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Battlestar Galactica Season 2 This Summer
jangobongo writes "SCI FI Channel announced that the second season of its hit original series Battlestar Galactica will premiere this summer with 20 new episodes, after earlier confirming their commitment to the show. Production will resume in March in Vancouver, B.C., with the entire ensemble cast returning, along with executive producer and writer Ronald D. Moore and executive producer David Eick. Averaging over 3 million viewers per episode, the series has quickly become SCI FI's highest-rated original series. No news on when a UK premeire might occur, but with Battlestar Gallactica ranking number 9 out of the top ten most popular TV program downloads worldwide, I don't think UK fans would have to wait long in any case." They're offering the first episode of the show for viewing in a no-charge commercial free venue on the official site.
Possibly the best scifantasy show thats been on TV in a long time, thankyou for giving it a 'full' season run this time round, and kudos to the creators for giving people the ability to download an episode legitimately - lets hope this leads to more!
If you're missing out on what is possibly the best Sci Fi series of our lives because you're still mad about the cancellation of a great show that was (and I say this as a huge Farscape fan) past it's prime, that's your problem.
But let me say: You're missing out big.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
The original series was a lame tv rip off of starwars, with plots written on toilet paper, and complete with a cheap cardboard R2D2esqe friendly robot. The new series is far more original.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
It can be hard to understand a word they're saying sometimes.
The scientist, the Commander and the President are always whispering their lines. That's a cheap way to try to carry drama - look how well it did for Captain Janeway.
Oh, and, cripes, get a steadycam for the handheld shots. Again, let the writing and acting carry the drama, not cheap tricks with cameras and microphones.
OK, one more, turn down the mix on the "Cylon in my head" theme. I get it.
So far, so good though. They do have me wondering how Starbuck can interface with the ship and what they'll do with a Cylon who doesn't know she's a Cylon. And based on the microscope scene there's a real possibility to do a human-cylon hybrid story arc.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
This is very good news. The only problem is that SciFi couples it with Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis on Friday nights. So, when one should be out partying with an actual human girl, he is staying at home addicted to 3 hours of very good television. Last Sunday, I downloaded and watched the last 6 episodes of Battlestar Galactica. Last night, I saw the last episode of season 8 of Stargate SG-1. I am addicted to these 3 shows. I love every minute of them, and Battlestar Galactica is probably the best Sci Fi show since Babylon 5, maybe even better.
When I read the list of changes they had made, I was horrified. It seemed as if they intentionally went out of their way to destroy everything that made the original. The trailers seemed to confirm this. I eventually persuaded myself to watch one episode to see quite how badly it sucked. To my utter amazement, I found it to be utterly superb. Other than the names of some of the characters, it has very little in common with the original, but it is far more thought-provoking and well written than even the best of the original. I hope they can keep it up.
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I don't see why commercials would be required. I would be more than willing to pay for reliable downloads at a decent speed - and buying directly from the studios would enable much better distribution of profits.
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The whole thing with the imaginary nympho Cylon "queen" is crap.
The dual storyline back on Caprica is pointless.
It's odd that you specifically mention those two points, as those are two of my favorite parts of the story.
On the first, I particularly liked it (though it looks like they're getting away from it) how Baltar would be in two seperate conversations, one w/ the Cylon chick and one w/ someone else, and he'd respond to both w/ the same statement, which had very different meanings in each conversation. I thought that was rather clever. I'm not sure why she's a nympho, but her being in Baltar's head is part of what makes him so interesting. IMHO, the series would not be as interesting w/o him, though I think they're all great (not enough shows have truly human [flawed] characters).
On the second part, I've been enthralled w/ what's happening on Caprica. The guy's a rat in a maze, and the Cylon's are just observing him, studying him. I look forward to the 5-10 minutes each episode that they cut to Caprica.
Just my feelings on the series.
Sci Fi is turning into quite the network.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
I guess that clears up the season cliffhanger. I didn't think it was likely that they would kill off any of the major cast members.
In a Sci-Fi show, death isn't that big an obstacle to coming back. Heck, Jimmy Smits returned to NYPD Blue.
"Look, Rimmer, death isn't the handicap it used to be."
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Looks like I'm already picking up language habits from the show.
:)
I recently started using the term "frack(ing)" as a substitute for the notorious four letter phenomenon. I really had no clue where I picked it up and assumed it was a popular term.
Anyway, I was reading the blog and to my utmost amazement, here's what I found:
Why "frack"? Where did the idea come from to make this the new F-word? Not that I don't like it, I find it amusing."
It's straight out of the original series. I dropped many other terms from the old show like "centon" (a unit of measurement) and "yahren" (year) because I felt they distracted from the mood I was trying to create and they sounded a bit silly to my ear. There was something elegantly lovely about "frak," however. There's nothing like being able to say my favorite four letter word on TV over and over again and I salute Glen Larson for giving the joys of frakking up, frakking off, not giving a frak, and frakking-A to the masses.
Well, now I know where I picked it up, and now I know not to say it too much in public
That makes it my #2 favorite SciFi word (after grok).
The bottom line is that sci-fi can't make money like other shows can. That's why they are relgated to channels like sci-fi who are dedicated to sci-fi only... the definition of their channel is the only reason why they take the risk.
First of all, just because they are highly downloaded doesn't mean you are making money. networks make money off of commercials that you have to view. Everything computer geeks try to do often guarentees they don't make money in the current TV model. I'm not saying it's "wrong" or "illegal" to download or record BSG, but when you do that you render the nielson ratings useless because you aren't watching them the normal way. Since all the networks seem to care about is the nielson ratings, these shows die because you aren't being counted as a watcher of the show.
Again NO, I'm not saying go out and watch the commercials to keep BSG alive. Put your flamethrower away. I'm just saying...
Second, sci-fi costs more than reality TV shows, sit-coms, and police/courtroom dramas. There are no special effects, no special sets, and often no need for imagination. Every show is either been done before or is "ripped from the headlines" as Law and Order does waaaay too often now. This cuts into costs. You could do a cheezy show on friday which only gets you half the income (before cost) of enterprise, but if you only have to pay one tenth of the production cost of enterprise to get it on the air, your instantly making more profit.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I think the new Battlestar stinks - especially as it's nothing new (more of a cross between the original series and the books).
Actually, you should forget the original series or the books ever existed. They were used to provide inspiration for this show, and not too much else.
Ron Moore realized that the thing keeping most science fiction shows from true greatness is an over-reliance on technology to drive stories and solve problems (e.g., "Captain, I redirected the proton flux through the transdynamic warp core shunt and used temporal simulspacing to realign the cosmic strings into a cross-dimensional pan-galactic wormhole and ejected the plasma cascade into it!"). He intentionally reworked the basic premise and the characters to provide the most opportunity for character-based plot development and interesting conflicts.
In the original show, Baltar was a one-dimensional villain, and a clown at that. Starbuck and Apollo had a safe and non-threatening relationship, and were generally bland (outside of the humor Starbuck's womanizing occasionally generated). Colonel Tigh was a boring second-in-command, and Commander Adama was a Moses figure--beyond reproach and able to command enormous respect without doing anything to really deserve it.
By contrast, the new Baltar is a seriously flawed human, but not a pure villain. Apollo and Starbuck have a very contentious relationship, which is flavored by their memories of Apollo's dead younger brother, and also the inevitable sexual tension between them. Colonel Tigh is a great officer, but a lousy person, and his interactions with Adama and the crew reflect that. Likewise, Adama's a grizzled veteran and a smart man, but he's not perfect and he's got a lot of emotional baggage.
I like the new show, and my wife and I can't wait for each new episode to appear. She's a bigger addict than I am. She'll be thrilled when I tell her the news.
Not something really one can argue with. It is personal taste after all. I do like the show because I like the darkness and grittiness of it. The plot revolves around a disasterous attack that's nearly wiped out a people. To me that should be dark and gritty. The original felt way to happy, but considering it was late 1970s TV I'm willing to forgive that given the time frame. However, if they remade it just like that, it would have no place amongst today's TV shows.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
And I think it's a stupid question, it would be dead time and must be done only if it has a good conection to the rythm of the scene.
Well, that's the thing, you see. It doesn't have to be dead time. "Six Degrees of Separation" (the BSG episode, not the movie of the same name) included a whole, lengthy scene with two characters having a conversation between urinal stalls. And it was great, because the director had the balls to shoot it all from outside the stalls, just letting the actors play it with their voice performances, and, believe it or not, their feet. It's a great scene.
I think yours is the best post so far. The guy who played the original Baltar seemed to be riffing on Lost in Space's Doctor Smith. He was a sniveling traitor, only seeking power and advancement even though there would be nobody but big toasters to share it with. It wasn't even depicted as a revenge fantasy for him, he was just a weasel with as much depth as a Dukes of Hazzard villian.
This Baltar is shallow, vain, brilliant and contemptous, but when put in his shoes, you wonder if your own character would be great enough to not act as he does. I know plenty of opportunistic slime in my professional life that I know would do EXACTLY what Baltar is doing. Hot pussy for life, king status, a religious transformation figure, all play to the massive ego that drives a lot of people. Many people I know are sociopaths underneath, they don't care about humanity, they care about themselves and their family and pretty much see everyone else as expendable. Those people would gladly remake humanity in their own image, as this Baltar has been given a chance to. To become Adam, to undo all the problems of society and start over and "get it right".
I think it's a pretty telling indictment of the old show that the worst, most wooden and unbelieveable actor in the new series is Richard Hatch. I mean, he sucks. It's hard to see how such an uncharismatic guy could be a revolutionary leader. This guy makes Lenin look like Robin Williams.
Making Tigh a srunk and his wife a social ladder climbing slut was great tv. As for the Boomer on Caprica subplot, it's meant to show how cylon AI comes apart at the seams once ideas like love and humanity become too embedded into the programming. She's so messed up, she thinks she really is in love, and once she gets preggers, she snaps. And the BSG Boomer actually is a sleeper agent and resists her programming and unsuccessfully attempts suicide, and requires a reboot at the cyclon base ship to get her assassination program back on track.
The only weakness is Adama. Everyone seems to love Edward James Olmos whispered delivery. I hate it. I've met a few U.S. Naval commanders and one admiral. None of them acted like that. They had command presence. Olmos does not. Olmos seems weird, and his reactions to things seem sometimes random. At times he's always prudent and avoids risk, until mid season when he gambles everything to take on the Cylons in a sneak attack. He gets pissed at Starbuck for telling him that she passed his son through basic and got him killed because she loved him instead of comforting her. But then, he comes to her rescue. I guess he's supposed to be conflicted, but instead he just seems bipolar. He's happy when he shouldn't be, mad when he shouldn't be - compared to Lorne Greene who was, in the perspective of time passed, a really 3rd rate actor, he's okay. But he's not walking around with the kind of presence even Patrick Stewart had as Picard. It's hard to see how he would have made his rank.
I agree with your observation that tech is used to drive plot in sci-fci, when it should be incidental to it. Tech should never save your ass at the last minute because only when faced with death did you figure out how to reconfigure the gizmo to save the day. That's not real life, and it never has been. In real life, under extreme duress, people fall back on only those things that have been drilled in.
Let's not forget where he was assigned - to an out-of-date Battlestar that was being commissioned. He was never supposed to be a great commander or even a good one. If he were, he wouldn't have been where he was.
Galactica is the Siberia that the cruft of the military were assigned to. Thus the alcoholic XO, their best pilot can't respect authority, crew members sleeping with subourdinates, etc.
she's a nympho, because it's the best way to manipulate men. The cylon has successfully "hacked" Baltar, and tried and failed to hack Adama (maybe it was that prostate surgery a few years ago?).
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.