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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Battlestar Galactica Season 1 (SPOILERS)

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11:46 / 12.11.03

i assume some of you have heard of the impending remake of the battlestar movie... as much as i liked the original, i am almost as upset about this as the hellblazer thing...

the cylons, you ask?
yes, of course they are still in it.
meet one of them here...

yes, that's right, she's a busty blonde cylon, one with no chrome space suit. oh, and starbuck is a woman this time.

it seems like the only thing they havent messed with is the ships. well, not too much. not as much as they could have. they did drop the cool egyptian looking helmets, though.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

11:58 / 12.11.03

The trailers are dire. Lots of shots of young 'pretty people' screaming and shooting a la Starship Troopers as done by Michael Bay. Oh and ofcourse the quote that the humans MADE the Cylons.

Edward James Olmos actually admitted to the press that the fans will hate this as it has no resemblance to the original, aside from the ships, as already mentioned.

Odd move by Sci-Fi to take a liscence and not appeal to the only people who would watch it, Battlestar fans, on top of making it SOOOOoo bad looking in the trailers. I mean, are they thinking it will 'intrigue' viewers?

All that aside, the video game looks quite good and sticks to the original, IIRC.

12:01 / 12.11.03

Fucksakes. You're talking as if "they" ruined a quality piece of source material. Get a grip, kids--it's BATTLESTAR FUCKING GALACTICA.

Garbage in, garbage out.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:02 / 12.11.03

THE HATRIX HAS YOU.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:04 / 12.11.03

Jack Fear! It was he who first freed me from The Hatrix!

12:17 / 12.11.03

Some call it Hate, my son. Some call it Common Sense.

In your heart, you know I'm right.

Again.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:47 / 12.11.03

No no, you're not stuck in The Hatrix, Jack. You're free!

The Hatrix tells you: OMIGOD HOW DARE THEY CHANGE A SINGLE DETAIL ON THE CYLONS' ARMOUR THEY ARE RAPING MY CHILDHOOD.

12:58 / 12.11.03

Preach it, brother.

I am forever amazed and horrified at what bits of pop culture people even deign to remember, much less remember fondly. Some things really are best left on the ash-heap of history, and this poorly-imagined slab of crypto-Mormon self-importance is one of those things.

(It's even worse in comics, of course: who knew there was a market for a revamp of ThunderCats? Who knew anybody even remembered ThunderCats? I know that I would forget it if I only could.)

Can't we all just agree to pretend that Battlestar Galactica never happened, like when you have terrible embarrassing sex with an acquaintance and afterwards (by mutual, unspoken consent) tacitly ignore each other in social situations?

12:58 / 12.11.03

It doesn't automatically mean you're a closed-minded fanboy if you don't like the concepts for a remake of a very distinct old show that you really liked. Think of the parallels in movies and other adaptations. It's very easy to dismiss anyone's criticisms lately by calling them a 'hater.'

I would argue it's different from case to case and there's a fine line between having a right to think something stinks and being a complaining, hating, impossible-to-please, resistant-to-any-change net fanboy. So it's Battlestar Galactica - are you saying this guy doesn't have a right to like the old version and want them to be faithful to it instead of making it all Galactica 90210?

Anyway, just wanted to stand up for the guy who's being told his opinions are silly and he must be a 'hater' of all that is new. That's not fair, and that's not really the case here, I don't think.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:03 / 12.11.03

Yeah, 'cos letting girls fly the little fighter ships = making it all Galactica 90210.

But maybe you have a point, I mean how dare they feminize this guy:

13:08 / 12.11.03

Dude... you "really liked" the original Battlestar Galactica? Did you really?

Have you watched Battlestar Galactica as an adult, and thought, "Man, this show really holds up as a piece of well-made SF"? Or are you going strictly on memory, here?

Is it, perhaps, less Battlestar Galactica that you remember fondly... than the feeling of being in your pajamas on a Sunday night, freshly scrubbed, cup of cocoa by your side, a good weekend of fun behind you and an exciting school-week ahead of you, your Dad good-naturedly surrendering the TV after 60 Minutes, and those creits starting up, with the big ships crawling by, and you had the toy ships up in your room, and everybody would be talking about it in hoimeroom tomorrow and you'd be drawing pictures of the fighter ships on the back of your worksheets, and maybe tomorrow you and your best friend would get together after school and play Cylon battles with your toy ships and his...

Do you miss Battlestar Glacatica itself? Or do you miss being eight years old?

Because if it's the latter, well, I can sympathize. But if it's the former... well... I can't. Because as a thing itself, it is deeply, deeply shiteful.

13:14 / 12.11.03

OK, I did laugh very loud at the 'how dare they feminize this guy' bit

And I'm not saying it was a brilliant show. I'm saying calm down with telling this guy he is a whining complaining hater fanboy for having an opinion that is different than yours. I would argue that having a problem with the Cylon design changing from the very cool armor look to a hot blonde in a red dress with glowing red eyes is a bit more than OMIGOD HOW DARE THEY CHANGE A SINGLE DETAIL ON THE CYLONS' ARMOUR THEY ARE RAPING MY CHILDHOOD.

And honestly, it's just a show - I'm not worked up about it, I'm just saying why attack someone who is complaining about what are essentially very dramatic revisions in the show.

And it doesn't really matter whether I'm going on memory or detail of the show - it's about not jumping on a guy and calling him a too-geeked-out, closed-minded 'hater' for having an opinion. Sort of net complainer backlash, if you will. Anyway, whatever. I'm just saying give a fellow some room to have an opinion that's different than yours without jumping to conclusions.

13:17 / 12.11.03

And let me add I'm just saying this cause I notice a trend where people automatically invalidate any criticism someone has of new stuff related to an old property because "you just liked it cause you were 8" (which may very well be valid in the case of Battlestar Galactica, but maybe not so in other things - like saying Episodes I and II sucked but the original Star Wars trilogy is great, even with Lucas' sometimes cheesy writing and Mark Hammill's sometimes funny acting).

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:26 / 12.11.03

having a problem with the Cylon design changing from the very cool armor look to a hot blonde in a red dress

...Except that if you actually, y'know, look at the images you'll see the rows and rows of faceless armoured stormtrooper types behind her, who are recognisable Cylons to me.

My position here is a bit different to Jack's: I maintain a little affection for the show, albeit one that acknowledges its utter cheesy naffness. I just can't get my head round the way that the response (on the 'net, anyway) to almost any adaptation or remake seems to be to shout "heresy!" before the thing is even available to view.

13:54 / 12.11.03

Screw Battle A-team.. There will be no more slagging off Thundercats online or offline, I can see you Jack.

Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight

13:56 / 12.11.03

Mouth of Fear sez your show was Shite beyond Shite

(in your heart you must know I am right beyond right.)

We're The Great Old Ones Now

14:03 / 12.11.03

There's a long history of Cylons sneakily looking like humans. There was one time when Troy and Dillon got stuck in white tailcoats and there were these big Disney-type fuzzy animal costumes and there was an evil Cylon humanoid running around (who looked a lot like Kirk Douglas but must have been someone else). And they shot him with a tiny tiny raygun before he could, you know, bring the world to an end.

It's all true.

I want to stress to you that Battlestar Galactica was wonderful largely because it was one of the most awful shows ever made. My main concern is that this movie will not be a stinker. It will be mediocre. It won't be filled with lines like "Your mechanical dog cannot save you now, human scum!"

What about the episode where they met the devil?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:15 / 12.11.03

Yeah! Most religious sci-fi show ever, I guess that's why I watched it so often as a kid...

Was the one with the devil the one where one of them died and then somehow he was okay but the other one died?

What about the ones which were just Starbuck, a Cylon who gradually turned good, and a baby, marooned on a planet, like Enemy Mine? That was just like Samuel Beckett, that was.

14:18 / 12.11.03

If you honestly believe that "Battlestar Galactica was wonderful largely because it was one of the most awful shows ever made," then you have met the Devil. And shook his greasy hand.

The (frankly Orwellian) notion that something can be "so bad it's good" is a pernicious myth, and must be rooted out and destroyed(Flyboy, I'm disappointed with you, too, in this regard). Bad is bad is bad is bad is bad.

Getting off on the shitness of a TV show is as hateful as shadenfreude, or slumming. It's like laughing at the kids in the Special Olympics. Reprehensible.

14:42 / 12.11.03

whatever about the original show. i feel a sense of dissapointment about this remake because there had been an interesting memo published in coming attractions & other points on the net purporting to be a producer's pitch for the new B.G. it was a great concept, with a new approach to sci fi tv -- it went on about taking the "opera" out of space opera and essentially doing a dialogue driven, verite, "Homicide" approach to a sci fi concept. which sounded great to me. so its too bad that didn't materialize.

secondly, if they went out of their way to hire a great writer to create an innovative videogame of the concept, its too bad they couldnt do the same with the show. totally different producers and rights holders, though, so that's what happenes.

14:46 / 12.11.03

Dear God Nick, how can you and others even make reference to Galactica 1980 and still love yourself enough see another morning? I mean, the original show was cheesy with many forgetable bits (like the episode with The Devil, for example), but it had its moments that I remember fondly. Ok, maybe it was only about 2 episodes that were really good, but 1980 was without remorse some of the worst TV ever made. Even as a fan I couldn't watch it.

Sadly, I can only expect the new shot-on-video production of the remake to be pretty terrible too. The shots I've seen don't give me a lot of hope.

14:50 / 12.11.03

wow.
dicks.

i genuinely liked some of the designs and concepts in battlestar galactica, yes. i have only the film to go on, as the shows have not been repeated recently enough for me to remember how good they were.

i really did like(and still do like) the helmets the pilots wore. i liked the ships, i liked the idea that the earth was fucked, and i admit that i even liked dirk benedict in it.
sorry if i suck and have no credibility in the eyes of our cooler customers, but quite frankly, y'all can go eat a bag of FUCK.

and

letting girls fly the little fighter ships = making it all Galactica 90210
yeah, i am against the new version because they have added more major female roles. obviously. thats EXACTLY what i hate about it. not that they have taken a concept that worked for me and made it all american TeeVee and polish, not because some of the aesthetics are missing that initially attracted me to the damn thing in the first place, but because they are attacking my sense of male superiority.

you'll of course forgive me if i think less of you now.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:52 / 12.11.03

Of course! That's the kind of big-hearted guy I am!

Just out of interest, how can you make an American television show more "American TeeVee"?

15:24 / 12.11.03

so you have no idea what i meant?

it helps if one assumes i dont merely mean that it originates in the USofA when i say "made it all american TeeVee and polish". the fact that i was using american TeeVee as adjective might have been a clue.
to take an american movie (look up, i dont feel i have enough facts on the show to argue the toss) and make it more 'american' would seem possible.
perhaps for the slower and more spoonlike among us i should have said "made it all similar to the homogonised and altogether bland television which seems to be the popular stylistic choice on the american networks, rather than sticking to the more interesting and rougher edged original concept".

perhaps we can go into loads of depth discussing why american television is so bland and unexciting to me for the most part, but not now. maybe later. maybe next tuesday.

.

15:39 / 12.11.03

OK, Battlestar Galatica was a little bit pants, but without BG we would have no 70s Buck Rogers. Made with a bunch of the same props for a tenth of the price apparently. And a much better series for being a bit less po-faced for it. Yes I have seen Buck Rogers outside of my childhood, and yes it still rocked.

And arguably with no Buck Rogers we'd have no Farscape.

15:41 / 12.11.03

[aside]
has anyone else noticed the WRC intro on UK telly is awfully like the farscape intro?
[/aside]

at the scarwash

18:46 / 12.11.03

Jack, I don't think you quite understand the "so bad it's good thing." It's not quite like laughing at the Special Olympics. Cube is one of the worst films I can imagine ever watching, yet it fascinates me by its metabadness...these people are trapped in this futuristic prison with boobytraps for no reason. I am trapped in a futuristic movie, and I can't get out because I want to find out if there's a reason for it all. We are all in the Cube together!

I can't for the life of me imagine enjoying old BSG episodes by myself for more than nostalgic reasons, but I could imagine getting together with friends and a case of malt liquor and finding it quite nice. Bad film is made good when good company puts work into it that the original filmmakers did not. That's why MST3K was a success. The creators of that show worked to create better dialogue for bad movies, appropriating the original and creating a new filmic experience in the synthesis of the original movie and the commentary. There are sometimes very special things to be found in really bad works. The creators didn't intend for them to be there, but they can be awesome nonetheless.

19:58 / 12.11.03

The wacked-out robot dog was cool, the hot girl was hot (complete with Farah Fawcett hairstyle), Starbuck was a fun if cheesy brash hero kinda guy, the ship designs were all amazing (both Cylons and Galactica Vipers), the Cylon armor design was amazing, as was the red swirling eye motif and sound/voice effects they had, Lorne Greene rocked, the concept behind the show (a bunch of Earth refugees looking for a new home/wanting to get back to a ravaged home planet) is cool and potentially even poignant, the Cylon leader's visual design was very very cool and unique. There were some funny episodes.

I'd say it's a lot better than, say, THUNDERCATS, if we're talking old nostalgia properties, and a fuck of a lot better than SCOOBY DOO

I would also say the original show probably isn't ultra-horrible quality (i.e. worthy to be ripped apart on MST3K). Not great, but not ultra-horrible like, say, ENTERPRISE is

22:03 / 12.11.03

Grant Morrison was talking about this I think given his work on the Galactica videogame. How it's a sci-fi Moses/Brigham Young sort of idea with very cool prescence.

"I always felt it should have been more epic, more obviously miraculous, like The Ten Commandments in space."

And I completely agree with .

Buck Rogers kicked ass. It was like Star Wars meets Smokey & The Bandit.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

22:57 / 12.11.03

The old show just came out on DVD. Go on... I dare you. The moment you see that dude talking to the robot called Lucifer who threatens to be ouacted by a SIMON game or just fall over, you'll be crying over the dough you shilled out.

And that dude was the best part of the show (no prize to whoever knows who that was).

Personally... A few years back, I was on the dole. At lunch, I'd leave it on Sci-Fi cuz... I dunno why. Some days I'd get Wonder Woman, some days I'd get Auto Man... it was all I could do to keep my lunch down. But I'd inwardly weep every time I heard 'you are watching Battlestar Galactica.' I have no great love for this show.

I also deeply hate many programs I know ppl on this board love and I'm sure enjoy TV programs that you all hate. Hell, I enjoy watching Jon Pertwee's Dr Who but cannot explain why.

I dunno... in spite of all that spite... shave Gil Gerard's chest and give Wilma proper pants and the 70's would be a little more lifeless for my memory. So it serves a purpose, but it would have to be a lot of good beer and a great room to get me to watch those shows today.

And no amount of booze would make me brave the new Battlestar.

Regrettable Juvenilia

06:59 / 13.11.03

perhaps for the slower and more spoonlike among us i should have said "made it all similar to the homogonised and altogether bland television which seems to be the popular stylistic choice on the american networks, rather than sticking to the more interesting and rougher edged original concept".

Right! I get it! You're upset because they might get rid of the complex moral ambiguities and edgy, gritty, provocative storylines from the original series! Like the one in which they met the Devil! And because they've cast a bunch of young, pretty people, whereas the original show was all about seasoned character actors like this guy:

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

07:25 / 13.11.03

You're not getting away from Dirk are you? He was America's answer to Roger Moore dude.

11:48 / 13.11.03

What I want to know is what's to his left. Mr T naked?
As for Battlestar Galactica, best bit was the rather tasty theme tune. Second best inappropriately good opening theme (number one being The Drew Carey Show).

We're The Great Old Ones Now

12:48 / 13.11.03

"Spoonlike"? What the hell does "spoonlike" mean? Aside from the obvious?

Jack, I think you've gone a weenie bit off the deep end here. There's a world of difference between sitting down to watch an SF Western tv series, knowing that it will reveal nothing of the world and yet will go quite nicely with mircowave curry and generic beer between now and the moment when you decide it's really time to go to bed, and some kind of ghastly self-destructive immersion in cultural braindeath and hate.

Battlestar Galactica is appealing because it is devoid of self-parody, simplistically and predictably heroic/tragic/comic, cheerfully silly and melodramatic. In other words, it differs from Shakespeare largely in that the dialogue's crap.

What I was saying was that the show was enjoyable on a pretty low level, and that it's pretty unlikely the new film will dip below that level or rise boiling up above it. What would be a shame, however - and what may well turn out to be the case - would be if they turned it into a kind of Terminator: War In Space pseudo-serious drama by imagining that what they were making was ever more than goofy rip-off space opera. If this is a movie where the universe rules don't encompass the possibility of Starbuck getting steam-cleaned in a launch tunnel by his jealous girlfriend while he gets off with someone else, (well, okay, Starbuck's a girl now, but...) then there maybe be a problem. Otherwise, the property wasn't amazing, so this should be a laugh, and if it's not, well, no harm done.

14:17 / 13.11.03

Dude... you "really liked" the original Battlestar Galactica? Did you really?

i was really young when i used to watch that show, and i always got it confused with the Buck Rogers TV show of the same era. all i cared about were the Cylons and Twiki, but i could never remember which one was on which show.

i still have trouble, honestly. they should make a big budget sci-fi extravaganza called Twiki Battles The Cylons to capitalize on the confusion of people in my age bracket. maybe Twiki could drive around in KITT to counter the coolness of the Cylon eye-visor thing. except KITT can fly in space, now, and shoots a laser from the light on the front.

it would make THOUSANDS.

bidibidibidi.

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