The new Battlestar

[Gallo22]

Well where to start at. (note these are only my personal opinions, I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on TV.)

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

1. The first 5 minutes of the show were pure crap. "snip"

2. I hated everything about the Cylons except for the two CGI ones in the above mentioned first scene. "snip"

3. Some of those actors just were not very good actors. "snip"

4. Set design sucked for the most part, "snip"

5. Wardrobe stunk, "snip"

6. The CGI work wasn't all that impressive and I hated their way of filming the space battles "snip",

7. I didn't like the "Computers=Bad" storyline either. "snip"

8. I did see a couple of glimmers of hope in there. "snip"

I could not have said it better!!

Gallo22

 

[Zenon]

I think the problem here is not that they are military cliches they are entertainment cliches. In the real military 2/3rds of this crew would of been discharged and several of them would of been courtmartialed. These weren't real military cliches at all they were "The Dirty Dozen" characters, they were the cast of "Top Gun" cliches their characters weren't realistic they were gritty and flawed, all of them were flawed, every single character in the show was flawed in some way. Their Military disipline was pathetic, they wouldn't even hold up to military dress codes and lets not even get into military personel having sexual contact while on duty (or off duty for that matter). Gritty and dark does not equal realistic it just equals gritty and dark, this is TV entertainment not a documentary on military life. And as far as asking vets about this stuff I got a feeling most of them would laugh their asses off at the suggestion this show had anything at all on real military life during a war.

I wasn't bothered by the lapses in discipline. From the impression I got, being stationed on the Galactica wasn't exactly the "top spot" or most prestigious posting in the fleet. At one point we are told that 30 Battlestars are destroyed which is 1/4 of the fleet, so say 120 Battlestars, all newer and most likely more effective combat units. IIRC from the old series, the Atlantia was the flagship of the fleet.

So getting posted to a duty station way out in the outer system on a floating museum isn't exactly where you find your best men, especially since it was being readied for decommission. Let's look at the crew:

Adama: washed up old war dog
Tigh: old drunken XO
Starbuck: problem anywhere she is posted, relegated to the "boonies" where she can't screw anything up.

Not exactly the cream of the crop. That explained most of the lapses in discipline to me. And now that most of humanity is gone, we got to see more PDA (public displays of affection) simply because people are happy to still be alive (and have ones they care about still alive as well).

 

[Storm Raven]

I wasn't bothered by the lapses in discipline. From the impression I got, being stationed on the Galactica wasn't exactly the "top spot" or most prestigious posting in the fleet. At one point we are told that 30 Battlestars are destroyed which is 1/4 of the fleet, so say 120 Battlestars, all newer and most likely more effective combat units. IIRC from the old series, the Atlantia was the flagship of the fleet.

Except, that if you want to be hardheadedly realistic about things, even on the "worst ship in the fleet", breaches of discipline like the ones shown on BSG would have gotten the offenders tossed out of the service long before the events of the miniseries. You are just used to bad cliched screenwriting that ignores things like military discipline and think that you could concivably get away with this sort of crap and not be drummed out of the service posthaste.

 

[trilobite]

I really really like it.

Production values where very good in my opinion. I LOVED the space combat scenes. Good acting and story. A very stylish update of Galactica in my mind.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

There a few things I either missed or they didn't explain very well. Can anyone answer:

Where did the note that Adama found at the end come from?

I'm guessing Baltar left it, but who knows?

And you'd think that a civiliation that could invent FTL drive could do witha few letter quality printers, instead of that antiquated dot-matrix stuff.

Except, that if you want to be hardheadedly realistic about things, even on the "worst ship in the fleet", breaches of discipline like the ones shown on BSG would have gotten the offenders tossed out of the service long before the events of the miniseries. You are just used to bad cliched screenwriting that ignores things like military discipline and think that you could concivably get away with this sort of crap and not be drummed out of the service posthaste.

Particularly since the war has been over for a long time (they weren't remotely expecting a Cylon attack). Military organizations tend to get more hidebound and regulation-focused the longer they go without fighting -- a "peacetime" military wouldn't tolerate a Starbuck-like cliche for a minute (not that a wartime military would likely tolerate some of the egregious displays off ill-discipline shown, either).

 

[Zenon]

Except, that if you want to be hardheadedly realistic about things, even on the "worst ship in the fleet", breaches of discipline like the ones shown on BSG would have gotten the offenders tossed out of the service long before the events of the miniseries. You are just used to bad cliched screenwriting that ignores things like military discipline and think that you could concivably get away with this sort of crap and not be drummed out of the service posthaste.

True, but since it's a story and not a "reailty TV show" I find I don't have to be "hardheadedly realistic" about it. I approach watching it the same way I approach gaming, that is to say with a moderate level of "suspension of disbelief".

I do understand how this can bother some people, I'm just saying I am not one of them that it does. I can stretch my belief to accept it as part of the story, realistic or not.

 

[Psion]

And you'd think that a civiliation that could invent FTL drive could do witha few letter quality printers, instead of that antiquated dot-matrix stuff.

Heh. You'd be surprised at what our military still uses...

That said, I just sort of assumed that the 12 colonies have great space propulsion tech, not so great computer tech.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Heh. You'd be surprised at what our military still uses...

Not really ...

 

[Dahak]

Well, thankfully it was better than I was expecting it to be. Most of the Saga of Star World episode was kept in, in altered form. There are analogies to most of the key points of the original. It almost seems like a Marvel Ultimates retelling of the same story.

That said, my only real gripe is that it is a remake rather than a sequel. Considering the museum pieces they had of classic centurions and basestars, it would have made sense to me to have it set a few generations after the original. Earth could have been destroyed instead of letting Caprica get it again. Flight names could have been taken in honour of the former holders. The Cylons made by humans (instead of by "true" cylons) could have explained away with some hidden text found on Earth after the colonial landing, still making humanity responsible. Plus, the surviving Earthlings could have a real beef with the Colonials for bringing the Cylons there. Wouldn't have taken that much of a rewrite, IMO.

 

[RatPunk]

Thes mess up the design of the new Galaitica on howthe Vipers were suppose to leave the hanger. In the orinigal, the Vipers left the hanger from the end part, not from the sides of the new one.

I just want to point out that this is absolutely incorrect. The Vipers in the original series were always launched from tubes in the sides of the landing bays. If I were at home, I could even include photographic evidence.