The new Battlestar

[jdavis]

Ever hear of a little show called Enterprise? Doesn't the temporal cold war pretty much make much of the history we think we know inaccurate?

Yes and hasn't that really turned out to be a disaster for the franchise as a whole? It's polarized the Star Trek community and ratings have been less than stellar for the show.

There really shouldn't be any suprise for these people that Galactica is getting hammered by this fan group, they have been getting hammered on the issue ever since the script leaked out last February. Sci Fi channel started editing out messageboard post of people wanting the old cast last March. Once again Sci Fi channel handled a public perception problem poorly. It really wouldn't of taken much to get these people to give the new show a shot and instead they alienated and ignored them, the 18 to 25 year old demographic was more important than the shows actual long term fans.

Regardless, no one who knows anything about BSG will argue that Richard Hatch and a handfull of fans are probably responsible for creating interest in the franchise again. The problem is that it all comes back to business. If you make a show for the original fans, you will lose money. At 25 years after the original, the only way to get the ratings you need for a show like this is to go after a new fan base and try to take the majority of the old fans with you. You have to make it for a modern audience and you have to take into account that we have a better idea now of how computer technology should work than we did back in the '70s. I think that this series succeeds on all fronts. I suspect that the ratings were good enough for this to go to series, so the question now is where this show will take us.

How do you know a show more geared to the original would of lost money? There were three different projects in the works geared to a continuation story (Including the Tom DeSanto/Bryan Singer project that was the original Sci Fi miniseries project http://www.cylon.org/bsg/desanto-revival01.html and the Richard Hatch project: http://www.cylon.org/bsg/bsg-2come-01.html ). The new show managed to leave a large portion of the old fans behind and it remains to be seen how the ratings will go. It wasn't that bad (I didn't like it but I will give it that much) but there is no way of knowing how a continuation story would of done to say it would of been a failure the same goes for a remake of the original that wasn't a complete and total reimagining of the story. Myself I really wonder why they even bothered calling this Battlestar Galactica so much was changed it wouldn't of been that much of a stretch to change the names and a couple of ship designs and call it something else entirely.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I like last nights better than the first and we still have not seen all 12 models!

Boomer issue did not surprise me but I just wonder if Boomer

Spoiler

is or is meant to be replaced with Cylon Boomer if there is a seasonal show. Why did it not, she was interesting as a character, her boy friend dealing with the female engineer, and Boxey always was with a robot. So, it was either she was going to die or be a spy.

The female Starbuck still was a waste of screen time.

The sexbot, ah, always love when they take from Farscape, not Harvey by a long shot but made Baltar fun.

Still waiting for Lucifer to show up!

 

[LightPhoenix]

How do you know a show more geared to the original would of lost money? There were three different projects in the works geared to a continuation story (Including the Tom DeSanto/Bryan Singer project that was the original Sci Fi miniseries project http://www.cylon.org/bsg/desanto-revival01.html and the Richard Hatch project: http://www.cylon.org/bsg/bsg-2come-01.html ).

Because after 25 years of toiling, no progress was made.

If the fan-base was as much of a force as you claim it to be, something would have been done with the property a long time ago.

And I'd also point out none of these projects are on the air.

 

[LightPhoenix]

My thoughts on part 2... alright, but kind of bleh.

First, they used another kid! In exactly the wrong way! At least the first kid's death was an accident (and I think it was meant to be). This was just dumb.

Baltar and Cylon 6? Bah, done better in Farscape. Sorry, but nothing beats Scorpius.

I kind of like the fact that Baltar chose the Cylon on the ship as the fall-guy... rather ironic. Actually, I think he figured this out subconsciously, and was just convenient for him to reveal the Cylon device.

Spoiler

Boomer as a Clyon spy. Meh.

I really hope we get to see the "old-model" Cylons in action, and not just as honor guard to the human-Cylons. They really do look neat.

Definitely more of a hope feeling to this second part though, and I liked that.

I also like that the characters aren't perfect. Perfect characters = boring.

But overall, the second half just kind of made me shrug. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either... it was just kind of there. I think the whole thing (both parts) could have used some editting and and been trimmed down to three hours and shown as one block. The first part had the draw of revealing stuff (for better or worse, depending on your view), but the second had none of that.

 

[GMVictory]

Because after 25 years of toiling, no progress was made.

If the fan-base was as much of a force as you claim it to be, something would have been done with the property a long time ago.

And I'd also point out none of these projects are on the air.

Probably because they weren't "edgy" or "gritty" enough.

 

[KenM]

I think number 6 and other cylon's that look like humans are one model, and the soldiers are another. Also:

Spoiler

They said some people that are cylon's don't even know it. They are sleepes. I think Boomer is one of those

 

[Psion]

I just curious how much of the negative postings were do to remembering the original show being better than it actually was?

They had reruns on SciFi, which I enjoyed. I didn't think the acting was bad, I didn't think the story was bad. I like the characters. And the show had a certain mood about it. Special effects were above par for a TV show for the 70's. (And yes, I noticed they tended to reuse shots).

In short, I don't agree with those who think the original show was crap.

 

[Psion]

Anyone who faults the producer for not remaining true to the old series had better be kicking peter jackson in the pants for his raping of the lord of the rings series.

Um, nope. They changed secondary characters in LotR. They changed core characters in BSG.

As Colonel Hardisson said at NKL, if you are going to change and adapt a property, change the elements that didn't work (like, um, Boxey, not those that did work (like Starbuck.)

 

[Psion]

Ever hear of a little show called Enterprise? Doesn't the temporal cold war pretty much make much of the history we think we know inaccurate?

Yup. But then, I think it's bad. (Worse, in fact, than BSG. Despite my criticism, I think the BSG mini-series has some clever bits and not half bad. But Enterprise, like Voyager, is drek.) Point?

And I am not just "hung up on nostalgia." I loved ST:TNG almost as much as TOS. If that was just nostalgia speaking, that wouldn't be the case.

 

[Psion]

Still waiting for Lucifer to show up!

I thought of Six/the Reincarnating Cylons as the figurative equivalents of Count Ilbis from the show. After all, she is practically the voice of evil and temptation in Baltar's head.