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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.
Eh, I think my nostalgia (and my youth at the time) certainly made that show be remembered as better than it actually was. Still, it wasn't a complete waste. I still preferred (and prefer today, for that matter) the concurrent Gil Gerard Buck Rogers stuff, though. That's what I'd like to see "re-imagined" for the new millenium.
My nostalgia overrides my sense with regard to the original. I just went and read some plot synopses on a fan website. I remember a lot of the episodes based on that -- but what lousy writing and plot ideas! AH, well, when you're eight you overlook a lot of that.
My question for this show (OK, one of many): Where are all the people? There's supposedly 50,000 civilians in the rag-tag fugitive fleet, and we know there are only 40 civilian ships (since that's all that had FTL). That's an average population of 1250 per ship (actually higher, since you have ships like the prison barge with 500, and fuel ships that likely have a very small complement).
Galactica dwarfs any other ship in the fleet. Now, we don't know how many people it carries (based on the original series tech stats, it had a crew of 500 plus 200 pilots, but carried 2000 in fugitive mode), but assume the 2,000 figure. Even though it needs lots more room for fuel, ordnance, armor, fighters, etc, and that accounts for some of the size difference, I'm not sure I buy ships at 1/10th the tonnage carrying 2,000 each across the RTFF -- unless they're packed liked sardines, in which case there's the whole food/water/O2/waste problem that gets handwaved -- if they're packed like that, it's unlikely that O2 scrubbers are designed for that population, for example, and things re likely to break down pretty quickly.
I enjoyed the show, certainly as much as the original, but things like this had my wife and I scratching our heads through the whole thing.
Let see a million dollar an hour show which may have rated once or twice in the top forty ratings.
Let see
Commander Amanda Hard ass leader who hates politicians but love his kid even when the kid is right. Hmm how has the character changed. Oh Instead of sucking it up and moving on losing Zack. He is upset because he lost one his sons. So far no much change.
Col Tieg step and fetch boy who would occasionally bring the hammer down on both the commander and the good old boys and occasional girl hot shot pilot.
Apollo Up tight flyboy who mostly right. Hmm still the same
Starbuck Cigar smoking hard drinking, poker playing pilot who has a smart mouth. Oh my god he has breastesss. It is the end of the universe.
Boomer backup who tried to keep the main two pilots out trouble.
Boxey no lines no problem
The President this character has a super heart ache and nice scene on silent running garden ship.
Baltar for no reason I going to betray the whole human race. To keep my skin I am going hunt down BG and his little vipers too. They have changed a 1 dimensional character to two. Plus if they do have a series, the mind chip has nice possibilities as long as don’t over do it.
Seven of nine, number 12, number 5, hugh, Um the babe. Eye candy with double oh dresses and scenes which could not be done thirty years ago.
The hard core fans remind me of all the bitching that when on the next generation was in its first season. Or Shatner’s SNL get a life clip hate love fest.
The actors now have 2.5 dimensional characters compared to 2 dimensional ones of 70. Except for sex and sex changes nothing much has been changed.
How many fans had conventions for the Charlie Angels and they got 2 movies.
How many Columbo conventions were there and how often has that series came back.
Hey Fan People. Hollywood cares only about the money and the ratings. Don’t care about loyalty to the show or its fans. Don’t really care about your lame letter writing campaigns.
B5 still got the ax in its fourth season even with superior writing, good eye candy both babes, battles and beef cake due to its low ratings.
Face it good people until a Scific show can pull the same ratings as CSI, Friends or ER the Hollywood PTB will still think of us a pimp faced parent’s basement dwelling morons.
Did it not occur to you that the reason these character are cliche is because many of them are extremely realistic in military settings and the others are in there so that the rest of us have someone in the cast to relate to? Exactly how would you have rewritten the characters so that they're less cliche?
No. They are cliched because they have become easy to write. When all you are doing is rewriting something that has already been written, your job as a writer is easier. Cliches are the lazy writer's crutch. The unskilled writer's crutch. None of them are "extremely realistic", because they are caricatures at best, outright inventions of hollywood at worst (the wrong headed commanding officer/politician being the worst example).
How about the situations you find cliche? Have people not sacrificed themselves during war time by jumping on a hand grenade to save their friends? Have commanders not given the order to sacrifice the lives of soldiers to accomplish their objectives? Have politicians never interfered in military affairs? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then I suggest you go speak to a few vets who have actually served during war time.
It has happened on occassion. However, these things have been rehashed in so many movies that they have become tired, worn out cliches. All cliches were new once. A long time ago. At that point they were interesting plot elements. Then they become stock "off the rack" crutches that substitute for actual writing, as lazy screenwriters reuse the same material over and over rather than come up with something new. At that point, they become boring and worthy of derision.
OK, I like what they're doing with the new Baltar -- even though I agree the old one could betray the new one's butt six ways to sunday -- but what they're doing with Boomer is a crying shame. The voice of the everyman caught up in big events has been reduced to a plot twist. Nurraugh!!!
And the guy with the tie should be shoved out an airlock; it's for the greater good.
Well, I'll address a few of your points with my opinions:
jdavis said:
1. Out of all the characters they left out or drastically changed they decided to keep Boxey? WTF? Boxey got a part but every single female lead from the old show was cut? At least he didn't have a robot dog, but come on getting rid of Boxey is one of the few things that even the die hard fans wouldn't of minded all that much.
Yeah, I almost said the same thing. I figured the boy was going to be named Boxy when Boomer had him in the cockpit when they lifted off. It was the bowl haircut that gave it away. At least he doesn't seem as annoying as the old Boxy so far. Some spoilers:
I should have seen it coming, the original Boxy had a robot dog, this one has a robot mom!
jdavis said:
2. Still don't like the Cylons or anything about the Cylons or anything remotely to do with the Cylons. At least greasy arms dealer Cylon didn't try to French Kiss Adama during their fight. I just didn't buy into them, their technology, their fighters or the new basestars. I did like the new centurions but they had all of two scenes as background, they did nothing but stand there and look cool.
I was also a little disappointed that we didn't see more of the new centurions. As for them being "human-ized", it's a typical ST:TOS trick to save on special effects - "Wow, these aliens look humanoid, but are blue or have a weird forehead!". For the BSG story, it works because I felt that the Cylons were trying to actually "be" human.
jdavis said:
3. So happy they blamed the technology problem on Baltar's navagation program, that works so much better than them being able to control computers at a whim. So score one fix for episode 2. I also liked that after the battle scene at the end they had mixed in the new vipers with the old ones, showing it was Baltar's program and not computers=evil that messed them up.
I didn't feel it was a "fix" per se, we were told that Cylons could infiltrate computer systems 40 years ago. I also figured that they had planted a virus or backdoor with #6's access to the Defense Network.
jdavis said:
4. Baltar was the best thing about the show, I could almost see myself watching a series just to keep up with his Dr. Smith-like hyjinks. He was the only saving grace of the show for me.
At least the uniforms and sets looked functional (if not totally realistic), I didn't mind them. I liked the military jargon and submarine maneuvering more than the old series with the "big window" view. Heck, I liked it much better than the "ST:TNG spandex pajama" look that's so prevalent in scifi shows.
jdavis said:
6. "Find me some Bullets." come on I about turned it off at that point, after trying to make me believe this is a military operation then they have him say something so stupid? Come on ordinance, weapontry, ammunition, supplies, armaments, shells, heck even provisions would of done, but bullets? It makes him sound like he's going to the OK corral with his six shooter. Bullets are for small arms, the Galactica was firing shells and/or missles and a military commander would of known the difference. I really prefer lasers in space to start with anyway, where will they ever get any more ammo from now?
This was a colloquial phrase. I'm sure Adama knows what a warhead is, he was telling Tigh "Get me something to shoot". Also, we saw that most of Galactica weaponry is energy weapons (all their point defense weapons). If I remember from the old show, they did have some huge launchers, but they rarely used them except vs. Basestars. The other disposable ordinace would have been for the Raptors, small arms, etc. The Vipers appeared to be armed with a pulse energy weapon also.
jdavis said:
7. They failed to sell me on the space battle stuff too, it was jumpy and hard to follow and I personally just didn't care for it. Call it a difference of opinion but I found it looked terribly lame in both episodes. I guess I just like my lasers too much.
See Skade's spoiler post, I thought the same thing he did when it was revealed.
jdavis said:
Overall I'd have to say I was disappointed with it, I gave it a shot and it just didn't do it for me. I really wish it hadn't blown the chance for a continuation story of the old show as that is just the Battlestar Galactica show that I prefer. This was too gritty for my taste in a space opera and I really found nothing special about the writing or the reimagining of the story, except for Baltar. I opened my mind and I gave it a chance and it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, but I just didn't like it.
Well you did better than me. I didn't make it beyond the first commercial break. There's just something about innocent babies getting murdered that I don't find all that entertaining.
(Just my opinion, please don't read the above as an invitation for a flame war. I'm sure there are lots of people who enjoyed the show.)
