Battlestar Galactica Discussion

Daemonik writes, Tonight is the big premier of SciFi’s ‘reimagining’ of the Battlestar Galactica saga. Will it hold it’s own as a bold new take on the short lived series or will you walk away from it feeling cheap and dirty? We might as well make a weekly discussion for this one, too.

78 replies on “Battlestar Galactica Discussion”

  1. Me like!
    If the first two hours are any indication, Battlestar Galactica is in excellent hands. I admit to being a little concerned during the first scenes (especially the very first scene) where things seemed to be sexed up to little purpose but things just kept getting better and better.

    I particularly like the new take on Baltar. He was always a confusing character for me because he was supposed to be brilliant and yet he fell hook, line and sinker for the idea that the Cylons would actually reward him for his betrayal of the colonies. Making him brilliant but duped by a sexy woman who isn’t really human makes him the tragic figure he deserves to be. Perhaps even more interesting will be what happens with the fake-human Cylons – the female certainly seemed to be exhibiting emotion and in fact saved Baltar’s life. Could they be setting up an eventual splinter in the Cylons with a faction becoming pro-human, or is it a mechanism to allow Baltar some kind of consort-like position living with Cylons?

    I’ve read a lot of talk about how stupid it is to change the sexes of some of the characters (Starbuck and Boomer) but they handled it well. Specifically, they didn’t write their characters (so far at least) to make them examples of how far women have come – instead, they’re simply characters who happen to be female. Giving women positions of importance within the Galactica hierarchy is much better than having token women hanging off the men (a la Cassiopeia and, to a slightly lesser extent, Athena).

    Speaking of women, I was at first concerned about the artificial woman and the fact that (as noted above) she seemed to be a vehicle for gratuitous sex appeal. As I kept thinking about it, however, it seemed perfectly logical from a strategic point of view: Men are often led around by their private parts and women would have an easier time being infiltrators because they’re often considered less threatening. Knowing this, the Cylons made the obvious choice of casting their spy as a woman. That very first kiss WAS probably gratuitous but it was still weirdly hot, so I’ve decided to forgive. :)

    In terms of the visuals, I saw nothing to quibble with. The effects were good and the tech (and the reasoning behind the Galactica’s eventual survival) was interesting. I also got the sense that someone over there watched some Firefly. There were some in-space camera moves that reminded me a lot of that show, not to mention the [mostly] silent space scenes which add tension and accent the fragile nature of humans in the vacuum who would be dead but for being ensconced in metal.

    In short (though that’s not possible now), I liked the first two hours quite a lot and hope that the rest measures up.

    PS – Mr. Olmos was probably right – hardcore fans of the original series could really dislike this new take. Then again, fans of Claremont’s X-Men could easily hate the Ultimate version, too. I think they would both be wrong, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

    • Re: Me like!

      In terms of the visuals, I saw nothing to quibble with. The effects were good and the tech (and the reasoning behind the Galactica’s eventual survival) was interesting. I also got the sense that someone over there watched some Firefly. There were some in-space camera moves that reminded me a lot of that show, not to mention the [mostly] silent space scenes which add tension and accent the fragile nature of humans in the vacuum who would be dead but for being ensconced in metal.

      I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet (have it taped) and probably won’t for a while with the new Buffy and Firefly DVD’s (woot), but just wanted to chime in a bit about this. The special effects for BG were done by the same people that did Firefly. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a lot of influence on the style of the CG effects. Though of course on Firefly it was much more pronounced since the hand-held style was due to the rest of the show being shot that way as well on Firefly. There’s also a cameo by Serenity in BG somewhere.

      • Re: Me like!

        I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet (have it taped) and probably won’t for a while with the new Buffy and Firefly DVD’s (woot), but just wanted to chime in a bit about this. The special effects for BG were done by the same people that did Firefly. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a lot of influence on the style of the CG effects. Though of course on Firefly it was much more pronounced since the hand-held style was due to the rest of the show being shot that way as well on Firefly. There’s also a cameo by Serenity in BG somewhere.

        Probably in the refugee fleet. Did anyone else hear Starbuck say “frelling”? In the big battle scene. I swear I heard it. If so, what a delicious dig at Sci Fi. :)

        -Joe G.

        • Re: Me like!

          Probably in the refugee fleet. Did anyone else hear Starbuck say “frelling”? In the big battle scene. I swear I heard it. If so, what a delicious dig at Sci Fi. :)

          Yep – I backed up on TiVo and heard it twice :)

  2. Sound of silence
    I taped it and have not had a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but I did catch parts of it in the begining. It seems that someone has finally figured out that there is no sound in space. The ships emitted no sounds when the view was an exterior.

    I was frankly surprised and pleased. I bodes well, and with the above comment, I look forward to watching the whole show tomorrow.

    • Re: Sound of silence

      I taped it and have not had a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but I did catch parts of it in the begining. It seems that someone has finally figured out that there is no sound in space. The ships emitted no sounds when the view was an exterior.

      I was frankly surprised and pleased. I bodes well, and with the above comment, I look forward to watching the whole show tomorrow.

      weeeellll, not NO sounds…there were a few cases where you heard “engine noise” or explosions…but for the most part I was impressed with how far the realism of space battles has come. also the complete maneuverability of the ships using basic gas thrusters. they’re getting the physics mostly right for once. nice.

  3. At first glance…
    …I like it. I really do. It’s a great story line. The characterizations were
    really good, and the Starbuck and Boomer being female thing was
    handled very well.

    The no sound in space was excellent, and the obvious retros firing to
    control attitude and such vs. just flipping a stick over was really good.

    I do appreciate that the names they used in the original series are now
    ‘call signs’. I always found it pretty stupid names they all had. I didn’t
    catch Commander Adama’s name.

    overall a good start, I’m interested to see how the second half goes. I
    read a script online back in July or so and I’m seeing strong similarities
    with minor changes here or there so I’m pretty sure how it will go. I”m
    looking foward to it.

    Only thing is I wish they didn’t have smoke trails on the missles.
    Everything else was done so well

    • Re: At first glance…
      Commander Adama’s first name is William. They never said it in the show, but it’s written on the Mark II that Apollo is flying (which is Adama’s old fighter). I can’t remember what his callsign was though.

      • Re: At first glance…

        Commander Adama’s first name is William. They never said it in the show, but it’s written on the Mark II that Apollo is flying (which is Adama’s old fighter). I can’t remember what his callsign was though.

        It was “Husher.” I don’t know what it means, but maybe I’ll find out when the Battlestar Galactica video game (where you take the role of young Adama) drops in price and I pick it up. :)

        • Re: At first glance…

          It was “Husher.” I don’t know what it means…

          I looked at it again tonight, and I thought it was “Husker”, not “Husher”. Not sure if that makes any more sense, though…

    • Re: At first glance…

      Only thing is I wish they didn’t have smoke trails on the missles.
      Everything else was done so well

      What is your objection to the smoke trails? Is it asthetic or technical.

      I can see how they are useful to the viewers. We saw things happening at many different ranges. Projectile fire had tracers to show us what is going on, but a missile would need trails to inform us of its position.

      • Re: At first glance…

        What is your objection to the smoke trails? Is it asthetic or technical.

        I can see how they are useful to the viewers. We saw things happening at many different ranges. Projectile fire had tracers to show us what is going on, but a missile would need trails to inform us of its position.

        Technical only, after watching night two I decided that I was being to stupid. Would basically saw ships explode without the trails with the angles they used.

        Though the thinking in my head doing, that would be a bitch of something to defend against. If jamming was working you’d not know you were target until you were hit.

  4. My take
    The Good:

    • No robot dog, at least so far.
    • Reaction jets and silence in space. Someone’s doing their homework.
    • The Vipers
    • The explanation of why Galactica used antique technologies. It makes sense that when you’re fighting a machine enemy that your machines are at risk.
    • Using missles and high velocity projectiles instead of lasers.

    The Bad:

    • Nymphomaniac robot girls.
    • Turning the Cylons into Terminators.
    • Cylons as ships instead of Cylons piloting ships.
    • Making the aforementioned ships look like crap.
    • Only showing two of the Cylon ships when there’s supposed to be fleets of them.
    • The new Cylon warriors. Sure, it’s a logical technological progression and I still don’t give a crap, I want my walking chrome toasters.
    • No one has said “By your command” yet.
    • Re: My take

      I think that if you are an artificially intelligent race, it just makes sense to build your weapons to be artificially intelligent as well, rather than having to interact with them in the same clumsy way as a human would.

      My good list would add the use of nukes as both tactical and strategic weapons, and showing how a ship can survive a tactical nuke, and the use of EMP weapons.

      My bad list would also mention the smoke trails. That was pretty much the only thing I disliked, visually.

  5. WOW!

    I liked it – alot. I was a HUGE galactica fan when it was on. I even admit that I tried really hard to like “Galactica 1980” when they found earth… The operative word is ‘tried’, as the show sucked nuts.

    Many of the things that bothered other posters didn’t bother me at all. I was only a little concerned when the sex kitten robot at the start kissed the family man diplomat, and I thought that the new cylon centurions looked like… well, they looked overdesigned.

    Things I particularly liked:

    • The quiet space – limited rocket noises!

    • Use of projectile weapons and missiles – the smoke trails were prolly a directorial/design decision so that you could actually SEE the missiles

    • The non-pandering storyline

    • The fact that the cylons had developed smart machines like the cylon fighters. Why have three chrome toasters in there, when you can create a machine all by itself that knows how to do what it does?

    • Baltar’s character – finally he makes sense

    • The complete ruthlessness of the cylons in machine-like control. The fact that they will not accept surrender or even listen. It’s simply not in their programming.

    Things I didn’t like:

    • Some of the acting (Boomer) was a little lightweight. It [em]may[/may] have been the characterization, but I found that the ‘leaving Casiopaea with survivors scene’ to be distacting due to the wimpy emotions of the colonial fighter pilots.

    • the ‘zoomy’ camera in space. I mean the camera where it would search for a ship and then zoom in. The style of that juxtaposed too strongly with the visual style of the rest of the show.

    And I, for one, bow before our new Cylon overlords.

  6. Better than Enterprise
    I don’t have much to add to the excellent comments above. I have to
    admit that I was expecting a re-hash of the old Galactica, which I
    enjoyed as a small child in ’78-79.

    This is MUCH better. I’d always wondered about what happened prior to
    the 2nd Cylon war, now I have an idea because of this “prequel”. The
    realism of the space fights (I, too, was impressed at the paucity of sound
    in the space scenes) was particularly good. It’s billed as an show with
    “adult” stories, and the story so far is well-written.

    After the disappointment that is Enterprise (though the writing seems,
    oddly, slightly better this year), this show has got my attention for the
    next few days.

    • Re: Better than Enterprise

      This is MUCH better. I’d always wondered about what happened prior to the 2nd Cylon war, now I have an idea because of this “prequel”.

      In the original series the Cylons were robots built by an alien race (the organic Cylons) to bring order as they saw it to the galaxy and to remove any imperfections. That to me is a much better back story than the Skynet 2.0 plot they’ve decided to use.

      • Re: Better than Enterprise
        I disagree. I think this plot makes more sense than the one used in the original series (It’s fresh in my mind because I’ve just watched it). In the original, the Cylons were a reptilian race that admired humans, and tried to emulate them by building the chrome toasters. They then turned on their masters, and then turned on the humans. It seemed contrived, and just a plot device for why the Cylons hated humans. This new version just seems a better fit. Granted, its been done to death, but what can ya do? All in all, I liked this version, but I find it sort of confusing with the throwbacks to the old series. It’s like a Next Generation thing with the same character names as the original.

  7. A non-fan take
    I was never a fan of the original show. I liked the toys (specifically the ship design), but I thought the show was a hokey Star Wars rip-off.

    This show succeeded for me. I got enough nostalgia out of the Mk. II Vipers, the Cylons in the museum, and the music cue during the ceremonial flyby. Don’t get me wrong, this is still not quite “real” SF, but it is one of the most logical and well thought-out space operas I’ve ever seen.

  8. Ron Moore, Come Back to Star Trek

    We still love you! Really!

    This was some very well done SciFi and I enjoyed every minute of it. The beginning seemed a little over-sexed (was there anyone not getting some?), but it settled down after that.

    Note on the Zoom-shot: It was used a few times in Attack of the Clones, and someone told me that it was started with Black Hawk Down (which I haven’t seen yet). It’s like the bullet cam from The Matrix. Directors will get tired of it soon and move on to something else. I’m just glad the cuts from “Hulk” never caught on.

  9. Not a bad start.
    They’ve done a nice job of making sure that newbie’s don’t need to know anyting from the original, but there are easter eggs for those who have.

    I’ve noticed that some people are a little annoyed by the sexual aspect of mini-series, but I think I can rationalize some of it. I’m not going to try to explain when #6 kissed that diplmat at the begining. If the Cylons were going to frag the station, why would they sacrifice 3 units in the process? Furthermore why would one of those units feel the need to play tonsil hockey with the poor shmuck has his blood boils and freezes simultaneously? Talk about a tingly sensation!

    #6 and Baltar makes a whole lot more sense. Baltar was targeted because he could provide them with information. Dave Barry once said that “Males cannot look at breasts and think at the same time.” Assuming this is true, a logical invader would made sure that Baltar is thinking with Mr. Happy everytime #6 is in the room. If Baltar had been a woman or gay, #6 would have been replaced by a Chip ‘n Dale dancer.

    As far as technology goes, I rather like the way they did things. The Colonies probably could have designed the Galactica using independant computer systems backed up by redundant hardwired stuff and come up with a more hi-tech look but I understand that the low tech elements are a stylistic element to remined the audience how old the Galactica is. Other than the basic handshakes regarding fuel, FTL travel and artificial gravity, Everyting looks like an extension of modern society. Every single system is not integrated. The “fax machine” seems analagous to the Emergency Action Message system found aboard navel vessels, in that is provides a hardcopy of the message. Realtime audio communication is more limited than the fax machine.

    A few things that is buging me is when Boomer and Helo landed on Caprica.

      1. Shrapnel from a near miss hit their Raptor, rupturing a fuel line, the hull, the cabin, and Helo’s leg, ergo they had to set down for repairs. Not sure why they couldn’t make the repairs with EVA, but I’ll let that one go.
      Helo sealed the cabin with that little patch and then administered some first aid to himself and hopefully put some duct tape on his suit, but they didn’t patch the outer hull. We all saw what happened to the Columbia when the heat shield was ruptured and super heated atmospheric gases infiltrate a frame of a ship. Why didn’t it blow on re-entry.

      2. The Raptor was undercrewed. Boomer was up front, flying and Helo was in back running what appeared to be an type of AWACS, but there was a third seat. As Starbuck mentioned, there were “20 pilot’s climbing the walls” back on the Galactica. Why was a combat patrol sent out without a fully crewed AWACS unit?
      Maybe they didn’t have a fully checked out co-pilot, but wouldn’t a Viper pilot be able to at least help?

      3. Galactica was an active duty, ship of th line. Yet for some reason the conversion to a museum had begun before she was decommissioned. I can understand them having no ordinence during their final voyage, but turning the launch bay into a gift shop? That one is pushing it a little.

    Okay, I’ll stop talking… for now.

    • Re: Not a bad start.

      Ok, I’ve been gloating because we’ve been able to see the unaired Firefly eps in Canada before the release of the DVD (although the Brits already saw’em), but now we have to wait until January ’04 to see Galactica.

      I’ll be honest. I wasn’t waiting for this. Save for a few nifty designs, I thought the original series made Enterprise look like the epitome of SF TV– but this sounds reasonably good….

      • Re: Not a bad start.

        Ok, I’ve been gloating because we’ve been able to see the unaired Firefly eps in Canada before the release of the DVD (although the Brits already saw’em), but now we have to wait until January ’04 to see Galactica.

        Same here – trust the Americans to one-up us, eh? From the comments here, I think I’m going to have to pull out the trusty old VCR come January to make sure I see this.

        • Re: Not a bad start.

          Same here – trust the Americans to one-up us, eh? From the comments here, I think I’m going to have to pull out the trusty old VCR come January to make sure I see this.

          I can’t wait for you folks to see this. I think you’ll really, really like it. Notice there’s not one person who commented in here who has anything negative to say other than minor quibbles. That’s exceptionally unusual. :)

          Peace,

          -Joe G.

    • Re: Not a bad start.
      A couple of notes on your post:

      First, the throwback technical aspects of the Galactica were only partly because the Galactica was old. It was also strongly intimated that the Galactica was built in relatively primitive fashion as a defense against the Cylons who could apparently use Colonial computers against them. After 40 years, the Colonials had become complacent again in this area, allowing the Cylons to make mincemeat of them with only the defense codes obtained via the deception of Baltar.

      The “Emergency Action Message” aspect is probably less about technical limitations and more about security. A text message can easily be encrypted (and super-encrypted) and then sent in a tiny (fast) burst. Real-time communications (either text or voice) require an open (active, maybe encrypted) channel that is easier for enemies to pick up and trace – this could explain how Colonial One was targeted right after the Adamas started yakking at each other.

      Finally, I agree somewhat with your concern about the Last Voyage Gift Shop (TM), but it could very well be that Galactica was already a floating museum doing a last goodwill tour of the colonies before taking up permanent station near Caprica. Thus, decommissioning one of the launch bays early wouldn’t be that unreasonable.

      I’m addicted to being an apologist. :)

    • Re: Not a bad start.
      Couple of comments on what you didn’t like

      your points 1 & 2 could be summed up with ‘hey this was a flyby mission that was still out and about, not expecting to go to war that day why would you fully crew the AWAC?’

      Point 3 is could be viewed as to why the millitary sometimes hates the civillian run guvment. When they think the world, or parsec, or solar system whatever is at peace of rthe last 40 years they’re going to be in a hurry to please the constituants and tear down things that cost money. This could be why the galactica was being decommissioned/museumed all at once.

      But still good points. Just my thoughts on them after a night of sleep thinking about Sci-Fi has almost gotten halfway redeemed for cancelling farscape on me :)

      • Re: Not a bad start.

        Couple of comments on what you didn’t like

        your points 1 & 2 could be summed up with ‘hey this was a flyby mission that was still out and about, not expecting to go to war that day why would you fully crew the AWAC?’

        I think you may have mis-understood me on point 1. That is a purely technical question. I’m asking why didn’t the Raptor expolode on re-entry when super-hot atmosphere entered the ships internals through the hull breach.

        They might have patched the hull with an EVA, but if they could do that, why didn’t they fix the fuel line while they were at it.

        Point 3 is could be viewed as to why the millitary sometimes hates the civillian run guvment. When they think the world, or parsec, or solar system whatever is at peace of rthe last 40 years they’re going to be in a hurry to please the constituants and tear down things that cost money. This could be why the galactica was being decommissioned/museumed all at once.

        But still good points. Just my thoughts on them after a night of sleep thinking about Sci-Fi has almost gotten halfway redeemed for cancelling farscape on me :)

        That’s as good a reason as any.

    • Re: Not a bad start.

      3. Galactica was an active duty, ship of th line. Yet for some reason the conversion to a museum had begun before she was decommissioned. I can understand them having no ordinence during their final voyage, but turning the launch bay into a gift shop? That one is pushing it a little.

      Been on the USS Constitution lately? I think that ship, which is still a commissioned warship, has been out of port once in a generation and will probably never leave harbor again since it’s considered too unsafe by modern standards.

      The same thing might have happened here – the “last of its kind” ship remained a commissioned ship for ceremonial purposes (and to allow active duty personnel to maintain it, etc.), only the plans changed in midstream.

      Finally, don’t forget that the Galactica has technically been decommissioned by the time the fighting starts. That raises all sorts of legalistic questions… not that there’s anyone left to ask them.

  10. surprisingly well done
    I’d agree with many of the posters. The sex-kitten cylon was what I had to tolerate the most but her role was vital to the plotline. I really liked the justification for the Galactica being destined to be the surviving ship, though it WAS only attacked by 2 small cylon fighters (why’s that?). The space scenes were up to date and well done. The zoom cam technique is also something I saw on B5 long ago (and used in a sensical way, as if viewing through a zooming binocular). It’s effective but was overused here. Baltar’s character makes sense now. The sex-change for some of the characters was fine.

    More shots of the cylon fleet and fighting elsewhere would be the only things I’d have wanted added.

    Overall: Thumbs Up.

    • Re: surprisingly well done

      though it WAS only attacked by 2 small cylon fighters (why’s that?).

      If you thought all you needed to do was broadcast a signal that would shutdown everything within 20 parsecs why send more than two?

      • Re: surprisingly well done

        though it WAS only attacked by 2 small cylon fighters (why’s that?).

        If you thought all you needed to do was broadcast a signal that would shutdown everything within 20 parsecs why send more than two?

        Considering the simultaneous mass bombing of 12 planets, I would think that there would be a few Cylon Base ships around. Those ships would logically have several squadrons of fighters on board. So why not use them?

        • Re: surprisingly well done

          though it WAS only attacked by 2 small cylon fighters (why’s that?).

          If you thought all you needed to do was broadcast a signal that would shutdown everything within 20 parsecs why send more than two?

          Considering the simultaneous mass bombing of 12 planets, I would think that there would be a few Cylon Base ships around. Those ships would logically have several squadrons of fighters on board. So why not use them?

          I think that can be answered by considering the vastness of space, as well as the posibility of resistance. While the Cylons could logically discount the Galactica, I expect the planned for the possability that things might not go to plan. At this point we have nothing to confirm or deny the existance of Battlestars that are newer than the Galactica but older than the newest models. These ships may have limited hardened systems. Cylon jamming would only partially disable one of these ships. That said, having a capital ship standing by to finish the job is a good idea. This would tie up a sizable number of the Cylon capital ships.

          Another thing to consider is that those two Cylon ships did fire off a single to the effect of, “If you don’t hear from me in 5 min, send reenforcements.”

  11. Really Excited
    All the good comments above got me really excited. I was tempted to just not even bother with it. So, I went and checked out the TV schedule and noticed it was only a two parter! That puts it at about 3 hours. Mini-series my butt. I remeber when a mini-series lasted several weeks! This is just a made for TV movie cut in half.

    • Re: Really Excited

      All the good comments above got me really excited. I was tempted to just not even bother with it. So, I went and checked out the TV schedule and noticed it was only a two parter! That puts it at about 3 hours. Mini-series my butt. I remeber when a mini-series lasted several weeks! This is just a made for TV movie cut in half.

      This is the SciFi channel, their yearly budget isn’t half of what ABC spends in a month. Most of the made for SciFi movies are optioned 30 different ways before they even start production. Be glad it wasn’t just one movie.

    • Re: Really Excited

      All the good comments above got me really excited. I was tempted to just not even bother with it. So, I went and checked out the TV schedule and noticed it was only a two parter! That puts it at about 3 hours. Mini-series my butt. I remeber when a mini-series lasted several weeks! This is just a made for TV movie cut in half.

      I’ve got to agree with you on this (though “several weeks” might be just a BIT of hyperbole). Two nights should [somewhat obviously] just be called a “two-parter.” It should take at least three two-hour chunks (with commercials, of course) to be called a miniseries.

      Fortunately, we can hold out some hope that Galactica could be fully revived as an ongoing series. After all, Universal owns both Battlestar Galactica and the SciFi Channel, meaning that even a high-priced series like this is feasible with all the profits (direct and ancillary) coming back to the same place.

      • Re: Really Excited

        I’ve got to agree with you on this (though “several weeks” might be just a BIT of hyperbole).

        I’m thinking of the 9 hour Shogun miniseries that originally showed one part a week (I thought they did that with Lonesome Dove as well). I’m also thinking of the short run series from Japan that are scheduled only to run for anywhere from a half to one full season and then end. These series run long enough for good character development but with a finite schedule allowing the writers to create a begining, middle, and end just like a movie script. This way the shows avoid the jumping the shark syndrome.

        • Re: Really Excited
          Don’t get me wrong. I understood what you were referring to, and wish this particular two-parter had gone on longer. I was merely saying that I think three parts is the minimum to make the term “miniseries” reasonable. :)

      • Re: Really Excited
        I’ll join in: I was kinda dreading what they were going to do, but after watching the special, I started having hope. But no where near the expectation that it would be as good as it was. For once, someone actually cares about a good story! There were several sections with real suspense and tension. I really liked the John Colicos Baltar, but this one is all too plausible and works really well. I’m actually hoping this gets picked up and turned into a series.

        What I have to wonder is how is it the same people that do this and the Dune “mini-series” that are so good, and still turn out the dreck movies that are more common? Save the bucks for the good stuff, *please*!

  12. Starbuck really, really worked well!
    Did anyone else notice she’s even got the 1st Starbuck’s smile? How did they do that? She’s brilliant. “How’s the wife?” Wasn’t that scene in the premier of the original series, only Starbuck was the *cause* of the marital problems?

    Like everyone else I came in expecting less, and was very pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t very pleased with Boomer, other than that the casting was/is fantastic. They got space mostly right, with just enough sound so they didn’t have either silence or musical score accompanying the space battles.

    I remember being really impressed in the original series when they cut to a “reporter” doing a report from Caprica, with the Cylon ships flying overhead shooting up the city. I guess I’m still a big kid — I was slightly dissapointed they didn’t show more things going BOOM on the colony worlds, although I was impressed when Baltar cried out in pain when he accidentally glanced at a nearby nuke explosion. I’d have been more impressed if his eyeballs had melted out of their sockets, but this is still commercial TV.

    On the other hand the Cylons, unlike most space villians (the bad guys from Independence Day, for example) finally did the smart thing and decimated their targets from orbit. Cool. Someone was thinking. :)

    Regarding the use of AIs to control Cylon crafts, AI is probably one of the Cylons’ strongest weapons — they’ll use it. They can mass produce it, it is quickly trained, and it requires far less maintenance than an organic pilot. With AI their ships can maneuver and fight faster, and in ways that cannot be duplicated by spaceships carrying fragile organic crew. I was shocked that the missiles could be fooled by chaff/antimissile drones. Granted, you don’t need to put AI in everything, but in a battle scenario it certainly makes sense.

    I’m looking forward to tonight’s finale. I actually wouldn’t mind seeing the series return with this cast, but I suspect this won’t amount to anything more than a few more miniseries.

    -Joe G.

  13. nearby thunder
    Everyone is so happy that the spacecraft only go “whoosh” (instead of WHOOSH) that they’ve overlooked a major blunder – if there’s a gap between the flash and the boom with thunder, there should be a long gap (minute+) if you’re far enough from the explosions that you can pick off numerous mushroom clouds on the horizon.

    A more subtle point is that the sound stretches out with distance because more and more of the original sound is bounced off of the terrain. That’s why a nearby lightning strike is a thunderclap, but one a few miles away can seem to roll on forever. With nuclear explosions you should hear a looooooong low rumble.

    • Re: nearby thunder

      Everyone is so happy that the spacecraft only go “whoosh” (instead of WHOOSH) that they’ve overlooked a major blunder – if there’s a gap between the flash and the boom with thunder, there should be a long gap (minute+) if you’re far enough from the explosions that you can pick off numerous mushroom clouds on the horizon.

      A more subtle point is that the sound stretches out with distance because more and more of the original sound is bounced off of the terrain. That’s why a nearby lightning strike is a thunderclap, but one a few miles away can seem to roll on forever. With nuclear explosions you should hear a looooooong low rumble.

      Good eyes. I was looking for physics mistakes and the only one I saw, I mentioned with the Raptor and the Re-entry.

      • Re: nearby thunder

        Good eyes. I was looking for physics mistakes and the only one I saw, I mentioned with the Raptor and the Re-entry.

        They *did* apply a patch internally to the Raptor, and remember that the Raptor has limited FTL capabilities, so we’re dealing with a civilization that has at least one capability we deem as superscience. Perhaps some of those other techological capabilities include quickly-applied patches capable of withstanding the heat and pressure of re-entry? Such a patch is probably more easily within our technological grasp than FTL. :)

        -Joe G.

        P.S. I agree though, there should have been a near constant rumble from the nukes, with some louder booms thrown in for good measure. In reality, if such a thing can be imagined the background sound probably should have been loud enough to obscure dialog spoken in normal voice, but in the sense of keeping decent production values I would wager the foley people only added muted sound intentionally.

  14. Sixth Variety
    I just couldn’t keep the PKD story ‘Second variety’ out of my head once
    #6 told Baltar her model number…and the note Adama finds just
    brought in that entertainingly bad film version ‘Screamers’ as well.

    heh.

    • Re: Sixth Variety
      Screamers, huh?
      Spoilers
      #6’s comment about the sleepers not knowing leads to some interesting story options… We see in #6’s behavior that , as Buffy the Vampire Slayer put it, "Love makes you do the wacky." Boomer’s affection of Chief Tyrol may lead to similar behavior’s on Boomer’s part. This, of course is assuming that either more minis or a regular series get made out of this.

      • Re: Sixth Variety

        Spoiler:
        #6 talked about sleepers that could be activated in the future. I don’t think Boomer has any clue. Cool isn’t it? :)

        -Joe G.

        • Re: Sixth Variety


          Spoiler:
          #6 talked about sleepers that could be activated in the future. I don’t think Boomer has any clue. Cool isn’t it? :)

          -Joe G.

          More spoilers… Well not exactly but we are discussing possible future story lines.
          Just some loose numbers…

            Boomer does know she’s a Cylon gives them approx 6.1-7.2 metric tons of angst/drama to work with.
            They are already doing the “Cylon in love/lust” thing w/ #6, but they could transition #6 to being in “lust” while Boomer is really in “love.” Ergo they have some wiggle room here.

          Boomer doesn’t know she is a Cylon gives them approx. 7.2 metric tons of potential angst/drama.

            There is just all kinds of potential here. The truth could come out when Boomer survives an accident that should have killed her, or lifts something she shouldn’t be able to. They throw here in hack. There would be a couple of really hot Boomer/Tyrol scenes in the brig… Not that kind of scene! Get your mind out of the gutter! First there would be the accusation/anger scene. “I can’t beleive you’ve been lying to me all this time…” Then they would have to have a reconciliation scene, probably with some hand-holding. I doubt you could get a good kiss through those bars…

          Okay, I’ll stop talking… for now.

          • Re: Sixth Variety
            OK, I just can’t buy the fact that they can’t test to see who is human and who is not. I also can’t imagine why Baltar would lie about such a thing. It serves him no purpose to accuse someone at random when he knows that someone aboard is a Cylon. Besides, he would have been working with the ships doctor to confirm his suspesions. At the very least the doctor would have insisted on seeing the results of his work.

            Try this… I believe they do have a test. I believe that Baltar’s accusation was based on science and he will eventually test the rest of the crew/colony. Testing may be slow and not quite perfect at first so testing could be drug out for a while. Eventually they will suspect that Boomer is a Cylon. But, they won’t let her know that they know…

            • Re: Sixth Variety

              Try this… I believe they do have a test. I believe that Baltar’s accusation was based on science and he will eventually test the rest of the crew/colony. Testing may be slow and not quite perfect at first so testing could be drug out for a while. Eventually they will suspect that Boomer is a Cylon. But, they won’t let her know that they know…

              As long as he’s the only one who understands the test (a little present from #6, notice how he hemmed and hawed when he was asked to explain it), the test gives Baltar significant power. The people who are Cylons are the people who he *says* are Cylons. Nifty isn’t it, and #6 gets to protect her special friends. Perhaps it even goes so far that #6 is actually “interpreting” the tests. Baltar merely parrots her “results”. :)

              She’s well placed to play all sorts of delicious Evil Tricks. :)

              -Joe G.

  15. BY YOUR COMMAND
    They worked it in, I’ll be damned. :) Please folks be careful with spoilers here. The ending is great, and we do have Less Fortunate among us who couldn’t watch it this week. :) With this remake the people who brought it to screen did a great dignity to the original.

    -Joe G.

    • Re: BY YOUR COMMAND

      They worked it in, I’ll be damned. :) Please folks be careful with spoilers here. The ending is great, and we do have Less Fortunate among us who couldn’t watch it this week. :) With this remake the people who brought it to screen did a great dignity to the original.

      -Joe G.

      I laughed when I heard that. :-) They *have* to make a series from this – there is no other way. That show rocked, and I was GENUINELY afraid for the show based on my love of the original series.

    • Re: BY YOUR COMMAND

      They worked it in, I’ll be damned. :) Please folks be careful with spoilers here. The ending is great, and we do have Less Fortunate among us who couldn’t watch it this week. :) With this remake the people who brought it to screen did a great dignity to the original.

      Must.Resist.saying.anything.about.shocker.in.the.ending…

      Damn that was sweet.

      I’m having trouble keeping in the drool. Real sci-fi show, great quality of story, it was just simply amazing. Now I don’t think I could watch the original series without really screaming at the TV for it’s flaws. When the earth references started showing up my wife started making cracks about ‘invisible motorcycles’ and asked if Boxey was ‘that little blonde kid’ from the 1980. I about folded in on myself in embarassment compared to how good this was

  16. Final Comments After Finale
    First off, I’ll comment on what seemed to be the biggest point of contention before the BG airing: Katie Sackhoff could not have been better as Starbuck. Her performance in the big action sequence (spoilers quite purposefully avoided) was spot-freaking-on. I think even Dirk Benedict would have to be happy with the choice and anyone left complaining is beyond home.

    There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to get more of the new BG. I don’t know if it will be an ongoing series (my fingers are crossed but my hopes are reasonably low) or another big movie (the most likely – probably produced along the lines of the new Dune movies), but this was just too good to leave it a one-off. It doesn’t hurt that they used mostly lesser known actors, a conscious decision likely made in order to have the best chance for future availability. Another important factor is that this is a Universal-produced, Universal-aired product – as I stated in an earlier post, this means that they don’t have to split the take with anyone else, making the high production costs easier to swallow. We can all help, of course, by picking up the inevitable DVD release…I’ll be doing my part.

    In short, this was a new vision of a good concept produced exceptionally well. For those who might have missed out for reason, get on board when both parts air on Sunday. It’s worth it, beyond question.

    • Re: Final Comments After Finale

      …anyone left complaining is beyond home.

      Hope, hope! Beyond “hope”! I knew I should have taken an extra 30 seconds before posting. :)

      Also, “missed out for reason” – stick a “some” in there. I need a nap.

      • Re: Final Comments After Finale

        …anyone left complaining is beyond home.

        Hope, hope! Beyond “hope”! I knew I should have taken an extra 30 seconds before posting. :)

        Also, “missed out for reason” – stick a “some” in there. I need a nap.

        Everyone here speaks fluent Typoese. :) Man what a good show. I’m taping it on Sunday. :)

        -Joe G.

    • Re: Final Comments After Finale
      I am surprised myself to admit, but this 2-parter was probably the best done made-for-tv sci-fi “movie” I’d seen in quite some time… maybe even since “In the beginning” so many years ago. I’m further surprised that it was a SciFi channel production which tends to make a lot of junky cliche stuff more often than not (though I still watch them, heh).

      There was more gratuitous kissing, though not without it’s purpose. The world-chant music in some of the scenes was IMO a bit hokey. Starbuck was more brash than smarmy like the original, though now there’s some clue as to why she’s more reckless. But when I think of it, it would seem like I’m reaching to find things to pick on if re-think what peeves I have. It was just well done and nicely written. I did like the twist at the end: I was surprised that Baldar wasn’t wrong though a bit disappointed at the choice of the sleeper. (I hope that’s vague enough to not be a spoiler)

      • Re: Final Comments After Finale

        I was surprised that Baldar wasn’t wrong though a bit disappointed at the choice of the sleeper. (I hope that’s vague enough to not be a spoiler)

        For a while I actually thought BALDAR was the sleeper – it would have made sense, but would have made the cylons into the borg. :-)

        • Re: Final Comments After Finale

          For a while I actually thought BALDAR was the sleeper – it would have made sense, but would have made the cylons into the borg. :-)

          woah woah woah don’t Jinx it, he’s still got a chip in his head and hes got his woman doing things to hom no one else sees, thats a step towards control. I really hope they don’t though because then they’ll have started stealing from EVERYONE!
          They already stole star treks sex symbols, firefly’s camera effects, ID4’s getting the planet blown up, and roslin looked a LOT like wife of the president incidently…
          that was a horrible mistake showing us all of the types of cylon androids, now we know who to look for if they ever have a series.
          We all know boomer can’t be all bad, I mean she adopted boxy right? itd be freakin sweet if he turned out to be a prototype model.
          That was BS with Adama and Earth, until the canadians see it I won’t go off on it but the rest of you know what I mean. COME ON

          • Re: Final Comments After Finale

            For a while I actually thought BALDAR was the sleeper – it would have made sense, but would have made the cylons into the borg. :-)

            woah woah woah don’t Jinx it, he’s still got a chip in his head and hes got his woman doing things to hom no one else sees, thats a step towards control. I really hope they don’t though because then they’ll have started stealing from EVERYONE!
            They already stole star treks sex symbols, firefly’s camera effects, ID4’s getting the planet blown up, and roslin looked a LOT like wife of the president incidently…
            that was a horrible mistake showing us all of the types of cylon androids, now we know who to look for if they ever have a series.
            We all know boomer can’t be all bad, I mean she adopted boxy right? itd be freakin sweet if he turned out to be a prototype model.
            That was BS with Adama and Earth, until the canadians see it I won’t go off on it but the rest of you know what I mean. COME ON

            they *didn’t* show the 12 types…they only showed 4. the hot chick, the guy from the space station, another guy from the ship the president was on, and the main character one. ah hell, everyone else has put it in the open, boomer. the 9 or so we saw there at the end were multiple copies of each. they still have 8 models to play with.

            • Re: Final Comments After Finale
              …and the film was great. The first episode of the new series is a corker.

              The “Back on Caprica” scenes look especially interesting.

  17. Earth
    spoilers:

    So Adama claims to have bull$hitted the ‘earth’ story to give people a reason to fight and live. The president called his bluff, and they both said that Earth doesn’t exist. But we, the viewers, know better – we are ON earth, we are here, and according to the story, we are the 13th tribe of Cobol. It seems to me that future story lines will need to include the discovery that Earth does exist and how to get there. Just my $.02 worth. Man, I loved that movie. I have not had to pause the Tivo going into a commercial break so many times for a TV movie simply to exhale and go “wow” since, well, … ever. ;-)

    • Re: Earth

      spoilers:

      So Adama claims to have bull$hitted the ‘earth’ story to give people a reason to fight and live. The president called his bluff, and they both said that Earth doesn’t exist. But we, the viewers, know better – we are ON earth, we are here, and according to the story, we are the 13th tribe of Cobol. It seems to me that future story lines will need to include the discovery that Earth does exist and how to get there. Just my $.02 worth. Man, I loved that movie. I have not had to pause the Tivo going into a commercial break so many times for a TV movie simply to exhale and go “wow” since, well, … ever. ;-)

      You mention that Earth is the 13th colony of Cobol, this is well known, & therefore not a spoiler. We also know what happened to the other 12 colonies. But the question is, what happened to Cobol?

      • Re: Earth

        You mention that Earth is the 13th colony of Cobol, this is well known, & therefore not a spoiler. We also know what happened to the other 12 colonies. But the question is, what happened to Cobol?

        I believe the spoiler is the fact that in the series Adama believe earth existed, had a general direction to go and headed that way. Here it’s a blind faith thing to boost morale as they head ‘thataway’ with no clue as to what they will find

        • Re: Earth

          You mention that Earth is the 13th colony of Cobol, this is well known, & therefore not a spoiler. We also know what happened to the other 12 colonies. But the question is, what happened to Cobol?

          I believe the spoiler is the fact that in the series Adama believe earth existed, had a general direction to go and headed that way. Here it’s a blind faith thing to boost morale as they head ‘thataway’ with no clue as to what they will find

          I don’t care about Earth right now. I want to know what ever happened to Cobol?

          • Re: Earth


            Well, it sure sounded like in the little cerimony at the end that they all got up and decided to go colonize from Cobol…hence the ‘colonies’ thing…

      • Re: Earth

        But the question is, what happened to Cobol?

        Duh. Obviously people got tired of programming with it and ported everything to .NET.

        Can you think of a better reason why it was so easy for the Cylons to trojan horse the defenses?

  18. One Question, Last Note
    I have a question, where did the note come from in Adama’s office? Any ideas? It is too vague to be of much use. Thoughts?

    • Re: One Question, Last Note

      I have a question, where did the note come from in Adama’s office? Any ideas? It is too vague to be of much use. Thoughts?

      I was thinking it was from Baldar. I just figured he would try and tip the humans off somehow, without coming straight out and saying something.

      • Re: One Question, Last Note
        uhm, balTar be his name

        One thing I didn’t like was the fact that the ‘cylon tester’ thing didn’t get that far other than the conviniently locating one of the 12 cylons.

        Adds for some seriously interesting plot twists in the future including the one that really snapped me to attention at the end of the mini-series.

        • Re: One Question, Last Note

          One thing I didn’t like was the fact that the ‘cylon tester’ thing didn’t get that far other than the conviniently locating one of the 12 cylons.

          There was no ‘cylon tester.’ That was a lie to name a likely cylon agent on board the Galactica and to identify a definite cylon device.

          If Baltar actually had a way to recognize cylons, we wouldn’t have been surprised by the last few minutes of the show. But now Adama has a false sense of security and Baltar will find it more difficult to name a particular cylon mole in the future.

          I actually expected the ‘cylon’ to be a human who would soon be killed by the cylons. It made sense to place an agent at the weapons depot, but why would one of their handful of available agents be put onto the Galactica instead of the 120+ active battlestars for weeks prior to the war? That only makes sense if the cylons recognized the military significance of the Galactica as one of the few ships they couldn’t compromise with the information 6 of 12 obtained, and if the cylons knew that and considered it worth dedicating an agent then they should have hit the Galactica hard early in the war.

          • Re: One Question, Last Note

            I actually expected the ‘cylon’ to be a human who would soon be killed by the cylons. It made sense to place an agent at the weapons depot, but why would one of their handful of available agents be put onto the Galactica instead of the 120+ active battlestars for weeks prior to the war?

            Who says there weren’t human-appearing cylons on every single battlestar extant? Or at least on a bunch of them? Of course, even if there weren’t, Boomer’s assignment to Galactica could simply have been a coincidence. Young officers in a military organization don’t generally get to choose their assignments, and if the cylons DID have that kind of control then they would certainly assign their infiltrators to more "interesting" posts than piloting a Raptor (one obvious example being communications/communications security). Of course, if she’s unaware of being a cylon (almost guaranteed or #6’s line in that regard becomes a complete throwaway) then it’s even easier to declare the Galactica assignment a coincidence.

            Just for fun, I could also toss out the [very remote] possibility that Boomer is in fact a human and her resemblance to one of the human-like Cylon models is a genetic fluke/coincidence. :)

            • Re: One Question, Last Note

              Just for fun, I could also toss out the [very remote] possibility that Boomer is in fact a human and her resemblance to one of the human-like Cylon models is a genetic fluke/coincidence. :)

              Some of the poo-poo-ers out there say that there is nothing original done in the SF genre these days, but your little idea there… that’s good! I don’t think I’ve seen that anyplace else!

  19. Firefly on BSG???
    Ok, I’m a little late coming to the party… I’m actually watching it as I type. (Baltar is one seriously luck guy, BTW)

    Was it just me or was a Firefly class ship flying over Caprica in the scene with Mary McDonnel looking at the sky about 14 minutes into part 1?

    • Re: Firefly on BSG???

      Ok, I’m a little late coming to the party… I’m actually watching it as I type. (Baltar is one seriously luck guy, BTW)

      Was it just me or was a Firefly class ship flying over Caprica in the scene with Mary McDonnel looking at the sky about 14 minutes into part 1?

      yes. intentionally.

      • Re: Firefly on BSG???

        Ok, I’m a little late coming to the party… I’m actually watching it as I type. (Baltar is one seriously luck guy, BTW)

        Was it just me or was a Firefly class ship flying over Caprica in the scene with Mary McDonnel looking at the sky about 14 minutes into part 1?

        yes. intentionally.

        Thanks for the confirmation. I googled for it and found this.

  20. Uniforms and Egyption mythos
    Of things that they shouldn’t have changed as much, I can only point to the uniforms and the Egyption feeling. I really liked the look of the original coloinal warriors. I also really liked the touch of Egyption design that was completely dropped.

    But considering that that’s all I’m complaining about, that’s a huge win.

  21. A Huge Win…
    …for everyone involved. It looks like Sci-Fi Channel scored a ratings win with the miniseries and the scifi fans got a very good show.

    I, myself, was not expecting much from this shown, and ended up being very impressed. The comment discussions has been overwhelmingly positive on this message board (just compare it with an Enterprise discussion – and you can tell which one the fans wished was a tv series). Heck not only where the comments positive, but quantity of comments has surpassed any other on this website (which, granted, is a fairly low-volume discussion board), its also the third most read story here.

    So all in all, congrats to the cast & crew of BSG, and I hope it continues as a new series.

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