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New Battlestar Galactica Series Starts Tonight
Snaller writes "Tonight the Scifi channel begins airing the new reimaged Battlestar Galactica series. Having run to rave reviews in the UK, the new series is darker and grittier than the original, and showrunner Ron Moore aims for a more adult narrative with comments on issues such as terrorism, security, freedom, religion and what it means to be human in a series which is essentially one long story arc. The entire cast from the 2003 mini series is back and the first episode, called '33', picks up almost where the mini series left off: The humans are still on the run, but each time they come out of hyperspace, the Cylon armada catches up 33 minutes later ... every 33 minutes. When we join the crew this has been going on for five days."
BattleStar Galactica episodes on btefnet
The story of 33
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
Ask, and ye shall receive.
Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
They've been playing it all week (as well as the origina 70s series as well as the one in 80), and I thought you'd missed it, however, it looks like there'll be a chance to catch the miniseries again Sunday night. From AICN:
"Battlestar Galactica" 2003 Miniseries:
Jan. 8 8pm-11pm NBC: 3-Hour Version
Jan. 11 9pm-11pm SciFi: Part One
Jan. 12 7pm-9pm SciFi: Part One
Jan. 12 9pm-11pm SciFi: Part Two
Jan. 16 3pm-5pm SciFi: Part One
Jan. 16 5pm-7pm SciFi: Part Two
Showrunner Ron Moore has started a blog where he comments on each episode - here is his comment on Why 33 ?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
They don't have anything close to enough crew to man all action stations in shifts. This is consistent with Navy procedures; when you're in active combat, nobody's in his rack. Everybody's got a job to do, and everybody does it.
So yeah, this was actually completely realistic. In fact, it was a level of attention to detail that impressed the hell out of me.
The mini-series pilot was released in Canada in summer 2003. atings were good enough to make a series out of it. Because of the expense, a British station helped fund the show on the condition that they air it first.
In December 2003, the pilot showed in the US and UK. Starting in January, the mini-series episodes (of which 13 have been produced) started airing.
Last weekend, NBC aired an edited (cut from 4 hours to 3) pilot at primetime. The Sci-Fi channel (owned by Universal [which owns NBC as well]) is showing in two parts, the origional, full pilot. It is also showing old episodes of the original show. The new version is going to start being aired in the US now as mentioned in the story.
The producers made a plea on one of the Sci-fi Channel web forums to not download the show since the survival of the series (i.e. Season 2) of course depends on ratings. Even with a business degree, I simply cannot understand why companies stagger the release dates on movies, music, or software so much. Let both sides of the pond see the series at the same time and you'll get the viewers and won't screw yourself since people will get the content they want anyway. In the binary newsgroups (alt.binaries.dvdr) someone has posted 3 DVDs of the series (each containing 3 episodes) with some pretty good menus. I've watched them and think it is a well done series, and think '33' is a good first episode. Even after seeing it, I will have my TIVO pick up the episodes since I know TIVO collects anonymous statistics for the ratings systems. To make sure the show is recorded as being played, I'll just start the episode before turning off my TV for the day, ensuring that it gets marked as being watched, with even commercials being displayed at normal speed!
At least the studio talking heads are not pulling some bonehead move like they did with 'Firefly' in that the episodes were all resead out of order, thus cunfusing the initial audience and obviously causing an untimely death. Maybe with the movie, the series might have a new chance at life if it does well.
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
Is this show any good?
It depends.
If you want to see something like the original series, but updated with modern effects, you'll be disappointed. They reinvented everything about the battlestar galactica universe. Now, I personally think this series is FAR better than the original series, even if you strip out the excellent special effects. But there are people who liked the original series just as it was, and feel offended by this new series basically saying that TOS sucked ass and nothing good could be done storywise with it in a new series.
If you like technobabble, cool futuristic technology, outlandish sci-fi concepts (like otherdimensional beings, time travel, and so on...), then you won't like this series. The galactica is ancient tech, think wired phonelines, simple CRT screens, and dated, low-tech, fighter spacecraft. It's even suffering from metal fatigue, being scheduled for decommissioning when it is forced into being the ill-equipped defender of what's left of humanity. This is on purpose. The humans are the centerpoint of the show, and the show deals primarily with humanity. The humans can't find a "technological" solution to their problems, and it's their humanity that in the end has to save them, not how well they can use tachyon particles. So, although there is FTL drive, it is in the series only because in space you can't get around without it, and is employed very sparingly (first episode excepted). There are no food generators, no transporters, no force fields, and no advanced particle weapons (they use regular bullet-spewing guns and rockets). If you need the sci-fi to be really sci, you won't enjoy this at all.
If however, you like a show with characters that aren't completely one dimensional and experience some small modicum of personal growth, a plot that isn't totally obvious or contrived, and a general focus on humanity on the brink of destruction/salvation, involving faith and love as core elements of the plot, then you'll like this show, as I do.
Watch the first episode. If it draws you in and makes you jump to the edge of your seat every time the 33 minutes are up, then you'll enjoy the rest of the season. If it doesn't do anything for you, don't bother with the rest.