Finding Battlestar

[roguerouge]

I think you'll like this book, Finding Battlestar. It's the first book I've gotten published in, so I'm kinda excited. (I wrote the chapter on Jane Espenson.) I hope you'll forgive me for the self-promotion/squeeing with delight.

If people have any questions, I'm more than happy to provide a free scouting report for those people interested in the series.

 

[Umbran]

It would be good if you told us what the book was about...

 

[roguerouge]

Can do!

There's a bunch of articles on different topics:

One chapter compares the old series to the new one. It looks at the alterations, but also why the old series made it on the air (Star Wars), the original creator's themes, and how the fandom survived between the two series.

There's some stuff on polytheism and monotheism, mythology and astrology. There's a chapter on the sex and what it means on the series, only it's written by an academic so it's called "erotics". There's excellent chapters on directors Michael Rymer and Marita Grabiak. I like my chapter on Jane Espenson's two episodes, The Passage and Dirty Hands. There's chapters on "Cylon-Verite," the look of the series, Razor, and the webisodes.

And there's a chapter called, "Frakking up: When Battlestar Goes Awry."

The link to the book on amazon is here: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Battlestar-Galactica-Unauthorized-Guide/dp/1402212119"]Finding "Finding Battlstar"[/ame]

Let me know if people want more detail.

 

[TwistedBishop]

And there's a chapter called, "Frakking up: When Battlestar Goes Awry."

That's very interesting. Not to derail the thread here, but does it admit that the last two seasons were horribly misguided?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

That's very interesting. Not to derail the thread here, but does it admit that the last two seasons were horribly misguided?

derail ahoy!

The last two season have been great. The only real lull in the series was the Black Market episode and the few around that. But beyond that little section, the show has just been amazingly good...especially the ending to this current half season.

 

[roguerouge]

Black Market is not one of Ron Moore's favorites, as he faults himself for being too conventional in that episode. It deals with the series through the end of season three. That chapter focuses on

Spoiler

the return of Starbuck at season's end, along with issuey-episodes (including one that I wrote very sympathetically about (Dirty Hands).

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I've heard of books like this and seen them for shows like LOST, Buffy TVS and even Southpark. But I've never gotten one. Who writes for yours and what else can you tell us about it?

 

[roguerouge]

I've heard of books like this and seen them for shows like LOST, Buffy TVS and even Southpark. But I've never gotten one. Who writes for yours and what else can you tell us about it?

Well, David Lavery co-started Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies, the academic journal devoted to Buffy. He's also edited books on many other series, ranging from Seinfeld to Deadwood. The three author team have done books on Lost and Heroes as well.

A number of the things that I've written on Buffy are coming out in books next year. You can find my article on The Wish here and on the opening title sequences here. My chapter looks at Espenson as an auteur, which is a bit heretical as academia tends to lag behind fandom in acknowledging writers who are not creators.

The writing is not aggravating like some academic works can be. I was directed to write with an intelligent, interested fan and academic audience in mind.

There are chapters examining themes and patterns of representation: sex, gender politics, religion, astrology, etc. I think the strength of the book is in how it fills out the typical way of understanding the BSG series. Chapters on directors who are not writers are rather rare in TV studies, and this book has two of them. There's a chapter on the webisodes and another on Razor. There's also a chapter on the initial critical response to the series from TV reviewers and the GiNO controversy amongst the fandom at the start of the series.

 

[Arnwyn]

That's very interesting. Not to derail the thread here, but does it admit that the last two seasons were horribly misguided?

It sure would be nice if it did.

S3 and S4 were painful to watch, especially after the min-series and the first two seasons...

 

[Darkwolf71]

What I find curious is that such a book would be published so close to the finale of the series. Why not wait so the entire series could be covered?