In honor of the upcoming series (in the U.S. anyhow) here is a totally revamped and updated review of the mini series including air times and tantalizing hints of what is to come. If you didn’t read it the first time you’ll definitely want to read it now!
Post originally by Erik Boielle at 2004-12-29 10:55:25
Converted from Phorums BB System
I'm reasonably sure that the show is on in the UK first because Sky TV fronted some of the cash to make it but wanted rights to show it first.
Sky also show Star Trek. Alot. And BSG and Buck Rodgers were repeated on BBC2 at tea time for ages, so, like, we do have telly here as well you know. And remember the whole thing about being deluged with American TV? We've seen all your show dude.
--
Anyway, the show is kinda cool, but I'm finding it a bit slow at the moment - they keep going around in circles a bit - possibly because I've seen shows like The Invaders so one somehow thinks they could skip everything that is actually happening and get to the original stuff.
It does have some interesting bits, like how it seems the cylons have religion, but high action it ain't.
Post originally by Jeremy at 2004-12-29 18:03:30
Converted from Phorums BB System
"The “re-imaging” has taken a once vibrant mythic story, stripped it of all sense of noble glory, gutted it of the legendary larger than life background, and overlaid a uninspired pseudo modern America-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off society in place of the truly alien feeling society of the original series in an effort to spin a pallid tale of updated 50s red menace fear mongering replaced with terrorists lurking in every shadow doom and gloom mediocrity"
That's completely different from how I saw it. If anything, it's almost a neo-Luddite, Guardian-esque style anti-American rant, about how how humans are evil, materialistic people who let technology destroy them.
And the humans on the show really really really whine a lot (much like Europeans), which actually tends to make me root for the Cylons.
Post originally by Nick at 2004-12-29 19:58:36
Converted from Phorums BB System
I watched the mini-series after picking up the DVD and watched it with my wife who had never watched the original Glen A Larson series.
We both agreed that the premise was interesting and that the actors did put a lot of effort into their roles. Moderately entertaining with enough promise that we would have been interested in watching the continuing series to what happened.
What was clear though, was that it was not BSG in mood or atmosphere. In fact, I thought that if they had called it something else entirely, distancing the show from BSG, and re-jigged the plot a little, it might have accomplished a lot more.
Aside from that, I thought that the plot for the mini-series strongly resembled the storyline for Macross/Robotech. Aliens attack space battleship during ceremony, battleship warps far away and makes long voyage thereafter. Throw in the veteran ship captain, hotshot pilots, and aliens infiltrating the ship and its almost a match. But then again, what is completely original these days?
But it was still not BSG. Here's my argument why they should not have made any connection to BSG at all:
Firstly, there would be no baggage that they needed to deal with from the original series (i.e. Cylons, Starbuck-as-a-woman, etc) and they could have just gone ahead and done a space military opera without alienating a whole generation of fans.
Secondly, it would not have created too-high expectations. BSG has achieved something of cult status, and even if you hadn't watched it before, you had certain expectations because of the marque. At least my wife did. What we got was a fairly intimate war movie, with some nice dogfights and some pretty strong characterisation. But not what we expected.
Bottom line: I think the show has been mis-packaged. If they had come up with something completely original, without linking it back to BSG, I think it might have gained a better following, notwithstanding the fact that I think the studio execs were trying to create controversy to generate interest in the show. Try this on for size:
"Commonwealth Battlecruiser Pegasus (a little homage here) is in the dry dock about to be decommisioned after long and distinguished service in the war against the biomechanical aliens who tried to invade the Terran Commonwealth years ago. After a long armistice, the Commonwealth is standing down most of its active military forces, believing that the xeno threat has ended. What they don't know is that the aliens have begun infiltrating their society and are beginning a major invasion of the twelve worlds of the Commonwealth. In the ensuing battle, only the Pegasus survives, and its veteran captain makes the decision to gather together the survivors of the Commonwealth and abandon the star system to search for a new homeworld and avoid the extinction that threatens the human race. Along they way, they must elude their alien pursuers who are determined to wipe them out, encounter strange new worlds in the hope of starting again, meet new allies and new enemies and above all survive in a hostile and uncharted universe."
Hardly original, I know, but interesting enough to warrant a viewing I'd have thought. Throw in Edward James Olmoss' charisma and Mary McDonnell's winning performance, fancy starfighters and great space vistas, and I think that the series would do considerably better.
Post originally by Ren at 2004-12-30 04:03:00
Converted from Phorums BB System
I found you review to be quite harsh. You criticised the relationship between the officer and NCO and said it meant nothing, but this is clearly untrue when you consider the final Cylon scene. Whilst there behaviour may be unmilitary, it is hardly unheard of, especially when stuck on a museum ship for your whole career. The point is that the crew are unprepared for war and are all out of shape for the fight.
No 6 is similiar to 7 of 9 in that they are both female and machine based, but that is it. No 6 could well be an hallucination, or a cybernetic implant in the good Dr's head. She bears more in common with Farscape than Star Trek.
We see little of the Cylons because they are supposed to be secretive - a largely unseen and misunderstood threat.
I think you were correct in your criticism of the opening scene - why destroy a Cylon except for effect, and the light up back - but scenes such as No 6 and the baby more than make up for it.
I found it a great development of the Sci-Fi genre, more in keeping with the West Wing and Soprano's, which focused mainly on the personalities involved.
The many open questions, such as why Adama was not surprised about the mercenary, just who is feeding him information about clone numbers and whether or not there is actually an earth leave great opportunities for the series - which is what a pilot should do.
I may have the advantage of having seen the first half of the series, but I think it is fantastic, and in keeping with the origins of early Sci-Fi asks a number of philosophical questions whilst using an altered vision of our current situation (the US and 9/11 with an enemy of their own creation).
Post originally by Thoth Amon at 2004-12-30 05:37:18
Converted from Phorums BB System
"I thought that the plot for the mini-series strongly resembled the storyline for Macross/Robotech. Aliens attack space battleship during ceremony, battleship warps far away and makes long voyage thereafter. Throw in the veteran ship captain, hotshot pilots, and aliens infiltrating the ship and its almost a match. But then again, what is completely original these days? "
I never thought of it, but you are right. It does resemble Robotech.
Post originally by Kester Pelagius at 2004-12-30 07:03:07
Converted from Phorums BB System
Great comments,
<<I found you review to be quite harsh.>>
Remember there were a lot of EXPECTATIONS going into the mini. I was one of the many people who remember watching the original series as a wee little lad.
That's really the series biggest obstacle, the fact it is connected to a established property, but has nothing to do with it.
Still I've heard good things about the series. So I'll wait and see.
<<I think you were correct in your criticism of the opening scene - why destroy a Cylon except for effect, and the light up back - but scenes such as No 6 and the baby more than make up for it.>>
Believe it or not the scene with the baby actually caused a bit of controversy at the time, more so than the other two scenes.
Of course once people stopped talking about that they realized the same thing the rest of us have about the other scenes in question. ;-)
<<I found it a great development of the Sci-Fi genre, more in keeping with the West Wing and Soprano's, which focused mainly on the personalities involved.>>
It has it's moments. But it NEVER should have been called Battlestar Galactica. This has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with BG and would have done far better, IMHO, to have been totally divorced from said property.
<<The many open questions, such as why Adama was not surprised about the mercenary, just who is feeding him information about clone numbers and whether or not there is actually an earth leave great opportunities for the series - which is what a pilot should do.
I may have the advantage of having seen the first half of the series, but I think it is fantastic, and in keeping with the origins of early Sci-Fi asks a number of philosophical questions whilst using an altered vision of our current situation (the US and 9/11 with an enemy of their own creation).>>
I'll reserve final judgment until I see at least one or two episodes of the series.
Having seen Starhunter I am prepared for the worst and hoping for... well... anything would be better, right? ;-)
<<You criticised the relationship between the officer and NCO and said it meant nothing, but this is clearly untrue when you consider the final Cylon scene. Whilst there behavior may be unmilitary, it is hardly unheard of, especially when stuck on a museum ship for your whole career.>>
POINT OF FACT: The Galactic WAS AN ACTIVE MILITARY VESSEL on her way to mothballs in the Fleet Museum. Ergo, everyone aboard were still active duty personnel.
<<The point is that the crew are unprepared for war and are all out of shape for the fight.>>
Actually, no. The SHIP, because she is technically not yet decommissioned- just unofficially off the roster as they are planning a great big PR she bang to send her on her way to mothballs- is what's not in a state of readiness. It is the SHIP that let the crew down, not vice versa.
That was the entire point of the Galactia having to hyper out to get arms from that abandoned station... you do remember that bit of the story? If not for it there would have been no reason for the Adama/Cyclon fight scene. :-)
Which was actually a rather good scene, if a tad on the unbelievable (set-up wise) side.
<<No 6 is similiar to 7 of 9 in that they are both female and machine based, but that is it. No 6 could well be an hallucination, or a cybernetic implant in the good Dr's head. She bears more in common with Farscape than Star Trek.>>
That's the big question, isn't it?
Farscape inspired or Voyager inspired?
I say Star Trek because, well, the writer's- and director- did WORK on Star Trek. I have the mini-series magazine and remember the pre-mini hype and, essentially, that fact is mentioned in such a way that you feel they actually expected people to bow down and worship at their feet because of it.
I forget who worked on which series, it's been a while since I read the articles and what not, but it's OBVIOUS that the No. 6 character is a rehash of 7 of 9; and that someone really had major wood for a 7 of 9/Dr. Bashir love story.
Not that it's a bad idea. But I'd prefer this to have stayed fanfic, or at the very least they could have made it less obvious.
<<We see little of the Cylons because they are supposed to be secretive - a largely unseen and misunderstood threat.>>
We see little of them because the CGI was crap and the mini was literally filmed in a few weeks time, thus leaving the rest up to post-production and the SFX people.
I can only hope that between the mini and the series their SFX people were given enough time to do their jobs. Because the cylon CGI in the mini was just atrocious.
It's obvious they had more time to work with the ships as they managed to do a darn good job with them. Poor cyclons. No one probably wanted to work on them. I can just it......
Names, of course, totally fictional)
"Jim, how're the cylons coming?"
"Great, I think Brian's working on it. Have you seen the new skins for the Galactica? Sweet!"
"Yeah... but the what about the cylons..."
"Jeremy gave their ships a once over last night. Just saw them. Many you're really going to like them. Much better than what we had last week!"
Post originally by Kester Pelagius at 2004-12-30 07:07:39
Converted from Phorums BB System
Greetings,
Wow! Just wow!
<<What was clear though, was that it was not BSG in mood or atmosphere. In fact, I thought that if they had called it something else entirely, distancing the show from BSG, and re-jigged the plot a little, it might have accomplished a lot more. >>
Agreed.
Worse, when you consider how the pre-mini hype not only used footage from the original to sell itself but virtually every other page in the official mini-series magazine used stock photos from the original series… Well it’s just blatant misrepresentation.
You CAN NOT- well I guess you can in Hollywood, but you shouldn’t- hype a show by building up the expectations of an established audience then, in the 12th hour, make like Nelsom on the Simpsons and go "Ha-ha!" as you reveal that what you have filmed is nothing at all to do with the original series.
It's like a studio hyping a Biblical Epic as being the next best thing to having a time machine to see the events in person... Then revealing what you've actually filmed to be a "re-envisioning" that has Sodom and Gomorrha blown up by asteroids, and thus causing the flood of Noah. . .
Can you imagine something so ludicrous NOT being reviled?
<<Aside from that, I thought that the plot for the mini-series strongly resembled the storyline for Macross/Robotech. Aliens attack space battleship during ceremony, battleship warps far away and makes long voyage thereafter. Throw in the veteran ship captain, hotshot pilots, and aliens infiltrating the ship and its almost a match. But then again, what is completely original these days?>>
I’ve never thought about it but, now that you mention it… The storyline does seem suspiciously similar to the general story of Robotech.
Post originally by Elicia Davenport at 2004-12-30 07:27:32
Converted from Phorums BB System
This isn't a review, it's a fanboy raving about how someone made a new version of the object of his fanaticism that he does not agree with BECAUSE it is not the older version. Little or none of this 'review' discusses the new Battlestar Galactica in terms of what it actually is. Instead all that was discussed was how it is NOT a warmed over exact clone of the 70s show.
Get off your high horse and see this show for what it is. A new science fiction space adventure show. So it has the same name and general theme of an older show that you liked when you were a kid. This is different. View it as you would any new show instead of making comparisons to something from 25 years ago. If you drop the 'not old Battlestar Galactica' baggage, this miniseries is quite nice. The actors are certainly easier on the eyes than the old 70s actors.
Linear Mode
