Battlestar Galactica On SciFi Channel

[ToddT]

I saw the "Lowdown" on BSG. Its effectively a complete rewrite.
For example: Cylon origins aside, the Cybernetic techonlogy of the Cylon machines was beyond what the 12 colonies could build and there was a couple of episodes that pointed that out, one directly: Dr Belker took a couple of them apart and could not get them working again.
Baltar is now a scientist instead of politician.( he was a member of the Council 12). I could easily go on. Like it appears they removed Athena from the story. She was Apllo's sister and I think she was a qualified pilot prior to her being stationed on the command deck.
Oh the Pegasus only took on two Baseships, Baltar was on the third, and being the coward he was ran before that battle occured.

[ December 03, 2003, 01:18: Message edited by: ToddT ]

[Atrocities]

The lowdown on BSG was a marketing ploy to get people to accept the rewrite of BSG for the SciFi channel. In a nut shell they did not do their homework on the fan base and are now trying to win as many people to the cause as possible.

I loved the part where the actors all said, "ya once I found out that the Cylons were going to be human looking I signed on." WTF! What a joke statement that was. "hey if the actors think its cool that the cylons are now human, then perhaps all the people and fan out there will accept it too." How dumb do they thing we really are? Oh wait, that question is mute, I forgot where Ronald Moore came from.

First, you weren't even alive when BSG came out you, and second, your British so what do you know about BSG. You probably said; "Battlestar Galactica? What in bloodly hell is a Battlestar Galactica"

Then once it was explained to you, the new concept that is, you said "Oh so it is like BLADRUNNER meets STAR WARS. Sure I'll do that."

I just keep telling myself its all good. Its all good.

But simply put it is a cost issue and nothing more, nothing less. Its cheeper to have humans playing the part than CGI robots or Costumed humans.

After all this is the same network that cancelled Farscape while it was still the most popular series it had. And we should not forget about what they did to Cursader and Legend of the Rangers.

"I have a very low expectation of the SciFi channel that they will have to work very hard indeed to impress me." - Unknown Sci-Fi author.

Forgive me for being direct, but I simply did not buy the whole marketing ploy from SciFi. I know a con job when I see one. I will reserve my offical opinion until after the mini-series has aired.

[ December 03, 2003, 02:10: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by gregebowman:
Starhawk, I don't know how old you are or if you grew up watching American tv in the 1970's like I did, but most shows were about the man being the action hero and the women being in teh supportive role. I'm not defending it, but that's just the way it was. At least BSG had formed a female squadron when the males got sick in that one episode. I'm not "B & M" about Starbuck being a female, but after living 25 years with Dirk Benedict's face in your mind, it does take some adjustment to get used to the fact that it's going to be a female. I have no problems with females being fighter jocks or soldiers, either in tv or in real life. I was in the military, and saw several gung-ho type females, and I don't think too many of them were of the butch type. And I have to strongly disagree with your statement about BSG being campy. Maybe you're thinking about Galactic 1980, which was a big pile of dog excrement if there ever was one. Maybe it wasn't to your taste, but in the late 70's, that's about all we had to watch for sci-fi, except for Buck Rogers and Six Million Dollar Man. Now BR definitely got campy toward the end. But I can't see how you could ever call BSG campy. Maybe by today's standards it is, but nothing can be campier than Lost in Space (the series, not the movie).

OMG! This has got to be one of the best replies I have ever read. Thank you so very much for posting it. You are 100% correct. Job well done.

[PvK]

Originally posted by gregebowman:
...
As far as a televised Star Wars, I can only imagine that happening when George Lucas is in the grave, and whoever is in charge of Lucasfilms is going for the bucks instead of a quality product. I just can't see Lucas letting anyone else have any creative control over his creation, except for when he had the 2 cartoon series back in the 80's. I don't know if he had anything to do with that except give his approval.

There was the "planet of the Ewoks" (or something) TV special, which wasn't animated and er, took the embarrassingness of the Ewoks in the ROTJ film, and multiplied it many times, for a kids' show. At least, that was my impression before my survival instincts forced me to stop watching, which was after only a few minutes.

Human Cylons? What, they didn't save all the costumes from the first show?

I was in 3rd or 4th grade when BSG first showed, but I remember thinking it got very corny after a few episodes. I liked the first episode, and some elements of some later ones (or at least, the Pegasus one), but mainly I remember a lot of embarrassing parts, or entire episodes. The "old west planet" one with a Cylon in a shiny hat? They also hyper-overused the same special effects clips, and the Cylons were almost never scary, they were SO inept. Though, I've always been pretty critical, and had little taste for things like "Boxy and his daggit", Ewoks, or "Tweaky" (or anything else after the movie) on Buck Rodgers.

However, gregebowman does make a good point about 70's sci fi options. Aside from watching Star Wars as many times as possible, you had to make do with what was available.

Remember "Battle Beyond the Stars"?

PvK

[ToddT]

Just In case I'm wrong about who you were refering to about The Lowdown" I wasn't defending it, not by any strecth. The promo had desperation written all over it as far as I'm concerned, always think that I when see that much effort in promoting something (its usually bad).

Yeah I miss Farscape.

[Loser]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:

quote:

---

We should point out in all fairness that the first year for any series generally suck.

John Doe

i just wish the first one wasn't the Last one.

---

Same for Strange Luck

[Atrocities]

Remember "Battle Beyond the Stars"?

Vaguely, it had that Japan actor in it. The guy who played the heavy in some mortal combat movie and also appeared in Snips/Conery movie rising sun.

Right????

[Starhawk]

Meh Sci-Fi does their little "Lowdowns" on everything....farscape had one, hulk had one, bsg the new one has one the old one even had a special devoted to it. Personally I reserve judging anything until I see it.

I am not a hardcore fan of anything and couldn't care less if they change characters from men to women or change a cornyass story like BSGs for a more modern one.

And if you do look closely at a lot of things the new BSG will appeal to the new generation they really don't care about the old BSGers because either those folks are older and have moved on from that kind of show completely or are mature enough to realize sometimes a modernization of a story can be a good thing.

The younger viewers will familiarize themselves better to the new storyline better. At least IMHO

[gregebowman]

Originally posted by PvK:

quote:

---

Originally posted by gregebowman:
...
As far as a televised Star Wars, I can only imagine that happening when George Lucas is in the grave, and whoever is in charge of Lucasfilms is going for the bucks instead of a quality product. I just can't see Lucas letting anyone else have any creative control over his creation, except for when he had the 2 cartoon series back in the 80's. I don't know if he had anything to do with that except give his approval.

There was the "planet of the Ewoks" (or something) TV special, which wasn't animated and er, took the embarrassingness of the Ewoks in the ROTJ film, and multiplied it many times, for a kids' show. At least, that was my impression before my survival instincts forced me to stop watching, which was after only a few minutes.

Human Cylons? What, they didn't save all the costumes from the first show?

I was in 3rd or 4th grade when BSG first showed, but I remember thinking it got very corny after a few episodes. I liked the first episode, and some elements of some later ones (or at least, the Pegasus one), but mainly I remember a lot of embarrassing parts, or entire episodes. The "old west planet" one with a Cylon in a shiny hat? They also hyper-overused the same special effects clips, and the Cylons were almost never scary, they were SO inept. Though, I've always been pretty critical, and had little taste for things like "Boxy and his daggit", Ewoks, or "Tweaky" (or anything else after the movie) on Buck Rodgers.

However, gregebowman does make a good point about 70's sci fi options. Aside from watching Star Wars as many times as possible, you had to make do with what was available.

Remember "Battle Beyond the Stars"?

PvK

---

Actually, there were two Ewok movies, and apparently that's all they had in common with the Star Wars universe, because there was no sign or mention of the Rebels or the Empire. If memory serves me right, though, one character was dressed in a rebel flight suit. Also, there were two cartoon series in the 80's, one based on the Ewoks and one based on the two droids. As a matter of fact, I think it was called Droids, and followed the adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO in what must have been a pre-Star Wars 4 life. The ewoks was basically a smurf-like cartoon, only the smurfs had brown fur. None of them were very good, but in a post-Return of the Jedi era, you got your Star Wars kicks where you could.

Atrocities, thanks. I think I had a couple of more points to add, but had to go back to work.

I saw maybe the Last 15-20 minutes of the BSG lowdown by accident. I liked it when the new Starbuck was asked backstage what she'd do if she got a lot of negative stuff thrown at her about being a female Starbuck, and she said she'd flash them. I still haven't seen the new redesigned BSG, just the Vipers. Which looked basically the same to me, but instead of shooting lasers or plasma or whatever it was, they're shooting missiles. Can't wait until Monday.

[gregebowman]

PVK,

Yeah, I remember Battle Beyond The Stars. It was ok, but not the best movie ever made. It took me awhile to realize what it was: The Magnificient Seven in space. Heck it even had Robert Vaughn in it.