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Battlestar Galactica Season 2 Premiere

fanblade writes "As if slashdotters needed another reason to stay home on a Friday night, the 20-episode second season of Battlestar Galactica premieres tonight at 10/9C on the Sci Fi Channel. The series, a 're-imagining' of the original 1978 TV series by the same name, made history as the highest-rated original Sci Fi Channel program ever. The first episode of the second season, 'Scattered', won't be televised in the UK until October, but I seriously doubt that will be a problem for the show that 'killed broadcast TV'. There's also excellent coverage on Wikipedia for those eager to brush up or catch up on the first season."

492 comments

  1. Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative
    Don't forget to tune in at 8/7C for the start of Stargate SG1 and Atlantis as well! SciFi is running THREE FULL HOURS of rockin' new shows today! From their site:
    08:00 PM STARGATE SG-1 (SEASON 9) AVALON - PT 1
    09:00 PM STARGATE ATLANTIS (SEASON 2) THE SIEGE - PT 3
    10:00 PM BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (SEASON 2) SCATTERED
    And if you miss it the first time, you can tune in immediately afterwards to catch the same linup again!
    11:00 PM STARGATE SG-1 (SEASON 9) AVALON - PT 1
    12:00 AM STARGATE ATLANTIS (SEASON 2) THE SIEGE - PT 3
    01:00 AM BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (SEASON 2) SCATTERED
    My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?
    1. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?

      That only applies when your target audience is made of of people who have lives. Not dateless sci-fi nerds.

    2. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by bonaman_24 · · Score: 1

      I must be the only Slashdotter ever who has never seen Battlestar Galactica, Start Trek or Stargate (I'm in my mid-20's.) What is Batlestar Galactica?

    3. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 3, Insightful
      My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?

      I think it depends on the demographic you are after. I don't think they are shooting for 18-24 year partiers;-)

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
    4. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by teiresias · · Score: 1

      Not with Tivo. :)

      I'll probably "miss" them tonight but I'll watch em tommorow.

      --
      -Teiresias
    5. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      never watched BSG either.... to much inter personal drama, not enough comedy and sci-fi for me.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    6. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by huckda · · Score: 1

      Atlantis sucks...
      the acting is on par with B-movies like "The Toxic Avenger"

      SG1 is much much better!
      and BSG...one of the better remakes I've seen ever.

      --
      "Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
    7. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by nEoN+nOoDlE · · Score: 0

      My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?

      Not for Sci-fi nerds! Those are the slots when we have nothing better to do!

      --
      Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
    8. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by huckda · · Score: 1

      BSG a late 70's early 80's sci-fi along the time as Buck Rogers...

      Was at the time a very good show!(30yrs old m'self) so watched it as a young'n...OLD sci-fi channel back when it was satelite only was when I really got into it during my summer vacation with nothing to do in my po-dunk town.

      Got the box set of the original series, and am re-watching them as well...still beats SG-Atlatis in acting and plot though!

      --
      "Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
    9. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or married people with lives. *cough*

    10. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by BigZaphod · · Score: 1

      Hmm.. Well, my fiancee and I are probably going to watch all these shows tonight, so I'm not sure your stereotype holds.

    11. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Atlantis sucks...
      the acting is on par with B-movies like "The Toxic Avenger"


      Are you kidding me? How can you not like Dr. McKay or Dr. Zilenka(sp?)? Especially when McKay gets on Sheppard's case about playing "Captain Kirk" with the alien ladies? Or when Zilenka gives his whole speech (in Polish, no less!) about Atlantis rising from the deep? ("You didn't say anything classified, did you?" ... "Classified?")

      Atlantis is great entertainment! Sure, it's not a gritty drama like BSG, but that's okay. Too much drama makes one depressed and boring. Try enjoying the lighter side of entertainment every once in awhile. :-)

    12. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by xstonedogx · · Score: 1

      Atlantis sucks...
      the acting is on par with B-movies like "The Toxic Avenger"

      SG1 is much much better!
      and BSG...one of the better remakes I've seen ever.


      Atlantis is only entering into its second season.

      With the exception of Firefly, and maybe BSG, I can't think of a sci-fi series that didn't have acting issues for the first two or three seasons, including SG-1.

    13. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 1
      And if you miss it the first time, you can tune in immediately afterwards to catch the same linup again!

      Well, I'll probably be watching BSG at 10pm, but I already have the Tivo set for 11pm. It's Battle Mackerel on the Iron Chef. Michiba is such a bastard. I hope he loses, big time.

    14. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by angrist · · Score: 4, Funny

      It works out great for me at school:

      8:00 - SG-1 starts, sit down and crack a beer
      8:30 - Commercials, order delivery for diner (mmmm dumplings), beer #2
      9:00 - Atlantis starts, food arrives, beer #3
      10:00 - BSG starts, throw leftovers in fridge, beer #4
      10:30 - Commercials, change into 'outside' clothes / brush teeth, etc. beer #5
      11:00 - Sci-Fi friday over, full stomach, nice buzz, ready to hit the town

      All in all it's not a bad routine for a friday, not that much in the party scene at school gets going before 10:30 - 11 anyway.

    15. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 2, Informative

      I watched BSG once. Perhaps I just caught a bad episode, but the pseudoscience was running really thick. The ships were on a desparate and mostly futile search for water, checking starsystem after starsystem for it; it was the plot of the entire episode. You know, H2O - the third most common compound in the universe (after H2 and CO), made of the most common element and the third most common element, which both in spectral observation of other star systems, direct observation of our own star system, and all theoretical models lies on the outside of almost every solid surface of every solar system, from the tiniest of comets to huge icy moons to even the cores of outer gas giants (not that the latter case would be useful, but just goes to show how common it is). About the only place in the universe where water *isn't* is inner planetary systems, which are often too hot for it to remain solid (or, rarely, liquid), in which case the planet may or may not be able to prevent it from losing the water vapor to space. Of course, even in such situations, oxygen is abundant in Fe*O*, SiO*, CO*, etc, and hydrogen is everywhere, and you merely have to burn the two at a rate of your choosing...

      But ignoring the difficulties of separating oxygen, you don't need to; water is everywhere that's not too close to a big star, abundantly, on the surface of bodies of all sizes, extending miles deep or all the way through.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    16. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Markus_UW · · Score: 1

      I used to love the old Battlestar Galactica, but I can't say I enjoy watching the new one. Stargate Atlantis, on the other hand...

    17. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by CosmeticLobotamy · · Score: 4, Funny

      That depends. Is your fiancee a robot?

      And if so, does she use her powers for good or for awesome?

    18. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I watched the first Star Wars movie too, and maybe I caught a bad 5 minutes, but the space ships that fly like airplanes was really thick pseudoscience.

      (never mind that the story doesn't depend on how the spaceships move).

      Give BSG a chance. It's the best SciFi that I've seen this DECADE.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    19. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 1

      If you'd watched it more than once, they make reference to the space outside the Colonies being like a desert, and they needed water that didn't have alot of extra compounds in it since they didn't have the facilities to clean it up.

    20. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 2, Funny
      My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die? I think it depends on the demographic you are after. I don't think they are shooting for 18-24 year partiers;-)

      Well, back when I was 18 to 24. I didn't leave the HOUSE until 11pm. Now that I am older and wiser, I have trouble staying awake past 10pm.

      Oh, Sci-Fi Channel, Why do you do this to me???? Change the time slot to 9pm! Then I can stay awake.

    21. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by linzeal · · Score: 1

      Are the Stargate series worth it? How many seasons would I have to watch to catch up with both? See, I have about 3-4 hours per day to use for entertainment currently being summer and only taking 8 units of class and I have already run out of American Dad and Family Guy Episodes.

    22. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by PreviouslySeen · · Score: 3, Informative

      11:00 - Sci-Fi friday over, full stomach, nice buzz, ready to hit the town

      Sounds like an ideal evening. However, at my age, I substitute "bed" for "town", and add "If I can get the toddlers to bed before 8 at the beginning". :)

      --
      Meet the new sig, same as the old sig
    23. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      The entire plot of an hour of Star Wars isn't about how spaceships fly like airplanes. That entire hour of BSG was about a desparate search for something that is everywhere. If it had been a minor element, it wouldn't have bothered me.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    24. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by millahtime · · Score: 3, Funny

      Geeks don't have social lives and tend to stay in and watch these shows. I am one of them :-)

    25. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Surt · · Score: 1

      It's sci-fi friday!

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    26. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Mercano · · Score: 1

      Can't stay for the rebroadcasts, need to go buy a book!

      --
      #include <signature.h>
    27. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by the+unbeliever · · Score: 1

      Maybe if you can suspend your disbelief long enough to realize that in the Universe BSG is set on, they had only found 12 (possibly 13) hospitable planets in all their travels. It could stand to reason that water in this universe is as rare outside of those planets as naturally occurring plutonium is here ;p

    28. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by patro · · Score: 1

      Don't forget to tune in at 8/7C for the start of Stargate SG1 and Atlantis as well! SciFi is running THREE FULL HOURS of rockin' new shows today!

      Well, those times are not really convenient for us here in Europe (me in Hungary), but don't worry we'll tune in on BitTorrent tomorrow.

    29. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the Firefly reruns straight after all that fun! W00t! Nerdy fridays!

    30. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 3, Insightful

      NO, the plot of the episode was mainly about Sharon wrestling with the realization that she might be a Cylon, and that she might have bombed the Galactica. It's also about the Sharon #2 back on Caprica going back for Helo. Both are clearly Cylons, but the viewer is quite in the dark about why Cylons are doing altruistic things, and displaying evidence of conscience.

      Oh, and by the way, they're thirsty too.

      --
      Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
    31. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by CrazyTalk · · Score: 1

      Yup. After all, the original Star Trek was moved to Friday nights in the 60s.

    32. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Well, space simply isn't a desert, and there's not really any way that A) Hydrogen will be low enough near a star, or B) oxygen would be low enough near a star, or C) they wouldn't combine. It's one thing to require users to suspend reality and accept that there are genocidal robots called cylons and that people fly around in huge space ships but communicate by regular telephone wires. But to stack that with claims about the universe that simply aren't true is just going a bit too far for me. Even a region that is "poor" in ice will still have large amounts of it. If you can whiz around between stellar systems and land on almost any solid body of your choosing, you can get water, easily.

      If entire episode plots based on pseudoscience doesn't bother you, good for you. For me, I don't mind a little pseudoscience here and there ("Captain, if we interject a tachyon pulse into the tractor beam, we might be able to escape), but don't base an entire episode on pseudoscience.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    33. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      Gaius Baltar really sets up some cognitive dissonance.

    34. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Deeze · · Score: 1

      Well, SG1 hit the big red reset button at the end of last season by tying up all the major story arcs, so the new episodes will be the start of some pretty new adventures, and easy to get into.

      Atlantis is just in it's 2nd season, and starting to get it's sea legs. It should be an interesting season, and there's not been so much backstory told yet that it should also be easy to pick up.

    35. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by fimbulvetr · · Score: 3, Informative

      Could it be argued that they were looking for water in mass quantities, and they needed it soon?
      They had about 50,000 people that needed water. I don't disagree that water is common, and it could have been manufactured, but is harnessing some water from, say, one comet going to be enough for the 50,000 to replace their tanks of 60% they lost.

      To quote TFS:
      "Baltar: I've calculated that the rate of consumption regarding basic foodstuffs for the civilian population, this is based on information available to me at the time. The current civilian population of 45,265 will require, at minimum, 82 tons of grain, 85 tons of meat, 119 tons of fruit, 304 tons of vegetables and... 2.5 million jps of water."

      According to TFS, that's per week. Galactica lost 10million jps from the explosion. I don't think comets or even manufacturing could have cured the thirst.

      P.S. I don't know what a jps is, or even if it's a real term. I assume it's fake and that it's roughly equivalent to a gallon.

    36. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      We know of *one* hospitable planet, and yet can point to water all over the universe. It's not *liquid* water, but I would be willing to make a wee bet that if you can travel freely between star systems, you can chip and melt ice to your heart's content.

      The most common element in the universe is hydrogen. The second is helium (inert), and the third is oxygen. As a consequence, water is everywhere where it isn't hot enough to vaporize (hitting that "liquid water" sweet spot is another story).

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    37. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Sentry21 · · Score: 1

      For the Canadians in the audience, Gateworld has a list of non-US airdates; however, checking the Global and TQS websites for the local listings here in Montreal, I see no mention of either Stargate or Battlestar Galactica. I guess it is bittorrent for me.

      Yo-ho, yo-ho.

    38. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by tm2b · · Score: 1

      No.

      You didn't pay attention. They discussed the possibility of mining it from comets, but they didn't have the infrastructure and equipment to do so on the scale they needed without an atmosphere and gravity.

      --
      "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
    39. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SG1 is pretty darn good, actually. I like it better than BSG for its better applicablity to our current world. This is season 9. It was going to end at season 7 so all the drama kinda ended then, and as a result, seaon 8 was a bit weak. Season 9 for sure will be the last season and hopefully they get a strong story for this one. I'd suggest watching the whole thing before season 9. Better context. Besides, you don't want to have to wait a week between episodes, so put off season 9 for as long as you can.

      Atlantis is a bit weaker, but still a good show for your time.

      Firefly is a better show than BSG and Atlantis. Might even be better than SG-1... Well, hopefully there'd a revival for it after its movie comes out.

    40. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by BigZaphod · · Score: 1

      She uses her powers for AWESOME, of course!

    41. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by the+unbeliever · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sure, but we have the facilities to do so and we're not being hounded by a race intent on our imminent demise.

    42. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      If you can find any sort of solid body in the outer reaches (or inner reaches for small stars, which compose most of the universe's stars), you've found ice 95% of the time. They can find planets, moons, et al. Consequently, their not finding water is pure pseudoscience.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    43. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by hazem · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, you have to remember, this is a fleet of whatever ships that happened to survive, with a flagship that was about to be retired. Equipment for water processing is somewhat a limited resource - note how many of the ships relied on Galactica for water replenishment.

      So, sure, water in some form is abundant in space/planets, etc. But they need water "now", and probably dont' have facilities to collect hydrogen/oxygen to make water, or to do a "moisture vaporator thing" - they had to support some 45,000 people - they had to get it fast, and worry about being caught by cylons on top of all that.

      Hell... the colonel was upset that the water they found was salty - aparently they couldn't deal with even that.

      So now you're on a search for potable water - and that has to be much more rare than water in any form. And it has to be in large quantities - and somewhat accessible in a quick manner.

      I mean, imagine you're just 100 people, crashed in eastern Afghanistan, and you're being hunted by Taliban. Oh yeah, and you don't have enough water to get anywhere. So, sure, you could set up all kinds of ways to collect water - even in an erid environment. But, few of those will lend themselves well to being on the run and resource-poor.

      It's really not that much of a stretch.

    44. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by fimbulvetr · · Score: 1

      Move to CST. Still get to go to bed @ 10:00 too!
      It's 10:30 for those watching The Daily Show.

    45. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by the+unbeliever · · Score: 1

      Or, in other words, Science Fiction? o nose, the horror!

    46. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Can't stay for the rebroadcasts, need to go buy a book!"

      You should already be in line.

    47. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by captain_craptacular · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I know you're on a rant and I hate to slow you down but I'll try anyway. The galactica uses old fashioned phones with wires quite on purpose as a low tech but highly effective answer to technological warfare. It's much much harder to jam/intercept/alter a signal that runs through a shielded wire than one that transmits via radio wave. I bet if you go look at a modern navy vessel it will also use hard wired communications onboard ship.

      Second, about the water. I hear what you're saying about water being plentiful, but there are any number of reasons why a large, relatively pure liquid body of fresh water is imensely preferable to what you'd find in asteroids etc... For one, it's one stop shopping. They don't have to spend precious time which they have none of to locate and mine H2O from a myriad of astral bodies. They don't have to mine squat actualy, just drop a hose and suck. It's very concievable that they didn't have the facilities avalable to extract H2O from any but the most simple source.
      Think of it this way: When people first started extracting oil from the ground they looked for shallow sources of "clean" low sulphur low byproduct oil. Because the technology wasn't available to locate, extract, and refine anything else. Today they can drill miles vertically and horizontally and modern refineries can extra useable product from the nastiest of crude. The same can be said for water. Without sophisticated extraction and filtering equipment we wouldn't be able to use a large % of the water we use now because it's located miles underground in aquifers and needs to be cleaned by high-tech ultra efficient filtration systems. Now imagine that Galactica didn't get lucky enough to rescue a Britta(TM) FilterShip(TM) when they were running from the cylons in the first episode...

      In other words, they needed easy water because they hadn't the time or the equipment to deal with the hard water...

      --
      They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
    48. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 1

      Geeks don't have social lives and tend to stay in and watch these shows. I am one of them :-)

      Also, most geeks know how to program a VCR/PVR. It is a great dishonour if it blinks 12:00.

    49. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      You don't need a comet; in fact, while comets have ice, it's "dirty" ice which would need to be filtered, so it's not the best source. For stars our size, moons and planets from Jupiter's distance and beyond are loaded with ice (in fact, I don't think there's a single Saturnian moon whose surface isn't mostly ice that has been discovered thusfar, Titan included). For the 80-90% of the solar system's stars that are smaller than the sun, any planets at all (and planets appear to be more and more common all the time, including around small stars), the zone where ice stars is much closer.

      Needing an atmosphere to mine - what sort of sense does that make? Atmospheres, in the universe, are generally hazardous (hot, high pressure, or whatnot). Kind, earthlike atmospheres (even if you exclude the life-requiring O2) will prove hard to come by (fitting a nitrogen-based atmosphere in the star's sweet spot with just the right density). Hard to come by, unlike ice, which is everywhere.

      Heck, you shouldn't even need to *mine* ice in most star systems; all of the gas giants in our system (and likely in other systems as well) have at least somewhat of a ring system. Ring particles range from the size of snowballs to the size of houses; grab a piece and move on.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    50. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's Zelinka.

      His speech was in Czech, not Polish. He also had Czech flag on the uniform, didn't he?

    51. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just get a TiVo.. Hehe

    52. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by cashman73 · · Score: 1
      They don't have to mine squat actualy, just drop a hose and suck.

      Sounds to me like a job for,. . . MEGA-MAID ! :-)

      Commence Operation "Vacu-Suck"!

    53. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by mydn · · Score: 1

      I agree with you that it's psuedoscience. But what about complete episodes centered around a "holodeck" character coming to life and taking over the ship? The episode was less about the science and more about the struggle. The writers expected a suspension of disbelief. And the entire series can't be judged on a single episode.

    54. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by OS24Ever · · Score: 1

      Both of them are my favorite characters. They've really gelled in their characters quite well. Can't wait to see how things go.

      I'm not quite memorised on my characters as it has been a few months but the arrogant/pithy/super smart engineering type guy is my favorite guy of the series.

      --

      As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.

    55. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by slapout · · Score: 1

      SG-1 thru at least season seven (and maybe eight) is available of DVD.

      --
      Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    56. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by DoctorPepper · · Score: 1

      Yeah, tell me about it, and I'm 45 years old!

      It's a good thing my wife likes the shows too ;-)

      --

      No matter where you go... there you are.
    57. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by slapout · · Score: 1

      My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?


      Traditionally, yes. But for me personally, I've always liked Friday night. After a long week, I can come home and relax and watch a little scifi.

      --
      Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    58. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well aren't you a little champion.

    59. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like BG, but yes, looking for water is stupid. Which brings me to my pet peeve, remember the TV show "V" (dating myself?). Not only did they come to our star system to steal our water, BUT rather than just stealing a few comets they went to the crazy extra effort to lift it out of earth's gravity well!

    60. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly as much as this might incite some flames it's not entirely inaccurate. Most people who can't live without seeing these shows don't have what we'd call an active outside the house social life. Sad but true.

    61. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by rudy_wayne · · Score: 1

      >>"My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?"

      Since VCRs have existed for 20 years now, I don't see how a shows time-slot even matters any more.

    62. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is going to be the best prom ever.

    63. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by diskis · · Score: 1, Informative

      What sounds plausible?
      2,5 million jps for 45265 persons gives about 55 jps per person per week, or some 8 jps per day.

      Leave out showers and stuff like that a person can live easily with a few litres (a gallon a day). My not-so-educated guess would be that a jps is perhaps between a 1/4th or a 1/8 of a gallon.

    64. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      V rocked!!!! at least from the standpoint of being an 8 year old kid who knew nothing about physics and astronomy. now when I watch it (it was on some cable station again a few months ago, the scenes are low budget crap and the dialogue is junk.

      ST: TOS had better writing and set design.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    65. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      well.. considering that holodecks and True conscience AI is not a fact of nature, the Holodeck stories about Dr. Moriarety are more truthful (in the sense of that it one day COULD be) than the BSG contention that there is no water anywhere capable of being refined by them.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    66. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Buelldozer · · Score: 1

      Apparently you were so busy analyzing, and bashing, the science you neglected the _plot_.

      In that particular episode the humans were essentially out of water. They had been on half rations for quite some time and had less then 5 days supply of water left at their usuage rate.

      Think of the immensity of the problem: You have 30,000 people who use roughly 30 Liters of water PER DAY.

      If memory serves they needed a 30 day supply in this episode so would need to find ~ 27 MILLION liters of water..and you need to find it right now so you can start gathering it up before your population dies.

      You also have to do it in space, with hostile cyborgs/robots operating in the area actively searching for you.

      Don't use too much fuel doing it either, because we are alomst out of that as well.

      Don't expose too much of your fleet lest the hostiles find you and kill you all.

      It's sad, a very gritty dramatic episode and all you focused on was some _percieved_ "psuedoscience" problem.

    67. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by mrbooze · · Score: 1

      Or we're people who go out a lot on other nights of the week.

      Or we have Tivo.

    68. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They didn't say "there is no water anywhere capable of being refined by them." They said there was no water they could "refine"/purify sooner than they'd run out of existing supplies.

    69. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, Tivo rules. I can watch it as soon as I get back from Friday night revelry. Starbuck looks soo much better when I'm drunk.

    70. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      it is still to theatric and interpersonal.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    71. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Jerf · · Score: 0, Troll

      If you can't afford the equipment to build a distiller, a pre-steam era technology that is largely a few carefully selected pipes and two pots, you're probably doomed anyhow.

      If you can't afford the energy to run that distiller, you are doomed if you're trying space-flight at the same time.

      Plots based on how moronic the main characters (proxying for the writers own moronicity) are are annoying, sci-fi or otherwise.

    72. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by timster · · Score: 1

      To jump in here (because it looks like fun, and I'm bored), let's consider some classic scifi, shall we?

      First, there's Asimov, who had not merely one plot, but dozens, based on "positronic brains". Talk about pseudoscience -- there's no property of positrons that would suggest that they ought to be used for any kind of control system at all, much less a brain. And the "positronic field mathematics" behind the Laws were nothing more than mumbo-jumbo.

      How about Heinlein? Don't even get me started! Besides telepathy, "semantics", and an often bizarre approach to sociology, let's consider the scene in _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ where the computer explains that, although their calculated odds of success have dropped from 1 in 7 to 1 in 100, things are actually going well, and they are merely at a critical stage. Baloney! For the odds to drop, new, bad data would have to come to light.

      For Star Wars, let's consider the Death Star! Now, we know that the energy beam is NOT faster than light, as we see it and it's not that fast. So after destroying one planet, how is it possibly a threat to others? Don't tell me it can travel faster than light, either, because it doesn't bother to run away when it's attacked. Are we supposed to believe that all these planets are in the same star system? If so, why do all the stars move when you go through hyperspace from one planet to another?

      --
      I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
    73. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by bobcat7677 · · Score: 1

      I find it kindof sad. I actually would prefer to support such a great show by watching the actual broadcast. But alas it's on the Sci-fi network which leaves me out (Cable isn't offered in my neighborhood and satillite has poor reception from my place for lack of good LOS). I would actually pay to download the episodes from the website but they don't offer that. So my only choice is to find some internet "back alley" to grab a torrent made by someone lucky enough to be able to see the show, and nice enough to share it with the rest of us.

    74. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by tm2b · · Score: 2, Informative

      You don't need to lecture me on how common water is. I have a freakin' degree in physics with a focus on cosmology.

      That's not the point. Again, you didn't pay attention.

      They needed an atmosphere to support the manual labor they needed to operate the cobbled-together systems - they didn't have the automated equipment. That is what put them in the risky political situation of having to convince the convicts to cooperate and provide a labor force to purify the water before they put it into the ship filters, which were designed only to remove human-generated pollutants.

      It's not about the water per se, it's about the labor-intensive processing pipeline they were stuck with and the water being in the environment they needed into order to support that pipeline.

      --
      "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
    75. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 1

      It's not being shown in Calgary yet. We still haven't had the first season of Atlantis. Without BitTorrent...

      --
      I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
    76. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by grassy_knoll · · Score: 1

      The galactica uses old fashioned phones with wires quite on purpose as a low tech but highly effective answer to technological warfare. It's much much harder to jam/intercept/alter a signal that runs through a shielded wire than one that transmits via radio wave. I bet if you go look at a modern navy vessel it will also use hard wired communications onboard ship.

      Very true; the hard wired communications on current US Navy ships don't even require broadcast power:
      http://www.dcfp.navy.mil/equip/dcc/spphone.htm
      Having used these, they work rather well. You can't jam them, you can't detect their use remotely, and as a bonus since they don't give off radio waves they won't set off any detonators ( wires connected to detonators can act as antenna... and if they get enough current... ).

    77. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by rbanffy · · Score: 1

      You have already been told that, but I think I can tell it differently:

      Good fiction (and that includes good sci-fi) is a very nice way to tell one story while you pretend you are telling another.

      BSG is not about water, or revengeful a-life, but about the consequences of playing God. Better yet - any good story is about whatever you can take out of it and how you relate to it. Spaceships, water and revengeful a-life is filler. ;-)

    78. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      You clearly don't remember that episode very well. They visited dozens or hundreds of systems *and found no water in any of them*, and were about to leave another when they found it. And there were no encounters of cylons (although one person was struggling with the thought that she might be a cylon).

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    79. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      I can accept (and understand the reasons behind) the low tech communications, etc. It's the "continually denying physics for an hour" that I have a problem with (and is my stated problem).

      liquid body

      Who said anything about naturally liquid bodies? Ice + heat = liquid water.

      Water comes in almost any shape and size you could want it. Want to land on a nearly zero grav body and mine it off a chunk of ice? Go to any of hundreds of thousands of Oort bodies and mine it. Don't want to drill/blast/etc? Don't worry, given their density, they're mostly "rubble piles" of ice and snow. Want reasonable gravity? Go to a europa/enceladus/etc style moon, and get the ice or snow. Worried about purity? It's almost 100% pure - far better than anything you'd find in a natural body of water on Earth (because of this, the moons are so shiny that probes have be extra careful when photographing not to overexpose their shots; check out the Cassini-Huygens raw images shots of some of the snowier moons). Completely gravity, mining, and collection-averse? Grab onto a planetary ring body - all of our gas giants have them, and given how water is everywhere, it only stands to reason that all of the other gas giants we keep finding do as well (we've already spotted water spectra in the clouds of some extrasolar gas giants and brown dwarfs).

      It's everywhere that it's not too close to the parent star, and it comes in all forms: take your pick.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    80. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, I feel your pain. Trust me, BSG will be widely available on torrents within hours of its airing. As far as finding "back alleys" goes, I can help you out there. Try isohunt or piratebay to find the torrents (they're either .org or .net I think, I'm at work so I don't wanna test em ;-). And I definitely recommend getting a nicer client than the official BitTorrent.com one. Try Azureus, it manages the torrents better and keeps track of multiple downloads for you.

    81. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by fanblade · · Score: 1

      "What is Batlestar Galactica?

      The wiki link is in the submission for just that reason. But if you really don't wanna look into it, just read the sentence in the story: "The series, a 're-imagining' of the original 1978 TV series by the same name, made history as the highest-rated original Sci Fi Channel program ever."

      Give it a chance tonight or check out the torrent later -- you might like it.

    82. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by fanblade · · Score: 1

      "It could stand to reason that water in this universe is as rare outside of those planets as naturally occurring plutonium is here"

      I'm a big fan of the show, especially this episode we're talking about. But as much as I'd like to agree with your explanation, I don't think we're supposed to infer that BSG is in a different universe from ours. One of my favorites aspects of BSG is how "Earth" is a mythical planet they long to find. In my mind, that made everything even more interesting. Yes, it's another culture and another part of our universe (our galaxy even?), but these people are OUT THERE. Far out man :-)

    83. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Fenris+Ulf · · Score: 1
      And there were no encounters of cylons (although one person was struggling with the thought that she might be a cylon).

      Was this the only episode you ever saw? The episode we're talking about occurs immediately after '33', in which they've been fleeing seconds ahead of the cylons for a period of something like 135 hours.

      I'm pretty sure the possibly of cylon encounter was very real during this episode.
    84. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 1
      Also for the Canadian audience - notice at the end of every episode, there's a 'Paid for using the Canadian and B.C. Film Tax Credit'? So, you paid for it - why can't you watch it? *grumble* *grumble*

      I feel perfectly justified and guiltless by downloading it.

      --
      "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
    85. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean, imagine you're just 100 people, crashed in eastern Afghanistan, and you're being hunted by Taliban. Oh yeah, and you don't have enough water to get anywhere. So, sure, you could set up all kinds of ways to collect water - even in an erid environment. But, few of those will lend themselves well to being on the run and resource-poor.

      Dude, the What? Didn't you read the "Mission Accomplished" banner? Or notice that you never read about Afghanistan in the newspaper anymore? Or that they've got a real, live "President" now? C'mon, jack, use a more realistic example...

      Imagine that you're a family of three in a Suburban, out of gas in downtown Compton, and you're gonna be jacked by the Crips if you don't get outta there...

    86. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And don't forget Firefly, which they are showing reruns of starting next friday at 7, with the movie Serenity coming out this fall.

    87. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by BlogPope · · Score: 1
      Who said anything about naturally liquid bodies? Ice + heat = liquid water.

      Note that Galactica is a War ship, not an exploration vessel (the damned colonists were shockingly non-exploratory). It is likely configured to get its water from a resupply ship, which prior to the Cylon attack was likely not a real issue. So the very fact that they don't have a water ship with the right adapter could pretty much screw them. Strangely in the Star Trek universe all our flagships are exploritory ships with serious weaponry tacked on, (DS-9 had the only war oriented ship I'd seen on Star Trek). Galactica was the opposite. In one of the previous storylines the colonists had been at war until the Cylons appeared (alien invasions uniting the devided was a popular them in Sci-Fi).

      It's the "continually denying physics for an hour" that I have a problem with (and is my stated problem).

      I don't watch the show, so I'm not sure what you're bitching at, but its freaking SciFi. They have FTL drives. Robots that perfectly mimic humans. Sci Fi isn't about the science, thats what textbooks are for. SciFi (at least good SciFi) is about exploring issues from new perspectives. Babylon 5 was a Political drama, the original Star Trek was about the american political scene of the 60's, not transporters and phasers. The Sci-Fi aspects were just a way of separating people from the issues, ie see how silly the half black half white race is for hating people based on what side of their face is which color.

      The only criticism of Physics I'll allow is "internally inconsistent" physics, ie in episode 5 the gadget could cut right through granite, but in episode 7 they stand around gadget in hand wondering how to get through the granite wall. ST:TNG was notorious for this, one of many reasons to hate that show.

      --
      My other car is a Popemobile
    88. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Damvan · · Score: 1

      Are you even capable of watching, hearing or reading a work of fiction without your head expoding? Do you enjoy any fiction at all? Cause if it has to be 100% accurate and 100% plausible, there isn't much left. Been to the movies lately?

      Star Wars must give you convulsions.

      If you don't like it, don't watch it!

    89. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by rilian4 · · Score: 1
      "For Star Wars, let's consider the Death Star! Now, we know that the energy beam is NOT faster than light, as we see it and it's not that fast. So after destroying one planet, how is it possibly a threat to others? Don't tell me it can travel faster than light, either, because it doesn't bother to run away when it's attacked. Are we supposed to believe that all these planets are in the same star system? If so, why do all the stars move when you go through hyperspace from one planet to another?"
      1st DS --> cocky, arrogant governor who thought they couldn't possibly lose.

      2nd DS --> cocky, arrogant emperor who thought they couldn't possibly lose..plus still under construction...laser weapon was finished at highest priority...engines probably left for later.

      There is no other possible way to travel between starsystems in that short amount of time w/o hyperdrive/warp/whatever you want to call it...and it was made clear that the 1st deathstar could travel between star systems...where the suspension of disbelief comes in is in how it was able to do said travelling...

      rilian
      --

      ...quicker, easier, more seductive the darkside is...but more powerful, it is not.
    90. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by orcus · · Score: 1

      never watched BSG either.... to much inter personal drama, not enough comedy and sci-fi for me.

      Now THAT is talent! Never watching it - but able to form a crticial opinion on it none the less!

      --
      First they burn books, then they burn people.
    91. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by ncc74656 · · Score: 1
      My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?

      The X-Files used to be on Fridays IIRC, and it did OK up until the last season (when it jumped the shark). Besides, when you have MythTV, when a show is on is pretty much irrelevant.

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    92. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Cornflake917 · · Score: 1

      Earth is more than two-thirds water. No one has ever died of dehydration on this planet?

    93. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by hazem · · Score: 1

      It's still not so easy - you need enough water for 45,000 people. That's going to be a large facility - and again, these ships aren't anything special.

      Suppose you have storage for 1 million gallons of water - because you need 1 million gallons of water. Where are you going to put non-potable water while you distill it? How long would it take to distill 1 million gallons of water using a couple pots and some tubes?

      Remember, they're on the run from the cylons, they don't have many resources, and they probably just don't have enough resources to build a large enough distillery to handle their needs.

      I'm just saying that the lack of water and seeking water is not so unplausible.

      I find Starbucks' ability to shoot-down/kill the cylon raider - then somehow getting inside, cutting its guts out - and still flying it much more unplausible. If the bio-junk in the ship is important, then how did the ship fly without it? And if it isn't important, why did the cylons put it in there?

    94. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Vanye1 · · Score: 1

      SG1 season 8 isn't out yet, but it should be by the time the next network season starts, if last years pattern holds...

    95. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You're actually going to argue that one complete fantasy sci-fi is more realistic than another complete fantasy sci-fi?


      What next? A discussion about how a Star Destroyer could kick the Enterprise ass? :)

    96. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by SeventyBang · · Score: 1



      My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?

      It's not necessarily where shows go to die - it's also where shows go because the show has such a niche following the fans will follow it - witness JAG - it was popular amoungst older ladies and CBS knew that although the show was on its last legs, the fans would follow it, no matter when it was on. Saturday is another hospice show although things such as Walker: Texas Ranger survived as a top-20 for some time.

      Sci-Fi Channel also has a survivor mentality by broadcasting on Friday night: they are relatively safe from most of the killer timeslots during the remainder of the week. What do you think would happen to the ratings during the Thursday block during first-run episodes of Survivor, CSI, and Without a Trace? Die-hard fans may tune in, but the commercial sponsors want some solid eyeball counts and they won't get it during that three-hour juggernaut (relatively speaking). Nevertheless, The Night Stalker (ABC) is going to try it this Fall.

      One of the more interesting phenomenons about show scheduling is the networks generally have an idea which shows will fly or fail. There are two notable mistakes in the previous years: CSI and Monk. CSI was predicted to be a short-season crash-and-burn. It did burn - a conflagration! CBS scrambled to throw a lot of assets at it - to the point of p%ssing off the cast members when CSI Miami was fast-tracked to capitalize as much as possible. They felt like they took the risk(s) and someone else would capitalize on it.

      ABC passed on Monk and NBC's USA Channel picked it up. After some time, ABC decided to buy second-run rights. This is why Monk stopped airing several times/week. ABC wanted USA to show it once, then be able to show it semi-fresh on their own schedule although it didn't do as well there because they pushed it onto the Summer Thursday rerun schedule. True Monk fans had already watched it during the first airing and the ratings for the three-hour CBS reruns beat Monk reruns.

      Oh, which night did X-Files debut? And what type of audience did it have? Those are rhetorical questions. If you don't know the answer to the former, go to epguides.com and look at the airing dates.

      p.s.

      In '78, a lot my friends & I used the title Battlesoap Gallactica as it made a nice "sequel" quality-wise (that's a figurative statement - so don't jump on the meaning of sequel) to Space: 1999.

      The appropriate phrase at that time of Valley Speak would have been: "Gag me with a chainsaw."


    97. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Cromac · · Score: 1

      It's on at 7pm on DirecTV, time to ditch cable or get a Tivo.

    98. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Sentry21 · · Score: 1

      I feel perfectly justified and guiltless by downloading it.

      Enh, I just buy the DVDs when they come out, I figure if it's ok to watch them after I buy them it's ok to watch them before I buy them.

    99. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Wavicle · · Score: 1

      I hear what you're saying about water being plentiful, but there are any number of reasons why a large, relatively pure liquid body of fresh water is imensely preferable to what you'd find in asteroids etc... For one, it's one stop shopping. They don't have to spend precious time which they have none of to locate and mine H2O from a myriad of astral bodies. They don't have to mine squat actualy, just drop a hose and suck.

      There is a big reason why mining water from an astral body is immensely preferable: Most stars with heavy elements that have coalesced into planets swirling around them almost certainly have a halo of comets circling them in an oort cloud. The comets are composed primarily of CO2 and H2O. Simply capture a small one of these (or shoot a big one, and capture a fragment) and warm it up. The CO2 will sublime away, the water and some contaminants will be left behind.

      If you cannot clean that water, it is extremely unlikely that you'll be able to clean the water you sucked up from the liquid source either.

      --
      Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
      Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
    100. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      They visited dozens or hundreds of systems *and found no water in any of them*,

      How do you know how common water is outside of our little solar system? If you have any direct evidence of even one molecule of H20 outside of our system I suggest that you publish it. I agree that comets and certain gas giant moons like Europa are good sources if you don't mind doing some purification/distillation. I don't see how that demonstrates the absurdity of the 'water' episode. It was asserted in that episode that water was rare in the universe. None of us really has any way to disprove that.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    101. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by stand · · Score: 1

      I'm going to have to call you on this. Even the driest desert on this planet is many orders of magnitude wetter than space. While it is true that water is found everywhere in the universe, it's exceedingly sparse. Even molecular clouds, which are considered dense by the standards of interstellar space have densities that are lower than those produced in your average vaccuum chamber.

      If you have to extract water by collecting the few molecules that drift by, it'd take you a few years to fill a thimble. Your best bet would be to look for planets. But planets are exceeding the sparse in the universe as well. In short, it is not inconceivable that it would be difficult to find water; I certainly wouldn't call it pseudoscience.

      We're talking about a series that asks you to suspend your belief in, among other things, the existance of faster than light travel though space and sentient machines that can (apparently) breed with humans. Under these conditions, it seems kind of ridiculous to call a storyline based on a search for water pseudoscience.

      --
      Four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still. -C. Coolidge
    102. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Harker · · Score: 1

      I don't have trouble staying awake that long, I'm at work during those hours.

      My VCR is standing by to record already. I'll be bringing that to work with me tomorrow night (along with a couple of DVDs) for the long, slow Saturday night grind...

      --
      When VCR's are outlawed, only outlaws will have VCR's.
    103. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by 0111+1110 · · Score: 1

      If you can find any sort of solid body in the outer reaches (or inner reaches for small stars, which compose most of the universe's stars), you've found ice 95% of the time.

      I call bullshit. Cite it. Supply some references. We know almost nothing about planets in other solar systems. Until very recently we couldn't even be sure that they existed at all. You are extrapolating based on exactly one solar system. Not a very good sample size. The fact that hydrogen and oxygen are common does not mean that water/ice is. Just because they can combine as 2 atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen doesn't mean that they will.

      While your hypothesis that most other solar systems have similar compositions to our own has some plausibility, it is completely unproven. You have no basis on which to criticize the 'water' episode for being absurd. The composition of other solar systems (to the extent that they exist at all) is simply unknown.

      Consider yourself lucky that you haven't seen the episode where a good sized hole in a spaceship is patched by stuffing a flight jacket into it. After which the ship is used for high g-force maneuvers both inside and outside of an atmosphere. Presumably the writers wouldn't get away with that for an airplane or a boat, but a spaceship? No problem. It's science fiction. Where anything goes.

      --
      Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
    104. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by sconeu · · Score: 1


      Your VCR blinks 12:00! You have no Tech Honor! I should kill you where you stand!
      </VOICE>

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    105. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by ErikZ · · Score: 1

      Well yes, but I was under the impression that it wasn't water ice. Things like rivers of liquid nitrogen and such.

      I'm not an astrophysicist, so I have no idea what the current theorys are or what has been proven.

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
    106. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      even the driest desert on this planet is many orders of magnitude wetter than space

      Oh, so the "driest desert" is pure H2O? Because that's what the surface of most moons is.

      Lets just look at our own solar system (which, by all spectral observations, looks to have the same "water" effects as elsewhere - if anything, we're seing *more* water elsewhere than we expected from looking at our own solar system).

      Inner solar system (relatively dry):

      Mercury: Barren, although it is possible that there is ice in some of its craters. Hydrogen concentrations unknown; oxygen abundant.

      Earth: Surface is covered in water. Atmosphere is full of water. Hydrogen and oxygen abundant. Moon is mostly dry, but may have ice in craters; preliminary evidence supports this.

      Venus: Water vapor is 1/6th the partial pressure that it is on Earth. Hydrogen is present; Oxygen is abundant.

      Mars: Ice present and detectable with 20th century scanners (let alone the crazy-good galactica scanners - we'd love those!). Hydrogen is present; oxygen is abundant.

      Asteroid belt: Some asteroids have ice; others don't.

      Outer solar system (wet):

      Jupiter: Water vapor present in its atmosphere, especially in the cloudtops, although an overall minor constitutent. Hydrogen is plentiful and mostly in pure H2. Oxygen is present. A small ring system composed mostly of ice, in convenient take-home sizes.

      Jupiters moons: Heavily icy. Even dense, volcanic Io has some ice, although not much. Some, like Europa, are entirely covered in ice. Others, like Ganymede, are part ice and part rock. Even the "rocky" moons tend to have ice on the surface. One moon that was suspected to have little to no ice that was scanned recently (Amalthea) turned out to be an icy rubble pile.

      Saturn: Like Jupiter, but with a huge icy ring system.

      Saturn's moons: *Incredibly icy*. The surface of almost all of Saturn's moons are either clean or dirty ice. In fact, surface rock is what is rare on saturn's moons; most of its moons are solid ice with small amounts of rock or organic contaminants.

      Uranus: Like Saturn, smaller ring system, but much icier atmosphere, with a suspected solid ice core. Moons are very, very icy.

      Neptune: Same

      Pluto: It's mass is only 50-75% rock; the rest is ice, nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and organics. The ice, being light, is expected to be near the surface, with the rocks more internal. Charon should be similar (we know it is more uniform than pluto, which has a varied, probably battered surface).

      Kupier belt objects: Very icy

      Oort cloud objects: Even icier

      If you don't believe me, I suggest you start at nineplanets.org and start browsing our solar system. Then read up about solar system formation to understand *why* there is so much ice, and why it ends up on the surface.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    107. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by dventimi · · Score: 1

      I understand where you're coming from, being bothered by "pseudoscience". I often find science fiction on TV, in movies, and in print to be so flagrantly implausable that it's unbearable. However, I also think that to be fair you should apply your same stringent criteria to other pieces of science fiction, especially to episodic television shows. If you do, I believe you must aknowledge BSG to be at least as good as and perhaps much better than most of the other shows out there. Would the catalog of "Star Trek" series survive your level of critique? Would "Star Wars"? What about popular and critically-acclaimed sci-fi in print, like the "Hyperion" books? Is there anything worth watching or reading?

      I'd like you to consider something else, too. Are you absolutely positive you know enough, not just about the abundance of water in the universe, but about the state of BSG technology, about the threat they face, and about the urgency of their resource needs, to know for sure that it would be "easy" for them to find/mine water? Even if we, here on Earth, had similar interstellar space travel technology, are you certain it would be easy for us to do so? Maybe your opinion is "yes and yes", and that's your right. But it is my opinion that you are denying yourself--and in a way encouraging others do do so also--a show that can plausibly be argued is among the best sci-fi on TV.

      Peace
      D

    108. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can believe the stuff about the water. My only problem is with the physics of the show. Though it doesn't ruin it for me I can't help but notice how the explosions in space seem to toss the ships as if there was an actual atmosphere, i.e. the ships get tossed the same instant the explosion occurs. Now if I understand correctly explosions almost instantly toss objects nearby in the presence of an atmosphere because the explosion first pushes the air, and then the air pushes the object. So theoretically, in space, where there's no air the explosions shouldn't toss nearby ships immediately, and even then the effects shouldnt be too noticeble.

      Also, there's the whole issue of sound in space. Firefly has no sound in space and thus has raised the bar. Correct me if I'm wrong.

    109. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      The new BSG is fine, except for the damn cameras! I REALLY hate how they always have the zoom lense crammed up the actors face, and allow (or make...) it wobble around so much. Seems too... unprofessional.

      I can't concentrate on the show when all I see is what _looks_ like some jackass camera newb is filming it.

      I know it's for style, but it harms the show. In my opinion, which doesn't really matter.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    110. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by dcmeserve · · Score: 1
      I find Starbucks' ability to shoot-down/kill the cylon raider - then somehow getting inside, cutting its guts out - and still flying it much more unplausible.

      Well, alright, I'll give you that.

      Except that our current state of knowledge about artifically-created sentient life and bio-technology in general is so limited, that I'm willing to cut the writers quite a bit of slack in that area.

      But when they directly contradict basic knowledge like how much water is around on planets, especially when they didn't have to (e.g. the problem could have been the purity instead of the absolute scarcity)... well, that's just a bit irksome.

      And of course, another thing is there's an extra irksomeness when a show that's trying to be accurate like this one goes and makes a dumb conceptual mistake like that.

      --
      "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" - Orwell
    111. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by stand · · Score: 1
      Oh, so the "driest desert" is pure H2O? Because that's what the surface of most moons is.

      Nonsense! Most moons in our Solar system are not pure water. Europa, I grant you is water, and Saturn's ring particles are mostly ice, but pretty much everything else it barren rock with maybe some water ice.

      Lets just look at our own solar system (which, by all spectral observations, looks to have the same "water" effects as elsewhere - if anything, we're seing *more* water elsewhere than we expected from looking at our own solar system).

      Again, nonsense. What research are you basing this assertion on? I am aware that there is a lot of water in intersteller space (along with really cool things like H2O masers), but as I stated before, the density makes it impractical to collect in large quantities.

      But none of this matters! Let's take a different angle on this. Our planet has an extremely high concentration of water. And yet... our literature is filled with stories -- some good, some not so good -- where the plot revolves around people...living on the Earth...with all that water...being threatened because they cannot get water.

      But there are mitigating circumstances! I hear you saying. They are in a desert, they are on the ocean and cannot drink salt water. The available water is undrinkable. etc. etc. True! But that's the point. Even in places that have lots of water, there are places that have none, or have water that cannot be used by humans. Why, in light of the fact that we'ere talking about a fictional series, is is so difficult to accept a story based on the premise that a particular set of spaceships are in an area of the universe that has very little water?

      Look, I'm trained as an astronomer. I'm highly scientifically literate compared with most of the population. I think most science fiction is crap (especially the old Battlestar Galactica). 99.9% of it (including the new BSG series) is filled with stuff that doesn't pass the scientific laugh test. But I like the new Battlestar Galactica and I liked that episode. Why? Because it was a compelling story with some interesting characters. That is the only reason to like any story, as far as I'm concerned. That fact that you would reject an entire, highly worthy series based on one stupid little detail in one episode is unfathomable to me.

      --
      Four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still. -C. Coolidge
    112. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      Quite true... but:

      * Were Asimov's plots a constant quest to build and debug positronic brains, constantly discussing "positronic field mathematics", or was it about the implications of human-style intelligence on an artifical being?

      * Was Star Wars about trying to outrun a laser beam, or about the magic of the force, or any other such thing, or was it brief interjections of pseudoscience (however bad) into a space drama of political commentary and historical parallels alongside cheap song and dance numbers? In fact, Star Wars went out of its way to indicate that this is not Space As We Know It, beginning with the premise that this is "A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away" (almost a rip of the standard fairy tale line "Once upon a time...", meaning "anything goes").

      BTW, as a brief nerd-out, the first Death Star could travel faster than the speed of light, but the second wasn't finished at the time (there were a few brief references to this in the first movie, such as where Obi-Wan commented his surprise about seing a "short-range fighter" in deep space before the encountered the Death Star, and how the Death Star moved from Alderan to Yavin). Star Wars is set in a world where there is space travel across the entire galaxy that they live in, with less imperial influence on the galactic rim (unlike Firefly, which is travel within one stellar system - much more realistic, even though they use bad terminology from time to time. :) ).

      * Ok, Heinlein pseudoscience really got to me to, because he sometimes did the whole "entire plot about pseudoscience" stuff. :)

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    113. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by MrPC81 · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't you need significant quantities of energy to make such a conversion? And didn't you see the episode where they were desperately short on Tylium, which is the fuel/energy source for their ships?

    114. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by huckda · · Score: 1

      hopefully you are not off the mark with the 2nd season hopes...

      and Firefly was oddly nifty...
      BSG did rock though =)

      --
      "Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
    115. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by unitron · · Score: 1
      " V rocked!!!! at least from the standpoint of being an 8 year old kid who..."

      ...probably thought that watching the guy swallow the mouse was really cool!, right?

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    116. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by unitron · · Score: 1
      "My only question is, what's up with the Friday slots? Aren't those slots where shows usually die?"

      On Fox and UPN, yes, but the Sci-Fi channel, which only has to get good-for-cable ratings, not good-for-broadcast numbers, seems to be having great success with those slots.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    117. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      The surface of most moons is ice. Don't omit words when you refer to what I've said.

      Damnit, now you're going to make me waste my time because you're too lazy to go do it yourself. So Be It.

      Luna: Small areas of the poles

      Phobos: A mixture of rock and ice. Since ice tends be on the surface and rock coreward. large areas of the surface, if not the entire surface, should be ice.

      Deimos: Same as Phobos

      Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea, and Thebe: Unknown. The low density suggests ice, but the orbit suggests a rubble pile.

      Io: Little water ice. The average temperature is only 130K, but the surface is so active that it's hard for water to stay.

      Europa: The entire surface is dirty or clean ice. This is even though it's a rocky moon with an iron core.

      Ganymede: The surface is almost completely ice, but more diverse than Europa

      Callisto: The entire moon is 40% ice, and 60% rock. Naturally, the ice is on the outside in a thick layer.

      Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae, Sinope, plus dozens of others: Unknown, but all have the density (as far as we can tell) of loose water ice, and theory says that they should be ice. Same with the outer irregular moons

      Pan and Atlas: Shepherd moons of Saturn's rings - they should be composed of ring material, I.e., mostly clean ice.

      Promethius and Pandora: Very porous icy bodies, as far as we can tell.

      Epimethus: Little is known as we don't have a good density figure or spectral data, but given its orbit and its albedo, it should be ice. See also Janus

      Mimas: Water ice, with only a small amount of rock. The surface is a mixture of clean and dirty ice.

      Enceladus: The most pristine ice in the solar system. As far as we can tell, its surface is entirely clean ice in fine particles (like snow).

      Tethys, Telesto, and Calypso: Tethys is clearly water ice almost all the way through; we don't have good data on Calypso and Telesto

      Dione: Despite being the densest of Saturn's moons, it is still mostly water ice, with the typical shimmering icy surface.

      Rhea: Quite similar to Dione; rock is less than 1/3 of its total mass, and its surface is shiny ice.

      Titan: Forget about seas of methane; Huygens landed and showed a world of ice rocks, with the ice covered by organics in the lowlands. Oh, and it has an atmosphere, too, of a human-favorable density, which someone was stating that BSG people were looking for (for some bizarre reason).

      Hyperion: Water ice with a little bit of rock near the center (noticing a trend here?). The only major difference is that Hyperion's surface seems to be coated with a thin layer of organics like Phoebe (more on that later), so it's not lustrous.

      Iapetus: Almost completely water ice. Organics darken about half of the surface

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
    118. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by stand · · Score: 1

      Dude! I'm not wasting your time. Nobody held a gun to your head and forced you to spend any time responding to me. You're the one that is fixated on a stupid detail in a fictional show.

      You're not even listening to my arguments either, you're just trying to bait me into responding (I guess it worked) and show the world how smart you are. You haven't fooled me. If you don't want to waste any time enlightening me, I can go on living in ignorant bliss with my dimestore degree. All you have to do is do the world a favor and shut up.

      --
      Four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still. -C. Coolidge
    119. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention the fact that the episode was set less than a week after the carpet-bombing of a dozen planets and the deaths of billions of people.

      Yeah, that "Rei" guy is just a dumbass who likes to feel superior.

    120. Re:Also Stargate SG1 & Atlantis! by Rei · · Score: 1

      I don't know about you, but I don't have an interstellar-capable craft to hop around the planet at will with.

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
  2. Stargate by cozzano · · Score: 1, Redundant

    The new Stargate SG1 and Atlantis series are also premiered tonight on SciFi.

  3. Woot! by manno · · Score: 1

    Best TV series out there peiriod.

  4. The classics preventing innovation? by CyricZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lately there has a been a resurgence of classic sci-fi shows, such as this and Dr Who. While it is great to see younger audiences exposed to such fantastic television programming, I have to wonder what effect this will have on new sci-fi shows. Will we just keep rehashing the old (but classig and very good) series, or will new ideas and new series be able to develop? Will enough resources be spent by the networks and studios to promote the creation of new series, rather than just cloning the previous ones?

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
    1. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by I8TheWorm · · Score: 1

      Nah, it appears to be cyclical, just as the last few boxoffice productions out of Hollywood have been remakes (can anyone believe they remade Herbie?).

      --
      Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
    2. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by EWIPlayer · · Score: 1

      While i agree that all of the silliness about bringing back old shows and making them new just sucks the bone... i have to disagree on this one. The new BSG is totally something new and innovative. The HUGE following it has would tend to agree, i think.

      --
      This sig used to be really funny...
    3. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      can anyone believe they remade Herbie?

      For the record, they didn't remake Herbie. They merely picked up the series sometime after it last ended. But yes, I am annoyed that Disney is messing with my childhood memories.

      the last few boxoffice productions out of Hollywood have been remakes

      FWIW, the best of these is probably Batman Begins. If you haven't seen this movie, GO SEE IT NOW. All the previous Batman movies were lame, but this one was an absolute RIDE from beginning to end! The characters are believable, the story is solid, the plot is expansive, the effects are great, and Batman looks awesome! Not to mention that the Chicago vistas (presented as "Gotham City") are a great alternative to the constant New York/Time Square vistas we always see in movies.

      I don't know what's going on in Hollywood lately, but there have been a few really amazing gems coming out. Especially in the comic book adaptions department. ;-)

    4. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Put Lindsay Lohan in it, and I'll cheerfully buy a ticket to a remake of "Plan 9 from Outer Space."

      Wait... That was more of the sort of comment for FARK than for Slashdot, wasn't it? Sorry, nevermind.

      (P.S. I'd hit it.)

    5. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      star gate was an original sci-fi idea that spurred two tv shows... very good shows at that.

      don't know what I will do without Richard Dean Anderson's (Jack O'Neil) comedy :-(

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    6. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Wubby · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I generally agree your point about rehashing old shows into todays fodder, and not just scifi. Movies can't seem to come up with anything new either.

      BUT (huge but)

      This show is the exception. After watching this, seeing the old show would be like watching a disney version of "A Clockwork Orange". The new BSG is so much more than the old show. I'm sorry, Glen Larsen had great ideas, but the production never lived up. This is how the show should have been done from the beginning! Dramatic, epic, lots of intrigue and suspense.

      And I don't think Dr. Who is a remake. More of a continuation. There have been, like, a bajillion of those guys. I think the BBC just took it out of mothballs and brushed it off. Kinda like what "Enterprise" was to "Star Trek".

      --
      Sig
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars
    7. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Golias · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not to mention that the Chicago vistas (presented as "Gotham City") are a great alternative to the constant New York/Time Square vistas we always see in movies.

      Reading the old comics, I always imagined Gotham as a Great Lakes city along the lines of Detroit or Chicago, rather than New York. I think there was a reason why DC chose to use fictional cities like "Metropolis" and "Gotham." I never thought they were supposed to be nearly as directly analogous to LA and NYC as some people choose to think.

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

    8. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by xstonedogx · · Score: 5, Funny

      don't know what I will do without Richard Dean Anderson's (Jack O'Neil) comedy :-(

      It's O'Neill. Two L's.

    9. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      I never thought they were supposed to be nearly as directly analogous to LA and NYC as some people choose to think.

      Gotham was a New York-like city, but Metropolis was actually supposed to be a Chicago-like city. i.e. The city itself is expansive, but it's surrounded by areas of farmland and the like. That's Illinois to a 'T' once you get out of Chicago. (Which is damned hard to do in a timely fashion. Chicago is BIG.)

    10. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Professr3 · · Score: 0

      I agree, it's just not StarGate without RDA... The show faltered when they killed off Daniel too, which really shows how the cast works best as a whole. Atlantis is shaping up fairly well, not nearly as cheesy as it was the first couple of episodes. The visual work, especially the aquatic element, is stunning (Apparently they have the SG-1 team doing the effects for Atlantis), and while the Wraith may be a rather cliche Bad Guy(tm), it makes for a decent set of plot points. Hopefully, if they don't make a season 10 of SG1, at least they should make a few movies...

    11. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by borg1238 · · Score: 1

      Will we just keep rehashing the old (but classig and very good) series, or will new ideas and new series be able to develop?

      Personally, I don't care if the show is based on a completely original idea, or a rehash of an old series, as long as the writing is good.

    12. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by JWW · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Kinda like what "Enterprise" was to "Star Trek".

      Yeah, except Dr. Who doesn't suck.

    13. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by the+unbeliever · · Score: 1

      -1, Pedantic.

    14. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by brainstyle · · Score: 1

      Indeed. It's kinda like the remake of Ocean's Eleven: They tooks something that should've been good, and made it actually good.

      --
      "Why can't everyone just be straight with me?"
      "Because we live in a bendy world, dear."
    15. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Chexiepie · · Score: 1
      You know,there already is a movie ...

      (And now I want to see it again, sigh.)

    16. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, L.A. is surrounded by farms and orchards too, thanks to the various public water works which the federal government built back in the day.

      The movie "Chinatown" hit on this topic a little bit.

      In fact, Wisconsin is not the #1 dairy producer in the United States. California is.

    17. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by tm2b · · Score: 1
      Glen Larsen had great ideas
      No. Glen "Larceny" stole some great ideas. It's how he made his career.

      Like the BSG episode that was a copy of The Guns of Navarone .
      --
      "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
    18. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by tntguy · · Score: 1

      Larsen's involved with the new BSG -- Consulting Producer according to IMDB.

    19. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by maxpublic · · Score: 1

      Kinda like what "Enterprise" was to "Star Trek".

      The end of the franchise?

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    20. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by StalinsNotDead · · Score: 1

      This is Slashdot.

      Pedantic would be a positive moderation.

      --
      Thanks to the internet, we can now all die alone together! -SomeWoman
    21. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      In fact, Wisconsin is not the #1 dairy producer in the United States. California is.

      'Tis true. They have massive milk factories out there where the cows are treated terribly. (Despite the stupid "Happy Cows" commercials.) However, Wisconsin produces more cheese, and higher quality dairy products. Having lived in both states, I can honestly say that California cheese is garbage.

    22. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Azreal · · Score: 0

      "It's 'O'Neill' with two 'L's' There's another Colonel O'Neil with only one 'L'--he has no sense of humor at all."

      O'Neil was the name of the Colonel in the original Stargate movie.

      --
      $sys$droids
    23. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by rob_squared · · Score: 0

      I guess I'll take the time to explain the joke. An episode, where Jack screws up relations with the Aschen (they're bad guys anyway). He says that line when Kinsey threatens him, but he holds up 3 fingers. Hence, giving Kinsey "the finger" on cable TV. Yes, you may mod me off-topic, my karma sucks anyway.

      --
      I don't get it.
    24. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Wubby · · Score: 1

      Well, that's just called Hollywood.

      But come on, a talking super car was a GREAT idea! Or "Manimal"!

      Ok, seriously though, I loved "Fall Guy"

      --
      Sig
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars
    25. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Wubby · · Score: 1

      Even though I haven't seen it, I dount the latest Dr Who will kill off the franchise, just as I doubt Enterprise was the last ever Star Trek series.

      --
      Sig
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars
    26. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Coryoth · · Score: 1

      However, Wisconsin produces more cheese, and higher quality dairy products.

      I have to say that I am yet to encounter a US "dairy product" that I actually believe had anything to do with a cow. Maybe US cheese is made with milk from cows, but it sure as hell isn't evident from the result. The closest I have found to respectable dairy products from North America are some of the products from Quebec which are actually not too bad.

      (A New Zealander who misses real cheese)

    27. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by johnpowell · · Score: 1

      Let's bring back Auto Man and Manimal! ;^)

    28. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by gshub77 · · Score: 0

      P.S. I'd hit it nah... too old

    29. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Golias · · Score: 1

      Don't mistake the Kraft "cheese food" we like to put on our cheeseburgers for quality cheeses from Wisconsin & Minnesota. We produce a lot of terrific cheese around here, you just gotta know where to shop for it.

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

    30. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      They just started showing Season 1 of SG-1 on thursday on sci-fi, and I just noticed that Carter says "we can Magyver together a dialer" and RDA gave her this weird look :-) he he.. I like the allusions, though that one was kind of blatant.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    31. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by leonardluen · · Score: 1

      even worse, you can get "imitation cheese food" from quality places such as walmart! so not only is it not cheese, but apparently it isn't even good enough to be called "cheese food" whatever the hell that is anyway.

      i live in WI, so it is easy to go to a cheese factory, and buy real cheese directly from the source. heck, my parents live close to 3 of them.
      so there is really no lack of quality cheese around here. in fact i don't remember the last day that i haven't eaten cheese...but then us people from WI put cheese on EVERYTHING...and as a consequence i found that no one outside of WI knows how to make pizza! ordering "double" or "extra" cheese on a pizza outside of WI and in most cases you still get less cheese than a normal pizza in WI!

    32. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Stelminator · · Score: 1

      maybe you mean "MacGyver"?

    33. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Abreu · · Score: 1

      It's O'Neill. Two L's.

      I thought it was "MacGyver"

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    34. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      .but then us people from WI put cheese on EVERYTHING...and as a consequence i found that no one outside of WI knows how to make pizza!

      You've obviously never been to Downtown Chicago's Uno's. As a true Wisconsinite, I LOVE cheese, but Uno's is pretty close to more than I can take. A deepdish pizza there (which takes 45 minutes to make!) is like 3 inches deep in pure cheese! Although, probably imported from Wisconsin. ;-)

      One of the more interesting Pizzas I've had as of late was a three cheese concoction at the Cheese Factory in Wisconsin Dells. It had Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Blue Cheese. Yum! I never knew that Blue Cheese could make such a great spice! Another thing to try is the Buffulo Hot Dog from the Great American Hotdog restaurant in Navy Pier, Chicago. This thing is a hotdog with Buffalo Sauce, Celery Salt, and liberal amounts of Blue Cheese. It's a little strong, but man is it good. :-)

    35. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      I missed the c, so shoot me

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    36. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by fanblade · · Score: 1

      "Will we just keep rehashing the old (but classig and very good) series, or will new ideas and new series be able to develop?"

      If you ask me, BSG is the best of both worlds. IMHO, it's not even close to a rehash of the original series. There's alot of the original elements, but so much more. They're using innovation and fresh ideas to expand the story.

    37. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, except Dr. Who doesn't suck.

      Actually it does suck for adults. Dr. Who is really written for the kiddies. If you are a kiddie yourself you might not get what I am talking about though. Although Billie Piper is hot to guys of any age, the show is clearly meant to appeal to the preteen demographic. The two shows written by Steven Moffat may be an exception. Those were enjoyable even to this thirtysomething who last watched the doctor in his 70's Tom Baker incarnation.

    38. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BANG!

    39. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Coryoth · · Score: 1

      Don't mistake the Kraft "cheese food" we like to put on our cheeseburgers for quality cheeses from Wisconsin & Minnesota.

      Don't worry, I'm not making that mistake. I have tried WI cheddar and my reaction is that the cheddar I am used to is to WI cheddar as WI cheddar is to Kraft "cheese food".

      Jedidiah.

    40. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by pipingguy · · Score: 1


      Lately there has a been a resurgence of classic sci-fi shows...

      UFO was definitely not a classic show, but I remember it fondly for its nifty models and character stories.

    41. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Maserati · · Score: 1

      And they managed a nice M*A*S*H reference in SG-1 tonight, and a Blues Brothers one as well.

      --
      Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
    42. Re:The classics preventing innovation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      And the gay/bi references are just what the preteen demographic will understand?

      It appeals to a far wider audience than is dreamt of in your philosophy. Asshat.

  5. Season 2 SPOILER WARNING! by Skyshadow · · Score: 1, Interesting
    (whispering): Adama is a Cylon!

    Seriously, though, I've been thinking about BSG ever since the conclusion of last season. Why so compulsive, you ask? Because the phrase "All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again" reminds me waaay too much of my workday...

    PS: I think the Cylon meant Apollo.

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    1. Re:Season 2 SPOILER WARNING! by digital.prion · · Score: 1

      Mabey Everyone is a Cyclon..

      And the Universe is the Machine..

      Put that in your bubble and pop it..

      Warlocks and Cyber Sex.. on the SAME day! Wow...

      --
      Smile.
    2. Re:Season 2 SPOILER WARNING! by Whispers_in_the_dark · · Score: 2, Interesting
      (whispering): Adama is a Cylon! ...

      PS: I think the Cylon meant Apollo.


      I think the Cylon meant either Zack (Apollo's brother) or Bill Adama's wife (Apollo's mother). I would expect that either would screw with a few heads.
    3. Re:Season 2 SPOILER WARNING! by JahToasted · · Score: 1
      You reminded men of this comic, although posting in this thread will ruin the punchline:

      http://www.partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1343

    4. Re:Season 2 SPOILER WARNING! by digital.prion · · Score: 1

      Hey, great points!

      Mabey the question is why the Cylons have not destroyed them YET being as they seemingly could at any point and time.. That's what I keep wondering too.

      PS: Adama is a Cylon
      Cheers!

      --
      Smile.
  6. i'm hurt... and disgusted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Me and my "girl" robot prefer staying in on Friday nights... you insensitive clod!

  7. Confused about the HD version...? by AtariDatacenter · · Score: 1

    I got through watching most of the series in High Definition on the Universal HD channel. (Never saw it on SCIFI.) So I'm very used to watching the series in high definition. But now, I see the new season is on SCIFI, which is standard definition.

    How long will it be until the new season hits Universal HD? I'm trying to judge if it is worth waiting or if I should take the plunge and watch it without all the detail to see it early.

    1. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by ImmerTech · · Score: 1

      I don't know but it is a heck of a lot better in HD. I wish DirecTV would hurry up and pick up SCI FI HD. I think I am going to wait the 6 months it takes to get Battlestar on Universal HD before I watch it.

    2. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by Total_Wimp · · Score: 1

      I'd love to see it in HD, but in the meantime how about a nice DVD set of the first season? Anybody have any news on when it might see the light of day?

      TW

    3. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by fthiess · · Score: 1

      In the U.S., season 1 DVDs of Battlestar Galactica are due to be on sale at BestBuy ONLY on July 26. . . and everywhere else roughly two months later, in late September.

      There are quite a few unique things about the new BSG; apparently how they market their DVDs is one of them! The mind reels at what BestBuy must have paid for this. . .

    4. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by SamBeckett · · Score: 1

      Amazon.co.uk has it :-) You just have to make sure your DVD player can handle the region nonsense

    5. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by BillBrasky · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I re-watched an episode in HD on Universal HD.

      The problem I had with the HD version was that the '3-rd person' camera effect they use to simulate the viewer 'spying' on the action is too shaky to watch on a large screen!

      Seriously, I was getting dizzy watching it on my projector (about 110"). I never noticed it at all on the 27" low-def screen my TiVo is hooked up to.

      Well, maybe it's more of a function of large screen than HD per se, but I haven't justified replacing the small TV with a hi-def unit yet :)

    6. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why a DVD set rather than a much higher quality (and free) HDTV broadcast? DVD's are horrible. The color information is only 120 lines high per frame. Would would you want to watch it on DVD?

    7. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by Total_Wimp · · Score: 1

      I'd love to watch it on HDTV. But I have a few things working against me. As long as these conditions are true, getting it on DVD is a better alternative for me.

      A) I don't get BSG in HDTV and I'm unlikely to get it in the near future. In fact, the cable operator I currently use has Scifi as an analog channel with merely decent picture quality. Should I switch? Maybe. But that's what I have right now.

      b) I can't currenlty timeshift HD content. I like timeshifting. A lot. And not just to skip commercials. Believe it or not, I sometimes do other things on Friday nights. I'm not going to start blowing off everything else for 20 weeks in a row so I can be home at just the right time to watch my show. I own my TV, not the other way around.

      c) DVD is likely in the very near future. Everything falling in place so I can watch the entire first season of BSG on HDTV, whether via blue-ray, Tivo, broadcast at convienient times, etc. is not likely for quite a while. This is the same reson BitTorrents fuled Season one in the US before it every broadcast on Scifi: the show you have in your hands is always better than the show you may be able to see at some time in the distant future.

      Keep preaching HDTV. It's great. But I'll have to make some compromises 'til a few more things fall into place.

      TW

    8. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by p2sam · · Score: 1

      wow, you have a 110" TV. you're so cool.

    9. Re:Confused about the HD version...? by AtariDatacenter · · Score: 1

      I just watched the intro in standard definition. Oh my God, put a fork in my eye. I never knew I was capable of such standard definition snobbery, but it really really sucks. I might as well download it and watch it on a computer screen. It is that much worse than what it really is in full resolution.

  8. Favorite complaint by Magnusite · · Score: 5, Funny
    My favorite complaint about the series (I haven't seen it) came from a friend of mine the other day.

    "Starbuck is supposed to be a womanizing man, not a womanizing woman!

    1. Re:Favorite complaint by angrist · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Starbuck is supposed to be a womanizing man, not a womanizing woman!

      The problem with that change being .... ?

    2. Re:Favorite complaint by WAR-Ink · · Score: 3, Funny

      I am firmly in favor of equal rights. We should not discriminate due to race, gender or sexual preference. You should be more open minded.

      I also believe in our right to watch it on film.

      Maybe with that blonde Cylon chick...yeah...

    3. Re:Favorite complaint by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 1

      AFAIK, Starbuck so far has been strictly hetero. Most of the "lesbian" half-jokes about the character seem to come from guys who are threatened by strong female characters.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    4. Re:Favorite complaint by Surt · · Score: 1

      Actually, she's a mananizing woman, unless this season has some surprises for us.

      And in tribute to the original, she is a cigar-smoking mananizing woman who knows when to waggle her cylon fighter.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    5. Re:Favorite complaint by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Seems to me the character and script were written for a woman.

      This is not original Galactica. It's a new series that happens to have the same name and premise.

    6. Re:Favorite complaint by jmelloy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Katee Sackhoff has said that if the ratings ever flag, she's willing to do her part by getting in a fight with Six in a bikini.

    7. Re:Favorite complaint by Esion+Modnar · · Score: 1

      Umm, maninizing woman? Manizing woman? Womanizing woman would be a lesbian, something (so far) Starbuck is not. And the actress for Starbuck seems to resemble the original actor for Starbuck, both in appearance and mannerisms, in a sisterly way.

      --

      They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
    8. Re:Favorite complaint by epgandalf · · Score: 1

      My biggest complaint about Starbuck is how she looks.
      I have no complaints about changing Boomer to a woman. She is HOT!

    9. Re:Favorite complaint by Colin+Smith · · Score: 1

      "she's a mananizing woman"

      Believe me, urban myth. No such thing... Sorry for destroying your hopes.

      --
      Deleted
    10. Re:Favorite complaint by fanblade · · Score: 1

      You're right about Starbuck not being true to her (his) original character. But Starbuck in the new series is one of my favorite characters. That's why they're calling this series a "re-imagining", because they're expanding and going places the original was never meant to. I love it.

    11. Re:Favorite complaint by Surt · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure that's what makes it a science fiction show. The rest is all pretty well documented fact I believe.

      On the other hand, in real life I could introduce you to quite a fair number of mananizing women.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    12. Re:Favorite complaint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just geek fantasy, not that we feel threatened.

    13. Re:Favorite complaint by AussieVamp2 · · Score: 1

      Dunno about that, she smokes, plays cards, and gets in trouble for shagging?

  9. Only quality show on SciFi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SG-1 always struck me as syndicated cheese, and Atlantis looks the Deep Space Nine equivalent.

    Regarding BSG, I'd be so bold as to say that it's the best non-cancelled (damn you Fox) space sci-fi TV show since TNG.

    1. Re:Only quality show on SciFi by TheQuestion · · Score: 1
      Regarding BSG, I'd be so bold as to say that it's the best non-cancelled (damn you Fox) space sci-fi TV show since TNG.

      Speaking of that, Firefly re-runs start on SciFi next week at 7pm EDT adding to the already stellar lineup.

      ?
    2. Re:Only quality show on SciFi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good lord, that's going to be geek overload! After a Friday like that, we'll be twitching all of the next week with severe withdrawl symptoms until the next Friday comes with our fix.

    3. Re:Only quality show on SciFi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah yeah and let me guess you are one of those asshats that will be gushing all over SG1 because 2 actors from farscape are now on it.

      Whoopdey freeking do.

      it's not kile they chose the 2 BEST actors from farscape either.

      now gimmie the busty lady from lexx..... ooooohhh yeahhhhhh...

  10. zerg by Lord+Omlette · · Score: 1

    The soundtracks for the miniseries and season 1 are both available if (like me) you really enjoyed the angry drums.

    --
    [o]_O
  11. Who cares? by alta · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Now, SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis is coming on tonight, BEFORE BG... Now that's newsworthy.

    --
    Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
    1. Re:Who Cares? by JWW · · Score: 1

      Where is the thinking man's SciFi channel?

      You mean like one that will do miniseries of the first three DUNE novels? While I agree that alot of scifi's movies are not very good, I just don't think they can completely fill the schedule with stuff as good as BSG or the DUNE miniseries, so I'll cut them a little slack.

    2. Re:Who Cares? by Junior+Samples · · Score: 1
      I Won't be happy until I see the new series of Doctor Who premiered in the U.S.
      I've watched every episode of Dr. Who here in the US two hours after it aired on the BBC. The whole season in Xvid format is still sitting on my hard drive. If you want to watch it, why don't you just download the episodes like everyone else in the US. BitTorrents are available for the whole season. The DVD box set is supposed to be out this fall.

      I agree that most of the SciFi Channel programming is crap, but there is some good stuff.

      BTW, The Canadian and British downloads of Stargate and Battlestar are cleaner than the stuff that airs over SciFi Channel. Those annoying banners and SciFi Icon at the bottom of the screen are notably absent in the off shore versions. There's even a Hi Def version coming out of Australia.

    3. Re:Who Cares? by UpnAtom · · Score: 1

      The first season of Battlestar Galactica was the best sci-fi series since Babylon 5. Dr Who isn't close IMHO.

      In regards to your other point, I think our environment affects our ability to solve problems. If we've spent time feeling bad or stupid in those environments, they can sometimes limit our ability to solve problems. Likewise, we just get used to thinking in certain ways.

      For me, Sci-Fi is freeing yourself of that conditioning to solve the heroes' problems and maybe solve your own in parallel.

  12. Nothing new under the sun... by Skyshadow · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Did you hear that Shakeswhatever fellow is remaking the "Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet"? And that was already a remake of "Mariotto and Gianozza", fer chrissake.

    I wish these London playhouses would spend enough resources to bring in some truly creative people and get some new ideas rather than just rehashing the same old stories over and over and over again. I mean, really, how many more beatings can this dead horse really take?

    --
    Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    1. Re:Nothing new under the sun... by deltagreen · · Score: 1

      Did you hear that Shakeswhatever fellow is remaking the "Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet"? And that was already a remake of "Mariotto and Gianozza", fer chrissake.

      I wish these London playhouses would spend enough resources to bring in some truly creative people and get some new ideas rather than just rehashing the same old stories over and over and over again. I mean, really, how many more beatings can this dead horse really take?

      Isn't the difference that theater is meant to be experienced as a live performance? If you want to watch Romeo and Juliet in a theater, then someone has to "remake"it. As opposed to a movie or tv-series, that is usually released on DVD if popular enough. And in the case of movies, sometimes also shown on the big screen in film clubs etc. Sure, you could tape the original theater performance and watch that, but would that be the same without the interaction with the audience etc.

    2. Re:Nothing new under the sun... by linzeal · · Score: 1

      The problem is with the actors, directors and producers who think that the production that they are taking part in will be the "best of all time", without questioning the logic of that given the amount of tyme they have been played. The only imagination that really counts is the writer's when it comes to posterity in the theater.

    3. Re:Nothing new under the sun... by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      I thought it was a remake of the ancient greek "Pyramus & Thisbe" (Ovid Metamorphses, Book 4). I believe he also took "Othello" from one of those, but I never read them all. To this day I resent the wasted semester in that lit class.

    4. Re:Nothing new under the sun... by fanblade · · Score: 1

      I know it may sound lame, but the new BSG series really is more of a "reimagining" than a "remake."
      Which of the following would you prefer:
      1.) A totally new series that claims to be original but uses tired themes and plots found in other shows OR
      2.) A fresh show that openly takes a previous classic in new directions?

  13. set it to record by bornyesterday · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'm going to see a special showing of Bubba Ho-tep as part of a local scifi con.

  14. Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by FirstNoel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Atlantis is much better if you don't have to sit through all the dreadful acting. You can usually cut out half a show or more and still get the general idea of what happened.

    I'm waiting till about season 3, if the crew hasn't gelled by then it will be off my list completely.

    Sean

    --
    "Hmm. I am to metaphor cheese as metaphor cheese is to transitive verb crackers!"
    1. Re:Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by CosmeticLobotamy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Had I mod points, you'd be getting one of the good ones. But the acting isn't as bad as the writing. It's just lazy most of the time. Someone comes up with a somewhat interesting plot idea, then they hand it off to someone painfully boring to write filler around it. I could write better dialogue if I hadn't slept in days.

      Also, the Wraith are the most boring bad guys ever. They're entirely, "Aargh, we're miscellaneously evil! Aaaaaargh!"

      Sadly, they occasionally spit out a pretty good episode, so I can't give up on it entirely. Also, I have nothing else to do.

    2. Re:Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by bigbigbison · · Score: 1

      well, I saw the Scifriday preview and they are already adding a Worf-type guy (actually he looks sort of like the Worf-type guy on Andromeda complete with dreds and everything).

      In my opinion, however, the worst thing about the show are the wraith. They just seem like a lame replacement for the SG1 bad guys (go'ul? I know there's an ' in there somewhere!). The other humans they ran into who want to make a nuke are much more interesting to me.

      --
      http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
    3. Re:Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by OS24Ever · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The thing I dislike about both the stargates is they take 50 min to build up the 'problem' and have a quickie 10min solution at the end. I hadn't watched the stargates in a while until Atlantis premeried and I was interested in the premise.

      I've watched season 1 and whatever seaon it was of SG1 and after 20 episodes or so of it that was the conclusion I came too.

      --

      As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.

    4. Re:Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      "Aargh, we're miscellaneously evil! Aaaaaargh!"

      That's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

    5. Re:Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      The thing I dislike about both the stargates is they take 50 min to build up the 'problem' and have a quickie 10min solution at the end

      You may like this one a bit more. There are several cycles and epicycles of the typical plot pattern.

      And they finally take the gloves off. As in "oh, we have this technology - let's do creative things with it that will greatly increase our advantage" instead of the typical "I forgot we could do that".

      Sure, there are plenty of last second saves, and some kitch writing, but it's better. And we can enjoy pulp once in a while.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    6. Re:Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by OS24Ever · · Score: 1

      Oh don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show and watch the reruns all the time. It's just a few times I wish they'd arc into another episode. The one that really bugged me was the finding of that Time Machine last season, there was so much promise to what they did and it just kind of ended there.

      Sure they used it later to much entertainment but still there was a lot they could have done with it.

      --

      As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.

    7. Re:Tape Atlantis, so you can skip the bad parts by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Assuming you've seen all three parts of Siege - stop if you haven't.

      The time machine story went over to SG1 where they used it to go back to ancient egypt and found a new ZPM which is what they brought on the Prometheus in Siege Part 3 to save Atlantis.

      So, they've got a long story arc there, even spanning two shows. That's a piece of storycraft worthy of B5. Speaking of which, I find it initially more trying but long-term more rewarding to have the B5 model of dropping seemingly irrelevant bits of information in Season 1 which aren't known to the viewer to be essential until Season 4.

      I'm not willing to put Atlantis on my B5 pedestal, and I'm not optimistic about that happening, but there's a glimmer of hope. This is from a guy who was ready to stop watching it a year ago.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  15. What? by Aeiri · · Score: 0

    Oh man... two great shows start up at the same time, at the same time, ON THE SAME DAY!

    Monk, and now Battlestar Galactica, are on at 10/9c on Friday. On top of that, they are the ONLY two shows I'm watching right now...

    How did that happen?

    1. Re:What? by Gherald · · Score: 1

      Oh man... two great shows start up at the same time, at the same time, ON THE SAME DAY!

      Monk, and now Battlestar Galactica, are on at 10/9c on Friday. On top of that, they are the ONLY two shows I'm watching right now...

      How did that happen?

      Dude, that's like complaining about The Daily Show and The Oreilly Factor being in the same time slot.

    2. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like someone needs to invest in a TIVO

    3. Re:What? by Old+VMS+Junkie · · Score: 1

      Tivo? Bah. You don't need any sort of video quality for Monk, just pull out the VCR. These are my two favorites as well. Monk re-runs Saturday morning as well.

    4. Re:What? by bljohnson0 · · Score: 1

      Get a duel tuner DirevTivo, that'll solve all^H^H^Hmost of your problems.

    5. Re:What? by bljohnson0 · · Score: 1

      A dual one would help too. Oops.

    6. Re:What? by rob_squared · · Score: 0

      I'm with you on that one. Luckily I have 2 TVs 2 VCRs, a DVR, and something called Azerus.

      --
      I don't get it.
    7. Re:What? by Severious · · Score: 1

      Same here, Monk and BSG are the only shows I currently watch on TV. So what if they are difference are we now only allowed to chose one type of show to watch?

      Watch BSG at 10, watch Monk at 12. Good thing they repeate ohterwise I might have to take my VCR out of Mothballs. Or wait, I could just download them. I wonder if they considered that they are just driving people to download when they put two good shows on at the same time.

      --
      Tinfoil hat? Naa, I long since replaced it with a reinforced titanium alloy.
  16. Podcast commentary by tycage · · Score: 5, Informative

    Also, don't forget the Podcast of commentary that is available for the episode.

  17. Timeslot by mfloy · · Score: 0

    It is unfortunate of the timeslt, Fridays at 10:00 is not always the best time because people tend to go out more on Fridays. Then again, other shows like Numb3rs have proven that they can get great ratings on Friday nights.

    1. Re:Timeslot by gatkinso · · Score: 1

      Safe to say that the target audience will be home on a Friday night. ;-)

      --
      I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
    2. Re:Timeslot by krgallagher · · Score: 1
      "Fridays at 10:00 is not always the best time because people tend to go out more on Fridays."

      Maybe people who have lives, but these are geeks and nerds we are talking about.

      --

      Insert Generic Sig Here:

    3. Re:Timeslot by josh2112 · · Score: 0

      people tend to go out more on Fridays.

      Let me be the the first to say you must be new here.

    4. Re:Timeslot by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 1
      It is unfortunate of the timeslt, Fridays at 10:00 is not always the best time because people tend to go out more on Fridays.

      The obvious solution to this problem is to purchase a Tivo. Of course, there is a potential downside to Tivo/DVR's. That would be the six episodes of The Sopranos from the spring of 2004 that I STILL haven't watched.

    5. Re:Timeslot by superstick58 · · Score: 1
      Yeah, Unfortuately I'll be going out to the baseball game tonight and then to the bars after that. And to top it all off, I don't have internet at my house yet because the cable company doesn't offer it yet(the dark age of cleveland). That means no live viewing and no downloading.

      However, there is still hope. I'm going to dust off the old VHS and fire up the record timer. It's been years since I've done this. I hope I can remember how. Any suggestions? ;)

      Damn how did a person like me ever get an account on slashdot.

    6. Re:Timeslot by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      ...or the 27 episodes from the twilight zone marathon from the 4th of july I haven't finished getting through. Luckily B&W video compresses well. Only takes up about 3 hours of color video.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    7. Re:Timeslot by CoolCash · · Score: 1

      But on the otherhand. We are a tech community. We all have DVR, Freevo and MythTV boxes to record these shows.

    8. Re:Timeslot by jarich · · Score: 1
      Safe to say that the target audience will be home on a Friday night. ;-)

      Real geeks have PVRs (Tivo, MythTv, etc)

    9. Re:Timeslot by leonardluen · · Score: 1

      Real geeks have PVRs (Tivo, MythTv, etc)

      yes, but they will still be home friday night. :-)

    10. Re:Timeslot by el_gordo101 · · Score: 1

      Step 1) Figure out how to get clock to stop blinking 12AM

      --
      TODO: Insert witty sig
    11. Re:Timeslot by Dragon218 · · Score: 2, Funny

      that's easy:

      unplug it... oh, wait...

      --

      "It's the little touches that make a future solid enough to be destroyed" --William S. Bourroughs
    12. Re:Timeslot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortuately I'll be going out to the baseball game tonight

      What's unfortunate about that?

      I don't have internet at my house yet because the cable company doesn't offer it yet(the dark age of cleveland).

      Oh. Sorry.

      Get a TiVO or some other PVR. That's what I'm using tonight (Red Sox/Yankees).

    13. Re:Timeslot by someguy456 · · Score: 1

      Step 1) Figure out how to get clock to stop blinking 12AM
      Step 2) ???
      Step 3) Profit!

    14. Re:Timeslot by jarich · · Score: 1
      (blushing).... yes, I will. :)

    15. Re:Timeslot by leonardluen · · Score: 1

      it is sort of funny,

      the people, like us, that have tivo's or mythtv's are probably the ones that don't really need them because we will be home anyway!

      i haven't set up mythtv, but i do record shows on my computer also :-)

    16. Re:Timeslot by jarich · · Score: 1

      At least once you have kids (I have two) you have an excuse to be at home! ;)

    17. Re:Timeslot by leonardluen · · Score: 1

      oh i see how it is, i am home all alone on a friday night, and you are having a party at your place! i think we will need to revoke your geek card!

      well, i guess me, tarkin, and harvey (my computers) will just have to entertain ourselves :-)

  18. Re:Oh boy... by Professr3 · · Score: 0
    So scenes of sex between D'argo and Chiana / Crichton and Aeryn every 5 minutes is better? :P

    Don't get me wrong, I love FarScape, but you can't say Galactica has more sexual references, because it just doesn't.

  19. Galaxy Jumping by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hopefully my ZPM has enough power to get me from Earth to the Pegasus Galaxy. I assume the ancient database has the coordinates to the remnants of the twelve tribes, so I'll just plan to borrow the Dedalus for a quick jaunt over to whatever galaxy BSG is hiding in.

  20. Chicks like Sci Fi too! by Karma_fucker_sucker · · Score: 1

    One of my fondest early dates I had when dating my now wife was sticking around on Friday nights to watch "Farscape". She was a HUGE fan of that show. She actually signed up for digital cable just to get the SciFi channel to watch it. (When Farscape went, so did her cable!)

    --
    Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
    1. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by Hott+of+the+World · · Score: 1

      She should sign back up for cable, I hear most of the main cast for Farscape's going to be back on SG1.

      They should call it the "Fargate".. heh.

      --
      | - | - |
    2. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by BigZaphod · · Score: 1

      Or.. "Starscape."

    3. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by Michalson · · Score: 1

      I think regular cast members from almost every current sci-fi show has either appeared on Stargate or have had a Stargate regular cast member guest star on their show. It's like the freaking nexus of sci-fi tv (though it's perhaps best explained by the fact that it's in its 9th season, a worthy accomplishment for North American sci-fi television, and more then enough time for sci-fi friendly actors to get passed around)

    4. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by sammy+baby · · Score: 1

      It's actually just Ben Browder (John Crichton) and Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun) who are coming back. But they were sorta the big two anyway.

      Black is only going to be in a half dozen episodes or so. It's a shame, because let me tell you, rrowl.

      Browder, however, will be replacing Richard Dean Anderson eventually, and will be one of the main cast members.

    5. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I hear most of the main cast for Farscape's going
      > to be back on SG1.

      That's fine. That way I know exactly which show to ignore completely.

      This whole fascination with Farscape and Stargate xxx is ridiculous when there's been SF that's actually GOOD out there to watch (BSG, FF). Seriously - bad plots, bad dialog, bad story arcs, lame sets and costimes, etc...how much worse does TV need to be to appeal to the average geek?

    6. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by yiantsbro · · Score: 1

      Just curious--for the record--did you deflate and box her back up afterwards or leave her blown up through the wedding? Also, which of your friends did the wedding?

    7. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by Hott+of+the+World · · Score: 1

      The funny part of this whole rant is, Scifi is showing BSG and FF before and after the two shows you find offensive.

      Thats right, FF at 7 and BSG at 10. Sure, nothing new, I guess, but still humorous to me.

      I'm going to watch it all. Most TV is crap, fridays especially.

      --
      | - | - |
    8. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by unitron · · Score: 1

      Firefly at 7 doesn't start until next Friday night, July 22nd, 2005.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    9. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      They should call it the "Fargate".. heh.

      Yah and it's totally differnt from dat udder show Stargate vich I have never seen

    10. Re:Chicks like Sci Fi too! by toddbu · · Score: 1

      I attribute this to the fact that Stargate is virtually the only sci-fi show ever created that has a realistic, meaningful story line. I'm not a big fan of Star Trek because the people who "boldly [went] where no man has gone before" seemed to spend a lot of time sitting in a room pushing buttons. Stargate, especially in its early years, spend a ton of time off the stage and in the woods. These folks felt like real explorers, even though we really know that they're always somewhere in British Columbia. (In one episode with the Aschen you can actually make out Mt. Baker in the background.)

      --
      If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
  21. Glatica yea yea by scottmm01 · · Score: 0, Troll

    SG-1 and atlantis i cant wat to see tonight

  22. Friday night at 10?! by mapmaker · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's almost like they want us to download the torrent instead of tuning it to watch.

    1. Re:Friday night at 10?! by linzeal · · Score: 1

      MythTV or PVR nonexistant in your home? You poor thing.

    2. Re:Friday night at 10?! by IANAAC · · Score: 1
      It's almost like they want us to download the torrent instead of tuning it to watch.

      I'm interested in seeing if the download numbers are the same as last season.

      We've lost a few easy-to-use torrent sites since last season. Yeah, there are still other sites out there, but they're far less public, and their websites suck as far as usability.

    3. Re:Friday night at 10?! by jasenj1 · · Score: 1

      I bought a DVD recorder this week primarily to record the new seasons of these shows (and Monk on USA).

      I'm in the married, with a small child, engineer, sci-fi semi-geek demographic. The kid is in bed and mommy and daddy are almost there by 10pm.

      - Jasen.

    4. Re:Friday night at 10?! by Chandon+Seldon · · Score: 1

      What's "less public" or "hard" about The Pirate Bay?

      --
      -- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
    5. Re:Friday night at 10?! by Silkejr · · Score: 1

      I know I'll be doing that. I don't own a tv. (: I've don't understand who would even want to watch it on tv when you can set up a nice computer-based multimedia center. My computer sits in the living room, with a big lcd monitor right on the coffee table, delivering countless hours of commercial-free tv without the hassle of tuning in or getting tivo.

  23. Orginal Series? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The series, a 're-imagining' of the original 1978 TV series by the same name, made history as the highest-rated original Sci Fi Channel program ever.

    Not to slip into needless pedantism, but how exactly can a remake be considered an original program?

    1. Re:Orginal Series? by dfn5 · · Score: 1
      Not to slip into needless pedantism, but how exactly can a remake be considered an original program?
      They are referring to it being a show they produced and being aired on their network for the first time as opposed to other sf shows which they just show re-runs of.

      --
      -- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
  24. wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    this site really is news for nerds!

  25. am i the only one? by djdavetrouble · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Season 1 was so dark and depressing that I could only make it through the first 3 episodes. Thankfully I found dr who to fill my sci-fi fix. Also the 'verite' style camera work didn't work for me.

    --
    music lover since 1969
    1. Re:am i the only one? by dartboard · · Score: 1

      apparently... you are the only one! :-)

    2. Re:am i the only one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hear hear! I know, its rediculous. I hate having things not wrap up nicely at the end of the hour. Like we're going to spend all our time watching television? Thank G-D for PAX! Walker, Texas Ranger, Touched By An Angel, 7th Heaven. Those are quality family programs that provide an uplifting message in a convenient, family-viewing-hour-friendly package.

    3. Re:am i the only one? by mbrewthx · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well when your entire civilazation is decimated it tends to be dark and depressing, or maybe I could be wrong.

      --
      __________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
    4. Re:am i the only one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      No, I can totally see what you mean. But then it's a dark subject. I don't mind the camera style...it feels almost as if I'm watching a historical film rather than a polished television programme.

      And Dr Who...whooo...what a great show! I cannot wait for the next season, even if I'm not 100% sold on the new guy yet. I was pessimistic about Russell Davies, too, and look how well that turned out. I guess I'll give Tennant a chance! 8^)

    5. Re:am i the only one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You arent' the only one and I know some other folks who hated the parkinson-like camera, the "let's make it darker to make it appear more realistic" attitude and the poorly developed characters. I hope things will get better with season 2 though.

      As others have pointed there are also 2 Stargate premieres to watch. I'm waiting for them, not BSG.

    6. Re:am i the only one? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Season 1 was so dark and depressing that I could only make it through the first 3 episodes.

      Dude, the world is pretty darned dark and depressing - haven't you been watching the news since 2000?

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    7. Re:am i the only one? by StalinsNotDead · · Score: 1

      Well when your entire civilazation is decimated it tends to be dark and depressing, or maybe I could be wrong.

      That depends on your opinion of your civilization.

      --
      Thanks to the internet, we can now all die alone together! -SomeWoman
    8. Re:am i the only one? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I assume you believe it has only been dark and depressing since 2000? This must be opposed to the joyous times starting about the 5th century to the 14th century. I guess they must be misnamed the dark ages.

    9. Re:am i the only one? by p2sam · · Score: 1

      Get him!! He's a terroist!!

    10. Re:am i the only one? by Shihar · · Score: 1

      Nope, he is just a European.

    11. Re:am i the only one? by StalinsNotDead · · Score: 1

      Not European.

      I'm a Floridian. Not to insult others, but a native of a state in the US. Hell I couldn't name many administrative districts of other countries beyond Canada and Australuia.

      I've just lost faith in the federal government's ability to act as it was meant to by the Founding Fathers.

      Though I won't take issue with being accusede of being European;)

      --
      Thanks to the internet, we can now all die alone together! -SomeWoman
  26. Who do you work for Zonk? by zardo · · Score: 0, Troll

    Why do we get a battlestar galactica plug every week? I could personally care less about some low-budget TV show, and I've got better things to do on Friday night, like organize my sock drawer and pay my bills.

  27. Isn't NBC picking it up? by LinuxHam · · Score: 1

    I thought BSG was going to NBC?

    --
    Intelligent Life on Earth
    1. Re:Isn't NBC picking it up? by superstick58 · · Score: 1

      It was on NBC, but only as a review of season 1. I'm not sure if they'll continue running reruns, but the play time that it did get is basically a setup for the new season. It was actually last week that they ran the shows. It's a good marketing strategy I think even if the new stuff is only on SciFi.

    2. Re:Isn't NBC picking it up? by ferat · · Score: 1

      My recollection was that NBC was going to rebroadcast season 1, not that they were going to pick up the series.

    3. Re:Isn't NBC picking it up? by Deacon+Jones · · Score: 1
      Thanks, I'm glad I'm not the only one who could have sworn he saw a commercial for this show on network TV.

      Is it being shown on both?

      Not that I truly care, as I don't watch it. Its main problem being it looks not a damn bit like the original BSG, which while corny, I grew up with.

      If there's not a cylon with a cylclops red eye, you can kiss my daggit.

      --
      I pulled a jack move to cop this sig
    4. Re:Isn't NBC picking it up? by LinuxHam · · Score: 1

      I, too, grew up with it. I had BSG wallpaper (yes, real paper on the walls for you young'ns) and suspended a bunch of models from my ceiling by fishing line depicting battle scenes in my bedroom.

      I've tried to watch the new version, and I continue to TiVO it, but I can't get beyond how they totally gave up on SciFi and just decided that the cylons "have evolved to look like us". WTF? They're just actors getting paid once to act in two different roles! I enjoy how dark it is, how maneuverable the fighters are now, and when they do "combat landings" and bounce off the deck. I think I would enjoy it more if I didn't grow up on the first version.

      I keep getting hung up on how the roles have switched genders, the cylons are people, and wondering if the first version really was this dark and I was just too young to appreciate it.

      --
      Intelligent Life on Earth
    5. Re:Isn't NBC picking it up? by CloudsSpaz · · Score: 1

      NBC owns SciFi, so they've been playing the miniseries/episodes (as well as are planning to play all of season 1 I believe) to market the show for the channel.

    6. Re:Isn't NBC picking it up? by JWW · · Score: 1

      Sad thing is that commercial for BSG was waayyyy better then the one that followed it for NBC's new monday show ("Surface" it think?). The commercial for that show looked like it was just a series version of one of scifi's weekend monster movies.

  28. Galactica 1980 by topgeek · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't wait for the "reimagining" of Galactica 1980...oh wait, yes I can.

    --
    Geek Of The Day, "A geeky place for geeky faces."
    1. Re:Galactica 1980 by Flounder · · Score: 2, Funny

      Only if they have the bikes. Can't have Galactica 1980 without the bikes.

      --

      No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova

    2. Re:Galactica 1980 by unitron · · Score: 0, Troll
      " I can't wait for the "reimagining" of Galactica 1980..."

      You mean spaceship comes to Earth and fights Nazis? Already been done, it was called Enterprise.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  29. Who Cares? by eno2001 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I Won't be happy until I see the new series of Doctor Who premiered in the U.S. Canadians are lucky because they've already seen Doctor Who 2005 series 1 and they're slated for series 2 as well. We have to suffer the crap that our networks spew at us and SciFi is certainly no saviour. They program the worst SciFi (all action masquerading as science fiction) I've ever seen in my life. I mean, come on!!! Mansquito? Give me a f*cking break! Where is the thinking man's SciFi channel? I'm sick of all these macho programs that SciFI puts on claiming to be science fiction. Science fiction is not about wars, and guns and action. It's about using your mind and technology to solve problems in a world that is almost but not entirely like your own. Philip K. Dick did the best science fiction and SciFi repeatedly shits all over his stuff.

    --
    -"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
  30. vivid memory of childhood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That night in 1978 that Battlestar Glactica premired, they were showing the movie King Kong on another network. It was a very big night for tv when I was kid. But then disaster struck:

    They interrupted both shows because Isreal and Egypt were signing a peace agreement. And my mom sent me to bed.

    Egypt and Isreal had been fighting for hundreds of years... couldn't they have waited one more day? Think of the children.

    1. Re:vivid memory of childhood by frankmu · · Score: 1

      they also were suppose to show the alien buffet table with exotic foods, but forgot to film it. after star wars the previous year, i remember looking forward to cool sci fi on tv.

      i can't watch the current show. the damn handheld-look gives me motion-sickness

      --
      Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
  31. It almost makes me want to watch TV again by gearmonger · · Score: 2, Interesting
    "As if slashdotters needed another reason to stay home on a Friday night..."

    Ouch, that hit kinda close to home.

    Of course, with TiVoToGo, "watching TV" is just another label for me sitting in front of my laptop. *sigh*

    But seriously (?), the new show is excellent -- give it a try if you can find the spare hour here or there.

    1. Re:It almost makes me want to watch TV again by technos · · Score: 1

      Transcode the analog grab off your TV card to a MPEG2 stream, find a close bar, cheat some wireless over..

      Watch it from your bar stool!

      And for the anti-geek points you'll need, you can say "Oh, this is just what it's grabbing now. I have the Durock 300 up next, heard Harvick pulled it out." (Or insert soccer match du jour if you're anywhere in the rest of the world)

      --
      .sig: Now legally binding!
    2. Re:It almost makes me want to watch TV again by fanblade · · Score: 1

      Haha, I hope you didn't take offense. I submitted this story, and yes, I label myself as a slashdotter. But to be completely honest, this Friday just happens to be one of the few Fridays where I DID have plans to go out!! Can you fully grasp my dilemma? I'm a serious BG fan, so I gave consideration to staying in anyway. Thank goodness for BitTorrent!!

    3. Re:It almost makes me want to watch TV again by gearmonger · · Score: 1
      No offense at all...LOL'd even. :-)

      My daughter is 8 months old -- now I neither go out nor watch TV. :-/

    4. Re:It almost makes me want to watch TV again by unitron · · Score: 1
      "My daughter is 8 months old -- now I neither go out nor watch TV. :-/"

      Be patient. Soon you will get to see every Barney episode ever made.

      And then you'll get to see them again.

      And again.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  32. Dammit! by cavemanf16 · · Score: 2, Funny

    My frickin' MythTV box isn't up and running yet!!! I've still got to recompile the kernel three times, reinstall lirc drivers twice, and then wipe the drive and reinstall Gentoo all over again before I can successfully record BG for my Saturday morning viewing pleasure!!

    1. Re:Dammit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bittorrent

    2. Re:Dammit! by scuba_steve_1 · · Score: 1

      Ahhh...MythTV...the dream. Alas, I must settle for reality - an actual working TiVo.

      I wasn't sure if my TiVo's season pass was in place for BSG from last year so I just fired up a web browser and connected to it from my office to ensure that it will record, which is nice because I will be out this evening. BTW, for those who complained that BSG is broadcast on an evening on which people go out, I have two responses:

      1) Please...geeks? Out? Friday night? Puhleeease. You're killin me.

      2) Non-geeks have TiVo....and we find those of you who watch television shows in a predetermined order to be cute.

      I had lunch with three friends the other day and one of them mentioned a television program with which the rest of us were not familiar...and they responded, "you know, it's on after ." We all looked at each other for a moment with apparent confusion until we realized that this tard still believed that television shows occur in a particular order. Yes, we laughed hard...and spent the rest of lunch making fun of him. Guess I fall into category (1) above after all. :-)

    3. Re:Dammit! by KutuluWare · · Score: 1

      You might as well give up.

      It will take you longer to type in the install commands than it will take the show to air in it's entirety. Twice. On back to back weekends.

      --K

    4. Re:Dammit! by KutuluWare · · Score: 1
      We all looked at each other for a moment with apparent confusion until we realized that this tard still believed that television shows occur in a particular order


      Judging by my TiVo, they do! They air in the following order:

      Good Eats -> Good Eats -> Daily Show -> Forensic Files -> Forensic Files -> Good Eats -> ...
    5. Re:Dammit! by scuba_steve_1 · · Score: 1

      LOL

  33. Can I pick this up... by Skynet · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Without having seen the first season (yet)?

    I've heard nothing but good things about this show and I want to start watching it!

    --
    Execute? [Y/N] _
    1. Re:Can I pick this up... by fireduck · · Score: 1

      You could, but it would be difficult. Last season ended on a MAJOR cliffhanger. The final minutes of the final episode were so unexpected that I actually yelled at the TV. But it is an incredibly compelling series. I'd suggest taping/tivoing this episode and seeing if you can download the others to watch first. or read the episode summaries.

    2. Re:Can I pick this up... by OSXCPA · · Score: 1

      Listen to the podcast commentary for the last three episodes from last season, you should be fine.

    3. Re:Can I pick this up... by Senobyzal · · Score: 1

      I've been waiting for the Region 1 DVD release of season 1 for quite some time now... no indications on Amazon as far as I can tell when it'll be out.

    4. Re:Can I pick this up... by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      Try to pick up the other episodes elsewhere - at least the miniseries and the first two episodes (33 and Water), the first episode with Zarek (Bastille Day), and the last two (Kobol's Last Gleaming).

    5. Re:Can I pick this up... by fanblade · · Score: 1

      That's an excellent question.

      Yes, you can pick up on the second season without watching the first. As a huge fan (I submitted this story) it pains me to recommend doing this, but yes you can. Check out the wikipedia link I put in the story. There's a summary of the plot that I feel is good enough to get you into the series without feeling lost. The wiki calls some of it "spoilers", but they're just detailed plot summaries.

      Catch up on the first season whenever you get the chance, though. There's some amazing action and drama there that shouldn't be missed.

    6. Re:Can I pick this up... by PriceIke · · Score: 1

      That is a good question, but I think the more appropriate answer is "yes, but..."

      They often do little intros in front of each episode with "Previously on Battlestar Galactica" and have montages of relevant content from past episodes. But this is *not* enough to go into the show brand new with no context whatsoever. There is a lot of really gritty plot that's been building up all this time. The sexual anxiety (it's way beyond tension now) between Helo and Boomer, and why Helo's still on Caprica. The explanation behind the two Boomer characters. The complicated relationship between Starbuck, Apollo and Adama. What Six is, and why Baltar holds all the cards he does, even all those no one else realizes he does. The backstory of Richard Hatch's character. You might be able to eek out some of all this by watching the episodes of the new season, but there will be a lot of nuances of dialog and character that will go right over your head.

      My recommendation: go down to your movie store and either buy or rent the original 2-hour pilor of the series and watch that tonight instead. In my area, Sci Fi reruns BSG on Monday nights .. see if they rerun it where you are. You need to at LEAST see the pilot before sitting down in front of this show if you really want to appreciate everything that's written to it. Then when season 1 comes out on DVD, it will most likely be rentable so I'd start getting caught up on season 1. The more of season 1 you know, I'm betting the more season 2 will make sense.

      --
      It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
    7. Re:Can I pick this up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I highly recommend watching the first season. Not because I think you need the background, but because the show is quite fun to watch.

      SciFi replayed the old shows a while ago, I figure they will probably do that again. However, there are many torrents available on the 'Net (some high quality digitally recorded stuff).

      As others mentioned, the miniseries (which is like 4 hours), the first two episodes and the last two episodes are all you really need if you don't want to watch all of the first season (it's good though!).

    8. Re:Can I pick this up... by Depili · · Score: 1

      Well, there was a big clifhanger and you would miss loads of plot and character development if you don't watch the miniseries and the first season, as unlike stargate and startrek, BSG has a plot, not just separate stories for each episode.

  34. Commentary podcast for this episode... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    is also available... This is a full length commentary you can download to your mp3 player and listen to while you watch the episode. pretty cool, this is the kind of stuff usually reserved for DVD boxsets

  35. Wikipedia Page Trashed by excyl · · Score: 4, Interesting
    /. flamebait have already trashed the wikipedia page linked in the news post. It now contains an attempt to spoil the latest Harry Potter book for those that care.

    Maybe we should try locking any wikipedia pages before actually releasing the news post into the /. wild?

    --
    --Excyl
    1. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by DigiWood · · Score: 1

      Look again. There is nothing wrong with the wikipedia page.

      --


      Nothing is impossible. It just hasn't been figured out yet.
    2. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      /. flamebait have already trashed the wikipedia page linked in the news post. It now contains an attempt to spoil the latest Harry Potter book for those that care.

      Maybe we should try locking any wikipedia pages before actually releasing the news post into the /. wild?


      Look, when my 14 yo and his crew at middle school do wiki hacks for fun, I think it's time to admit that it's not /. that's at fault, but wiki for believing in the MSFT hype about security thru obscurity.

      it doesn't work, there is no security thru obscurity.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    3. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by grassy_knoll · · Score: 1

      Funny, I'm looking at it now.. seems fine.. perhaps someone restored it to it's flamebait-free state?

    4. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by Confessed+Geek · · Score: 1

      Actually. No they have not Or if they did, it has already been cleaned up. I went and checked since, well I'm curious about the plot of the new Potter and I thought the "no right to read" thing stunketh.

      All I can see there is excellent coverage of BSG.

      Which is very very good, but I just can't quite stand to watch due to the Balthazar subplot. I've tried and tried but I can't figure out Why it annoys me so deeply. Its so bad I can't realy even watch the rest of the excellent show. I don't think is "objectivly" bad, but it irks the crap out of me.

      *shrug*

    5. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by excyl · · Score: 1
      It appears to have been fixed. I posted the comment a few minutes after the news post showed up, but by the time I started getting replies, it was fixed.

      I'm sure the wikipedia folk are easily alerted to a /. effect.

      --
      --Excyl
    6. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by fanblade · · Score: 1

      As the poster of this story, I feel bad that the wiki got messed with. People that flame wikis... I don't get it. They're such a great source of info.

      On the bright side, I think the net effect of exposing a wiki page to so many people will inevitably be positive. I trust there's enough slashdotters to correct the crap and improve the content quite a bit. Really, the whole wiki concept is a bet that more people will try to help than screw the system.

    7. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by fanblade · · Score: 1

      Hey, you have a point there. BSG is my favorite show. Period. But the incessant dreams of Balthazar of his blondie Cylon buddy just bug me. I think the writers are getting too far into it. Plus (I expect some people will disagree with me on this one) I don't think #6 is that hot. She's just an average blonde with average acting talent.

    8. Re:Wikipedia Page Trashed by Confessed+Geek · · Score: 1

      I will agree with you on the blond to... I like strong bone structure as much as the next guy but... I don't know she just doesn't do anything for me. And they "sexy" act feels forced.

  36. Just in time for my new DVR! by huphtur · · Score: 1

    Good thing I ordered ComCast DVR!

    1. Re:Just in time for my new DVR! by LinuxHam · · Score: 1

      Good thing I ordered ComCast DVR!

      I hope you have a backup plan. Mine has been flawless (well, nearly) but when I gave one as a gift to my in-laws, it rebooted every 2 minutes or every time you changed the channel. The cable company replaced it three times and ran all new cabling from the pole throughout the house to no avail. Someone in San Francisco gave away free TiVOs to capitalize on the fantastic failure the Comcast DVR has been by and large.

      My problems were limited to one of the two tuners going black when switching to it, resulting in half of my scheduled recordings coming up as zero seconds long. Very frustrating. Another time, both tuners went black while I was away on travel so my wife didn't have tv for about 3 weeks.

      --
      Intelligent Life on Earth
  37. Good dig. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He definitely needed to be bitch-slapped.

  38. I'm looking forward by Markvs · · Score: 1

    To see if they explain how the humans killed "the Gods", and who the gods were anyway.

    --
    46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
  39. Best show on tv by papasui · · Score: 1

    I believe this is the best show on tv period. The budget for it must be huge, hopefully it will continue to pull in the viewers and SCI-FI won't need to cut production value. Beats the hell out of watching like 4 different versions of CSI and law and order.

    1. Re:Best show on tv by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the budget for it is kind of not huge. They just do a good job with limited resources.

  40. Friday's are throw away slots by hellfire · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A lot of factors go to the social makeup of who watches TV throughout the week. I think however the factor that sci-fi tapped into that's not sociological is the fact that all the other networks put crap on friday anyway.

    On the other days there might be good shows a geek wants to watch. Don't make me pick between galactica and CSI, that would kill me to have to chose only one or the other. CSI wins out over stargate in my mind too, so why pick a fight you can't win?

    So given a choice between crap and a fine sci-fi show, I'll pick sci-fi thank you. It makes the choice as to what to watch a lot easier for sci-fi fans who actually like more than just sci-fi.

    --

    "All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

    1. Re:Friday's are throw away slots by maxpublic · · Score: 4, Informative

      Don't make me pick between galactica and CSI, that would kill me to have to chose only one or the other.

      Good geeks know of this mystical device called "the VCR", which can record one show while you watch another. In fact, just about everyone knows about the mighty VCR, and owns one to boot!

      But even better geeks know of "BitTorrent", for those times when you forget to set the VCR. Or for catching up on shows that you didn't clue in on until the second or third season. This is how my wife and I got up to speed on West Wing, Alias, and yes - even CSI! Without BitTorrent to provide the seasons we'd missed (not big TV fans) we'd never have watched the shows on regular TV. We hate jumping into shows mid-stream.

      Of course, we didn't bother with BitTorrent until BSG aired in Britain. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for us. But once we took the leap...well, there's really no going back. We watch more TV now than we have in decades. If we happen to miss an episode, so what? We can always catch it with a download and be on track again before the next week's episode airs.

      No doubt the network goons will soon be kicking in my door for these public admissions. It won't matter that we watch MORE TV now, only that we've used BitTorrent in acts of "piracy"....

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    2. Re:Friday's are throw away slots by dagar17 · · Score: 1

      The network executivies dont care that you watch more telelvision now than you ever did because your watching significantly less of their advertising.

    3. Re:Friday's are throw away slots by maxpublic · · Score: 1

      The network executivies dont care that you watch more telelvision now than you ever did because your watching significantly less of their advertising.

      Reading comprehension helps. We watch more TV, NOT more TV on BitTorrent. Does that help? Without the ability to get back episodes on torrent or to catch an episode we missed, we wouldn't be watching these shows - on TV - AT ALL.

      If you stop and think it through, we're watching more advertising now than we have in years.

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    4. Re:Friday's are throw away slots by hellfire · · Score: 1

      I was making a point as to why Friday was a good time slot for ratings for Sci-fi. Techno geeks and sci-fi geeks don't overlap 100%, many technogeeks don't have the time or inclination to go messing around in a myth TV, and those who chose this route have excluded themselves from the whole rating system anyway.

      --

      "All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

    5. Re:Friday's are throw away slots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the best geeks don't watch CSI at all because it's full of fake science, violations of civil liberties, and misconveys the role of forensic scientists in law enforcement.

    6. Re:Friday's are throw away slots by Brass+Cannon · · Score: 1

      No doubt the network goons will soon be kicking in my door for these public admissions. It won't matter that we watch MORE TV now, only that we've used BitTorrent in acts of "piracy"....

      they don't care that you are watching more TV. Are you watching more commercials? I bet those BitTorrent DL's did not contain commercials. They don't make money if you watch great TV. They make money if you watch comercials.

      How do you think TV is paid for? There are other business models that may be better, but this is the one they are currently using.

    7. Re:Friday's are throw away slots by wenchmagnet · · Score: 1

      Actually you're absolutely right about P2P - I use mldonkey under linux. Easily the best P2P app I have ever used.

      I live in Pakistan and dont get the Sci-Fi channel here - so this is the only way I can get to watch BSG, SG-1 and Atlantis.

      If I could BUY episodes online at a dollar or two a pop I would do it! Amazon or the others dont ship movies here so my only option is P2P. Over the last few months I've downloaded seasons 4 through 8 of SG-1 off EDK.

      There is a huge market for online content distribution!

  41. i don't need a reason anymore... by idiotdevel · · Score: 0, Troll

    people gave up on me

  42. Damned adverts! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, is slashdot now officially accepting avertisements as stories?

  43. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  44. Tough decisions ahead by MagerValp · · Score: 1

    OK, the question I need to ask myself is: do I download the hi definition torrents in a couple of hours, or do I wait a year or two until they show up here in standard definition.

    Yeah, it's a tough one, I know...

    --

    READY.
    #
  45. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  46. Anybody got a torrent yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So? Where's the torrent? C'mon, don't hold out on me, man...I needs my fix!

  47. Only B&B Star Trek dies on friday nights... by voss · · Score: 1

    Quality sci-fi does quite well on Friday nights thank you very much.

  48. Budget by 1ivewire · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If only Stargate had a budget like Galactica, then we would really see some great sci-fi. As it stands, we have to watch a show that must conserve their gate splash scenes to cut costs.

    It still doesn't get any better than Sci-fi Friday.

  49. Preggers! Preggers I tell you! by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    now that's gonna be an interesting kid Boomer's having.

    oh, yeah, I'm watching. I may not have DVR, but I've got a digital cable reminder and it doesn't matter what any other channel programs.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  50. Cool... by jafiwam · · Score: 1

    Another season I can only see half of.

    Come on, finish the DVD set already will ya! Its the only way I will end up seeing all of it.

    Friday nights are just not a slot I can reliably have in front of the TV. Miss one episode and I am screwed for the season.

  51. Re:Oh boy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you watched it? It is clear to me that the cylons are exposing a human weakness by addicting the doctor to constant direct stimulation of his brain's pleasure centers. Did you notice how he went though withdrawal when she "disappeared".

    There is hardly any sexual activity between the real humans (as one may expect after their worlds are blown up). So cylon cyber with the good doctor (and the few with Boomer) titilates AND fits into the storyline...what could be better?

  52. Not a reaosn to stay home, but a reason to go home by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 1

    My sister in law will marry tomorrow, and I will be stuck at a loud, dull, family party tonight. The cool thin is I plan on using SG-1 as my reason for going home. I told my wife about this plan and she said she would prefer to watch SG-1 as well. Yeay! I can ditch the party at 9:00!

    --
    We are the Borg...
  53. Red-eyed Cyclons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, you can spot some of the old 'retro' cylon look around the series. For one, in the first episode, Galactica is a meseum, complete with old school Cyclons standing around.

    All of the robotic Cyclons, and the cylon ships (which no longer have 'pilots' since the ships themselves are cyclons) have the big red back and forth eye on them...

  54. Re:Oh boy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, I can see why you might have a problem with it. I'm sure that people having sex isn't very realistic to you...

  55. Is it on in Canada??? by SamSeaborn · · Score: 1

    Anyone know if (when?) season 2 airs in Canada?

    1. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by BrianMertens · · Score: 3, Informative

      Good news, everyone! BSG Season 2 will be on in Canada, starting January 14th, 2006.

      That'll be just fine, as long as everyone on the internet promises not to talk about BSG on any forum or blog until then... okay?

      Arrgh. I think BitTorrent is about to become much more popular in Canada.

      --
      Why do I need a sig? I never post.
    2. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by wgadmin · · Score: 1

      You are fucking kidding me? I have to wait until Jan of 2006? If so, then it's true what everybody says: I live in such a 54th rate country, it's not even funny. I live in the English-Speaking, North-American, Third World. For the remainder of this post I will attempt to control my shattered emotions...

      Who, I wonder, is responsible for this decision? What are the economics/politics behind such a decision? What are the advantages/angles? How exactly has my federal government failed me, this time? This can't just be a CanCon issue -- the damned show is filmed in Vancouver, for Christ's sake, and Canadians probably make up 75% of the cast/crew... And it's not like Space Channel has anything else going for it. What gives?

      Anyone in the Biz know about such things?

      In the meantime, I limp through the remainder of my work day, absolutely devastated. My productivity has dipped to less than the square root of zero.

    3. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by donoreo · · Score: 1

      January 14th according to spacecast.com. They are going to replay Season 1 starting in October. I emailed CHUM TV to ask and that was the reply I got. I told them I will just download it then and not watch it on Space.

    4. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by maxpublic · · Score: 1

      A few hours after it airs here in America. After that you'll be able to get the torrent, just like us Americans did from the Brits.

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    5. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by SamSeaborn · · Score: 1
      Good news, everyone! BSG Season 2 will be on in Canada, starting January 14th, 2006.

      ARGH!

      The Space Channel told me via email a few months ago they were going to air on the same weekends as in the Sci-Fi in the states.

      Guess they couldn't work out a deal or something.

      Bittorrent here I come!!

      Sam

    6. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by WatertonMan · · Score: 1

      Don't they have the Sci Fi channel on cable up there? Or is there some dumb "Canadian Content" restriction? (Which is a laugh considering how many Sci Fi network shows are *filmed* in Canada)

    7. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. I mean, seriously wow.

      Welcome to total irrelevance, space channel.

      It's all over - by the time you've got it on only total technophobes, the elderly, and the incorrigibly moral won't have seen it.

      Everyone else will have seen it. As many times as they wanted.

      Game over, man.

    8. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by RobinH · · Score: 1

      Gah! Dammit... I thought that the one week delay was bad enough for season 1... this sucks! BitTorrent -> DVD -> my TV screen.

      The damned show is probably filmed in Canada too.

      --
      "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
    9. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by Sark666 · · Score: 1

      I love the series but never understood how it started in UK first, instead of the US. Anyone have any info on that?

    10. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by liftwatch · · Score: 1
      The damned show is probably filmed in Canada too.
      Yup, Vancouver.
    11. Re:Is it on in Canada??? by Maserati · · Score: 1

      Short summary: Sky One ponied up some cash for the production and got the right to show it first. There's some speculation that the high download numbers of the season one episodes helped convince Sci Fi to pick it up for a full second season. For the second season Sky One didn't have any investment, so they're getting it a little later.

      --
      Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
  56. A Geek's Wetdream... by h2d2 · · Score: 2, Funny
    • 2 Stories Bashing MS
    • 1 Story Bashing SCO
    • 1 Story Commending OSS Unity
    • 1 Story (Unrelatedly) Linked Star Wars

    All we needed was one on Battlestar Gallactica... thanks Slashdot!!!

    --
    Mozilla stole tabs from NetCaptor. So what? Right?
  57. Re:Best part by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Starbuck is hot!

    Actually, Boomer is hotter ...

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  58. The Weapons are realistic by dmh20002 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One thing I really like about BSG is that the weapons are realistic and the visual effects are outstanding. The missile salvos are really really cool. Unlike Star Trek, Star Wars and SG-1, the BSG folks use guided weapons. In those other shows, in the future, the engineers have forgotten how to make guided or tracking weapons. They just shoot stuff randomly and most of the time they miss. The Stargate Atlantis finale from last season was a prime example. The marines show up with 'rail guns' that they are so fracking proud of. But then they just spray out into space with no radar tracking or anything else, hitting nothing. Jesus, a 20th century Phalanx is way better than the crap they have.

    Oh, Babylon 5 was one of the few good ones also. The way they tracked the beam weapons and sliced things up was believable and cool.

    1. Re:The Weapons are realistic by stoph+ct · · Score: 1

      It's not like they had a ton of time to send tons of stuff through the stargate. They had to get weapons in there through the gate fast and get the Prometheus ready for launch with the main equipment in a very short timespan...

    2. Re:The Weapons are realistic by CompressedAir · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hmmm... because every SAM fired at an aircraft always hits? Because the radar guided AAA in the Gulf or Vietnam brought down a plane with every shot? There's such a thing as countermeasures, you know. If the Wraith have the technology to decoy your guided missles, which they certainly do, you are better off using weapons that at least go where you point them.

    3. Re:The Weapons are realistic by I8TheWorm · · Score: 2, Funny

      Just for clarification, Star Wars was A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

      --
      Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
    4. Re:The Weapons are realistic by JWW · · Score: 1

      But the neat thing about BSG is that in "Hand of God" Appolo actually used his coutnermeasures to destroy the fuel depot. I had to rewind and watch the scene again to be sure.

    5. Re:The Weapons are realistic by fanblade · · Score: 1

      You have some great points. I also love the realism of the attack ships (raptors) as they fly. So many shows make ships in space behave as if they're flying through an atmosphere. In BG, you can actually see the tiny jets fire on the body of the ship that make the angle of the ship change independently of the direction of motion.

    6. Re:The Weapons are realistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Please don't ever say "fracking" again. It does not make you cool.

    7. Re:The Weapons are realistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The weapons may be realistic, but the battles are not. (Ok, and, actually, the weapons aren't that realistic, either.)

      That battle near the asteroid (fuel depot?) in the first season was absolutely inane.

      Now, my standards are high. I'm an astrophysicist, and I know goddamned well how warfare will work in space. (B5 didn't get it right, either, but they did a better job.) I don't expect perfection, though. I would just prefer if film/tv makers would at least bother to ask scientists (and generals!) more often if what they are doing is crazy or not.

      The problem wasn't that the battle was simply unrealistic. The problem was that the battle made no sense. Enforcing realism will make them make sure their battle is actually comprehensible, which will help everyone enjoy it that much more.

    8. Re:The Weapons are realistic by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      the weapons are realistic

      I don't get how the Humans in their fighters so easily allude the cylon AI missiles. They just seem to veer hard to starboard and the missiles go away. Our Air Force has better missiles than the cylons.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  59. Galactica is so good it's made me an ex-trekkie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful


    That I haved turned in my Klingon language guide, am ebaying all my Trek action figures and collectible and no longer sign in on the Trek forums. It's made me forget how bad Enerprise was.

    It's that good.

    Galactica is what Trek should have been.

  60. am i the only one... by sum.zero · · Score: 1

    that finds life so dark and depressing that they have trouble getting through the entire day? thankfully i found prozac to fill my 'good outlook' fix. also the living charicatures in charge of the usa don't work for me.

    sum.zero

  61. annoying camera work by Blymie · · Score: 1


    Are they going to have the same mentally retarded camera angles, shots and movements? Are they going to continue to annoy the hell out of me?

    I _was_ watching, until one night I just got sick of all the camera bullshit, and turned it off. Episode 5 I think.

    Unless this changes in series 2, I see no reason to watch.

    Of course, as one other poster mentioned, the mentally retarded H20 episode was beyond understanding. When will sci-fi TV writers understand that sci-fi is not "soap opera, but in space"?

    Whenever I see this sort of bullocks, I just turn the channel. It is one of the primary reasons I could not stand Enterprise.

  62. BSG is a prime-time Soap, er "Space", Opera by atani · · Score: 1
    Seeing the commercial reminds me of a Days of Our Lives commercial:

    "He's my FATHER-ER-ER!!!", followed by intense look

    "I won't let you KILL HER, she's carrying MY CHILD!!! !!! !!!", followed by intense look

    Is it going to be up for a Daytime Emmy (tm) even though it's running during prime-time? Granted, most of the SciFi that we see today is purely Space Opera so I'm not surprised, it was just so striking to see the commercial of BSG.

    Ah well, off to finish reading The Algebraist ;)

  63. I think BSG SUCKS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I don't get why you dorks think BSG is so great. It's LAME. The first few episodes were like a drug-induced stupor. Then the show did actually get a bit more coherent. But it was still lame. It's like watching a shitty documentary that never explains anything. And the show is so stoic. And the doctor and cylon (ghost) is so goddamn annoying - how the fuck did that come about? And what the fuck is a cylon? Human? Machine? Next episode's drama - is [insert character or the week] a cylon or not??!!

    The show fucking sucks.

  64. Severe Re-imagining... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The series, a 're-imagining' of the original 1978 TV series by the same name"

    Since when did 're-imagination' involve a sex change for Starbuck??

  65. Is the H2O episode really bad or really good? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Of course, as one other poster mentioned, the mentally retarded H20 episode was beyond understanding. When will sci-fi TV writers understand that sci-fi is not "soap opera, but in space"?

    That was one of my favorite episodes, in that it explained things from Boomer's point of view. But, hey, noone's forcing you to watch.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Is the H2O episode really bad or really good? by OS24Ever · · Score: 1

      I agree, I thought it was an amazing episode. I think the water was a tiny sub-plot while the entire thing focused around Boomer coming to terms that she might be a Cylon and noticing things she'd done that could have hurt the fleet, etc.

      --

      As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.

    2. Re:Is the H2O episode really bad or really good? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would have been good if it'd been about 4 times faster. That whole episode would have worked better as a sub-plot; the pacing was, indeed, soap-opera style.

  66. Galactica is a bit better (SPOILER-Season 1) by katharsis83 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I actually prefer it this way.

    I've watched some Stargate Atlantis, but could never stick with it. There's no moral ambiguity in the show; the main character, the Colonel, responds to everything with a clear-cut moral choice. Everything has to be done based on principle - no compromise with reality, and it always seems to work out in their favor.

    Battlestar Galactica portrays things in a much more "gray" way, forcing characters to make terrible choices where there's no morally superior answer (i.e. in "33" when they blow up the Olympic Carrier). This, mixed in with the Cylons looking like humans, feeling like humans, makes the entire of the show even more amigious, which is what sets it apart from most of the other shows on TV. There's no clear cut enemy - no clear "us" and "them," and thus, much more realistic. Even with the advanced technology/sci-fi nature of the show, it manages to portray human behavior/moral dilemmas much more realistically than the mainstream shows set in the present time on Earth.

    I'll paraphrase a quote I heard from somewhere, "I'd rather watch plausible human behavior in an implausible setting than watch implausible human behavior in a plausible setting."

    1. Re:Galactica is a bit better (SPOILER-Season 1) by ChuckleBug · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      This, mixed in with the Cylons looking like humans, feeling like humans, makes the entire of the show even more amigious

      "Amigious?"

    2. Re:Galactica is a bit better (SPOILER-Season 1) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I agree with all your points, specifically the intriguing way the humans are presented (Baltar in particular).

      However, I disagree with your comment There's no clear cut enemy - no clear "us" and "them," . The Cylons are quite obviously the 'bad guys', and we can enjoy their distruction in the standard Star Warsian way. What distinguishes them from the typical 'bad guys' though is their motivation. After watching the first season 'religiously', their intent is still 'amiguous'...

    3. Re:Galactica is a bit better (SPOILER-Season 1) by ChuckleBug · · Score: 1

      So asking for a clarification is "Offtopic?" Sheesh.

    4. Re:Galactica is a bit better (SPOILER-Season 1) by ediron2 · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      This, mixed in with the Cylons looking like humans, feeling like humans, makes the entire of the show even more amigious
      "Amigious?" Obviously, TPA meant ambitious.

      Ambiguous? Are you sure?!

      Apologies to Drew Carey: Huh, you got crappy mods? Hey, there's a support group for that. It's called EVERYONE. They meet um (checks watch) right about NOW at The Bar.

      (gawd, I hope *someone* gets my 2nd-level joke here. Think of the definition of the intended word, folks)

  67. is it just me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is it just me or are we all forgetting something...

    TORRENT???

  68. Another good Battlestar Galactica Wiki by Zuke8675309 · · Score: 1

    http://battlestarwiki.joebeaudoin.net/index.php?ti tle=Main_Page/

    Pretty good Battlestar Galactica wiki. Very thorough.

  69. Season 2 SPOILER WARNING! or who's the Cylon? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    (whispering): Adama is a Cylon! ...

    PS: I think the Cylon meant Apollo.
    ---
    I think the Cylon meant either Zack (Apollo's brother) or Bill Adama's wife (Apollo's mother). I would expect that either would screw with a few heads.


    I'm pretty sure it's Apollo's mother. They seem to like to replace women a lot. Probably something about space aliens taking our Women.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  70. Nope, you're right, it's crap. by Colin+Smith · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The direction, camera work is excruciatingly annoying, the acting wooden, the characters cliched to the point of farce, the action is run of the mill mediocre, there's bugger all plot and the the worst of all, the dialog makes me dry boak.

    All in all, shite.

    --
    Deleted
    1. Re:Nope, you're right, it's crap. by maxpublic · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      You could try not watching. Then the show wouldn't bother you so much. Trust me, no one's going to care if you spend your time watching something else.

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    2. Re:Nope, you're right, it's crap. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, you could try letting him have his opinion. Obviously a sci-fi fan would try the show, and like me, he thought it was crap.

    3. Re:Nope, you're right, it's crap. by maxpublic · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      He had his opinion, and then I expressed mine. So what precisely is your problem here?

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
    4. Re:Nope, you're right, it's crap. by maxpublic · · Score: 1

      You know what the great thing is about always having your karma maxed out? You can piss off the moderators who slam you into oblivion because you happen to be on their 'foes' list and they just got some mod points. By reposting this:

      "He had his opinion, and then I expressed mine. So what precisely is your problem here?"

      Which I originally left at '1' (now modded at 0) at '2'. After they've run out of those points.

      Just to drive them crazy.

      Max

      --
      My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
  71. DVDs at Best Buy by stagolee · · Score: 2, Informative

    For some reason it's not too well publicized, but the Season 1 DVD should be available in about 2 weeks from Best Buy. Link to Best Buy

  72. Proof there is life after ST- DS9 etc. by infonography · · Score: 1

    NOT!

    James Callis has such an uncanny resemblance in both look and accent to DS9's Alexander Siddig, had me fooled into believing someone other then Patrick Stewart and Walter Koenig escaped with a real acting career intact. (sorry, voice work isn't acting). And before you start flaming Star Trek 'movies' are not an escape.

    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
    1. Re:Proof there is life after ST- DS9 etc. by Moofie · · Score: 1

      "sorry, voice work isn't acting"

      WTF?

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    2. Re:Proof there is life after ST- DS9 etc. by DudeTheMath · · Score: 2, Informative
      Sid has been working on the other side of the pond, including a guest spot in the second season of MI-5. Catch that series in the states on A&E.

      --
      You save only 59 seconds over 8 miles by going 75 instead of 65. Do you really have to pass that guy? Do the Math!
    3. Re:Proof there is life after ST- DS9 etc. by ak_hepcat · · Score: 3, Informative

      (sorry, voice work isn't acting)

      Uh, as an actor who has done TV, movies, and radio, let me tell you that the people who do voice-only work _well_ are definately acting.

      In fact, they're often far better than people who don't do VO work. why? because the people who do it are used to telling the entire story, and showing the entire range of the character with... get this! ... _just their voice_.

      Hard to believe, but it's true!

      Just ask some real actors...

      --
      Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
    4. Re:Proof there is life after ST- DS9 etc. by infonography · · Score: 1

      Yes, but I am not meaning it in those terms. Once you leave the Trek Universe you can never show your face again.

      --
      Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
    5. Re:Proof there is life after ST- DS9 etc. by sgant · · Score: 1

      True...but you know Shatner has made a name for himself outside of Trek now. Even won and Emmy.

      That name? Denny Crane.

      --

      "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
  73. For those of us here at the Comic-Con.. by Bo'Bob'O · · Score: 1

    It will be premieredm at 8pm in hall 6CDEF.

  74. Re:Best part by epgandalf · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Much hotter.

  75. Re:Oh boy... by KarmaMB84 · · Score: 1

    They're not tiny hentai lesbians...

  76. Re:NOT Pedantic by angrist · · Score: 1

    It's actually funny / informative, being a direct quote from the show. Jack says it several times, usually when someone threatens him with courtmarshall.

  77. It's about audience. by raehl · · Score: 1

    If your audience is mostly sci-fi nerds, and you want to put on a program targetted at them, and you want to make sure that as many of them as possible are going to be home to watch it, Friday night is definitely a good time for the show. The only time that might be better would be Saturday night. Or New Year's Eve.

    1. Re:It's about audience. by Keebler71 · · Score: 1

      You're of course forgetting Prom night and Valentine's Day.

      --
      "It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
  78. Straight to DVD? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1
    I've given up watching TV now. The advert level, except on the BBC, is too high for me to be bothered with. If they released Season 2 on DVD first I would probably buy it (and definitely rent if I didn't).

    It wouldn't be the first time. I saw Star Trek Voyager on sale on VHS before I'd even heard of it, and over a year before it hit the TV over here.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  79. Re:Best part by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Much hotter.

    totally. Boomer is sizzling.

    mind you, wouldn't kick any of them out of my rack for eating crackers ...

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  80. More Terrorist Mumbo Jumbo by ddelrio · · Score: 1


    I watched the first part of the series. The Psylons look just like humans--and they're terrorizing humanity. Get it? It's so unoriginal and disappointing it makes me want to puke. Terrorists are everywhere--even in the future. You don't know when they'll strike and you can never see them coming. If you enjoy this sort of crap, then break out the plastic sheets and duct tape, sit back, and enjoy.

    The terrorists are gonna getcha!

  81. Spoiler Warning! by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

    In order to save Adama after being shot by the perky cylon girly,
    his head is removed and kept in a jar like the cast of Star Trek in Futurama.

  82. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  83. voice work is fine it's money by infonography · · Score: 1

    but sadly they can't show their faces without everybody thinking they are seeing a Trek knockoff. Michael Dorn has done a few things, but he's mostly working voice for Cartoon Network and narrator stuff. Same for almost all of the main actors in ST-NG. They were all unknowns before Trek, unlike Stewart, Jeffrey Combs, and a few other veterans. After Trek they vanished back into obscurity. The Trek Universe is a one way ticket to oblivion.

    --
    Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
    1. Re:voice work is fine it's money by Moofie · · Score: 1

      That wasn't what I was responding to.

      How can you possibly argue that voice acting isn't acting?

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    2. Re:voice work is fine it's money by infonography · · Score: 1

      I have only one thing to say to you.

      Macbeth!

      --
      Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
  84. Disney's A Clockwork Orange by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After watching this, seeing the old show would be like watching a disney version of "A Clockwork Orange".

    Thanks a lot. Now I'm going to be stuck trying to get the image of the Seven Dwarfs giving Snow White a little of the old "in-out" out of my head.

    You, sir, should be shot!

    1. Re:Disney's A Clockwork Orange by Wubby · · Score: 1

      Oooh, that is a bad image to get stuck with... sorry.
      Yeah, I think I can see Grumpy bashing in her head with a big statue of a penis. Dopey is wearing a jockstrap... Now they are all dancing to a bit of Ludwig Van.

      Oh the horror! The unmitigated horror!

      --
      Sig
      Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars
    2. Re:Disney's A Clockwork Orange by MemoryDragon · · Score: 1

      No kidding, but there used to be a porn version of snowwhite and the seven dwarfs with disney like cartoon characters. It is still sold sometimes over here in Europe.

    3. Re:Disney's A Clockwork Orange by PriceIke · · Score: 1

      Would that be a horrorshow horror show?

      --
      It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
  85. Re:NOT Pedantic by Mercano · · Score: 1

    Also a bit of a in-joke. Jack at one point says one-L O'Neil has no sense of humor. In the original movie, James Spader was credited as playing Jack O'Neil

    --
    #include <signature.h>
  86. Re:NOT Pedantic by the+unbeliever · · Score: 1

    Okay, then.

    -1, No Context

  87. Starbuck... by Kris_B_04 · · Score: 1

    Ya know, for the longest time I had serious issues with the thought of Starbuck as a female (of course, like many females back then, had a crush on the original Starbuck, which of course moved to "Face" on the A-Team).

    But Katee Sackhoff has done an awesome job pulling it off, and now I don't miss a show.

    SCI FI Friday's have the ONLY shows on TV that I watch anymore. (Unless you count football...)

    I also really like what they did with Dr. Gaius Baltar, and how Number6 Silon has jumped into his conscious mind.. (I loved the episode where everyone else saw her too...)

    Anyway, I know what *I* am doing tonight!!! :)

    --
    Remember when Windows were washed, mice were trapped and UNIX guarded the harem?
  88. I like this series. by Captain+Scurvy · · Score: 1

    In my opinion, this is the best scifi series to come out in a very long time. The characters are rough, flawed, and real. The acting isn't terrible, and neither is the dialogue, though, I could do without hearing "frak" or whatever every other word.

    I've gotta say, though, that I don't like this timeslot at all. I can't speak for everyone, but I am not usually sitting around at home on Friday nights. I don't have any sort of recording device, so if it stays in this time slot, I won't be watching it very often.

    I guess there's always bit torrent. I'll just buy the DVD set when it comes out. Yeah, that's it.

    I like the Riga Veda UK opening theme better anyway. ;)

    1. Re:I like this series. by Kris_B_04 · · Score: 1

      I'm a Mom on weekends and a Programmer during the week... ;) The extent of my life is so exciting...

      I can't do much on Friday nights anymore, so this is perfect for me. It gives me yet another reason to look forward to the weekend!

      But I can certainly see how it would cut into one's Friday night activities.. don't they have a second showing on Sunday's though?

      --
      Remember when Windows were washed, mice were trapped and UNIX guarded the harem?
  89. Buddy....PAL by HalfOfOne · · Score: 1

    Maybe because it's not in NTSC yet?

    1. Re:Buddy....PAL by stagolee · · Score: 1

      The advert claims it has been converted to work in -most- US DVD players but does not list PAL or NTSC. But you are right to note that it's buyer beware. I'll make a point of checking for PAL/NTSC on the box.

    2. Re:Buddy....PAL by noneothername · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the issue is not the format, but the content.

      I have seen 2 different versions of some of the episodes of season 1 (including the miniseries that started it all). The most striking differences I recall had to do with profanity (using BSG terms vs standard terms) and the length of a steamier scene. Also, I believe that there are differences in the intro music etc.

      I suspect that the UK version means that it includes content which is slightly different than what was broadcast in the US.

    3. Re:Buddy....PAL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      What's funny is that Europeans always complain about American prudishness but that steamier scene was cut for the UK version but not the US version.

      Overall I liked the US version better (with it's uncut sex scene(s) and BSG profanity).

  90. Storyline by ndverdo · · Score: 1

    I think it's fairly clear where this is going and what the Cylon plan is: merge their design genome with the human one and voila - here comes the cyman.

  91. See Firefly. by jasenj1 · · Score: 1

    I think Firefly is an excellent example of recent original sci-fi. Unfortunately, it is also a text book example of TV executive cluelessness.

    Let's all pray that the upcoming Star Wars series will be well done. It has the power to blast through TV exec cluelessness. And maybe enough power to keep TV execs from messing with it too much.

    - Jasen.

  92. Re:NOT Pedantic by poopdeville · · Score: 1

    And by James Spader, you mean Kurt Russell.

    --
    After all, I am strangely colored.
  93. Reasons by BaudKarma · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't need a reason to stay home on Friday nights. I need a reason to go out on Friday nights, and there just aren't any.

    Besides, I'm this>close to getting my Tauren Druid up to level 34!

    --
    It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
    Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
  94. V miniseries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To acheive suspension of disbelief, I always just went under the assumption that those guys were selling luxury imported bottled water and imported meats. Remember, they were shipping people back as food as well, which also doesn't make any sense since no matter how advanced your technology gets, it presumably won't ever get to the point where it's cheaper or easier to move a unit of meat from one star system to another than it is to just grow a unit of meat.
    It does make sense if the products shipped back are somehow value-added for the effort it took to get them. As to where the appeal would be, maybe there's some cachet in consuming other intelligent lifeforms. Or maybe it's just because we're free range. For the water, maybe there isn't much free standing water in liquid form in the known universe. Maybe water from a body that has sat in liquid form for billions of years (evaporation and redeposition notwithstanding) is something really special and fetches a high price.

  95. Wait 2 hours... by Cyno01 · · Score: 1

    I know sci-fi shows the same block twice in a row. IDK if USA does the same think/

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  96. Terrorists Terrorism Terrorista Tourist Tale by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Terrorists are everywhere--even in the future. You don't know when they'll strike and you can never see them coming. If you enjoy this sort of crap, then break out the plastic sheets and duct tape, sit back, and enjoy.

    The terrorists are gonna getcha!


    You're REALLY going to HATE the movie Stealth then.

    Don't watch it. Close your windows. Don't think of the Gorilla in the room. Let him eat your cookies.

    Or even better, be like the head monkey we employ and attack the baby Orangutan instead of the Gorilla.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  97. Am hoping for HD as well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I get SciFi, but I'm going to skip watching it and hope for an HD torrent to show up somewhere after it airs.

    If movies get screeneres released where is the equivilent for TV shows? They have to work on the HD version as the primary source material instead of low-def TV...

    Hey Sci-Fi! Sell the HD episodes online at $5 a pop! I'll be there! Unless you don't support the Mac in which case I'll send you a really foul email and just keep pirating the show.

  98. On the use of Frak or lack thereof by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    The acting isn't terrible, and neither is the dialogue, though, I could do without hearing "frak" or whatever every other word.

    Actually, one thing that puzzles is me, is - when is Starbuck going to just explode and go Frak Frak Frak double stuffed Frak and so on for half a minute?

    She's WAY too much in control. Way too much.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:On the use of Frak or lack thereof by Kris_B_04 · · Score: 1

      It may yet be so!!! :)

      --
      Remember when Windows were washed, mice were trapped and UNIX guarded the harem?
  99. Probably.. by Cyno01 · · Score: 1

    The scientists that created them in the first place. I can see humanity being pretty pissed off at the cylons creators. Much like what happened to the Borgs creators on Star Trek (i think voyager got to that), or the Replicators on SG1.

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  100. Dark and Gloomy by ChaoticCoyote · · Score: 1

    The original series was campy -- and well, downright stupid at times. But at least Lorne Greene, Dirk Benedict, and company had a sense of humor.

    I just watched the entire first season of the "new" Galactica, and probably won't watch the premeire tonight. *Everyone* in the series is carrying more angst than a yearful of soap operas. They're all dying, or question themselves, or fighting with friends and family, or trying to figure out if they're human... heck, the only happy person is the slutty Cylon! Not that there's anything wrong with hot Cylon babes or cute Korean chicks... ;)

    Now, I don't expect sweetness and light; heck, my favorite science fiction series are Farscape, Firefly, and Babylon 5, all of which had plenty of angst and drama and "bad things." But those series had hope and humor. Battlestar Galactica seems to be one big depression fest, and that just doesn't interest me.

    Your mileage may vary, of course.

    1. Re:Dark and Gloomy by MrMagooAZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Of course it's dark and gloomy. For me, that's part of what makes it so great. It's REALISTIC in that reguard.

      In the show timeline they are only something like a month out from the END OF THE WORLD as they knew it. Try and put yourselves in their shoes. How much fun are you going to be having if your entire world has been destroyed, billions of people killed, and you're running for your very life from beings bent on destroying you?

      This is serious TV. I was left mentally exhausted by many eposides last season. They dealt with so many issues that have relevance to many topics in present day life.

      BSG is the best thing on TV, period.

    2. Re:Dark and Gloomy by ChaoticCoyote · · Score: 1

      This is serious TV. I was left mentally exhausted by many eposides last season. They dealt with so many issues that have relevance to many topics in present day life.

      I prefer to become "mentally exhausted" by addressing real issues that affect real people. I don't see the point in getting all worked up over the trials and travails of fictional people.

    3. Re:Dark and Gloomy by MrMagooAZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wow. I'm not even sure how to respond to that. If the world thought as you do, there would be no literature...no television...no fables...no dreams...nothing of any real value.

      There is a quote that goes something like 'the only thing new in this world is the history you don't know'...I think it's from Harry Truman.

      That can be exteneded to fiction. It gives us the opportunity to think 'what if' about a number of scenarios. You get to try things out, see an example of how people might react, see how it might play out. In the case where it applies to a real world scenario, you may have already seen the effects of what not to do, and take a different path.

      It's entertainment and it's educational all in one shot. How cool is that?

    4. Re:Dark and Gloomy by ChaoticCoyote · · Score: 1

      The first sentence above is a quote from the message I'm replying to. I forgot to make that clear.

    5. Re:Dark and Gloomy by ChaoticCoyote · · Score: 1

      You misinterpret my meaning.

      I've a house containing thousands of real books, hundreds of TV episodes and movies, and enough music to fill a 200GB drive... and as a professional writer myself, I'm well aware of how important issues can be effectively treated in creative form. Star Trek (at least in its early forms) is an excellent example of entertainment also bringing about social change.

      That said, I have seen little evidence that something like Galactica is going to make many people suddenly become active in real world issues. I suspect most people watch the show because of the sexy people and exciting action. Do you think Galactica will inspire a generation of new rocket scientists or get people involved in social issues? I don't.

      I already work on a number of social and political problems; I'm very much aware of the problems in modern society. And perhaps working in those has lead me to seek escapism in my entertainment. I get bludgeoned all day about "issues"; when I lay back in my recliner, I want to relax and see hope.

      Consider the people who accomplish great things, and then ask yourself if they spend a lot of time looking for inspiration in space operas.

    6. Re:Dark and Gloomy by eboot · · Score: 1

      Hmmm that attitude to culture is very narrow, I mean before television people saw plays, films, read books and listened to music in order to relax. Just think how many great works of culture would have been lost if people thought in the same way you do. There is always a place in culture for switching youre brain off and setting youre emotional response to minimal but to deride a series for not doing so just because it doesnt appeal to you is...boorish. Of course the best entertainment is that which works humour into dark themes (see Shakespeare amongst many others). But as a professional writer you knew that, right?

      --
      Two tears in a bucket. Motherfuck it.
    7. Re:Dark and Gloomy by ChaoticCoyote · · Score: 1

      Boorish? I state that I'm not all that fond of the show, but also declare that it's okay if other people's mileage may vary. Are you saying that anyone who does not share your tastes is wrong?

      I couldn't care less if you like watching the show; please grant similar courtesy to those of use who do not care for it.

    8. Re:Dark and Gloomy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=boor

      You fit the bill. (clumsy manners)

      In fact, so do I.

    9. Re:Dark and Gloomy by eboot · · Score: 1

      Two things really, firstly 'Your mileage may vary, of course.' is an arrogant statement to make, youre hardly saying I respect youre reasons for liking this show, its more like saying (excuse me for being boorish here) 'You're mother is a whore but some people may enjoy her.' Secondly I also don't care whether or not you like the show, what I care about is your derision of the show based on it's darker themes. I just wanted to point out that by saying 'Man, this show bums me out, how can you watch it?' you sound like a moron.

      --
      Two tears in a bucket. Motherfuck it.
  101. The MP3 and Video Blog are already online! by Mike+McCune · · Score: 1
    The Ron Moores's MP3 of the PodCast are already online:

    Battlestar Galactica PodCast

    As well as David Eick's Video Blog:


    David Eick's Video Blog

    I'll listen to them later so I don't ruin the seaswon opener tonight!

    --

    In a world that is Free and Open, who needs Windows and Gates?

  102. Check your assumptions. by tragedy · · Score: 1

    Before you jump to conclusions about something like this, you should check your assumptions. Your biggest assumption is about how BGs hyperspace jumping works. You are assuming that they can jump in anywhere they want at any vector they choose. There is no reason to believe that is the case. There may very well be restrictions on where they can jump into a solar system and their direction/speed when they get there. Maybe it's a tradeoff where they could jump wherever they want, but it would cost a huge amount of fuel, whereas it might be easier to jump in near a massive object like a planet. Or who knows how the rules would work.
    I think you're also assuming that their ships sensor equipment is better than it may be. I'm sure it's more advanced than what we have now, but it looks like they still rely on plain old optical and radio telescope style equipment. They don't seem to have star trek style sensor equipment that can see things happening _now_ light-years away, for example. So, figuring out what you're going to actually be near when you drop into another system seems like it would be pretty hard. Locating a single comet in our own star system is hard enough. Finding one orbiting a nearby star and figuring out what its current orbit will be in a matter of a few days is a feat well beyond us today. Even with much more advanced equipment, it would still be tremendously difficult to spot a comet in a short time frame. Especially when you consider the fact that, at the start of all this they were about to turn the Galactica into a museum, I'm guessing that the military probably had a lot of excellent astronomers and the like, but probably lost most of them to the private sector. So a lot of the surveying is probably being done by people who learned the details as part of their training, but haven't exactly been doing it on a day to day basis.
    So, I'm thinking that their choices are pretty much limited to dropping in near large planetary bodies, and searching for what they can in narrow, directed ways, not with some supreme omnidirectional scan like in star trek. Like others have pointed out, they would probably have to pass over various water sources as being too hard to refine for whatever reason, such as being in too deep a gravity well, or being too contaminated. I do remember them talking about how good their water reclamation system was in that same episode, however, but I'm sure it has its limits. They don't call comets "dirty snowballs" for nothing. So, overall, it's not that hard to believe it could be a challenge to find enough water in short order.

    1. Re:Check your assumptions. by Rei · · Score: 1

      Their sensor systems were able to scan (as far as they could tell, conclusively) for large amounts of water (i.e., what's on almost all of our outer moons, and what should be similar in almost every star system) without being in the star system. They dispatched small craft to look for small deposits of water; they didn't have to be in orbit around the planet even to detect the small amounts of water; they just simply had to be in the star system, and "reasonably close", judging from how the episode went.

      Those are some *dang good* sensors ;)

      They probably had to pass over various water sources

      The vast majority of ice in the universe is a lot cleaner than what we have on Earth, and much of it would be very easy to refine (it's often dry-pack snow like on the surface, sort of an ice-regolith)

      --
      "/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit is a gimp plugin and must be run by the gimp in order to be used."
  103. Re:Best part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bullshit. Cylon-ness notwithstanding, Boomer is a nonthreatening, low-maintenance bland girl-next-door type, making her instantly attractive to the typical Slashdotter.

    Starbuck, by contrast, is a gorgeous, tempestuous Ferarri of a woman - the kind of woman unavailable to you slouching beta males.

  104. A Note to the "I HATE BSG" Crowd... by MrMagooAZ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Many of the more thoughtful notes that come under the heading of 'I hate BSG because...' seem to revolve around issues of not understanding certain basic concepts that were laid out in the mini-series. THE MINI-SERIES IS REQUIRED VIEWING! If you're willing to give it another shot, check out the mini-series on DVD first. It explains a lot of things. Also know that this is really complex TV. Some episodes leave me mentally exhasting when I think of the things they are talking about and how they relate to today's world. If you are looking to be spoon-fed, you might want to go elsewhere.

    1. Re:A Note to the "I HATE BSG" Crowd... by WaKall · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up as Informative. The mini-series is only 3 hours or so, but it lays the groundwork and concepts that the rest of the series is based on. Without seeing it, you're not going to understand a lot of things and their subtleties will be lost on you.

  105. Background props by Nonillion · · Score: 1

    When I watched Battlestar Galactica when it was first aired I immediately recognized all the test equipment they had set up as ship controls and monitoring stations. Now if THAT is not geek enough I don't know what is.

    --
    "I bow to no man" - Riddick
  106. Space flight for real by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    "I also love the realism of the attack ships (raptors) as they fly. So many shows make ships in space behave as if they're flying through an atmosphere."

    Yah, which is why we never see banking turns in BSG. (Or B5.) /SARCASM

    While I've been impressed by the fact that they sometimes follow Newton's Laws of Motion in B5 and BSG, they also love to make things "look cool", so you get the banking turns and such.

    Real spaceflight is radically different then in-air flight or on-ground driving. The biggest deal is that if you accelerate continuously with a big main engine, then half-way there, you have to flip around and decelerate with the same big main engine. So you always approach your destination backwards. But that looks "weird" to all us flatlanders, so you never see it on TV or in movies.

    BTW: The fighers are "Vipers". "Raptors" are the larger, multi-person utility ships.

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
    1. Re:Space flight for real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      B5 starfuries never did banked turns. In fact, I don't remember human ships ever making a banked turn in the entire series. The other races and hybrids had magic drives, presumeably they worked by the principle of "looking impressive"

  107. strange time syntax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whats with this wierdo x/yC system of telling time??

  108. Re: tuning in on bittorrent by L0k11 · · Score: 1
    option a) wait 8 months for australian TV to pick up BSG2 and show it at 10:30pm at on a weeknight

    option b) bittorrent

    option c) pay reasonable price to download episode

    since option a sucks (i need sleep *sometimes*), and option c doesn't seem to exist...

    --
    "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" -- Josef Stalin
  109. MOD PARENT UP YOU IGNORANT FOOLS by dcmeserve · · Score: 1
    And Rei's other posts on the subject too.

    You'd expect slashdotters to be better informed on matters of science than this!

    --
    "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" - Orwell
  110. Same here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I waited the three hours. Once the signing was done, the show picked up where it left off.

    Your mom was mean!

  111. Re:Podcast commentary == MP3 by Wheat · · Score: 2, Informative

    Podcast != MP3

    Podcast == Audio(mp3 or aac or ogg) + XML (RSS)

    The difference being that the podcast was automatically downloaded and synced to my iPod when I put it in the cradle last night.

  112. Water by dcmeserve · · Score: 1
    Sorry, but parent post doesn't deserve a 5 on this.

    So, sure, water in some form is abundant in space/planets, etc.

    Yes, ice, for one. LOTS of it. See Rei's post later on the specifics for our system.

    Remember, in the episode, they found the water they were looking for on the surface of a planet/moon with virtually no atmosphere -- and that means ice. And, from the look of it, it's just a little patch in an isolated spot on the surface. Whereas, in our own system, virtually all of the moons of the large, outer planets are covered with layers of ice tens of miles thick at least.

    But they need water "now"

    They had time to search multiple star systems, all of which had planets. Their odds of not finding more water than they could ever mine would be astronomically low.

    So now you're on a search for potable water...

    Now this would make sense, except that, if I remember correctly, there are multiple occasions where characters describe the planets as "dry". i.e. they make it pretty clear that they're going to be able to make use of whatever water they can find, and their problem is that there is no water at all. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that.

    So yeah, it would have made a lot more sense if the characters went into how they needed to find very pure water; say, if the Galactica's purifiers were not designed to process that much all at once. And then at the end, when the "find" was made, if the graphic showed something like "purity levels at 98 percent blah blah...". I don't think that would have complicated the plot any.

    But the writers apprently didn't think of that. Too bad.

    --
    "Orthodoxy is unconsciousness" - Orwell
  113. Mods on Crack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm a BSG fan, but WTF is this moderated "Troll". Everything he's saying is reasonable, even if it doesn't put me off the show.

  114. Not even science fiction by macraig · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not: it's science fantasy. The script is awash with mystical references that make me wanna puke. They might as well have reanimated C.S. Lewis and put him to work in a darkened back room writing script for it, and I don't care for the result any more than I did Lewis' books when I was a kid.

    Network TV will probably never have anything resembling SF ever again, but if this is the flagship that the Sci Fi Channel has to offer, I'll do without television altogether, thank-you-very-much.

  115. Why do they always screw with the opening music? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am tired of this, if your series is working and making it big, don't change things!!

    Damn it!

    Why did they have to screw with the opening song/music??? WHY???

    They did the same thing on enterprise, they ruined that show and the opening song, now it's gone.

    And now they screwed up stargate (both) starting song/music.

    DAMN IT! LEAVE IT ALONE! WTF? If it works, leave it alone!

    Anyone else pissed or am I the only one?

  116. Uh, moderators? by Kethinov · · Score: 1
    Kinda like what "Enterprise" was to "Star Trek".
    Yeah, except Dr. Who doesn't suck.
    Hey, moderators, try to remember that Moderation != Popular Opinion. That comment was completely baseless. Not +5 insightful.
    --
    You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
  117. protoss by Baddas · · Score: 1

    I hate the angry drums! hate them! damn you.

  118. Babylon 5 Starfury turns by DragonHawk · · Score: 1

    "B5 starfuries never did banked turns."

    I'm afraid they did. They often did show them working as a true reaction drive would, flipping over and counter-thrusting to reverse course, and I was suitibly impressed by the authenticity when I first saw that. But they also did the whole "swooping" thing to make it look cool on occasion. Usually when flying "around" the station. I can dig out my DVD's and give you an episode and time reference if you like.

    I don't ding them for this; it's TV, after all, and looking impressive counts for a lot. But I also don't hold any illusions that it's a scientific model, either. :-)

    --

    dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
    I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
  119. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion