New Battlestar Galactica Premieres Monday

An anonymous reader writes "In several news articles, 'Battlestar Galactica' returns in a new four hour mini-series on the Sci-Fi channel this Monday. However, there has been fan furor over some changes to the story. Aluminum Cylon enemies look more like humans, complete with feelings, including one with rabid sexual desires, and the quest is not for a mythical Earth, as it no longer exists. More information at the BattlestarGalactica.com website, and the Sci-Fi channel."

Comments

another botched memory?

[sweeney37]

let's not forget that Edward James Olmos has warned fans of the original series to not watch.

Mike

Re:another botched memory?

[D'Arque Bishop]

According to the producers, Olmos's warning was kinda taken out of context. Apparently he loves the new BSG, but felt that die-hard fans would not appreciate the changes made to the show. The quote printed on the site linked in the parent makes me agree with the producer. (Namely, "The intent and the way we've built the reality is very different from the reality of the original.")

The producer's rebuttal can be found here.

For what it's worth, I've been watching my box set of the original series while stuck on a business trip. I'm hoping the new series will be good, but even if isn't, well... they're different series, and I'll judge them on their own merits, not how they relate to each other.

Just my $.02...

Re:another botched memory?

[Dinosaur Neil]

I watched the original series when it first aired and there was nothing else like it on TV at the time. Those were the lean years; no Star Trek except reruns of the original series, no other big budgeted SF TV shows (Space:1999 had been canned the year before BSG started), and no cable channels to fill the void. There were three networks (that's right, pre-FOX, pre-UPN) and cable was a rare thing involving bulky switch boxes... Whoa, this is turning into a "when I was your age" type rant.

In its day, BSG was fairly sophisticated and thoughtful. In its day, the SFX were the best you could see on TV (those vector graphics displays they used were, for the time, amazing). Re-making the show now with deacades of new Star Trek series and Farscape and SG1 and such to compare it to pretty much requires the details to be rebuilt from the ground up... The underlying theme of conflict and hope should hold up no matter who's gender changed.

Re:another botched memory?

[yiantsbro]

..."they're different series, and I'll judge them on their own merits"...

This is perhaps the most reasonable and fair statement I have heard regarding the new show from either side.

I am a huge fan of the original series and look forward to continued efforts and new content based upon it. However it IS a different vision so it should be allowed to be judged on its own. Hey--it still has Vipers and the Galactica.

Re:another botched memory?

[ReallyQuietGuy]

they're different series, and I'll judge them on their own merits

but the point is they went and used the name of the old one. why is that? they want to borrow some of the "goodwill" of the old show. if they really wanted it to be all different they should have chosen a different name

Re:another botched memory?

[letxa2000]

Giving me something scary, or disturbing. If I'm in the mood for porn, I'm not going to waste my time on basic cable.

You got that right. The whole "sexy baby" thing is annoying, not just when they're the bad guys. Don't get me wrong, woman are beautiful. But like you said... if you want to see some hot chicks, you know where to go. Not EVERYTHING has to be about hot babes, and I'd like to be able to enjoy some fun science fiction without having to feel like I'm watching something that's really targetting some puberty-controlled teenage boy.

There was a Battlestar Galactica marathon on SciFi about two months ago and I got to watch a few episodes. Of course, most of the commercials were for the new Galactica that they were going to release in December. One of the commercials actually was talking/showing a photoshoot from Maxim magazine where apparently one of the actresses came from (that ought to tell you something... their cast consists of models, not actors apparently).

In other words, screw promoting the series based on its storyline (apparently no longer involving earth) or characters (which apparently have had sex changes and I get the impression that they even had to put a gay character in there, you know, to be PC and all)... rather just promote the blatant sexuality of the series. After all, with a sensual sex scene with a female Cylon, showing previous photoshoots of the actress^H^H^H^H^H model, and using the "Battlestar Galactica" goodwill, profit is guaranteed.

I don't plan on watching. I hope to buy the original series DVD box set this month, maybe even by Monday, and I'll watch that instead. Sure, this new series is completely different and should be judged on its own merits. It might even be fun. But I don't want to contaminate my memory of Battlestar Galactica by even associating this new material with the name.

I will be interested to see, though, how well the series does. They've basically alienated the real fan base that's been waiting for a new Battlestar Galactica for 25 years and I'm not convinced the new generation is really dying to see a remake. Who IS their market? Maybe it IS just the pubery-driven teenage boys.

Re:another botched memory?

[badasscat]

For what it's worth, I've been watching my box set of the original series while stuck on a business trip. I'm hoping the new series will be good, but even if isn't, well... they're different series, and I'll judge them on their own merits, not how they relate to each other.

Well, I will judge them based on how they relate to each other. The fact is both series are called "Battlestar Galactica" and if this new mini-series' producers wanted to do a different sort of story they could have called it something else. As it is, it seems they're just trying to cash in on a well-known name, and the series should be judged as such.

When you use the title of a well-known series/movie/whatever, I expect either a remake or a continuation. I don't think that's unreasonable - these amount to brand names, and what SciFi is trying to do is equivalent to New Coke. I don't think anyone would have complained about New Coke either if it was called, I don't know, Wild Mountain Cola or Mister Smith's Fabulous Cola or something. I mean the public would not be comparing it to real Coke (except in a generic and non-specific "this is not my favorite cola" sort of way), because nobody's trying to pass it off as Coke.

These people, though, are trying to pass this off as Battlestar Galactica. As such, it should be judged as Battlestar Galactica, not some sort of standalone series, because it's not a standalone series, whatever the producers try to say to subdue the fans. I mean what's next, an Indiana Jones movie where Indy is a woman and the setting is 21st century Tokyo? Part of the criteria of any franchise entry is how well it adheres to the narrative that's already been established. And on that basis, without even having seen it but based on what we all already know, this alleged version of Battlestar Galactica obviously fails miserably. It will have to be absolutely amazing in every other way to redeem itself at all, but it will never be considered "great" simply because it is a poorly interpreted imitation of its own namesake.

Re:another botched memory?

[Golias]

One of the commercials actually was talking/showing a photoshoot from Maxim magazine where apparently one of the actresses came from.

I agree with most of your rant, but should point out that Maxim does not typically feature models. They feature celebrities (usually acresses and musicians) who model for them. Nobody "comes from" Maxim (yes, I know there's a funny pun there... leave it alone), in the way that Tyra Banks "came from" Victoria Secret, because the women Maxim photographs are already famous from elsewhere. In the case of the actress you are speaking of, she probably is doing the Maxim shoot because of ther role on Battlestar Galactica.

(Maxim has actually become a common vehicle for promoting new shows and movies. Both X-Men movies were hyped by Maxim spreads of Famke Janssen, Halle Barry, and Rebecca Romjin-Stamos a month before each release.)

Re:another botched memory?

[PierceLabs]

If you want to make a show 'very different from the reality of the original,' then give it a name very different from the original.

Far too many brands get hijacked by morons who know that the only way they can get their crappy idea on TV is to bastardize a good brand and kill it with their crappy universe. Make your own! At least don't try to premise your work as a remake of the original. Call it Battlestar Galactica: Rise of the Cylon Pornbots or something.

Re:another botched memory?

[mpoort]

Yep, two actually. Tia Carrere starred in one of those bad syndicated rip-offs a couple years ago, but at least they had the decency to call it Relic Hunter instead.

Re:another botched memory?

[letxa2000]

Nope, those shows relied solely on a strong story line, and never resorted to sex and violence to sell the show. Yep, that Cassiopea was all about adding to the story line ;-)

I see your response is tounge-in-cheek, but there is a difference between having attractive woman on a show (nothing wrong) and running commercials showing a naked female Cylon (back view) apparently in the middle of having sex (blatant sexuality). Maybe the scene is even useful to the storyline, but the fact that they use it as a centerpiece of their advertising is telling.

I can't believe my original post got modded flamebait. Drugged out, porn-addicted moderator I guess. :)

Re:another botched memory?

[shotfeel]

I guess I'm not so sure there's such a big distinction. What was blatently sexual when the original BSG aired is nothing now. So if you "normalize" across time, IMO the new BSG may be no more blatently sexual than the original (that includes the commercials). Of course I haven't seen the new BSG so I'll have to wait and see how much they actually rely on sexuality as a crutch.

Re:another botched memory?

[KlomDark]

But the galactica now looks like a black heatsink instead of the graceful whitish metal of the original. It used to look somewhat reminicent of a Lamborghini. The new one looks like a battery charger.

Re:another botched memory?

[Mike Van Pelt]

>let's not forget that Edward James Olmos has
>warned fans of the original series to not watch.

I read his quote way back when, and it seemed to me he was saying that if you're the sort of obsessive fanboy who regards every word of the original series as Holy Writ, and will get upset at the slightest change... Then, no, you should not watch this version, as it will upset you. Otherwise, you might like it.

I never cared much for the original; I only watched it for a while because there was no other SF on the toob. There's only so many "Morons take kid and daggit to uncharted planet, daggit runs away, kid runs off following daggit, morons must spend rest of episode chasing stupid kid" plots I can stand to watch.

It did occasionally have some good stuff. I was interested in seeing more about what was going on with Count Iblis.

The last straw, though, was on one episode where the Badactica had to go back to somewhere they had left earlier, console jocky asks Captain Ben Cartwright what speed to set, and he intones portentiously "Light Speed!" There follows a great deal of anxiety about how they hadn't gone that fast in centons and centons, and the engines canna take tha strain.

Which showed that no one involved in the show had a clue. Not the slightest clue. I couldn't bear to watch it after that, even though it was the only thing barely resembling SF on the toob.

So "Not the same as the old BG" sounds promising to me.

Unfortunately, nothing else I have heard about this wombat sounds like it's going to be good. At all. It sounds <voice=marvin> perfectly dreadful. </voice> I don't plan to watch; if I hear it's really good after all, I'm sure the skiffy channel will re-run any episodes I missed.

Re:another botched memory?

[yiantsbro]

Actually I just finished seeing the premiere (first two hours). It was a special showing at a local museum (on the planetarium screen) from COX Communications and the SciFi channel (nicely done with giveaways, food/drink, etc.).

In short (with no spoiling) it is a different concept. The original show was written for me (as a young kid) and the new show is still written for me (as a somewhat older kid)--it really isn't for young kids anymore.

Personally I think the new show rocked. I did not watch it expecting to be taken back to my childhood or back to the exact premise. I watched it with a certain comfort level (knowing names, general ideas, etc.) and really enjoyed it on its on merits. I look forward to seeing this part again on Monday as well as the remaining portions.

There will be plenty that of things that original show fans will still complain about as well as things that "realist" type people will complain about but I still think it was entertaining--and worth my time.

While you're in the mood..

[Steve 'Rim' Jobs]

Check out the Battlestar Galactica Original costume and Prop Museum.

Re:While you're in the mood..

[mesach]

WOW That place REALLY has it all...

if your going to link to a place, at least make it one with more than 3 costumes to show, and and not a bunch of "coming soon" BS.

Bad omens

[Squideye]

A preview on aintitcool.com is not optimistic.

Looks sex-addled, low-action, and pretty scanty on the mythology. "Cylon Fembots" is all we need to know.

The mythology was pretty much all that made it distinctive, such as it was, in the original case.

Re:Bad omens

[Dutchmaan]

..but all my business man charts saids that nerds like sex and science fiction!

Oh well... at least we already got paid.

Re:Bad omens

[suss]

..but all my business man charts saids that nerds like sex and science fiction!

Rick Berman, is that you?

Oh well... at least we already got paid.

Must be.

Re:Bad omens

[digitalgiblet]

OK, I haven't seen the show yet, so I can't say how much I agree with the reviewer, BUT I can say that he included a sentence I thought was hilarious.

He basically said it was like something you would watch in the waiting room "while a doctor probes for nodules where nodules sometimes grow."

Now THAT is funny.

I also have to say that is isn't a particularly good sign when they have to make a show about the show, defending their decisions about the show...

I will give them credit for not just doing a remake. This series is targeted at the audience who watched the original. We've all grown up now... If they kept many of the elements of the original (Moffet the daggit, for instance) we would all be shouting about it the way we shouted about Jar Jar...

I like the idea of female pilots, but I do think it was a stretch to convert TWO of the THREE main characters from male to female. That would be like Charlie's Angels with two guys and one girl, none of whom you had ever seen before...

The preview show made Apollo look like a snotty character you just wouldn't want to hang around with. Maybe Richard Hatch wasn't the best actor in the world, but at least you LIKED his Apollo. I want to hear their explanation of why he has a TOTALLY different accent then his dad... Dad is hispanic, son is painfully British. Hmm. Oh, Lucy, you have some 'splaining to do!

Re:Bad omens

[Mosasaurus_Maximus]

Cylon enemies look more like humans, complete with feelings, including one with rabid sexual desires
Kinda gives a whole new meaning to "By Your Command"...

What, no Lorne Green?

[RealProgrammer]

It's been way too many yarons since I've been able to see Our Hero.

Maybe some digital recreation of LG could allow him to reprise his role.

Little? Cylon? Different?

[Tebriel]

You know, if they wanted to do a different story, that's fine. Great. Good stuff. They shouldn't, however, have called it Battlestar Galactica. They should have slapped on a different name for the Cylons, different ships, and different character names. Not that hard to do, but it would probably draw more people to watch it than tacking on a known name and then having it blow up in their faces.

Which I think they deserve.

BSG a network tv production

[Ubergrendle]

Battle Star Galactica got its genesis from some TV execs who wanted to emulate the success of Star Wars on the small screen. I'm not overly familiar with the back story, but BSG has always struck me as a hodge podge of space opera concepts, strung together long enough to maintain a TV series. Where shows like Dr Who and Star Trek at least had a conceptual basis and tried to do something original, BSG was an attempt to fill a 1 hour timeslot once per week. I don't think BSG deserves to be considered alongside other shows in the great SF series pantheon, even though the Cylons looked cool.

Re:BSG a network tv production

[StillNeedMoreCoffee]

For sure, I remember watching the episode where I believe it was starbuck crashed and was stranded on a planet that was a copy of the Wild West and the local tough guy had gotten his hands on a damaged Cylon and reprogrammed it to be his gunfighter enforcer. Starbuck was taken in by a Widow with child who nursed him back to life. He has to eventually go into town and have a Western Style shootout.. then leave.. halfway through I stood up and shouted "Shane"... About the only reason I watched it was to see what plot they had stolen and how thinly they had applied the Sci Fi paint to it.

Other great examples but done better. "The Magnificent 7" (Seven Samari). Many of the Clint Eastwood Dollar films (Tashira Mafune Ronin character). "Master Gunfigher" (Goyokin) (that was the best worst direct copy. And the Rudger Haurer Blind Swordsman film copying the Zato Ichi (Shintaro Katsu as Zato Ichi character).

Plagerism + Royalties + Proper Attribution = productivity

Re:BSG a network tv production

[Macgruder]

An aquaintance once refered to BSG as "Jews In Space", equating the rag-tag fleet with wandering in the desert for 40 years. With the Eqyptian / Roman influences throughout BSG (the 12 tribes, 'Apollo', Casseopia', and didn't they have a Battlestar Atlantis show up once?)

So Glenn Larson grabbed a hodge-podge of stuff, through in some special effects and cobbled together sets (the Viper interiors were reused in Buck Rogers) and tried to pass it off on TV.

Unfortunately, it never hit big with the adults of that time. Kids loved it. But the primetime Neilson ratings didn't measure the kid's interest.

So, it was doomed. Let's not even talk about Galactica, 1980.

This effort takes the names and places, and respins them. Yes, they want to capitalize on the BSG name, because that automatically makes potential viewers familiar with the basic layout.

But if I want to watch a re-hash of BSG, I'll catch the reruns on SciFi. I want to see something NEW.

So I'm going to watch it, and treat it like it's on it's own. Kind of like David Lynch's Dune, and the mini-series. Both tell th story differently, both have their strengths and weaknesses.

Re:BSG a network tv production

[rworne]

Before you go on about "stolen plots" you should know that your example, Akira Kurosawa, took many of his plots from Shakespeare. Throne of Blood, Rashomon and Ran are three good examples. His "High and Low" looks a lot like something Hitchcock would have done.

Even great directors "borrow" material. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

Re:BSG a network tv production

[red floyd]

"Jews in Space" comes from "History of the World Part I". It was one the teasers shown at the end for "Part II" (along with "Hitler on Ice").

Re:"Brains! Brains!"

[schon]

How did they reanimate the corpse of Lorne Greene for this new series?

Simple - when they started filming, he rolled over in his grave - they then just dug him up and put him in costume. :o)

Is it that popular?

[QuackQuack]

I always saw BG as a cheap Star Wars rip-off. Is it really that popular? It never seemed to have much of a following, like Star Trek and other SF shows.

Don't worry...

[AKAImBatman]

...half way through the season they'll figure out that they're loosing ratings and have the characters suddenly stumble upon evidence of the Xinidi^H^H^H^H^H^H Earth and begin a quest to find it. Then they'll destroy some of the deepest elements of the show by using them in throw-away lines.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say

[Idimmu Xul]

'Battlestar Galactica' returns in a new four hour mini-series on the Sci-Fi channel this Monday. However, there has been fan furor over some changes to the story. Aluminum Cylon enemies look more like humans, complete with feelings, including one with rabid sexual desires, and the quest is not for a mythical Earth, as it no longer exists.

WHY FUCKING BOTHER?

It was never cheap

[Mycroft_514]

Part of the reason the show was canceled was because it was too expensive to produce at the time.

I am waiting to see the new series before I pass judgement.

Too many humanoid aliens

[luckytroll]

I really miss the old shows like Dr. Who that had really alien aliens - crazy blobs, and lethal rocks, and robots without faces. Now every alien has to have a humanoid form and a face so that the actor can "act" and the audience can empathise. When did the universe become so darned human?

Re:Too many humanoid aliens

[agentZ]

Maybe you should try "The Simple Life" on FOX. I hear it has characters you can't empathise with.

Re:Too many humanoid aliens

[mblase]

When did the universe become so darned human?

Always has been. Sci-fi literature did it first, but the original "Star Trek" was probably definitive in using humans with makeup and funny clothes as aliens. The simple and obvious reason is that it's much easier for studios to produce human actors as aliens, and easier for viewers to relate to them.

When you have an alien that's a blob or a rock or a robot, you have to work ten times harder to find the pathos. "Dr. Who" used them as identityless villains without much in the way of personality.

All this furor over the desecration of...

[Infonaut]

Battlestar Galactica?

I could understand if we were talking about Shazam, or Land of the Lost or some other really important show from that era. ;-)

But Battlestar Galactica?

Re:So in other words..

[nedron]

Its an entirely different animal, it is in fact so different that I suspect that the only reason its title is BSG is to get the built in audience...

panxerox,

I agree completely. Same thing with Enterprise. The show is so lackluster and not "Star Trek" that Paramount was finally forced to prepend "Star Trek:" to the title to boost ratings. Had DS9 and Voyager not had Star Trek in the title, it's likely they would have died unlamented deaths for the same reasons.

It'll fail

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

It has all the classic formulas of the newest Star Trek series:

1) It is based on an old, out-dated Sci-Fi show that will not appeal to the mainstream public, no matter how much senseless T&A, sexually charged adult themes, pointless gun battles, and especially computer animation they add.

2) It does not appeal to the old fans whatsoever, because of many of the same reasons in #1, plus the fact that it is "untr00" and often fails to explore many of the themes of the older series, and rather focuses on the "development" of silly, stereotypical characters.

It'll fail after a few seasons of low ratings.

Re:It'll fail

[corbettw]

It'll fail after a few seasons of low ratings.

Not unlike its predecessor.

I'm not surprised Ed said that...

[Idimmu Xul]

From there, things get different. Starbuck, the hotshot fighter pilot played by Dirk Benedict in the original, is now a woman played by Katee Sackhoff

They can't just make Starbuck a woman :cry:

The show appears to be darker, sexier and a lot less escapist than the original.

Oh, that's ok then, as long as we get to see tits being squashed together in crappy lycra suits!

Re:I'm not surprised Ed said that...

[hchaos]

They can't just make Starbuck a woman :cry:

Sure they can, as long as they make Starbuck a hard drinking, hard gambling, sexually agressive woman. Otherwise there'd be no reason to keep the name "Starbuck".

Re:I'm not surprised Ed said that...

[Thud457]

"Oh, that's ok then, as long as we get to see tits being squashed together in crappy lycra suits!"

Jesus H Christ on a bicycle and his black bastard brother Bart! Why didn't they do it right then and remake "Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century"?!!! Goddamn that was every 14-year-old's dream!! mmmmmmmmm.... Erin Grey.... And Twiki & Dr Theopolis for the robosexuals out there.

Honestly, I will never be able to fathom the depths of stupidity of Hollywood. And they think their consumers are dumb!!!

Anybody watch SciFi Previews?

[cblguy]

I usually leave SciFi channel on in the evenings when working. Saw a preview. I am looking forward to it. I watch all kinds of B-scifi-movies, and actually enjoy them.

They flat out stated that they were taking a different approach to this BSG. In the earlier one, the Cylons were just mad at humans. That's all we knew. Why? Nobody knew. What was their history? Nobody knew. At least they're attempting some sort of story / history on the Cylons, and not just an Independence Day scenario of aliens attacking because they feel in a pissy mood that day.

I am glad the SciFi channel at least does *something*, but I'm still not happy they discontinued Farscape.

I enjoyed their Dune remakes (bought the DVD's even). I'm a sick pup, but those 3- and 4- star (out of IMDB's 10 star rating) are some of my faves. :D

Re:Anybody watch SciFi Previews?

[Marsala]

Not quite. It was mentioned in the series (sorry, not enough of a fan to quote the episode title) that the silver droids with the sweeping red LED eye were built by the Cylons, a reptilian race.

The Cylons were fighting some war, so they built themselves a nice little robot army and gave them a simple command: "Go blow stuff up and kill things." So the robots go out and do it and wipe out the Cylons' enemies. Then they start looking for new targets, and, well... the Cylons happen to be the closest civilization, so the bots wipe them out. And then they start wandering the universe looking for stuff to kill.

It's basically the same premise as the Berserker novels by Saberhagen.

Moral of the story: Automating killing machines with just enough intelligence to distinguish between a lifeform and a rock and giving them power supplies that last for hundreds of thousands of years is a really, really, monumentally stupid idea.

And, just for the record, if a huge armada of homicidal robots showed up and started razing my world, I really wouldn't give a crap where they came from until *AFTER* I'd managed to stop 'em.

Re:Anybody watch SciFi Previews?

[Zoop]

In the earlier one, the Cylons were just mad at humans. That's all we knew. Why? Nobody knew. What was their history? Nobody knew.

Yeah, nobody knew...unless you, you know, watched the first three episodes.

Cylons had been a reptilian race that created robots as slaves--the robots had themselves a revolution, and were bending everybody to their order, but in a weird bit of synchretism (sp?) kept the name "Cylon". Humans were the only power that hadn't bowed down before them, and they'd been fighting on and off for the better part of a thousand years.

So they hit on a peace conference, and then sucker-punched everybody with the fleet away at the signing ceremonies. The Cylons, much as Hitler and with the Jews, were determined to exterminate every last remnant of this troublesome race. Like the Mormons, the Humans took a wagon train to the promised land. Like the Jews, they were looking for the missing 13th tribe to fill their ranks and enable them to stand up to the cylons and hit back.

It was also very influenced by the self-perception of America in the wake of Vietnam. 60's idealism was dead, the Soviets were on the move, and the US was very much the underdog as the Sovs broke treaty after treaty (ABM, SALT I, etc. etc.). How different a world we live in.

Anyway, the backstory was told in the first movie and in repeats as the first three episodes. But if you missed that, then yes, take it as read that robots hate humans, commence plot.

How can you be a purist?

[JonathanF]

I can't imagine someone being in a furor over changes to the storyline in the remake of a short-lived and not always universally-liked series like Battlestar Galactica. It would be like complaining that they changed the dolphin in SeaQuest DSV to an Orca!

The theme tune

[mccalli]

But does it have God's perfect theme tune, which is what the original was? A superb piece of music, as stirring in Battlestar Galactica as it was in Revenge of the Mutant Camels...

Cheers,
Ian

Re:The theme tune

[GigsVT]

There's no excuse after all, Jeff Minter could probably be pryed away from his sheep and yaks long enough to score it for them. :)

the usual complaints

[looie]

why would i want to watch an "updated" version of the original? what does that mean, exactly, "updated"?

i've watched a couple of the originals on sci-fi this week. c'mon people, it was a lame show with low-res special effects and horse-opera plots. it was "wagon train" in outer space! some of it was so badly done, it was "cover-your-eyes" embarrassing.

how do you update that? apparently, the complainers want the producers to give them the same tired plots with the same tired characters but in different uniforms with "hi-res" special effects. how boring.

i don't know if the new version is any good, of course, as i haven't yet seen it. but it's for sure that it should be allowed to stand or fall on its own merits. "is it a good movie?" is the only question that needs answering. it is not the original -- thank goodness. we already know that one was a clunker.

mp

OT: aintitcool site contents

[Anonymous Coward]

OK this is the first time I've been to aintitcool.com... Why in god's name is the entire article text defined as <h2> tags?!?!? That's one of the most moronic html authoring moves I've ever seen.

Re:OT: aintitcool site contents

[Schnapple]

Knowles designed the site on his laptop in 1996 or so when he was in the hospital. It's pretty much been unchanged ever since. His forums are ultra-low-tech and tend to attract the lowest of life, and the whole thing's powered by inefficent CGI scripts so when something popular drops (like his early review of Episode 2), the site's unreachable for days.

In short his site is indicative of eight-year-old design sensibilities.

Hrmm, have they tried advertising this?

[Bluetick]

Is it just me, or is Sci-Fi really letting this slip under the radar. I've been watching the Sci-Fi channel, and really haven't noticed any promotion of this at all. Maybe they should try some flashy campaign with lots of explosions, cg graphics, hot chicks, and some ridiculous lines repeated over and over. But I don't know, I just don't see this thing panning out with this little promotion. Who knows, it could be a sleeper hit.

Number 6

[Call Me Black Cloud]

A hot Cylon in a low cut dress...woo hoo! Here's the actress' biography from the SciFi site:

Victoria's Secret model Tricia Helfer was born in Donalda, Alberta, Canada. The 1992 Ford Supermodel of the World winner and former Elite model has graced the covers of such magazines as Elle,Amica Italia and Cosmopolitan UK, and has walked the runways for Christian Dior, Givenchy, Claude Montana, Emanuel Ungaro and other top fashion designers.

Clearly the producers have spared no expense in landing top thespians. According to IMDB, her previous acting gigs include:

A part in an episode of CSI, where she played a model who ends up dead.

A small part in the 16 minute short "Eventual Wife"

A judge at the 2003 Miss Teen USA

The role of Farrah Fawcett in "Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Charlie's Angels'"

IMDB also reports her measurements are 34-24-34

Starbuck and Apollo

[Sturm]

I know that this will be worn out on this thread, but I'll be DAMN if I'm going to watch a half-ass attempt to recreate a classic sci-fi series that changes the gender of two of the main characters. That is just blatant pandering to try and interest different demographics. You wouldn't make Buck Rogers a woman and you wouldn't make Wonder Woman a man. I just don't see why people can't leave well enough alone. The original series was popular for a reason. Why change the formula?

Bah!

[FrostedWheat]

I thought they where moving away from space-based shows? Wasn't that one of the reasons they give for stopping Farscape?

Lord I hope this doesn't suck...

[ArmenTanzarian]

It's generalizations that could lead to disaster:

"Starbuck was a womanizing, cigar-smoking guy," explains SciFi.com general manager Craig Engler. "Now, she's a man-izing, cigar-smoking bundle of trouble."

Yeah, all he did was have sex and smoke cigars, that's why his character was so great... Not to mention "bundle of trouble" popping up highly on my oh-crap-o-meter for plucky obnoxious characters.

Only time will tell how well adding hot chicks who can't act to dead TV series' will work out. I thought (and please don't flame me for this) SciFi did a pretty good job with Dune though, but they didn't try to make Paul a woman.

The beginning of the end

[ScottCanto]

As the new series premieres, those of us who loved the old one will lament the modernized, politically correct show geared towards the typical American audience.

Re:The beginning of the end

[gfxguy]

Nice... I mean, she is already a robot, right? That's really the only explanation...

GALACTICA 90210

[Dynamic Ranger]

or MELROSE SPACE

Typical Corruption

[nurb432]

Its pretty typical these days, to take a 'known show', pervert it to fit todays standards.. toss in a bunch of sex and big explosions to raise market share....

What ever happend to REAL sci-fi that required the viewer/reader to actualy THINK....

Wired article

[PIPBoy3000]

Wired has an article on it as well.

Personally, I'll give it a chance. When I was a kid, there was an early 2-hour episode and I pestered my parents to leave the pizza place so I could make it back in time. We returned to find the rug burning in front of our fireplace. Our parents ran into the kitchen to fill pots and pour it on the fire. Us kids ran into the t.v. room to huddle under the smoke and watch our show.

I now refer to the tale as the time Battlestar Galactica saved our house.

Fans who don't watch are morons because....

[SoVi3t]

....remember when Star Trek decided that Klingons should have funny looking forheads, instead of just being played by african americans? That's pretty much the same deal here. Times change people. What was once done 10-20 years ago can't still be done now. Or else we'd still be boogying to disco, wearing tie dyed shirts, and listening to Zeppelin. I never really watched much of the original, but dammit, I'm still gonna give the new one a chance. Cuz if anything, the stuff on tv right now just plain SUCKS (aside from Simpsons)

Obligatory Family Reference:

[dark_panda]

Scene: Community cable access TV show. Portly 30-something, probably single, hosts:

"That's all for this week on KISS Forum. Stay tuned for Battlestar Galactica Forum."

Quickly puts on Cylon helmet

"WELCOME TO BATTLESTAR GALACTICA FORUM."

J

Actually....

[cnelzie]

The original BSG was composed of a mixing of Space Opera Science Fiction and the Mormon religion story.

The whole thing with the 12 colonies of man and the 'lost' 13th colony is exactly like the Mormon belief of 12 tribes of man with a lost 13th tribe and how reuniting with that 13th tribe would be their salvation or something along those lines.

There was a great deal of other Mormon influences behind a great deal of the back-story to BSG. The actual TV series stories followed the basic 'hodge-podge' that often plagues the first season of a number of television series, although there was some really interesting storylines built around the Mormon mythology, like the thing with the beings of light that went through a handful of the episodes.

If it had stayed on the air, it would have developed into a very significant series of stories instead of just the barely exposing the surface that was shown back in the 70's.

The whole draw to the series was and still is the way the characters were, how they interacted and the relationships they held with eachother. These days the producers and storywriters claim that having 'damaged' characters and conflict amongst the heroes is the way that things are supposed to be. That's not the BSG that I remember and it's not the BSG that I would like to see.

I will probably watch this show, just to give it a chance, but in the end I will likely still give more weight to the original with it's compelling back-history and lofty ideals. (Even though it is based heavily on a somewhat 'odd' religious group's history.)

BSG was popular...

[Creepy]

I love all the reviews mentioning it only lasted one season. Technically that's true, but it was cancelled for one reason - the price tag of 1 million per episode. Today that's a joke - each primary _character_ in Friends makes that, but back then it was an unheard of amount.

Fans clamored to get it back after it was dumped, and were given BSG 1980, based on Earth where the executives could get away with much cheaper cost/episode. Most of the original cast was gone, and the episodes reeked of being cheaply made and for the most part poorly written.

Personally, I don't mind a rethinking, since, for instance, I can't imagine the original Star Trek working with today's audiences, but I'm a little wary about new cylons, which seem more like dopplegangers than machines. I still think of BSG as a man-vs-machine conflict (even though, if I recall this correctly, the Cylons are some kind of proteus mass that lives in the robot body). Not to say that it won't work - Terminator did the doppleganger robot thing believably. T2 and T3, on the other hand, were very non-realistic with their liquid metal robots (I can see being damaged and self repairing, but being blown to bits and having all the pieces flow back together? Give me a break). I don't really consider those movies sci-fi - they're fantasy in a sci-fi setting.

I still don't picture Starbuck as a woman - it doens't seem like a female name and the character was so well defined. Boomer I can picture more (it's got that fighter-pilot aura) and the character didn't stand out as much as Starbuck or Apollo. Speaking of, if they'd made Apollo a girl, I'd have to whack them upside the head (there are much better and appropriate female goddess names, like Artemis, Athena [though that was used in the orig], and Kalypso). Thankfully, they didn't.

Re:BSG was popular...

[rworne]

You know, one cool thing came about from Galactica 1980. When I was in high school in the San Fernando Valley (near Univeral Studios), someone bought one of the motorcycles used in the series. It was neat watching it tool around the neighborhood with the Galactica-esque type body panels on it.

One of the coolest lines in the show was when they were observing earth from space and zoomed in on the Los Angeles freeways:

"It must take them many years of training to be able to travel like that". (paraphrased)

The other funny moments were (also paraphrased):
A Cylon shorting out when a nearby microwave oven started up.

From the WWII time-travel episode:
(Viper pilot)"They seem to be launching many small metal objects at us."
(Passenger)"They're shooting at us! Get out of here!"

and:
(one nazi to another after firing on a Viper):
"You fool! You are shooting at one of our own experimental aircraft!"

Galactica 80 was horrid, but it did have its moments.

What?! No more "Mormons in Space"?

[Chalupa]

...so I guess there will be no more subtle references to Mormonism?
Trying to find those little gems in the plot lines was the most fun part of sitting through the original BSG.

...if countries were Olympic sports, Canada would be the rhythmic gymnastics.

Chalupa

Re:Little? Cylon? Different?

[Lumpy]

nice to see you got a +4 insughtful for talking out your ass.

First off the "cylons" are still the red eye robots. there happens to be an addition of stealth cylons that look exactly like us.

The story line is pretty damn close to the origional and the effects are awesome.

I have the dvd here from work with the first 2 episodes on it. (we are a cable ad-sales company... I get all the goodies that are sci-fi based and because we are one of the largest markets we get the premium freebies/goodies.)

and It's not anything you make it out to be. there are a few minor changes that really dont screw up anything but really enhance it more.

Seems faithful to me

[bluethundr]

So, let me get this striaght. Starbuck... a girl. Boomer...also a girl. Cylon warriors...sexpot girls? So what elements from the original show did they keep? Vipers. We have Vipers. If you took the Vipers out of Battlestar Girlactica you'd might as well call this series "Ernest Goes To Outer Space".

Re:You mean like the original series did?

[jdeisenberg]

I also saw the movie release; I was on vacation in Toronto, and Battlestar Galactica was showing in theaters about a week before premiering on TV in the States.

I nearly walked out of the theater in disgust when I heard the word "micron" used as a unit of time. Scientific illiterates such as those writers should not be permitted to breed.

Let's hope the new series avoids that particular mistake.

It's a standard Hollywood trick

[GuyMannDude]

Its an entirely different animal, it is in fact so different that I suspect that the only reason its title is BSG is to get the built in audience ...

You hit the nail right on the head there. See, it's risky for a movie or TV studio to put up the cash for a brand new show. They don't know if anyone is going to watch it or not. Doesn't matter how good it is. It's much easier to simply co-opt an existing brand name and slap it on your product. That way, you're guaranteed that some people are going to watch the first couple of episodes of your show, regardless of whether it's any good or not.

Perhaps the most striking example of this in recent years was Hollywood's remake of Godzilla. The Japanese Godzilla that we all know and love was a real force of nature -- with a twist. It was an unpredictable and unstoppable as a hurricane but with the added sting of knowing that mankind was responsible for its creation. The Hollywood version turned the once-mighty creature into a powerless wimp who scampered away like a frightened kitten in the face of helicopter gunships. Thus, you never really felt like the world was in danger. Every time Godzilla popped up you could chase him away with helicopters or tanks. Of course you can't keep doing that forever but I think we can all agree that eventually they would have found where he was hiding and finished him off. So the writers tried to make him a threat by having him spontaneously produce offspring. So instead of having a large, scary, unstoppable force bearing down on you, this new Godzilla was little more than a glorified bacterium, reproducing rapidly. Not very scary and not at all faithful to the original. In fact, other than the fact that both monsters were created as a result of nuclear testing, there was nothing about this new monster which indicated that it was Godzilla. You could hear kids in the audience tugging on their parents sleves asking "Why is Godzilla running away?" It was clear that Devlin and Emmerich (the writer/producer/director team) had just made up their own monster and story and slapped the brand name of Godzilla on the front to move more product (be it movie tickets or associated toys).

There's a balance that needs to be struck when doing a new version of a beloved classic. You don't want a shot-by-shot remake like Point of No Return (La Femme Nikita) or Gus Van Saint's Psycho. On the other hand, it does the original a disservice to completely throw everything out the window and start from scratch. I watched the "Behind the scenes" special on BG last night and Roland Moore came right out and said that the only thing they were planning on keeping from the original was the Viper shape. Stuff like making the cylons humanoid and the womanizing, but likeable, Starbuck into a bitchy woman is going way, way too far.

Before someone flames me for calling the new Starbuck a bitch, I want to make it clear that I have nothing whatsoever against women as action heros. Quite frankly I think it's a long time in coming. But if you had seen the show last night, I think you would have to agree that this new actress is trying way, way too hard to be 'tough'. Jean-Luc Picard was tough and he didn't feel the need to mouth off to people constantly. He was respectable and everyone knew it. True strength simply radiates from people -- there's no need to constantly shout out your superiority to everyone. It just doesn't work.

GMD

Quick comments

[GuyMannDude]

Looks sex-addled, low-action, and pretty scanty on the mythology. "Cylon Fembots" is all we need to know.

I was a bit surprised when I saw how much sex stuff was going to be in this new show. I know that Star Trek has gone this way (7 of 9, T'Pol) but the guy doing BG is Roland Moore and between him and Braga (the other ST:TNG writer) I always figured that Moore was the one who didn't feel the need to use sex as a way to sell an inferior product. I guess I was wrong. Of course then they try to head off the criticism that the new show is sexist by making Starbuck and Boomer women. Yet the people on the 'making of' show last night clearly indicated that Starbuck and Boomer were going to be in sexual situations as well (sexual tension but no action in Starbuck's case).

The mythology was pretty much all that made it distinctive, such as it was, in the original case.

You're probably already aware of this but just in case not: the story of the original is based very heavily on the story of the Mormons trying to find a place to settle. Obviously, most Hollywood types are Mormons so they were completely unaware of this. For them, and the vast majority of the American public, the story was a brand new idea. In reality, the backbone story was already done. All the writers had to do was take an obscure, yet interesting, story and flesh it out a bit and transfer it to the stars.

GMD

Re:Quick comments

[schon]

most Hollywood types are Mormons

You have too many 'm's in that word. :o)

Re:Little? Cylon? Different?

[sammy baby]

The difference in costuming was alluded to in an episode of DS9, in which several crew members travel back in time to perform a mission right under the noses of the crew of the Enterprise, during the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." When asked what happened to Klingons to so radically change their appearance, Worf responds, "We do not discuss it with outsiders."

Re:Appropriate use of boobs & lycra

[gbjbaanb]

no way! Bring back 'Buck Rogers in the 21st Century' (but without that wikiwikiwobot).

Ah, Erin Grey.. mmmm. (It was on in the UK during my formative years. those TV producers are bad people :) )

http://members.aol.com/KatieKat91490/BuckRogers. ht ml
(warning: site has sound).

Next up Sci-Fi is going to redo Star Wars

[Weaselmancer]

But Luke will be a disadvantaged inner-city kid, struggling to cope with life as an orphan. And the robots will be played by people. Alderaan won't be destroyed either (too non-pc after 9/11). The Death Star will just orbit the planet and drop leaflets on them.

But all the character's names will be the same, so we can still call it Star Wars. Right?

Weaselmancer

BSG = Wagontrain in spaaaaccce

[Graemee]

Really just another "giv'em the SFX and we'll just need to rehash the same old wagontrain stories" series.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the cylons would you have watched?

As for the remod or "mod" of the series. Does anyone complain when anime gets reworked to suit a movie or new series?

Re:So in other words..

[Golias]

Battlestar, not BattleStar. The show pre-dates the stupid 90s trend of capatalizing conjoined words.

As a BSG fan and a Mormon...

[John Harrison]

The whole thing with the 12 colonies of man and the 'lost' 13th colony is exactly like the Mormon belief of 12 tribes of man with a lost 13th tribe and how reuniting with that 13th tribe would be their salvation or something along those lines.

I am aware of no such doctorine. The idea of 12 tribes of Israel is straight from the Bible. Ten of those tribes were taken captive or "lost". There is nothing uniquely Mormon about that. There are LOTS of things about BSG that are references to the LDS faith and culture due to Glen A. Larson being a Mormon, but this is not one of them. There are plenty of websites with comprehensive lists of the similarities, so I won't try to out do them here. Google for Battlestar and Mormon and you'll get plenty of hits.

Odd that BSG got all the Mormon references and Magnum PI, Knight Rider (notice how KITT's light and sound are very Cylon?), and the A-Team didn't.

Lost Tribes

[JohnsonJohnson]

The 10 Tribes were not "lost" in the sense of being missing. The short story is that the Hebrews organized themselves into 12 tribes, presumably founded by the sons of the patriarch Jacob who had 11 sons but the tribes descended from Joseph traced their roots to his two sons. Each of these tribes occupied a different area of

When the Babylonians returned the tribes to Israel and Jerusalem, which was located in the lands of the tribe of Judah, was reconstructed, some of the other tribes began traditions that were an amalgamation of ancient Hebrew and Babylonian culture. The tribe of Benjamin sided with Judah in returning to a more strictly Jewish lifestyle. So that's how the other 10 tribes were "lost", a more accurate description would be they, left the faith, or were, lost to God, depending on whose point of view you wich to honor.

At any rate, we know exactly where those 10 tribes went. The lands they occupied became known as Samaria or the home of the Samaritans, hence the story of the good Samaritan.

The idea of a 13th tribe is peculiar to the Mormons though, although I think other Judeo-Christian sects claim to be yet another unknown tribe of Hebrews. I believe according to Mormons the 13th tribe were the ancestors of Native Americans.

Incidentally the Biblical use of the word tribe is more closely related to the modern idea of a clan: a people group related by blood. A tribe is a people group related by language and custom, usually made up of multiple clans. The clan system helps prevent inbreeding since your close relatives are easily identified.

Re:Little? Cylon? Different?

[Mr. Slippery]

Except that in Voyager the half Klingon girl (Torres?) gets taken to Klingon hell on the Barge of the Dead, piloted by the first Klingon, who has the cranial mountain range.

And the clone of Kahles (sp?) in one DS9 ep, and the Klingons in ST:E, have the brow ridges. Only the TOS ones don't.

And since we see some of the same Klingon characters from TOS in a few DS9 eps, the "different races" theory sometimes advanced, doesn't fly.

The answer: obviously a strange trend for body modification during the TOS era, which Klingons later disavowed the way I will disavow ever owning a pair of parachute pants.

(Ok. I'm going to repeat to my "it's just a show, I really should relax.")

Re:Little? Cylon? Different?

[shotfeel]

From last night it seemed like pretty much every character is completely different now. Adama no longer has the entire respect of every single individual. Starbuck is no longer a lovable, joking womanizer, she's a woman with a huge chip on her shoulder. Apollo seems to be suffering from the death of his brother and blames dad. Baltar is not the evil person from the original, he's just a confused computer geek. Now there is a President that Adama has to answer to, etc. I'm not sure where you are getting this "minor changes" stuff from. Of course, you claim to have seen the first two episodes so maybe you're right.

Wow. Amazing, isn't it. For those of us who have been around long enough, reading that paragraph may remind you of the changes that have occurred in our society since the time the original BSG aired..

Seems to me, the remake may actually be a pretty good reflection of what the original BSG would have been had it been written today. Go ahead, reread the quoted paragraph with that in mind.

Battlestar Gallactica purests

[sjonke]

Just don't f*ck with dagget!

Re:mormon influence...

[conan_albrecht]

At the risk of biting a troll, you are misinformed. There is no nudity in the temple. You are covered at all times, unless you want to count the dressing/locker room or bathrooms.

I should know, I was married there and attend the temple monthly. I've also looked into the history of temple practice throughout time. I realize there are web sites that say nudity is in the temple, but I can assure you they don't know what they are talking about.

Richard Hatch on Oz TV

[quinkin]

The lead from the old series (error 23: name retrieval failed) of BSG was on TV in Oz just a day or two ago.

He was far from complementary of the rewrites of the new BSG. Despite the abscence of earth and the trans-sexual character evolution he also discussed that indefinable quality that is the difference between classic/crappy - he did not sound hopefull...

Ah, Richard Hatch I think was the name. He didn't really want to denigrate the new series too much but you got the idea....

Q.

The original was just a Star Wars ripoff anyway

[Schemat1c]

I was 13 when that show came out and was pissed off then at what a blatant ripoff of Star Wars that it was.

It was just the networks jumping onto the space opera bandwagon. No different than all the ridiculous movies that came out at that time doing the same thing.

There are so many wonderful sci-fi stories that could be made into a mini-series, I can't believe they would waste their time with that ridiculous show.

I thought they did a very good job with Dune. They should stick to projects that actually have a decent storyline.

Re:The original was just a Star Wars ripoff anyway

[Blackhalo]

I don't understand this kind of brand loyalty when it is associated with a TV show. When DS9 came out, all of the B5 fans were screaming bloody murder. However, B5 was still a entertaining show and DS9 was still fun to watch. They had different values for writing and acting, but more of a good thing (Sci-Fi) should not be bad. My dad was the same way when Battlestar Galactica came out. He was an old school trekie and did not like it. Of course it may just have been the bad acting and writing in BG that did it, but even Old School Trek is not Shakespeare. If you are a big fan of ham sandwiches and get them at Subway, do you get upset if Quizno's starts selling them? Why is there this perception that more sci-fi is is a bad thing? It's not like they are ripping off your religeon is it?

Re:The original was just a Star Wars ripoff anyway

[Schemat1c]

Why is there this perception that more sci-fi is is a bad thing? It's not like they are ripping off your religeon is it?

No. I am not a fanboy by any stretch. I have always been a lover of sci-fi or any good story that is exciting, entertaining, educational or just plain fun. But the key for me is originality. I can't stand it when a movie or tv show is made just to ride on the coattails of a piece of work that someone put true creativity into.

These media execs simply look at the numbers. If a space based adventure hits it big at the box office then let's whip out a few cheapo clones just to get people to watch. That's what upsets me.

I would love as much sci-fi as possible. But to be honest I don't believe even Star Wars qualifies as true sci-fi. It was simply a fairy tale set in space. But it was a hell of fun ride to watch at the time.

To me sci-fi is all about the story. You take an idea and place it in an unfamiliar environment like the future, another planet, space, whatever. This allows the idea you're trying to convey to stand out more clearly and can be explored with much greater depth. And if you can throw in a good space battle and an explosion or two, well that's just icing on the cake!

That is what made the original Star Trek such a good show. It really wasn't about space travel or the future. The show was mainly a vehicle for social commentary in a time when it wasn't okay to openly talk about racism, war or any anti-establishment idea in the mainstream media.

The Fly!

[Walabio]

When you use the title of a well-known series/movie/whatever, I expect either a remake or a continuation.

I would not make such a blanket-statement. This might workout like the remake of the Fly:

In the original Fly, a scientist invents the first teleporter. The scientist carefully teleports one object at a time because the teleporter can only focus on one object at a time. He finally tries to teleport himself, a fly is in the telepod with him. If the fly would not have been in the telepod with him or if the fly would be in physical contact, everything would be fine. As it is, the fly and the scientist emerged with parts exchanged. Because of scale this does not make sense. It is just for shock-value in a cheep horror-movie.

The premise of the Fly is almost a good one. Someone realized this and made a vastly superior remake:

In the remake of the fly all of the same up to reintegration:

The teleporter cannot reintegrate separate objects. The scientist and the fly become a chimaera, The chimaera looks just like the scientist. The scientist does not know that anything happens. Over the next few months, the scientist looses his humanity and sanity as he slowly becomes a chimaera intermediate between human and fly.

The story of the remake of the fly makes much more since and is much better than the original.

The original Battlestar Galactica is good but has a glaring problem:

The Cylons were originally suppose to be reptilian aliens. ABC did not want alien blood splattered all over the place. The Cylons became robots created by the Cylons, a race of reptilian aliens. Why do the Cylons want to kill humans? Because they want to conquer the universe! Why do the Cylons have an human form? Because the Cylons patterned the Cylons after humans! Why did the Cylons shape the Cylons after humans? Because humans are more efficient than Cylons! Why did not the Cylons invent a novel form more efficient than human? I do not know!

In the new series, the Cylons will have human form for a good reason:

They are made in the image of their creators.

The war between the Cylons and the humans also makes more sense as its causes are firmly rooted in the slavery of the Cylons and their rebellion:

Ever since the Cylon-Rebellion, both sides have been in a war of survival against the other -- a forty-year retreat is nothing.

The new series might be much better or much worse than the original. As a remake, I would not dismiss it just because it breaks cannon -- sequels should be burned for breaking cannon; while, remakes and their sequels and prequels can create their new cannon totally independent from the original and its sequels and prequels. If one is so interested in cannon, we should pickup where Battlestar Galactica 1980 leftoff. Battlestar Galactica 1980 + 23 would be a true sequel.

What really gets me (again...)

[Merovign]

Is that producers and other hollywierd types always have to say they are doing something "new" when they're doing something old.

Improbably strong female characters who whoop ass on men with twice their body mass and three times their muscle mass. Hollywood staple.

Man's creation turning on him. Hollywood staple.

Maybe I'm too young to remember when hollywood was all strong men and week women. Fine. But I'm not THAT young.

At least they seem to be taking a different direction with space effects than average, but it's not unique. Soldier? Starship Troopers? As much as I hate to raise the curse by mentioning it, Wing Commander had machineguns in space, carriers, and semi-old-tech looking stuff in space. Sure, it was cheese, and discount cheese at that, but it had a little mythology and a sense of style (and really bad cat costumes).

From what I've seen (the promo), it looks like instead of BSG 2 we may have Wing Commander 2.

I'm sure the people involved are proud, and to an extent they have a right to be (from what I've seen). But the liberties they've taken with the original and the modern cliches they've followed are probably a bad combination. Time will tell.