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New Battlestar Galactica - Worth a Series?
rwxJava asks: "Ok, so it finally aired! IMHO it was pretty good. The special effects were great (no major laws of physics were broken except maybe FTL travel), the characters, while drastically different from the original, were believable! After about an hour or so, I stopped trying to compare the mini-series with the original. My only complaint has to be the amount of commercials that Scf-Fi put in. I was able to put up a Christmas Tree during one commercial break. Guess the network needs to cash in on such a hyped up event! By the end, I was left wanting more! Anyone else think it is worthy of conversion to a series?" Now that you've have had a time to watch the entire 4-hour epic (does 4 hours really make a "mini-series"?), do you think your earlier comments were on target?
Dude... get a Tivo... or better yet.. BUILD ONE www.mythtv.org and you'll get around those pesky ads
First, let me just say that John Olmos was correct: If you are so
dedicated to the original series that you cannot bring yourself to imagine
it any other way, then do yourself a favor and skip this miniseries. You
will only be disappointed, and you will nitpick it to death.
On the other hand, if you can bring yourself, however painfully, to
open your mind to the possiblity of a "re-imagining" of the Battlestar
Galactica concept, then I think you're in for a pleasant surprise.
It's not all wonderful. Screenwriter Ron Moore wanted
to bring a more grown-up Galactica to his audience, but he's apparantly
confused grown-up with gratuitious. Sex works much better when it's done
dramatically, instead of the "hey watch us get it on!" style that Moore
forces on us. He is perhaps striving to show us the sexual energy between
the characters, but really all it does is make us wonder when the low
quality porno music is going to kick in.
Otherwise, the annoyances are minor. The cylon space fighters,
apparantly just space-borne Cylons (a neat idea, really) come off kind of
hoakey with their red sweeping eyes. I know, I know, the eyes are really
some kind of electromagnetic pulse weapons, but it's distracting just the
same.
Okay, now on to what's good. First, and foremost, the story is solid.
Whereas in the original series we just had to take for granted that the
Cylons were the embodiment of evil, now we understand why.
The characters is also solid. Again, you'll have to get over
your preconceptions of the original series characters, and at least try
to buy in to the new ones. The hardest pill for me to swallow were the
gender changes of Starbuck and Boomer. But I actually found myself liking
the new Starbuck, although the Boomer role could have been a bit stronger.
The special effects were incredible, and proved that you really can
make space realistic, and exciting. In fact, the "no sound in space"
approach actually heightened the tension, and proved that you don't have
to dumb-down physics for the masses. Also, having the space ships use
maneuvering jets created even more exciting scenes than the normal Top Gun
stuff we're used to.
Is it worth a series? I think so. With a solid backstory, believable
characters, and an approach that doesn't assume the audience are stupid,
it could quite very set the bar for future Sci Fi.
I really, really liked the new Galactica miniseries. I thought it was realistic(within reason), dark, and gritty - just what that sort of situation would demand.
Personally, I'd like to see a series of TV movies rather than a weekly series. I think this would work better as an occasional treat, hitting the highlights of the journey, rather than trying to tell 22 stories a year.
Well since we can now freeze light I can walk faster than it.
Ohhhh, look at all the pretty shiny things.
There is nothing saying that you can't go faster than the speed of light!
Did they have sound in space as the ships flew by? That has always been one of my major pet peeves. At least Kubrick got it right in 2001.
Trolling is a art,
Having watched BG as a kid, and recently in reruns on Sci-Fi, I realized I wasn't really a big fan of the original. It just did not hold up at all, and Galactica 1980 or whatever it was is... awful... horrid. Anyway, the 2 part movie was good, although it did steal a few ideas from elsewhere. I liked the female Starbuck (even though she's no Major Carter from SG1). And the twist at the end made me want a series.
I was able to put up a Christmas Tree during one commercial break.
They were waiting for you to finish, stupid!
I saw a few scenes in the first half that didn't involve people having sex. I thought those were extraneous, and could have been removed...
Karma: Marginal (mostly due to the border around the website)
no major laws of physics were broken except maybe FTL travel
Um, how about those arcing missiles the Cylons shot out? Looked great, definately impossible.
I'm sure there are others, that's just the first one that came to mind.
--J(K) DOS is like Unix in exactly the same way that a pinto is like an aircraft carrier.
old Battlestar Galactica:new Battlestar Galactica::star trek the animated series:babylon 5
mmmmmmmm female starbuck
I used to watch the original TV series when I was younger, and although it was a different twist to the same story, I very much enjoyed the new mini series. I think we need more good Sci-Fi shows on TV, and this one gets my vote!
There were more good things about the mini-series than bad. Overall I enjoyed the series and found myself wishing it was on next week.
Bottom line, it was better than a lot of crap currently on TV.
Better a bunch of the rest of the crap sci fi out there. The space ships look pretty good.
I'm kind of disappointed that the robot guys (cylons?) aren't at all robotic, even at the microscopic level (according to the show).
Also, space flight doesn't work like that... but every other series I've seen has portrayed space flight as far too similar to atmospheric flight, so I guess I shouldn't bother complaining. I don't like the president woman, either.
Final verdict: yeah, make more, I'll watch it.
-Skeld
You have have had? That doesn't sound right... Unless... Quick, someone freeze light and stop this error from reaching millions of /. grammar nazis, or we are all DOOMED!
Karma: Can there be a void?
.. -. - . .-. .-. --- -...
But when I sat down to watch it, man, I was really impressed. It was simply one of the best sci-fi mini series I've ever seen. I can't say it enough, it didn't suck, it was great fun. If they don't make this a series there is something seriously wrong. The way they showed the end of the colonies was excellent. My only pet peve was the last 15 seconds of the show. I thought that was a tad contrived..but it did have a surprise and a the very last comment was..."By your command". Highly recommend it.
*Fortitudo, aequitas, fidelitas.*
in the original series. Every /. story involving BSG or Utah ends up having a nasty Mormon thread involving lots of ACs. So where is it?
Lasers Controlled Games!
1) Sounds in space. Space ships could be heard
making "thrusting" and "crashing" noises.
2) Continual stream of stars zoom past windows
to convey forward momentum (as opposed to say,
rotation or banking). Perhaps they were
trying to reproduce one of the things I hated
in the original series.
3) Lovely handheld-style (jerky) camera moves
from space. I actually liked this (think they
did it in Firefly too), but how do you get the
cameraman from "Law and Order" into a spacesuit?
I've had my set tuned to sci-fi all this week happily watching both showings of the same episode each evening. Not only have I been enjoying the new interpretation of story but i am finding some characters substantially more/less endearing that the originals. Specifically: Apollo is just not cutting the mustard. On the flip side, the new Starbuck is every bit as fiery and troublesome as the original character. Lorne Green, move over, Adama is masterfully portrayed and conveys certain conflictions and moral jostling that were not present in Tos.
Dare I forget Voltar. Just wow. He's not only likeable but practically the star of the show. I'm still not exactly sure how this interpretation will translate as the seris progresses, but its certainly nice to have less clearcut good guys vs. bad guys.
I haven't done any research...as I'm lazy. But the fx look very Lightwave-ish...but they zoom WAY too much...as if there's a camcorder out in space shooting everything.
Also, the production design leaves a lot to be desired...the ship interiors look really really drab.
The acting and direction is certainly better than the original series.
But all in all, I would say this should just stay a mini-series.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
I thought that there were too many commercials as well. I was watching it while I recorded it on my ReplayTV so I was subject to the commercial pain.
However, when I re-watched it later, I am constently reminded of how vauluable the ReplayTV commercial skip feature is. Well worth the price of a DVR just for the commercial skip feature.
For great deals on electronics and computer eqiupment visit Retail Retreat. Shop online for Christmas easily and efficently.
Next week on Battlestar Galactica: Commander Adama finally gets a full night's sleep! Adama like you've never seen him before -- he's wide awake and ready for action!
Since the battlestar is a class of ship, is the "Galactica" the only one? In the original it was the last one to survive (excepting the one they "found" in one of the episodes, only to "lose" it again).
Just curious if anyone knows if that will part of the plot or not.
very surpirsed to see them use the same plot point in Farscape and this thing. A chip in his head, give me a break, it's been done before in much better ways by the same channel. I hope the new farscapes are not suddly blatly sexual as Gallatica was, Farscape was much more subtle lets hope they keep that edge in the new Farscape SciFi is producing.....
worth a mini series, i think not. worth 4 hours of tivo space, barely.
Think back to 1989, about the hue and cry of Tim Burton's "Batman" with Michael "Mr. Mom" Keaton. Think especially of the reaction from the fans that saw Batman with only the Adam West version.
Sound familiar?
I liked it. I liked it a lot. I plan on rewatching the miniseries, because I believe Moore and crew left a few hints and tidbits (not unlike Season One of Babylon 5") that would be extrapolated in the future.
Let's see how much of the original story they will gleam. Cane and the Pegasus. Terra. Even the "Count Iblis" plotline.
If they play their cards right, and they use "Roswell", "Buffy", and "Smallville" as templates, I could even see a Moore revision of "Galactica 1980".
Very good, peoples. Keep going.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
hey if you were a little fat kid jolley was your guy. I liked the female boomer but did they have to make her imperious leaders twin.
more please
Help me out here...
Why would the arcing missiles be impossible?
Missile (forgive the lousy ASCII art)
===== -Thrust that way.
Applying thrust from the side of the missile, akin to the maneuvering jets, would get you an arc, wouldn't it?
Taking inertia into account, etc.
Or am I missing something obvious here?
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
Ok rwxJava, marketdroid for Sci Fi Channel. Yes I think it was a pretty good movie, nay on mini-series, too short, not enough plot resolution. I would watch a series if Sci Fi was to contract a production company to produce one. Don't hurt anyone driving on 75/85 on your way home.
-Runz
That was the major question I though they did not seem to answer, or at least even touch.
I could understand a different species not liking us, and in some way, being what we might call pure evil. Hey, they're different. Species are different. Intelligence does not mean that we all get along.
But in this case, the cylons are now our computers run amok. OK, while I can deal with this change, they never then touched on why they want to kill us? Because we wanted to kill them? Why do they want to kill us now? What does it benefit them? What computational values make them _want_ to expend the resources, et al to go to war with us? They just glanced that one over, and in the end, said, hey, the cylons want to kill us, so there.
...tizzyd
Like many, I had fond memories of the original.
Like many, when I got a copy and started watching it for the first time since I was a child; I found the original to be very bubble-gummy and not as good as I remembered it. The same thing happened with Robotech.
I read several artciles and several points of view on the miniseries before it aired - and I decided to reserve judgement...
The 9/11 influence (which the producers say is there on purpose) was very present - it was much darker than I expected. The long leadup and character development before the actual attack got you attached and into the story so that the destruction didn't feel like a backdrop, but a very major event.
Production values were high, and the effects were great... and it was just enjoyable.
In my book, this blew sci-fi's attempt at Dune out of the water. I feel bad for everyone who wanted the original to continue - but I myself think I'd enjoy a series of This version of BG better than a continuation.
Hopefully, though, they will instead do a series of, uhm, mini-series of this - or the occasional movie. I say this because EJO and some of the other leads probably wouldn't go for a full series, And, because with a full series it would be too easy for it to become a new-planet-every-week serial as opposed to having the scope this mini series had.
man is machine
The mini-series is worthy of a show, with plenty of potential plot lines and hooks to follow and explore.
I only hope that the "Boxey thread" will end quickly, with that character's death at the hands of the Cylons in the first 5 minutes of the first show of the series.
Why do sci fi show creators feel compelled to include the cute kid character in their space operas? Won't they ever learn that we HATE these characters?
---anactofgod---
---anactofgod---
"Equal opportunity swindling - *that* is the true test of a sustainable democracy."
OH, someone who doesn't have a Tivo or replayTV yet. I never watch commercials anymore (but then again, I never watch live tv. Even if I'm not recording, I'll pause it and go do something else for a half hour just to avoid watching commericals).
DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
...Cow. Wonderful wonderful series. Usually I roll my eyes at the "tough girl" type of lead character, but Ms. thingy managed to convince me. She threw punches like she knew what she was doing, and was sensitive enough to be believable, yet tough and uncaring enough to root for.
The tension between Father and Son was believable. The only thing I didn't like was the new "president" ordering a military ship to turn around. That was SO not believable. Had I been in charge, she would have "accidently" found the way to the nearest airlock....
actually, no... not impossible. Think about it. Slightly adjusting the exhaust will direct the missile in another direction... but the arcs that were shown in the movie would require more adjustments - most likely gas ports such as on the fighters... just because we didnt' see them doesn't mean they weren't there
No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts. - Jack O'Neil
Basically, Sci Fi took out all of the cheesy elements from Galactica and kept all of the story that was cool and worth keeping.
The space battles were great, with better 'physics' than in most sci-fi space stories, and the acting, except for Apollo, who always looked like he was sporting a suppository, was very solid. Olmos did a great job of realizing Adama.
There was only one problem: Tricia Helfer as Six. Uuhhhmmm. If she were a Cylon, well, I'd want to be conquered. Hard.
Other than that, the only problem I had were with the different "models" of Cylons. I'd assumed that by different models the show was alluding to different configurations meant for different purposes. I hadn't realized that same models meant identical appearance. That was goofy. And why only twelve? The Cylons can travel faster than light, launch completely covert attacks on an advanced civilization, but they can only think of twelve different models for themselves?
But all right. I enjoyed the series so much that I can forgive that and look past it, hope they figure it out.
Of worthy mention also was Mary McDonnell's performance as the 43rd-in-line for succession to the presidency. She gave a wonderfully restrained, but nicely authoritative performance that balanced out Adama's hyper-masculine, scarred-up face. Their final negotiation, and her lines during that meeting, were great writing.
Support this show! Support quality scifi! Keep it on the air or all we'll have to look forward to on TV is reruns of Twilight Zone and more of Trish & Ryan's fucking wedding, or whatever their freakin' names are.
Chr0m0Dr0m!C
I found it to be pretty good. Much better than I expected. After all, I've been ratehr down about what they've been doing to Stargate SG-1 as late (*cough*lack of consequences *cough*), but this really surprised me. Big time.
There are also a lot of 'easter eggs' for SF fans too. Whether it be for those that are Knight Sabre fans or Firefly as two just off the top of my head.
It's also a lot more serious than the first series. This is about the genocide of humanity and it shows. The show benefited from it too.
A series? I'd say it's worth it. So long as they can keep up the writing, kep it consistant, and production values must stay high, then I'm there.
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
Watched it and I'll give it another week before it's de-Tivo'd. The main problem is the cliched dialog and characters. Generic cast of young hot shot space pilots that we've seen dozens of times before ... yada yada
Seems like every Sci-Fi movie and TV show since the early 90's follows the same "Starship Troopers" formula.
We actually built a simulation of an Etch-a-Sketch using an ARDS storage tube display. That's what passed for advanced graphics at Brown in 1967.
It was a decent plot and the characters were interesting (for what it was), but I've been wondering about the motivation of the Cylons coming back after so many years.
To me, it just seemed like they reappeared. Was this fully explained or was I just missing something?
I think the poster was referring to the contrails BEHIND the missiles. In a vacuum, the gasses of the contrails would disperse so quickly that contrails that long would be unlikely if not impossible. They'd disperse to invisibility just behind the motor.
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
I think I can answer this.
The FTL drive, is really some sort of instant dimensional warp, that takes you from A to B in a jump, so you can't use to to ram people.
Everything else, missiles, bullets, using trusters to turn. Seems to indicate the tech isn't that advanced (i.e. chemical or ion engines)
In my opinion, the New Battlestar Galactice lived up to exactly what it stated, a NEW version of it, all the great stories of the past are just personal version recreations of the original, even the bible, they are all told through the eyes and mind of the storyteller.
..
As far as the FTL, believable as it told us NOTHING as far as the physics behind it so you cant debunk what ya dont know.
As far as the sound in space, yeah, a pet peeve with me but ya know what, it was lightly done just to give a hint of motion via our ears rather than just our eyes because I thought the ships looked like they were crawling through space by sight, but then, without reference we are accustom to (trees passing, mountains looming higher, day to night to day) there is no reference for the actual speed.
Starbuck as a female, interesting twist, hot as hell too... Boomer as a female as well, another cute twist and she was pretty eye candy as well. As far as the 12 models of cylons and the nympho-bot on earth, just remember, she is open to learning and experiencing as no better way to implant a chip (or god knows what else) in a human but when they are so preoccupied with thier jollies banging amok in some hotty (glowing spinal thing WTF was up with that the built in orgasmitron??)
Apollo was annoing in my thought, but got better toward the end of part 2 when he stopped be the "its all about my feelings" whiner. the drunkard XO with a confidence problem, overused but effective in this. Adama and the president, good matching, they are gonna hate to be banging uglies through the enevitable series to follow LOL
I liked it, I hope for a weekly series so I dont have to wait for 1 or 2 installments a year to find out what happens next, much like stagate, farscape and firefly (bring it back josh!!)
well, my takes and views on it
I'm no fanboy -- I watch the original series on SciFi mainly for its "so cringingly bad its good" stories and acting -- and pretty much went into the miniseries unbiased to the point I really didn't care, and damned if I didn't get sucked in pretty quickly.
... oh yeah, and Starbuck was hot.
Was *very* impressed by the depth / complexity of the story and the characters. The humanity of the future wasn't' portrayed as some idyllic civilization where everyone got along and did the right thing. Moral dilemmas were presented and there was no miraculous resolution where everything turned out alright (the girl in the "greenhouse" ship comes to mind. When she first appeared I groaned "Not a cute orphan girl who will soften the heart of the tough president... how cliched." So much for that!). The acting was very good -- very little scenery was chewed -- and the melodrama was kept to a minimum. My only complaint was the "Mary Shelly's Battlestar Galactica" angle about the cylons being of human origin, but that's a minor quibble.
It was so good, in fact, I mistakenly thought it was a four part miniseries, not a four hour miniseries, and was damn disappointed last night when I figured out it was over.
SF writers always look their most foolish when
... M'kay!)
trying to make up future slang or cuss-words.
OK, the producer doesn't wanna use the real f-word.
Understandable. That's what [bleep] is for. Or else
'fricking' (although Austin Powers has pretty much
spoiled that euphemism...).
(Remember, don't say f**k, just say
>;k
Commercials have gotten bad as of late on the Sci-Fi Channel. The commercial breaks seem to come now every 5 to 10 minutes and last almost five minutes. And this is not just for their exclusives either. Even the Sci-Fi flicks with the poor effects (see that starship dangling from a wire) break for commercials with the same frequency.
Not impossible if you have nose thrusters on the missile. Hell, we have those today on nuclear missile warheads to confuse ABMs. How do you think spacecraft today maneuver in space?
I watched the first episode last night (minus the commercials) and woke up this morning thinking about it. I'm glad that the Firefly special effects team lived on, as their portrayal of combat in space is fresh and interesting. Nice physics touches too, though I admit it's unrealistic that everyone is so close together. Some of the nuclear bombardment scenes were truly chilling.
A big "Ditto" on the actors. Though the younger ones were a bit rough, the president and Adama were great.
So, I think this one will hit my short list of shows, though I think I will perhaps delay watching so as to skip all the commercials.
I watched, cautiously optimisticly, and was pleasantly surprised. I had few problems with the show and it was well written. Not until I went to the Web site for the show did I find out that the show's writer is the Executive producer and writer for HBO's Carnivale, a show that has completely sucked me in (though now I have to wait until Jan 2005 for the next season). I say bring on a new Galactica series. Kudos to all involved.
vectored thrust can accomplish that easily. Some modern military fighters are beginning to have that (F22) to augment standard flight controls.
I couldn't tell if those missles were constantly accelerating though. They should if they are burning propellant the whole time (also required for vectored thrust)
Lastly, no one who would want a nimble shooting platform in space would have it be as asymetric as the Vipers are. Rotational about the long axis of the Viper body (fore to aft) would take for ever. The fighters of Lost in Space are the most realistic of any movie i've seen so far (IMHO)
- Sig
Mormons are worse than Arabs because they look just like proper, God-fearing Christians!
WTF?! Get me some bullets??? Why not say ammo, rounds, arsenal? If they have FTL, cyborgs, and commercial space flight then why couldn't they have developmed laser guns for their ships? This is sci-fi, dammit, and I want my lasers, not monkeys throwing rocks!!
I loved it. It was better than "Cats". I'm going to watch it again, and again.
I watched the orginal as a kid, I remember thinking it was ok. I knew some of the backstory coming into the new BG, but if you had never seen the old BG, at least you wern't lost.
As with any Sci-Fi series, this one will live or die of it's writing. I got the feeling that the writers of the mini-series held no punches when it came to the brutality of the cylon attack on the colonies, and the desisions that had to be made by the humans. Two scenes that realy stood out in my mind were the drawing of numbers for the refugees to get on the scout ship, and the radio chatter when the president ordered the FTL ships to jump immediatly after the cylons discovered the civilian fleet.
Should this be a series? If you can get the same actors to commit to the series, and most importantly, some good writers, then Yes, I think you could make a series out of it.
The Mini-series set the bar pretty high. I will be interested in seeing if they do pick it up, and if they can keep the same quality as they presented in the mini series.
I found myself rooting for the Cylons, wondering when they'd get around to finally finishing off those whiney little bitches onboard Galactica.
Katie Sachoff comes off as a hermaphrodite with PMS.
But, naturally the Marxist undercurrents to this new series will be happy happy joy joy to the under 22s who wouldn't be able to comprehend the plot line otherwise.
"...So say we all!"
Haaahahahahaha!
Starbuck while looking good, was totally unbelievable playing a "tough guy" part. I mean really who's ass is she going to kick with those stick thin arms. She looked totally out of place at the card table with that cigar. Her acting was poor at best. I can't believe they put that kid in with the bowl hair-cut. Boxie or whatever his name was, and they let the nice little girl all go to atoms. Bleh... Other than that I thought it was ok, except for all the really lame sex scenes.
I liked it. The nights after I visited a web board frequented by both sci fi and militart 'geeks', and one thing we were impressed with was a beliveable future military. The announcments over the comm system, the rank strcuture, down to the way they talked and joked around. I hope they contune on to a series.
Boxey?!? Why, dear god? WHY???
Didn't anyone learn a lesson from Jar-Jar binks? Kill the cute ones off first!!!
Was accomplished by Sluggy Freelance, when Pete did a strip of a Broadway musical of Battlestar in the style of the Lion King. After that, sci-fi mehums can't compare.
It was much better than what I was expecting. I like the whole Phillip K. Dick ripoff aspect. I just wish they did show more of the robotic cylons.
I like the fact that it wasn't constant space battles. I like the fact that things were well lit as opposed to the tendency for everything to take place at night or in dark areas.
The little tributes here and there to the original series was kinda cool too...the Mark II's, the fanfare, By Your Command
I have to admit that I thought it was one of the best SciFi movies/miniseries I have seen in a while, and I really enjoyed the way it was done.
I thought it was a great idea to use the same concepts but in a very different way, so it could stand on it's own. I especially enjoyed the military-like feel and the camera work that made you feel like you were right in the action. It was very well executed.
I also thought that it was great the way that they made the Cylons very dangerous and threatening....unlike the OS where they were almost a joke. you really felt scared for those people!
I feel the same way about this that I felt about Star Trek:TNG vs. TOS...it took something good and made it even cooler!
Free your ecomony and enact the FairTax
The order for the "Suppression Barrage" sent a shiver through the bones. That 5 minutes of cg made the 4 hours time well spent.
I watched each session twice. I thought it was entertaining and interesting. I do agree w/ the long, commercial breaks. One can fall asleep too easily during those...
A couple of points:
1.) why the flashing eye on the cylon ships when they use the electromagnetic weapon?
2.) #6 is distracting -- pleasantly annoying, too... 3.) call the pilots by their call sign -- I got tired of hearing Lee, Lee, Lee Adama...
This was the first time that I've watched Sci-Fi channel for more than an occasional movie. I'd come back if the show was a series...
One of the best things that the miniseries has going for it is that it is a fixed, predetermined storyline. You can kill of characters because it's all part of a single, unified plot. Characters don't die because they have conflicts with management, if they die it's because it is part of the storyline.
Perhaps a better route is to make another miniseries, and play it one episode a week, more like what Babylon 5 did but on a shorter air schedule.
Like when the cylon chick broke the infants neck...*SNAP*
it could have been super-dense space smoke. you never know.
The Gallactica was about to be decomisioned and turned into a museum.
:-D )
Obviously they weren't going to be going to great lengths to update the hardware, software, heck even the paint wouldn't get revised and we know the military attitude about paint. (Hint - If it's dirty, paint it!
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
No offense, but maybe you should watch it first, and people moderating your post should as well...
Because yes, they've got space fighters -- ones at least on the surface obeying the laws of physics (engines only on when accellerating, maneuvering jets, etc... including very cool combat moves where they are shooting sideways and backwards because interia is continuing to carry them on the path they'd previously been on).
I'm not sure what you mean by serious kinetic kill weapons -- most of what they are using appears to be standard explosive missiles which kill via schrapnel, standard guns, and the big weapons are all nuclear.
There's no phasers or such nonsense, if thats what you're concerned about.
Maybe the contrails weren't gas. It the chemical reaction used to propel the rockets produced, say, water droplets, you'd see it as such.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Being someone naturally predisposed to despise SciFi for what they did to Farscape, I was really surprised by how much I liked it. The one thing that hit me over the head was how much the simulated hand-held camera worked for space-battles. I know its about to be the 'next-big-overused-effect', but MAN it really enhances space battles. Makes them feel more like live reporting from war zones. Wouldnt mind a series I must confess.
-_-
I think Robotech letdown is pretty common. I saw the orignal series on DVD last year, and just had to pick it up.
I can't believe I used to watch that stuff!
Starbuck: D- (could have been B)
I enjoyed her acting, I was embarassed for her when she tried to mimic the original (cigar & attitude when playing cards)
Special Effects: A-
I enjoyed all of the effects but felt nausia when the jerky-camera would Zoom in during combat.
Plot: A
Father-Son tension: good
good vs evil: good
general acting: excellent (*except starbuck)
This show is exciting, and I look forward to seeing the rest of them.
I live in Canada and cannot get these shows. Thank you very much BitTorrent.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
T3 did it earlier this year, and now Galactica. Anyone notice how the new Bad Guy in piracy-paranoid Hollywood seems to be networked computer systems? T3 even started out with one of those lame "Movies. They're Worth It." anti-piracy trailers.
Which is funny, considering Galactica blatantly ripped off the handheld cam in space shooting style of Firefly (some shot for shot, now that I've seen the Firefly dvd)
Thas' all,
-Searcher
I disagree with the author. I think this movie was so bad it was actually painful. The effects were good, I'll give them that. But during the first 30 minutes of the first part, they must of had 13 different story bits run. If you had to go take a leak, you would miss three or for important things. It also revisits one of the most worn-out plots I have ever seen - The whole 'humanity is about to become extinct' thing.
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
Yes technically there is no sound in space, but I think they did the best job I've scene outside of 2001 for making space feel like space. Yes you could hear things but they were always kinda ghostly and subtle, not the loud streaks of laser beams and such that have so plagued the sci-fi tv realm.
Yes, it would be more realistic to do no sound at all but I think they found a wonderful compromise between realism and razzle dazzle.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
In that regard, the 'Wing Commander' games and movie were better, in that the mass driver cannon were one of the most effective weapons if you could hit with them -- but they sucked energy to run. However, in Battlestar Galactica, it appeared that for small-craft weapons you pretty much had a choice between missiles and some kind of plasma-in-a-magnetic-bottle weapon. For missiles, a kinetic-kill system is kind of pointless -- even air-to-air missiles today don't rely on the missile itself actually hitting its target -- so a high-explosive or small nuke warhead is what you'd expect to see.
I expect that we're never going to get told why neither side uses kinetic-kill systems for the fighters' primary weapons, although I would guess that an energy weapon will have a point at which the 'projectile' dissipates; a kinetic-kill weapon in space would keep going, producing widely-ranging hazard zones from old battles.
I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. for those whow wish it had been en exact remake of the first... there's a reason the first one only lasted one season! the acting for the most part was solid, I loved the story. I hope the bring it back as a series. the effects were good, not great but good. It was very nostalic to see the vipers launch-I always loved that part of the old one. with the shot going down the launch bay. all in all a good effort.
Having seen Sci-Fi's Dune stuff, I was expecting Battlestar Galactica to be corny, forgettable crap. I liked it a lot! Sci-Fi did a great job.. and the issues that had people up in arms (Starbuck=female), etc didn't bother me at all. The new Galactica looked AWESOME!
The HUMANS haven't seen the cylons for 40 years. The cylons have been infiltrating the human race long enough to seduce and...
1) Seduce Boltar
2) Plant at least 2 more agents.
... ok even the old Starbuck
With the changes to the crew/cast and to the Cylons, it really doesn't resemble the original enough to warrant being given the same name.
I think I would welcome it if they just gave it a new name and didn't try to manufacture a few similarities between it and the original. In its own right it isn't too terrible, but just make it a spin-off of the original rather than a remake.
I'm a great believer in luck. The harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson
I loved the cinematography on how they shows the Cylons and Vipers. The zoom and pan looked great!! Similar to Star Wars: EP I & II.
P.S. I like how the Cylons missiles streaked, even though it isn't possible in physics, but screw it, it looked cool. Reminds me of Robotech look when you see those missiles streak!
I don't mind the Boomer and Starbuck gender changes. I liked the way the actress portrayed the character of Starbuck and the way the character was written, but the actress herself is too physically soft for me to buy as a military pilot. I expected a woman with the physique of Sigourney Weaber in Alien, or at least Tasha Yar, but I can't accept Starbuck's body to have gone through military training...
Never having seen the original series, I watched the new Battlestar Galactica with no bias. I wasn't impressed and wouldn't watch a BG series. I found the characters dull and unlikable. I couldn't have cared less if they lived or died. The only one I liked in the least was the President. There seemed to be a glimmer of depth to her. The Chief seemed more concerned about the eighty five people who died in the fire than the billions who died on the colonies. Commander seemed like he'd rather be taking a nap. The whole lot of them need to lay off the aphrodisiacs. They're all way too horny.
The cinematography was terrible. The random zooming was distracting and unnecessary and the camera floating around in a circle was overused to an extreme. The music was underused and forgettable.
What's with the Cylons anyway? I would have been interested to learn more about them. Why are they so hell bent on destroying humanity? Didn't anyone program these things with a "I'm your daddy, don't kill me" safety? Why would beings of (assumed) pure logic even care about killing the people who created them? Maybe these questions were covered in the series, I don't know. A little more background on the Cylons would have made the mini-series more interesting.
Special effects were good. Got to say something nice.
Just my two cents.
As a kid, I was addicted to all 24 episodes of the original series (1978-1979), so I was really excited when I heard that SciFi would be putting this new mini-series on. All in all, I was pretty impressed. For "made for TV," this is about as good as it gets, folks, and I'd definitely watch it if it were a series. Verdict: Definitely TiVo-worthy
Terrible, unwatchable mess..
dumb, poorly written, BADLY acted crap
unbelievable, unoriginal idiotic puerile tripe.
Why not use the time to actually TRY someones NEW idea ?
I had hopes that it wouldn't SUCK - but sadly it
was FAR FAR worse than that..
it blew chunks ! I was looking forward to something ANYTHING new to watch while exersizing..
it was so DREADFULLY DULL AND DUMB that after and hour and fourty minutes of Coma inducing AGONY I shut off the tube and watched NOTHING ( a blank screen being far more entertaining and enjoyable than this LAME RETREAD )
To paraphrase OPUS - `it simply oozed badness from every bad scene'
If you have been fortunate enough to miss this loser count yourself lucky and DONT tune in to any of the 10 thousand re-runs of it SCI-FI will waste airtime with..
PUTRECENT !
Without Lorn Greene the Galactica reeks of human defecation
Wait for it... A tie-in to Knight Rider! Yes those annoying yet lovable LED Eyes have an origin! The Plot: Kit goes on a jealous murdering spree after catching Micheal and Bonnie "having relations". (You can decide for yourself who Kit was into :P) Deciding to just eliminate the human race (for own good) as all AI's do; he creates a servitor race in his own image.
That's right, the thirteenth colony were folks leaving earth! That's why they never go back to it.
*giggles and drools manically*
Oops, how did this get here?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
or as another explaination, maybe there were some wierd plasma, that was held together by electromagnetic force... though the water droplets probably makes more sense...
I post links to stuff here
Now I didn't watch the miniseries I admit (couldn't take the 2.5 hours of commercials in a 4 hour show) but Starbuck's name is StarBUCK...BUCK denoting MALE DEER. Shouldn't the 'new' Starbuck be StardDOE? Did they go into how the broad got the name StarBUCK at all?
It was about as good as their home-grown "Tremors".
Is Sci-Fi promoting people who can make decisions based upon how much of a lobatomy they're willing to undergo?
It's so bad it's almost better to randomly TiVo CNN or Martha Stewart and watch it in place of this show.
Bring back The Invisible Man!
Long Live Fawkes!
What was especially annoying was the fawning by now-grown-ups over the original. BG: TOS was juvenile in the extreme. Potboiler space opera, at best, made especially strange with weird religious elements. (Mormons . . . in . . . Spaaaace!)
When the time came to decide whether to watch the new one, I found it easy to decide not to.
Now, based on the discussions on various sites, I'm feeling sorry I didn't give it a try. The creators of the new show seem to have gone to extraordinary lengths to ditch the silliest elements of the old and make something that isn't Sci-Fi comfort food!
Why not just "give it a try?"
There's a thing I refer to as Brainshare.
Brainshare is the resource taken up by watching a TV show or reading a book series or following some issue.
Many books and shows require very little brainshare. Some, because they are trivial and don't require much thought. Others, because they're nicely packaged and limited: Fun while you watch, but you don't think about them at all once they're over.
As an old-timey SF fan, I hesitate to get involved in a new show, to devote brainshare to it, because I'd be better off doing something else. Sometimes this hesitancy can be a loss. I never got into Buffy, which I understand was a smart and well done show.
Sometimes caution pays off. I'm awful glad I gave up on the Gene Roddenberry-created SF shows (Andromeda, and the one about the seemingly-nice-aliens who visit Earth), which went swiftly downhill after smart beginnings.
Then there's the early plug-pull problem: This happened with Firefly. The first (aired) episode of this filled me with disappointment and dread (train robberies in space!), but I caught a good episode or two, enough to see there was someone with a brain behind it. Then Fox cancelled the series. Bah.
So now I'm wondering if I should bother watching the repeats.
Stefan
I wanna see a latin guy and FACE from the A-Team again not some yuppie and his man-she psuedo girlfriend!
Actually in all serious how cool would a remake of Buck Rogers be with Bruce Campbell as Buck Rogers?!
Ave Molech Setting
Cardboard acting and some seriously contrived scenes deprive from any reason to make it a series.
Super-cylons are probably the killer. Essentially they imply they cannot die. Are they now angels? I am not quite sure where to place their ability. Their "spirit" remains intact regardless of distance? How do you fight something like that? Combine this with their nearly super computer ability and it makes you wonder, have they been to built up to be killable?
Continuity was also bothersome. Are they human or not? If they are so human that it requires DNA testing to tell otherwise then.... how does her spine glow? Why does Adama imply their circutry is messed up by radiation? Are they just animated human forms - little computers running it?
Techno-babble... or techno-fear? Apparently "cordless phones" are susceptible to takeover, along with headsets and the like.
The gift shop and similar did seem as if they wanted to go out of their way to spite fans of the old show.
Next, contrived scenes... Showing the "President" talk to a little girl, only to find out she condems said little girl to death, then whitescreen her death. The Apollo "death"... Starbuck suddenly fessing up... That "ooh such a surprise" Boomer being a fembot.. err Cylon
Capped off with gratuitous sex... not dramatic, Star Trek : Enterprise style! It got to be silly... I was waiting for Adama and the Prez to jump each other, I was like, so disappointed.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
The director sure has a thing for cleavage shots! Get that man an Emmy!
Speaking of which, we really didn't need a new BSG movie/series/anything as much as we need Red Dwarf: The Movie to come out NOW...we have been waiting WAY TOO LONG...
I didn't see the mini-series, but the vipers in the oringal series often flew through a planet's atmosphere and landed on the ground. Same with the Cylons' ships. That's why I figured they were oblong with fins and wings (in the case of the Cylon ships). Actually, now that I think about it, having a small weapons platform that can go from ground to space and back again would be very useful. Plus Battlestar Galactica is something of a naval epic, so the airplane/dogfight model fits.
-dameron
The new Battlestar Galacica is like Monet's water lilies... It reminds you of the original series, but it's certainly its own creation. Or perhaps like building a car out of Legos-- you get the shape of the car right, but it's not a precise rendition.
There are countless tips of the hat to the 1979 version, from pictures of what the Cylon Centurions looked like in the original series to explanations of why the Galactica used 1970s technology during a time where man could create Cylons and advanced space travel. Purists who expected the series to be faithful to the original should have learned their lesson from Jar Jar Binks. If they were going to be faithful, why not just "digitally remaster" the originals as has been popular for a decade? Maybe they could replace all the guns with walkie talkies or the Cylons could shoot first all the time?
The premise has changed somewhere between a lot and a little, depending on what was important to you. The sex has been kicked up a notch, but I believe it's as sexy in contemporary times as the original was in 1979. I really enjoyed this flick and would enjoy seeing a new series built around the four hour effort.
If you ever played Starflight or Starflight 2, then the new Cylon ships may remind you of the Uhlek / Uhl-Leghk ships.
I've got to give props to a mini-series that has the wrinklies to kill a baby in the first installment, and a little girl in the second.
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
The stuff that made it better: (1) The deliberate connection to 9/11 was pulled off remarkably well. The utter despair was apparent and believable. This dark theme was the strongest and most compelling aspect of the show. (2) Good character development and relationships. (3) Strong overall plot and story writing. (4) Good technology design.
The stuff that kept it from being great: (1) Missile contrails in space. (2) Violation of the law of inertia (objects in space going in one direction that suddenly lose power would not begin to float randomly but would keep drifting in the same direction until propelled in another direction by something else). (3) Poor acting overall (although some performances were quite good). (4) Unimaginative dialogue.
Overall, I'd continue to watch a regular series provided that the story and production values kept up the same standard.
I've seen a few threads complaining about the realism of the show, but let's put in perspective against all the science fiction we've seen on television and film. I think this was by far one of the best compromises between realism and razzle dazzle. Sure there was sound in space, but it always muffled and subtle, making it kinda spooky and mostly realistic.
So kudos to the producers, I was really worried that this would suck (especially when I heard about the "cylons look like us" plot line), but it turned out to be very good. It honored the original while going places the original never dreamed. So if they can make a series that keeps faithful to the good start they got here, I'm all for it.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
It doesn't appear its all for infiltration, there seems to be the old cliche' "computers/ai trying to evolve" ala V'ger.
So, if they want humans dead, why make such use of copies outside of infiltration?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
except that water droplets would instantly vaporize. Even ice crystals would sublimate. In a vacuum you would need something with a large volume to surface area ratio for it to last long enough to see. I.e. not vapor trails
Twelve colonies with unigue social characteristics vs 12 models of Cylons each with a specialized use. What would you bet that if there were to be a series there turn out to be a 13th discontinued and par-mythical model of Cylon (called God) to parallel the mythical existence of Earth?
The advance press for the mini-series really made me worry, so much so that I almost decided I would not watch. Hearing that Starbuck would be a woman struck me as modern-day Hollywood political correctness with a very heavy hand. Learning that the Cylons would indistinguishable from humans just seemed like a way to save money, since there would be no costumes.
But I did watch, and I am glad I did. I think it did a very admirable job of respecting the first series while taking the basic premise and making it edgier and somewhat thought-provoking. The dialogue was far better than I expected; in fact, there were only a handful of "cheese" moments in the four-hours series. But even those potentially dreadful moments were rescued by very solid performances from the actors.
I have to say that Sci-Fi did a very admirable job converting my skepticism into anticipation. I would like to see more.
It's been about 16 years since I last watched the orginal series, so I feel that I approached it with a more open mind than many fans. The gender changes in Boomer and Starbuck don't bother me-- Sackhoff did well in the Starbuck role, and I couldn't even remember who the original Boomer was, so any "changes" were moot.
Also, while what I saw was merely "good", the new Galactica has the potential for greatness. All really worthwhile stories explore the meaning of being human. (My personal favorite SF episode is the ST:TNG episode "The Measure of a Man", Data's "trial"-- it was Roddenberry's favorite too, IIR. With the humaniform Cylons, and the deeper, less cardboard, yet still evil motivations for Baltar, followup mini-series have the potential to explore questions of good and evil and man vs. machine in immense and beautiful depth. The Humaniform Cylon looking for love and the (at least) one Humaniform Cylon in the fleet who doesn't KNOW about not being human are great sources for future stories.
I don't think they can turn it back into an effective weekly show. However, if SciFi made it a 4-times per year miniseries, they could have a format that would allow for the depth of a series and the phenomenal sets/stories that a miniseries allows.
It has promise.... but all depends on the ratings, no doubt.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
To be nitpicky (sorry), water would evaporate (boil, actually) nearly instantly in the vacuum of space. If the exhause particles were solid granules or a liquid with a very, very low vapor pressure (mercury?) the dispersion would be primarily controlled by entropy (and thus occur, but take awhile to occur).
/low vp liquid
This also assumes there is no gas at all in the exhaust to push the particles apart as it expands. It would have to be comprised completely of solid
(sorry for the horrendous spelling/grammar)
- Sig
But why expend the resources to make those adjustments? Adjustments require extra fuel. Adjustments are useful if the target is moving significantly, but in this case, the targets were usually sitting ducks, moving slowly wrt the missile. Sitting duck=precalculated flight path= no arc.
More likely it was an earth-ism. Earth gravity causes missiles (from, say, a modern day fighter jet) to arc. So that's what the artists envisioned.
~==>RocketSHE
Definitely worth a series, IMO.
--
Power to the Peaceful
...that most TV writers and producers aren't all hardcore space and SciFi geeks like we are. I haven't seen one SciFi TV show that didn't take just a little creative liberty when it came to space physics. Kudos (redundant) to Stanley Kubrick for getting it right in 2001 ASO. (Even though it wasn't TV)
It's like "looking busy" at your employment - it's actually easier to do real work than to fake it. - bmo
The mini-series seemed truncated. There was no resolution to the story!
This signature is typed manually.
I mostly liked it. I felt that the pacing was a bit slow in spots. I mean let's face it, the entire earth is being bombarded with nukes, everyone you ever knew is being turned into ions, and for the most part people seem to be placidly going on about their way, and the cameras aren't really focused on any of _that_.
I mostly thought that the battle scenes were excellent though, but with one irritating fautlt. The "whip-left then zoom in camera" moves. I remember seeing this kind of camera move in Attack of the Clones, where they whip the camera and then zoom in on an assault craft, and in that context I thought the camera move was terrific. It lent a sort of "hand held camera, battlefield realistic" feel to the shot. It was kind of neat to see a similar shot in Battlestar Galactica.
But it was relentless! Literally every sequence had a camera move that looked like this. It got to be ridiculous. Tone back the camera moves a bit, and when you do use camera moves like that, it will have even greater impact.
As for the rest, liked Adama, liked Starbuck, liked the President, not fond of Baltar and his subplot, the cloud-which-kills-Cylons was stupid, the idea of Cylon infiltrators is interesting but could go horribly awry later.
Overall, at least it was better than Encounter at Farpoint or The Naked Now.
There is much pleasure to be gained in useless knowledge.
He's half-right. The missiles, and especially their exhaust, behaved as if in an atmosphere. Missiles can arc in space, by adjusting their thrust vectors, but will undergo constant acceleration, and you would essentially see the missile appear to side-slip, as it would have to rotate significantly with respect to it's velocity to make a major course-correction. Since they always appeared to move forward relative to their orientation, they behaved more like atmospheric missiles.
In terms of exhaust, you would never see smoke trails, or turbulant clouds of smoke. Turbulance is caused by, you guessed it, interaction with the atmosphere. You'd have unlimited radial/spherical expansion of gas in space, most of which would be invisible, and thus no smoke trails. The thrust off the back of the vipers was much more appropriately represented, and the maneuvering jets were close to realistic.
I have not lost my mind... it's backed up on disk somewhere!
If you missed the show like I did last night, here are some torrent links.
Battlestar Galactica 2003 - Part 1 (VCD-TV) dsfgeshgtdfhjfgjg fdhdfds
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Battlestar Galactica Part 2 (VCD-TV) sdga gdsag dsagadsgrgaaarg
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Battlestar Galactica Part 2 (XviD-SFM) dsag 6rutrad reagrehrdg a
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BattleStar Galactica Part2 (DSRip-SFM) as grea agr gsdafewt dsfgfagf agasdfg
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Battlestar Galactica- Part 1 TVRip-LoL dsag sadghyrhres esa gesagsdgrsa gag
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Extra crap is in there because the lameness filter required it.
I thought the "mini-series" definitely showed potential.
First thing, is there is no room for breaking the first rule of good sci-fi. That rule: stay off earth! Earth is boring. We've seen it before. Good sci-fi shows quickly become boring when they focus on earth (Lexx, X-files, etc). Space and other planets! That's where the action is!
Second, the story has more potential than most, because there is no impressive army at home backing them up. Galactica is in an all or nothing situation. While Star Trek was very popular, there was always the prospect of "the rest of the fleet" in case things really got dicey.
These are the two biggest things to me. I can't think of any good shows that really combined these two concepts. Makes it enough for me to watch it.
Boxey is one of the 12 Cylon models. Watch the interaction between him and Boomer again and see if you don't agree with me.
They needed "40 seconds" to evacuate some compartments. What the frack is that supposed to mean? How many microns is that?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
I've seen a lot of what made DS9 the best Trek ever in Galactica: shades of grey. While Picard was lily-white, Sisko engaged in back-stabbing, brutality and (otherwise unknown in Star Trek) self-doubt. Anyhow, this argument has been well-hashed out here and elsewhere about Trek.
.01%, and yet we're still treated to light-hearted B.S. with Boxey and that loveable rogue (ugh) Starbuck. The new Galactica shows people how they would really be: frightened, depressed, and desperate.
What puzzles me watching the new Galactica is how I ever accepted the delivery of the premise of the old series. I mean, the premise lays out 99.99% of the human race has just been brutally slaughtered, and things don't look good for the remaining
Furthermore, as much as I loved John Colicos, the new characterization of Baltar is far more complex. Baltar seems to be a right-bastard, but one who realizes that he is and wishes (vainly) that he was not. Resigned to his nature, he's looking to cut the best deal he can.
They'll undoubtedly lose Mary McDonald before the end of the mini. This show kicks the crap out of anything else sci-fi has; I dearly hope that they chill on the pointless sex scenes, relax on the zoom-focus fx shots, and make this a damn series.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
Why not? Let's spend millions of dollars of creative capital to make a new television series based on a mini-series based on a decades-old television series. Oh, and don't forget to add more lingerie models with numbers for names.
It has to make more money than something original, and that's what it's really all about, isn't it?
Forget creativity, social commentary, meaningful culture or literary achievement. Where's the cash?
Wow it is difficult not to get depressed about the direction our society and culture are taking.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
One the one hand I think that (suspending my desire for it to be more like the original series) they did a decent job at making you care about the characters.
One the other hand, I think that were some things that were changed (from the original) in a deliberate attempt to do the polar opposite.
For me, the most striking of these was the admission that the story about Earth and its location was a fraud. It think tacking this on to the end of part 2 was totally unnecessary, and more of an attempt to see how much they could rub this series in the face of die hard fans (including Richard Hatch).
Oh, and by the way...
I'd knock the rust off that cylon p&**$!
Interesting Characters. The characters actually came off as human, as opposed to the goodie-two-shoes of Star Trek or the one-sided archetypes that plagued most of B5's run or the good-evil simplicity that exists in, well, George W. Bush's world. People do stupid, self-destructive things for delusional or illogical reasons, so it's nice to see that reflected. One event sums it up nicely: In just about any other series, the XO wouldn't have fished that bottle of booze out of the trash.
Excellent ship combat. The part where the Galactia climbs out of the nebula to cover the armada's retreat was excellent on a couple of levels. First, it wasn't just well rendered but also well filmed, by which I mean the staging and the "camera" positioning where very well done. I also liked the approach to combat -- too many series treat their huge capital ships like WW2 dogfighters.
Acting. Olmos and Laura Roslin carried the day, but the rest of the cast was competent, too. This is another one of my beefs with certain other series (coughBab5cough) where some of the cast couldn't act their way out of a paper bag. Granted, they were often bit, guest or supporting parts, but that didn't break the illusion any less.
The only part I didn't like so much was Starbuck. I don't mind that they made her a woman, but really I felt as if they'd written the role and her lines for a man and then changed a few details at the last second. She was believable in the cockpit (her "Nothing but the rain" comment was one of my favorite lines of the series), but had a hard time pulling it off elsewhere. I blame the writing for this.
Gah, that's a long-winded way of saying "thumbs up", eh?
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I'm not surprized to see the commi SciFi channel make this mess of a mini-series. It's trash, and a bastard. But it serves SciFi's purpose - brain washing. Like all the trash out of SFC it is fluff with no personality at all, and leaves you feeling empty. Like everything these days, its only a cheap instant thrill, then leaves you like a one-night-stand, feeling screwed. Everything about this series is wrong. I got an interesting side note on the lead actor, a real jem of a person, EDWARD JAMES OLMOS: "We[hispanics] are going to dominate this country, and it's going to take, the way we are going, another 25 years and we are going to be the majority of people, period!" -Univision, Aug. 5, 2001
> I expect that we're never going to get told why neither side uses kinetic-kill systems for the fighters' primary weapons, although I would guess that an energy weapon will have a point at which the 'projectile' dissipates; a kinetic-kill weapon in space would keep going, producing widely-ranging hazard zones from old battles.
--Actually that could be a *good* thing to write into the series - you would have to have regular patrols to detect/destroy the old kinetic armaments that were still travelling blindly thru space, and it would be *neat* to see a real-time 3D map of various hazards in the sector. Kind of like NASA's (current, sadly underfunded) "space junk" tracking system today.
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
The Starfuries in Babylon 5 seemed to be slightly more realistic in that sense, more wide and tall than long. They were also controlled with double-joysticks. The single joystick controls on the Vypers seemed unrealistic. That's a LOT of directional thrusters to control with a single joystick. But, not impossible probably.
:)
The mini rocked, in my opinion! Looking forward to a series if it happens.
-brasten
One thing that really stood out for me were the costumes and sets. I'm so tired of sci-fi costume and set designers making all costumes out of woven mylar or whatever shiny fabric. Then they make these elaborate CGI cities with spiraling towers and wispy skyways. Honestly, who really believes the future is like that? DS9 tried to break that mold, but failed as miserably as most other sci-fi. The station was supposed to be a seedy marketplace, but instead everyone ended up wearing the same style freshly-laundered jumpsuit but in slightly different colors, maybe with a sash or a hat or something.
BG actually had believable costumes. The characters looked like they were wearing regular comfortable every-day clothes, but there were enough subtle design changes to make it clear that they weren't on Any Street USA. The buildings just looked like regular buildings. It just helped add to the overall experience and I wanted to give a nod to those designers who finally Got It Right.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
And I don't get the complaints about the blonde Cylon. Her mission was to seduce someone and gain access to the Colonial security systems, so of course she'd be designed to be a total babe. She was perfectly and mechanically adapted to that role.
Even Starbuck as a tomboy worked. Nice scene at the card game where she and the XO just stared at one another as the tension ramped up unnoticed by the others.
--- Ban humanity.
The conversation between Adama and the armament merchant Cylon leads me to believe that the war is a holy war. The Cylons have come to believe that they have souls. They worship a diety - maybe a 13th model of Cylon to parallel the mythical 13th colony of Earth? They wish to destroy humanity for the third oldest reason in the history of humanity - ideological differences based on religion. Granted, perhaps I'm drawing too much from that single conversation.
New BSG Mini Review - Worse Than I Ever Imagined
By Chris Feehan (12/10/2003)
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen it yet don't read this...
This has to be one of the worst Sci-Fi productions in history. After seeing both parts of the Sci-Fi Channel Mini-Series "Battlestar Galactica", I was left empty and wondering "what were they thinking?". Yes, I support a continuation and I was not happy about what they had done. But I tried to watch this on its own merits and try to determine if it was any good. It simply stinks, here are a few of my issues on the Mini-Series.
There was very little story, character development, or action for four hours worth of television.
It was boring, not much happened in four hours. The original the managed to hit on most of the major story points and developed the main characters to some degree within the first 90 minutes, including heading to Earth. This one just seemed to drag on with pointless conversations.
The acting and directing during the conversation between Adama and Apollo was so bad it was hard to watch (made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck).
What was with the musical score, it was mostly Drum Beats. Is that the best they could do, most scenes had no score at all. The second part had a bit more of a score with one or two notes being held down, with drums in the background. There was no main theme and I think the 20 seconds they used of the original theme was the best music in the whole damn thing.
The whole idea of the Galactica being an old piece of crap was over done.
The Cylons don't seem menacing at all. They had no motivation to destroy humanity except for a vague implication that God told them too.
All the scenes with Caprica being destroyed lacked any feeling at all, there was apparently very little reaction by the crew of the Galactica, or any of the survivors. After that this trend continues and no one seems that phased by the fact that their world has been destroyed.
On a similar note, I thought Apollo was pretty cold leaving the colonials without a FTL drive behind. Only President Roslyn showed any remorse about it at all. Of course it had to be done, but to ignore the desperate transmissions from the left behind ships and just plot ahead business as usual was just plain heartless.
When some of those ships get destroyed they fade to white... how touching. I would have liked to actually see that, as well as the 50+ Battlestars being destroyed (or 1 for that matter). All of those scenes were conveniently left out, probably to save a few bucks.
Was Boxey a mute, I think he had 1 or 2 lines and a few stupid reaction shots. On that same note, there was very little dialogue at all between any of the cast except Baltar, #6, Adama, and Roslyn.
The mob scene with the Raptor on Caprica was insane. Boomer lands there to make some quick repairs as bombs are falling around them (which they can see and hear, yet apparently they don't give off ay radiation). An angry mob appears out of nowhere and they take the time to write out 100 or so little scraps of paper with numbers on them to have a lottery? come on. Except for the one guy who jumps on the Raptor, none of the mob seemed that upset that they were being left behind. Why even shoot that guy, wouldn't he fall off at some point as they made their way back to space.
Where was the gunplay? Besides a Colonial Warrior shooting a civilian, we didn't see the Colonials have a shoot out with the Cylons, apart from a few lame space battles. The only Human Vs Cylon battle was Adama doing a fist-to-cuffs with a Humanoid Cylon. That made the Cylons a very removed an impersonal enemy, we were cheated from seeing the mechanical Cylons in action.
The space battle at the end was the worst I have ever seen. The Galactica fires millions of bullets at the Basestar. The Basestar counters with 6 or 8 missiles and sends its Raiders out to be mowed down. All we see is swarms of Raiders exploding. When the Vipers launched I was
It seems to me it really didn't have anything to lure me in. It seems the basis of the story (computers gone bad that want to kill us) was stolen from Terminator. It seems the name and the roles were stolen from the real Battlestar Galatcia. The sex scenes were apparently borrowed from the Spice channel (based on a commercial I saw and seeing comments about gratuitous use of sex).
And what WAS the purpose in this new version? Was there a goal? Or is it just to survive?
I mean, in the real Battlestar Galactica we had evil Cylons trying to exterminate humans and our heroes trying to find earth. Although simple, it was a fun storyline. It had a challenge (finding earth and surviving the Cylons), it had a goal (arriving at earth), it had mystrey along the way slowly putting pieces of a puzzle together (the pyramids at Cobol), a religious touch (the city of lights and Count Ibly), and it had a cool overlap in our worldly reality (the tie-in where Apollo almost sees the Apollo landing at the end of one of the episodes was cool).
In my opinion it really had a very complete background and storyline--if anything, it got the short end of the stick since it was canned after only one season and the writers had to finish things up near the end. They could have slowly developed more and more clues as to the location of earth, further explored the development of the BSG mythology (Lords of Cobol, etc.). There's so much they could have done. Had it lasted just two or three seasons I think we would have seen BSG take its proper place among the science fiction greats.
Personally, I don't think we should call it the "Original Battlestar Galactica." If we're going ot prefix a qualifier to intentionally distinguish the two we should call the 1970's version the "Real Battlestar Galactica." I'm not sure what we should call this new thing, although I'm hopeful it will only amount to the two-night miniseries they did and will not evolve into a full-blown series and also hope this new version is soon filed right along side Galactica 1980.
For realistic looking weapons, I don't think you could beat Dark Star's missiles. They look like tractor trailer trailers. Big rectangular solids, not aerodynamic at all.
There are all sorts of other things to hate about that movie, but the missile was pretty cool.
I found all the smash zooms during the space scenes to be annoying. They are ok once in a while, but it was like *every* space ship had to have a smash zoom. Other than that small nitpick, I thought it was very well done and very watchable!
Don't be a neanderthal, there's no "law" that says you can't go FTL. That's like a group of 12th century nerds guffawing at a story about a man who went around the Earth.
"Ahahaha. It's a good story, but of course he would fall off the other side! Try to be more realistic."
Um, I seem to remember several bits of dialog (in BG) about getting "bullets" and such. It looked like the capital ship relied on a hail of small kinetic kill projectiles as point defense. The fighters also appeared to use something like a vulcan canon (shoots a helluva lotta lead and hope a couple of rounds hit something).
funny munging
Been reading Mission Earth? ;-)
Actually, if you cut out the middle four or five books, that's something that would make a decent space opera miniseries.
--- Ban humanity.
Oh lord, some of these comments are really sad. I wish people would just let go and let themselves enjoy a science fiction TV show even if they don't follow all the laws of physics.
Second only to spam, anal-rententive dorks complaining constantly about movies and TV shows are one of the worst things to come out of the internet. There are truly some king-sized sticks up some people's butts.
Boltar's motivation. I don't understand why Boltar would still think he should help them after all, they left him for dead once already.
I just don't think anybody would, especially a genius only concerned with self preservation.
(Did I miss something?)
The term "Action Station". The term seemed a little PC considering they are on a "Battle" station.
They have FTL, they made a race of machines, but nobody has cured cancer yet?
Thought they should have expanded a bit on the Cyclons motivation too.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
The commercial breaks were somewhat longer than usual, but I seem to recall that the initial part went on for I think around 10 minutes before a commercial break, it may have been even closer to 15-20 minutes.
The new improved BSG was great, Well worth watching.
But, did I miss the robot dog thing that the kid had in the original BSG?
I hope they Make a series of it, if they can do something better than the chase - flee - strike simplistic formula from the original. I would love to see them play it up to a full scale galaxy class war - with suns and planets being blown to bits - the mega fire power no SciFi show has taken on since the death star in Star Wars.
And geez, they need to sex it up a little, don't be so prudish!
No doubt. I'm hoping it'll lead to people thinking twice about procreating.
Quite a bit of problematic physics 'tho:
.
-Contrails do not form in hard vaccum.
-A shortwave wireless would be of no use in space,in that the point of shortwave is that it bounces off of the ionosphere back down to the ground.
-The kinematics of the fighters are still problematic, space craft don't make banking turns.
-No networking? Given that even 1970's fighters use heavy networking (F-117's can't fly without networked computers) this is rather dubious.
-The government doesn't use secure compartmentalized sercurity on their mainframes?
-The cylon fighters sould be capable of much greater acceleration than those of humans, due to the lack of the need to protect a biological body from high G's.
-The choppy handheld effects were annoying and anachronistic.
That being said the miniseries was a vast improvement over the original. Any change replacing testosterone poisoned fighter jocks and Cylons (and combinations thereof) with hot babes is a distinct improvement. The plot wasn't spectacular but wasn't bad either. The sex was rather heavy (I'd wondered how much they wanted to sex up Crusade, I wonder no more).
What I wonder is if the series is going to turn into "Voyager: The Next Generation" or "Andormeda:The Next Generation" (the good first and second season Andromeda, that is). If it is the latter it might be worth a series, given the lack of any good scifi series out there these days
Of course, it can't hold a candle to Babylon 5, Crusade, or Firefly and the money would be better spent on JMS or Joss but what can you do?
Just imagine a Joss Whedon Battlestar Galactica!
I say give it a series and give Quentin Tarantino full creative control. In the first episode Boomer meets her twin sister Go Go!
Sound was usually limited to when a ship was right next to the camera and some sound when ships and objects collide (usually a quick camera cut inside the ship to help excuse the sound).
A better model for spaceflight was used in this show. Ships use manuvering thrusters to position, ships have inertia when engines cut out. Boomer and a shipmate escape a wing of Cylons by cutting all power and drifting to Caprica, and restoring power only when the ionisphere is reached.
There do not seem to be forcefields present on hanger decks. Large transparent doors cover a bay in one scene.
Galactica seems to rely on brute force to withstand a strike from a 50 megaton nuke (the weapon of choice for these cylons). No mentions of shields or defensive screens, just a shitload of hull plates.
A fire is extinguisted by venting all air in the damaged section into space. Of course, a few crew are lost when this happens.
Dumb things (just a few):
Galactica needs to pulls it's flight decks inward to jump to FTL speed.
Baltar looks at a nuke as it goes off, shockwave arrives 30 seconds later. This means it's a relatively close strike and he should be dead/blind/both.
We're supposed to belive there's nothing on a 2nd gen viper that is sensitive to EMP. Starbuck shakes off a EMP pulse when more advanced Vipers fail.
Apollo uses some old generators to blast an EMP during a Cylon attack. This fools th Cylons into thinking the ship he's on (a civilian liner) is destoyed. DUMB DUMB DUMB. 1) The civilian ship functions as normal afterward, no mention of systems damaged. Aparently this ship's systems are hardened better than military grade. 2) The Cylons use EMP as a weapon all the time and should not be fooled by such a tactic.
Adama figures out a character is a cyclon for no good reason. My wife and I are watching the show thinking this character has radiation sickness, but Adama (out of the blue) somehow figures out that the nearby space storm is causing his cylon brain to fail. Don't forget nobody other than Baltar is alive that has seen a new Cylon. Adama didn't even need a tricorder. Beat that, Wheaton!
Number Six's mechanical spine glows during an interlude with Baltar. OK, she's a robot, right? But for some reason nobody can think of a decent way to check if people are real or cylons. You would think a metal detector is all you would need....
What I was refering to was the fact that the missiles did not appear to be moving in a straight line, rather, they launched straight out from the Cylon ship then started arcing to their destinations. As has been said many times before by greater minds than mine, there's nothing to bank against in space.
I am working from memory regarding the arcing, but that was the impression I had when I was watching it.
--J(K) DOS is like Unix in exactly the same way that a pinto is like an aircraft carrier.
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
I'm going to weigh in my thoughts:
BSG revisited was a poorly done show period. Too many rip-offs from other sci-fi stories that didn't need to happen why deviate from the
already established story line????
Here's the rundown on the total rip-offs that never needed to be there:
1. The opening sequence gives us a timeline, the humans created the machines to do their work, the machines rebelled, war was waged the humans eventually win, peace. Matrix/Terminator rip-off that never needed to happen. The BSG original story was more creative then that. I mean common, we already had 2 Matrix movies and 1 Terminator movie this year. The original story line is, the Cylons attack a neighbor inferior race, the humans jump in to help, the Cylons wage war, feign peace and destroy the human race. A pretty good story compared to the recent well overused humans vs. their creation. And completely unoriginal (my biggest beef)
2. International space station so that humans and Cylons can keep diplomatic relations... jezz, we barely get out of the Matrix/Terminator rip-off and step right into a Babylon 5 rip-off, did the writers even think for themselves or did they all sit in a room and watch the past 25 years of Sci-fi and just take notes???
3. 6 of 12, blatant rip-off of the Borg, they couldn't even come up with an original naming convention, so we get 6 of 12.... they could have at least given us a better babe....
4. I have to ask this question, they kept the original vipers, had an original Cylon in a display case, but the Galactica evolved to a ribbed Dildo??? The original Galactica model was beautiful, I popped in the DVD from the original series and was amazed by how well the models kept vs. today's CGI standards. In fact, the new Gactica was ugly compared to the viper headed beauty that was the original.
5. Dialog was poorly written, I've read comic books with better dialog......it was hard to believe any of the characters because the poor writing kept getting in the way. Worst part was, yes, most of the dialog was total sci-fi cliche as if they just sifted through a hundred buck Rogers
scripts and took the choice lines.
6. Oh, and the taking down of the humans defenses because they were networked, another Terminator rip-off, did the writers just get back from T3 and decided to use all of the major Terminator plot devices?? It certainly looked like it.
7. When did the Galactica get space fold/jump technology?? Proly right after the writers watched Robotech: Macros... in fact, wasn't that the major plot device for the Macross saga, surprise attack, SDF-1 is the only thing left, about to be destroyed, lets space fold. Oh no, we have space folded to a remote part of the galaxy, how are we going to get home??? So overdone.....
This might all sound like nitpicking, but jesus, they ruined the BSG vision by ripping off every other sci-fi plot device in one fell swoop to what gain?? So that the non-geeks could follow??? BSG was huge in its time, had a large following and they didn't need to dumb it down for the masses.
I just felt that BSG revisited was an insult as a viewer.
You must've liked watching the little girl in the botanical ship get nuked then ...
yikes.
Four weeks, Twenty papers, that's two dollars
One of the changes I heard they made was that they are no longer searching for Earth. That was a pretty big piece of the original story and gave a certain feel to the plot.
What is the new goal? Was it a good change or just gratuitous?
Not to mention, in space, why would you want your missiles to arc? The shortest distance between to points is a STRAIGHT LINE.
I'll start off by saying the only parts I liked about it was the connections to the old series. I thought they handled those well.ie why the battlestar had such old looking tech on it, etc. Above all else it was austondingly boring. Nothing happens for long strectches of time but lame conversations between wooden characters. Then finally woohoo a fight. Watch the missle really slowly fly toward it's target. Watch it slowly explode. Watch people slowly die. Watch people slowly mourn. Sheesh the whole 4 hours could have been compressed into 1/2 hour and would have been tons better. On top of that they have these cool looking cylons but show them for about 20 seconds during the entire thing but show us loads of the sexbot cylons. And don't get me started on the stupid camera zooming around all the time. What did they get that from the "my childs first movie" school of filmaking. The effects were done well
1. They already found "God", and they are simply killing the unfaithful? How else would machines validate belief?
2. If they are confused, perhaps some old leftover programming, ala V'ger, perhaps we will find the old programmer with an odd but similar spelling to Galius Boltar?
3. They are searching for "God", and the machine deduction method figures it can force "God" out into the open by killing his people. Variation of the "Hyperion" story where machines tried to get "God" out in the open.
4. More base, they just want to kick their former enslavers arses.
The big problem is, how did they evolve so much in 40 years? Something went down.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
(no major laws of physics were broken except maybe FTL travel)
I saw SEVERAL physics laws disobeyed or stretched beyond the limits of my plausibility.
1. The viper engines don't need to run continously. Space is a vacuum( very near it, anyway) so:
Newtons first law: I. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
There is no way for Starbuck to lock with Apollo's viper, boost to the required speed and only slightly collide with the bulkhead when they hit the hanger.
The hull plating of the Galactica is MIGHTY impressive to withstand a point blank nuke. They don't state the tonnage, but I have to assume it's at least a megaton since they kept referring to 50 megaton bombs used on the cities.
They used standard earth measurements in cases that would make no sense if they were not from earth to begin with. At least the series used "centons" for "minutes", etc.
I've nitpicked enough on the science, and don't have enough time to nitpick the plot
We're supposed to belive there's nothing on a 2nd gen viper that is sensitive to EMP. Starbuck shakes off a EMP pulse when more advanced Vipers fail. They explained that it wasn't an emp. It was a virus that was introduced into the computer systems by number 6 while she was working for Baltar. The Mk2 viper never had Baltars navigation softare installed.
Actually, are you sure the Cylons used EMP to wipe-out the new Colonial fighters? It actually seems more like they sent out a signal to disable the jets, probably thanks to #6 infiltrating the Colonial defense net a la Baltar.
The thing that gets me is the weird need lately to 'reimagine' things. Even if you do so successfully, what was the need in the first place? If you're going to change something that drastically, just name it something else and don't try to play off what came before - you'll just end up alienating the fans of the original. (Hello, Mr. Burton. Yes, I'm talking to you.)
:)
The biggest problem with this 'reimagined' version of BG, IMO, is that it means there's virtually NO chance now that Richard Hatch's true-blue sequel will ever get made, now. *sigh* I doubt even the Commander Cain-based one will get made, either.
I haven't seen this version, yet (no SF channel at home), but I don't see how it can compare to the original - unless Rick Springfield gets blown up in this one, too.
*Boom* "What was that?" "That, Mr. President, was my son."
That's what you get for wanting Jesse's girl, punk. hehe
An officer boffing an enlisted man under her command. Yeah, that's realistic.
A training officer boffing a cadet under her command, and falsifying test results. And she's one of the heroes. Yeah, sure.
Cylons that hate humanity to the point of genocide, but they deliberately evolve themselves to be so much like us it takes chemical analysis to detect them. Sure, that's believeable.
Cylons so much like us that we can't detect them without chemical analysis, but if one of them dies, its consciousness is immediately transfered to a new body. Guess I missed that part of my biology glass.
The whole "anti-computer network" thing was just shit.
It sucked. Not as bad as Battlefield Earth, but nearly as bad as Meteor Man.
It felt more like a pilot then a mini-series. They left things just a little to hanging to end it there. I was confused when I sat down weds night to watch the third part..and learned there is no third part. Other then that, well done in deed.
Programming is simply the application of logic to creativity
As an aside to my first post:
Are there minor laws of physics that are OK to break?
Yes, officer, I am aware I was creating matter out of nothing. No sir, I won't do it again.
--J(K) DOS is like Unix in exactly the same way that a pinto is like an aircraft carrier.
That said...Yes, the pretty much named off the other battlestars as they were destroyed during the movie. Also, the Galactica was the last of the "old models" while being the former flagship, all the others were replaced with newer "flawed" models...hence they were all destroyed. Note: Not ALL the ships were accounted for...some were just assumed lost [i.e. Pegasus!]
I would have prefered they backed up a bit to the end of the Cylon war just to get to see all 12 of the colonies and the fully operational fleet in action...I know they didn't have time in 4 hours, but that was one part of backstory I always missed...they never get us "attached" to the way of life in the colonies. Especially with this group of writers...they did a great job of getting us attached...then killing them off...ouch!
the curse of good scifi is and has always been it's cost and time required to produce. in time either the script or the effects will suffer over time.
The big battle would have made a good seperate episode or movie, if not for the fact that the humans were totally ass-raped by the Cylons. Lots of explosions and people screaming "WTF" but not a lot of heroics.
"People" using "unnecessary" quotes should be "shot".
Go get the Torrents if you want to watch these shows.
As I write this, part 1 has ~250 seeds and part 2 has ~300 seeds.
wheee
sig? uhh, umm, ok
I'm surprised more discussion hasn't concerned the differences between the allegories of the old show and the new one.
The original came from writers who were mixing the experiences of WWII (pre-war II pacifism, Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust) with Cold War fears about preparedness and the threat of an "evil empire." (the cylons served much the same purpose as the original Klingons in the original Star Trek - stand-ins for the Communist threat)
The new series has a completely different set of themes - civilian authority over the military, over-reliance on technology, etc.
For me, it works. The writers were smart enough to use the old show as a launching point with dealing with contemporary issues.
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
First, I'd like to see a new series. I've only seen a few original eps, so I went in with mostly a clean-slate. The mini-series was pretty good and, IMHO, warrants a new series (hopefully lasting longer than the orig).
Second, there's just way too much nit-picking going on here! Since when has a decent sci-fi movie not had technical or physical goofs or foibles? I mean, seriously? In the orig. Star Trek, the whole rocking from side to side thing would really happen anyway (at least, not to that degree) and they always leaned the wrong way! That's one of thousands of examples (it sticks in my mind because it's funny as hell!) in many different sci-fi series and movies.
So what if the new B.G. mini-series had a few foibles. The original had quite a few, too (and I only say a few eps), as well as every other one.
Face it, if a space movie was true to nature, it'd be pretty damn boring. No sounds (although too many are stupid), no contrails (and he, the missles weren't that visible without them!), no FTL without the use of bending space-time (and look where that got the Event Horizon!), and more. It's entertainment, no reality. If you want reality, watch Fox! grrrr...
Speaking of the botanical ship, that was a reprise from the original series, and before that silent running.
I say Hell Ya!
Now I was too young to remember the origional series, however I have seen a couple of the old, and the whole 4 hour mini-series. Now since I never had an attachement to the origional characters, letting go was not that hard.
After the entire thing was over, I felt that the story was not complete and that they should make more...I also was very impressed with the effects and would appreceate it into a series. Or atleast another mini series...maybe LONGER! (you listening scifi?)
All they said was that "There are 12 models of cylons" NOT "human imitation cylons". Not sure if that was ment to be implied or not (heck they could probably go either way). If the first is true, then we've seen 4 models of human imitation, the cylon ships (should count as one), and the "Upgraded" cylon bodies from the opening (I CAN'T believe we didn't get to see them more).
:)
This makes 5 confirmed body types. If you include the 'original' cylon models (which we see briefly in schematic form, and which are confirmed to "Still exist") then that could make 6 body types. If the Cylon Base-Stars are in fact also Cylons (similar to how the fighters seem to be), then that may make up to 7 cylon body types we've seen/know about.
Just guessing of course
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I thought it was a cool way to show WHY the the battlestar and the convoy got created.. They always said they had to "flee" for Earth, the 13th colony, but this gave life to just that brief intro that started off every one of the original episodes.
We now know that humans created the Cylons, defeated them, and then we reached a truce and left them rebuild for 40 years. They get strong and come back for revenge... That is almost a classic plot right there.
Of course, there was a LOT of religious thrown in, from the Cylons to the Priest... I guess thats part of the plot... Machines find religious virus?
The Characters were interesting... even the change from Male/Female for Starbuck.. I always thought Starbuck and Apollo were a little too chummy, now we know why... Boxy was in the original, so they had to explain how... We know he was an orphan, right? now we know HOW he became an orphan. And the President... I do seem to remember that there was a female LEADER of the colony ships that had to be consulted a few times for transports and such... but the original had a councel of 12 from the colonies, didn't see that here...
I did remember we had the cool Bro, "Boomer" in the original series, but other then a minority person of color being replaced with a minority person of asain linage, there were no cool guys like the original Boomer... I really liked that character, I was disapointed by that change.
Hmmm.. Actually, I don't think I saw any black actors except a few in the background putting out fires and such... ?????
Anyways, a nice way to "re-introduce" the original series... Would I like to see it continue, sure, but how many episodes before we start seeing recycled plot lines from Battlestar, StarTrek, etc...? It pretty much stands by itself now...
BTW... I'm not trolling, nor am I trying to throw out a racist card about the lack of black characters... I just thought it was odd, thats all... nothing else. Not looking for flames...
"SO SAY WE ALL."
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
I was fully prepared for this entire miniseries to suck like a breached hull. However, I was very surprised at just how damn good this show was. I was completely pissed with SciFi for the cancelling of FarScape and the friggin cliffhanger they left us with. However, I think I can slowly bring myself to forgive them if the new BSG is made into a regular series.
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
I have only vague memories of the original BG, so I can't make any comparisons. Having said that, there were some things I liked and some I didn't like about this mini-series. One thing I didn't like was that the main premise is rather hackneyed: "We built some robots that turned evil and now want to destroy us." Even when Isaac Asimov was first starting his writing career, this was an old and tired idea. At least there should be some explanation, such as the humans oppressed them, there was some flaw in their programming, or whatever.
A minor quibble: since they were supposed to be doing it from scratch, they could have left out the references to the original BG. These seemed sort of corny to me, and if I were a big fan of the original series, I might have been offended.
On the other hand, there was a lot to like: good character development, excellent sfx and cinematography, good pacing, tension, suspense. Edward James Olmos gave a great performance.
Also, the sex/romantic themes were not, in my opinion, overdone. The fact that sex played a central role in the treason of Gaius Baltar seemed true-to-life, and was well done.
Sound in space: everybody does it. Nicholas Meyer thought about not doing it for The Wrath of Khan, but decided that the studio wouldn't go for it (and I think the Trek tradition swayed him as well).
Lastly, I liked the palpable tension between certain characters. It's good when not everybody gets along on a starship.
This is a remake of BS:G the same way Prince of Thieves is a Robin Hood movie. It's the same setting/universe, but a markedly different script.
That said, I *adore* the original series, but I also like this adaptation. (Though I hated SF's version of DUNE.)
There are only 2 problems I have with this version so far:
1) It lacks the grand, bombastic hollywood feel of the original. The score isn't memorable. The sets, while good, looks more "Earthy" than the originals. Never mind the lack of "A" list actors. (No, "Stands with a fist" from Dances with Wolves is NOT "A" list!)
2) I'm *not* impressed with the subplots... for example, there aren't any. No confrontation with Sire Uri. No mines to blow up to Carolon. No "Gold Cluster medal ceremony". No Colonel Tigh "borrowing" uniforms... etc. Even the card game where Starbuck punches Tigh doesn't do much.
This script so far has solely revolved around the humans making the cylons. Heck, we didn't even get to see the destruction of the fleet this time!
Still, it's a watchable and interesting adaptation. I say make the series. But give it a bigger budget and cut down on the Baltar-angst-sex scenes with the ghost of Number 6.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
There actually was a full-size old 'toaster' model Cylon Centurian standing in a display case in the "Museum" section of the Galactica: the camera panned by it briefly, I think during the decomissioning ceremony.
:)
But if you missed it, it's okay: it just means you blinked.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
I liked the premise and the physics in space was great. i thought the muting of the sound in space was a good compromise. they had the old and the new cylons and the feel of the series was more modern. in some ways it reminded me of SAAB, and i loved that episode. personally i thought it was slow in some points and didn't go into enough detail in other points, but then again, i think that the perfect episode would be, 1) violence 2) more violence 3) sex 4) sex and violence 5) space fighting 6) sex in space 7) violence sex and space fighting at the same time 8) repeat 1 but then again i like my TV shows to require as little thought as possible as to the people ragging on the show. i have found that whenever someone acts like a critic i remember my own personal saying Those who can .. do , Those who can't ..Teach, Those who are completely incompetent .. become critics, and those that need to be shot and removed from the earth as quickly as possible .. become managers.
While we're at it:
12 months in a year!
12 grades in US schools!
12 hours on a clock!
12 Days of Christmas!
12 steps in the AA program!
12 tribes of Israel!
12 monkeys in, er, Twelve Monkeys!
methinks there are too many twelves about...
BattleSex Galactica.
...
I found myself wondering when the next sex scene would be, and if they could go 5 minutes without one. Wondered if the two pilots were going to have sex through the bars in the brig, but apparantly they had to many personal issues
Several of the characters were so transparent that within 10 seconds of seeing them onscreen, I was able to pretty much guess what they were like.
( Starbuck.. Hmm. Tough girl, pilot, takes no shit from anyone, probably smokes.. ) ( The education minister. Extremly Far Left Liberal, hates the military ) ( The tour guide. Hmm. Actually a plant for the cylons )
They also seem to have a problem with the sound effects / BGM being way too loud verses the characters speaking.
You do realize that in the U.S. the President is in complete and utter command of the millitary, right? The military has to obey the President. I understand that this is a different race of humans, but it's hardly SO not believable that the President is Commander in Chief of the military.
The original posting was talking about space fighters. The point-defense systems on the Galactica did appear to be either mass drivers or some kind of mini-missile system (from the 'tracers'), though. It didn't seem to me that the Vipers had a projectile-based main weapons system, because we a) never saw any scenes of them arming a Viper's main weapons, and b) with the Galactica being slated for decommissioning, and the Viper Mk.IIs being museum exhibits, you wouldn't expect that they'd keep any ammunition around -- they'd have had to go to Ragnar to arm both the Galactica and the Vipers. But from what we saw, they just had to get the systems functional on the Vipers, without needing ammo loadouts; that implies that the Viper's main weapons are energy-based, driven off the fighters' engine systems.
Interrobang?!
I'm not sure what you mean by serious kinetic kill weapons
Well, there's little point in using them against fighters, but then fighters are unlikely to provide a good defense against one.
Basically if you have a decently large ship like a Battlestar, it can only accellerate so much, which limits its range of possible vectors. So you have a pretty good idea of where it's going to be in the near future, since it would take so long to make significant course changes.
Thus, you want to send something to ram into it. The weapon should be as fast and as massive as possible. It's basically just an engine, and whatever fuel it needs. It needn't explode, since the idea is to hit the target directly. It adjusts its vector somewhat so as to stay on target, and the closer it gets, the more accurately it will be able to predict the target's location. It'll break apart at the last second to cover a slightly wider area, and to avoid the possibility of blow-through.
Since relative velocities in space can easily be tremendous, by the time it gets anywhere near the target, it'll hit in moments. Fighters couldn't provide an effective defense. Instead you want to get anything you can in between it and you so that it'll hit the other thing first.
Of course, KKVs basically depend on velocity; they don't have to be all that advanced. Sand, or BBs or such can work just fine. Aiming them is the tricky part, and of course, should something match the velocity of the weapon, it's useless. But this is precisely why space debris is dangerous -- remember the Space Shuttle window that has a gouge in it caused by a fleck of paint that was only 0.2mm in diameter?
the big weapons are all nuclear
Nukes aren't really that useful in space, IIRC. There's no air, so you don't get a shockwave. It's just a release of light and radiation and neutrons. Since a spaceship is going to have decent radiation shielding anyway, I don't think it'll accomplish much unless it's so close that the flash can melt the ship's hull. Might be useful for blinding sensors, or killing the crews of insufficiently shielded ships.
Anyway, my point is that space combat is going to be very different from anything else we've done so far. Fighters will probably not be part of the picture, and are probably only there because of the romantic view people have of air combat.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
I am so pissed the hotel here in Hawaii doesn't have the SCFI channel. I wanted to watch it.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
So is there going to be a follow up to this where we get flying motorcycles, invisible ships, a horde of annoying brats, and really cool wristwatch thingys??
Cool!
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Same goes for explosions, which were still the typical firey red popcorn.
The Prez ordered Adama to turn around. Adama ignored her. Within moments, Colonial One would have been vaporized if Apollo hadn't pulled the fake nuke effect wave. Her first action after waking up from the wave was thanking Apollo for "saving their ass." That seemed like a reasonable treatment of the cause and effect relationship of politicians overriding military experts in a tactical situation. However, the politician turned out right about "war being over" and not having BC head back to the fight around the colonies. The moral seemed reasonable... elected leaders can be excellent grand strategic leaders, but can screw up bad when they micromanage. Leave the tactical decisions to the military.
That's quite a disection there, big guy.
The original Battlestar Galactica had landing bays in its two long "legs." This was very strategic, as the Cylons would sometimes crash into the bays in order to temporarily prevent the fighters from landing. The new Battlestar Galactica also has landing bays in its "legs", BUT they are now open on both ends. Conceivably a fighter could now land by approaching the ship from either direction.
Make that 2.5 hour epic. I was running the VCR when it started. By the second massive commercial break, I turned off the TV and waited until I could watch the whole thing with remote in hand.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Why?
:)
Probably because, look who 'adopted him'.
Okay, now look at all the other relationships that character has, and the comment from the female Cylon that "Love is God". Now add in the revelation from the end of the mini about what they are (even if they don't know it themselves). All in all I'd say they are setting up one VERY interesting plot thread.
Ultimately this is going to help force the question of "What is Alive?" "WHat is Human?" and blur the lines between Human and Cylon which is seems to be one of the things the show is trying to do
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Are you smoking crack? They still had sound in the vaccuum of space. Rocket engines, ships knocking into each other, explosions, guns firing. I suppose you can hear the Verizon Wireless guy out there too, huh?
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
Makes me wonder how the original Cylons ever beat humans, since it is obvious they could never sneak up on us at night (with those red, sweeping eyes).
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
yep...worth it... if they don't make a series out of it then they're stupid..
heck nobody would be THAT stupid would they.. that would be like canceling farscape or something...
Y'know, I thought it looked familiar ... didn't Starbuck nail a chick on the Botanical Ship in one episode?
Four weeks, Twenty papers, that's two dollars
My only complaint has to be the amount of commercials that Scf-Fi put in.
Hi! We here at Tivo would like to welcome you to 2003. We're glad to see you rejoin society and would like to take this moment to introduce you to some of the technology advances you've been missing...
I really enjoyed it. Parts I particularly liked were:
Mary McDonnel choosing to leave a third of the convoy behind when jumping. The writers had almost set her up at a touchy-feely wimpy female leader, but then surprise us by showing her making a hard command decision. Very nice touch. Note like the old Battlestar where the politicos were always portrayed as wrong-headed.
Edward James Olmos insisting that the war wasn't over, but then realizing that Mary McDonnel was right (again, with her seemingly touchy-feely "making babies" point). It's so rare that you see a "good guy" character change his mind because somebody else makes a convincing argument; that's much more interesting than the usual cliche that the good guy is always right about every topic the first time, every time.
The excuse to show Battlestar technology that looks a lot LESS advanced than our own current technology (i.e., so that it's immune from Cylon problems). Clever trick to give the show a retro-look in a believable way.
The weird camera angles on the space shot. I've read here that most people didn't like 'em. I liked them, for reasons others have cited.
I hope that after I die the one word people use to describe me is "resurrected."
Why, you get C*R*A*P!
There was no reason to re-make this show. The original was plenty dumb without the help of today's crop of even dumber television production people.
If you wanted to make a genuinely good Battle Star Galactica show, then you must continue the story that everybody already knows. Unfortunately, this ain't easy with that set-up. Galactica 1980, if I recall, sucked beans. In any case, I always thought the original idea for BG was meant to be a 'Chariots of the Gods' spin on Genesis. But this isn't exactly gripping stuff anymore. The idea of "Humans are of Alien Origin", while interesting, has been explored and isn't exactly current, interesting news.
So what IS current and fascinating. . ?
Here's what I'd like to see in a good Sci-Fi show. .
Star Wars. In a galaxy far, far away. Jedi. Lots of planets. No one big 'Ship' which stands in for the much-loved and oft-copied Enterprise. That has been done. I want to see politics and mysticism done right. I want to see swashbuckling and adventuring across a galaxy embroiled in civil war against a fascist Empire.
Although, I don't think such a show could happen on today's ultra-controled media. Lucas' brain was melted for a reason.
Can't have the populace getting any bright ideas about higher awareness and rebellion against the Dark Side. --Or Old Repbublics transforming into scary new Fascist Empires. . , now can we? Although, I CAN'T think of a SINGLE reason why this might be. .
-FL
Not one comment or bad joke about the 'Lords of Cobol'?
And you call yourselves a news for nerds site!
[spoilers ahead ?]
The ending of this mini-series left me disappointed. It's was definitely a ripoff from the end of the movie "Screamers" (1995), based on a Philip K. Dick short story. The whole cliffhanger was almost identical: we learn that there is a given number of clone "types" (12 in Galactica, 7 or 8 in Screamers), we discover some of them during the movie, one by one, and the very last scene unveils the last "type": garanteed shocker as we realize that it was one of the human character we got most attached to...
Sad.
I would watch it again and again. it was much better than Cats.
Sci-fi always seems to do a bang-up job recreating other works. I think they did such a great job re-tooling this 25 year old clunker, that I would certainly welcome a series. Perhaps they'd run into Archer & his brood, and blast them into bits.
The writers said one thing they didn't
like about the old show is you didn't
know why the cyclons were after the
humans. I still don't. They just attack
after X years of peace. Why?
Schrapnel is a kinetic kill weapon. To me it almost did look like the vipers uses some kind of cannons. Since they still had a Viper wing on board I could see where they might have kept some ammo for them on board until they did the final decommision. Of course they might have also off loaded the heavy stuff first. All in the the decomissioning story was lame.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I actually think that makes that aspect of the show more accurate. The ships are not sitting dead in space, they are moving, so naturally the missiles would need to adjust their aim while in route. Therefore any missle would need directional exhaust propulsion, or even thrusters like the fighters had. What would have been cool to see a missle flip, decelerate, and reaccelerate in pursuit of a fighter it missed. Or at least carve a very tight U-turn trying to do so.
And that is where I think the questionable contrails comes in is to show that alteration of fligh path enroute to target.
That and it just looks cool (not that hollywood would ever utilize an effect merely for looks)
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
I went in ready to hate it based on what other nerds had said, but I was hooked and I AM one of those dweebs who was really into the original series. They kept just enough continuity with the original series that it felt familiar. BG had a lot to draw from and I thought they took some of the best stuff. I did think Starbuck's characted could have been better. Maybe because the orignal guy just played it so well. The sexual tension between Starbuck and Apollo will certainly be less funny. As for the series: Make it so! (Yeah, I know)
In the current atmosphere of political correctness, the character of "Starbuck" as it had been would have had to have been made to be bland as vanilla. In the 70's you could get away with having male characters screwing everything that moved without problems. Kirk's Enterprise was the cathouse of the skies. Now, the only way they could make a "mainstream" TV character hero in the same mold as the original Starbuck without gting hit with protesys of outrage from one or another interest groups was to either make the character female or gay. I prefer this new Starbuck to the other possibility. I'd much rather see a cigar-chomping woman than see Starbuck ranting at Col. Tigh about the BG interior design scheme.
Oh man you trolls are too much. please say more! it KEEEELS ME!
Forget Alien verses Preditor. I want to see Kristanna Loken square off against Tricia Helfer -- no clothes bare-d.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
After that I had watched both part 1 and part 2 I instantly visited tvtome.com and the scifi.com to look up on the schedule when the next part of the miniseries was going to be aired. When I realized that those two parts were it I went like 'WTF?! You can't end a series/mini-series like that' (farscape also comes to mind). It felt more like a long pilot then a mini-series and I hope that they decide to make a full-blown series out of it.
I'd only heard rumors about the new series, for instance, that they wern't looking for earth and earth was destroyed/didn't exist, that the cylons were humans and not machines etc. etc.
I didn't have any problems with Starbuck being a woman, it turned out alright anyhow.
--- No, english is not my mother tongue.
I watched it two nights. I thought there was going to be more episodes, sort of like a MINI-SERIES if you will. They kinda left it hanging a little too much.
As for the vipers - I didn't care much for the little thrusters on the nose. I always imagined that those kinds of maneuvers could be done on gyros.
The new Starbuck had a little of the original Starbuckyness, but it just doesn't have the same effect to see a woman sucking on a big fat juicy one. (I mean CIGAR, dummy!)
> Guess the network needs to cash in on such a hyped
> up event!
Guess you need to put some cash towards a Tivo!
He had some disease that was supposed to kill him. Cancer if I remember right. He was told at some point he only had a few weeks to live. It was supposedly a real close call. Now Benedict is into "new age" stuff. Pops up in off-the-wall infomercials now and then for juicers and stuff.
1. Cheesy captian, in ugly uniform
2. Facing superior enemies in numbers and technology who volley missiles, much in the drunken missile style of robotech fame.
3. Cheesy love interest
4. Civilian population thrown in the mix.
5. Main characters are pilots
6. Enemies who normally appear quite different than humans, have developed human-like clones for infiltration.
7. Air fighter launch tubes of galactica kinda look like the air fighter launch arms of the SDF1
8. Enemy who doesn't understand 'love'
9. Similar chain of command
Not sure if there's really a lot to compare, but was watching the new miniseries and it hit me that this seemed to have A LOT of similar elements to robotech, almost more in feel than plot per se.
The Nostromo is a classic example of unfriendly design. It's unlikely such a design would be very efficient or survivable for the crew or profitable for the corporation who owned it.
Off the top of my head:
- Lack of lighting in much of the Nostromo. They have presumably have gigawatts of power for FTL engines, they go to the trouble of maintaining life support in apparently unused areas of the ship, but they forgot to install lights.
- There is water and steam everywhere. Maintenance nightmare.
- Not only does the self destruct mechanism cause disorienting lights and audio, but it also apparently causes the reactor core to vent into the crew space, obscuring vision and potentially causing third degree burns. WTF?
- Single escape vessel doesn't appear to have capacity for the entire crew.
- The computer 'Mother' doesn't appear to be easily accessible from anywhere in the ship except a special area on the flight deck. Mother seems to primarily consist of a massive number of unlabelled flashing lights. I notice this technology vanished after the first film of the series.
Obviously this was all done for atmospheric effect in the film, but it still defies logic. It is pretty clear that Weyland Yutani never have visits from OSHA. The Nostromo makes a WWII era battleship look like an exercise in ergonomic design and safety.
Most solid fuel propellent leaves a fair amount of particulate matter behind. In direct sunlight, against a dark sky, that would show up pretty well.
It's quite possible to get a curved trajectory from a missile. Vanes in the exhaust stream can change the thrust vector slightly so it no longer goes through the center of mass, causing the missile's trajectory to curve. No atmosphere or wings are needed.
Standard missiles don't "bank against" the air to turn. They manipulate the strength of their thrust in different directions. More modern cruise missiles have wings, but that design wouldn't work in space. Bullets can't turn in space, but rockets can. Missiles, until they are out of fuel, are rockets, not bullets.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
"Actually, are you sure the Cylons used EMP to wipe-out the new Colonial fighters? It actually seems more like they sent out a signal to disable the jets, probably thanks to #6 infiltrating the Colonial defense net a la Baltar."
I stand corrected. I remember that now that you mention it.
In that case, the failure of the fighter craft is even harder to excuse. Every (modern) piece of Colonial hardware are built on a single software platform, and someone could slip a backdoor into this system. Are these people still on Windows? Frak me, the military in the distant year of this show has never heard of hostile computer code? Next thing you'll be telling me they find it useful to cut the corners off of all their papers!
I totally agree that this series was awesome. I especially liked the drum tracks just before engaging the Cylons. You can pick it apart comparing the two shows, but if you trolls just sat back and enjoyed the show, you'd see the brilliance of it.
They weren't arcing, as in gravity. They were all being fired in the same direction, then separating and auto-aiming themselves. They probably used the same missiles for both moving and stationary targets, to the missiles had the auto-tracking ability anyway. You can't recover unused missile fuel, so why not waste it?
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
OK, I'll probably gett modded down for this one, but personally, I think getting some bad sci-fi is better than that desert wasteland of broadcast TV with NO Sci-Fi. Heck, I even watch Enterprise and Jake 2.0 when I get the chance ;-)
I admit that I am old enough to remember watching the original series and enjoying it very much. Of course I was pretty young and would probably think it was pretty hokey if I had the chance to watch it as an adult. I think overall, they did a good job of remaking the the Battlestar Galactica universe.
One of the things I try to explain to people who care (and a lot who don't) is that good Sci-Fi is typically what is called Social Sci-Fi. This is where the author takes an aspect of his society and either extrapolates it to ridiculous proportions or puts it onto an alien species. This way, when he tells the story, we are able to look at that aspect of ourselves a little more objectively. Crude examples of this abounded in the Original Star Trek where we had numerous episodes which portrayed the US vs. USSR in various ways. A better example is Niven/Pournelle's Mote in God's Eye which dealt with population issues.
Unfortunately, most people in this world don't like to think...at all... So, you through in the sex scenes, make Starbuck a girl, add sexual tension and make it more palatable to the Days of Our Lives crowd. Do I like that? No (although the girl/cylon IS pretty cute) Am I intelligent enough to look past it and enjoy the finer points buried underneath? I like to think so.
Consider it the same as the AOL'ization of the Original Internet. Any good and pure thing will be diluted and perverted so that the great unwashed mass of humanity can understand it.
Cheers!
Seems most people have missed the best part: The moral ambiguity of Number Six. It (she?) clearly helps Baltar several times, and even speaks of wanting his love. But it also speaks plainly of the Cylon's intention of destroying Humankind.
Even in the baby-killing incident, there is a hint of surprise in Number Six's face when the neck snaps. I think it's clear it didn't mean to kill the baby.
That kind of ambiguity makes the Cylon's intriguing. The lack of explanation for why they want to extinguish Humanity only adds to that.
I went in very skeptical since I really did like the original series. However, I am now won over.
Boltar rocked. He was a lame character in the original series. I can't wait to see a revision to the "Lucifer" character (anyone notice the robot homage character on "Samurai Jack" last year?)... Boltar is complicated and you actually feel for the guy.
Adama was great. Olmos didn't *phone-in* the performance, nor was it a casting like "hey, let's give Lorne Green" something to do in his old age.
Starbuck. I still don't think it was a good idea to change her gender. As Richard Hatch (the original "Apollo") contends, there were female pilot characters in the original series like Sheeba that they should've cast. However, the actress did a good job so I'm not upset. They really should bring in Dirk Benedict to play her father, the "original" Starbuck who was in Adama's old squadron.
The Vipers. Excellent.
The Cylons. Excellent. Although I'm surprised writer Moore was so candid to announce to fandom that he named "Number Six" after "The Prisoner" which he just finished watching. To say you haven't watched "The Prisoner" before is like saying you've never watched "Doctor Who" yet you call yourself a sci-fi writer (or fan). Moore mentioned he thought in the original series the Cylons were originally reptilian before switching over to being cybernetic; sounds like he was thinking of the Daleks on wheels. Loved the references to the "old" Cylons, as walking toasters.
And the added bonus was that this show did not look like the typical cheapo Sci-Fi Network original knock-off genre flick shot in Vancouver with cheesy special effects. Good job, Sci-Fi!
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
I am as much a fan of the original as anyone, and was afraid of what we'd see given the 'up yours' attitude of the cast and producers. I was pleasantly surprised, and I like how elements of the original were peppered throughout the four hours. I am very happy with it, and I hope Sci-fi continues this great story!!!
Yes, we do hate them. Especially when the kid seems to be involved in every dangerous mission of situation instead of being locked in his room the whole episode.
Plot:
The kid goes on mission to planet crawling with unknown
Kid's pet runs off
Kid follows pet
Kid and pet get grabbed by unknown
The next 40 minutes are spent finding the kid and/or fixing the diplomatic incident created when the pet bites/pisses on the leg of the leader
I thought that this made a GREAT pilot for a series, and just an absolutely flat* movie/miniseries. Hands down, this is the best opening shot for a sci fi TV SHOW in years - way beyond the potential and realised goodness of Andromeda, Stargate, Enterprise, etc... This reminds me most of "what Space: Above and Beyond" should've been, if it had tried to be a little less one-dimensional.
-deano
http://www.shonenjump.com The world's most popular manga, now in English!
Boxey(isms)...star trek tng...that little punk kid engineer...star wars..oh! luke...
having a kid allows for development of the plot...the kid grows up learning every nook/cranny/method etc of how the BSG works...(I know I would have if I were stuck on a ship like that as a kid, instead I had acres and acres to roam around on)...anyway then he can learn his flying skills from the sexy blonde buff chick who smokes cigars and shags like a walrus(did she seem to have finess to you?)...
Yeah the kid will take over someday...just like GenX will take over from the boomers...will or have? Hrmm....
"Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
I'd be happy to see more of this at the same high quality. I wonder if a mini-series is not the way to go, though.
That way the plot can be more intense; they're not forced to show the day-by-day drudgery. For instance, we don't have to see love blossom between Starbuck and Apollo. By the next mini-series, we could have the pleasure of seeing the bitter remains of an affair.
Perhaps people could have found out about Adama's lie concerning earth and we could be seeing the after-effects of that.
Otherwise, you have to get caught up in all of these intensely boring sub-plots and guest appearances. The show could start to take on the hackneyed flavor of a love boat or Vegas. We have too much information about the characters. Not enough novelty.
>You can't recover unused missile fuel, so why not waste it?
D'oh! You are so right.
~==>RocketSHE
Another "thumbs up" for BSG that I've never seen in any other SF movie or television show: When BSG is hit by the nuke and has the hull breach, one of the crew makes a comment about the Galactica being in "a counter-clockwise uncontrolled spin". The physics of the explosive venting of the ships atmosphere affecting the course of the ship is something accurate I've not seen before.
Also, thank you for avoiding the idiocy of having computers "manning" spacecraft! Why would a computer race build a ship that would require a "pilot"? Just do it like BSG did and build ship-shaped Cylons.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
But that's just me.
**Adama figures out a character is a cyclon for no good reason. My wife and I are watching the show thinking this character has radiation sickness, but Adama (out of the blue) somehow figures out that the nearby space storm is causing his cylon brain to fail.**
Wrong!!!The Colonials knew the effect the storm
had on Cylons thats why they put the depot/base there and planned to use it as a fallback position, Adama
mentions it a couple of times, but apparently it dosent work as well on the new Cylon models as the old ones.
Starbuck had her likable moments...
Hmmm, I think you're being pretty generous there. I thought she was wretched. Of course, I thought that before I saw the first episode so she would have had to have done something pretty spectacular to change my mind.
I'll cite my previous comments on her (one and two) and add to them now that I've seen the two shows. As stated in #1, I really object to this idea that a strong woman has to be "in your face". I know plenty of very capable, strong, impressive young women who don't walk around with a huge chip on their shoulder, hoping to pick a fight with someone. I have yet to see someone who I consider to be truly a strong individual who feels some need to yell all the time or put down their superiors. The XO gives Starbuck a hard time over cards and rather than letting it pass, she goads him into a fight where she throws the first punch. What kind of discipline is that? Starbuck's old Viper suffers three aborted launches before she gets a good one. Instead of trying to collect her thoughts, she starts screaming at the already harrassed tech crew who are just as anxious to get her into the fight as she is. At the end of the movie, the XO comes to her quarters and offers her an olive branch. In spite of the fact that the human race has now been reduced to a mere 50,000 people, Starbuck still cannot let her hatred of this guy go. Instead of realizing that life has changed drastically, she takes the opportunity to humilitate him to his face. How does that serve the greater good?
Starbuck really is an awful character. She may have some flying talent but I would sure not want to serve with her -- or have her be my superior officer. You can laugh at the old Star Trek but honestly I would feel very comfortable taking orders from any of the bridge crew. Same with ST:TNG. Shows like Galactica and ST:Voyager and Enterprise offer us officers who seem to be horribly flawed human beings. I would never want to have to trust those people with my life. And it makes me very hard to care about the story when most of the characters have poor character.
GMD
watch this
Why were there two Cylon operatives onboard a ship that was about to be decommissioned?
Why was there ONE and ONLY ONE Cylon operative at the munitions dump? Why was he just hanging out? He'd obviously been there long enough to blow the whole thing to Kingdom Come. Why leave ammo lying around for your enemy to scoop up?
Why was Boomer, a Cylon operative, so intimately involved in rescue operations - loading up survivors from Caprica, searching for other ships to join the convoy? Isn't the Cylon goal extermination of the Human race?
Maybe these are plot holes. Or, maybe Cylon motivation is not so simple. Maybe some Cylon faction deliberately left the door open for the Galactica.
Maybe all will be revealed if this is picked up as a series.
B5 characters were fine... it was the actors that stunk. When Bruce Boxleitner is an "upgrade" regarding acting ability, you're in trouble. The first captain of B5 (who's name has been mercifully driven from my mind) may have been the worst lead actor in series television... ever. Matter of fact, almost every member of the B5 cast that didn't wear alien makeup sucked. From that horrible retread evil Checkov to the Taxi cast refugee the B5 casting director save saved from a decent into staring in porn flicks, they were just hideous.
Well, what I meant was that some weapons might make space fighters rather useless. If there's a wave of KKVs that the Battlestar can't dodge, and which are going so fast that they'd only be in fighter range for a few seconds or minutes (that is, within the area reachable by fighters; not necessarily engagable by comparatively slow-moving thinly-spread fighters), that's bad. And if that's the threat, and it's a realistic sort of weapon to use in space, then you're really going to want to have a different means of defending yourself.
Basically I'm trying to point out that space combat is not going to be very much like existing air or naval combat at all, unless laws of physics are bent so that things like fighters are actually useful.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
As far as movie themes go, the implications of technology seems to be one of the overarching themes of the new BG miniseries.
This itself sets it apart from the original series.
I'm all for adding some thought to my popcorn and entertainment, especially because most commerical action movies are so devoid of any thoughtful plot that I usually forget them after I come back home from the movie theater.
I think that's why in the new series, the villain Boltar was made into a computer scientist, while in the original series, Boltar was a politician.
It may be worthwhile for a sci-fi tv series to further explore an "AI out of control" scenario, like how the new BG is (barely) touching on.
[start rant]
IMO, in reality, politicians and other professional BS artists are far more to blame for the world's ills than scientists or technicians. Scientists & engineers may create technology, but it is usually other people who misuse & abuse it.
Scientists and engineers professionally spend their time on how to think logically and solve problems.
Politicians, Executives, and other BS artists, professionally spend time on how to use other people to solve their problems.
[/end rant]
I think the take home lesson is this:
Technology gives people more power to do good, or to do bad, and to create excess.
Therefore, in our democracy, all levels of society should think more logically, and think more about solving the collective problems for all people. -- Rather than obsess about greedy grubbing at the expense of many, or harming society by doing anything to win politically for short term gain, rather than addressing the long term consequences.
As a kid I was addicted to Maren Jensen. Withdrawal was a real bitch!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Each month of the year parallels the time when the apparent path of the Sun transits a sign of the Zodiac - 12 signs=12 months. The 12 apostles are by Catholic legend one from each tribe. Each tribe has long been associated with a sign of the zodiac - Judah with Pisces for example.
Sometimes I think people don't know there are 360 degrees on a circle, because the Greeks thought a year was 360 days long. The protractor is a model of the path of the sun with the Earth at the center...
Potential SPOILER alert.
Okay, I watched the original series as a kid and loved it. I watched the SF version this week and loved it, too. I thought the older version portrayed with the whole US v. Soviets cold war issue, and this one the general arrogance of modern man. I personally side with the Cylons in their point of view.
I thought the space scenes were cool, except the sound of the directional jets and gunfire. Had they had a shot where a pilot was firing and heard the weapons fire from within the ship, that would have been accurate. Something also tells me two ships colliding at that speed should have caused a bit of damage.
I had a hard time getting passed the Teacher/Sec.Ed/Pres. not being Stands With a Fist, wife of Dances With Wolves. Sort of the same theme, a small tribe fleeing the big bad guys.
For me, the worst part was the actress who portrayed Starbuck. Others say that she captured Dirk's portrayal, but I think it was just bad acting. I also kept catching myself thinking that Macaulay Culkin had finally grown up and was now playing Starbuck.
I also thought the fleet should have remained within the storm several hours more--guarenteed to be no Cylons among them.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
What, no Jar-Jar?
I'm deeply pleased that there was no comic-relief designate being force-fed to the audience, the equivalent of the Jar Jar Binks or Ruby Rod .. the type of character that is intended to appeal to children and otherwise garner ratings from dim-witted twits. Allowing any light-hearted moments to be presented by the otherwise heavy-hearted characters gave those characters more dynamic range and drove home the contrast of those moments. It strays from the mass-market recipe on this, and it's better as a result.
If anything, the Boltar character was the most consistently funny, but in a tragically deprecating way. He's the darkest character so it worked to allow him to be the infrequent goofball. Some of his body language like the head moves were seriously funny once you're watching for them, but there's no gratuitous slapstick and you're not going to catch him on the front of a cereal box.
From the death-to-the-humans dept.
If more of these do see the light of day, the Cylon motivation should prove to be one of the more interesting cornerstones to the overall plot. Components of the machine-against-human thread have played out all over the place, ie. Matrix, Terminator, the Borg, even the replicants from Stargate, the 'original' series.
The twist in this case is that the machines, the Cylons in this case, appear to have developed philosophy, and as a result, ideology, and most interestingly, theology. This makes for some dark comparisons to holy war, and not accidentally.
For twists-upon-twists, it will be interesting to see if the creation of these almost-human Cylon models become their own downfall .. they'll be just soooo human that they'll also be lumped into the you-must-be-destroyed category. There's a graying of the demarcation between humans and cylons, in that both are just complicated machines that are virtually indistinguishable from one another. Perhaps the 12 Cylon models aren't necessarily manufactured, maybe they're clones from a dozen kidnap victims .. at least one from a stripper convention.
There are 12 months of the year, because there are 12 zodiac symbols for the Sun's path to transit. There are 12 hour ticks on a clock for the same reason - each circle is considered a model of the great circle by the ancients. There are 12 apostles because, according to Catholic mythology, Christ choose one apostle from each tribe. There are 12 days of Christmas - one for each apostle. Additionally, 12 is a number significant in Eastern numerology, with a zodiac sign connected to each of the 12 numbers, and through that to each tribe of Israel.
Coincidence? No. Just an inheritance of dodecaphila on down history.
(no comment on schools, monkeys, or schools for monkeys.)
How come they used "frack" and "fracking" but never used "feldercarb"?! I miss feldercarb. I think Starbuck ought to have said it at least once.
To the list of complaints above I would also add that it seems unlikely that people capable of building faster-than-light spacecraft wouldn't know how to make radios that transmitted a clear signal. The amount of break-up and interference in those radio transmissions was ridiculous. And it didn't seem to make it difficult for the characters to understand each other, it just made it tougher for the viewer to hear what they were saying.
It is probably worth pointing out that many of these transmissions are to/from planets that have just had tens or hundreds of nuclear weapons detonated on them. Nukes put out a lot of of EM noise on their own, and even more if they are high enough to couple to the ionosphere. If I was a Cylon, I'd certainly make sure to include a few high-altitude nukes to help cut communications.
Just watched Red Planet again recently, and noted that the reason the ship had to leave soon (ie why the men on the planet had to hurry) was because the Captain had to quench the onboard fire by venting the ship through a port - and it shoved the ship into a decaying orbit. Without enough fuel left to correct it and still get home.
Someone never watched the Starfury combat in Babylon 5....
Burton was the only one capable of putting the goth in Gotham City.
Not to mention Danny Elfman's music.
I'd have high hopes if Burton had made Battlestar.
I loved it but I got pissed off when I realized that Sci Fi realized they could take over some of the black bars for widescreen and use them for promos. It is visually distracting and borders on the annoying.
The other thing I did not like is you barely get to see the Cylons. As far as I can tell the frickin things only show up in two scenes.
Everything else just plain rocked. I hope they can secure a series or at least maybe put together another 2-4 hours.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
Shouldn't we learn from the show that it's imperative that we take our machines off the Net immediately, to be able to survive future attacks? And for phones, we should not only go back to wires, but use handsets like those used in WWII. Then instead of "radio" we'll say "wireless" again.
I'd rate this one a bit worse than most of the Star Treks. Never saw the original Galactica, so can't comment there. But compared to Farscape, or Babylon, or Deep Space 9, this was cardboard. Seemed to owe a lot to Starship Troopers, without the humor or subsersive ideas on the fringe of the story. I liked robo-babe, but the scientist was a pale immitation of the idiot in Jurasic Park. And how many children of the severely acne-scarred do you know who have perfectly clear skin?
The planet-side architecture and spaceship interiors weren't bad. The enemy-spaceships-as-crabs thing - doesn't that go back to one of the original Star Trek races? And are we supposed to know why the babe-pilot-on-steroids is an assh0le to the XO?
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
If that's so, and no one's thought to use serious kinetic kill weapons
You're in space. Space! *Any* mass that you have to heft around decreases your efficiency. And if it's a *projectile* that you're planning on throwing away - doubly so. Much easier to turn on the solar panels and recharge than to mine an asteroid to get some more mass to lug at somebody.
Oh.. and also don't forget recoil. That would be a killer in space when there's literally *nothing* to push back against. Think A-10 Warthog here on Earth (where it has limits on how long it can fire the depleted uranium cannon because otherwise it will literally stall because there's so much recoil).
Yes, but what OS are they running? I bet it's some future version of Linux.
If it's not, just give the Xbox, PS2 or ipod hackers a couple of weeks, and they'd have that Silon temptress running Perl and serving web pages in no time.
Or perhaps it's actually far enough in the future that Gnu Hurd is viable... nah.
"The other thing I did not like is you barely get to see the Cylons. As far as I can tell the frickin things only show up in two scenes."
Actually, you saw Cylons the whole time...Number 6 (of course), the dude who they discovered was a Cylon, and Boomer (a sleeper agent from what I can gather as we discover in the last scene)
We don't get to see the mini-series until January 2004, so I'm interested in knowing if it uses the trendy, "edgyness" of annoying, unstable handheld camera work. Odyssey 5 was exceptionally bad in this regard.
The Steadycam was invented for a reason.
So... Anyone notice Dr. Gauis' last name was Balter.... as in Count Balter... or am I stating th obvious. The one thing to point out is that Balter has the perfrct girlfriend.... She's hot, sexy, now she's ultra-low maintenence... Sex anytime and ANYWHERE... don't have to buy her things...the list goes on... BUT... she's got to have a remote control... With an on/off button and a MUTE for when the ball game's on.... Whaddayathink?
I think that's where they got that idea from.
Check out the story and see if you think so, too.
At first I just thought it was problems in the color controls of my TV, but I adjusted them and there was no change. I'm now pretty sure that Mary McDonnell's doesn't exist in the color spectrum. It leave the impression of "black hole with reddish-brown highlights." But no human being has ever been born with reddish-black hair Is that the real color of dark matter or something? Or maybe Mary McDonnell is one of the 12 cylon models... an early one where they didn't quite have the concept of natural hair tones down right.
Was I the only one who kept thinking back to the movie 'Screamers' ? (1995)
Same kinda plot line - human like robots run amok. 'Screamers' even had a kid robot in the movie too...
and had a wicked ending to it...
http://www.nixflix.com/reviews/screamers.htm
And hey if Cylon Version 6.0 looks like Tricia Helfer,
I can't wait for the upgraded version!
Maybe she could become the hippie cylon: 'Make love not war.'
I know parts of this one are a bit off the question, but I haven't seen a better place to put my opinion on the show.
Relation to other Mini-Serieses (spelling?):
This was the best mini-series I've seen since The 10th Kingdom a few years back, and was almost as good as it. Anybody who's seen The 10th Kindgom will know how much of a compliment this is.
Series Potential:
I think it would make a good series for at least one season. This is partially due to the hang at the end (which is present in a lot of mini-series, I know). Some things could be toned down a bit (none of which I will go into in detail), but even one season would clear up a lot of questions and frustrations.
Graphical:
Awsome graphics. Enough said.
And now for the teenage male approach to them making a series out of it:
I'd watch it even if it sucked, as long as they kept the women in it and it didn't suck too bad.
The only real differences, so far as the original plot goes, is the origins of the Cylons (human made vs. alien made), the length of the war (40 years vice 1000 yahrens), and the delay between peace and stab-in-the-back (twenty years vs. twenty minutes). All the elements were there in the original series, just with different values.
And I'm confused. The humans are supposed to be descendants of the Lords of COBOL correct? Does that mean they are dinosaurs?
Adama figured he was a Cylon because he was having issues at the station. I gathered that the stations was originally built because Cylons had issues with that area. They created a station that a cylon specifically couldn't live at. As for Number Six's spine glowing, you would think that after two years together they would have tried a couple different positions... Wouldn't ya notice something like that? either way, I liked it, and I want to see more. But PLEASE write the thing as a whole, compelling story first, so it doesn't become some episodic crap that so many degenerate into... Tom
I felt that the pacing was a bit slow in spots. I mean let's face it, the entire earth is being bombarded with nukes, everyone you ever knew is being turned into ions, and for the most part people seem to be placidly going on about their way, and the cameras aren't really focused on any of _that_.
Yes, the entire destruction of the colonies was glossed over pretty quickly. I thought that was very, very bizarre. I mean one of the basic rules of filmmaking (we're talking Film 101 here) is "Show, don't tell". Showing the destruction of cities and the terrified crowds fleeing would have added much in the way of drama. Instead we simply get pictures of mushroom clouds off in the distance and a moderate-sized mob wanting to be lifted off the planet. The only two explanations I can think of are: (a) trying to save money, (b) trying not to remind people of 9/11. Whatever the reason, the omission of the destruction of mankind seemed awfully wierd.
GMD
watch this
I took it as both a retelling of the original, and as an original entity....
As far as changes from the original, I didn't find them justified-- there was nothing gained by changing the characters, and the charm of the original was missing. Having the cylons without either a "Supreme Cylon Commander" or a traiterous Baltar at command was bad-- The enemy needs a face, besides number 6, who is just one representative. Even the borg had a voice, which i feel added to their presence. Just having a faceless enemy sending ships didnt' work as well.
Colonel Tigh (sp?) was lame, Boomer was lame, Starbuck was ok, but I still like the old one better. The excuse to change charaters a women to make things PC was dumb, as the old series had Sheba, who was a badass pilot and a woman. Cassiopeia was a strong character, and Athena was on the bridge, and she was hot. Boxie didn't need to be in the Mini-series, as he was just there so they could cram in more old stuff in.
There was just no charm.
Now, taking this miniseries as a new creation-- forgetting that it's Battlestar Galactica. It just wasnt' good; Why should i give a crap about these folks? Why should i give a crap about Baltar? How do the cylons transfer their identities when they are destroyed? Why do we not see an enemy leader? What have they been up to for the last 40 years, besides trying to look like us? Why bother looking like us if we are inferior? Why does every series x look the same as every other model? I have seen worse things, but it just wasnt' anything special. The viper scenes weren't anything special, nor was the Galactica, or the Base Stars.
It would have been better if they just called it something else, instead of re-doing yet another classic series. Most of the changes were lame, as they yielded no real benefit. IMHO, it ain't good enough to yield a series.
I don't see SciFi celebrating the overnight ratings on the show web page. The Sunday full replay won't get them because of part 2 of Angels in America. Was putting Part 1 of BG up against Monday Night Football a bad idea? Any word on what the ratings were?
I'd have to agree. It's going to take months for my "Surfing Lessons" business to recover...
- Sil
"He was a wise man who invented beer." -- Plato
The guy left on the station.
The guy who gave the tours.
Boomer.
(Did none of you actually pay ATTENTION to the end of the second night?????)
I saw 6:
Baltar's sexy lab assistant "number 6"
"arms dealer" that tried to kill Adama
Galactica tour guide
the 2 shiny guards with the pointy metal fingers
Boomer
and of course the old centurion model
I was just happy they didn't have visible laser beams. Sure, they didn't get things 100%, but at least I think they actually thought about the physics issues and made some attempt to play fair while still making it fun to watch.
Um, how about those arcing missiles the Cylons shot out? Looked great, definately impossible.
I disagree. If a computer is driving, and has already computed the course, it already knows when to fire its manuvering jets and can presumeably do so very quickly and precisely. Any curve that can be "drawn" as the resultant vector of two or more primary vectors should be easy for a computer to execute.
Humans, on the other hand, have to constantly "poll" for their poition relative to their destination and make adjustments. It takes amazing coordination and training to do that quickly and precisely, even when you have the friction of a fluid (air) to limit your extranious motion.
Not to mention, in space, why would you want your missiles to arc? The shortest distance between to points is a STRAIGHT LINE. Avoiding anti-missile defenses seems like a good enough reason to me.
Buy a damn book. Start with asimov.. then hit a used bookshop and buy some 1930-40's pulp scifi..
stolen from terminater infuckingdeed...
I really liked the explanation of why the Galactica, alone, survived while all the other Battlestars perished.
(In case you missed it: the Galactica has almost nothing automated, by design. Not even a computer network for the teachers. This was true of all ships as old as the Galactica, but the newer ones have automation. The Cylons, through Baltar, introduced back doors into the software in all the newer ships, then exploited the back doors to simply shut down all the ships. The humans were defeated in detail, with essentially no losses to the Cylons.)
Actually, since the Cylons have spies all over the place, I'm amazed they didn't simply wait a week until the Galactica was safely mothballed, and then attack.
Which raises the question: in the original, how did the Galactica survive?
P.S. I just realized something. There are only 12 models of Cylon. The shiny armor-covered ones are one, the "there are no cockpits!" fighters are another. That leaves 10 that might look human. Of those, one model led a tour group through the Galactica early in the show; one served as a mole and was denounced by Baltar; and one is a mole (and maybe doesn't even know it herself). Good grief! That's three out of 10! Why does the Galactica get so much Cylon attention? (If the answer is "they were worried about the Galactica" then why didn't the Cylons make the Galactica a priority target?)
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Except in Silent Running it was an inside job perpetrated by a drugged-out Bruce Dern and a gimpy little robot...(and *after* he had cut the forests loose)
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
You mean like being forced to do long division by hand, or solving quadratic equations, or *shudder* computing probabilities?
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Sorry, but I can not agree that this show was even remotely watchable. While I did watch the original show, I am not wedded to the idea that it is the "only" version worth seeing. However, I sat down to watch the new one and came away completely bored. They managed to ruin the concept(an interesting feat considering the original show was shlock sci fi at best) and I am at a loss to figure out how they managed that. It was slow, ponderous, and never really got off the ground. The space battle stuff was uninspiring at best, and the soap opera elements (son blames dad for brother's death ect....) made the whole thing drag for me. I could have gone along with all the changes they made to the thing IF they had done something interesting with it. In the end, I would have preferred watching some XMAS movie with my wife.
OK, the "we created AI and it destroyed us" has been borrowed from the Matrix, and before that Terminator, and before that War Games, and before that other antecedents that I'm about to be embarrassed that I can't think of right away. Bladerunner is probably one of them, I suppose. This story line is called "we're afraid of technology." Of sci-fi series, few have presented a utopian future (Star Trek, Foundation); most tell us technology will kill us (Star Wars, Terminator, 1984, Brave New World, Tolkien, Galactica, Matrix, Bladerunner).
I cannot forgive the fembots and the too-frequent sex. Sure, infiltrators are a good idea, but let's not add Austin Powers to the list of places we borrowed from. Again Bladerunner, or Alien 4.
Now, the CGI special effects were no better than anything B5 or Farscape or Firefly have done. But, those shows are no longer in production.
Heck yeah, let's have a series. Though I'd rather it be Firefly, I'll take Galactica if that's all you've got. The characters are solid and so is the physics.
Next sig: "Adamo lied."
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
I knew for a fact I would HATE Starbuck, but this character is a tough and smart warrior, gender notwithstanding.
And I agree with an earlier remark that the way the repeated nuclear strikes were depicted in the backgroun was chilling and very effective.
Count me in as a customer for the new Battlestar Galatica.
Dawn of the Dead
I don't think people know sex when they see it. Sex is cheese. ALWAYS. Real humans use corny comeons, make squishing noises during sex, and are often grope inappropriately. i imagine this will not change in the distant sci-fi future. There are many amazingly sexy scenes in cimena history that do not portray actual physical interaction (see the orig. Thomas Crown Affair), but that kind of romance bores most people and is TOTALLY innapropriate to most sci-fi. I think what we have in this forum is a bloody lot of prudes or inexperienced/inattentive romantics who are blushing so hard they're mistaking "cheese" for "bad". In short, it's OK to be titillated (hee) by cheese, because it's not necessarily bad art.
I guess we now know what the guys who were layed off from SPACE ABOVE AND BEYOND were up to in the interim. If its not the same group, they must have been to thier FX school.
This was a better reimagining than most of the sci-fi remakes out there
He has a dopey "I'm on Ridilin" look about him.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I think Boltar planted a few "agents" in the fembot, too...
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
From Allan Cole and Chris Bunch's Sten series...
Clot this , clotting that...
Has the vocal sound/emphasis built in that a good cuss work needs...
as for drakh (their word for shit)... well... it could work
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Loved the show. There were good and bad things about it (as others have discussed, repeatedly), but IMHO it's a keeper. A series might get goofy, but if they follow the SG1 model(what exactly that is I don't know) it should be good. I worry about losing some of the characters from the mini-series(pilot) if it goes to series..but one can only hope they get good replacements. I hope SciFi makes lots of money off this show and makes a few others(a continuation of Space: Above and Beyond would be rockin').
I've watched all my childhood favourites repeatedly and can hardly stand the cheap(non-existant?) graphics and almost complete lack of respect for the laws of physics that [most of us] follow. New blood please!
OK I know this is almost asking for a flame but if Firefly made it as a series, short lived as it was, this should be given a chance.
I enjoyed the show, it took me a while since I am an old fart and remember clearly the orginal series.
If they make it a series I will be watching it.
> no major laws of physics were broken except maybe FTL travel
to be pedantic it is not against the laws of physics to travel faster than light - only to pass through the speed of light
Definitely too many commercials. If the quality sags a micron that will become more of a factor.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Let me get this straight:
A middle-aged family man and professional diplomat sits in the middle of space awaiting the Cylons, who haven't shown up at one of these meetings in 40 years. Suddenly the doors open, and in walks a sexy woman, dressed for a formal cocktail party and flanked by two huge robot guards. She comes around the desk, plants one on his kisser, AND HE STARTS MAKING OUT WITH HER!!!!!
NO SANE PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE WOULD EVER REACT LIKE THAT!! WHAT THE *$*#! KIND OF GALACTI-CRACK WERE THE WRITERS SMOKING!?!?!
And this doesn't even go into the question: Why didn't the cylons just blow up the station to begin with? What could the point of all that possibly have been?
So I'm wondering: Is there anyone who actually *liked* this scene?
- Mystified in Alaska
Never in my worst dreams could I imagine a show more boring than this. Ron Moore has no idea how to make a sci-fi show... the proof was shown on sci-fi as battlestar...horrible!
- Adama wearing glasses. Give me a break, we built the Cylons and we need glasses! (in TNG we have blind that can see, that's sci-fi - unless we have a good excuse like the Butlerian Jihad)
- The president has cancer, same thing, please.
- Lower than light travel. C'mon! how did those spaceships get there? they took 100 years?
- The episode of Adama trapped with the Cylon. Please, you don't drop a warhead like that! Completely absurd. The following is unnecesary, boring, distracting. If you want to introduce the Cylons, you could do it in a more dramatic way. Even TNG does a better job with the Borg! And Adama kills it bearhanded! I expected the Cylons to be more intimidating.
OK, the guy wanted more realistic and deeper characters, but if you know sci-fi, you don't use these banal tools to make us empathize with them. It's true that it's 1980 on Earth, but these people are much more advanced.
Boring
I didn't care about the characters at all
Sexual tension was dumb
Cylons looking like humans is the epitomy of stupidity. If I wanted to watch Body Snatchers or any one of 100 other "aliens look just like human" movies I would have.
Ruined several old characters for no good reason
The space battles looked like they would be epic, but they quickly turned hard to follow, boring, and random
The destruction of the planets was unimpresive.
No humor at all. Zero.
Many many plot flaws
Did I mention boring?
I gave in and watched BSG and it was ok. The uni's were a bit to Babylon 5 for me but all in all it was better than watching reruns.
My only real complaint with it was that the end of civilation was brought about by a blonde. And history has shown us time and again that it's the brunettes that are responsible for strife, Helen of Troy, Cleopatra the list could go on.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
I enjoyed the original series and was worried about this "version". I have enjoyed this one possibly more. The battle scenes are more realistic and the characters are more "real". I would like to se more of this as a series. I mean if you can get Farscape back, add in Stargate SG1 and this as a weekly lineup. It's all good baby.....
finesse
... was probably either R.U.R. or Frankenstein, depending on your definition of a machine.
>Yes, I remember. At least they aren't measuring >time in "centons" anymore.
:)
Yes, but what DO they measure time in? Durring one scene there is a countdown and the time units seemed much longer than seconds.
i stopped watching battlestar after episode #1. the characters were hokey, especially the asian chick who looked like she moonlighted as a power ranger. starbuck was too much of a bitch, apollo was too much of a stick. the female cylon was too much of a slut. there was just too much in-your-face sexual tension in the beginning, it didn't set quite the right tone for me (i guess i wasn't feeling all that horny when i was watching it). though the physics was kind of realistic, the atmosphere was almost non-existent -- this series could've used a ridley scott.
believe me i tried to get excited about the new series, but i just couldn't. there was no redeeming value watching it, especially with the long commercial breaks (what, you pay premium cable to watch commercials!?). basically, i'm in total agreement with this reviewer
(note that i'm not trashing the new series because i cherish the original series with blind sentiment, for i was a little boy when it aired and can't recall too much about it except for the cool special effects.)
Assuming that Boomer is a Cylon (demonstrated the last scene...), and the Chief and Boomer are more than just kissing, which sexual position have they not yet tried? Or do their backs only grow red during orgasm and the Chief is a little self-centered?
It also implies that Baltar and the other chick were fairly straight forward in their lovemaking (granted there are a million and one other positions, but you probably hit doggie-style sooner than later and they had supposedly been together for two years.)
"The area of penetration will no doubt be sensitive." ~ Spock
My only gripe not mentioned in the many mini-reviews is the exist of the Galactica from the cloud. There was no plausible reason given why the ships had to leave a 3D shape at the exact point of the 2 basestars.
Aside from that it played pretty well for the end of the world.
Also, I guess Baltar just lucked out into picking a Cylon.
We all think boomer is one of the cylons who does not know she is a cylon, correct? I could do without the philip K dick bleedthrough into my candy sci-fi
The creators of the show saved it from being bogged under the mythical mishmash of the original series. The sappy romanticism of the '70s created a Frankenstein's monster of an uber culture. It incorporated everything from ancient Egyptian headdress helmets to classical/biblical naming practices, to say nothing of the Euro/Western-centrism that ignored any strong Asian effects. It laid down a shallow conflation of mysticism and pyramid builder wrongheadedness that was an insult to anthropology. They didn't eradicate it entirely for the new show, but at least they scraped off enough coats to make it tolerable.
I've seen a lot of what made DS9 the best Trek ever in Galactica
:)
There's a very good reason for that.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
Make that 7:
Don't forget the fighter drones were Cylon.
I for one really liked it.. i only attempted to compare it in the very begining but i really like how it all turned out. The only problem i have is that they left us dangling... Boomer... uh oh... watch out Boxie! ;)
Thru most of the show i was imagining that they were attempting to say this was our Future (Cobol=Earth?). This was re-inforced by all the squak-boxes on the Galactica..
I need something else to watch besides SG-1 and Enterprise so this show would be more than welcome.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
Well, consider... if you want to lay down surpressive fire with a bunch of kenetic-kill weapons, you'll need a lot of the bullets. This is space, however, and as such space is relatively limited, and I would imagine if you have a decent energy weapon system you'd have a better damage-to-weight ratio storing whatever fuel generates the the energy pulses. And those sorts of systems are not vulnerable to mechanical jams of any sort, either.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Yes, basicly the fleet is destroyed...the admiral's ship, and many of the others are announced...but there are a few ommissions if you listen carefully...Right now, they leave Galactica as the last battlestar...period. But...they seem to be following history pretty well...so we may see another [this is TV, nobody ever actually dies in scifi!]..we may not. And remember Pegasus [only returning battlestar in the orignial] was actually lost in another mission before the Cylons invaded...we also only see 5 models of cylon...after we're strung along thru the whole thing that there are 12 "types". they leave you to ASSUME they mean all "robots", then at the very end expain that the cylons only consider the "human type" ones to be "real"...and they imitate 12 people...of which 5 are revealed in the movie, but only 3 are revealed to characters!
Yeah, well, uh, maybe, um, they're ... foam rubber powered.
Yeah. That's instant caulking gel. If you've ever worked on your bathroom, you know you can store far more propellant in there if it's caulking gel than any other substance on earth.
Three of the original caulking tubes from the prototype dozen are still giving off effluent. Why do you think New Jersey looks like that?
So, in conclusion, the Cylons, sick twisted bastards that they are, are willing to leave giant streams of polycarbon chains littering the galaxy in their quest to wipe us out.
Bastards have got to be stopped.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
...in the remake, do they spell COBOL right?
Happy holidays, you tv drones! :)
May your brains dribble out on your pillow at night.
Oh! Too LATE!!!!!
I always wanted to see life on the 12 colonies...just because it seemed to be idilic, yet with drasically different societies on each one, yet they freely traveled between the stars. Perhaps if they did a series they could start back a few months and work up to the movie rather than simply starting where they left off! There's a pretty good backstory created in the original they could expand on...and get some extra milage out of the story too. I think the new "vision" was great...they definately did a job as a worthy follow-up to the original.
I seem to be one of the few who thought the new BSG was not only unworthy of the name, but sucked better than a shop-vac with a fresh filter.
Have we all forgotten the way SciFi cancelled 'Farscape' despite its #1 ratings, claiming that it was "too expensive?"
Now, we have a (no doubt -very- expensive) remake of a 70's series that, while it may not have been the greatest thing since sliced bread, did have some rare gems among the episodes ("War of the Gods," with Patrick McNee as the -- very classy, IMO -- villian, Count Iblis, comes immediately to mind).
Where do you think the money to do the new BSG came from?
The original BSG series had a core story to it (the "Lost 13th Tribe") and, I think, had enormous potential that was left undeveloped by the time the series was cancelled. If they'd had better writing -- perhaps even let some of the key actors develop episodes, as has been done with 'Stargate: SG1' -- it would have been much better, and might even have lasted another few seasons.
The new BSG, however, seems to be depending on CGI effects, gratuitous sex, and a "grunge" look to sell itself. As if that weren't hollow enough, they stole the coordinate system from 'Star Trek' ("Cylon fighters coming in at 70 mark 114," or something to that effect), and the ship-to-ship radio sound effects from 'Star Wars' (the kind of hollow effect you hear on the radio voices, indicative of single sideband transmission).
The uniforms look like a weird cross between those used by the 'Eastern Alliance' in the old BSG series and those in 'Starship Troopers' (the movie), and they even stole sound effects (engines, mainly) for the vipers from the old series.
Maybe I'm just showing my age, but the BSG remake made the (very short) list of movies and TV shows that have made me feel physically ill (as in nauseous). Honestly, I think Richard Hatch and Glenn Larson should team up and sue the collective pants off SciFi for this unwarranted massacre.
Make it a series? The very thought makes my skin crawl. Given a choice between the new BSG and 'Farscape,' I'd welcome Moya and her crew back any day.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Great post,
But your sig, made me feel old.
'Less I am mistaken it is from the movie Moving Violation with John Murray, Bills's younger bro.
He went out with a beautiful young girl from traffic school, who was a rocket scientist.
Thanks for the memories.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The original BSG was a very silly series, about one step up from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century." Despite that, it was pretty cool to 10-year olds. Consequently, some might've been nostagically hoping for a rehash of the first series with 21st century special effects. But the first series was a product of its time, and although it had a large cast, my vague recollection was that it largely adhered to the "buddy" protagonist model that ruled in the 60's through the 80's. Kirk and Spock. Gilligan and Skipper. Starsky and Hutch. DeSoto and Gage. And Starbuck and Apollo. But the buddy paradigm is dead, killed off in the 80's by complex ensemble dramas like Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, LA Law and even Star Trek, the Next Generation.
So the 2003 version of BSG was bound to be a huge disappointment to people looking for a nothing more than a buff and shine of the old series. But judged on its own merits, and not as a remake, it's a total blast. With its rather lengthy dramatis personae, it recalls more than anything SF author Peter F. Hamilton's grandiose space opera, "The Reality Dysfunction". My impression was, if you had fun reading that series, you'll have fun with this miniseries, and if not, you won't. Obviously, I enjoyed it, way more than I would've ever thought.
Some of the great parts are mostly realistic-looking space physics, a willingness to not dumb down stock military and SF tech terminology. It had a sweeping epic scope and fairly decent acting for something of this nature.
The bad parts include a too-high ratio of annoying characters to interesting ones, and that whole cancer thing which was utterly irrelevant to the plot just struck me as a stock melodramatic ploy. And there was a lingering sensation that the switch to flesh-and-blood Cylons was done for expediency...it saved money on special effects.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
n/t
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
I groaned and lamented "why can't anyone do anything *original*?" when I heard they were remaking BG. After watching the special about it last weekend, I was cautiously optimistic, but just blown away by how good it actually ended up being. Not perfect by any means, but very good. And after the last little "reveals" at the end to whet our appetites, they'd better come forward with a series and not leave us hanging!
I wasn't seeing Number 6, I was drooling at her and pawing on the floor the whole time she was on screen. Her stills at scifi.com did not do her justice.
My actual remark should have been "... The other thing I did not like is you barely get to see the battledroid-type Cylons..."
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
He's definitely thinking about which way to go. More likely, he's trying to figure out how to make sure he doesn't get caught doing it -- choice of words/inflections matters here.
...while also stating that he "didn't do anything."
He says nothing until his name is called out. Only then does he tell the woman next to him the number and call it out to others.
Not to be heartless (well, maybe I am), but why would folks past a certain age go? I think back to movies like "Deep Impact" where the lottery specifically excluded individuals over the age of fifty unless they were already on the list of useful and important people.
- I don't need to go outside, my CRT tan'll do me just fine.
I wasn't e huge fan of the original BG, but I did appreciate it's campy attitude and quality special effects. I fully expected Sciffy - who habitually fucks up anything good with Sci Fi - the screw the pooch on BG. In the end, I was left begging for more, and I'll be doubly pissed if Sci Fi doesn't evolve this into a series. The ending was a real hanger, and this after they had gone through so much trouble to develop rich characters in such a short amount of time, and make it all believable.
For the posters information, however, FTL does not violate the laws of physics. It's just impossible (or, more correctly, improbable) to do.
I absolutely loved it. I wish we could have heard more of the old theme song, as that was always one of the very best bits of the old series.
I hope like hell that it becomes a series and that they keep the writing team. I also hope that they write out an arc ahead of time and tell a single cohesive story. Not like Voyager where there's one big goal set up, and if the characters ever achieved the goal, boom, end of story. The Gilligan's Island phenomena must be avoided at all costs, but if they can do that, kick ass.
Also, it was great hearing 'frack' on TV again. I loved that bit in the original series back in the day.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
Coming soon to Broadway: The Cylon King.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
What about the story of the golem? It involves the idea of an artificial person that becomes a threat to those who made it and the story predates both of those by a great bit.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Didn't maintain my attention. Most points were obviously and completely subjective. I think your review sukced.
Right. But if your launch pods not in a straight line to target then missiles have to turn to target when in flight. Anyway they have to adjust their aim to moving targets.
Um, how about those arcing missiles the Cylons shot out? Looked great, definately impossible.
Forget the arcs, the missiles were impossibly stupid. Let's see, Cylon technology is, what, let's say 400 years ahead of ours, for argument's sake. But the targeting systems on the missiles are dumber than the US Military has today.
I'm talking about the missiles that went after flares, the missiles that took off after a Viper that were fired at a much bigger ship. We have computer vision on some of our missiles today. This was a pretty weak plot device.
But, that's my major nit, so not too bad overall. Oh, and the sick baby killing scene. The show/series lost my wife as a potential viewer right there, forever, and she was a big fan of TOS. The Phantom Editor could make this into a great 120-minute movie.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Sci Fi channel is NOT interested in putting out the cash to properly sustain a quality series (anyone remember Farscape?). They would rather kick out cheap frack like Scare Tactics, Jonathan Edwards Screwi...Crossing Over, and the new "reality" tv show, whos name I never bothered to remember, to be just like Fox or any other channel. They will ocassionally throw us a bone like Dune or Battlestar Galactica to pretend to be about science fiction, but a series? NEVER! I suspect that at most they will come out with one or two more installments, but that's about it.
I will give them their props, though. Battlestar Galactica was done very nicely.
@ i thouroughly enjoyed the BSG miniseries. The space combat was shown as SPACE combat with fully multidimensional moment rather than as a atmospheric dogfight in a black sky. Starbuck was really cool. The sex stuff was nice, but needs to be tuned down a bit if they want to keep it on the air. i like the story line and the whole dramatic irony of earth being refered to as a mythical colony, it reminds me of Asimov's foundation series.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
They eliminated African Americans from both high level positions - Boomer the pilot, and Tigh the second in command. The former is now an Asian woman/cylon and the latter is a drunk white guy.
But again this is Slashdot, that's probably seen as a good thing around here...
(which is why I'm posting this anonymously so some Mod won't ding me points)
If I had to [pick one unique thing about this so-called mini-series, it would have to be the use of exterior camera movement. You know, the sudden oversweep, then the zoom-at first distracting, then adding to the effect of being there. Ditto for the volley of nukes & crossing trail. Now I just wanna know if Boomer is a cylon...
Without the spoiler, consider whom "Boxy" is connected up with (vis a vi the last few minutes of the second half.) They should have given him a real name though, you know "my name is X Y, but mom always called me Boxy..." "Ok... Boxy..."
Besides, think of every element of who Boomer is "children first" at the landing site, et al. There is no way that she wouldn't attach to one of them, at least for now.
Boxy as a simple DNPC ("Dependent Non-Player Character" for you non role-playing people) for *Boomer* is just potentially *OUTSTANDING* especially later.
On a side note, remember that Baltar picked the guy to blame for the Cylon Device because of his otustanding "blamability" in the circumstances. That that character ended up being who he was is significant to the character development. Baltar sure can pick them dificult situations out of a crowd.
Many possibilities... 8-)
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
The camera stuff was influenced by those in the show Firefly, which is not surprising since the same studio did the special effects and space scenes.
I can only think of one shot that did this in AotC, and I think that was really just meant to look like someone using zooming binoculars on the battlefield (although I don't remeber if they use the same effect as with Luke's binocs from ANH and the ones on Hoth).
"(think they did it in Firefly too)"
Yeah. It was the same SFX studio that worked on the space scenes.
But did you also notice Serenity zipping by in a shot on Caprica?
Ok, so humanesque Cylons are "really hard to spot" and have been dealt the near-imortality card. That card itself produces the only really annoying error in the whole show.
If the humanesque Cylons can only be told from the humans by analizing the post-cremation remains, how can their bodies "upload their conciousness" when they die (from anywhwere except inside the storm)? The power requirements for that alone preclude the humanesque body thing.
How does that reconcile to the glowing spinal cord bit? (it doesn't)
It would have been better (and just as easy) to give them medical-scanner jammers. OR EVEN BETTER give them nonocites living in their spinal-cords.
"We can detect them, sure, all we have to do is saw the backbone out of the accused, section it, and look for bugs." "Uh, that wont fly after we test the first dozen or so... will it?"
Kind of the "cut the hand off to see if there is fur inside" way of checking for a werewolf.
The nanocites thing would let the conciousness be "collected" instead of "transmitted" as well. As it is, once the theoretical sleeper-Cylon wakes up, it (no spoilers 8-) would only need to kill itself and it would have "reported back" with the exact position and disposition of the fleet.
To keep the timeline interesting, the suicide == instant intellegence factor needs to be removed.
Of course, wouldn't it be lovely if the reincarnation thing weren't true at all. Sort of logan's run. Sure, we just get reloaded into a new body. I've never met anybody who it happened to, but I'm sure it happens all the time. How am I so sure? I'm programed to believe I have a soul, it keeps my survival instinct in check when I am sent out on a suicide mission.
Plus the nanocite-plus-collection theory would allow for and explain Baltars hallucinations. When the Cylon protected him from the blast she transfered herself into his body and is waiting for pickup. That is why she helped him remove the Cylon device, how she can move and effect his body, and why she is protecting him but has to ask him things like "what are you working on?" Her nanocites can only properly control the genetically engineered bodies, not a/the real, imperfect (normally variable) body she is sharing with Baltar.
(God, these people should contact me about writing the sequel... I've already got several patch-files for The Matrix, you know "delete battery/power source; replace with "neuro-transmitter farm/factory" etc. 8-)
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Was that the pitch? I like it. Alot. I am a big Blade Runner fan and just love all that 'machines deliberating about their emotions and place in the world' thing. That's my favorite part. The whole 'revenge of the evil machines' thing is ok but it doesn't have as much philosophical meat to it.
I have never liked any SciFi TV series except for ST:TNG, but I liked this movie. I cannot recall seeing such a close Blade Runner rip off before.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
The female Cylon certainly has a belief in God - whatever he or she or it is and takes it seriously when she says, "You don't have to mock my faith..."
It's certainly an interesting concept. The Cylons leave the colonies and find... God? Hmmm... What other plot does this remind me of?
Think 'Trek'.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Given, oh, lets say, artificial gravity and such (which they *CLEARY* had) mass drivers and such woudld be kind of pointless. The same thing that would protect those ships from natural spaceborne particles would protect against artificall lumps of stuff.
And these are clearly *NOT* reaction-mass drives or the fighters couldn't ever accelerate and manuver at those speeds. Sure, the attitude thrusters were reaction-mass, but the main drives couldn't possibly have been. They'd run out of reaction mass far too soon.
Consider "the rain" ("Starbuck... what do you hear?"), what with being in space and having no atmospheric friction to slow THAT debris down, and what with the energy levels required to cut the various ships into fist-sized chunks, clearly the Vipers are protected against simple mass-velocity impacts.
That (then could) mean that the reason the "bulletts" glow would be related to whatever they are equipped with in order to let them puncture the afore-theroized protections possessed by both sides.
The "shots" would almost *have* to be tiny, slow moving (as such things are measured) torroidal envelopes of energy (around a meaty center 8-) that can penetrate the (sci-fi magic 8-) acceleration field that keeps the humans from being ground to pulp and lets the ships accelerate and change directions at those scales and rates.
The blue "exhaust" comming out of the back of the military craft are the "we don't have to clean our exhaust, we are the military damn it" venting of the reactor waste products that exist as the side-effect of needing "more responsive" fields than the civilian crafts. Its in the back because if you dump the high energy exhaust anywhere else, you will have to fly through it and that would degrade the field and raise the energy cost of the whole thing.
Uh, lets see... and the guns stick out to get them as far out of the fields as possible.
And the big guns on the Galicta have those "frames" around them to generate a counter field to let the projectiles out of the big field at the "most reasonable cost not encompassed by our military budget."
In short, physics were butchered everywhere, but if you demand *internal* consistency to that butchering, then kenitic weapons don't work in that universe.
PS and in space, with no medium to carry the "force" wouldn't a nuclear explosion just be a big EM flash and a lot of heat? Down here planetside, its the "shockwave" that does the most ripping up and knocking about. Using a nuclear bomb (lots of energy in a very mass-less package) to move an asteroid (etc) is stupid. (Just like if you just put a stick of dinamite on a stout table and set if off the table is likely to come out "just a bit scorched" and so on. 8-) That's why you need "nuclear pumped X-Ray lasers" to use Nukes against a ship in space. IF you wrapped a nuke in a lot of debris it could be effective too, but it would more likely atomize the wrapper because the energy vs momentum would make an easily defeated plasma ball. But a nice, heavy missle with lots of mass and a fairly mundane explosive is most likely to be useful in space combat. Use your drive (at tech level X) to get through their drive (also at tech level X) and then make a nice "boom" with enough "knock about" to do some harm once you are *inside* the opponents boundries.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Baltar looks at a nuke as it goes off, shockwave arrives 30 seconds later. This means it's a relatively close strike and he should be dead/blind/both.
He was looking through a window. Windows block most UV radiation. UV is what blinds. This is 100% fact, as reported in Richard Feynman's biography. He watched the Trinity explosion with his bare eyes sitting behind the windshield of a truck, because he understood about glass and UV. He was dazzled, but not blinded.
After uncovering the first cylon, they discuss how every part of him was human at first glance. Both Adama and, later, the Cylons, indicate that portions of the humanoid cylon anatomy are still silicon based.
Baltar's reference to cremation was that the gases given off by the initial cylon's cremation gave him an idea about how to build a cylon-detection test; which is why Adama ordered blood tests for the entire crew. (Interestingly, IIRC, the blood tests were done before Boomer return to the Galactica).
Clear, Dark Skies
Oh, so the nukes were on missled that "had to hit" and the armor plating of the galactica was "effective" because, if you want to nuke a ship, and you can get the nuke *inside* the ship, then the ship's atmosphere and structure become the medium that chaies the shockwave.
... 8-)
So the ships are actually deliberately "kind of fragile" in spesific ways, so that if the nuke does puncture the hull and detonate, the energy will tend to want to "go back out the way it came" and the transferred energy in the atmosphere inside would tend to want to "vent" the shockwave in nicely "back out there" directions. So even with a nuke (and magic field thory 8-) you end up wanting the fields working more on bulkheads and structural integrety bits, while you want the hull to be more of a self-pivioting and massless louver arrangement. Oh look, a fountain of fast moving air and dead-people. Do that in about ten more places and we will be talking about meaningful losses!
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Golems vs Frankenstein or R.U.R. According to the stories golems were motivated by supernatural means. Frankenstein and Rossum's creations were motivated by repeatable physical processes (ie "scientific" means). It goes back to the old Sci-Fi addage "Science at a significant level above our current one and Magic are not discernable"
I think you misunderstood when the sex toy remarked that she was number 6 of 12. She meant there were already 12 copies of her - not 12 models of cylon.
Clear, Dark Skies
The thing that I don't understand about Baltar is how Col. Tai and the others just took his word on everything, without any verification.
For example, when Baltar framed the (what he thought was a) human, claiming that he was a Cylon, he made up some story about spectroscopic analysis or something, and everyone believed him.
At the very least, they should have had someone studying his methods, so that someone could take over if something happened to Baltar.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
I definitely remember an ongoing argument between Adama and the civilian council. It was a classic civilian vs military thing.
Clear, Dark Skies
Could it be that there are only 12 human type Cylon models TOTAL, instead of 12 "kinds/variations"?
If this was not the case, it would be kind of easy once the "12" models had been identified to just waste that model when it was seen. It would be a kind of shoot on sight thing..."Ah, there's a "reporter" model. Kill him."
With only 12 models total, the repetition would be much less. And therefore, make it easier for them to do their designed job of infiltration.
Keep in mind that there were only 12 human type Cylons shown...
1 - Blonde Female (blown up on space station at beginning)
2 - Blonde Female "#6" (blown up on Caprica)
3 - Male on space station (killed by Adama, with a flashlight, 0wn3d! lol)
4 - Reporter (from Galactica, left on space station)
5 - Blonde Female (at the end)
6 - Blonde Female (at the end)
7 - Blonde Female (at the end)
8 - Male (at the end, like the one killed by Adama)
9 - Male (at the end, like the one killed by Adama)
10 - Male (at the end, like the one killed by Adama)
11 - Reporter (at the end)
12 - Boomer (at the end)
Students would never screw the teacher to get a pass in the real world, would they?
Oh, and wasn't it during the Kosovo operations that a minor scandal erupted over all the unplanned pregnancies?
Clear, Dark Skies
The cylons most definitely did *not* bank and *did* rotate at a much higher rate than the human vessels. They tumbled at high speed, pointing in what ever direction they needed to fire in.
Clear, Dark Skies
It seems fairly plain that the Cylons have religion. And, at that, they seem to have picked up some form of human religion. There are two major themes expressed during the two "mini-series" (read: pilot) episodes.
The first is our blonde bombshell Cylon. She is rather serious about her religious beliefs and slightly affronted when mocked about having them. And then she says something very interesting: "God is love." Sounds Christian. And it could explain her preoccupation with Baltar loving her.
I believe some have misidentified the Cylon's actions as trying to mimic that which they wish to destroy - man. They want no such thing. But they do want to be one with God. First, man was made in God's image - simple enough to follow (well - OK... not THAT simple). But the next step to being one with God is to love. Again - "God is love." And that is where our fembot's preoccupation comes from.
The second insight to Cylon religious zeal comes from the arms cache scene. Here, the "arms dealer" Cylon introduces the idea of man paying for his sins. And, in fact, paying this debt at the hands of the Cylons. This is further reinforced by the Cylon's dying threat that Adama (and man in general) can no longer run from what they have done. And by that, I believe he's not talking about creating the Cylons. He is talking about all of man's sins (keep in mind his mentioning man clubbing each other like savages early on).
So what is the Cylon religion? Its based on Human religion - picked up during their progress towards sentience. Unfortunately for us, it seems they took too much of our self-lothing nature to heart. They decided they were God's tools and the method of visiting retribution and punishment on man for his sins. And then went about that business. But at the same time, that religion also provides a roadmap to becoming one with God. And that includes adopting many of Man's characteristics (although presumably not all of them).
She explicitly denied he was a cylon: "I've never seen him at any of the meetings..."
Baltar chose him over her objections, because was the perfect scapegoat - and accidentally turned out to be right.
Clear, Dark Skies
Why does skynet's AI in the Terminator movies why it wants to kill us?
...they're box office hits, and someone can come up with a poor-psuedoscientific reason for why computers should be bad? It's not like humans were ever opressed, and still managed to resolve it peacefully, is it? Of course, that'd be about as fun as one of ST:Voyager's long philosophical episodes on the "human" rights of a hologram. Thanks, I'll prefer Terminator or Matrix any day of the week...
Why does the AI from the Matrix want to kill us??
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
What blew it for me was the constant use of the term Solar System for everything. As in, "we have ships all over this Solar System" and "we have to find another Solar System."
There's just one Solar System, the one the Earth is in, which gets it's name from the star Sol, our Sun. Yes, the Sun has an actual name. No, you probably didn't know that and neither did the writers.
There cannot be "another" Solar System to find because there's just one star named Sol.
It's pretty clear that, wherever Galactica takes place, it's not the NOT THE DAMN SOLAR SYSTEM!
So they should not be using the term at all. Planetary System would have been better, or even Star System. Not Solar System.
What really suprised me was how much of drunk our buddy the Col. was and how he treats women in the military. I liked the ending with the revealment of the leader.
I suspected this as well but i couldn't remember if boxey's mother was present when he was put aboard the ship with the other children. His interaction with boomer is indeed suspicious as is his personality but his planet just got destroyed so maybe he wouldn't be acting like a kid at this point.
Well, you see, they do it in fact because they hate you, because they hate the idea that you might be happy. So, they have to put children and pets into their shows, because they know you will suffer, and your screams of anguish make them feel warm, and fuzzy. Like a puppy.
And that's entirely possible. However, as we've seen in the miniseries, the type of combat that they're recreating is roughly analogous to modern naval combat, where you have basically two threats to your capital ships -- long-range cruise missiles fired from other naval vessels, and medium-range missiles fired from aircraft. Fighters remain viable as a weapon in order to either shoot down the incoming missile carriers prior to launching their missiles, or force them to fire at extreme range, which gives the targets hard- and soft-kill systems more time to knock them down. In a missile-throwing engagement like this, your goal is to throw enough targets at the defender to roll back their defenses until missiles start to leak through; defensive fighters keep the launching craft far enough out to keep that from being effective.
And if you think about it, this is the next generation up from the TV series, where what you had was essentially WWII naval combat -- the two sides launched aircraft against each other's capital ships, but if you could get in close enough, the capital ships could bombard each other directly (the solenite missiles on the Pegasus). So what they have managed to do with this is create the impression that the Galactica of the TV series exists as the ancestor of the Galactica of the miniseries by showing some of the evolution of military capability and tactics, without having to rely on wordy exposition -- a much more subtle and effective technique.
Actually, they give that and take it away several times. (In short, they did a song-and-dance glossy Fuax [sic 8-)] News treatment.)
But indeed, you need to watch it again.
Colnel Tie delivers the "at first glance" line, to Adama, who responds with "right down to the blood."
The "blood tests" were never done in the course of the movie(s), as there was no "blood test". Balthar might (may or may not) have faked doing such tests, but it doesn't matter where Boomer was at the time. Baltar aledged (in the brig) he had analyzed the subjects *hair* (not blood) but in the sequence later (just after leaving the brig) in the hall he tells the female Cylon projection/hallucination that he *WILL* figure out a way to test for Cylons.
The clear implication that he "will" and therefore "has not yet" figured out a way to perform the test indicates that the tests were never performed (at least meaningfully). Remember the aledged Cylon (guy in the brig) was aledged as such only because he was an Ideal Patsy(tm) picked out of the croud by Baltar as soon as he realized he needed to get rid of the Cylon Device without opening himself to any form of suspision.
That the man was actually a Cylon is just a "coincidence" and yet not. The very selection criteria that Baltar used to single him out (civilian, stranger, recient arrival, unlimited access to the ship) "just happened" to match the very circumstances of his presence. That is, he looked like a likely person to pin as the spy because he was, in fact, a spy.
But it was just a coincidence sort of.
The inferance we can take from Baltars "promise" that he "will" figure it out is that there is no "just scan them" or "simple blood test" or "existing adaptable technology" for them to do the test now.
Hence the whole ominous part about "there could be another Cylon" (and) "and it could be programmed not ot even know it is a spy." If they had a test (and it worked) they would have tested everyone on-board *AND* every arrival. It would be *FAR* *TOO* *STUPID* to *BEAR* if they tested everybody on board but then let everybody not on board at the time of the test come on and off with impunity. 8-)
You actually have to follow the story, not just the pretty effects, if you want to get the meat of the authors intent. Clearly you missed a fiew things like the fact that the guy was marooned completely without prof. We were supposed to think that that the humans were being unjust.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
And Blathar was *way too smart* to lie to Colnel Tie in the brig. So when he claimed that even the autopsy couldn't tell (hence the traces in the cremation) he would have been *REAMED* if Tie later saw a report from the doctor (really a certanty as the XO) that mentioned all this silicon...
Sy yes, they mention the "silicon pathways" WRT the storm degradign the Cylons, but wherever this silicon is, it isn't even significant enough to show up when you do the post-mortem.
One would suspect a transmitter that could transmit an entire Cylon conciousness back to their [wherever] amid a nuclear holocost would take *AT LEAST* enough forign materials and structures (say silicon) to be *noticable* in an autopsy. *AND* require enough stored energy to beat the noise floor, and that such energy storage would be scanable.
No, it would be much better if the "transmitted back" element were an "article of faith" or "preprogrammed lie for the suicide troops", or at the least that "easy to miss" nanotech were involved and that same nanotech was used to explain the trace differences in cremation, and were it further used to turn "transmitted" to "collected up when my peers find my body."
It would fix several things that make the existing structure hard to maintian in episodic fassion.
Like, why "don't even know it themselves" sleepers at all? Why not ongoing transmissions of intel? IF the transmitter can't be spotted in an autopsy it must use technology that is untracable by the humans, so why not run it all the time? If it is biologically powered then slam back a Caprican-Dew energy drink and phone home.
The "Transmitted back to a new body" feature is good for a movie but it is far too DragonBall-Z to sustain in an ongoing series.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Okay, I've read a bunch of the positive and negative comments, and I tend to agree with the pro-series faction.
I'm a childhood fan of the old show, and it was, in part, fun to see an old relic of my memory resurrected with some fancy new SFX, etc.
I particularly liked some of the homages to classic sci-fi films, especially BladeRunner. Of course.
Did anyone else see Rutger and Harrison while Adama and the Cylon were fighting hand-to-hand down in the boiler room? When the cylon says 'I've seen things you can't imagine'... it's not a rip-off, kids. It's a tip of the hat.
So this gets me thinking, while I'm happily ensconced in my sofa, crunching popcorn-- what's all this about Number 6 planting a chip in Baltar's brain? Do I buy that?
What if Number 6 is really just in Baltar's brain the whole time? Do we ever see her interact with anyone else? (this is an honest question; I don't recall)....
Regardless of 6's reality, this leads me to wonder if Baltar himself isn't a Cylon.
Another homage to Blade Runner-- the replicant who doesn't realize he's not human (or to the Matrix-- the Neo program that thinks he's human).
I'd be pretty impressed if they go there with the series...
Personally I thought the show was great, and this is from a dedicated fan who has a jacket from the original series.
Different yes, though I loved the references back to the old series stuff (the older Cylons and basestars were particularly a nice touch). Well done indeed.
I can't wait to see a sequel!
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
Yes the original was 70's supermodels in space reciting a left over soap opera script while Age Of Aquarius played softly in the background.
But it had a clean visual style from a set, prop, costume perspective.
The new re-imagineered version features a modest special effects update, and muddled style. While the premiss of the actual story is stronger, the dialogue isn't. And in keeping with the times, I think it's appropriate, if not ideal, that instead of supermodels its now "adult film stars." The only thing that's really missing to make it more of the same, only newer, is Christina Agulara's crap playing softly in the background.
"It's like watching porn, only the music's not as good." -- Triumph.
One of the Viper pilots actually mentions that the Cylon ships have no pilots, or something to that effect. We are clearly meant to assume that the ships are Cylons.
1) They only have twelve models (dumb, but who says they would have understood the need for diversification if they also didn't know a babies kneck is too weak to suppor its head. We don't know what they "kenw" when they left after the first war.)
2) They are smart enough that they know humans would get suspicous if they ran into more than two of any one model.
3) At least three models are useless for infultration. (The old centurion models ["they are still around, they have their uses"] would be instantly recognized. The new centurion models, and the star-fighter models, would be instantly recognizable as "a bad thing in general" and we don't know whether the old command-caste models are around, but lets persume not...) so they have at *MOST* nine humanoid infultration drones (if they have NO OTHER specialized models (Miners, Doctors, etc.)
3a) In fact, at the end, they two-male two-female human analog(s) we see in sets has some inferance.
3b) But EVEN IF she meant that there were twelved infultration models (human-analogs) how many could you put out there before people noticed doubles. ("Hey admiral Bob, your assistant looks just like my assistant...?")
So...
-- One sleeper (Boomer) who is programmed (with a bias) to end up mixed in with any survivors so that she can do mop-up. She is going to be biased to old-tech (uninfluencable) support craft with fairly independent mission parameters. Where is she? Assigned to the ass-end of the fleet in the oldest bucket they have in commission, driving a free-roving survey and scout ship. So she is in place for good reason. It totally works.
-- One intercessor. (the red-suit guy they marooned after his "test" showed him to be Cylon.) Dispatched to the (fully armed) future museum ship *because* it *still* hadn't been brought into the defense network dispite repeated dispatches to install those systems. He had been sent there by his people to find out why the Glactica was still independent. [Maybe even to get it into the net as soon as possible, after all, he was doing the musium retrofit work.] He couldn't leave until it was in the net or the attack went off and the bull-headed human (Adama) kept vexing his efforts. So he put up the Cylon Mistery Device but never left. This also works in plot.
-- The one guy at the weapons dump was also charged with infultration of stragglers. Notice how helpful he was being and how useful his arms-dealer back-story would have been for use against virtually any kind of humans likely to find the dump. He was supposed to infultrate and track military-grade armed survivors. It would have worked if it werent for the (unknown to the Cylons) effects of the storm. When his breakdown revealed him as an infiltration unit the plan went bad. Prior to that, all you would want is *one* on the dump. One person that "happens to know" everything about all the weapons there, who would, if the arriving craft were not fully military, be able to become indispensable to the humans and end up installing the sabatoge even as he helped the super-distrustful survivors to "arm up". (There was probably one of "him", or another human analog at each of the known weapons caches. Number 6 had the access to know them all too.)
Law of small numbers combines with likely outcomes and desireable positions to let us THE ENTIRE SURVIVING POPULATION OF MAN encounter !gasp! three whole models...
It's all actually rather a given, really...
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Says who? I saw nothing to support that theory. The had an "eye" but that was just them deploying their "secret weapon" that disables the human's defenses.
The moral of Battlestar Gallactica ("BSG") could practically have been written by Linus Tovalds himself: Dont trust closed source computing, if you want to have truly secure computing it must be open source. In BSG, Baltar is a computer scientist who decides to once again write more advanced programs. Seems computer science was stalled after the first cylon war and AI research is a no no. He in turn confers with his girlfriend (who happens to be a cylon- hello has anyone in the future ever heard of a security check??? and just why are they using the defense mainframe?????? ) who helps him write it. Once the war starts the cylons not only have a complete fleet deployment schedule, but the software backdoors that they have now gotten into every military ship (and many civilian ones) allows them to literally turn the ships off which are then picked off while drifting helplessly. The Galactica is of course immune becouse of its agea and its commanders determination to keep it free of any kind of computer network! Clearly having an open software review process (instead of relying on Baltar and his cylon girlfriend!) might have prevented this. In a similar vein, this is undoubtedly an apocraphyl tale about our current situation where the US military relies on Windows, and in turn MS has shown China the Windows source code. No wonder China decided to go to Linux!
I dont do meaning of life questions.
The pattern of events leading up to this is not hard to imagine.
Man creates machine to do all the crap he does not want to do.
Man wants machine to be more intelligent so he makes it so.
Either by accident or design machine gains a sense of self preservation which develops into a desire to be treated as an equal to man.
Man rejects that idea which marks the beginning of a class war.
During this war machine begins to see itself as superior to man.
The details of these events are not interesting in and of themselves. If there are follow ups to this mini series in the form of a series I am sure more details will be filled in about these events to round out and give context to future story lines.
A couple of the Cylons referenced God and I am curious to see how that works into future story lines. Is this an abstract belief or is there a Cylon entity they refer to as God.
The sleeper Cylons, Cylons that don't know they are Cylons is another idea that sounds like it has promise for future story lines especially since they left you with the expectation that Boomer is one of these sleepers and will have to come to terms with that at some point when she is woken.
Later, Seeker
I ask everyone who wants a series to e-mail Sci Fi at program@www.scifi.com and let them know you want a series. The people against the series who pine for the 1970's version to be brought back are making their opinion known so let your's be known as well.
Nice 'KRP ref in the sig.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
After watching it, I felt like I wanted to betray humanity just to hookup with the hot-cylon babe.
"For example, when Baltar framed the (what he thought was a) human, claiming that he was a Cylon, he made up some story about spectroscopic analysis or something, and everyone believed him.
At the very least, they should have had someone studying his methods, so that someone could take over if something happened to Baltar."
The whole mini series seemed to only span 2 or 3 days so there was not a lot of time for verification and backup plans. Hence the reference by the blonde Cylon that keeps appearing to Baltaar when she commented on the "wonderful Baltaar just throwing a Cylon detector together.." or some words to that effect.
Later, Seeker
Sounds in space not a little odd, hm?
.
Why the hell is there a "Science" logo next to this story? It already has the SF and movies ones, what does this fairy story have to do with science?
Honestly, KFG, I don't know why you bother. If it weren't for your karma; no-one would listen to you at all.
J. Le'Brecage.
He was more than dazzled. All he saw for days (or was it hours?) was a purple blob.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
This "Battlestar Galactica" is much better than "Enterprise" ...
And so was the 1970's "Battlestar Galactica!!"
The lads over at arstechnica also have a review of it.
I'd like to form my own opnion...
The series is only something which Playboy Channel would air.
It should be deleted completely. Don't give it a chance. It's not worth our time.
SCIREV.NET - fanfics,reviews & more
but http://www.galactica2003.net/characters/6.shtml agrees with you that there are 12 models of humaniform cylons.
Clear, Dark Skies
Do keep in mind that while the galactica COULD be bigger, the rule of stealth applies as well...large objects are a lot easier to detect than smaller ones.
Besides, did you see the firepower it put out? They meant it when they called it an enemy suppression barrage...it looked like a hailstorm! I was impressed with that. I was aroused!
The ENGINES are big enough. You need to stop thinking with the star-wars mentality. Engine power/efficiency need not be a function of engine SIZE...especially for reaction engines. What's more important than engine size, is fuel capacity.
They weren't going that fast, BTW...the fighters relied upon the galactica's catapults to get them up to fighting speed quickly, and I especially liked the touch where Starbuck toasted two of three nukes, and couldn't get around to the last one before it had gone by...inertial dynamics at work. I loved it!
I have seen 2.5 OBSG episodes before seeing the new miniseries.
:-D
I LOVE IT!!!
Starbuck rocks
Where's my series?
Logistical Chaos Officer http://www.slagg.org - LAN Gaming in Sarasota FL,USA
I really enjoyed Galactica. They've constructed a very interesting story - one that will hopefully allow for a well done story arc over several years of episodes. I've really missed having a good TV sci-fi that I can watch without my wife commenting on the muppets (Farscape).
What I liked:
* Finally a depiction of the military that was like what I experienced in the Navy. Adama and Tigh's attidude was very much like my CO and XO. The attitudes and language was right on. And finally they showed a few enlisted people that matter! Even the fraternization (the chief and boomer), gambling and Tigh's baiting of Starbuck came off great. Adama was very, very good.
* Adama's handling of the civilian government.
* The cylons. They were damn efficient. Took few risks. They sought the most damage with the least exposure they could get. And they appear to not be one dimensional.
* Boltar - like most traitors, he is not inherently a turncoat, but is being carefully manipulated into that position.
What I didn't like:
* Cheesy internet "teen model" porno grade sex scenes.
* Commercials were too long.
* No next episode yet.
-- $G
I never saw a full episode of the original and missed this one, though I intend to check it out when it's re-aired. But all this talk of Boomer and robots keeps making flash back to Bubblegum Crisis.
It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired. - Robert Anson Heinlein
"I would have been far more interested in watching this new version of Battlestar Galactica if it happened, well, say 25 years later than the real Battlestar Galactica? Apollo and Starbuck could be older men--perhaps the original Apollo (Richard Hatch) would now be fleet commander since Adama (and Lorne Greene) are both dead, and maybe Starbuck would now hold Colonel Ti's position. And you could introduce a whole new line of warriors, plots, special effects, twists, etc. That would have been GREAT"
This is really really a dumb idea. This is the kind of stuff that viewers always send to TV writers and everybody understands this is a dumb idea.
"The sex was especially annoying"
Sex is only annoying in two circumstances:
1) The girl just lies there
2) The girl talks too much.
Other than that, no.
I agree that the new version is over sexualized. Nonetheless, I think the plot device with Baltar and Number Six is pretty effective. It plays into that whole sexuality and shame thing. I was unhappy with the way they cast Starbuck. There seems to be no real place in the new Galactica for serious male-to-male friendships. The whole original Apollo/Starbuck relationship demonstrated the beautiful kind of love/kinship that doesn't get mixed with sexuality. Think "Kirk & Spock" or even "Spock & McCoy". Because the new Galactica doesn't have these type of deep, unsexualized relationships, I suspect that any series that came from it would be doomed to be short and titilating. Lots of eye-candy, sex and action, not much depth. Pretty much like every other modern sci-fi show. It is a sad depiction of our society.
Ehm you do know that Battlestar Galicta started as a movie right? That movie showed the beginning of the journey. It started with a conference between cylons and humans but wich was really a trap. The Galictica is the only one to survive and they set off to first escape the cylons and second to find earth.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Next thing you'll be telling me they find it useful to cut the corners off of all their papers!
Makes it easier to ensure than a stack of papers is all face up. Maybe they run all of their computers on punched cards too...
Um, how about those arcing missiles the Cylons shot out? Looked great, definately impossible.
Nothing impossible about such missiles. All you need is thrust vectoring (fins don't work too well in space) in order to have such guided missiles.
Uh, for the cylons wouldn't firing intelligent missiles be like shooting their children at the enemy?
Applying thrust from the side of the missile, akin to the maneuvering jets, would get you an arc, wouldn't it?
One rocket engine which can be pointed in different directions. Thrusters would need liquid fuel, ignitors and other complications. As opposed to using a solid fuel booster and a "thrust vectoring" nozzle.
I can see Adama using him as Cylon detector:
:-P
"My paranoia sense is tingling!"
Clear, Dark Skies
Maybe the contrails weren't gas. It the chemical reaction used to propel the rockets produced, say, water droplets, you'd see it as such.
You wouldn't get liquid water in space. It would be either ice crystals or steam.
Alright, I'll bow to your superior attention to detail, but I'm still gonna argue this one - Baltar said that gases released during cremation gave him an idea on how to tell the difference - this might just have been a BS excuse to point the finger at the PR guy, however, which is what I thought it was until we found out Baltar is right.
For the rest, I agree nanotech sounds like a good answer to the transmission/backup thing, but I can't buy the article of faith part - the other copies would quickly notice that their brothers and sisters *weren't* being reborn.
The whole "radiation protects us from cylons" thing smacked of Star-Trekism, inventing physics on the fly to justify desired plot results.
Clear, Dark Skies
Battlestar Galactica, in the immortal words of Brian W. Aldiss, "moved like lead and sank like same".
And here I'd thought owners of Star Trek IV: Spock Swims With Whales were insane...
I do agree with you (re: starfuries), forgot about those
(re: joysticks)
Hmmm, there are 6 methods of motion. x,y,z axis straight and x,y,z axis rotational
A joystick allows control of 2. As with fighters, you can put a thumb toggle on a joystick to add 2 more
My first though would be of something like two control sticks with a "mouse wheel" thing in them (bringing the total per stick to 3). One for direction and one for rotation. It may also be possible to combine some of them to reduce the control surfaces and allow for more airplane like handelling. Example:
pulling up on a stick engages:
z rotation AND (z movement upward AND x movement backward both corresponding with the angle of change along z movement rotational... so that in 90 degress x movement from previous velocity vector is 0)
- Sig
They're like little children...going after every small "thrill" in life, breaking things to see "how it works"...but of course they view humans the same way teenage boys view cats! Oops! did I KILL that?
Was this story based in the future?
Because the original was based in the past - 1970's.
SCIREV.NET - fanfics,reviews & more
On a side note, did you catch all the "props" from the original in the museum on Galactica...most of the ship types from the orginal were there...quite cool...
Please stop relying on the titles!
No where is it mentioned in the story what the show is. Are you people that lazy to actually write a decent article?
Have you read my journal today?
Untrue. Go read.
Uhmm... No, I didn't know it started as a movie... I just remember watching the series when I was a little kid... I used to have some type of plastic toy from the series also, but that is long gone... Thanks for the correction, all this time I've been always wondering WHAT happened that they fled and were at war, etc... Now I know... BTW, I was born in 1972, don't know what year the series was out, I just barely remember laying on the livingroom floor as I watched the show with my toy. (Of course, it may have been my older brothers toy.. and I just got to play with it... ) My childhood memory is very fuzzy at times.
Thanks for filling me in...
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
There are other angles of philosophy to be pursued here. The Cylons go "away" as centurion toasters and return with cybernetics so advanced it's hard to tell them apart from humans EVEN AFTER THEY ARE AUTOPSIED. Remember what Baltar says, he actually has to burn sections of their organs and use spectranalysis to determine they were synthetic. That's not Ah-nold Terminator like, that is 4 generations ahead of that. So - you are dealing with Cylons who advance themselves at an astonishing rate in total seclusion. At some point, something had to have happened with AI that was far different than what had come before. It would be interesting to introduce another race, a massively advanced race similar to the one seen at the end of Speilberg's AI - that "found" the Cylons in exile and helped them advance to the level you see - because they have a notion that silicon based lifeforms are better than carbon nased ones.
Ironic considering that Adama killed him by clubbing him to death with a flashlight shortly afterwards... not some high-tech weapon...
They established 12 designs and showed three or so, and Boxy would make a good sleeper cylon (cute innocent kids, ya just gotta save them and put them in secure areas!) Maybe if they make Muffet Boxy can re-program it to become a cylon spy/ninja too.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
"Why? Oh Why was I programmed to feel pain?"
Or you could program them with Asimov's 3 laws of robotics.
I mean one of the basic rules of filmmaking (we're talking Film 101 here) is "Show, don't tell".
there are just so many examples how that is just dead wrong that i won't bother trying to list them. i'll just give you one.
Resevior Dogs.
I'm waiting for the remake of Galactica 1980!
That is all.
Watch the interview with the writer on the SCIFO website. He clearly states that #6 did mean to snap the baby's neck, and that she considered it a "mercy killing", so the baby missed getting vaporized. Personally, as a parent, it was needlessly gratuitous. It's not clear that it's a mercy killing, and even if it was - it doesn't need to be shown. Why not show her running over a dog or killing kittens by throwing them in the lake? I'm not a prude, I loved all the shots down the front of Tricia's dress - but the baby killing bugged me.
> I don't get why the fighter bays have to "retract". This is like the Enterprise splitting in two. There is no reason for it.
It could have something to do with reducing the size of the ship for a FTL jump. One could theorize that the larger of volume of space to be jumped required exponentially more energy. by reducing the external size of ship, they can jump using less energy.
I have a couple of issues with the story:
When Galactica moves outside the nebula to engage the cylon fleet to flee. It would had made more sense to launch all the fighters while inside of the nebula, each equipped with a nuke missile. Upon emerging from the nebula. they would fire the missiles towards the cylon fleet. Each missile would be set with a short fuse that would dentenate between the cylon ships and human fleet. This would temporally blind the cylon fleet and allow the human fleet to jump with fewer casualties.
During the entire conflict the Humans did not appear to use any creative tactics or nukes to engage the cylons. All of the engagments by the humans were pure frontal assults, which typically is a machine like tactic. It seems to me that the humans thought like machines and the cylons thought like humans.
There is also the problem of food. In original series, the human fleet had an agriculture ship to supply a renewable source of food. In this series the agriculture ship didn't have a jump drive and was destroyed by the cylons.
Finally the cylons influtrated the electronic systems using Baltar to gain access to the system software. This enabled them plant system back doors into the human fleet's control systems. What happened to peer review and change control? Code that used for aviation, Military, or other life critical systems always goes to peer review. Its very unlikely that someone would have not spotted at least one back door and shutdown the upgrade.
Finally the cylons influtrated the electronic systems using Baltar to gain access to the system software. This enabled them plant system back doors into the human fleet's control systems. What happened to peer review and change control? Code that used for aviation, Military, or other life critical systems always goes to peer review. Its very unlikely that someone would have not spotted at least one back door and shutdown the upgrade.
Remember, this story occurs in the past, and open source hasn't been invented yet. This just shows the danger of using closed-source code.
Maybe you should look up the spelling of the word "physicist" before you pass judgement on something you obviously never studied. Relativity has passed every observational and theoretical test thrown at it. Much to the annoyance of physicists and science fiction fans the world over.
Clear, Dark Skies
The Vipers didn't use toroidal loops of energy.. they were bullets. As for them glowing... maybe they have partial tracer rounds so you can see where they are going... coated with some self-contained cobustable material. As for them sticking away from the craft. Packaging and safety. Longer barrels mean better accuracy and the ability for higher muzzel velocities. Plus, its probably easier for maintainence to have the muzzle gas vented away from the ship... When you shoot a gun, do you hold it away from your body, or do you hold the gun between your legs and squeeze the trigger? Plus it looks cooler to have big guns. The glow you saw coming out of the Vipers was exhaust... perhaps the engines use high energy plasma as a source of thrust. Simple physics, through out mass one end and the thing is thrust in the opposite direction. The gas-like material being vented on the manuvering thrusters was indeed, gas, being used as fuel. Same as the hydrazine thrusters on the space shuttle. Nukes in space would work... not as well as atmospheric nukes though. You still have a ton of heat being generated, the EMP, plus a wavefront of extremely high energy and high velocity radioactive and nonradioactive matter that made up the warhead and missle. Even if its plasma, it still has mass. Kinetic energy is no joke. I can punch a hole straight through 20 feet of concrete with a marshmallow, provided you let me accelerate the marshmallow to a high enough speed. If you take mass and accelerate it to extremely high speeds, which a nuke would certainly do, that "easile defeatable" plasma would pack one hell of a whallop. You lose any damage caused by the atmospheric shock wave, which is what causes most of the house-flattening of nukes. This is actually explained since the Galactica got nuked yet wasn't turned into bit-sized bits. I don't see how you got off on this field and frame thing... that is Star Trek kind of techno babble.. and BG actually did a great job of maintaining some resemblence of true physics.
"Science at a significant level above our current one and Magic are not discernable"
Actually, it's Clarke's third law:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
I particularly like Benford's corollary to the third law:
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
"a kinetic-kill weapon in space would keep going, producing widely-ranging hazard zones from old battles."
Space is filled with radiation. So I don't think exploding a nuke or two is going to cause "space environmental" damage. Now if there was a weapon that could somehow ignite/explode dark matter, then you'd probably have a problem. Someone get ahold of Stephen Hawking...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
For the vast majority of phenomena, Newtons laws are entirely correct. Relativity simply adds a correcting term to the equations to cover those areas where errors *do* occur - notably when velocities near the speed of light.
No doubt when we finally figure out how to unify gravity with the other forces, and with quantum theory, the laws will need a bit more tweaking for a few other edge conditions. That doesn't mean they don't work for day to day use, because they do - and it doesn't mean they will be proven dramatically wrong, because they won't. They will work just as well the day after the TOE is finally written as they did the day before.
And no one "scoffed" at relativity or quantum theory once they'd read the experimental results. See, that's the neat thing about science as opposed to, say, personal opinion. Scientific laws are externally verifiable, or falsifiable, by third parties - who don't even have to resort to name calling when they do it.
I think you're investing a bit too much emotional capital in the word "law" here.
Clear, Dark Skies
Right. Without contrails the scene where the sublight ships are left behind and slaughtered just doesn't work the same way.
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
I read the baby neck-breaking scene a bit differently. I wonder if she was somehow trying to be "humane" in a screwed up kind of way. She new what was about to begin and instead of letting the baby suffer in the drawn out destruction that was to come, she decided to snuff it out quickly and painlessly. It's horrible and doesn't make her actions any less despicable, but I think it shows some sort of strange Cylon conscience. Or maybe it sets Number Six apart from the rest of the Cylons. Either way, it's intriguing and shows that the scene was not just some moment of storyless violence.
At least they didn't have a robot-dog-koala-thingy this time around.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
The "race" at the end of Spielberg's AI were merely more advanced robots, all that's left after the humans died out. The robots kept building more and better versions, and after the humans were gone, the robots were the only civilization left on Earth. This has been pretty well hashed over in reviews of AI as well as in the bonus material that came with the AI DVD.
I really think the scene with the baby was an attempt at compassion (from a Cylon mind.) Consider: 6 Knew that a nuclear attack was about to happen. While that might guarantee the death of the child, it by no means guarantees that the death will be instant or painless. The baby could have been: -savagely burned; -shredded by flying debris; -trapped under rubble to die of thirst or internal bleeding; -killed by radiation. Perhaps the Cylon considered it an act of mercy. I do not suggest that was actually merciful, only that the Cylon might have perceived it to be merciful.
The fact that they couldn't find it is the blooper. For the effect to work on the new Cylons, there'd have to be some of the old tech in them, or something similar.
As to that last part, I wasn't quite clear, the her I meant was Boomer. Her group joined Adama's forces at the ammo dump, yet her time spent there seemed to have no effect, while the 'arms dealer' was affected rather rapidly. The doctor's chip is a curious question too, it was never quite established how he was in contact with that Cylon, but one would assume some tech was added, and like Boomer, he joined Adama at the ammo dump.
Field and Frame as in "relativity". Simple physics? provide one means for the vipers manuverability and one way to store and accelerate enough mass to achieve that manuverability that wouldnt be ejecting the mass so fast that it would compromise the landing bays (etc.)
Explain the "slow moving" debris from the "Fast moving" explosions.
Sorry, there *has* to be a "magic field" or the whole thing falls apart. That *these* magic fields more closely aproximate physics than Star Trek is an obvious given. But without them, a purely physical model crashes and burns immediately.
and before you get too knotted up about it, they demonstrably had artificial gravity which is about as field theory as it gets.
As for those things being "bullets", by the simple definition they were just that, i.e. "some sort of projectile". What sort exactly is where the fun comes in.
With "acceleration shielding" (whatever keeps people != jell-o when changing directions at those rates) (and made debris less-than-instantly-fatal) comes the need for high-tech bulletts.
These just are the rules. If your definition of "good physics" stops sharply at "didn't swoop and make noise in vaccuum" then I am wrong. If, however, you take the scenes wholisticly (e.g. pay attention to all evidence presented) then there was something happening there, and there was also something to explain about the bulletts. These were not "tracers" nor "simple slugs." Sorry, that just wont fly as shown.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Machines killing humans deliberately defy Asimov's 3 "Laws" of Robotics.
Perhaps the latest generation of sci-fi writers prefers to think of these as just "rules".
Did anyone else think that the theme music was a lot like "Homeworld" (the first one, I still haven't tried the second one).
Stem
Unfortunatley, us people in Toronto, Ontario Canada did not get to see the Mini-Series. Unless some of us had an illegal dish. Does anyone know is Space-the Imagination Station will be airing it in T.O. I would like to see it and look forward to a series.
Kevin
The new Battlestar Galactica looks like Babylon 5 tastes like Babylon 5 and they work all the cliche's of the new Sci-Fi four youngsters focus groups. Leader=Pompous. Pilot=Clean-cut and sexy. Guns=Big and noisy. Kids=Smart, honest, prodigys. Woman=Just as good as men, even better. Force Commander=Ethnic. Love=Not really. Sex=Really. I just wonder nobody feels like part of some focus group of key-demo campaign when promoting the show.
- these are not the droids you are looking for -
with all this talk of kinetic weapons & vector thrusting for movement, it sure does remind me of Homeworld. But then, homeworld drew heavily from BSG. its kinda funny that some features of homeworld are now in BSG