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New Battlestar Galactica Spin-off Series Announced
An anonymous reader writes "The Sci-Fi Channel's hit series Battlestar Galactica may soon be joined by a 50-year-prior prequel series, called Caprica. To be co-exec produced by Ron Moore and David Eick, the new series will follow the tale of the creation of the Cylons."
I hope the "Nothing for you to see here" message isn't a premonition for the quality of the show...
I'd turn up. More power to ya, Ron.
BG has gone from strength to strength. Who'd have thought it, for a remake of such a camp piece o'crap. I went in with EXCEEDINGLY low expectations. Maybe that's the secret.
Anyway, Ron can tell a story. I'll be there.
I am a leaf on the wind
I for one welcome our new Cylon Overlords.
The original series started back in 1954 and was called Paprika.
http://religiousfreaks.com/So how long till they introduce klingons and upset people. Will fred flinston travel in time and end up there?
Will people curse the lame theme song, and then demand the series be saved later on?
And most importantly, who will be introduced as the newest Sci Fi hot chick.
At any rate, maybe this will be good, cause there is a lot to be explained
Don't we write stories from the beginning anymore?
What?
I'm not interested in a series whose name is an anagram of "I C A CRAP!"
I just really hope that this doesn't hurt the quality of BSG by spreading writing/producing talent as well as budgets too thin. I mean, I think Stargate might be suffering from that right now, having two complete series to do.
I also think that having a prequel could hurt a bit, because I feel like a strength of BSG is its unpredictability. I mean, it changes so much (season finale anyone?) that I feel that knowing the ending (Cylons created, rebel, we fight to a draw, Galactica survives to the present day, none of the Colonies get totally destroyed, etc) kind of hurts it.
...does anyone else think it might be a tad too early to start doing the prequels?
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
You know adama wont die but thats about it.
Also regarding the prequel issue, lots of movies come about
world war II and are quite good despite people knowing
how world war II turned out they still seem to have good plots.
OMG! Am I the only one that is excited about this?
It's great news! I'm sure it's going to be awesome.
Boomer loves Chachi
Col. Tigh's Place
Laverne and Dualla
Caprica City 90210
A Different World
Law and Order: Special Cylon Unit
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I was hoping it would be ADAMA: The College Years.
Maybe in one episode, Adama has the sorority girls from Caprica Caprica Caprica over for a game of Strip Pyramid.
Will this one also feature the "edgy", trendy, subtly shaky camera work designed to give that "gritty, real-world" feel? Sheesh, it's overdone and hackneyed already. I think there's even software now that can take perfectly-filmed stuff and shakify it "for artistic effect".
This is just going to be like that series called 'Odyssey 5'. Where there were humans trying to create AI and a group of people were trying to stop them. That was a friggin good show, I have no idea why they friggin cancelled it. Maybe Caprica will follow in their footsteps too...
So, after finally getting around to watching "Tooth and Claw" (Doctor Who 28x2), I am reminded of Gregg Easterbrook's discussion of (someone's, I forget whose) theory of the sci-fi "idiot plot," a plot which can only carry on forward motion if everyone involved is an idiot. BSG has been full of them, especially of late, with fantastic "should we ask him if he still has that bomb we know was ours yet is the only one unaccounted for? Naaaaaah."-related activities.
Why do I mention Doctor Who? Because it, quite simply, is not that. Star Trek (at least TNG) likewise rarely ran into this problem, so it's not just an american thing. But why do we buy into these plots? They're ridiculous on their face, yet we keep watching more sci-fi full of them. Are we that impressed by apocalyptic stories and high technology that we ignore the whole reason we're watching the show?
I just don't get it.
I'm not interested in a series whose name is an anagram of "I C A CRAP!"
That may be a valid point, but I can't trust any comments by One Butch Orgy.
If it's anything like the "re-imagining" of this show, count me out. No idea why so many people fall for this show. The new BG is below par in just about every aspect of production. Bad casting choices, terrible acting, cheesy sets, barely acceptable lighting, herky-jerky camera work, exceedingly shallow politically correct plotlines and characters, not to mention the barely concealed pro-USA anti-terrorism propaganda agenda in the writing. The only thing this show has going for it is some nice CG effects, but those are usually cut together in such an amatuer, MTV-style fashion that the viewer never really gets a chance to become immersed in any of the shots. Sometimes episodes have no space battles or spaceflight of any kind, and the show devolves into nothing more than a soap opera on the bridge of a spaceship. If the original plan to do a continuation of the original series created by Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto had gone forward, the show, and subsequent spin-offs probably would have been very watchable and entertaining. As it is now, the show has no soul, because it's nothing more than a hijack of someone else's great concept.
There are only twelve types of BG spinoffs.
What is it with Hollywood's fascination with prequels anyway?
First there was Star Wars with Eps I-III, then there was Star Trek with Enterprise and the new proposed movie on when Kirk/Spock were in the Academy. And, now this.
I feel doing prequels is a bad idea and will never produce great entertainment.
There are three main reasons:
(1) Future is Known: Since the audience already knows what will happen to the characters in the future based on earlier movies, there is never that subconscious element of suprise. For example, no matter how much the main characters are in jeopardy, we know they will survive to justify their existence later in history. Writers basically paint themselves in a corner since they are bounded by the events that are supposed to come later.
(2) Risk to Established Canon: Sometimes the writers try to inject novelty by doing things that meses up the canon. They introduce things that no longer justifies what was established in the earlier movies. This leaves a bad taste in the audience's mouth because it invalidates everything they have come to believe. For example, the appearance of Borg on Star Trek Enterprise before the time of Kirk.
(3) Anachronistic Special Effects: Since prequels get made with special-effects technology that has evolved much beyond when the earlier movies were made, we end up seeing special effects and the general look of the movie not being in line with what we would expect how things would look in the past. For example, some of the consoles and user interface screens used by the cast in Star Trek Enterprise looked more advanced than the ones on Star Trek : DS9. This anachronistic anomaly again leaves a bad taste in the audience's mouths.
I feel Hollywood should abandon this fad of making prequels and just start making more novel sequels where what they can do is only limited by a good writer's imagination.
Yeah, sorry about that, forgot a spoiler warning.
With this development, we know "the guys with the money" are willing to invest in interesting SCIFI shows. Imagine if these guys, who pulled battlestar from what the original was to its current version, did some remakes or updates of other series that were simply not done right. SeaQuest anybody?
Bad idea! Distracting the writing talent from one show is not a good thing, plus prequels never work out well. If they have different talent, that may be just as bad.
The article is rather scant on details, but includes this information:
I have mixed feelings about this spin-off. On the one hand, I have become more or less addicted to Battlestar Galactica and want something to tide me over until the third season starts. On the other hand, the plot of Caprica, as presented in this write-up, strikes me as cheesy. Is this a family feud? With billions of people in the twelve colonies, why does the Adama family need a central role in the new show? (Isn't one series enough? Was there a pre-William Adama back story in the original show or in Hatch's books? Being a BSG fan of only recent vintage, I don't know. This just reminds me of the 130-year McFly-Tannen conflict in Back to the Future.)
Battlestar Galactica is a riveting show. Hopefully its creators will achieve similar success with Caprica.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
So, I called the Child Exploitation Section of the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit and spoke to Det. Ian Lamond, who was familiar with the Times article. He claims they were misquoted, or if that figure was given it was done so jokingly. Of course, even if the figure was given jokingly, shouldn't the Times reporter have clarified something that seems rather odd? Shouldn't her editors have questioned her sources?
Nevertheless, Det. Lamond does confirm that a majority of those arrested show "at least a passing interest in Star Trek, if not a strong interest." They've arrested well over one hundred people over the past four years and they can gauge this interest in Star Trek by the arrestees' "paraphenalia, books, videotapes and DVDs." I asked Det. Lamond if this wasn't simply a general interest in science fiction and fantasy, such as Star Wars or Harry Potter or similar. Paraphrasing his answer, he said, while there was sometimes other science fiction and fantasy paraphenalia, Star Trek was the most consistent and when he referred to a majority of the arrestees being Star Trek fans, it was Star Trek-specific.
I keep forgetting Starbuck's a female, now.
I wonder if this will finally make my props from the original series go up in value...
What about Dumb and Dumber...er....nevermind.
Maybe so - but if we find out that Dr. Zee and the superior Cylons from Galactic 1980 are fighting a temporal cold war, I'm outta here. Aw hell, that'd even bring the original BSG and the Moore version into the same "continuity"...
I hear that Berman & Braga are looking for jobs now, after all, and Moore worked with Berman on DS9... [Shudder]
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
(3) Anachronistic Special Effects: Since prequels get made with special-effects technology that has evolved much beyond when the earlier movies were made, we end up seeing special effects and the general look of the movie not being in line with what we would expect how things would look in the past.
Anachronistic SPECIAL Effects? How about Anachronistic REALITY? Or are you still operating your PC with toggle switches?
paintball
I'm most excited about meeting the first Cylon. In the series, the Cylons a sophisticated belief structure and a strange confidence in those beliefs (although we know they sometimes change their minds). We get to see a little of how Cylon society is structured in the second season, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. How did an artificial intelligence creat a monotheistic belief system? How did it come to believe anything at all? Why do Cylons believe they're God's chosen species?
In the director's commentary for the first-season episode "You Can't Go Home Again," Moore and Eick say that they think the key to a great BG episode is to give away secrets. There's a lot of secrets left.
This could be really, really bad.
I'm picturing families having dinner with cylon servants....
This could easily ruin the other series for me...
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
This could have been a fabulous show but what poisons it for me, no pun , etc., is the damned tobacco promotion. Come on now, these people have never been to Earth, yet somehow the accursed Sir Walter Raleigh has travelled through time and space to bring them the same cretinous habit that is killing millions of addicts here and now? It breaks my heart that I can't enjoy this show as the overall quality is otherwise stunning but pushing that stuff is pure evil. Maybe the Cylons really are better than us. Do they smoke? I don't remember, but I don't think they sell each other out.
Son? Why aren't you in your room with a woman?
Also in the works are a miniseries based on the book "Chariots of the Gods"
Oh, Puh-LEEZE!
I was a gullible little tweener dweeb when Chariots of the Gods? was a hot paperback. It didn't take long to see that it was a crock.
Now, it's an old crock. (Heck, the idea was getting kind of corny when the first Battlestar Galactica series cribbed from it for their background.) There are tons of SF books that Sci-Fi could be adapting that would have better name recognition.
Hey Richard! It's great to see you posting but you really should get an account.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Um, there's family drama like mad in BSG. Some key episodes SPOILERS AHEAD
Act of Contrition (Starbuck and Cmdr Adama about Zack)
You Can't Go Home Again
Kobol's Last Gleaming (the boxing match, and Lee's "betrayal")
The Farm (Lee can't denounce his dad)
Home (the Adamas coming to terms with each other)
I mean, between Lee and Commander Adama, there's huge tension (the boxing in KLG), and Starbuck and Commander Adama and Zack have that whole thing going. I mean, there's a lot of family-based drama in the original.
On the way I passed my boss, who had overheard the request. He gave me a nod, and directed me to Humor, where he'd shelved the von Daniken books. I do recall someone once complaining about the von Daniken's being in that section, Les's comment was we were a science library and they'd be shelved there or nowhere.
I really wish the Scifi Channel would stop with the psuedoscience-as-science bs, talking-from-the-dead scam, and big-bug-o-the-week movies, and get on with telling some really good SF: Strong stories with powerful ideas. Stargate et al is nice light comedy in the SF genre, but von Daniken presented as legitimate, well, give me a snarky G'aould any day.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
god damn it sounds stupid as hell. How about instead we get a BSG movie or an EXTRA 3 epidsode Mini during the off season. That would be awesome.
"... back when it was called Enterprise"
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
Not exactly. Counting the (older) main characters out (Adama, Tigh, etc), there isn't really much to prevent the creators from simply saying, 'oh well X character managed to survive the Cylon attack and then simply hid underground until the end of season 2/beginning of season 3.' We already know there were resistance groups and you can simply caulk the 'well why didn't they re-establish contact with Adama earilier' question to poor communications and poor transporation.
(2) Risk to Established Canon
Again, theres already insanely huge gaps in terms of the series's backstory. Are there anymore hidden ammo dumps like the Ragnar Anchorage (from the mini-series), the Battlestar's history/how many were built (its hinted that there were initially over 100 prior to the outbreak of fighting), how/when did Gaius Baltar's become compromised (given the Cylon ability to age, he could've been compromised as a child for all we know), the list goes on.
(3) Anachronistic Special Effects
This is a can of worms. They could 'remain true' to the main series and keep everything low-tech, OR they could use the 'well the only reason why you didn't see things like cell phones was because the Galactica was so old and was supposed to be decommissioned that it was simply never stocked with them. OR when the fighting broke out they were simply scrapped/destroyed for parts/to make sure the Cylons didn't hack into them.'
Even if you don't nitpick, theres a ton of unanswered questions in the series ranging from the technical (if humans inititally created Cylons, how come they're so much more advanced in terms of tech?) to the basic ('technically' humans and Cylons were still at war prior to the entire series, why the hell wasn't the government acting its usual paranoid self and building nuclear bunkers everywhere like the U.S. did in the '50s?)
This is great news for science fiction fans everywhere and if it hasn't been said the approach to Battlestar Galactica this time (comparing with the 70s) fits well with this time's (era) viewing audiences preferences; generational one might say and definitely very watch-able.
.t.
Wonder what the slant on the new Battlestar Galactica will be in 2050? and after that... That makes me wonder what Slashdot will be like in 2050 too?
Nice to hear about new and fresh connect, TV wise at least, on the horizon while old (or current) content remains entertaining.
Cheers
Isn't it ironic that there's a Von Daniken-inspired series being announced at the same time as the new-school BSG prequel? Old-school BSG, circa 1978, was heavily influenced by Von Daniken....
I actually read something in a magazine a few months ago, and basically the reason Sci-Fi does the monster of the week movies is because they're so low budget but still bring in advertising. They cost under a million dollars a piece to make, and they run them a few times and probably break even pretty fast. I guess that's basically the bread and butter of Sci-Fi, it's version of "reality TV".
..."Battlestar Pegasus". Basically a way to leapfrog back and forth and continue the story at a faster pace (or, they could split the ships up from time to time). But this might be interesting.
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
von Daniken presented as legitimate, well, give me a snarky G'aould any day.
They might not present it as legitimate science. Fictional mysteries tied in with objects and places that are real, or have been thought to be real at some point might work very well.
The Da Vinci Code was a huge success - They may well be going for something similar.
Even if the show is good, it will cheapen the works ROn Moore et al have done. The series works because it is well written, with great actors playing characters that act and react believably in the context of their situation, and the storyline is tightly woven with little distracton from that story. The series works because it has been distilled down to its core, no scene is wasted, no character redundant, and except for two episodes, no episode extraneous to the greater story. Any new series will only serve to distract and dilute the original show's strengths. Less is more when it comes to storytelling. Starwars eps 1-3 and Star Trek:yourseriesormovienamehere has proven that out.
--My signature is six words long.--
...i thought it said Crapica. Then i was like "woah!". I guess if its a spin-off i cant be too far-off from my initial interpretation. Good call i suppose...
Bring on the movies that, like the movie AI, addresses the situation that worlds get into when they create AI's (for better and for worse). After all, we Will be getting close to reverse engineering our own brains in the next 2 decades...
No. Only JMS can actually write sci-fi, others just think they can. JMS is God.
It's not like we don't already get enough Mormon propaganda.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
As "Battlestar Galactica" is about a lot more than space battles, "Caprica" will be as much family drama as sci-fi tale.
It is just me, or isn't there enough family drama on TV? Why can't we have more Space Battles??? I mean with quad dual cores for less than the cost of a compact car and the effects shipping as presets in most 3D packages, why not a space battle every show? At least 50/50?
Hmm, maybe a Spacebattles.com channel?
I hope that's not a pseudonym for David Icke! Of course the Cylons in human form would be lizards not robots, but the principle's the same
Oh and whats with all the frack frackin motherfracker and other variations of frack used to distraction in series 2? Don't recall it being so overused in series 1.. its getting ridiculous.. couldn't they dream up a few more substitute expletives?
I don't know if the prequel will work.
Especially when Boxem Babes like this weren't created 50 years prior to Caprica and Earth were infiltrated!
Yeah, really. The original BSG is absolutely godawful, I wish the whole GINO movement would quietly disappear in a puff of common sense.
Genesis?
.. a sequel to the book of Revelations?) best left alone.
Genesis allowed is not! is sequel forbidden!
Genesis II was one sequel (of Roddenberry's
as good a the recent BG was, I thought a fair cast led by acting heavyweights who carried and lent emotional depth to what were otherwise translucent scripts.
The "other walking masked among us" is yet another rehash of playing to the the paranoia of this age of eternal war we live in now.. HUAC, Zombies, "the invaders", anyone?
Joe Haldeman, where are you?
I'd be happy if BG can sustain it, but with some more challenging scripts than I suspect network execs will allow.
Facebook is a woodpecker tapping on the skull of Humanity, Forever.
Oh man, this would be cool! Can they have a young Adama character? All they have to do is put a moustache on him like it was a flashback!
She's really hot.
I have never been able to bring myself to watch a single BSG episode. Aside from SG-1 modern dramatic sci-fi shows make me roll my eyes in disgust. I have no idea what a Caprica is, but I immediately thought of a combination of capsaicin (the spicy chemical compound found in chile peppers) and of course paprika (your mom's favorite chile pepper seasoning). This show sounds delicious! *sigh* Another hardcore fan only space ship drama. I'll eat later.
-tyfighter
Thinking back to the miniseries, the schematic the guy in the space station had for the cylons were the centurions we knew from the 1978 series.
Does this mean the new series will have to go back to men in suits to maintain that canon? Or will there be new CGI-tastic cylons that are supposedly created for more mundane tasks that humans origonally used them for?
i.e. this show will be set before the cylons split off and created the centurions?
"The weirdest thing about a mind, is that every answer that you find, is the basis of a brand new cliche" -
To say "that damned president" couldn't act before 2005 is to say that Sneakers is not in every way a perfect movie!
Isn't that forbidden under the Slashdot ToS or something?
Who cares about BSG when we've got Doctor Who?
http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
That's the book you're looking for. And I can't recommend it strongly enough. It's brilliant!
They destroyed the PREMISE of firestarter, and they did it with battlestar! The role of starbuck was BUILT for dirk benedict! And they STILL have a WOMAN playing his part! And the cylons were built by ALIENS! Caprica did NOT build them. The VERY FIRST episode of battlestar said that! So that channel plans to build a WHOLE SERIES on a LIE, etc...
It makes me doubt the documentaries even MORE than I did! Are THEY intentionally flawed for no reason ALSO? It is bad enough that biases, egos, and motives taint them. Are we now to doubt them even if no reason exists?
Steve
"Bad casting choices, terrible acting,"
Terrible acting?! Bad casting choices?! Are you kidding or just being a mindless troll? This is one of the best elements of the show, bar none.
"cheesy sets,"
I hope you're not an Star Trek fan...
"barely acceptable lighting, "
"herky-jerky camera work, "
The camera work -- with its sudden pans and zooms -- tries to be realistic and convey the feeling of iminent attack. It feels just as the nervous cameras depicting the attack and fall of the Two Towers... It was a novelty back then and is still a very powerful instrument of dramatization...
"exceedingly shallow politically correct plotlines and characters,"
politically correct?! gimme i break, will ya! Boomer and cast are all but politically correct. Adama lies to the tripulation. There is a scientist with a moral dillema. There are alcoohol adicts... gimme a break!
"not to mention the barely concealed pro-USA anti-terrorism propaganda agenda in the writing."
while i agree the show depicts this "anti-terrorism propaganda agenda", i don't believe it's a weakness. In fact, it's one of its strong points.
In conclusion, i believe you're just trolling against what is one of the best shows -- SciFi or not -- to ever grace TV. If i had any moderation points left, your Insightful +5 would be history...
"If the original plan to do a continuation of the original series created by Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto [battlestargalactica.com] had gone forward, the show, and subsequent spin-offs probably would have been very watchable and entertaining."
yeah, Cylons would be mutants in a soap opera setting... gimme a break!
I don't feel like it...
I'm so mad I'm gonna shout 'ad-hominem' any moment now..even though I don't know what it means.
/. often benefit from an opposite perspective, even those of trolls.
Opinion stated as fact, and yet the spelling and grammar are fine - it suggests trolling to me rather than a sincere controversial opinion. I like the casting choice, the great acting, the very good sets, the atmospheric lighting..my g/f likes it and we both agree that BSG goes where plenty of sci-fi shows won't go, and it goes there with style: abortion, genetic engineering, torture, rape - all themes BSG has handled extraordinarily well and yet at no point did I ever feel it was a slave to those same issues.
If you really think the only thing that makes sci-fi good is battles in space, and there is no room for character development & continuity - features of the soap opera genre - then your opinion is worthless to me really. And yet I bit, twas an effective troll and discussions on
I really wish the Scifi Channel would stop with the psuedoscience-as-science bs, talking-from-the-dead scam, and big-bug-o-the-week movies, and get on with telling some really good SF
If they're gonna re-make stuff anyway, how about:
X-Minus-One: the TV Series
Just re-do the old radio series for TV, it was based on stories by top-drawer genuine science fiction writers: Bradbury, Heinlein, Pohl, Leiber, Dickson, etc.
YES!
okay.. I am a big fan...
-if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
From the brief comment in the article about Chariots of the Gods, I think they might actually base it a lot on The Day the Gods Died. It's an obscure book that I was lucky enough to stumble across about 20 years go; it was written by Walter Ernsting -- a German SF author who was a big follower of Von Daniken.
The Day the Gods Died was about Ernsting's supposed encounter with aliens during WW2, and his attempts to track them down again after the war (using correspondence with Van Daniken as a guide!). It's written from a non-fiction "I was there" point of view, with the quaint old excuse that "I had to submit this to the publisher as fiction because nobody is ready to believe these things are real".
At the same time, it's a great adventure story with everything but the kitchen sink: an alien base on a mountaintop in the Swiss Alps (guarded by a yeti, no less!), an alien laser pistol that somebody accidentally dropped down a well (putting it just out of reach from investigators), a time machine hidden in a Peruvian pyramid. . . which conveniently collapses in on itself just *after* the human adventurers return from a visit to the ancient alien base there. Fun stuff!
You might say Ernsting treated Von Daniken's theories with the seriousness they deserved.
I hope Sci-Fi Channel follow Ernsting's story (as far as they can get away with, anyhow), it could make a good, fun mini-series.
Is that Morena Baccarin has been cast for Stargate SG1 :)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Richard Hatch is apparently pretty happy withe show and enjoying his role as Zarek. Now, Dirk Benedict on the other hand...
I think one of the interesting parts of doing a BSG prequel of the new series will be the fact that the miniseries showed that Cylons and Vipers once looked like they did in the classic series. Wonder how manyelements of the new prequel series will be influenced by the designs in that show...
It'll be amusing to see old low-tech (non-CG) Cylons in a big-budget series.
Spinoffs have become fashionable since Buffy had a popular scifi spinoff with Angel. Doctor Who now has Torchwood (and K9 the animated series!), Stargate SG1 has Stargate Atlantis, and now BSG is falling in line. But, unlike Torchwood, I don't think it will star a bisexual conman from the 28th century. Then again, you never know.
Proves how much you know about science. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/i
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Spoiling bastard.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
http://infohost.nmt.edu/~mlindsey/asimov/question. htm (the story)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question (about the story)
Vuja De: That sinking feeling that this is going to happen again. Often occurs in meetings with Product Managers.
If they made BSG "tv movies" about Cylon War 1 instead of a whole series, with flashback episodes as part of the current series.
At the very least, if they go for the whole prequel tv series, I would hope that they dont have the shows run simultaneously... and have them on alternating seasons, so we can watch one show while the other show is off-season.
In an interview series composer Bear McCreary said:
So, for those of you who missed Galactica 1980, your chance will come! (a show so bad even SciFi Channel won't re-air it). It makes you wonder though, when they will turn up though.
This show has the potential to be exceptionally expensive. In BSG, we see the result of the Cylon war: Battlestar Galactica is a non-networked machine. There are isolated computers, but everyone works with printouts and handsets. Computers are not trusted.
Let's see a show from the creators of the Cylon. Those who can create an AI that's capable of running off, cloning its creators and switching to monotheism ("I typed 'God'? I meant 'Gods'!"). Let's see what a piece of technological marvel the Viper Mark I is. Let's see what taught the lesson to stop networking computers.
Someone please explain the timeline to me. I thought that the mini-series started after a 40 year armistice with the Cylons, which came after a long shooting war. If this proposed new series takes place 50 years prior to the current timeline, and it is to include the creation of the Cylons, doesn't this cause problems? Isn't 10 years too short of a time to have a "technological breakthrough" by creating the Cylons, have them revolt, go to war during which networking of all computers becomes a no-no, and then to resolve that war and have an armistice? Also, if the show is to feature Adama's "ancestors", and he's about 50, wouldn't the show be more about Adama's direct realatives, and him for that matter since he was likely alive during this timeframe?
if you are a Firefly fan. Sci-Fi was on the short list of networks that could bring the show back. I doubt they have enough money to do it now.
Because teenage pranks are fun when you're about to die!
In the BSG universe there is a God. Just like in the SG1 universe there are Stargates, in Babylon 5 there is hyperspace, and in Star Trek there is warp drive powered by matter anti-matter reactions.
Why do they they think they are God's chosen? I can think of one possible story lines.
"They are being deceived by Satan and believe that they are doing God's will by punishing the humans for their falling away from the true path. They are also trying to get physical bodies which are required to follow God's plan."
While you may or may not believe in God in real life it would seem that God is alive and well in the BSG universe.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
"Caprica" will be set more than 50 years prior to the events of "Battlestar Galactica" and focus on the lives of two families -- the Adamas (ancestors of future Galactica commander William) and the Graystones.
Colour me uninformed, but who exactly are the Graystones? Or are we not supposed to know or care at this point?
(Disclaimer: I haven't seen season 2 yet (not on here in Oz) so if it's all explained there, just say so... no spoilers please.)
Can't find examples of evolution? No matter, neither could Dawkins
Sharks are jumping!!!
It would be hard enough to do that without having to break in a slew of new characters: Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, General Hank Landry, and Valla.
Don't forget Dr. Carolyn Lam, fresh from the crew of Andromeda [well, I guess she WAS Andromeda itself].
By the way, this past Monday night, they replayed Heroes Part I and Part I; boy, after a couple of years, you kinda forget what a cutie pie Dr. Janet Fraiser was.
I think people will watch it. Stargate Atlantis is pretty weak but I still watch it because of its connection to the original series. That John Doe series they're running is weak. They need to bring back Serenity/Firefly
For some reason I refuse to use either spell check or the spacebar properly.
Gov. William J. Le Petomane: Affairs of State, must take precedent over the Affairs of State.
Just look at the piece of shit that Stargate Atlantis is. Somehow I think they are about to get a lot more intellectual on us.
Who gives a crap about their evolution from toaster to humanity's nemesis, it is going to suck very very much...
"cheesy sets,"
The sets are *fantastic*, except for the neon license-plate holder that's hung on the back wall of the Raptor. That's bothered me from day 1...=)
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Ok, the excuse that they don't have the bucks to support BSG and another original series falls flat now...
Essential Plot Element: Someone in each episode saying: This is a Really Bad Idea!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
..and neither was I in this godforsaken thread. Mentioning Richard Hatch in a BSG thread seems eminently on-topic to me. Maybe it really _was_ Richard Hatch lurking around the discussion as A/C...
it's not the Yeti here, it's the Dahu (the "white" dahu, actually)!
AND I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! I mean, i've a friend, who's father knew someone that told him....
Did you miss the episode where they revealed that the entire series is being taped by Cylon spies to keep track of the humans?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
The Return of Starbuck. He is stranded on this planet, repairs then makes friends with a centurion, gives his life up to save an annoying kid, and is judged worthy by a goddess.
The part where he puts his arm around the cylon is quite moving to me. I've formed attachments to machines myself.
Plus, you get to see Adama with a biblical beard! And none of the annoying regular cast from Galactica 1980 are in it at all!
Man, you really need that seminar!
Actually, if done properly the two series could still interact. Consider this speculation based on my interpretation of Brother Cavlis statement "Somehow we got it in our head that we were the children of Humanity." What if the Humano-Cylons are not descended from the tin-suit cylons but are more likely...Cylon Clones of the Lords of Kobol.
You see, the Lords of Kobol either were already the Humano-Cylons or a few of them are still around and somewhat immortal. But they still have a god they worship who commands that they multiply and replinish the galaxy (the cylon god). So if they found a stray Cylon ship, and with their and the cylon's technology were able to create the Humano-Cylons in thieir own image.
Still with me? So how does this fit into the prequel? Prior to us discovering this in BSG we have a plot that develops in Caprica where we either see the Lords og Kobol manipulating Cylons or where they discover it. So everyone is wondering "WTF is Boomer/Six/Xena doing guest starring on Caprica?" If written properly there could be some messed up things happening on BSG that all of the sudden this explains and helps make sense. We set up a big secret on BSG but the reveal is on Caprica! BSG gets their reveal, but several episodes later ald loyal viewers know it in advance.
A more sustainable twist may be that the Greystones discover some banned LoK Tech (perhaps they knew abot Kobol all along and got it there) and that is what seeds the Cylons. Any return to Kobol will be paid for in blood, and Cylon War I could be the cause of that. That may help to fill the mythology of the religion being used to keep the colonies from retrieving LoK tech from Kobol.
--Shemnon
Many of the questions and comments here have been asked and answered before on a growing Battlestar Galactica Wikipedia site.
Visit here for the Wiki containing info on the new and old shows.
http://www.battlestarwiki.org/
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
> Since the audience already knows what will happen to the characters in
> the future based on earlier movies, there is never that subconscious
> element of surprise. For example, no matter how much the main characters are
> in jeopardy, we know they will survive to justify their existence later in
> history.
Could you please name a series that did away with a main character
(preferably without Jumping the shark in the process)?
I really wish the Scifi Channel would stop with the psuedoscience-as-science bs, talking-from-the-dead scam, and big-bug-o-the-week movies, and get on with telling some really good SF
I am guessing you missed the fiction reference in the name. If you want non-fiction you might want to look at Discovery or something. I hear at least some of what they produce is based on fact.
In the end, %90 of everything is crap. Science Fiction doubly so.
Some of us are still entertained by Supergator despite it being %180 crap. 'Course I miss MST...
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
Enterprise was never intended to be a prequel per se. This was evident from the very first episode when they introduced the "Temporal Cold War." However you feel about that particular device, it enables the writers to deviate pretty much as much as they want to because by the end of it, "well that happened in another timeline." It bothered me that "fans" would complain about things that were obviously the result of the temporal machinations as being non-canon. Of COURSE they were non-canon, they were the result of time-traveling maurauders. The question should've been whether or not they were compelling stories, which the viewers aparantly decided they were not.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
... a Prequel!
That's ALL we would really need. Have them Hollywood folks come up with some new movie that happens BEFORE the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. They'll probably start messin with the timeline that they discussed in the trilogy and do a spin-off saying how that after Bilbo found the ring, he went on all of these adventures or something. Psssshhhh. These greedy producers can never just leave a masterpiece alone.
Karma: NaN
I'm sorry to all the fanboi's out there but BSG is frick'n stupid. Starbuck is practically the savior in every episode, the cylons are "pretty" people who instead of killing off mankind once and for all keep just "fucking with us". Cylon Rape/Babbies/Feelings..... who the fuck cares. Organic cyclons, WTF? Roslyn for prez :P *puke* i was sick of her day one.
:D
The sad thing i keep watching and hoping that it gets better, it's been getting stoopider stoopider each episode.....
Stargate (both shows) I think have been getting more and more interesting and "fun". Typically after watching a show I have a statified and feeling i've been entertained. I've also watched stargate since its inception and frankly i like Mitchel over O'neil. O'Neil was a funny but in a SMUG, superior way, where mitchel is funny because he's is in such awe of being on the "A" team and having the "band" back together. At first i was somewhat leary when they brought vala back on. I was like OMFG this is a Farscape reunion!, but i like how both characters were in stargate than in farscape, not to mention how they interacted. I would dig it if vala came back and was on the SG-1 team perm and they either got rid of tealc or maybe carter, so they're asses get put in the fire more and they get out of it without having to rely on sam's kick ass mind. Though i'd miss her as the smart hottie of the team. Amanda I love you
Back when I was a kid, there was a film called Planet of the Apes. Charlton Heston, you remember.
Well, I happened to get hold of the books, I forget how many there were but they had a lot more in there than the film(s). Basically, the story starts off with the astronauts crash landing on the planet of the apes, as does the film. But the plot continues throughout several books, until 3 of the chimps figure out how to fix the astronauts space ship and get back to earth in the 20th century. They are imprisoned for a while and the govt. ends up wanting to kill them off, especially when the female (Thira ?) gets pregnant by her mate Cornelius. They manage to escape (with the help of some friendly humans) and she has her child. The rest of the books are about the life of that child, and the gradual growth in the use of apes as human servants.
Eventually, they get pissed off with being servants, until one day Aldo (a gorilla) lets rip and kills his master, while shouting "NO !", the first words spoken by an ape on earth (the 3 chimps not withstanding). Riots ensue etc, etc. I forget now how the series ended, but I think it was leading up to the war that caused the nuclear war, that was in the far distant past for the Planet of the Apes. Nice and circular.
Anyway, you mentioned servants, so ...
Caprica takes place 50 years prior BSG. The Galactica is 50 years old and was used during the Cylon wars, that took place over a span of about 10 years. So are we to believe that the first Cylon was created at the same time Cylons were numerous enough to start a war? Sheesh, someone needs to go back and take Duh 101. And yeah, I'm one of those rabid fans of the new series, though I really do like the old one as well.
It's a girl!
For example we have seen the replicators pretty much wiped out unceremoniously.
Oh, I wouldn't count them out just yet. They've already been found in at least two galaxies (Milky Way and Ida, and possibly were the sensitive matter of the Asgard's in a "neighboring galaxy" to Ida), who knows if they'll suddenly show up in Pegasus or in the Ori's galaxy or some other one or attack from an alternate universe where they weren't defeated?
And the Goa'uld still have Ba'als.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I know I'm in the minority, but I didn't like the show. I admit, perhaps I just missed the big picture and all the cool action because it ran on Friday nights at 10 PM. I'm not the sort of person who schedules their Friday evenings around a TV show.
I guess I was expecting something more like the original series: a clear-cut good versus bad, shoot-em up with fun special effects and gratuitous Viper hot-rodding. The original didn't need attractive women or a religious subplot because it had shiny, badass robots, an evil overlord, and spacefighters with a "Turbo" button. Even the Millenium Falcon didn't have a turbo button. Instead, I watch 4-5 episodes and saw only one space fight (involving a single Cylon) and two shiny robots. The rest was the president complaining about how the vice president was a sneak and Adama acting afraid to exert any authority.
I can't really pin my finger down on what lost it for me. It wasn't (as I may seem to suggest above) the lack of action or character. Firefly wasn't as much about action either, and I only saw half a dozen episodes of it, but I loved it. I think the acting was solid and the characters decent. Maybe I'll have to catch the reruns from the beginning...assuming they're broadcast at reasonable hours.
People add "music" to performances for "artistic effect", or do you think there would really be an orchestra on a space ship (or anytime an orchestra isn't in the shot on any TV show or movie)?
I for one like the shaky camera, is does make for a more dramatic effect. It is somewhat trendy, but people have been using it widely since Saving Private Ryan, and with good reason.....because it "works".
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Thanks for that link; according to Wikipedia, the Last Question was Asimov's favourite story. I wonder if the Last Question led Douglas Adams to create "Deep Thought" and "42" as parodies of the Asimov ideas.
...for the downfall of Stargate:
1. Richard
2. Dean
3. Anderson
You just can't do the series without MacGyver. Oh and also, Atlantis has sucked from the very beginning.
it ran for 7 seasons
The first six of them were produced for Showtime. Showtime ended it with the two-parter "Final Appeal" which was to be the end of the series. Sci-Fi picked it up and produced only season 7. (The episode "Think Like a Dinosaur" was previously an audio drama on the Seeing Ear Theater section of their website.)
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
...and by everybody, I mean me. Damn. I need help.
It's even better than reality TV because it has a longer shelf life. Although, no one's going to want to watch an episode of "Survivor" once the season is over, Sci-Fi or another network can keep these in the can and re-run them down the road.
Additionally, they can probably find an audience in foreign markets. For example, the Discovery Channel started out by showing programming from Australian public TV and other international systems. It could buy this stuff cheap from less savvy content creators and fill up a 24-hour schedule with a minimum investment. Now, cable nets also sell their content overseas, which expands the revenue opportunities.
Somebody please, tell this machine I'm not a machine.
But only one who shows up nude with her 20 twin sisters in the opening credits. :-) The rest of the show could be static and I'd still show up for the opening "tease".
:-)
Seriously though, if you want to talk about plot holes I think that Boomer is a plot hole you could pilot a battlestar through. No mere human could possibly be as drop-dead sexy as Sharon Valerii. It's a dead giveaway! For that matter, the fact that the rest of Galactica's crew hasn't all perished from dehydration due to over-salivation leads me to suspect that the whole lot of 'em are toasters (Helo and Chief Tyrol excepted, of course).
The rest of you can have your Six fantasies. Grace Park does it for me. Knowing that Boomer is actually a machine only makes her hotter.
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
There was ONE "Planet of the Apes" novel, written by Pierre Boulle. It shares virtually NONE of the story of the series of films, aside from the central premise of a planet where the roles of apes and humans were reversed, and where there were characters named Zira, Cornelius, and Dr. Zaius.
In the novel, the story itself is being read by a pair of vacationing married apes in their space yaught who come across the story, handwritten, which they recover from a bottle floating through space. The story itself follows travellers from Earth who quite intentionally travel to a distant planet -- not some unexplained time travel anomoly that lands them on future Earth - where they discover the upside down Apes planet.
The book ends with the earth travelers returning once again to earth, only to discover that it has, also, come to be dominated by Apes. The moral of the story is that human hubris on more than one planet led to the outcome of ape ascendency, like it was some sort of evolutionary progression.
None of the backstory presented in the sequels has anything to do with the novel, except only superfically. There was never any nuclear war, never any mutant subterranean humans, never any future ape child switched at birth with a dumb present day child after its parents were killed, who later led the ape revolt.
The ape planet in the book was a completely modern equivalent to 20th century earth; not some silly place with vivisection-practicing scientist apes who nonetheless live in mud houses without electricity, and who reject the notion of flight as a scientific impossibility.
Whatever "books" you read as a child are figments of your imagination.
All your Star-Base are belong to us!
That should, of course, be "set foot on the Galactica", not "set foot on the Enterprise". :/ I did use the "Preview" button, dammit!
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Baltar's orignal 6 (the one from the pilot mini-series, not the one in his head) is respawned.
Also, the Sharon/Boomer from the mini-series and first season (the one who was shot) is also respawned.
I'm not sure which episode these were in, but *SPOILER ALERT* the two of them get together for some exciting adventures that change Cylon history.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
"Through the Looking Glass: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
"Young Abe Lincoln"
"60 Minutes"
"The Autobiography of Pauly Shore"
"Webster's New World Dictionary (unabridged edition)"
"Star Wars IV: A New Hope"
"Star Trek" (TOS)
"Battlestar Galactica" (TOS)
Oh, sorry, I thought that you wrote interesting prequel.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Most of the stuff in my post was meant to be funny, or at least mildly amusing.
As for Asimov, I think that he went too far when he tried to tie his robot stories into his Foundation stories.
The Foundation trilogy stood up quite well on its own.
There was no need to bring R. Daneel Olivaw (sp?) into it, or make Hari Seldon's wife a robot.
And the whole Zeroeth Law thing was a bit of a kluge to explain why there were no longer any aliens in the galaxy, and why robots weren't ubiquitous.
I'm not saying that the stories were bad, just IMO unnecessary.
I will admit, however, that the three authorized stories by third-party authors (Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, and one other whose name I can't recall at the moment) were kind of interesting, being written in a non-Asimovian style.
The Foundation trilogy is one series that I'd like to see made into a movie, provided that it isn't butchered the way "I, Robot" was.
(I thought that "I, Robot" was a fun movie, but it had nothing to do with the book (other than the Three Laws), and so it should have been called something else.)
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
"BG has gone from strength to strength. Who'd have thought it, for a remake of such a camp piece o'crap. I went in with EXCEEDINGLY low expectations. Maybe that's the secret." From the channel that has The Flintstones, Passions, Braveheart & soon Law & Order. c'mon.......... BSG has lost a large percent of its viewers, gone are it's halcyon days when it was a remake of the original series everyone remembers. Especially Ron Moore and David Eick who used the fans of the original series to foster a bogus "in spite of" TOS fans that this new production bravely faced down. Indeed they where never a factor in the re-imagining of BSG. Only Katie 'Starbuck' has used TOS fandom and the comparison between Dirk Benedict's Starbuck to her very lacking acting inadequacies, than Ron Moore still does to foster a nonexesistant fan feud. The ratings have gone from 2.6 Mini-series down to mere 1.6 for the last ten episodes of season 2.5. Somehow The Scifi Channel decided to reinforce the mediocre BSG with a prequel? This means one or both of the Stargate series is to be canceled. The Farscape fans did not flock to Stargate-SG1 after Ben Browder and next season new regular Claudia Black, maybe they did? Stargate-SG1 is getting about the same ratings as Farscape. On IESN I noticed Tom DeSanto damned Ron Moore's version of BSG with faint praise. His version after Bryan Singer left has been plagiarized by Moore & Eick. As have the titles to several original series episodes created by Glen A. Larson been taken but any resemblance to the original was cast out. Larson's BSG was slightly conservative, the new series like Hollywood is way left of center. The critical acclaim from U of Georgia's Peabody Awards used to mean something when CBS's Harvest of Shame, Civil Rights documentaries and brave southern local news that interviewed Dr. King, when a Peabody really meant something. Now unless you have a second rate show of a niche cable channel, the public relations department could care less. Except, The Scifi Channel is showing "second rate show of a niche cable channel". Indeed not only are they riding the rating of BSG into oblivion they are tacking on a prequel. Anyone notice BSB is already lower in the rating than Enterprise?