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*SPOILERS*: Late-comers to Battlestar Gala...

Started by longmanshort, 18 January, 2006, 04:08:40 PM

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Mr C

Hmmm... Deposit on flat or Battlestar Galactica box set....

Bico

Unless you've seen the miniseries that preceeds the first series, I wouldn't bother, as it isn't included in the box set.  It's under a tenner in Tescos, if I remember right.

Megadeth

I just ordered the mini series as it was only ?5.99 on Play. If I like it well enough I'll then stump up for the S1 box set.

Steve Green

I bought the mini-series and S1 last year, and I thought it was great. When I first heard about the changes, I was dubious - but it works really well.

It's a shame that some SF series take ages to come on to terrestrial telly, and when it does it invariably gets cut, shunted around, or sandwiched between piss-taking waste of molecule T4 presenters.

- Steve

Buddy

piss-taking waste of molecule T4 presenters

But I fancy June Sarpong (sp?)

IndigoPrime

The mini-series is VERY different from S1. We thought the mini-series was a bit of a slog -- it's very downbeat at times, and quite dark. The series, though, is more balanced, with action, humour and suspense in equal measure. And as it's only ?18 in most places, it's well worth checking out.

Funt Solo

I have to recommend the mini-series:  it really sets the scene for season #1, and really it should have been included in the boxed set  - they missed a trick there (unless they were foolishly thinking with their wallets instead of their artistic temperaments).

I love the serious aspects of this show - if I want light froth I can watch Futurama.  Amongst all the blasting of Cylons (which is actually relatively rare) we get the pain of unrequited love, the father:son dynasty, dealing with cancer, repurcusions of one-night stands, love or duty, terrorism and politics, faith vs. science, alchoholism, do machines have a soul, the military / political power struggle in times of war...

There's a lot on offer.

The original series was Starship Troopers with the biting satire replaced by lashings of ginger beer and a large dollop of sickly syrup, this is Hill Street Blues in space with a smattering of The Sopranos and Apocalypse Now thrown in for good measure.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

ukdane

It'll never been shown in snowy Denmark, so I've just purchased both box sets from Play.com (the miniseries is in stock, but season one - whilst cheap, is currently out of stock). I hope it's as good as people are saying.


Anyone got negative comments about the series?

How does it compare to a) Farscape b) Firefly/Serenity c) Babylon 5?

Cheers

-Daney



Lobo Baggins

But I fancy June Sarpong (sp?)

Then I can only conclude that you're deaf, sir.
The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

Steve Green

I think it might have been Viz that described her voice as the only man-made object audible from space.

Apparently she's a very nice person, according to a friend of a friend, but I can't stand her, or most of the presenters/cuntuinity announcers on T4 and BBC Three.

It's all too hectoring and snidey for me, they remind me of those dolts who can ruin going to the cinema.

- Steve

Bico

There's plenty to be negative about, but mainly from the point of view of 'nearly, but not quite' criticisms.  There's very little in it that's actually sci-fi, for example.  The Cylons aren't the product of an alien race that died out before humans travelled to the stars (as they were in the original show), but instead have a sub-par Terminator backstory; the Cylons themselves look terrible, being brown CGI robots that move jerkily, causing some scripts to be rewritten to exclude them later in the series (probably not good when your expensive CGI doesn't look as convincing or as scary as a bloke in a tinfoil hat); the black characters from the original series are all absent, being replaced by tottie or white guys (and the only black member of the cast is an Uhuru-type who answers the space-telephone); the opening scene of the mini-series makes absolutely no sense whatsoever (human-Cylon shows up, sexes up a nameless human character, then the Cylons blow up the space station all this takes place on, including the Cylons that are on board, for no reason whatsoever); everyone says 'frak' too much; Starbuck is a woman, yet the change in gender is never justified beyond making her a love-interest for the main character's dead brother, then the main character himself; despite coming from twelve different planets, the cast all have American accents, except for the bad guy, who (perhaps unsurprisingly, given this is Hollywood) has an English accent; the 'God' stuff is embarrassing, not helped by Number Six's overexposure in the series; evil robot doubles are the lowest form of storytelling - basing an entire series on the premise is reminiscent of Sliders.
There's more to criticise, but it seems pointless when you consider that this is probably the best treatment that sci-fi fans will get from American tv - it's a good attempt at grown-up sci-fi, and I have to wonder how it ever came from the guy who produced Enterprise.  It's little more than a tarted-up tv series set on an aircraft carrier run by the American military, true, but considering the alternative is the likes of 'Over There', or 'JAG', it's not much of a contest.
And the first series really does improve on the po-faced mini-series that preceeds it.  Possibly the story in the mini was just too stretched at over three hours (when it took 45 minutes in the original show), and there's not a great deal of action in it, but what follows is much better.

Funt Solo

::"How does it compare to a) Farscape b) Firefly/Serenity c) Babylon 5?"

Farscape:  totally different kettle of fish.  It's got a similar-ish need to keep watching.  Farscape was so convoluted, and had such a strong arc, that newcomers were often left bewildered.  It explores that similar theme of a mind-possessed.  In Farscape, John had Scorpius in his head, and in this Doctor Baltar has his Cylon 'lover' in his head, with similarly hysterical outcomes - although less fantastical in nature.  He doesn't sit and play chess with her in the middle of a World War I bunker, for example.  There are no muppets in BG.

Firefly:  The scale is totally different.  Firefly's about a dispirate gang trying to survive in a cruel galaxy resembling the wild west.  All the themes are inter-personal.  BG is more of a Homer's Oddysey than a High Noon.

Babylon 5's a piece of shit.  ;)
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Steve Green

I'd certainly agree about No. 6 - having Baltar hallucinate that much, and acting oddly in public and still get in to a position of that much responsibility seems a bit of a stretch.

- Steve

Bico

I agree with Babylon 5 being a piece of shit.

Funt Solo

To join in the forced negativity, sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

Baltar tested Boomer, found her positive-Cylon and then did nothing.  Why?  Later, he is moaning about having thousands of tests to do which will take his entire lifetime.  Then No.6 mentions that the tests always come out negative.  Huh?  If the tests are false, then he doesn't really have to do them, so shouldn't be upset.  But the first one was positive, so they are real - or are they?  (Or are they?)

The Cylons are attempting to follow the same prophecy that the religious humans believe in.  That involves the humans surviving to an extent.  So why do they keep trying to kill them?  Do the Cylons have factions?  Or are we just supposed to cover any inconsistencies in the plot with "God moves in mysterious ways"?

I do think the opening scene of the mini-series seems stuck-on, and yet it does serve a purpose.  The Cylons show up because that's where the humans asked them to turn up for a peace treaty or something - it's just they've ignored the offer for years.  It's purely symbolic, from their point of view, that they turn up.  This shows us that the Cylons are more than just a digital hive-mind.  It also shows us that they don't consider their individual units (as they effectively commit suicide) to be of any great consequence.

Baltar gets away with being a bit nuts because they need him.  He might be a fruit-loop, but he's a fruit-loop scientific genius, which is why he gets forgiven his madness, itself excused by the stress of the human race being mostly annihilated.  It might have helped if we'd seen actual cases of post-traumatic stress disorder from other people in the fleet.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++