Man, oh, man. I was going to shut up about this show.
Battlestar Galactica is currently the best thing on television for me. I strongly urge fans of sci-fantasy to check it out. This show doesn't save all their best plot points for the season finale. It MOVES. The acting is superb. I have yet to think, "Ug," which I often felt watching Buffyactors. And I love Buffy. B.G. is top-notch entertainment.
If you haven't given it a chance, I ask that you give this space drama three good viewings. Watch three episodes in a row before you decide. I think that you're missing out if you give it a pass.
Summary (spoilers):
1) Doctor Baltar, a womanizer, has engaged in a sexual relationship with a woman who stole the secret defense plans to the human colonized planet Caprica. The woman turned out to be a Cylon (of the robots who have turned on their human masters). The Cylons, then, have manufactured models to not only look human, but to act human. This Cylon hottie used the plans to knock out Caprica's defenses. Caprica was destroyed.
2) It was during this time that the military vessel Galactica was preparing to dock for its decomisioning ceremony. It was one of the few ships remaining that hadn't upgraded to a networking computer system. It was also the only ship that wasn't rendered useless by the Cylons, who possessed all of Caprica's command codes.
3) Now the Galactica is leading a ragtag band of surviving ships away from Caprica and the Cylons. This "fleet" represents the last of the human race.
This show centers on real human emotions and real moral dilemmas. It is the reason I am drawn to fiction in the first place. I don't like easy answers. I am literally breathless as I watch B.G., at least during the times I'm not gasping, "Oh my god, oh my god."
People make decisions on this show that surprise me, yet these decisions always make sense.
And for all of you guys and gals who don't find many older actors all that sexy, the Madam President is a total hottie--even hotter than the Cylon--and Commander Adama is almost enough to turn me gay. There's something to be said about personality when it comes to sexual attraction.
Whew.
Good show.
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Battlestar Galactica
Actually I want to second this. I watched the Pilot mini-series and went "Wow, these guys not only really loved the original show but they've taken it in some new directions"
Then when the series started I was blown away by how they have been consistently able to explore the same themes as the old 80's series as well as some really edgy and controvercial thesmes in this new series including Religion. This one was a huge surprise to me...Science Fiction dealing realistically with religions, theology, belief systems, and the evolution of said systems from primitive coping mechanisms for our emotions to true community-building institutions.
Powerful and amazingly compelling stuff. Like sid I find myself getting jumpy before the episodes and am breathless after. I can't wait for this series to be out on DVD I will devour every moment it.
I want to point out some hilights to look for (if you have not been watching already):
* Richard Hatch (the Apollo from the 80's series) meets Apollo from the new series.
* Anytime the Cylons talk about God (singular) I get chills.
* In the pilot episode, Starbuck delivers the exact same dialog during the introductory card game that was in the 80's show...and I do mean word for word.
* I have to admit that I found the idea of Boomer (The black pilot in the 80's series) recast as an asian woman, and Starbuck (Dirk Bennedict) recast as a blond woman initially daunting. But you know? They work. Spectacularly in Starbuck's case. She is the exact same character emotionally as the 80's Starbuck but so much more compelling as a woman.
* Lorne Green was this big fatherly "Moses" character in the original show. E.J. Olmos' portrayal is more of a stern, authoritarian man but with a "tough love" approach. You never ever doubt that he cares deeply even though he so vary rarely ever shows it. That is a magnificent actor at work.
* I have to second Sid's remark on the "hottie" president. I have often thought that Mary Mcdonnell was worth looking at ever since I saw her in "Dances With Wolves" but here she really gets to use her on-screen presence. And she consistently delivers the flip-side of Adama. She shows all the feeling, but never doubt she has the rock-hard resolve to do the right thing.
* The whole idea that the Cylons look like humans is one of the creepiest ideas that I've ever heard of. They weren't originally made like that but they evolved themselves like that. That would be like us turning ourselves into machines to fight agasint the machines. What are we giving up? What are we gaining? It's a disturbing idea and the more I think about it the more it wigs me out.
Battlestar Galactica
Excellent review and intervies here:
http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/battlestar-galactica.htm
Battlestar Galactica
Thanks, Dave. Fun reading.
I gotta say, I don't know how much of a fan I am of the old show. I LOVED it, of course, as a child, but as an adult I see it as the poor man's STAR WARS. And maybe that's why it holds a place in my heart. It's full of cheese. Big, stinky, Glen A. Larson, lovable cheese.
THIS version keeps just the right amount of cheese: "Frak" to mean "Fuck" for instance. And if I'm not too far gone, I think they've kept "cubits" as some form of the American dollar. Or if it isn't cubits--my brain isn't working right now--it's something just as silly and wonderful.
I love to laugh at the old show. They were so consistently pathetic about their made-up terms.
Starbuck: "Gee, the Cylons are attacking again. Tell you what, Apollo, why don't we let the producers of this show flash the same old shot of a viper blowing up a Cylon ship, while you and me go catch a beer in the rec. room? I'll meet you there in two centons."
I swear, I'd have to watch the old show again to be sure, but according to their lexicon
centon = 1 second = 1 hour = 1 day = quite possibly a stalk of wheat.
micron = 1 mile = 1 foot = 1 taco
:lol:
My mind is suddenly blank. I'll stop criticizing the old show. But rest assured, as soon as I have something funny to say about how they alternated between Apollo and Starbuck crash-landing on some Earth-like planet, I'll be back.
Catch you all in a centon.
Or is it a taco?
Battlestar Galactica
I just got my Amazon Order in the mail of Battlestar Galactica, both the movie and the soundtrack. My brother is at work, my girlfriend is at work, yet I'm too excited to keep a lid on it. So I'm telling you all. Yeah, I'm a nerd. *Sigh* But YAY me. Oh yeah, it's my birthday, it's my birthday.
Battlestar Galactica
:new-bday: [rainbow]Jeppi[/rainbow]
*gazes lovingly at her own copy of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries DVD that arrived yesterday*
Yeah, I know where you're coming from there, Sid. :) I'm dying to listen to the audio commentary, myself.
Mind you, what is it with all these double-sided DVDs lately? What's the matter - have the distributors suddenly got too cheap to put in two discs?
Battlestar Galactica
Er, Sher said the same thing to me.
It really isn't my birthday. I was kidding, doing the "It's your birthday" song.
sorry for the cofusion. :lol:
Battlestar Galactica
I assume you and I have the same version. Mine is a two disk set. It tells you "flip over the disk for special features. . .but there's nothing on the other side. You have to actually put in disk two.
Cheap product! Just thrown together.
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I need to rely on someone who can recall the first scene of the miniseries. We see a remote station, located presumably on the cusp of human/Cylon space. The human ambassador sits alone, shuffling a stack of meaningless papers. He doesn't expect the Cylon ambassador to show up. The Cylons never do.
Until now.
In walks Number 6, a sexy blond in a red dress, accompanied by two intimidating robots. She starts making out with the guy. Meanwhile, outside, the Cylon raiders blow the space station to hell, killing everyone within.
Okay, that's the scene as shown on the disk. My memory must be playing tricks.
Way back in December of two years ago, when the miniseries first aired, I remember the human ambassador suffering a different fate. I seem to recall that Number 6 left him alone after the makeout session. The two robots suddenly produced guns and blasted the guy. THEN and only then was the space station destroyed.
Dave, Heather, anyone? Do you remember that alternate ending, or is it just me? I hate it when I produce false memories.
Battlestar Galactica
I think you may have a bootleg copy. Did you get it used?
As for that opening scene, they mention a few time during the commentary that this is sort of a "director's cut" and that some of the scenes are put back together slightly differently. Things got excised for time.
I vaguely remember a shoot-em up, but I also remember when the station blew up that she got blown up too...That was pretty clear, becasue there was a momentary disorientation when she shows up again on Caprica.
But I don't have a definte rememberance of it one way or the other...
POSTCOGITATION:
I think I remember there being a commercial break or the credits sequence just after the Cylons come through the door. (so it was Whao! Cylons! Then Beer! Computers , Cars!, something Something,something...then Cylons!) So there was a continuity break with them standing there all gunny-looking then wehne we came back thy fold up the guns and show hands before the leggy blonde walks in.
Battlestar Galactica
I got my copy NEW.
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Hey, what about last night's episode? I was slapping my head and knees. Intense! The last montage made me cry. Sherlynn knows the guy who directed that episode.
Battlestar Galactica
Dunnno, Sid about the two-sided/two-disk thing cause I got mine new too.
And we missed BattleStar Galactica last night. Can you beleive it? We had gone out to the movies, deliberately choosing a movie that would get us home in time, but then totally forgot to tape it or watch it or anything.
Fortunatley it is rebroadcast on Mondays at 11pm so we will be able to pick it up again. but DAMN. How stupid was THAT?
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Not stupid. Human. How many times have I done something like that, let me count the ways.
I'm sorry you missed the episode. Good television.
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Can I just say... OMFG!!!
Dave was downloading episodes to send to a friend of mine in Australia. On Sunday he discovered that not only had he managed to find the 10 episodes aired in the US so far (including Hand of God, which was the one we missed on Friday), but also the remaining three episodes for the season. :D
All I can say is, don't miss the final 2-parter. OMFG!
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Yeah, its a good 'un :)
Can't beleive you're only getting it now. Over here Sky aired it some time ago.
Battlestar Galactica
Greg said to me today, "Only two days and fourteen hours."
I said, "Huh?"
He was referring to how many hours to Battlestar Galactica.
We are so pathetically wonderful.