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Galactica Commentary Podcast Available
Kichigai Mentat writes "Apparently SciFi channel is pushing the bounds of your average TV viewing experience with "Battlestar Galactica." First came a full, uncut stream of the first episode, now a full episode commentary podcast available as a Podcast stream, episode-length MP3 file for download, or invividual MP3 files for each "Act." The podcasts are released a week in advance, and listeners are warned about spoilers."
ok, nothing annoys me more then someone renaming a technology, and then everyone jumping on the bandwagon of this new and great thing! it is called a webcast. as in broadcast combined with the web. there is no (i)pod in this stream whatsoever...
Isn't it great when somebody actually get's it...unlike some people.
It's one guy, talking. And he's boring. This isn't Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's more like "shut up, I'm watching the show".
Incidentally, if you're shipping out voice recorded with one microphone, both channels are the same and there's no reason to send it in stereo. Just bloats the file.
There really hasn't been anything like it on TV in a while, and it is obvious that the producers pay attention to what fans think. I rememeber last year, there were postings on Slashdot about why after all the nuking Caprica didn't have nuclear winter effects, radiation. Now, 2nd season, the characters need radiation shots and the weather is awful (although shouldn't it be cold and icy instead of rainy?)
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--POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT --
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And the Baltar character is hilarious. Like last episode when Starbuck caught him and his imaginary(?) cylon GF doing it doggy style. It was sexy without being UPNish and funny without being stupid and, well, UPNish. I like how they introduce an edgy, troublesome character like commander Ty's wife and don't just send her off at the end of the episode StarTrek syle. Or it was cool when Boomer started getting hot and bothered over the Cylon fighter ship. I could go on and on. I wish the people who were doing Enterprise had had 1/10nth of the creativity. The one episode where they came close to the human level BSG gets is when they had shoreleave on that one planet, and Hoshi got bent over by that big alien guy. It was funny, totally unexpected from that particular character and made them seem like real people.
this is a great idea, and I do think it's pushing the boundaries. Cheers, Dean
Some valid points. However, I think I'd rather see both a streaming AND a downloadable version. Some of us prefer to download the entire thing so we can listen to it whenever. Being downloadable != backward technology, just a different choice.
The actual MP3 is here. It's not even on a streaming server; you have to download the whole thing. This is a step backwards to 1999 technology.
Dude, you got this so wrong.
A 'podcast' is where you have a program which automatically downloads mp3's by checking an RSS feed, and copies them over to iTunes for your iPod (you don't actually have to have an iPod, but the whole experience is designed with the iPod in mind, hence the name). This is like TiVo for your Internet broadcasts, this is far superior to streaming audio. Streaming is so Marconi!
It's one guy, talking. And he's boring. This isn't Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's more like "shut up, I'm watching the show".
This is like another modern technology you appear to be unfamiliar with--the DVD. Once you've watched a show, you can watch it again with commentary, that's what this commentary is for. Again, via a podcast this is vastly superior to the DVD method (omigod, imagine if this had been around when B5 was on!).
Incidentally, if you're shipping out voice recorded with one microphone, both channels are the same and there's no reason to send it in stereo. Just bloats the file.
Oh so true. Fortunately the guys at SciFi know this (not terribly surprising that a television network would understand the 'vagaries' of audio channels, lol), and made the file mono.
There's absolutely no way I haven't just been trolled...
Actually I thought quite the opposite, I really felt it was the first thing I've seen on TV that came close to expressing how I felt on 9/11 and the subsequent actions of President Bush.
Think about it. The Cylons are made by humans who then return to destroy us. The US CIA made Bin Laden and built up Middle Eastern dictatorships to fight the USSR and now that has come back to haunt us.
Some of the scenes in the show really brought back hard memories for me of 9/11. I could really connect with the characters sense of loss, frustration and anger. A lot of the chaos of the time, and of the strength of the people that I saw walking downtown NYC streets as well, seemed to be well reflected.
Other scenes I could barely watch. There's one scene in the first episode where one of the characters goes down to submit photo's of her missing family and she walks down a corridor that is literally plastered with photo's of the missing. NYC streets were just like that. Whoever wrote that must have either lived in NYC or had been exposed to life there immediately post 9/11, because that scene had pictures and little shrines with candles set up in just the same way it was at the end of my block.
Also in the first episode they have to destroy a passenger liner that is being used to carry a nuclear device to attack the fleet, and Apollo has to destroy it, even though he is not sure if there are over 1000 people still alive on it. Although that didn't happen on 9/11 it was in the realm of possibility.
Anyway, as for the idea that is show is some sort of propaganda for current US policy, I would say that just because there is a show with a war in it, that doesn't mean it is pro President Bush.
I think it's more like if we had decent leadership that was wise and level headed, not flag waving and bent on war maybe we could have gotten through this experience much better. I know not everyone will agree with what I just wrote, but I hope that as someone who actually lived through a bombing you would give my opinion some weight.
Peace, or Not?