Battlestar Galactica - newby.

[Funt Solo]

::"Funt, your mouth is full of strange"

I do like the Firefly movie - but I love the series.  (I guess, through necessity, the movie format has to alter the pace of things - but for all that it's quite good fun, I could live without it.)

Put it this way - I've watched the series on DVD several times - but the movie only twice.

[Trout]

I really liked the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica, although I haven't seen anything of season three.

Go for it, David!

- Trout

[TordelBack]

"Put it this way - I've watched the series on DVD several times - but the movie only twice."

Putting it that way, so have I...

[Goaty]

Is series 3 worth to buy? and knows anywhere that very cheap?????

[Mikey]

A mate is going to lend me BSG series 1-3 in return for me indoctrinating him into the Sopranos in time for the last 9 episodes.

He rates it very high and the inestimable Charley Brooker has said good things about it,so I'm looking forward to it.

But the mini series first you say?

M.

[Dan Kelly]

You can get away without watching the mini-series first, but I wouldn't advise it.

The mini-series basically covers why the rag-tag fleet is on the hoof and introduces the main characters, so the series proper can get on with it's job.

[Goaty]

and i like that last battle scene in Mini-series, that was nice view of Battlestar Galactica arrives and turns around and turn all guns on. And let other ships escapes, that shows why One Battlestar is still best than lots of Toasters's BaseStars. :)

[The Adventurer]

New Battlestar Galactica is pretty awesome, best show on television. And I must echo, watch it from the beginning. AKA, the Pilot Mini-Series. It's a serial show, not an episodic one, it should be watched in order from the beginning just so you can watch the story build.

Also, you Brits are so lucky to have Season 3 on DVD already, us Americans are still waiting on it. It probably won't be released until the BSG: Razors Mini-series in November.

[Eldritch]

"there's an odd absence of African-American actors for a show whose original iteration boasted a black character in 'the big three' and a black guy as second in command"

I'm genuinely curious: does this really impact on your enjoyment of a show? Are you anxiously scanning an episode to make sure they've represented everyone?
Does it really matter if the story - this story - is well-told?

"argueably misogynistic in places"
Please argue it, then. I read a piece in the Sunday Times which, while trying to make out that tv SF remains a final frontier for women, reluctantly acknowledged BSG was unusually generous in its female roles. They also thought it notable that it had an Asian-American prominent. Me, I just think she's both gorgeous & a decent actor; but I ain't out tickin' boxes.

"the physics are underthought for a supposedly 'realistic' show"
The physics are perfectly in keeping with TV space opera, if not slightly better, with vernier jets etc on show.

[worldshown]

Enjoyed the mini-series and the first series of BSG. Thought the second series sagged a bit about two-thirds of the way through (disc 4 can and should be avoided). The webisodes if you can still find them are excellent and series 3 doesn't quite live up to the promise of its brilliant start.

For those looking for prices for series 3, below is the link for find-dvd.co.uk.

Link: http://www.find-dvd.co.uk/8249909.htm" target="_blank">BSG3 price comparison

[paulvonscott]

I think old Battlestar Galactica, on the whole, is rubbish.

And new Battlestar is a well produced, well acted, grown up SF show.

So if you don't like the old one, this is good stuff, and I know people who do like the old one and still enjoy this.

Definitely worth a try, give the mini-series a go, which preceeds season one.  That'll be a good indicator.

[Bico]

"I'm genuinely curious: does this really impact on your enjoyment of a show? Are you anxiously scanning an episode to make sure they've represented everyone?"

Not at all.  I was responding to your comment that it was focus-group led, and if that was the case, there'd be more tokenistic casting.  Though I think that black actors were more a token casting thing in the 1980s, followed by gay characters in the 1990s, and latino characters in the 2000s - with a late showing for characters of arabian descent.
I'm pretty sure the people who make Scrubs commissioned a report a couple of years ago on the effects of affirmative action in casting tv shows, and they discovered that casting a black guy in a supporting role in a prominently white cast doesn't entice black audiences to watch.  Maybe they just don't do the affirmative action casting thing anymore and I notice it more on BSG because there were a couple of black guys in the cast of the original, yet there's none in the new one.  Doesn't affect my enjoyment of the show, though it goes without saying that these things are all subjective anyway.  There are people who will look you in the eye and tell you Smallville is quality drama - not out of maliciousness, it's just their opinion..

"I read a piece in the Sunday Times which, while trying to make out that tv SF remains a final frontier for women, reluctantly acknowledged BSG was unusually generous in its female roles."

The Sunday Times, you say? ahem...

Number Six - femme fatale who uses sex to manipulate.
Boomer - ditto, later replaced by another Boomer who just wanted to be a mum.  Bless.
Donnie Darko's mum - aptly, a mumsy foil for daddy Adama.
Xena - see Number Six.
Starbuck - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue#.22Angsty.22_Sue
but like I say, it's all subjective - possibly I got the wrong impresion when Number Six started off the miniseries shagging some diplomat before being blown up by her own people.  Still don't know why that happened, but it seemed to set the tone for me.
I should probably point out the men aren't much better in their portrayal.  I'm still waiting for Apollo to get a character, and the show finishes next year.

"They also thought it notable that it had an Asian-American prominent."

Adama is played by an actor of Latin-American descent, though I'm not sure if I'm making your point or my own there. As for the physics, you can't use bullets in space, and ships launching missiles would be tossed around like ragdolls by the recoil, or torn apart by counterforces if they tried to stabilise in realtime with jets or thrusters. And everyone smokes on the spaceships, which isn't so much unrealistic because of air recycling and recirculation, and more unrealistic because they don't let you smoke in public RIGHT NOW - why would they let you smoke on a spaceship just because it's the future?

**GEEKERY WARNING: THE BELOW CONTAINS OVERLY-ANAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT A MADE-UP SHOW WITH SPACESHIPS**

Someone on another forum also pointed out that things like CDs, CD players, pens, pencils and even paper and clipboards and spiral-bound notebooks with lines on the paper aren't likely to appear on other planets as they're the result of specific creative processes. I wonder does that go for relative concepts of time as well? Do they have the same measurements for minutes, hours and days as we do, for instance? Or seasons?

[Funt Solo]

When you point out that the men aren't portrayed particularly differently from the women, aren't you then saying that the show is misanthropic?

By selecting only the negative traits attributed to women, and not those (equally, arguably) attributed to the men, aren't you the one being prejudiced?  Have you placed yourself in the role of the knight in shining armour that must save the damsels in distress, thus reducing their worth by intimating that they require rescue?

I do wonder, given your list - what sort of traits your fictional woman is allowed to have in order to be an acceptable character.  Plus, of course, you've provided a very one-sided list, which (for example) ignores the fact that Laura Roslin is the president of humanity, or that the weakest, most cowardly member of the cast is Gaius Baltar.

---

As for sci-fi realism.  Come off it.  You can use the same arguments to dismiss pretty much ALL television and movie sci-fi.  It's hardly unique to BSG.

[Bico]

I did point out that the opening scene of the miniseries had me viewing the whole thing in a certain light, and that it was a subjective opinion and I was quite well aware of how I came about it in the opening moments of the show.  Why did that character need to sex up that guy and then get blown up?  Why not just shoot the spacestation and move on?  I can't fathom the meaning of this scene beyond the need to explicitly establish that Cylons are crafty sexbots (which in the following series, they are), and once that's established, you can't really blame me for assuming the writers apply the same standards or thinking to other characters, be they male *or* female and then go looking for proof.  Whatever else you can say about new BSG, the bar for criticism is set higher for it than it was for the original - am I going on about the portrayal of women in the 1978 version?  Of course not - BSG circa 1978 is a heroic fantasy aimed at adolescent boys and it will forever be judged on that puerile level.  New BSG, however, is being marketed as 'adult' drama worthy of evaluation as an allegorical commentary on contemporary issues, rather than simply dismissed as an adventure-romp, so I don't see why it shouldn't be judged on that level if that's what the producers actually want us to do.
I do take your point about it being misanthropic rather than misogynistic - I have googled this term and shall add it to my vocabulary forthwith.  Are you a teacher, perchance?  If so, you should be paid more!

Gaius Baltar is weak and cowardly, I'll admit - but he's had his moments where both the man and the hour has come, and he's probably the most interesting member of the cast (late season 3 developments aside).  He's certainly *got* a character where you know why he's acting in a certain way or doing a certain thing - I still have no idea why Apollo was seeing a hooker, for instance, or why Tigh killed his wife, or why Apollo was all grumpy after he was out in space for a bit, or why Boomer's husband - a character so bland his name permanently eludes me - seems incapable of making a decision on his own despite being a high-ranking military officer.  Some of these you can justify as being necessary for the story, but they just don't ring true as character moments.

[Keef Monkey]

Easily my favourite thing on tv, really addictive viewing. Definitely watch the mini-series first, reckon it really invests you in the characters and the rest of the show will be a lot more enjoyable for you.

Did anyone else benefit from HMV's slip up with their season 3 box set ad? On monday they misprinted the cost as £13 in the Metro so for the rest of the day anyone who mentioned the ad had to get it for that price(as opposed to the £40 it should have been). Huzzah!