Baraendur said:
Well here we go.
No argument. The cylons had no reason to go onto the station. The new terminator style cylons are way cool and I hope we see more of them if this goes to series.
I loved the CGI cylons, but of course those cost money. I think when it's all said and done my biggest complaint will be the shoestring budget feel to this, I've seen better sets and CG on syndicated shows like Andromeda and Stargate. For a overhyped world premier mini-series they should of done better, I'd except shortcuts out of a series but a mini-series/pilot episode is supposed to draw you in and get your attention. Man just toss in a couple of scenes with the CG cylons, maybe even a 'Attack of the Clones" type scene where they show a whole army of them in rows, something to show they are a actual military force instead of a bunch of horney robot models.
As far as the scene goes I would of even bought it if she went in shot him then left, but to give us a thirty second close up of a French Kiss, come on (in the distance shots it looked like her other hand was between his legs, I'm glad we didn't have to watch the old guy get felt up in closeup too).
I have a feeling that this will come into play in part 2. That was pure exposition. #6 was a human infiltrator and was designed with the necessary attributes to get the job done.
I'm hoping that they do make some distinction between cylons in part two. I'm never going to fully buy into their cylons as I much prefer my armies of bad guys to be in the old centurion/stormtrooper type mold rather than underware spokesmodel type mold, but then their cylons haven't been fleshed out yet(ha a joke get it, "fleshed out", see she's a half nekkid model and a baby killing robot
).
I actually think they did a good job of portraying military personnel. They aren't expected to show a lot of emotion. The military is all about suppressing emotional responses and getting the job done. I think they pulled this off pretty well and I felt that the characters that mattered showed just enough humanity to keep me interested.
They are not expected to be "getting it on in a closet" either
. The old show had a kind of seat of the pants fighter jockey feel to it, sort of like "Black Sheep Squadron" for the pilots and the bridge crew was all straight laced and dignified. The card scene tried to show some of this but there just wasn't enough of it, this is a area where they could improve later as they flesh some of these characters out a little bit but as it stands now I don't even know half of their names (even the ones who are supposedly from the old show, this mixing of names with fighter call signs is irritating me as they call the same person by two or sometimes three different names). Once again this is a area where a little
cool is worth more than a lot of
realism. Part of my problem here might also be related to the lack of decent costumes (as discussed later).
Again, I don't share this view. I thought the set designs were excellent. They reminded me of the original, but a little less relaxed, more like a military vessel should be. No arguments here.
I think one of my problems here was they didn't remind me of the original at all (for instance I loved the giant blast shield on the bridge). You could tell me there on a island or underground or on the moon and with most of the sets that would be believable. It was almost like there was just a door like every other door that led to the bridge, you could get lost and open the wrong door and be in a bathroom or on a hanger deck, it all was just the same dang hallway with the same dang doors. (the hinged doors didn't bother me just the fact that every room had the same door). A good example of what I'm talking about is Star Trek, when you watch a show you know where they are and to go someplace on the ship they have to actually go someplace that looks different, it gives the illusion of the ship being large and laid out into different sections, the new Galactica gave me the impression of a giant round hallway set that they just walked laps around (which is funny because that's actually what it was). Heck the bridge didn't even look like a ships bridge, it just looked like a command center of a base, It was basically round heck you couldn't even tell which way was towards the front of the ship.
The military uniforms were kind of blah. I would have prefered the ones from the original show, but oh well. I can live with it. #6 was supposed to look like this.
For one thing they only had one uniform, military dress, active duty, off duty it was all the same, the only uniform change they had was to put on unflattering tank tops over tee shirts. They were all grey or light blue except for the pilots uniforms, which were some kind of padded leather looking thing. They needed a little snap to them, something to make them stand out, something to make me believe these people are different, they are people who live in another galaxy with a different culture and way of life. Good grief give them some hats even just something to make them stand out a little. Another area where
cool trumps
realistic in a tv show. It's almost like they are trying to drown you in gritty realism, not something I personally want out of my otherworldy space operas.
I actually liked it. It was a new way of showing a space battle. Actually not entirely new. It wasn't too much different than Wing Commander. Still I thought it was a refreshing change from the typical laser beams. Seeing shrapnel flying through someone's leg and watching decompression is a detail that most scifi shows leave out entirely.
The realism overcomplicated things a bit too much for me, I mean I get where they are coming from here but then you get into the point of why not just make your fighters into brick shapes or balls, heck all those little wings don't mean anything is space and there is no need for sleek and pointy when shaped like a brick will work just as well. I liked the decompression bits although I didn't care for the missles and guns bits.
Still that wasn't as much my problem as was the way they shot the scenes, I just didn't care for that up close realism type of documentary feel they were going for, it got confusing and akward in some places. They just jumped around too much. Once again I'll just have to see how they deal with it in part two.
The computers = bad storyline is straight from the original. That's one of the conceits you have to make it you're going to enjoy the show. As for the cylon waking up elsewhere after death, we don't know how it all works or how their tech works. It could have been an analogy that the last saved version of the cylon's consciousness wakes up elsewhere. She did make a hasty exit from Baltar before they started nuking, so its possible that she uploaded her personality at that time.
I don't remember there being a problem with cylons being masters of computer networking in the original. I mean the battlestars were top of the line and modern and the vipers were they best they had. They lost the war because they got Pearl Harbored during peace talks not because they relied too much on technology or the cylons jammed all their computers. I don't remember there ever being any talk anywhere in the show about the cylons even being more technologically advanced than the humans, they just had numbers. The big moral to the 70's show was more of a cold war era, never let your guard down or trust your enemy bit. They let their defences down because they actually believed that the cylons wanted peace and they fell into a trap. The new one tends to get preachy on the technology bit, they make it sound like the cylons are all computer hackers and can control any high tech item at a whim, Adama is actually scared of computers, that's not something I remember from the first show (although the original Adama had minor telekinetic powers, but I'm sort of ashamed I'm enough of a geek to actually know that).
As a writer in the gaming industry and someone who is working on starting a fiction writing career as well, one of the things I swore not to do was bring children into it - at least not in the context that they did in the show. I agree that this was completely uncalled for. Completely! I understand what they were trying to accomplish with it, but that still doesn't make it any more acceptable. So far this is the one point that I fault the writers for. Obviously after the bombing starts all kinds of babies die, but the murder of a helpless infant is not something I want to see, read about, whatever. Period.
I'm not sure why they even had that in there myself, they could of had the scene then had her walk away after her criptic remark about the baby not having to cry for much longer and left it at that. It added nothing and took away from the family feel this show should of had. It's almost like they were trying to make "Full Metal Jacket" or "Apocalypse Now" in space, they need to drop all the gritty realism crap, it isn't helping the show at all.
Yeah, I hear you on this one. Although like I said earlier, I think it comes off OK without them. Did you see what that handgun did to the guy who jumped on the wing of the ship as it was taking off? It didn't just punch a hole in him, it ripped him in half.
Yea the hand guns are fine, I'm just being whiney on the loss of cool laser special effect, once again in the
cool vs gritty
realism arena they went with
realism.
Finally, the one thing that was particularly poigniant was the same scene I just mentioned where the officer agreed to stay behind in order for Baltar to escape. He sacrificed himself for the traitor that sold out humanity. I didn't think much of hi character until that point, but that was good.
That would of been more powerful if I had even known who the guy was, but he looked and acted just like every other background guy in the show, on Star Trek he would of been in a red jumpsuit. I thought the fact that for a second it looked like Baltar might steal the old woman's number was more poigniant to showing just what kind of man he is. I'll give them lots of credit on a interesting Baltar (one of the characters I didn't care for in the old Galactica).
Anyway, I'm willing to give part 2 a shot and the series as well. I think it has a lot of potential and overall, I liked the look and feel of the show.
IT's funny but I didn't like the look and feel of the show but I'm hoping that the first one was just really slow because of all the back story and the next one will be all action and adventure. I'd give the series a chance if they would get rid of the gritty real world crap and tone down the flawed characters bit (every single character had some sort of personal flaw to them) and go with more action and less preaching.
