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Battlestar Galactica To Continue After All
turboflux writes "According to executive producer David Eick, Battlestar Galactica is still an open-ended adventure and it will not be ending after the 4th season as previously reported. Evidently Edward James Olmos jumped the gun on confirming the show would be ending while attending the Saturn Awards this month. Eick goes on to say that the fourth season would actually be 22 episodes (2 more than prior seasons) rather than the reported 13 episode order."
I take back all I said yesterday
Let's hope the 5th BSG season will become as great and necessary as the 5th season of Andromeda.
Dammit... the 4th season is supposed to be aired in January 2008 and I already have almost given up on BSG because of this article..
If the extra episodes are just more of the filler crap they had last season then I wont be watching. Battlestar is a good show when they are actually trying to tell a story. Filler like Black Market sucked. At least Lost had the balls to say the show ends in 48 episodes. If Battlestar keeps the season format they had last season you only need to watch the first 3 and last 3 episodes because everything in the middle isnt related to the story at all.
Yes I liked the show but the drama crap and all the story rewrites to try to find a new audience is pissing me off.
They're going to try to milk it way after its expiration date.
And here I was with such great hopes after the last finale.
thank god! remember enterpise got canceled in 4th season and that was its best season yet galactica is an order magnitude better with so many loose ends to tie that itll take them years to wrap it ll up also remeber that unlike star trek they managed to have 3 seasons so far without any timetravelling episodes :)
Time for Adama to bone the Pres, or END IT.
No more Adama father-son drama.
More catfights!
How about a Cylon actually WINNING a dogfight?
Except for Exodus part two, I could barely watch season 3. Amazing that the best-ever episode comes in the worst-ever season.
FIX IT!
cancer with the magic cylon juice.
In the true spirit of the RIAA, MPAA and other *AAs, where the notable inability of overpaid executives to tell between a good story and a one that simply makes lots of money (Hi Hollywood, you listening?) resulting in thousands of superficial shows with the same mindless plots and heavy application of special CGI effects, all based on a blockbuster two decades ago (actually three, but still).
When audiences get tired of spending their dollars on this, the *AAs then get on their high horse and accuse almost everyone from consumers to vague thirld world nations of piracy and "stealing their profits".
If Battlestar Galactica, which was, up until now, a fantastic show, but which was really starting to show warning signs of producer self overestimation and ego growth in the last series with the drop off over the edge into the supernatural, I sadly suspect that the next series will only get worse if the producers are not under pressure to produce a good finale to the show.
In English there is a saying: "too much of a good thing."
Sorry all but the first 2 lines refer to the new Galactica. Old one just died because it got corny.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
God you're a fucking lame ass. Probably a fag, too.
The writers boxed themselves into a void in the last season. The cylons as evil killing machines with the capacity to be anyone as a sleeper agent, that was good television--even at times good social/political commentary. The best sci-fi works on all of these levels. So, bringing back the chase and eliminating the soap opera narratives will bring the show back. I don't think they've jumped the shark quite yet.
You ARE aware that a Cylon winning a dogfight would lead to at least 10 episodes of mourning, griefing and goth-like navel contemplation, yes?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This show has it all, story arches, developed and complex characters, great sets and special effects for Rome & battle scenes.
I really don't care how historically accurate the show is, it has a certain pulse and it works.
Most importantly, like all HBO productions it has a kick ass PLOT.
Granted, the requisite T&A per episode is always welcome, as is the (suitably) somewhat gratuitous violence on occasion (sword through the head anyone?). :)
That's when I hit the power button on my control, when I realized that this is where it's going. Cylons looking like humans, everyone could be one, general distrust and the felt backstab-threat... Sounds familiar?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Excellent point, dammit.
Well I guess there is room for a few more seasons. Once they actually find earth, they will still have the whole Cylon problem to sort out. Maybe the show could end with them re-taking the 12 colonies and wiping out the machine Cylons while having the humanoid ones mix with the real humans.
Wow, in one breath you're complaining about bad acting and bad scripting, and then you bring out Babylon 5 as an exemplar?!
Please, I overall enjoyed B5, but--IMHO--seasons 1+5 were awful.. and the entire series had HORRIBLE dialogue and acting! The plot etc was badass, but I still *shudder* thinking of some of the acting+humor moments etc.
Not to mention that they find out about 20 episodes later that he isn't really dead through a dream of a crew member and they start looking for him (5 episodes), find him in some unprobable place (2 episodes), free him from the cylon prison (1 episode) only to find out that he's a cylon imposter (1 episode) and spend a bit of time trying to hunt him all over the ships (5 episodes), until they corner him and he claims he's a traitor and wants to aid humanity (1 episode), leads them to some fuel depots (2 episodes)...
I think I should ask them if they hire new writers.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I realise this appears to be an emotive issue for you but "I mean please I've seen better scripting on daytime soapies."... really now... this strikes of hyperbole to me.
Specifically which daytime soapies are we talking about here? If they're that much better than BSG then perhaps some of us would fancy taking a look at them.
Alli
OMG!!! Ponies!!!
HBO is doing really good stuff these days (minus Sopranos), but Rome wasnt the best, Deadwood was just insanely great. But, like with Rome, the lavish sets caused them to run out of money for lack of viewers. Its a crime to kill off shows like this, when they could have benefitted from better marketing. Most people have never seen Rome, Deadwood, The Wire, or other great HBO productions. Deadwood had better T&A too, though some of it was on the chunky side.
I think I should ask them if they hire new writers.
Sounds like you write for them already.
I dont read
Look, I loved Babylon 5. I even liked season 5, and consider the hate it gets to be typical mobthink (notice how other fans always append "except season five" like a mantra). I also know that this is all a matter of personal taste, but your review here is filled with hyperbole. Porn? A handful of sexually charged scenes is not porn. What are you, an evangelical? The camera work lends a nice feel to the space shots. I dunno, man, it's called artistry and creativity. Should BG be a static 3 camera set piece like a sitcom? And "better scripting on daytime soaps" is where you completely lose it. Seriously, something else has to be at the core of your hate here. Are you a big fan of the original series? Are you a Cylon? What?
They did something great in the pilot episodes and first season, but now we'll have to see yet another great show die a slow and painful death.
I wish they'd wrap up the show and stop it when they've run out of material and said what they want to say. But even the best show is doomed to drag on our screens, while the rating brings in ad money. It's so sad.
It was especially harsh and sad in Prison Break, originally an amazing 14 episode mini-series. Then in the last moment extended to a full season ("oh shit they changed the pipes, well all we did for 14 episodes now doesn't make a damn sense, does it"), and then to a second season ("don't move or I'll use my tattoo against you! i'm not afraid to!").
Good, now just go back to blowin shit up, dammit!
Maybe this was a joke, but it exemplifies the problem with a lot of modern genre fandom. "Eeeew! Drama! Eeeew! Humanity and emotional stuff! Eeeeew! Icky girls!" It's this sort of thing that keeps SF and fantasy so marginalized.
And while season 3 had some weak points, this whole WORST SEASON EVER stuff is so silly. Seriously, a lot of folks here are The Comic Book Guy incarnate.
Well, I can see their problem.
Space fights take lots of money to make. Explosions are expensive, no matter whether they're real or CGI. So they create fillers. The cheapest fillers are those where you can rely solely on props and effects you already have. The first BSG consisted mostly of battle scenes from the 2 first movies, the "new" scenes were almost entirely simple scenary shots, or shots that don't require any new props.
Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that the show has to suck, plot-wise. I'm pretty sure even the corny layout I posted earlier can be made interesting with some creative scripting, without being expensive. You have to keep it fast paced and most of all (and that's IMO where the current BSG script lacks), you have to know what you have in mind with a certain plot.
Currently, I have the feeling that they write from episode to episode, find themselves written in a corner and pull some deus ex machina out of the bag to keep it going.
Compare it to Bab5. JMS had the complete plot for the show down even before filming started. And it shows. Yes, it has twists, yes, it has bents, yes, it has plot arcs that span seasons, but they stay logically connected. The characters have a reason to do what they do. That's IMO one of the most important things in a good plot. No character is just "good" or "evil". Especially, no character is just "evil". They don't do things just to be the villain. What goal would that serve?
What I'm looking for in a show is to understand the motivations of a character. If they change from episode to episode, I get confused and frustrated.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
- the awful cinematography and camera work. I haven't watched since season 1, but are they still doing that awful backing music and quick zooms etc. to try to build tension. Keep the fucking camera still or smooth it out jackasses!
I suggest you not watch lost or other TV shows then. All this "amateur" camera work started with the siezure cam used in the Bourne Supremacy and is incredibly "popualr" right now.
They completely destroyed that movie with the stupid "we cant afford a tripod" film style.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It's the unfortunate tension of television that the business side demands an open ended series that can run as long as possible while the artistic side would usually be better served by a finite length and definite ending.
I am a huge, huge fan of BSG (warts and all) and was actually happy to see the earlier report that the 4th season would be the end. I am one who thinks the writers would be doing a better job if they knew what the hell the point of each episode should be.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
I'm really hoping for some experimental episodes where the camera just slowly pans up and down Tricia Helfer's body while she tries on different outfits for 40 minutes.
Does that comment seem more like damage control than a reversal of statements?
David Eick didn't say that the series would not be ending with the fourth season; all he said was that nothing had been officially announced. Also, it has been known that the season will have 22 episodes for quite some time now, and that the 2 of them will actually be the Pegasus "movie."
I think any fan of BSG recognises the show needs a damn end in this season. This is going to become the dog that the son has to take out the back and shoot just to put it out of it's misery.
"Oh boy"
I wish at least once they wouldn't milk the cow until the milk is sour...
And the worst that could happen is if they "think" it will come back, leave us in a cliffhanger, and then end the series abruptly.
They should know that DVD sets of unfinished series sell less.
First you want sci-fi, they give it to you... The sci-fi they give you, is the best sci-fi that we have seen on tv... They tell you that they will continue to make said sci-fi... ...and all you do is whine about it.
No wonder people make fun of us.
-groovyghoul
The Cylons and Humans end up being the same. You already have a whole bunch of character crossovers, cross-breeding....
paintball
Thats odd, I could of sworn it was the blair witch project that give no tripod filming a bit of lime light. And to be fair it does work, when used right, not for every other scene.
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
IMHO a timetravel plot with some mysterious figure narrating the history of mankind is a deus ex machina. I hated the ending. The only plot device which prevented the weird guy from narrating the whole thing at once seemed to be that he had difficulty speaking English. I agree that Babylon 5 was a good series though. One of the best things on television.
IMO, the show could use just a *pinch* of levity. I mean hell, even Children of Men squeezed in a "Pull my finger" joke to keep it from inducing mass suicides in everyone who watched it.
Meanwhile, BSG has been dark moment after dark moment. You can't tell me that nobody ever does a shaving cream joke on a pilot while he/she's in their rack, that nobody hops into a Viper to find a waiting whoopy cushion, that nobody pranked Tigh by replacing his precious booze with *gasp* water?
I mean, come ON people, just because 9/11 happened in the real world, doesn't mean we don't have to feel guilty to laughing at fantasy now and then, or for that matter, real life.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Yay, The Young and The Restless in Space is over. This one should go in the 99 cent bin with Battlefield Earth. And while we're on the subject of crass American cinema...28 Weeks Later? Give me a break.
In Gilligan's Island, they had only two outcomes.
#1. They get off the island.
#2. They stay on the island.
CONGRATULATIONS (and I mean that). You have identified the PROBLEM with such stories. They are TRAGEDIES in the old sense. One side will lose. One side is doomed. You are watching the failure because of the past decisions of one side.
Knowing that, the writers need to understand their material. What is their final statement?
#1. Man will always win over machines because machines lack (love, souls, emotions, whatever).
#2. Man's technology will eventually destroy man.
If they haven't made that choice, their material will eventually suck as they have to contradict past continuity or pull bullshit plot devices out of their asses. No matter how good the initial material, it needs that fundamental story arc.
I gave up any expectation of BSG being any good when they had Starbuck punch out a guy twice her size to show that she was a 'tough' woman, and they resorted to stealing characters from Voyager.
For the second story in a row, Slashdot gets it wrong. David Eick said merely that he and Ronald D. Moore "had not decided yet" about the future of the show past season 4, not that there was certainly going to be a season 5.
1. Infiltrate key positions on BSG
2. Occasionally let BSG inflict tremendous damage for no real reason (Resurrection Ship, Base Star, etc.)
3. Infiltrate even more key positions on ship and acquire nuclear weapons
4. Establish almost complete information asymmetry
5. ?????
6. Profit (the producers of course)
This sig is alpha and shouldn't be viewed on production machines
I guess no body listens to the podcasts. The producer/writer, Ronald D. Moore, mentioned this a month ago on a podcast. The network made him sweat it out with that "12 episodes" thing but finally said ok to a twenty-something deal. He also said the show has TWO seasons left. He hasn't signed two seasons, he just thinks the story arc has two seasons left. I highly recommend the podcasts by the way...
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
BSG is a story based show with a definitive ending, it just doesn't seem to know how to get there.
The last two seasons, particularly the 3rd, have left me hugely frustrated. The show had so much promise at the start, good cast, gorgeous effects, an interesting plot etc. But it seems to me they just don't know what to do with it all, they have their 'ending' worked out, no doubt, but they just don't seem to know how to flesh out the bit known as the middle.
They should have planned this out episodically before filming ever began (like JMS did with B5). Not only would it have ensured consistency throughout (read less filler), but it would also have given them an exact number of seasons to aim for and enable them to better budget themselves as well. As I recall Bab5 was consistently *under* budget as a result of the excellent planning which no doubt ensured that it got it's intended 5 seasons, despite some doubts around Season4. Given how exec's like axing sci-fi, being prudent would be a top priority to me.
I really feel there will be a truckload more filler next season if it isn't the finale. I would rather they just let Zoic create a whole batch of 45 minute space combat sequences, if they can't come up with anything better than love triangles etc - But that would destroy the budget... so no doubt were going to be subjected to more 'Whose in Lee's bed tonight' episodes. At least they blew up the Pegasus, or no doubt they'd go through half a dozen new captains for her as well.
Amen. The writers and actors for the show are great, and part of being good at that job is that you can pull off the slower, more personal dramatic stories as well as the large space battles and galaxy-spanning intrigue. It's good to get to see them try something different, and not have every episode be the exact same tone as all the others.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
Borg nano-probes?
Interesting how in the comments about season four being the last, the tide was against the Sci-Fi Channel -- about how sorry people were to see it go -- and in the comments on this story, the tide is against the writers for "milking it" -- how sorry people are to see it stay. Different people I trust(and hope), but interesting none the less.
(So far as where I sit -- even with the rather agonizing romantic detour the show took this season, I'm enjoying it. I still trust that the show runners know more or less what they're doing, and that they will, as Ron Moore said, end it when it reaches its ending)
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
... by the end of the 4th season. The current story is pretty dead end at this point, and they need to finish it soon, otherwise they're going to be left with nothing but filler episodes. If they want make season 5, fast forward 5 years or so, make a second battlestar, and start a new adventure. (The humans finally go after the Cylons, maybe?) If Earth is just an inhabitable wasteland, I'm going to be severely pissed off...
And someday they're gonna share it with the writers! I promise!
Best Slashdot Co
I've never seen a full episode of NYPD Blue, but doesn't it have similar camera effects?
Agreed. This is really old news.
I also strongly encourage listening to the podcasts. You'll get a lot of insight with what RDM and the writers were thinking. He talks about all sorts of interesting things. Plus, there are often smokes and whisky (or whiskey) involved and it's always interesting to hear what's in the glass.
[eom]
We all saw what happened to Stargate. We don't want BSG to suffer the same fate. I'd rather have BSG die in peace than have the corpse paraded around for 4 more seasons, and after BSG is gone there will be demand for a new, fresh sci-fi series.
I get nervous when great shows turn into open-ended properties. Babylon 5 was able to sustain itself for the most part because of a pre-imagined story arc, that was designed from the beginning for 5 seasons only. DS9, after the first season, seemed to get into gear for the Dominion story arc, which lasted 6 seasons, although only getting into high gear on the latter half. I don't want to see the mostly tight story of BSG turn into the equivalent of spaghetti code for overextending its possibilities.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
What are you talking about? They writers constantly keep in mind the overall darkness and pull back a little to make the show lighter.
Like in the first episode, they didn't show any people on the Olympic Carrier like they originally intended, because they thought it would be just a little too dark to actually show Apollo and Starbuck killing thousands of humans in the first episode.
And there are other examples just like that!
(Really. They explain it on the DVD commentary.)
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Well, to be fair, the show used to have that, back when Baltar was half crazy. The scenes with him being distracted by Number 6 while talking to other Galactica members was pretty much priceless.
I also remember one scene I really like. I think it was Laura, Lee and his father cleaning the dishes after an eating with Tigh and his wife and I think Laura said something like "I think this one is not right for him. She makes him drink all the time and is miserable. I think he'd be better off without her." And then everybody stops cleaning the dishes for a few seconds, realizing he was exactly like that before he got back with her. And then resumed. That was laugh out loud funny.
I can't recall exactly when the show stopped being funny. I think it's around the time they when they went in a cave on a earth-like planet that Roslin guided them to and saw the earth's sky, confirming the prophecy.
This is going to be like Battlestar 80 all over again, isn't it...
crazy dynamite monkey
Anyone remember "Sliders"? You just had to love that show... until they completely ruined it by dragging it out and jumping the shark with unoriginal stories. Based on the show's limited structure I'm wondering what BSG's equivalent to the Cromag is going to end up being...
The Cylons can't win if the BSG keeps running away! j/k
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
And I was just getting to like them! (Yay...?)
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
"rather than the reported 13 episode order."
So maybe the first 13 will be called "Season 4" and the last 9 will be dubbed "Season 5" and then it will end.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Ignore them. Since the new BSG started a lot of geeks have been whinging about it. If you read their criticisms you will find that they are nothing to do with the quality of the show but complaints that the production team have not done with the show what they wanted them to do.
Their is a repugnant seam of entitlism that runs through the Science Fiction community. Read any thread about Star Wars to see a long list of people who really believe they own Star Wars because they enjoyed it when they were 10 years old. Juvenile rubbish about George Lucas raping their childhood. The same is true about Firefly, Star Trek, BSG and a host of others films and TV shows. It is truly pathetic. Is it any wonder that Science fiction geeks are still sidelined while comic-book, gamer, computer, electronics and RPG geeks have been drawn into the mainstream. The media even uses the term "speculative fiction" in order to distance itself from them they are that bad. The whole community needs to take a good long look at itself and grow the fuck up!
sigh, they shoulda used FreeBSD of course
Yep ... and Bochco started that in 1981 with Hill Street Blues.
Starbuck: Hey Lee, whaddaya got for me?
...
:P
Lee Adama: The usual... Angst.
Starbuck:
Starbuck: Oh geez, somebody just frakkin' kill me now and get it over with...
Lee: What's the point?? This is SCI FI - you'll just get resurrected again!
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
I don't mind the soap opera garbage, though I agree the unending sexual tension with Adama and rosalin is getting to be very who's the boss. The constant off and on respect/hate that he and Lee have is starting to make them both look stupid. Last season he thought his son was ready to command his own battlestar forever, now he has no integrity and shoudln't be in a viper? For a smart guy, he's got the memory of a goldfish. I agree that the Cylons needs ot win more. they look stupid. they have better technology, better weapons, and they can't bear the crap that BSG can throw at them occasionally? how about the cylons develop a weapon that delays a jump by like two seconds, so that their huge armada would actually get to touch BSG just once. How many times can you jump out at the last nanosecond? I love BSG and I have high hopes for this season, but it's got a lot of flaws that they need to patch.
Furthermore, the cinéma vérité style has been around for more than fifty years. As far as American audiences are concerned, the most prominent examples prior to the 21st century are Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, and The Blair Witch Project. And in the last six years, the number of mainstream productions has skyrocketted.
Has anyone seen Neon Genesis Evangelion? That's how BSG should end. NGE went into a very philosophical and trippy space, it continued the characters but dissolved the narrative, and BSG definately has the potential to pull something like that off. So in this scheme finding Earth would be a sort of apocalyptic, reality-shattering event, and one or two of the characters would be left on a black stage working through their philosophical backstory, they talk, one walks off into blackness and another comes, they talk, one walks off into the blackness and another comes, they talk, and so on, and the ideas and meaning build and build. It would work, it would be fitting, they should do it.
It would also make the "I'm a cylon, you're a cylon" bullshit comprehensible.
Eick goes on to say that the fourth season would actually be 22 episodes (2 more than prior seasons) rather than the reported 13 episode order.
Based on previous seasons, it'll run something like this:
Two episodes.
Break for a couple of weeks.
Three more episodes.
Ends for three months with a "Battlestar Galactica will return after [Christmas/Shrove Tuesday/President's Day]"
Triumphant return for two whole episodes.
Moves to a different night.
Three more episodes.
Break for a couple of weeks.
Two episodes that feel like a season finale but we're assured on the podcasts that they were really just ending the current arc and are supposed to be the mid point of a larger season.
"Battlestar Galactica will return"
Rumors circulate that it's cancelled. Edward James Olmos appears to have been correct.
And then, in the way of other such shows, the final dozen episodes get made as a straight to DVD series, implying Eick was correct. As for the two season claim, that last one will turn up as a Babylon 5-esque feature length DVD showing them reaching earth, a big fight with the Cylons, the end.
Jaded? The only way I've managed to actually follow where they dick episodes around to is by having a DVR catch their apparently random appearance for me.
Here's a show that the producers openly admit broke off mid season and tried pretending different halves were two seasons; that has repeatedly broken off mid storyline to wait for new year etc.; that has bounced from Fridays to Sundays; that will often wander off for a week or two.
And Edward James Olmos wonders why they don't get the viewership a show like it deserves?
I had no way of knowing where you came from and I didn't lecture you. I was merely trying to express an understanding of your position.
I'm sorry that you saw less than 10% of the material but that doesn't mean I'm going to limit the discussion to that 10%.
I haven't listened to the DVD commentary, so I Can't explain why this disagrees with that, or if one of us heard wrong, but this is how I understand it:
On the podcast, RDM explained that they fought tooth and nail to show people on the Olympic Carrier, but lost to the network, who wouldn't allow it.
for the record he said, there *were* people on the Olympic Carrier, but all you ever saw were little silhouettes just as it was being destroyed. They had to sneak that in.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
You want Levity? Careful what you wish for.
Interesting bit form the podcast: The writers were complaining to RDM about the darkness of the show. "Can't we have a party or something? A birthday party, maybe? Some kind of celebration to show some kind of high point to the existance these people have?"
So he gave them one. You remember the episode "Act of Contrition"? Season 1, episode 5. Flat Top has his thousandth landing. This is a big deal for a flying unit. An excuse to celebrate an artificial milestone for a pilot. Sort of a turning point.
They put Flat Top on a wagon and run him around the hanger deck, about a dozen pilots celebrating and cheering.
Then it happens. A probe falls off of it's rack due to a faulty fastener. It's rocket motor ignites, and it fires across the hanger deck, killing half a dozen pilots and landing a dozen more pilots and deck hands in the sick bay.
That's what happens when you ask RDM for levity.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
Regards,
Ross
I agree with this one to an extent. This season of BSG has been a little slow, but I just watched the second half of season 3 on iTunes, and it was quite good. They explore a lot of themes that I haven't really seen explored in a mainstream sci-fi show (eg: the union thing), and most of it is genuinely interesting.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Battlestar started off very well. It was fascinating. It was science fiction, emphasis on the science. Then apparently some network dickhead told the writers that they needed to, I don't know, attract more girls, or go more mainstream, or "be more like that Scrubs program". All of a sudden whole segments of the show turned from space opera to soap opera.
After that, I stopped watching. Call me too much of a male geek, but I don't watch SF for stories about relationships that take place in a futuristic setting.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Battlestar Galactic, being partly commentary on the War in Iraq, will end when that war does.
I'm looking forward to season 12.
Or maybe EJO's character is getting killed off in the 13th episode of the 4th season; so as far as he knows, the show ends then.
Can we have an a fucking men here? I don't care about adamn and his fucked up son father son bullshit. I give less than a rats ass about said son/jackass's death wish. Kill the fucker off and lets get on with it. If tigh wants to drink himself into a stooper more power to him, just do it off screen.
I give so little a fuck about the characters personl problems. Blow more fucking shit up, find more shit, and get on the fucking road to earth. The rest is just bullshit!
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
You ARE aware that a Cylon winning a dogfight would lead to at least 10 episodes of mourning, griefing and goth-like navel contemplation, yes?
Emo, not goth.
Emo, right.
Well, if they start cutting it might maybe bring some fresh blood into the show.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
True. But sadly, in BSG they usually got more of fillers.
There have actually been quite a few shows that can make a very interesting shows, even one that drives character development or develops new plots, with bottle episodes. I remember quite a few ST:NG or Outer Limits episodes that had a lot of a bottler and were still incredibly intense (often just BECAUSE of the reduced setting, so the actor had to shine or it would show that he can't act). Frame of mind would be one such episode.
A bottle episode doesn't have to be boring or pointless. But hey, let's be happy that they didn't resort to clip shows yet. At least, if they have, I missed it, fortunately.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Something tells me that he might not make it to the fifth season. This would be a shame as Edward James Olmos has been my favorite actor in this series with both his acting and the writing making Admiral Adama the most interesting character, for me anyway. As for the future length of the series, well I can think of several spins on this. Many posters have noted that this story is limited by the goals of the respective elements, ie: humans and cylons. I see several interesting things that have already been introduced into the story and more that could be. For one the angst of the cylons about their god, place and purpose. Another cylon issue is their interest in hybrids, perhaps related to a genetic cloning disease, something similar to inbreeding in humans. Remember the obsession with what was it the last seven cylons. As for the humans, what kind of earth will they find? Just who populates it? A post holocaust civilization in ruin, a world with Star Trek level technology, is it populated with humans, cylons or how about hybrids? I can even see several valid spin offs that could easily be better than the average fare on TV.
As for the soap opera type twists and the relation to current events of a controversial nature, well these can both be over done and in my view have been somewhat. However such is what allows for people to feel a connection with the story. All the best stories be they TV, novels, short stories or what ever use this basic method of connecting the everyday lives of the audience with the drama of the story. This requires very extensive and well executed character development and the very best do it very well. The best, like say Hemingway or Blair, I have known do it in such an understated manner that it is almost subliminal. The danger for the writers then is in being to up front and obvious in their approach to using this method. This rule also applies to the acting trade as well, and in my view E.J.Olmos is in the same league as Anthony Hopkins and both are to the acting world what Papa Hemingway or Eric Blair are the world of literature. In whole and especially in the best episodes the writers and actors have done well by this rule. Occasionally both have strayed a bit and come off as being a bit too obvious and thus, well corny.
I do think they have done a pretty good job at staying idealistically neutral on the politically charged topics, mainly by exposing the multiple viewpoints even if the format only allows for shallow explorations. At least they attempt to address these in an intelligent and interesting manner. I find such interesting, I like the shootem up special effect stuff too but there is only so much I can take before I get bored with it. And they have done a pretty decent job with the SF conceptual stuff like the cylons angst and viral like mental transpostions and the humans devolution of networking technology as a defense. Overall I still give the series an A, and hope for several more seasons at a quality equal to those so far.
Wabi-Sabi
Matthew
Oh, come on. There have been some fall-down funny moments. IE:
[In Adama's quarters, Tigh is going over the list of people healthy enough, after the food shortages, to help harvest the algae. The algae isn't exactly what folks had imagined, though. The processing of the food will take some time and everyone is complaining about it.]
Adama: I hear they're still eating paper. Is that true?
Tigh: No.
(wait a beat)
Tigh: Paper shortage.
(Both of them totally lose it, RotFL.)
Dark, and conveying a lot of information about how stressed out they are, but also funny as hell.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Personal opinion, no need to get high on it or somethin. BSG sucks big time. I stopped after the 5th episode. The constant shouting, the overdramatization, the cliche lines ("hey mr president, we have terrorists; oh my God, our way of life is in danger"), the use of rifles and pistols instead of lazers, people wearing 3 piece suits, even with ties, the constant references to religion, the sucky music, and many other elements, are enough to put off any reasonably thinking person with an IQ better than a pea.
The original was magical: it had captivating characters, an optimistic mood, it was futuristic (ok, silly at times, but in a nice way), Cylons were not humans (why should aliens be humans?), very nice and captivating music, ties to ancient history of Egyptians/Mayans/Toltecs, and great battles, at original Star Wars levels. It wasn't much of science, but it was many times more entertaining than this modern piece of shit.
And, as any self respecting televised sci-fi fan would say, Star Trek is miles ahead from the best of BSG, even in its uglier form (i.e. Enterprise).
All I know is...
BSG: You got fantasy in my sci-fi!!! (without the visions, the cylons would be chasing them on the wrong side of the galaxy)
Star Wars: You science in my fantasy! (the force is parasites? Can you get a vaccine?)
Sucks.
Its not good scifi - its ridiculous religious nonsense.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
It doesn't say that BSG will continue, its what Ben Bradlee would call "a non denial denial" - Eick says he and Moore will decide the future. Which is of course true - right uptil Scifi tells them to decide its over.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
The documentary-style shaky camera thing goes back decades but got its first big exposure in prime time TV via "Hill Street Blues," more than 25 years ago. Interestingly, the producers of BSG have said they consciously sought to imitate the look and feel of Hill Street. IMO, it heightens the realism.
The coolest shot in the entire series might have been when the nuclear bomb went off on the Cloud 9 during Baltar's inauguration. One of the pieces of debris flew through space and hit the camera, spinning it around cracking the lens. It was a subtle effect but kind of brilliant -- it sent the message "yes, we really film this series in space."
OMG yeah, character development is for PUSSIES ANYWAYS!!!
There is nothing wrong with character developement. There is something wrong with useless and irrevelent character developement. There is also something wrong with character development that doesn't advance the plot line or over developing characters.
The ideal behind the show is lost tribe, ass kicked by cylon, off to find earth. Not drunk ass tigh under a cot, father and son bullshit that takes up more than 15 mins a season that is not important to the plot. Seeing Starbuck want to get into apollo's pants, cute, for 5 mins once. After that nobody gives a shit.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Why don't you watch the fucking show instead of making shit up? Have you ever watched even one episode of the "current series"? No, otherwise you would know Starbuck is a woman. Yeah the hair is short like a man's but those are in fact tits. And anyone who is presuming her dead must have slept through the last few episodes of season 3 (series 3 as you Brits call it). Get your shit together and next time you won't look like a moron in public.