[Atrocities]

Originally posted by geoschmo:

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Originally posted by Atrocities:
I will never buy the story line about the cylons being made by man although it is key to the story. I like the concept that another race built the cylons and that the cylons killed that race before coming after humanity. That to me was a much better story idea then this Blade Runner & Screemers rip off.

I respectfully disagree. The motivation for the Cylons causing them to try so hard to completely eradicate the human race was one of the weaknesses in my mind of the original series. It never seemed to make sense why they would hate them so much just because they interfered in some war. The Cylons being made by man gives them more depth and personality.

Not familer with Screemers, but I don't see this as derivative of Blade Runner at all. Mainly the difference is one of degree. To me Blade Runner is more of a metaphor for the racial tensions we experience between different Groups of humans. The Robots there are playing the part of a disenfranchised minority group lashing out against the oppresive moajority power structure. You might get yourself killed by a psychotic robot on an individual basis if you were unlucky, but they were no threat to the species as a whole. The fact that they are robots isn't really central to the theme in Blade Runner in my mind. It's coloring instead of the substance of the story. You could replace the robots in Blade Runner with the minority racial, religious or ethnic group of your choice and the story would be just as relevent and compelling.

The Cylons in this form on the other hand represent our dependance on technology unleashed come back to haunt us. They represent a real threat to the entire human species, much more then the robots in Blade Runner did. In my mind it's more comparative to The Stand or Terminator.

Geoschmo

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To me human made robots that now look like humans who want to kill humanity has just been done to death.

The cylons are aliens, why they hate the colonials is irrelivant to the fact that they simply do. Why would any alien race hate another?

My point is that point of the story could have been explored in more depth than simply opting for a hollywood cookie cutter Version of man makes robots then robots want to kill man.

Come on.... Terminator, Screamers, Blade Runner, Alien, The Twilite Zone, The Outer Limits, and many many more have just beaten this concept into the ground.

The best writers who write the best shows tackel the difficult parts of the story and make them work for the story. Those who just want to get it done use the cookie cutter.

Now I am not saying Moore is a bad writer, he is quite gifted and I admire him emensly for his work, but I simply wish he would have choosen a differant route. I don't think it would have taken from the story, but rather added more depth. Why do the cylons hate us so. Why do the cylons want to be like us, why why why?

For Example:
"God did not create the cyclons, the Cylonian race did, and they paid for it with their lives. Now humanity must pay the price for the Cylonians mistakes?"

"Humanity shares many of the flaws that the Cylonians had. Maybe that is why the Cylons are anhilating us."
"Your right, we do, we have emotions. We are alive and not manufactured in some assembly line. We have a soul, and that is something the Cylons will never understand. We have the capicity to expand beyond what we have become, to be more. The Cylons have no concept of this, no emotions, no feelings, and no soul. This is why they are attacking us. We are living beings and they are machines simply programed to kill."

"Have you considered that you are wrong about the Cylons Adama?"
"How so?"
"It seems to me that a race that has dedicated itself the enihilation of humanity must understand emotion, especially the emotion of hatred. And if they have the capicity to feel hatred, then they to must have a soul."

[ December 11, 2003, 06:34: Message edited by: Atrocities ]