless of who wrote it. If the BBC hired an American producer to make a series, I'd still call it a British show. But it doesn't matter, as JMS is an American anyway.
But boy oh boy, I tivo'ed a few episodes from that BBC Cable channel we've got now, and man does it stink up the joint. It was incredibly painful, enough that I had to vow never to watch it again, for fear of completely ruining fond childhood memories. Frankly, watching Battlestar Galactica reruns, bad as it was, is much less distressing.
Like several other people have pointed out, I'm fairly certain Space: 1999 was an American series. And it stunk too.
There are really only two series that were ever truly good Science Fiction, both American, and neither mentioned in your rant: Babylon 5 and The Twilight Zone. These are timeless classics that I will never be embarrassed to watch again. TZ is sort of a special case having no regular cast or plot, putting B5 in a class by itself. It is truly unique in all of television's history. It has what you seem to think British Sci-Fi offers: a focus on stories, dialog, and character development. The flashy special effects are just a bonus, the meat of this show was the stories that took FOUR YEARS to develop (the fifth season being really separate from the rest). No one else has done that to the extent B5 did. Maybe someday someone will, but I don't see anything on the horizon. Just more Star Trek and syndicated junk. (Some of which I'll watch and enjoy anyway, but for entirely different reasons.)
Of course I remember Salvage One. It starred fellow North Carolinian Andy Griffith and the ultimate object of fascination, a junkyard.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
They got sued for (alleged) plagiarism by the Star Wars people. That was another reason why they decided to pack it in.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
By Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, UFO, Terrahawks, Space Precinct and others). Martin Landau and Barbara Bain (husband and wife) were probably hired to appeal to American audiences. Fred Freiberger (writer of some of Star Trek's third season) was producer or something.
Leonard Nimoy was also on Mission: Impossible. And there was one episode, apparently, with William Shatner as guest star. Maybe this means that episode had the two main characters from both Star Trek and Space: 1999.
(BTW: I've heard rumours that Blake's 7 is making a comeback - with Gareth Thomas!)
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
The moon accidentally got detached from Earth's orbit and hurtled through space. Gerry Anderson said that this added a certain edge to the first series, because rather than intrepid space explorers, it was about people who never wanted to leave Earth's orbit and were not prepared for it.
In this way it's a bit like ST: Voyager. And in other ways too, if you consider the acting and general gloominess.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
UFO was way better than Space: 1999. The first episodes of UFO lead the ratings in both New York and LA. Then the ratings dipped momentarially, the networks panicked, and the second series of UFO was cancelled to produce Space: 1999 instead. Uurgh.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I think the best thing you can say for Galactica is that the brat and his mechanical dog make Wesley Crusher look bearable.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
There was only one show of the last season that didn't suck: "The Last Flight of Starbuck".
Stuck on a deserted planet, with only some destroyed Cylons for company... I think I cried at the end (gimme a break, I was like 12 at the time).
As for the rest of the season, the messiah kid (forshadowing of Wesley Crusher), the invisibility schtick, the two guys as replacements of Starbuck and Apollo... bah!
I also don't remember why the Glactica crew didn't just land and say "Honey, I'm home!" What was the reason for hiding?
If this gets made with Glen Larson's input and without Richard Hatch's (no, not the fat gay one, the fat one who played Apollo), it is going to suck like the original.
If, on the other hand, they INCLUDE Richard Hatch's input, it will be the show it always could have been, and should have been.
-
I think the ideal solution would be for Larson to executive produce it, and give Hatch creative control as the actual producer.
This will never happen since they're pissed off at each other, which to my mind means it shouldn't be made at all.
Either of them alone is going to screw it up.
-
And remember, Battle Star Galatica had the distant descendants of the Aibo, the 'Dagit' (or daget, or dagat, whatever) a little robotic dog which performed on cue and made the appropriate whirring robotic noises.
*Almost* as annoying as the Aibo
-josh
I agree. But on the other hand, DeSantos has said he respects Hatch, and would like to see what he's put together. And Hatch is being very diplomatic about the whole thing so far. We'll have to see what happens.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Yes, it did, and yes, he did. How he appeared in the trailer, then, should be easy enough to guess. (Hint: Hatch asked for and got Greene's family's permission.)
Yes, that's right, stock footage--in this case, a "holographic recording" made with footage taken from the laserdisc of the original Galactica movie.
Interestingly, Hatch suggests that it might be possible in his Galactica Second Coming for Adama to have left behind recordings of wisdom and advice to be played back at certain times--and that it might even include footage Greene didn't shoot. Hatch suggests that they might use the same magic of CGI and effects tricks that let dead celebrities appear in ads for soft drinks, and Hank Williams Jr. do a music video duet with Hank Williams Sr. of a sing Hank Sr. never played on-camera ("There's a Tear in My Beer," for those who care).
Of course, this opens up a whole can of worms about who should decide who gets to use the dead likeness of who--but then, that can was opened a while ago already. And Hatch did set a good precedent of getting permission from the next of kin, at least . . .
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Oh, yes.
---------------------------------------------
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
I mean, its was an OK sci-fi show, but nothing spectacular other than the above average special effects for TV of the day.
I wonder if they will acknowledge that horrible Galatica '80 show or whatever it was called, where they were running around on earth with flying motorcycles.... shudder.
Of course, they ruined Buck Rodgers the same way when they went off into space and started looking for other earth civilations, brought in Hawk... why do they ruin perfectly good shows like that?
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I was wondering too.
So I looked...
She was pretty cute
Of course, we don't need that today. We have Neon Genesis Evangelion...
--The basis of all love is respect
Not to be confused with "Battlefield Earth", which was made by another cult, the "church" of scientology. Check out this web page for more info on the mormon/BG connection. Check out this web page for more info on the clams:
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
Hatch has been working his butt off to get the show back into the general conciousness, and now Larsen and Singer are going to capitalize on this, but haven't even talked to Hatch or plan to have old characters in the show.
:-(
Not really the kind of thanks Hatch may have been expecting....
The name is Erin Gray (with an a) not Erin Grey (with an e.)
Also check out http://formen.ign.com/news/13410.html
Hatch tried to make a new BSG film a few years ago. He was in Luxembourg scouting locations, interviewing talent agencies, and lining up funding. But then it emerged he didn't hold all the rights to the film, and left a lot of people rather upset.
He is a nice guy, but very "hollywood". I met him at a number of parties (Lux is only a couple of hours away by car, and can be a great place to party in you know the right people). He had everyone excited about shooting in Lux, where the tax credits and other government incentives attract a lot of film crews. He had a casting agency hire a bunch of people, including YT, for various parts in the film. His vision for a tightly integrated story arc with an eye toward scientific details had everyone impressed, and he had a sample script that seemed very well done. He clearly had put a lot of thought into the film over many years, since BSG pretty much defined his entire career. And he looks like he is pushing 55 or 60 now.
Then he went back to Hollywood, and filming never happened. Some SFX company was hoping to sell him their warez, and had done up many minutes of rendered vipers and such. The casting agency was left with a large unpaid bill. Principal actors had left gaps in their schedules to accomodate shooting, and then had to scramble to find work.
Since then, the whole film crowd in Lux has a bitter taste in the mouth about BSG, but it is fun to watch the various machinations as people fight over the right to remake a guaranteed nostalgic money maker. It does depend on who makes it, and whether they pay attention to all the fans input on what was loved, and what was hated. Hatch didn't have any kids, wesley crushers, toy robots, or stupid plot devices in his script.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
And it went from bad to even worse and then the whole serie stopped. Now I truly hope that these people won't do what so many did before them; making new episodes in which they use new techniques and the likes with old plots. Eventually we would then get another struggle against the cylons with the same old evil tactics used in the first series. In many cases the producers think that we won't remember it anyway because it was 'so long ago'.
But what would be even worse is that this same ingredient is enough to kill of the entire series and legend. Now most of us remember Battlestar Galactica being some nice SF series which (IMO at least) started to suck in the end. The 1st run however was quite good. If this new serie would indeed suck most people would eventually remember Battlestar Galactica as a sucky SF series and would even call us crazy for liking it; "heck, if the serie is as shitty as that I can't even imagine what horror the first series must have been".
Lets hope it won't come to that. Unfortunatly that is what happens most of the time... Remember the (IMHO great) SF series V? And the totally sucky 2nd series? If so you know exactly what I mean..
Yes, basically the moon is blown out of orbit in 1999 by a huge explosion on the dark side. Off it whizzes thru space, taking with it Moonbase Alpha; and it encounters various stange alien series.
It is a Gerry Anderson series. (of Thunderbirds fame) ALthough he is most famous for puppet based shows, like Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 etc. he also did do a number of series where he used live actors for the characters, and his puppet skillz for the special fx. UFO was my favorite.
The science in Space:1999 is of course mad, mad I say, but hey, it's fun and had some interesting ideas. The COMLOCK devices they used were neat I always thought (basically they carried devices that were combined video phones, door passes, and i.d cards). And the Eagle spacecraft were excellent. Inspiration: I' off to DL some wallpaper of Eagle 1 I think.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Yeah your right. Galactica 1980 really blew. Two guys in street clothes on gay motorcycles. CMON! What happened to the Vipers! I just hope the new show has these things in it: New Vipers (Multiple variants, keep the tri engine for history....), Cylons (Especially the cool Gold ones every once in a while thrown in occasionally with the normal cannon fodder silver ones, Ultra cool cylon base ships, A Cool Galactica that can handle a cylon attack better (every other week the landing bay got hit and they had to land somewhere else). Oh well....I hope it's good!
Gorkman
More pros:
More cons:
Battlestar Galactica really sucked. In the pilot (I think) the Earth is getting destroyed, the Galactica is the last hope, and the captain goes AWOL to look for his wife and kids.
Still, the bridge was powered by Tektronix. The controls actually did things, which meant they had to teach the actors to run the thing.
Consider this, though: I argue that the brilliance of SF is that it can address very volitile social issues, like racism, environmentalism, sexism, etc., and do so safely. People may dismiss a story about slavery, for example, but when you change the races to Gorthos enslaving Kangoids, you can tell the same story, and get the same message across. Those of us who grew up in the 70's and 80's all clearly remember the fear of nuclear war, right? The most memorable episode for me was the one called "Experiment in Terra", where Apollo ends up on a suspiciously "earth-like" planet, and has to diffuse a nuclear confrontation between "The Eastern Alliance" and "The People's Nationalist Force". The allegories were clear, even to my 10 year-old brain. It was then that I learned the true power of Science Fiction, and officially became a nerd.
Battlestar Galactica was an ok show but the only thing that held any interest for me as a child was the Vipers. Those were the coolset space fighters around. I used to draw them all the time in school...
But..., that piece of crap pales in comparison to the majesty that was Space 1999. I wish they would remake THAT show. I had nightmares for months about the episode where they came across a spaceship graveyard which had a tentacle monster that would pull you undernetath itself and then slide out a smoking, charred corpse. By your command indeed.
I know it's off topic. Mod me down, I don't care but someone please remake Space 1999!
The SF channel started running repeats of the Six Million Dollar Man, and I actually found that it was still pretty cool. Yes, the "special effects" were cheesy and unrealistic, but the cold war plots were often very cool.
Unfortunately, on the flip side, the last season episodes really sucked as much as I remembered. One word: Bigfoot. :)
And say what you want about SMDM, but it had by far the coolest opening of any TV show ever: that pounding rhythm, gnarley crash landing, mechanical limbs being handed off, all the while the incredibly cool voiceover:
"Steve Austin. Astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology to create the world's first bionic man. Better than he was before. Better. Stronger. Faster!" da da DA daaaaa! DA da da da da DA DA DA DA...
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
pros:
70's space decor on every alien planet!
cassiopia
opening credits
arrogant attitude ("you think you're enemy sucks", "well, you've never seen a battlestar")
temporary employment for Randolph Mantooth
cons:
terrible science (the galactica ran outta gas and they came to a dead stop!)
please help me add to the lists
Sneakemail is to spam filters what an ounce of prevention is to a pound of cure.
So how come American S-F series on TV suck so much. Think about it, Battlestar Galactica, a lame Star Wars ripoff; Buck Rogers, with that annoyiing little Tweekie (bee-dee-bee, bee-de-de Buck), Logan's Run, one aging boomer's preoccupation with grey hair becomes a TV series, Space: Above and Beoynd was Melrose place, but lower quality even Quark, Insteller Garbageman was pretty lame. I won't even mention Star Trek and it's innumerable spinoffs, there's a modern low brow hydra if there ever was.
I swear, if it wasn't for British imports like Dr. Who and Space 1999, there'd be no good S-F on TV at all. Perhaps it's because American S-F relies on flash, glitz and special effects, which plays well on the big screen, but for the telly, you need something smaller scaled, which relies on stories, dialog and character development, of which all of these things British literature surpasses American literature.
Och! I managed to find her stats on imdb.com. Yep her name is Pamela Hensley. She was in her early 30's at that time. I recall her being a pretty good actress. She was delightfully evil in Buck Rogers but was very caring/friendly in Matt Houston.
It's too bad, it looks like her career pretty much ended after Matt Houston.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
Why is it that in the late 90's early 00's, studios/entertainment/media companies can't come up with any new content?
As opposed to all the "original" stuff that hack Shakespeare cranked out??? Retellings of histories and stories appropriated from old folk tales...
Hell, people probably heard the Epic of Gilgamesh and were like "Another Hero Quest? Geez..."
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Erin Gray has a website at http://www.eringray.com
Many things about it were awful - hairstyles, acting, plot. The bad guys, in the form of the nefarious Silon, were among the worst in TV history, utterly laughably bad.
This means that it now makes an excellent Sunday afternoons viewing. The discriminating fan of super cheesy 1970's SF series will not be dissappointed by a viewing of Battlestar Galactica. The touching scenes involving Jane Seymours death and her childs adoption of a furry proto-Aibo are particulary amusing. And the attempted and very forced insertion of Greek Mythology throughout the series is funny too.
If you feel like going on a nostalgia trip, kobol.com is an excellent site featuring a hell of a lot of BG nostalgia. More than I can handle, thats for sure.
I just hope that this version isn't as bad as the last, though that should be easy.
--
Clarity does not require the absence of impurities,
/* And you'll never guess what the dog had */
/* in its mouth... */
--Larry Wall in stab.c from perl
I don't know about what happened in Luxembourg--I wish I'd heard about this pre-con, so I could have asked him about it--but the rights thing over Galactica is such a huge mess that, if it was more than a couple years ago, I'm not surprised, and I really wouldn't blame Richard for it. Apparently Glen Larsen discovering that he had some residual rights to some elements of (but not all of) the show via the episodes he wrote knocked the whole thing into a cocked hat, and nobody knew exactly who had what rights anymore. Hatch has been trying the best he can to get the whole thing ironed out, and it will be interesting to see what comes of this new wrinkle. One thing's for sure--Hatch's fans can swing a lot of letter-writing power. Call it a "snail-mail Slashdot effect." The Sci-Fi channel abruptly dropped their plans for a Galactica update last month--though I'll admit it might have been due partly to Singer's sudden interest in the franchise.
As far as creative vision is concerned, Hatch is clearly no duffer. He's actually written--and I don't mean Shatnerly-ghost-written, I mean written--a trilogy taking Galactica into the future, and the storyline of that trilogy is roughly the way the new show would go.
The trailer is really slick, with some great footage (albeit perhaps a bit of overacting), a special appearance by Lorne Greene, and CGI done by volunteers that looks incredibly polished. There's one shot of a Viper zooming through an open tunnel in one side of a starship and out the other that never failed to elicit gasps of awe from the audience. It's amazing how slick and polished it looks--you'd swear it was from a finished product. Hatch tells stories of screening it to studio execs who were sort of embarrassed going in, expecting to see someone's home video, and then had to pick their jaws up off the floor when it showed.
There are some still frames from the trailer on the BattlestarGalactica.com website, but due to SAG rules (having to do with the actors actually having to be paid and stuff), they can't put the whole thing online or otherwise make it available. So they screen it at cons.
Hatch has always expressed a willingness to work with whoever got the rights--even Larsen, though Larson rebuffed him (and Larsen's involvement with the Singer version doesn't give me a whole lot of hope). Hatch can also swing most of the still-alive original cast--even the reclusive Dirk Benedict. All he wants is to ensure that the new series has the same things that kept people watching the old series--the original cast in their original roles. All the other proposed BSG projects have been planned to focus elsewhere--on other elements in the BSG universe. Hatch can understand that the studios might prefer to swap in new faces, but all he wants is that there should be a segueway from the old to the new, with more than lip service paid to the original. One of his great fears (and mine, too) is that they'll do a recast and remake, a la the Lost in Space movie that Bill Mumy lobbied for and was then shut out of.
The problem with Hatch, as I imagine the "suits" in charge of studios see it, is that he's a starry-eyed dreamer, with a Vision. That so overshadows the other aspect of him--his business sense, and ability to make much out of limited resources--that it's no wonder the suits get scared. After all, other dreamers with creative vision in the past have made major holes in studio pocketbooks--just look at Kevin Costner.
Still, the open letters and interviews posted to the BSG site lately do give me hope, especially the fandom.com interview with DeSanto in which he says he respects and admires Hatch for keeping the fandom alive and would like to see his trailer. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
(Another trailer Hatch showed at the con was his new project, The Great War of Magellan . This one is also an unfinished teaser, but the storyline looks promising and it has quite a few interesting faces in it--Hatch, Jason Carter, Brad Dourif . . . have to wait and see what develops there, too.)
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
B) Oh, yes.
TWW
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