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Sci-Fi Channel Renews Battlestar Galactica
Chairboy writes "The Sci-Fi Channel has just announced the renewal of Battlestar Galactica for a second season. The creator of the show has announced that the second season will delve into the religious issues surrounding the Cylons in addition to opening up their society more. The latest episode had 3.2 million viewers, almost twice as many as watched the latest episode of Star Trek Enterprise." I said it before, and I'll say it again- this is the best Sci Fi program currently airing, so I'm happy to see more.
I remember whan Starbuck wasn't an overpriced coffee.
I was sure they'll cancel this show and replace it with some stupid bullshit whose target audiance can't operate p2p programs.
that the people tirelessly campaigning for the renewal of Battlestar Galactica have finally won, but "religious issues"? Is that really necessary in science fiction?
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
It reminded me of when I was a little kid watching stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek, all the old Sci-Fi stuff like MST/Lost in Space.
Just a good solid Sci-Fi series in my opinion, nothing over the top, knows what it is and doesn't try to jump ahead of itself.
Two thumbs up here.
All your base are belong to Google.
BG is dirty, gritty and believable. The religion question concerning the Cylons is interesting because in the original mini-series there were some references to God by the cylon woman which left me scratching my head.
Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
I don't get it, how is 3.2 millions almost twice the 2 StarTrek fans?
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Yeah, I'm rooting for them, actually.
How long before we have a BG Technical Guide like the one for Classic ST?
Being in the UK I have seen all 13 episodes, the ending of season 1 is amazing, total shocker.
Jonathan
Love the new show and I'm hoping that it will once again regain a cult status with a new generation, allowing it to come to full fruition. Now with the mention of ST:ENT, I have to make a comment. If the people at the SciFi channel can make a Spin off of a spin off of the movie Stargate and revive a lond dead series, I'd like to see what they could do for ST:ENT. Then I would never have a reason to go out on Friday nights again!
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
but also the atmosphere I envisioned Enterprise as being; the primitive tech, the flights of patrol ships, the hard nosed military demenor. Enterprise just is not gritty enough for the time period it is trying to portray. The writers really should have taken a Q from the Earth environment of First Contact.
Now just do not pull the same crap you did with Farscape. One little mini-series to pull everything together that was not worthy of the established story line.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
This is good news. I think this is one of the best science fiction series to air in my lifetime. I suppose its telling that Star Trek the Next generation was backed by a few of the same people. Anyways, I hope to see many more seasons, so saw we all.
I hope the fire the cameraman at least. Judging from all the swaying, he's apparently drunk all the time at work.
I also don't like the cheap soap opera-esque quick switching between face shots. A few seconds of one face at full screen and then switch to another and then back. Very annoying.
I think the camera men did their training in NYPD blue or whichever cop show it was.
:(
It hurts my poor eyes sometimes with the jiggly focusy motion
The camera work is WONDERFUL in the fight sequences, and the story lines are great. I along with others am curious as to what religion has to do with the series, but time will tell, I guess.
Religion and sci-fi do not always mix well...Star Trek: The Motion Picture has taught us that lesson. Or did it teach us that Shatner had acting lessons? Eh. Either way.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
it would have that many viewers as well. besides, they get all the bleed over from SG-1/SG-A....
what does enterprise get? a channel devoted to black comedies.... last time I checked, the black community was not huge on sci-fi.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
She's mentioned it a few times in the four or five episodes they've broadcast at this point, as well.
It will be interesting to see if BSG survives as long as Stargate SG-1, which is tying the X-Files as televisions' longest running sci-fi show this year.
I'm not up on my SG-1 fandom, but I believe some of the large, more well-connected sites have reported contract negotiations for a tenth season. (gateworld.net)
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Religion was a big factor in the original series as well, it just wasn't a specific plotline.
The original storyline was a retelling of a lot of Mormon teachings. For those who didn't know that, there are a ton of sites on Google that talk about it.
I thought episode 10 was amazing, until I watched the first part of the finale. Also, all 13 eps have aired in the UK (Sky TV paid for part of the production). Be careful if you havn't seen all episodes there may be spoilers in these comments!
In all fairness Sci Fi Channel has promoted the dickens out of BG whereas UPN has done little to promote Enterprise. This is why I believe Enterprise has such low turnout. I say let Sci Fi channel promote Enterprise like they did BG and see what happens.
My favorite piece of BSG's overall "flavor" is the incredible continuity they offer. I watched the miniseries and all thirteen episodes over the space of about two weeks (nobody's airing the show in this country anyway, as far as I know, so I don't feel very guilty downloading them) and it was like watching one incredibly long movie. No other TV show I've seen ever did this. I never watched B5 very much, but from what I did see, the story arc was there but the show itself was often very episodic. Farscape was very good with the continuity and story arc thing too, but it was also extremely episodic.
I think this "long movie" style of writing and plot development is really cool, and I hope they can keep it up in season 2.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Haven't we moved on from self contained episodic plots like this? I gave it a shot, and found the whole series painful to watch.
Lets have a look at the politics - We have an exact carbon copy of the US system of government. The Galactica is an exact carbon copy of a US carrier. Why didn't they go the whole hog and set the show on an aircrft carrier on Earth. Call the Cylons "the terrorists" or something.
Then there's the self indulgent dramatic decisions, where they have to destroy a ship to save the rest of the fleet. Yeah, okay. Dramitic. How about not doing it every week. Admittedly they got over this one after a while.
Then we have the tacked on conflict beteen the Adama and the president. Always at odds even though there's never actuallly anything to disagree on, as well as the usual slew of cookiecut characters. We have the skilled commander who should have retired but ended up back in command, his son, and the awkward relationship they have, the fighter jock who can;t keep control of her temper, and the CO who can;t keep control of the figter jock.
Imean puleeze. How about some decent sci-fi. Something with some science fiction ideas.
Hooray for good TV! At last, a NON-reality show getting greenlighted! BG and 24 are about all I watch anymore (adult swim too), but they are certainly WORTH watching.
Three cheers for SciFi finally doing something smart.
Earn a free iRiver
Honestly I was too much of a geek to watch TV untill I bought a HDTV. I was too busy on my computer to concern myself with my parent's past time. TV seemed too 20th century. But when I bought a HDTV, all of that changed. When I told my wife I was going to buy a HDTV, her reply was "But you don't even watch TV", which I replied with, "But it's High Definition" I started to watch enterprise when they started broadcasting it in HD here in Tampa FL last season and now it is one of my favorite shows. Now I am sure that all the programs on Sci-Fi Channels are great, but untill they start to broadcast in HD, I won't know. Currently my HD-Tivo record over 30 shows, all HD shows. I don't have time to watch all of those. So there is no way I will have time to watch any non-HD showes.
How good can it be, if it isn't HD?
Which has.........nothing to do with BSG.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
About frackin' time ;-)
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
I thought the first two episodes were superb. I think last week's episode which has Starbuck patching a Cylon ship with her jacket, breathing oxygen out of a tube (lucky she didn't hit a toxic hydraulic line), and flying the ship based on her "pitch, roll, yaw, power" mantra was plain silly.
I'll keep TiVo'ing, though. It's a good series with potential. After a while, the irresolvable saddness of the Adama family just wont keep my interest anymore.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
What ever happen to the real story line? Back in the old days, the Cylons were actually a product of an alien race, not a creation of the human race. Starbuck was a cigar smoking, hard drinkin', womanizing warrior that was sort of a personal hero of mine. Boomer was an African-American guy. IMHO - I realize that the story is going to change a bit, depending on who tells it, but let's at least tell the right story. What has happened here is that the yo-yo that produces the show has decided to produce a whipped, whacked-off at the knees, politically correct version of the story. Personally, I hope that the show gets cancelled soon. I don't know if I can stand any more wasted space on the air waves.
Yes. It's sci-fi. Look at the audiance. Look at what the Japanese have done for women's lib with their refinement of the shower scene. Mmmm. Grace Park...dripping wet....in space.
Firefly did a really good job at portraying a world with the tech capable of far-space travel, but lacking a solution for the less fortunate of society. Nothing bugs me more than when people criticize Firefly (and possibly BSG) for the unrealistic nature of the old-western style aspects. In reality, the transition from computer age to space age will leave quite a few people behind, struggling to find a milieu between the contrasting areas of development. Good for BSG for portraying the way it will be rather than glitzing it up for the masses!
BSG has amazing - how do you say - spunk. :D Starbuck was a stroke of genius, IMO. The camera movement is awesome - especially the far-to-close zooms really make it seem "realistic". For some reason the wide to close angle shots are just spankin' to me.
I too like the grittyness of the new series. I was a HUGE fan of the original, but this one whoops it hands down. The whole mimi-drama-on-capricorn with Boomer (also a woman, and a hot one I might add) is captivating.
Long live BSG!
UPN has dreams of becoming the next FOX or ABC or something. They're a long way from it, but their goal/hope is to compete with and dominate the other networks. Advertisers will judge a UPN show on how much of UPN's potential audience it gets. StarTrek failed on both counts for them. If the SciFi Channel comes up with a hit as big as the Sopranos or something, they'll be happy, of course, but no-one over there is seriously expecting that to happen, while at UPN, the suits will want to know why it isn't happening ...
The immediate future of television SciFi is niche channels. The staple of good SciFi is great special effects. Every year, it gets cheaper and cheaper to make effects that are better and better. The original BSG took the budget of a major network to put out. Now, a smallish cable channel can do a better job cheaper.
When creating StarWars level special effects becomes as cheap as putting together the set for Seinfeld or Friends, I predict SciFi will return to the major networks. On shows like this, the cost of some old furniture, some cereal boxes, etc. was hardly anything and most of the money went to the actors.
That's a minor subplot. It doesn't change anything.
I saw the one where they reformed the council of 12. After an episode with lots of half hearted political machinations, we have a political system pretty much the same as it was before, apart from the VP that doesn't seem to have actually done anything.
I've also seen the final episode.
Starbuck defying Adama because of one lie, even though his judgement has been pretty much spot on since she's known him. Has she no loyalty? My prediction for next series - Nothing substantial changes. Adama will still be in command, Starbuck will still be flying, Apollo will still be at odds with his dad.
I think the major reason why the new Battlestar Galactica series has done well is one Ronald D. Moore, who I believe developed the new series and is one of the Executive Producers.
:-(
Moore wrote and/or was involved in many of the best episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; small wonder why the new BG series has been much better than many people anticipated. =)
It's too bad Ron Moore wasn't involved with Enterprise, because Moore could have turned Enterprise into a potentially great series.
Some folks further up the thread list had commented about the camera shots. I think the ones from space are what make the series so believable.
For example, in the opening show of the season, when they went to Ragnarok Anchorage to get supplies, when the shot showed Galactica appearing in the cloud after their FTL jump, all you saw was a little speck until the camera zoomed in.
If you think about it, that's exactly what it would look like if one were in space looking at the cloud and a ship did appear suddenly. Just a speck on the interstellar cloud.
The same can be said when the Cylon raiders appear. Yes, you see the flash but the ships are still shown as being specks until the camera comes in.
Keep an eye out for these kind of camera shots. They add to overall feeling that space is a vast emptiness (but you already knew that) with distances we don't normally comprehend here on Earth.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"I never watched B5 very much, but from what I did see, the story arc was there but..."
;)
You *do* realize that's like saying, "I only read a couple chapters of The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy, but from what I did read, it's all about the se Vogon aliens."
Or, to put it in BSG terms, if you only watched a couple episodes, how would you know BSG's arc-driven? I agree that BSG is refreshing in its continuity, characters, and plot, but if you haven't watched B5 end-to-end, you're really not in a place to make "insightful" comments comparing things to B5.
I only wish they'd have toned down the... "mature" (I'm at work)... references a bit. My friend J. has issues with Enterprise; she wouldn't be able to get 1/3 of the way through a BSG episode. (Shame, too.)
I agree with some aspects of this comment - the usage of "CAG", the "BSG" as a substitute for CV/CVN.
:D
Baltar is too like Bashir for me. I also think the music blows and they should have hinted at the glorious bellow of the old theme tune.
That said, I watch it when I can, and as long as they don't make a "BSG 1980" remake, they are still ahead
I've been a hard-core Trek fan for years.. I found it hard to get into Enterprise, but it grew on me. I'm not exactly sure which was the episode that Enterprise jumped the shark, but I sorta had the feeling it was starting to go the way the old Xenia and Hercules went, with the cross-overs, traveling into the future and such... Putting them on, on Fridays was proably what killed them. Sci-fi has "StarGate SG-1", "Farscape" (before the changed the lineout, they introduced "StarGate Atlantis", and now the rebirth of "BattleStar Galactica" I hate to say, that I've been watching the new Battlestar Galactica, and am really impressed. The changes in casting, puts a new twist on things, and I'm interested to see where the series goes. I'm probably going to take serious flamings on this one, but since they're reviving the shows I used to watch religiously.. I think they should look at remaking the British Sci-Fi series "Space 1999". I'm sure with todays effects and technology, Im sure it would give a few good seasons. I'd like to see what knockout vixen they'd cast to play that shape-shifter Miya.. Thats my 2 cents.. I'm punching out..
Someone has already proposed a length but detailed analysis on Babylon 5 vs BSG...
I tried to watch, hey maybe even get me one them Cylon chicks by 2nd day ground, but I couldn't get through much without feeling like I was watching a sorry soap opera.
Cylons are big scary robots, and a "buck" is a boy deer, ok?
I was a big fan of the original. There are so many good ways to re-do this, and this wasn't one of them.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
The BSG scripts and visuals are much better than I ever expected, but the intentional camera shake is distracting and drives me crazy. A four-year old child with a camcorder could do a beter job...
most amazing cgi space ships
but what makes it work is the camara direction
framing and panning...etc.
Actually, it's more likely that we'll see Mormonism: The Next Generation. The original BSG, though much-hated by sci-fi purists, was beloved among Mormon sci-fi fans, because it took many of its terms and themes straight out of Mormon history and theology. Much of that would surely need to be updated for this new series, so it will be interesting to see how closely it sticks to its roots.
BSG, when renewed, will be the only multi-season scifi series (firefly wasn't on long enough to count) in recent history to feature a universe without ressurrection or time travel (yet anyways).
Unfortunately B5, Farscape, SG1 and Trek each feature both!
Okay, what's wrong with this picture:
* A Star Trek series is cancelled
* A Battlestar Galactica Series is renewed
* Jamie Foxx may win an Oscar
* William Shatner already won an Emmy, may win another
* Fox becoming the #3 network, ahead of NBC
It feels like I'm in some sort of parallel dimension. I keep expecting Rod Serling to walk out with some pithy comment about it all.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
NO The story will go something alone the lines. SG-1 finds an Ancient world with a couple of puddle jumpers, on that world they will find out about wraiths, and Atlantis, and a couple of ZPM modules. A replacement mission for Atlantis is created, and they bring with them a ZPM or two(so shields are back) as well as new cast members, since the Atlantis crew is dying off quickly, without replishment.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
classification for you.
I don't really pay attention to that crap honestly, I don't watch a lot of TV to begin with, so putting in my hour each episode is for my enjoyment, and I enjoy the show, whatever you might want to call it, sci-fi drama as the world turns in spaceships, whatever. It's got outer space, some ships, a little bit of gadgetry and what not, good enough for me.
At least it's decent IMO, not a lot of decent "Sci-Fi" related shows on anymore, that are new anyway.
All your base are belong to Google.
If the best the entertainment industry has to offer, God help us all.
Does any one else see it? It seems like BG is more of a soap opera than a scifi series.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
The immediate future of television SciFi is niche channels. The staple of good SciFi is great special effects. Every year, it gets cheaper and cheaper to make effects that are better and better. The original BSG took the budget of a major network to put out. Now, a smallish cable channel can do a better job cheaper.
Back when the original BG series was in production in 1977-1978, it was exorbitantly expensive because you had to build models and use special motion cameras to film the models--a very time-consuming process. Given how good today's CGI technology has become with relatively cheap equipment, you can now do special effects vastly better than what was done with the original series at a tiny fraction of the cost.
I can cite another example: how to depict a mythological flying dragon on-screen. When Industrial Light & Magic did its work for Dragonslayer they built a "go-motion" model of a dragon and filmed it with special cameras, which required a long and time-consuming process to complete; 15 years later, Dragonheart did the same thing, but all completely done with CGI, probably at less expense per minute of film than the earlier movie.
I hate to say it, but they would be starting with a rather hard-to-miss 6-year-old continuity problem...
I think thast even two seasons, absent major basic plot changes, is stretching it. How many episodes can they get out of running from the Cylons?
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"I never watched B5 very much, but from what I did see, the story arc was there but..."
;)
You *do* realize that's like saying, "I only read a couple chapters of The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy, but from what I did read, it's all about the se Vogon aliens."
Yes, of course I realize that. That's why I said "from what I did see", instead of trying to claim it as truth. I may well be totally wrong. Am I?
I only wish they'd have toned down the... "mature" (I'm at work)... references a bit. My friend J. has issues with Enterprise; she wouldn't be able to get 1/3 of the way through a BSG episode. (Shame, too.)
Can you clarify what you're talking about? I have no idea what you're referring to here.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
I agree. That whole [religious] angle of the show really bothers me. It bothers me that their civilization has reached the point where they can travel space in these large marvels of technology, yet a doctor will recommend to a cancer patient to PRAY?!?! Maybe their ships appeared out of nowhere one day while they whole planet was chanting...
Oh but I'm forgetting that right here in north america, maybe 15% of the populous are actually advancing technology while the rest just sit back and take everything for granted, or attribute their good fortunes to "god".
Back on topic though, the one other thread in BSG I don't like is the whole hallucination thing with the crazy doc and his blonde cylon "friend". It's just too goofy. Kill off this storyline now!
I admit I'll be *hugely* disappointed in the series if Adama and Apollo are back to normal next season - what happened has to be and must remain a deep and fundamental split. From a military standpoint I don't see how he can even remain a pilot. There's a decent setup now for a near civil war within the fleet. That could make for really interesting shows, especially while done against a backdrop of a constant common threat.
Blake's 7?
It gets my vote as the best Sci-Fi series of all time. Real characters, unstereotyped. You don't know who's "good" and who's "bad". Special effects show their age, but a lot less than other programs.
While special effects costs coming down will make it easier to fund new series, we really need to get over the obsession with "realistic" effects and pay more attention to the realism of the story.
I have only started watching BG, was turned off at first by some of the ideas that were first mentiones, Starbuck being a chick, etc. That was pertty stupid of me to say the least. This show is really damn good. I don't have a clue what's going on really, but I am sucked into it. I don't know why that Doctor guy is seeing a Blonde Cylon, I don't know what's up with the Cylon occupied planet with the Asian chick, who is also on Galctica. So I can't wait for the Season to start over so I can figure out what the hell is going on. This is a very good show, and I find the acting to be very well done. The CG effects are kept to a minimum, but when done, are done well. Though the Zoom thing is kind of cliche, I still like it a lot. Great show. If you are not watching this show, try it out. Hopefully the writers will really go balls to the wall in the creativity department. Don't get cliche.
First you have two different audiences. I mean lets face it BSG is more a war show than it is a "SciFi" show. While Enterprise is a bit more bright and cheery and goofy like Star Trek tends to be sometimes, BSG reminds me of the 6 O'Clock news, which to me as a TV show blows because things right now are bad enough, the whole point of TV is to produce escapism.
Second you could stir the hype about this show with a stick, which is exactly how it was with TNG which most people tend to agree until the 3rd or 4th season was totally overblown. I would be more interested to see how things are next season, to see if there is a ratings drop off after the shine is off so to say.
And last Enterprise is a canciled show on the lowest rated network out there right now. Whats the point in compairing a show that is trying to reinvent its self after a dismal start thanks to the Beebs and that people wont be tuning into because they dont want to get hooked on a dead show to a show just starting up that had huge controversy surounding it because of it being a retelling of the story... I bet you a million bucks had Enterprise been a retelling of TOS instead, they would have the same hype and stuff surrounding it.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
Let me see if I can pin down the reasons why I don't enjoy watching BSG.
.
.
First, it's so dark. I mean not only the theme (which is very dark), but even the visual style -- dark colored uniforms, dimly lighted corridors, spaceships that look like they came out of a Soviet tank factory and then were covered in soot.
Gritty is OK. I like gritty. But when there's hardly ever a glimmer of light in the show, it gets old for me pretty quickly. (Somebody in another comment said ST Enterprise was too sugary, but BSG is like vinegar.)
Secondly, the show is too derivative. I mean, when you adapt major plot elements and characters from the original BSG show, borrow other elements (both visual elements and characters) from Babylon-5, and then throw in stories that lean heavily on real life events (i.e. 9-11) regardless of how well or poorly they fit into the setting. . . That is derivative, and it's not living up to the real potential of science fiction, which is to show us things we *haven't* seen or thought about before. At times it even risks drifting into the realm of allegory.
Thirdly, there's very little "science" in this supposed science fiction. Granted that's not an uncommon shortcoming of SF TV shows, but. . . It really bothers me that the Cylons do so many things, and have so many abilities that have no given explanation -- things that apparently just seemed cool to the writers. I can just imagine the conversation. .
Writer A: Hey, let's make some of the Cylons look just like humans! There won't be *any* way to identify them -- but they'll still be able to do robot-like stuff too.
Writer B: I like it, just think of all the possibilities for the plot! Think of the paranoia! Plus it'll make the effects budget stretch a lot further.
Writer C: But. . . It doesn't really make any sense, does it?
Writers A & B: What's the matter with you? This is SCIENCE FICTION, it's not suppose to make any sense.
Writer A: Hey, I've got an idea! Let's have Baltar see Cylons all the time, and he doesn't know if they're real or just hallucinations.
Writer B: I like it! It'll give us a device for exploring his psychology in more depth.
Writer C: But. . . but. .
And so forth. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I like science fiction that starts with a science or technology concept and then expands upon that and then looks at how people react or adapt to it. BSG is putting the cart before the horse.
The *point* of science fiction is the fiction. If I want to read science I'll pick up a text book. When I want a good story with a science backdrop I'll turn to science fiction.
Oh but I'm forgetting that right here in north america, maybe 15% of the populous are actually advancing technology while the rest just sit back and take everything for granted, or attribute their good fortunes to "god".
Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Archemedes...
Most of the great minds in the history of science and mathematics were religious people.
Athiests tend to just sit around and write bad science fiction. That, or post flamebait on Slashdot.
Do NOT download the bittorrents unless you want to get notices from BayTSP. I receieved one after downloading episode number eight. It is known that the Battlestar series is being tracked through bittorrent, so if you must use it, you'd be relatively anonymous.
it has a long way to go to catch Dr Who ... though it might be up with Blake's Seven
Paul
www.opencouncil.org
Open
To me, social issues, espicially religion, can be the most interesting aspect of sci fi. Anthropology is a science after all. Actually, it's the science I would have gone into if I could make the same moneny as I do in engineering. I'm not religious, but I love reading/talking about religion and how it affects peoples lives. It can be fascinating stuff. After all, more wars have been fought over religion, than science.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
Rarely in a sci-fi context does anybody delve deeply into major questions of life, but what good is technology if it can't help us answer any of the fundamental questions of humanity? BG is a great example of how tecchnology is not going to provide some deus-ex-machina solution to our problems.
Lets not pretend that religion is a new topic in Sci-Fi. Take for example Heinlein's classic "Stranger in a Strange Land" and Herbert's "Dune"
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
It's like watching football or hockey or anything else that comes on at some set interval or schedule.
It's something to look forward to seeing once in awhile, if it were only 5 weeks long most of us would probably have to download the shows somewhere (and a lot already do anyway) because I know my life doesn't revolve around a TV anymore, and hasn't since I was a kid.
All your base are belong to Google.
... when I thought Netcraft already confirmed it: BSG is dying ?
Oh, wait...
(sorry!)
Somday, we'll find it.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
Did you forget that the Prometheus's shields were OFF for much of the bombardment it just received?
To find out more about the connection, look at this commentary. If you want more in depth information about the Mormons, look at mormon.org, an official "info" site from the Church.
Interesting to see the basis of some of the things in the show...
Oh great, that's all I need, Cylons knocking on my door, "Hi, can we come in and talk to you for a minute? Can I give you a copy of the Watchtower?"
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
There was a big Starbuck masturbation scene in the fourth episode, and there are rumours of an anal sex scene in the sixth.
If your panties are in such a wad over it I suggest writing more story for them and sending it in.
All your base are belong to Google.
Actually that was pretty much right after telling her that she was totally screwed. The whole prayer thing was kind of a last resort thing ;p
Definitely marketed for an American audience.
In fact, the producers were so smart that they actually got the production partially paid for by Brits and the show aired in the UK before Sci-Fi bothered with it here.
You sir, are an idjit.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Babylon 5 vs. Battlestar Galactica http://people.stdnet.com/jonathan/Interests_Battle starGalacticaVsBabylon5.php
The Q would have been terrible if given to someone with lesser talent.
I kind of doubt it, even after the first season they are already running extremly short on fighter pilots and Vipers (can't remember the exact number, but it was some low two digit one). So unless some other Battlestar pops out of nowwhere to lend them some, they will have huge throuble standing against the Cylons much longer.
They can of course let the rest of the show play inside with internal conflicts and endless talk or have some miraculus event save them all, but if they continue as they did, they will simply run out of useable excuses how they escaped the Cylons yet again.
For crying out loud, this is *supposed* to be an alien civilization not of or from Earth. CAG? President? Colonial One (Heavy)? Windsor knots on ties with collared shirts. Gillette safety razors? Johnny Walker scotch bottles?
I loved the mini, especially when the nuke detonated against the hull of the ship and left it basically intact. Although in a later episode (water?) 6 bricks of C-4 appear to do the same amount of damage.
Bullets in space? I'm assuming since we're not seeing spent brass flying out of the viper that they're using some sort of rail gun setup. But given the rate of fire, you'd think they'd be out of ammo after about 2 seconds. I mean where are they going to put that much? There has to be room for fuel for the main engines, fuel for the attitude thrusters, O2 for the pilots and the viper isn't all that big; it looks smaller than a F-15 Eagle, hell it looks smaller than an F-16.
And if they're generating enough power to operate a rail gun, why couldn't they be using a directed energy weapon. Even the US Airforce is starting to deploy those. Given the speeds of space bourne battle wouldn't you want some that was a little faster? They have FTL travel and nuclear weapons, so wouldn't directed energy weapons be available?
I know in SciFi you're supposed to have to suspend belief but come on, I don't find this believable in the SciFi sense.
Humans created Cylons? What, Terminator wasn't enough for Moore?
There was a lot of potential in reviving the BSG franchise, but whatever this is, it isn't BSG and should not be named as such.
I'm tired of the sci-fi groupies latching on to every new and terrible show that comes out.
The last episode I saw, Starbuck stranded on a planet, was terrible. The writing was bad, the acting was poor, and the camera work will make people sea sick.
Yes the production values are good but since when has production values been more important than the story.
Get this she, starbuck, flies a crashed ship that was designed to hookup directly to the nervous system of non-humanoid cyborg pilot, and you though case modding was hard. Not only did she fly it(by grabbing wires I guess), she out flew another pilot to the point of getting close enough to the other fighter to have that pilot read a message written in tape on her wings.
Simply a bad show. It's the sci-fi equivalent of Joey.
I have no
UPN is only avl on Cox cable as they own all the rights. I have Direct TV , there is no National UPN feed.
There is one for Sci fi.
I watch Battlestar becuase I can, I cant watch Star Trek.
It is not fair to compare.
Decent SF is thin on the ground and yes, Skiffy had a lot to answer for in the last few years (killing 'Scape, continuing SG1, etc) and there's been plenty of Save Our Show type rallies from the various affected fans promising Hell and Damnation.
But now lets show the other face of fandom and actually say thanks to these guys for giving BSG another season, who knows, they might just do it again....
The creators of Battlestar are urging people not to torrent the show, because if nobody's watching it on the actual television, it'll get cancelled even if half the world is torrenting the episodes. If you like Battlestar, do yourselves and the rest of us the favor of tuning in. It really is rather unfortunate, if you think about it, that the audience most likely to love this show matches up so well with the audience most likely to download it rather than watch it on TV.
---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
...AND, the dragon in Dragonslayer (1981) was 50x better than the dragon in Dragonheart (1996). The Dragonslayer monster was really scary for the time (I was 12) whereas Dragonheart was kind of cartoonish.
Normally I'm not inclined to put down newer special effects technology, but Dragonheart just wasn't very good compared to Jurassic Park (1993) or even (later) Komodo (2003).
I think a better "dragon" comparison would be 2002's "Reign of Fire".
http://www.bullnet.com
Why were all of the strong black characters cut out of the new BG?
BG had a black second-in-command, a black pilot and a contentious black love interest for Starbuck. BG 2005 has... a cute little black girl to play a minor romantic interest for another minor character.
Even the Asian girl is portrayed as weak and controlled by the Cylons. What's up with that? Only white characters are allowed to have powerful lead roles?
So it's okay to present issues of religious and political diversity, but it's not okay to present a truly ethnically diverse cast? Is it less challenging to present weak Asian characters to a primarily white audience and advertisers?
The original BG portrayed an integrated and progressive society with peaceful ideals and a very real devil trying to corrupt and destroy them. Maybe back then there was more hope for redemption. Does this modern rendition look toward a future of violence and apathy?
The point of science fiction is to create an environment in which the viewer/reader is enticed to explore issues that may otherwise be too difficult to examine under the harsh light of reality. Real human issues.
Take a look at Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." One of the subjects he discusses is that of marriage. Here and now, in the real world, we tend to view polygamy in a very negative light. In the world that Heinlein creates, we can view polygamy as a vital necessity within the environment, and we can do this without the guilt or preconception of our puritanical upbringing.
The "Science" part of science fiction is window dressing. It's cool, and it puts asses in the seats, but it is not the point. The science is just one of the tools available in order to create a compelling backdrop for exploring human nature; that is the point.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
I agree that the twelve clones were a little "easy."
However, I was shocked when Boomer shot the captain - I thought she had somehow regained enough sanity to fly back to the ship. I was sure she might eventually kill herself later, but shooting the captain! That was brilliant.
The fact that the Doc chooses not to tell her she's a Cylon out of fear, and that it initially seems to be a good choice as she keeps doing her "human" job is brilliant as well, IMO.
In BG, you can never be sure whether a choice a character makes, out of whatever reason, is going to be a "good" or a "bad" one for their cause. Their behavior is so complex and the ramifications are so many...
A great show indeed.
How will they know if I'm watching or not? Television is broadcast-based: they don't know what channel you're tuned into.
Ratings and viewership are based on pure guesses.
Actually Einstein was an atheist
If they move the show away from the friday lineups with Startgate and Atlantas, the show might not do so hot. I know I'd forget to watch. Yeah I got Tivo, but it's really not that hot lately. The show needs less jump arrounds. I feel like a commic book with new plot elements on each page.
I like the show but I have a couple beefs with it.
1) Saying "sir" to a woman?! What's wrong with saying "Ma'am" and recognizing their gender? I don't personally think that would be demeaning to women. They say "Sir" to the woman President, but how come they don't say "Mr. President", instead they say "Madam President"? If the show's writers thought it was demeaning to say "Ma'am" to women, then surely they would have thought greeting someone "Madam" was equally demeaning.
2) I thought I would have had a problem with them changing Starbuck into a women, but the actress does a great job including some of the traits that many people liked about the old Starbuck. I do have a problem with Apollo. I understand they changed his character so he was a little more "West Point"-like. That's fine. The only problem I have with him is that he sounds a little effeminate. I understand the actor is British, but I think he needs to work on his American accent, because he's coming off a little gay. (Unless he is gay, at which point that brings up another plot twist.)
Hmmm...some new battlestar popping up out of nowhere...hmm...that sounds vaguely familiar...
The Dragonslayer monster was really scary for the time (I was 12) whereas Dragonheart was kind of cartoonish.
Actually, the more I think about it a better example of what a flying dragon can look realistically as created by CGI are the Fell Beasts from The Lord of the Rings movies that were done by WETA Digital. They definitely look more realistic than the CGI creation in Dragonheart, which was done with less computing power than what was done in the LoTR movies.
Einstein once said something to the effect that he might believe in a god, but it would have to be a god as described in the philosophy of Spinoza...which isn't at all like a god the religionists imagine when they misquoute him.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
the second season will delve into the religious issues surrounding the Cylons in addition to opening up their society more.
I wish they wouldn't. Am I the only person on earth who like the science fiction part of science fiction? The characters are interesting and maybe I'll care more about what happens to them later, but for now I'd like more fictional science in the science fiction...
It's a good show so far... But if it turns into another soap opera it will just get annoying. Why do these series all turn into soap operas? Two reasons: 1) it's a lot cheaper to film people crying than epic battles and CGI robots... 2) the writers run out of ideas quickly and never seem to go looking for new ones early enough.
Pat
"Star Trek sucks because the characters aren't flawed enough."
"Nintendo sucks because their perfect gameplay is in the context of little plumbers and tiny plant men"
"X rocks because they like, swear, and offend people
etc, etc, please....someone explain this to me like the four year old I obviously am. Extra points for avoiding some "post 9/11" bullshit.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
People who don't consider psychology to be a science must have an unfairly narrow view of either science or psychology.
Even if the entire concept of people on a couch delving into their life history is not considered a science (including by psychologists, who have refuted much of the old Freudian psychbabble) isn't scientific, what about branches of social sciences that look at brain scanning research into psychological defects? Developing human-machine interfaces?
Some of the most 'sciency' of sci-fi concepts rely heavily on ideas from psychology and the social sciences - machines becoming 'human', humans embraching mechanical bodies or implants, social and genetic engineering to create 'perfect' societies and any number of other often-used concepts in science fiction.
All that aside, isn't something supposed to be considered a science if it is examined using carefully validated, empirical research? An interesting fact to consider is that psychological test results commonly have the same level of accuracy in diagnoses as medical assessments for disorders for which both psych and med assessments can be used (eg dementia).
That's fair, although they were done so recently I didn't think it was fair.
http://www.bullnet.com
[Rant]Galactica is my favorite SciFi MINI series so far. I do not understand why they are trying to make this into a space SOAP opera.
It probably comes down to money, but why don't they start on another brilliant script instead of dragging this out through gwad knows how many sesons.[/Rant]
They'd have to fire the BSG writers and bring over the now unemployed people who screwed up Enterprise to ruin the show that much. From what we've seen so far, I don't think they'd destroy what has so far been an excellent show with crappiness (those of you who have downloaded the UK version or seen it live, so please spoilers ... I could download it, but kind of like looking forward to the show every week.) From other posts which have alluded to the final episode, I'm pretty sure Enterprise or Voyager type grottiness is not what the future holds for BSG.
2) Whenever the episode turns into "Baltar's Head." Okay, we get it. The blonde chick is along for the ride, Baltar has a tag-along in his brain, and only he can see it. When Disney did this sort of thing it was called "Pete's Rabbit." When James Stewart did it, it was called "Harvey." Been there.
I can accept the scientific and engineering faux pas because I don't expect TV script writers to be Nobel Laureate physicists and chemists. That's not to say that I won't do the odd head-slap-and-groan on something, but hey, that's not what the show is about.
Now if I can just figure out what the show is about....
Yeah, and perhaps not kill off the "elder statesman,father figure, Benjamin Franklin" Dr Berman charactor.
What I've learned in the 25 years since is that life is too short for mediocre tv. There's way too much endless soap opera and way too little story in the current series.
And just for the record, I'm *really really* tired of watching James Callis dry-humping Tricia Helfer. That got old in the mini-series and it's since become intolerable.
It looks like the creators are trying to rope in the non-sci-fi audience by bringing in the same characters and situations in the plethora of nighttime soaps relentlessly pounding the airwaves. It may even work -- who knows? But it doesn't work for me.
Just think of what we could do with our lives with all the time we spend watching dull, lifeless TV.
Ron
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Starbuck... hubba hubba
The original BSG took the budget of a major network to put out. Now, a smaller cable channel can do a better job cheaper.
In this case, SciFi channel is owned by NBC/Universal. That's why NBC aired the BSG miniseries the same week as the series premiere and why NBC kept plugging the series that week as well. I have no idea what sort of budget SciFi channel has though.
Anakin Simpson: If you're not with me, then you're my enemy--ooh, donuts!
There are parts of the new series that are great but I'm still waiting to see where the writers are going with it.
The first episode (33) was good, and last weeks episode with Starbuck crashing on the moon had the nice touch of actually having a planet that didn't have a breathable atmosphere. How many times in Star Trek did they happen to crash land on planet that had just the right amount of oxygen?
However didn't help when she was able to fly the cyclon ship with just yanking on some nerve cords. A little to convenient for me. The science guy - Gias something - keeps seeing the blond cyclon lady, seems like a rip off on the neural chip used in Farscape.
Anyway, at least the renewal gives me a bit of hope with the sci-fi channel. After canceling Farscape and G vs. E I had pretty much given up on them.
The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data.
I like STE. Millions of fans like STE. The problem is the time slot.
Sci-Fi is smart. They air BG every Friday and then run repeats all week.
If Sci-Fi were even smarter they'd buy STE! Now there's a damn good idea!
:T:R:A:N:S:
The new Galactica series rocks! It just goes to show if you spend the time to write some good material and don't cancel the series two episodes into it's first season a sci-fi show can be successful.
The next incarnation of Star Trek will probably be cancelled before conception.
I'm just not a nitpicker really, but I agree with you. The little things are noticible, although i'd still watch it anyway.
I don't expect a whole lot out of TV to begin with.
All your base are belong to Google.
I hated the very first BSG scifi did. That mini series thing. I thought it was lame. No substance and mostly just about how hot the cylon chick was. But the series itself is all together different. Very impressive. Glad to hear it'll be around awhile yet!
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
So much better than the old one! And I have been watching it since the 80s!!
The latest episode had 3.2 million viewers, almost twice as many as watched the latest episode of Star Trek Enterprise. Marketing hype, or just bad at math? The latest episode of Enterprise was "United", which drew an estimated 2.81 million viewers. 3.5 million/2.8 million = 1.14 times the number of viewers. This is a whole lot closer to "the same number of viewers" than it is to "almost twice as many." Even using the worst Enterprise ratings ever ("Babel One", 2.53 million viewers) yields a ratio of 1.39:1.
I like BG because the missiles and guns are guided and actually hit stuff, rather than SG-1 and Star Trek where weapons shoot randomly and hope something hits (and they usually don't).
Some people don't have cable or satellite you insensitive clod!
Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
Yes, of course I realize that. That's why I said "from what I did see", instead of trying to claim it as truth. I may well be totally wrong. Am I?
Yes. B5's first series was relatively episodic, but even then there are references which are still pertinent much later on. I think the fact that it started off episodic and gradually moved to a more continuity based format is because it was released in the early 90's, and people weren't really used to the new format, and so had to be gradually eased in. Also, the episodic nature helps to draw people in during the first series. The new BSG had an established audience since it was being hyped up, had a killer pilot movie, a lot of history and because there's not a huge amount of competition.
The NEW BSG has turned out WAYY Better then I had ever thought it would. I LOVED the last episode. Starbuck figuring out how to make that raider fly....incredible. I love the storylines. Makes the old BSG look, well, cheesy. How many times did we see theold cut shot of the viper sweeping in from the top of the screen laser cannons blazing?
Gorkman
I can not say that BSG is the best sci-fi since this is a remake of the old one. Yes the special effects are nice and pretty, but the story is still the same. Just watch in a few years everyone will be tired of them trying to find earth and always just barely getting away from the cylons.
Apparently Dirk Benedict (original Starbuck) thinks the new BSG, and especially the new Starbuck, are some kind of Feminazi conspiracy.
There is quite the amusing rant about this on his website, http://dirkbenedictcentral.com/. I think the new series is great myself...
Please keep in mind that not all of us have seen the entire series. We're only on episode #5 in the US. Episode #6 is this Friday. So, if you're going to give away any details, please mark your post as a spoiler in some fashion.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I have a huge problem with the technology of this show. An example is: They can fly faster than light but they don't have water filters to recycle water and thus must find some on a planet. Please! Then there are the cheap analog guages everywhere. I could go on and on.
Battlestar Gallactica is just another infantile penis projection. And the Sci-Fi channel is total bullshit. After the desecration of Earthsea, I refuse to watch their corrupt, propagandistic swill any more.
I'm quite amazed to say not only do I like it, but I like it a lot more than the original. They're wailing on it.... The exterior shots are great: I've been complaining here and elsewhere for years that the dichotomy between "realism" and "what we're trained to expect" is screwed up in sci-fi films. The reality of sci-fi is, in a "space battle", *you're not farking likely to be outside watching it from afar, anyhow*... and if you could, you probably wouldn't even see anything anyhow... So the way they're handling it - lens distortion, blurring, grain, loose shots - it's a great feel. It's sci-fi, not a documentary. The acting has been surprising as well. I was s prepared to hate it after seeing what SciFi Channel did to _Dune_... but it's been very interesting how controlled and "seasoned" the acting comes off. There's some tacky things about it, but I'm enjoying it enough to overlook it. I'm glad it's been renewed....The only thing is miss is: "Byyyyyyyy youuuuuuuuuuuur commandddddddd" "Speak, Centurion!"
...BG is one of the better shows on television period. I've heard lots of comparisons to "West Wing in Space" or "ER on the Run", but the writers and producers have given us what I consider a true sci fi show; one where the technology forms a transparent backdrop to the real human situation unfolding around it. I'm told by our friends in the UK (who are at seasons end on SkyOne) to expect good things, and I'm keeping a close eye on it.
To elaborate: this style of filming (or shooting if you're in TV) is supposed to replicate our own eye movements. If somewhere were to turn out iris into a camera, (the idea is that) it would resemble Cinema Verite.
That said, most of us spend most of our day staring at a screen, so maybe that's why we find it so unrealistic. Also funny is that most of modern TV has, on one level or another, adopted this style of filming as well. If I recall for American TV, NYPD Blue was the first, but ER quickly picked it. It's just that this is the first time geeks have seen it used on TV.
I learned to tell time by watching the original Battlestar Galactica. It came on in Edmonton at 4:30 on Sunday afternoons. I remember many times looking up at the oven clock hands trying to determine whether I should be parked in front of the TV or whether I had time left to play with legos. When it wasn't Sunday afternoon, my friends and I would pretend to be Viper pilots and inevitably end up fighting over who got to be Starbuck and who had to play Apollo.
So, over the last twenty years, a certain amount of nostalgia has accumulated around Battlestar Galactica in my heart, not at all unlike most of us here. So when Ron Moore and the ScFi channel finally got the rights to the show, everyone was excited - until Moore said that, quite plainly, that avid fans of the original fan may not appreciate his version, what he called a "reimagining." Moore made a number of changes that bothered me, but the seemingly most significant tore at the core of my identity: Starbuck would be a girl.
Starbuck and Han Solo were about as close to being models for masculinity as anyone besides my father could get. Ask me to word associate manliness, and Starbuck would fall fairly close to the top.
And Moore had ripped that from me, from my heart.
So imagine my surprise when I watched the mini series and it was not only good, but great. And Starbuck was still, somehow, Starbuck. Baltar, for all his moments of brilliance in this series, was still goofy Baltar. The vipers were still there. Adama was still hard nosed. Yet, I had doubts whether someone could maintain this level of quality in a TV series. The original Battlestar Galactica certainly didn't.
So imagine my surprise - again - when the first few episodes, which I watched courtesy Internet, were even better than the mini series. In fact, this new series renders the original Battlestar completely irrelevant. I realize now that there are only a couple of good things about the original Battlestar Galactica now. First, it provided my friends and I uncountable hours of playtime. Secondly, it somehow enabled this new re-imagination. Even Richard Hatch, the actor who played Apollo in the original series, acts better in this new series (this time as a revolutionary).
To be fair, the original Battlestar is very much a product of late seventies television. I used to argue that it wasn't, but honestly - the show really was an attempt to bring Star Wars to the small screen. But if this new Battlestar had similarly been a product of the 00s, it would've been a reality show set in a business environment where Adam eats scorpions to impress friends.
This new Battlestar Galactica not only transcends the science fiction genre and redefines it, it also takes television a step further. Even my darling Firefly, in all its civil war cum scifi greatness, feels conventional when put next to Moore's Battlestar.
I'm not sure what it means if we have a generation of kids basing their masculinity on a female Starbuck (although I'm not so sure kids should even be watching this new Battlestar). Regardless of the consequences, Moore's new Battlestar is easily the best TV show on right now, and maybe even one of the best shows of all time. My wife and I have both cried and cheered during the show, and she usually reserves that for shows like Project Runway. During episode ten, I sported a broad, beaming smile in sync with the emotion on the screen.
It's that good.
Good job Ron and friends. You should be proud, you managed to pull off the stunt of making my male model a female, and make me happy you did it.
"God, I love Google" Eric Kimminau, February, 2005.
Dune. Bene Gesserit. Reverend Mother. Shai Huluud. Desert Planet. Kwisatz Haderach. The sleeper has awakened.
The Fremen believes that the actions of Shai-hulud are directly the actions of God. He is the Great Maker, The Worm who is God.
The phrase Kwisatz Haderach originally came from Hebrew (poss. originally Kfitsat or Kfitzat Haderech) and means "Jump ahead of the path", i.e. a significant breakthrough.
These are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the rich are doomed to unhappiness...
From the Instruction Manual: Missionaria Protectiva
Children of Dune
"The 3 laws of robotics" have done more to create the religion of technology than anything else ever written.
# A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
# A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
# A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Sounds like technologies answer to the 10 commandments to me.
"Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Free Enterprise. Our 500 year mission: to seek out new life and new civilizations; to explore strange new worlds; to boldly go where noone has gone before."
http://members.aol.com/heraklit1/startrek.htm
"In Who mourns for Adonais, the Enterprise picks up signals of an unknown life form near the planet Pollux IV of Beta Geminorum system. This turns out to be the God Apollo - a man-shaped entity with an extra organ in his chest, through which he could channel extraordinary energies. After retiring here from Earth, Apollo missed the adoration he had from the Greeks. He tries to force the Enterprise crew to worship him as a God. When they refuse, he dissolves himself into the wind.
The film Star Trek: Final Frontier tackles a similar theme. In revolt against Vulcan rationalism, Spock's brother Sybok hijacks the Enterprise and heads for the planet Sha Ka Ree near the galactic centre, where he believes the Creator lives. But this "God" turns out to be a tyrannical old man who kills anyone who doesn't do exactly what he says. It was a bold theme, since "God" was very similar to Moses' idea of Yahweh. This was a film which started up without Roddenberry, and which Roddenberry opposed - but actually it embodies the typical Star Trek humanist theology.
In The Way to Eden Spock discovers the planet Eden, which at first sight appears a place of beauty and peace, but on investigation turns out to have vegetation impregnated with deadly acids.
In The Apple, the inhabitants of Gamma Trianguli VI worship the God Vaal, which appears as the gigantic face of a snake-like reptile with burning eyes. Vaal provides an idyllic life for the people in exchange for fuel to power its energy systems. Vaal's priest Akuta wears antennae on his head so he can hear commands from the machine. The Enterprise crew discover that Vaal is a computer-controlled machine and destroy it with a blast of phaser fire, thus liberating the locals from their debilitating subservience to a cruel deity (but violating the Prime Directive in a very cavalier manner).
The Next Generation Episode Justice presents an almost identical theme. The Edos on the planet Rubicun III live a child-like, hedonistic life, worshipping a "God" which turns out to be a multi-dimensional life form in a transparent spaceship orbiting the planet. Despite the Prime Directive, the Enterprise crew question and then violate Edo law, and show one of their leaders the spaceship which is the visible for
Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
Octogonal paper. And they're using reams of it. Ignoring the fact that they're wasting something like 11 square inches of paper on every sheet, how exactly are they planning to replace it? I mean, they're sipping water like liquor because it's so precious, but they've got no problem throwing away tons of plant material.
There are just so many details like this that are distractingly bad. BSG is an awful, awful show shored up by good actors bringing decent performances to the table. Next season, they'll be phoning it in, and it'll tank completely.
He also said "...quantum physics can't be true because God wouldn't play games with the Universe...".
...given that it's based on a bizarrely awful franchise. But it's glacial and spends way too much time of side-plots that don't go anywhere (I mean, how long are those two gonna wander around randomly and to what purpose?)
The most interesting thing about religion is how it manages to survive in one form or another throughout so much change. One would think that humans getting such a handle on the science of life and physics would have obliterated religion, but it keeps on truckin' all the same.
... we'll believe anything, anything at all, simply to avoid facing up to that one unpleasant fact: we are mortal and one day will no longer exist. Worse, it won't take much time and change for the very memory of our existence to vanish.
... simply because those selling the belief in him offer the promise that "even if you burn in hell, at least you won't someday be not".
I don't find it terribly interesting.
Human beings are expert at living in denial. We are intelligent, self-ware, sentient creatures encased in a biological chassis that has a very short, finite lifespan, embedded in a universe of increasing entropy in which the most fundamental laws of physics insure that all life, no matter how sophisticated or "immortal" will one day perish.
There aren't too many people who can face that reality head on
Faith isn't evolving. People's rational for denying the obvious, but unpleasant, truth of our own mortality is simply doing ever more creative acrobatics to avoid getting pinned down by cold hard fact.
Frankly, I see science as the interesting facet of science fiction, whether it is social science (what kind of a society will we have in the year 10,000?), physics, biology, astronomy, or what have you.
What really isn't interesting at all is what kind of rationalization will people have come up with to deny their own mortality when the very universe is tearing itself to pieces and life anywhere, in any form, is becoming untenable. Doubtless it will involve some kind of apacalyptic vision, followed by the return of a jealous, angry, vengful god.
That last is kind of interesting. The Judeo-Christian/Mormon/Islamic god is vengful, jelous, angry, and demanding. Yet people prostrate themselves to him willingly. Most of us wouldn't spend ten seconds in the company of a human being with those personality traits, yet billions of us flock to the idea of such a person having limitless power
Which really shows just how truly desperate we are to deny the truth of our own mortality.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
actually, the good Doctor addressed many times religious issues, even if it was with the purpose of making religious people look fanatical.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Boomer shoots Adama's finger off and falls into the Cracks of Doom
Anyone enjoying the actual Zero-G flight techniques? Like in B5 they show the ships using thrusters to turn and manuever and allow for the flip and fire move seen recently. I find it a nice attention to detail, esp from a ST guy (where they don't do much with small fighter combat in Zero-G) to have another show getting it right. (Same for the lack of sound out in space)
What effects company is doing the effects for this show? I've noticed something of a similarity to the effects in Firefly.
-T
In the same vein, weapons wielded in defense now serve as tools of oppression the world over. This is the overarching point that I get from BG.
As for water, where do you propose getting that hydrogen from, flying through a star's photosphere? I suppose if they can take a nuke or two the ship could probably handle it, but it seems like a lot of effort when you can just go and dig it up.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Archemedes...
Most of the great minds in the history of science and mathematics were religious people.
...Thomas Edison, Stephen Hawking, John Conway, Woody Allen, Stanislaw Lem, Terry Pratchett, Steve Wozniak, John Carmack, Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Bill Gates... Oh, wait a minute... They're all atheists! Heretics!
As a matter of fact, only a small minority of greater scientists believe in god or in soul, and that number drops with every year:
god:
1914: 28%
1933: 15%
1998: 7%
immortality:
1914: 35%
1933: 18%
1998: 8%
(Source: Nature)
Merely 7% and decreasing is hardly "most of the great minds in the history of science", isn't it?
Athiests tend to just sit around and write bad science fiction. That, or post flamebait on Slashdot.
It's "atheists" for the love of god! And this is not "Insightful". Have you ever used a GNU/Linux system? Both RMS and Linus re atheists. Obviously they don't "just sit around" but actually create something valuable, wouldn't you agree?
Out with the Mormon connection, in with the programmers' connection. Is COBOL also the language in which the Cylons are programmed?
Ho boy.
You know, Charles Darwin almost went to seminary school before taking his voyage on the Beagle. References to a divine power as a guiding force behind evolution are all over Origin of Species.
Science and religion are separate, and since the Enlightenment people have held them as very distinct. Even Galileo said that "the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes." i.e. a person can be a scientific genius, and still admit there are things that we as humans don't yet understand.
I know it's hip to deride all faith as some sort of mass delusion that we need to outgrow, and that's fine. I don't have much faith myself. But faith and intelligence are not necessarily mutually exclusive things.
I'm not advocating anyone "get religion," but I do think that judging religion by its highest manifestations (art, literatue, etc.) as well as its lowest (the Inquisition, the Crusades, other favorite whipping boys of Christianity) is more broad-minded than simply dismissing religion across the board.
I also think it's unrealistic to think that human beings are simply going to "outgrow" faith, at least until we've become gods ourselves and can prove some form of life after death.
And personally, while I have no use for organized religion, I do like that Galactica threw it in there. Me, I always had a problem with shows like Trek, in which all human religions had apparently vanished overnight, and religion was presented only in terms of loony fanatics causing a problem for our atheist heroes. Yeah, that's an egalitarian vision of the future.
Wow, she is fine. Plays a tuff woman, strong and capable yet really hot.
I would wear her ass as a hat.
I would drink her bathwater.
I would nibble her clit with a nice chianti.
"The Fonz" didn't jump over the shark with his motorcycle. He jumped the shark on water-skis.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
an Aldous Huxley and Orwell and the Soilent Green and the Farenheit 451 and The Illustrated Man and T. Gilliam's Brazil and Planet of the Apes and
Bender's good'ol fear of ROBOT HELL!!!
To study in human behaviour and AI one MUST study all religions (the good ones and the not so good ones too).
Relgion and science fiction blends well. Is the marketing and sponsoring whats makes it go weird.
Dr. Zeus Dr. Zeus!!!!
- these are not the droids you are looking for -
I have heard the statement "This is the best Sci-Fi currently running" used as a compliment for the following Sci-Fi shows recently:
,etc) and was always upset that there wasn't more mainstream acceptance of the show when it was airing (it was always a battle to get the show to the full 5 years, and then Crusade collapsed).
:)
Battlestar Galactica
Stargate SG1
Farscape
and a little longer ago
Babylon 5
The only problem I have is that just because a show is "edgy" or "shocking" or doesn't have a happy ending, doesn't mean it's "good writing" or even more likely "good sci-fi".
It's all about the writing. I was a huge B5 fan (yes..did the usenet groups, lurker's guide, etc
So...Is the question more "what is good sci-fi" or "does the US TV/Cable market have enough of a trackable viewership to warrant selling advertising space for shows that have a space/alien theme"?
I think the writers and actors and shows have always been around, but support isn't that available to keep it running in broadcast.
How about just watch what you want. (myself, SG:1, BS:G, Law and Order, and reruns of other stuff, can't get into SG:A).
Can can JMS get a little love?
Me - Professional Computer Geek
You're all gay. I'd do her without the condom.
You may have found it annoying, but religion is a major motivation for a lot of people. It's not for you or me, but in society at large, a lot of people make their decisions based on their beliefs regarding a God.
Take the current Terrorism problems the US is focused on. For most of those terrorists, the core motivation is religious. While there are economic components to their actions, and the economic issues may have been The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back, Religion is the major motivating factor.
Religion is the reason Stem Cell research is so truncated and restricted in the USA, and why doctors who perform Abortions have been murdered in the streets.
It's at the center of the Euthanasia debate.
Religion, and the moral values people take from or support with it, are the driving force behind most of the banned books in the USA.
George W. Bush won the 2004 election due in a large part to the almost unified support of Conservative Christians. I personally know people who voted for Bush because Kerry was "The pro abortion candidate, and you can't have the blood of all those babies on your soul."
Religion is also the original driving force behind a lot of charity, such as the actions of the Salvation Army. It's not all bad.
While the religious motivations don't reflect why you do the things you do, it is an accurate reflection of a large percentage, perhaps even the majority, of humans on the planet.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Hey, look over there, it's the Battlestar Pegasus! And who's that at the helm? It's Lloyd Bridges!
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
The latest episode had 3.2 million viewers, almost twice as many as watched the latest episode of Star Trek Enterprise.
Bullcrap. The most recent Enterprise episode 'United' had 2.8 million viewers. 2.8 * 2 = 5.6, not 3.2. Enterprise generally gets around 3 million viewers - the average for this season so far is 3.08 million (source). In other words... Enterprise would thrive on Sci-Fi. Or anywhere where it actually gets ANY advertising.
If I had cable, I would have watched it on TV but I did download and watch the full season. I just don't know if they have been counting P2P too.
Actually, CGI is often more expensive than model work, but studios use it to get a certain look.
The thing about model work is that we know exactly how to do it right. CGI is still very much a new medium, and we're still figuring out how to get the right look. For instance, compare the CGI effects in a show like "Babylon 5" to a show like "Galactica." The very first thing you notice is that the color saturation in "Babylon 5" is way too high. Yes, the computer enables you to generate synthetic images with all that wonderful color, but it doesn't look real. It looks fake, like a cartoon. In real life, colors are muted and dull unless they're lit perfectly. The guys at Zoic know that.
The thing about CGI and miniature work is that it's very difficult to make CGI work look as good as miniature work. Not impossible, just very tricky and time-consuming. But the very best miniature work in the world doesn't look as good as the very best CGI work. It's possible to go further with CGI than it is with miniatures.
Not that it would be cheaper. In fact, it's considerably more expensive. Figures haven't been released, but the scuttlebutt is that "Galactica" costs upwards for $2M an episode, costs shared by Sky, Space, Sci Fi and (now) NBC. And that's in 2005 dollars. The new "Galactica," a show that's being lauded as a phenomenal success, is five times as expensive as the old "Galactica," a show that was cancelled because of high per-episode costs.
The most interesting thing about religion is how it manages to survive in one form or another throughout so much change. One would think that humans getting such a handle on the science of life and physics would have obliterated religion, but it keeps on truckin' all the same.
... we'll believe anything, anything at all, simply to avoid facing up to that one unpleasant fact: we are mortal and one day will no longer exist. Worse, it won't take much time and change for the very memory of our existence to vanish.
... simply because those selling the belief in him offer the promise that "even if you burn in hell, at least you won't someday be not".
I disagree. I don't find it terribly interesting at all.
Human beings are expert at living in denial. This is hardly news, and in fact is a theme that has been beaten to death both in the sci-fi genre and in literature in general.
We are intelligent, self-ware, sentient creatures encased in a biological chassis that has a very short, finite lifespan, embedded in a universe of increasing entropy in which the most fundamental laws of physics insure that all life, no matter how sophisticated or "immortal" will one day perish.
There aren't too many people who can face that reality head on
The thing that makes religion so interesting in sci-fi is that you can explore the continuing tensions between technology and faith as technology evolves... seeing how the faithful adapt is very interesting fiction.
Again, I suppose it is a matter of taste, but I don't find the contortions people go through to avoid facing facts particularly interesting or riveting.
Faith isn't evolving. People's rational for denying the obvious, but unpleasant, truth of our own mortality is simply doing ever more creative acrobatics to avoid getting pinned down by cold hard fact.
Frankly, I see science as the interesting facet of science fiction, whether it is social science (what kind of a society will we have in the year 10,000?), physics, biology, astronomy, or what have you. Science actually reveals answer, some (like the ultimate expansion of the universe and ultimate death-by-entropy of all life) is unpleasant, but many are quite fascinating and who knows, mabye a way out of this entropic slide into oblivion will be found (presumably by exiting this universe). Not likely, mind you, but perhaps possible. Now that would be interesting.
As for the current state-of-the-art and future rationalizations people will come up with to deny their own mortality, I don't find particularly intersting. Amusing perhaps, like "what will they say when the very universe is tearing itself to pieces and life anywhere, in any form, is becoming untenable." Doubtless the promises made to the terrified masses will involve some kind of apacalyptic vision, followed by the return of a jealous, angry, vengful god. Which, if they're anything like us, they'll lap up.
That last is kind of interesting. The Judeo-Christian/Mormon/Islamic (and presumably Cylon) god is vengful, jelous, angry, and demanding. Yet people prostrate themselves to him willingly. Most of us wouldn't spend ten seconds in the company of a human being with those personality traits, yet billions of us flock to the idea of such a person having limitless power
Which really shows just how truly desperate we are to deny the truth of our own mortality.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
It's science fiction folks... It's meant as a venue to discuss very real, and very serious topics, topics which are relevant to us in the real world.
It's not some secret plot to rope in unsuspecting geeks.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
I understood what you meant about spitting on hands, and something about a rising flagpole, but I was unclear about the rest.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
I think BSG is going to be around for a long time. The SciFi Channel is not aiming for a big national hit like Friends or something. They know (and their advertisers know) just about how big an audience that network has and that it won't get much bigger.
Except that rumour has it that NBC are considering showing it instead...
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
"Amen." (Ouch) While I liked DS9, for example, which had a lot of religion in it, the only reason it seemed to be accepted at all by the characters is because the gods of the religion actually spoke to people, gave them visions detectable by changes in brain function and made fleets of enemy ships disappear. There was a lot of talk of "faith," but the truth is that if your god shows up on your doorstep and turns your bottled water into wine you don't really need to have faith at all.
Religion is inevitable if you are self aware and mortal I reckon
You should read The God Gene
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
I am a huge BG fan from way back. I can live with the Males that are now females - no problem. I can live with the cylons that appear to be humans. I can live with almost everything on this new series. I can addapt. What I am having the hardest time adapting to is the fact that in an era where they have ships and people living in space as second nature -- yet still have sidearms that shoot lead and the "nuclear bomb" is their strongest weapon.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
The Galactica, a military ship meant to permanently reside in space as an autonomous force, had an extremely efficient water recycling system. I believe Adama said that left to itself, it's water supply was suitable indefinately.
The problem lie in the civilian ships, which were not meant to remain aloft forever, and as such, did not have a means of water reclaimation. These civiliar and commercial craft had to keep tanking up.
The fleet will always have to remain on the lookout for sources of water throughout the duration of the show.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Six Degrees of Seperation (ep07) and Kobols Last Gleaming (ep12/13) were by far the best episodes in the season. The only thing that could compete would be the pilot.
1) 33
Pretty good.
Written by RDM, directed by Rymer.
2) Water
Pretty good, perhaps a bit better than 33.
Written by RDM, directed by Marita Grabiak.
3) Bastille Day
Blatant attempt at appeasing TOS fans with Dick Hatch. Not as good as the first two, but not terrible either.
Written by Toni Graphia, directed by Allan Kroeker.
4) Act of Contrition
Stupid, poorly written. Horrible. Top Gun. Not real SciFi.
Written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, directed by Ron Hardy
5) You Can't Go Home Again
Bad, bad, bad... A blatant attempt to copy TOS ep.
Written by Carla Robinson, Directed by Sergio Mimica-gezzan
6) Litmus
The courtroom episode. Dumb. Not even scifi. Already been done much better in ST:TNG The Drumhead, which no doubt Flaming has probably seen.
Written by Jeff Flaming, directed by Ron Hardy.
7) Six Degrees of Seperation
Unfrackingbelievable! Incredible! Why can't they all be like this one?
Written by Michael Angeli, directed by Robert Young. Hope we see more of these guys in season 2.
8) Flesh and Bone
Not bad. Kind of interesting. Some good parts.
Written by Toni Graphia, directed by Brad Turner.
9) Secrets and Lies
Lame attempt at comedy. Horrible. Barely watchable.
Written by Jeff Flaming, Directed by EJO.
10) The Hand of God
Attempt to appeal to TOS fans through space battles. Predictable, but not completely horrible.
Written by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, directed by Jeff Woolnough.
11) Colonial Day
The political episode. Not SciFI. Mildly interesting, but mostly a filler episode. Hatch again for TOS folks.
Written by Carla Robinson, directed by Jonas Pate.
12/13) Kobol's Last Gleaming
The best episode. Why couldn't they have produced all of the episodes at this level of quality?
Written by David Eick (story) and RDM (teleplay), directed by the great Michael Rymer. These guys should have written and directed every episode! Why all the filler?!
Conclusion: Jeff Flaming, Carla Robinson, Bradley Thompson, and David Weddle should not be allowed to write any episodes in season 2. All writing should be done by David Eick, RDM, and Michael Angeli. Directing should be done by Michael Rymer, Robert Young, or maybe Marita Grabiak. Ideally Michael Rymer would just direct all future episodes.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
I agree - it is an american propaganda piece, not a story. I wanted to see a continuation, not a 'remake'.
Well....
the question would be more along the lines of: If she IS a cylone, is she a copy of a real human being or completly artifical?
[SPOILERS HEREIN]
In the final Episode it is quite clear that there are several copies of her on the base star, also when she shoots Adama at the end of the episode it almost looks like she is a cylone.
IF she really is (and it looks that way) it should be interesting to see what consequences this will have because remember:
Balthar tested her and she came back positiv, until he changed her results to "all green."
If she IS a cylon and the other on board Galactica find out, they also will know that the test doesn't seem to work, what will that mean for the paranoia in the fleet? Can they keep something like this under wraps? Or will this cause a wide spread panic under the people in the fleet?
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
My personal choice, is Enterprise. I am sure if I gave Battlestar Galactica more chances I may get into it. But I am Trek all the way. I like other series and watch them when they happen to be on and I happen to be looking for something to watch, that is SCI-FI.
From the one episode I saw of Battlestar Galactica I truly wonder how they get more viewers than StarTrek Enterprise.
These are my opinions I am not trying to start a war or feud. I hope that for all of you that like Battlestar Galactica, that you get a longer run then the doomed StarTrek Enterprise. I know I want more years of shows. I personally think UPN and Paramount have their heads up there a.....
Anyways, enjoy what ever shows you like to watch, and may they 'live long and prosper'.
Regards,
Ryan Pritchard
Fun Extends All Basic Life Expectancies
this is the best Sci Fi program currently airing
That's really sad if it's true. I tried, I really tried to watch the pilot. I couldn't watch it for more than 10 minutes. It was that bad. I enjoyed the original Battlestar Galactica, but they are totally unwatchable today except from an MST3K standpoint. They are far more dated than the original Star Trek is.
BG was originally described as Wagon Train in outer space, but if you really examine it it's Mormon's in outer space. The question is: Did they keep the Mormon mythology in the new series?
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
I've noticed a parallel between the BSG space battles and the classic computer game Homeworld. The tiny fighters, the camera work, and the music all line up. Even from an emotional standpoint, the destruction of the 12 colonies and the destruction of Kharak seemed very similar.
I like it.
Too bad the show just jumped the shark!
Last episode Starbuck performed the following feats:
1) Single-handedly took out 6 cylon raiders while defending her rookie wingman
2) crashed into a moon with (what luck!) a gas pressure of ~1 atmosphere and 1 gravity
3) happened to have a parachute that worked on that moon
4) found a crippled but basically intact crashed cylon raider (same had fallen from space, apperantly). Found it while on foot. Well crawling, really, she had a broken ankle.
5) Repaired same cylon raider using tape and scraps of flight suit.
5b) repaired hull breach and found source of breathable O2 in cylon raider, using same materials as above.
6) learned to fly cylon raider (which is machine/biotech, never designed for humans to fly).
7) peering through a porthole and operating controls never laid out for a human, manages to not only beat, but humiliate Apollo (in battle-worthy human-designed ship) in dogfight. Think "greetings" scene in Top Gun.
Compared to all that, waterskiiing over a shark is childsplay.
Which episode was that? I don't remember it... Title?
The staple of good SciFi is great special effects.No way. The staple of good SciFi is a great story. Dr Who had the worst special effects imaginable, and it didn't matter. The original Star Trek used salt shakers as props. Meanwhile, Dune had great special effects.
TWO IN THE PINK ONE IN THE STINK!!!
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Hilarious... I wish had modpoints...
They didn't have a choice. When the American audience (who hasn't been keeping up w/ the British broadcasts) sees the season finale, they will fucking riot if they didn't get a 2nd season...
[o]_O
I didn't pick up on a monotheistic/polytheistic contrast between the cylons and human theologies, but you may be right.
The more interesting thing is that the cylons *have* a theology. Look at all the other "man makes machines, machines try to kill man" movies, like The Matrix and Terminator. Those robotic menaces never had a religion as a motivation, just self-preservation.
I get the feeling from BG that the cylons believe that God *inspired* man to make the Cylons because God was fed up with Man and wanted the Cylons to destroy man. That is, the Cylons think they were made *through* man, *by* God, for the purpose of replacing the humans because God was unsatisfied/unhappy with them (in the same way Christian children are sometimes told God was unhappy with the dinosuars and so he killed them)
Nice to see they didn't just stick with the status quo of instinctive self-defense/
* Spoiler: Note that i-Robot had another twist on the theme because the robtos were killing people in order to *save and protect* humanity, not to destroy it.
What bothers me is with all this technology like the ftl drive and advanced robotics, they are still forced to use corded telephones for intership communications.
In one episode where plotting some battle strategy, they were using giant toy models on a 2-d display to form a battle plan?
He would be a deus ex machina anyway... a God created by Man.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
I'm an atheist and the religion in BG doesn't bother me in the least. Good scifi tells a cool story that shed's light on the "real" world. The connection between this show and the real world of today are obvious.
;)
;) It's all good.
All of the "smart" and "powerful" people are atheists or secularists - just like the Founding Fathers were. They realize that the masses are religious and respond to religous schtuff - so Adama, like Washington, uses religion to keep his group coherent.
We can't ignore that 90% of the world believes in a higher power. Those religious feelings can be reproduced in the lab, so to me, it's silly in one aspect - of course there are no ALL POWERFUL DIETIES, but in another way, it points out that most people probably have a real need for something like what a religion can give them.
The tension between that need for this, and the bullshit that often results, makes for good storytelling
Lets not forget, either, if the show presents, next season, "real" LORDS OF KOBOL - they will be gods other than the gods we know and love (or hate) - this alone sends a powerful message - we are provincial and Jesus isn't "universal"
Bring back the old stuff. I don't like machine guns on vipers and cylon raiders. Bring back lasers. bring back those toaster look-alike robots with 170's speech synthetisers and that red scanner (same as KITT BTW) And of course, Starbuck sucks as a female...
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
Some dialog I really want to hear -- Apollo talking to Adama:
APOLLO: So I'm in trouble for mutiny. How is it not mutiny that you sent soldiers to arrest the President? You didn't impeach her, oh no, not necessary, just send the soldiers over and frack the Constitution.
Has she no loyalty?
Let me spell it out for you. Spoilers, of course, since we're talking the last episode.
PRESIDENT: I want you to go get the arrow. We need it to find Earth.
STARBUCK: No we don't. Adama said he knows how to find it and he doesn't lie.
PRESIDENT: Oh, yea? Ask him.
So Starbuck, in an evasive and roundabout fashion, asks him. And she realizes he doesn't know how to find Earth.
And she still has the little statues of the two gods she is supposed to pray to, and she's reconnecting with her religious faith, and she knows what the prophecies say... and she decides they really do need the arrow.
She didn't jump back to Caprica because she was pissed at Adama for lying. She did it because she believed that they needed the arrow to find Earth. And at the same time, she was pissed enough at Adama not to care about the trouble it would land her in.
I predict that the arrow will actually open up some sort of sealed vault, and Adama is going to come to the painful realization that the crazy stuff the President was saying actually came true. He's going to let the President out of the brig and she will finish out her term. The President in turn will pardon Starbuck and Apollo for any and all crimes, and they will resume their duties. And everyone is just that bit more pissed off at each other than they were before the chain of events.
I like Boomer and I hope they will keep her on as a character. I don't see how Boomer can ever be trusted to fly a Raptor again, but maybe they can find something else for her to do. Or maybe she'll spend the rest of the series in a cell. Or maybe they will kill off the Galactica's Boomer, but the pregnant one from Caprica will become a new main character.
As for the President, at any time the cancer could kill her, but they could also pull off a miracle cure with that mystical drug. The prophecy didn't say when she would die, just that she would not see them arrive at Earth, and hopefully we won't see them arrive either (unless they do that as the last episode when they are done with ever making the show again).
I think we're going to see the Cylons factionalizing. It's already starting - two of the Sharons don't want to go back to or listen to the others. One of the Sixes is completely in love with Baltar. Another broke a baby's neck rather than let it live through a nuclear holocaust.
I don't think they're as single-minded as they initially appeared to be.
Also, Katee Sackhoff is fucking hot.
+++ATH0
I think the potential of this shows is absolutely going to waste. Putting aside my ENORMOUS gripes about much of the show's premises (Oh no, humans built intelligent machines, so now they have to destroy all humans. We beat the Cylons 40 years ago, if we just leave them alone they'll leave us alone, oh wait, they just blew us up, etc. etc. etc.), this show just has far too many problems to be anything more than occasionally tolerable in its current state. My chief complaints concern some (though not all) cinematography elements, most of the characters, and the completely unbelievable scenarios and human interaction(yes, I know it's science fiction, a genre of the completely unbelievable, but I'm talking human decisions here, not creative fictional elements). First off, there are minor issues with the camera work in this show. I understand the shaky camera view trying to emulate a documentary style, but there's really no reason for this. Gorgeous scenes are ruined by gratuitous zooming in/out and the accompanying fuzzy focus shifts. There's also the previous discussed hopping between faces with little/no transitions in order to try and heighten drama. It's just a little tough to buy into why the show pushes this camera style. You never see any people walking around with cameras (aside from from the press in relevant scenes), so why waste our time on attempts at simulating a more dramatic scene than the writing supports? I think this documentary style is perticularly well suited to scenes involving cockpit views during space combat or even a couple of the ground chase scenes. In the end, the camera style is just a poor coverup for many of BSG's shortcomings. Then there are the largely awful characters. The cancer-ridden president who got the job because everyone else died. The alcoholic second-in-command. The largely forgettable fleet commander. The hotshot (moronic) pilot with something to prove (and of course it's a woman! Who's ever heard of a hotshot pilot with something to prove and wasn't a woman?). Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's reasonable to expect every character ever made to be completely unique and unlike anyone else. Formulaic characters aren't even necessarily bad when used properly. However, the characters of BSG are all so predefined it's laughable. In almost any given scene, it's hard not to know what character such-and-such is going to say to so-and-so about today's ridiculous situation. You always know when someone is about to be heroic or make some cutting remark or yet again point out who the real authority of the fleet is. I was a big fan of ST:TNG (until I saw B5) and an even bigger fan of ST:DS9 (until the finale ended in some pseudo-religious garbage instead of a spectacular fight). Each series had a number of characters that were largely formulaic but were actually extremely unique characters. Virtually every character in BSG sports the exact resentments and tensions you'd expect out of them. It's all very tiresome and dissapointing. Finally, there's the issue of the ludicrous scenarios and silly, unbelievable, and yet predictable human interactions. CPO Galen protects Boomer when she admits to taking detonators regardless of the fact that whatever her story is, she's putting the lives of fifty thousand humans at risk, including Galen's. Regardless of whatever sexual gratification he gets out of the relationship, it hard to accept that he would just completely cover for Boomer. Apparently nobody ever pays attention to Baltar, either, unless he happens to be speaking to that person at that exact moment. Sure, only the viewers know he's got some sort of wierd Cylon issue, but when a civilian scientist is on the bridge of a combat ship and is showing every outward sign of sexual activity, it's just not possible that someone wouldn't think it a little unusual and be suspicious. Every time Baltar speaks with a major character, his dialogue may appropriately match the conversation because of "creative" writers, but his ton
No message, just shame for accidentally hitting submit before preview
3) Where shall we go for lunch?
Which, coincidentally, is also answered splendidly by Sci-Fi in general and Doug Adams (takes off hat) in particular.
Dyolf Knip
...they were stupid and stopped to help some one. won't make that mistake again.
If you can regard stopping to get hijacked by Claudia Black(can't link directly to her photo) as "a stupid mistake we won't need to repeat", I'm sorry, I can't help you. I'd rather wait in line for a chance to get beat up by her. 'Prometheus Unbound' has to rank as THE best SG-1 episode I've ever seen (not that that's really an extensive statistical sample, YMMV).
Damn. Farscape DVDs go for about $90 a season.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
and doesn't even know it.
Remember the way Number Six' whole spine got red hot when she rode him?
A complete giveaway.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Gee, they've had me fooled since Tricia Helfer took off her panties and rode her guy until she was orange-hot.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
He also said "...quantum physics can't be true because God wouldn't play games with the Universe...".
Yes and now having quantum computers and quantum cryptography we know he was wrong. Therefeore, there is no god.
If Viacom wants to own The Next Fifty Years of the Star Trek universe, they simply are going to HAVE to show us the Romulan War, and they're going to have to do it rather well. They've taken four years to get anywhere near it with ST:Enterprise, and pretty much screwed it up. After 'Revenge Of The Sith' I sorta doubt that the quality bar for the Interplanetary War As Entertainment industry is going to be set real high.
With the WWW and the Usenet in the state they are today, fan-based life support for Star Trek will be _much_ more fun than watching Cathedral-style canon. If it wasn't for the fact that 1) Viacom owns all the copyrights and 2) they're pretty territorial about 'em, I'd say: "fsck Viacom, we can do better ourselves".
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
This is a semi-funny story (and by semi-funny, I mean pointless and totally boring). Matrix Revolutions had been out for about a month, and this guy in my crowd (that I never particularly cared for) burst into a conversation I was having with a couple of people.
,blahblhblah." I hadn't yet seen it of course. I wasn't impressed by Reloaded, so it wasn't something I had to see the minute it hit the theaters. I was planing on seeing it sometime in the next few weeks, though.
He was all psyched because he had just seen Revolutions earlier that night, and it had been a revelation to him. Without asking if any of us had seen it, he started spoiling the movie, giving away all sorts of shit. "I was so blown away! There's this architect, hidden in the matrix, but is he the creator? And he tells Neo, ,
When Doofus noticed that I had plugged my ears with my fingers, he stopped and asked me why I was doing that. I told him that I hadn't seen it yet, and that he was ruining it for me. He said something like, "Oh, sorry," then "But you've got to see it! It's totally amazing, Neo has this fight with all the. . blah blah blah."
I fucking went off on him. I actually made him cry, I was so mean to him, and I made other people hate me because I really harshed everyone's buzz. Of course, other people were laughing, especially my two companions, so I guess it evens out.
So, I don't go to see Revolutions, since he ruined it for me, but I do my best to completely ignore all information about it, so that when I finally do see it, I'll hopefully have forgotten anything that Numbnuts told me.
When it came out on DVD I rented it and took it to a friend's house. The friend has a huge screen home theater set up. I watched it.
And it was the worst movie I had ever seen in my life. Worst. Movie. Evar. I am so glad that I didn't pay full ticket price to see that piece of shit. The only positive thing I can say about the movie is that I became grateful that Idjit had caused me to wait for the DVD.
The postscript is that I apologized to him, but he only vaguely remembered the event, so he forgave me. He had other things on his mind; his girlfriend had just dumped him. As penance I fed him beer after beer while he told me the whole sad tale. Having been through my share of breakups, I probably could have interrupted him with spoilers, but I didn't. It was excruciating, especially since I don't drink alcohol. I gave him a ride home, then went home myself, emotionally exhausted by Dickhead's story.
(Names have been changed to protect the idiotic. A few facts were fudged to aggrandize my self-image and prop up my puny ego.)
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Lessee....
The blonde screwed Dr. Baltar's brains out for a couple o' years.
She also helped him debug the software he sold to the defense department.
While she was at it, she built major backdoors into all this software, and had a go at the central defense mainframe as well.
Through these backdoors, the Cylons were able to take out the human defense systems with barely any fight. It's all more or less Baltar's fault, for watching her tits instead of her changelogs.
About the time the bombs started falling she told Baltar she's a Cylon, an android, a baddie. She's model Six out of twelve.
Dr. Baltar's mind has snapped from the guilt, lust, and fear of discovery. Although number Six didn't make it off Caprica with him, he still sees her, in his head. She taunts him, and she screws him, usually at the most inappropriate times.
Boomer is a Cylon also, we don't know which model.
There's one of her on Caprica and another on the Galactica, and neither one knows she's a Cylon.
Little things, like waking up soaking wet with an extra bomb in her duffel bag the night before the water tanks all blow up, make her suspect that something's terribly wrong, but she's in fear and denial.
She's screwing the hanger chief, but Col. Tighe (or maybe it was Adama) has told her to knock that off. Chief Tyrol helps her cover her tracks.
Starbuck screwed Zak Adama so senseless that he couldn't fly his Viper straight, and he crashed and was killed. That was a couple of years ago.
She blames herself, 'cuz she was his instructor, and she could tell he wasn't up to it, but she passed him anyway because she wanted to marry him.
Adama blames himself for Zak's death, because he pushed Zak into becoming a fighter pilot when he really wasn't good enough at it.
Apollo blames 'em both, and doesn't hesitate to lay on the guilt every chance he gets. My money sez he wishes he was the one that Starbuck had screwed cross-eyed. Maybe he'll get his chance, someday.
Of course the Cylons are chasing them all, and are a LOT more numerous and better organized.
The only real chance the hew-mons have is that these new Cylons are at least as horny as they are, and they seem to really dig screwing humans. I don't (yet) see how that can be used to the humans' advantage, but they're beat from every other direction.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
in the documentary, and they're both British, and IMHO they're both gay.
Maybe it was their accents, or maybe it was the way they giggled like schoolgirls at a question about a gay character on BSG.
There was discussion about how a Yank would pronounce the word "bugger". Neither one understood that we don't use the word as a general curse the way the Brits do.
It has a much more specific meaning over here.
YMMV. Watch the documentary and make up your own mind.
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I think she's doing a fine job.
She punched the frackin' XO. The asshole deserved it.
But I still like Firefly _much_ better.
And Zoe would kick her silly little tail.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
To study in human behaviour and AI one MUST study "all religions (the good ones and the not so good ones too)."
How does this apply to $cientology?
Are we to seriously give it a moments thought?
Can't be true. Not without a God.
... that would rock, but is unlikely. The laws of thermodynamics have held up very well to centuries of abuse and mistrust ... even many scientists don't like what they imply about our long term fate), or get very unlucky and discover that there is a vengeful, cruel, jealous, angry god who likes to kick the shit out of his miniscule creations, but none of those scenerios are terribly likely.
... but its track record is certainly better than that of the religious fanatics.
... it is at best orthogonal to science, and often at odds with it. It has yet to be complementary to science, all sorts of apologist rhetoric notwithstanding.
Well, you can make up a new term like "anti-entropy" and convinienty avoid defining it until later, but assuming you define anti-entropy as something that occurs AFTER the birth of the universe, it is entirely possible, and indeed quite likely (though of course not certain) that we do in fact live in a universe with no "anti-entropy" and no God.
One example (which may or may not coincide with reality, but it is a reasonable hypothesis which has been advanced more than once) is that the singularity of a black hole may in fact be the birth of a universe, in which entropy starts at a negligable value in a PERFECTLY NATURAL, no-wrathful-God-required big-bang event, then increases as the spawned universe goes through its natural life cycle. Just as ours is. No beginning to the larger cycle, and no end, just as a moebeous strip has no beginning, no end, and only one side.
The fact that modern science, still in its own infancy after a mere 300 years, hasn't explained all the minutia of the big bang, or offered every answer to every question yet, doesn't mean we're required to punt and assume "there must be God, or it must not be true" to every question for which we don't yet have all the answers.
There is, unfortunately for us, verly likely no "anti-entropy" (and certainly no credible evidence at all to the contrary), nor, fortunately for us, a God (again no credible evidence to the contrary). There is probably nothing more than a singular event that occurs at the birth of every universe which we don't yet understand, and which CANNOT occurr once a universe has been born and is up and running. Of course, maybe we'll get lucky and discover we can reverse entropy (and your "anti-entropy" does in fact exist
One thing is certain. Science has given us more answeres in 300 years than religion has in 3,000,000 years, and certainly more than Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheism has in the last 2000 years. Whether it will answer the deeper questions as to how this universe was born, who knows
Of course, this is irrelevant to whether or not religion in SCIENCE fiction is interesting, or even apropos. We're discussing SCIENCE-fiction here, not RELIGOUS-fiction or FANTASY. Religion clearly belongs in or the other of those genres
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Yes, but it's the fact that those who depend on religion never give it up in the face of science that makes history so interesting. And by extension, that's what makes it so interesting when sci-fi evokes religion, rather than just dismissing it as something for the unenlightened. Smaller mp3 players aren't the issue as much as the camera that steals your soul, and how the people that believe that react to a world where cameras are everywhere.
I agree on the interesting point: I've told my wife that the scifi that I enjoy the most isn't just where someone makes up a story loaded with futuristic technology, but where an author works hard to tell a story set in a future, showing how people as we know them *react* to, live with, and incorporate differences in technology and culture into their lives and society.
In other words, it's not just cool tech, but making an extension from here/now and looking at how differences could affect us.
Or, even not making those differences a focal point at all, but telling a good story about human (and other/alien?) interaction, that is set in a time and society that happens to have these differences... but that holds together with what we know about ourselves.
I'm not a religious person at all, but your reaction to the concept of religion existing in the future is what makes it good drama: you think that it's irrational, but you have this gnawing feeling deep down inside that there will still be a good population of religious fanatics no matter how advanced our science becomes. That's why it's so great to have religion in sci-fi. Tension beyond compare.
Gee, thanks for calling the majority of humanity 'fanatics,' 'irrational' and 'unenlightened.'Don't you think that perhaps *someone* sometime in history *might* possibly have been smarter than you or known something you don't believe? And that perhaps they were right?
You all are awfully dismissive of religion. It's not just mythology for the ignorant. If you'd take your own science-colored religion-biased glasses off for a second you might find that there is more to it than your over-simplified and insulting posts here imply.
... and an awful lot of scientists happen to understand science quite well, yet still believe in their religion...
Science doesn't disprove religion... no matter how much you wish it does.
Gee, thanks for calling the majority of humanity 'fanatics,' 'irrational' and 'unenlightened.'
Sorry that it came across that way... I was actually meaning to imply that to the person I was replying to (and people like him), religion seems irrational. I'm not religious, but I'm not anti-religion. I appreciate that many people believe many things, and that any number of them may be dead-on with their faith. Which is why I think that assuming that religion will one day disappear is a bad premise. And that's why good sci-fi should explore the world that exists in the future in an honest way: realizing that you can't ever convince someone that their god doesn't exist, because you'll never make your science religion seem more real than their ancient one.
I was arguing the fact that religion is an important part of society (human or not), and that it belongs as at least an existant part of sci-fi. My wording may have been catering too much to the pro-science side of things. I guess my point was that (to use you as a reference)... if someone who is intelligent and knowledgeable about science believes in religion in these "advanced" times, you have to assume that religion is too relevant and robust to just disappear in the face of advanced technology.
The world's only surviving livewriter.
Wow, you sure dismiss very lightly the intelligence and personal experiences of a majority of the human race,
... and of the *many* scientists who still believe in various religions despite being "exposed to the knowledge revealed by science."
I hate to disturb your 'science is the new god' dreamworld, but science does *not* in fact trump or disprove most of the major claims of the major religions. In fact, we often find more and more places where we learn things via the technique of science that confirms something from religion (particularly in archaelogy).
Science doesn't disprove religion... no matter how much you wish it does.
So, if you believe in something without definite proof or even when you see evidence to the contrary, isn't that how you are defining faith? Then isn't your belief in 'science above all' just a different religion?
FWIW, I responded a bit more in a grandchild post here
It came across (IMO) as sort of saying (in exaggerated form for clarity): "some people so stubborn that they are going to hold on to those religious beliefs no matter WHAT proof you give them to the contrary" or perhaps, "we'll never manage to stamp out religious ignorance."
Or perhaps I was being too sensitive.... certainly possible.. ;-)
I do agree with you that it *should* be part of scifi, or any good scifi that is truly exploring human societal changes beyond just cool tech and ray-guns. Anything that is such a big part of humanity won't be dismissed easily by a few technological advancements.
Admittedly, doing good scifi is a huge undertaking, and an author can only explore so many aspects of a possible future society at once, so sometimes it's one of the things that gets dropped for story-line, time or effort reasons.
You write: "... if someone who is intelligent and knowledgeable about science believes in religion in these "advanced" times, you have to assume that religion is too relevant and robust to just disappear in the face of advanced technology."
I'd add "... or true... " to 'too relevant or robust.' That takes into account that religion isn't just something we need in our lives but that it tells truths about our world and particularly about ourselves that science and other things don't.
Anyway, thanks again for the reply post. It's good to have an intelligent discussion here instead of just flame-wars. ;-)
Ummmm:
Christian mythology stating Earth created in a week, about 6000 years ago -- disproven by geology.
Christian mythology that God created all lifeforms on the planet in their current static states in one fell swoop -- disproven by evolution and archaeology.
Christian mythology that the Earth is the center of the universe and all heavenly bodies revolve around it -- disproven by astronomy.
Sorry to be so Christian-centric, but that's the mythology I'm most aware of. I'd guess that other religions also have their share of primitive explanations of natural phenomena that have since been disproven by modern observation and experimentation.
Without getting into a big creation vs evolution argument, personally I believe that creation as written could have certainly occurred over time, where evolution of species was a part of the means of creation, yet still guided and started by a creator.
Where does the Bible say that the Earth is the center of the universe?
Keep in mind that all religions have various types of beliefs.
They include some major, core things that, without which, the whole religion collapses. In Christianity, the resurrection of Christ is one of those. If that's not true, then the rest that is built on that falls down pretty fast.
There are also traditions (probably need a better word), which I'd define as general beliefs or practices that has been passed down through generations. Some of the old testament examples would include many of the dietary restrictions and other rules, which were given to the people of the time as necessary for health and survival in their circumstances. They may or may not always be appropriate in other circumstances. Better examples of what I mean here would probably include things that are 'outside' the Bible, that define ways we think about something or how we do something not explicitly defined in the Bible.
And derived beliefs, where we derive or expand upon a core belief, sometimes in a way that extends something a bit too far. Many faiths add a whole lot of *stuff* in this way that becomes very legalistic and gets far from the core.
The (Christian) Bible has a mix of writings, from history, to recorded rules, poetry & songs (psalms, etc), recorded guidance and inspiration, etc, all in a wide variety of literary styles from a wide variety of authors over several thousand years. While we can't casually just ignore what we feel like it's not valid to treat every word in it as some kind of direct command or God-spoken truth.
Anyway, what I'd postulate is that, at least in the case of Christianity, science hasn't disproven the core beliefs upon which the faith stands or falls. It may certainly have disproven some of the less-critical claims, but that doesn't mean you get to throw the whole faith out.
A very large number of Christians, particularly southern baptists, would disagree with you on that.
Anyway, what I'd postulate is that, at least in the case of Christianity, science hasn't disproven the core beliefs upon which the faith stands or falls. It may certainly have disproven some of the less-critical claims, but that doesn't mean you get to throw the whole faith out.
It seems odd to me that, as scientific discoveries continue to disprove this or that aspect of a religion's teachings, the reaction of so many people is to take another step back and draw a new line in the sand. You/they say "OK, that particular teaching was wrong, but the rest of it is still good." You've been doing this over and over for centuries. Will it ever occur to you that maybe the whole thing was simply made up a long time ago by people with a much simpler understanding of the world around them? Will you ever stop staring at trees and see the forest around you?
Three thousand years ago, the sun moving overhead in the sky was as mysterious and misunderstood as human mortality. In Jesus' day, people knew as much about geology, paleontology or biology as they did about human mortality. So now today we understand the sun's movements, how old the earth is, and how life changes over time much better than we did back then, and those old beliefs seem quaint, even silly to us. Yet because science has yet to uncover all the mysteries of consciousness, life and death, people insist that their religious beliefs on those concepts are still true. Why do we have to wait until science picks off the very last mistake in a religion's teachings before we recognise that the whole package was just a less advanced worldview from a less advanced era of history.
Don't forget Star Wars. And we can now add Star Trek to that list. Enterprise was obviously supposed to be a safe moneymaker, but the Suits got ahold of it, removed all remnants of risk, and thereby screwed it beyond hope. Thank you, Dirk, for pointing your cigar directly at the crux of the problem.
Right On. That's just the stuff about Network Suits.
There's plenty about feminism, too, which I don't disagree with but I don't want to end up quoting his entire piece.
Go read for yourself, MUYOM (Make Up Your Own Mind) that's what it's for.
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Maybe I just don't get it, but I've found the Battelstar Galactica episodes I have seen so far incredibly boring. I've tried to give it a chance, but it's so boring I have a hard time even paying attention to the show. On the other hand, I like Star Trek Enterprise...
Remember the way Number Six' whole spine got red hot when she rode him?
Are we to believe that in two years, he's _never_ done her doggy style?
This is the sort of flaw the critics bitch about.
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AND that Tyrel has _never_ had Sharon from behind, either?
Give me a break!
Maybe Six would avoid such positions, but Boomer couldn't even know.
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Some would, particularly if you take that one line of mine out of the context of the rest of what I said. Many would not.
"Yet because science has yet to uncover all the mysteries of consciousness, life and death, people insist that their religious beliefs on those concepts are still true. Why do we have to wait until science picks off the very last mistake in a religion's teachings before we recognise that the whole package was just a less advanced worldview from a less advanced era of history."
Nicely written, but you make the assumption that this is something progressing only in one nice clean direction, that of science finding the 'truth' that refutes all of the 'truth' previously believed to be true by (pick-your) religion. And you assume that because it (supposedly) went in that direction in the past it will continue to in the future.
Neither of us knows the future, so perhaps that's the way it'll go someday, or perhaps not. Science already confirms some things that religions have believed and practiced for centuries... it's not all a refutation process... so perhaps it'll eventually reach the point of proving more difficult core religuous beliefs true and correct.
Have you even considered that possibility?
Or are you so firm in an anti-religion and 'I know better than all the rest of you poor ignorant souls' attitude that you won't?
Lessee...
The Cylons look like humans now. No news there.
The Boomer on Caprica knows she's a Cylon. That wasn't apparent. She's playing Helo. No news there.
Six is too territorial to let Gaius get anywhere near Starbuck. Can't really blame her, it's not as if she hasn't already caught him banging another chick.
Tyrol's people are pretty loyal. Duh.
Everybody's paranoid. You'd be paranoid, too, if they really _were_ out to get you.
Nearly everybody has _something_ to hide.
Investigatotions given Carte Blanche quickly turn into Witch Hunts. ST:TNG didn't make that up.
They caught Tyrol & Boomer, but they didn't find the still. Some investigation.
The Chief isn't likely to cover for Boomer quite so automatically anymore.
Six is actively driving the development of the Cylon detector. Here's the angle: she _needs_ the Cylon detector to clear Boomer, because the twit is SO clumsy that she's bound to get caught.
I give it about a 3. No cigar this week.
Next week oughta be better. Six shows up in the, er, flesh, oh, my.
This week Atlantis gets the cigar. Sheppard "did the Captain Kirk", with an _ancient_ babe, no less! Teyla didn't look amused, but it was Rodney who went positively ballistic. Ah, jealousy is so _very_ ugly...
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Call me cynical if you wish but my experience with American TV has been that the quality is inversely proportional to the size of the budget.
Maybe we British just have different standards with such massive competition for the highly limited air time (British TV has 4 to 5 channels only) it is relatively rare for new US imports compared to the 1970's and 1980's.
Say to the man on the street in the UK that company X in the US are doing Y or a remake of Z and the news will be met with a groan followed by a shrug as the realisation that "at least we don't have to watch it" sinks in.
That's not to say that US stuff doesn't air over here like um... yeah so right now I can't think of an import in the last few years but BBC 2 does / did show Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, Ent), SG1, Farscape and Babylon 5 as they have a dedication to cult status shows but on the whole your average UK dude is highly suspicious and/or sceptical or remakes in general.