Battlestar Galactica: The Motion Picture

[Riffster]

I generally hate any re-imagening of a series that worked well in the first place. I tend to call the new show that "space show" and blank out when the characters are refuered too by name.

the general feeling was to make Starbuck and boomer female was to have strong roles for women. bla, the original had Athena and sheba and Casi as very strong women roles. Bommer was black but they had to make it an asian women. a cylon no less. it just lost me. and the time under cylon rule on that planet was horrible and the producers shoulda named the planet iraq. cause that sure seemed the way it was mirroring.

haveing read hatch's books and enjoyed the hell outta them, i felt that's the way they should've gone.

don't get me wrong, i love the scifi of the new one, but i don't caLL it Galactica. only tingi absolutly hate is the Vipers and the whole thruster jet thing, i don't know just irked me

[kennermike]

BSG

thanks davidb I agree 100 percent

[david_b]

I honestly can't see the problem here....

Yes.., yes.., yes..

Again, I didn't say the new series wasn't a good series. It had some good political intrigue, lots of depth with the political dissidents, etc that I WISHED the old series had, and might have had, had it been renewed for a second year.

Granted, given a second year, the old series would have still been a Star Wars 'battle-of-the-week' show with more old Hollywood greats; that's simply the way things were back then. But what the Original series WAS becoming, near the end of it's first year, was adding more secondary characters and council subplots, developing it's own rhythm, essentially becoming more than just the sum of it's parts.

The new series just didn't inspire me to necessarily follow it, or care about it personally.

I'm happy the new series proved successful -- However, once again, you're comparing apples to oranges again here..:

The Original stayed in the Top 20 nearly each week, it was just too expensive! The new series was on cable; expensive, but didn't have the pressure from a network like ABC to be top-rated each week, NOR did it suffer through all the expensive legal wranglings the Original did..

[ctc]

>It basically had too much sex, drinking, too much the dated 'disfunctionalism' most action shows were having

Well.... I don't have an INHERENT problem with any of that, but I think it should be integrated into the story. The more aspects of your show you can pull together the better the effect. Stuff like sex and personal problems tends to be added to a story almost ad-hoc: it's there 'cos it's SUPPOSED to be there. Same with the last wave of "GRRRR! I'm ANGRY!!!" If I had any of the new crew in my unit, acting all bitter and angsty, I'd be tempted to shoot them MYSELF! The problem with the angry thing is that you don't really end up with any sort of group dynamic. Character interplay tends to amount to solliloquois as the plot requires, people slammed up against walls, and the occasional rough kiss when the story slows down. The angry thing also makes the characters seem really self-absorbed, which drains the credibility out of the "Oh no! They killed supporting character B!!!" episode.

The camaraderie of the old show seems kinda hokey nowadays, especially after endless waves of angry characters and buddy cop shows; but it gave the writers more to hang a story on. There was more interplay amongst the cast, allowing one character's motivations to drag the others along 'cos of their attachments to each other. Another reason a remake of the original scares me is 'cos I can see that sort of thing being handled really poorly by modern writers.



>It didn't have subplots about 'Who's doing Boomer this week..?'

....aaaaannnnndddd I for one am kinda glad about that....

Don C.

[Gorn Captain]

. It basically had too much sex, drinking,...

I honestly can't see the problem here....

[david_b]

wow look at this thread! personally will never watch the new one the pilot in 2003 was bad enough for me.but let me say this the original did have alot of cheesey flaws it was not perfect

I agree with most of the negative comments here on the new series. Granted, it was a reimaging of the original concept, hence the similarity really ONLY in the series title and character names. It basically had too much sex, drinking, too much the dated 'disfunctionalism' most action shows were having a few years back, too much 'Space:Above and Beyond', etc. I watched the premiere and it didn't do anything for me at all. No one had any real 'screen presence' in my opinion. I did watch some of the Richard Hatch episodes and a few others, but it didn't really hold my attention.

Yes, the original was flawed to an extent, but it had more heroism, and better, more dramatically shot, cinemagraphically. The actors held more attention, the music more dramatic, and it was fun in it's more simple approach.

It didn't have subplots about 'Who's doing Boomer this week..?'

I can bring it down to this..:

Regardless of whether it's Moonbase Alpha, the starship Enterprise, or the Galactica.., if I could sit back with a cup of coffee on an irritating day and 'daydream' about where I'd prefer to live, where would it be..?

david_b

[Hector]

[jwyblejr]

Look at it this way,at least the new series didn't get sued by George Lucas.

[ctc]

>What exactly was so "bad" about the 2003 pilot movie?

Well.... I had a friend bring the first season over and the reason I didn't care for it was 'cos it's too much like a lot of other stuff that's come out the last few years. They did away with a lot of the more fanciful aspects of the original show, which is what separated Galactica from other sci-fi series'. The new one reminded me WAY too much of "Space: Beneath and Behind," right down to the oddly philosophical robots.

The show LOOKED generic military, the characters were pretty standard (and WAY too angry; I can understand why the guys on "24" are so angry: they never get to go to the bathroom) the plots were predictable, and what bothered me most was the nekkid chick living in Baltar's head! She was there to TELL the audience what was going on, as opposed to figuring it out from.... y'know, watching the show.

Don C.

[Hulk]

I watched the pilot, out of curiousity. I didn't think it was particularly bad, but wasn't compelled to watch the series. Then again, although I loved the original when it was on, I don't feel any compulsion to watch it in reruns. That to me was the difference between BSG and Star Trek. It filled a void in that type of space adventure programming when it was on, but never captured my fascination the same way. The new series does seem too hard to jump into. Perhaps watching it on DVD I could get into it, but my few attempts at watching random episodes failed to capture my interest.

All that being said, I'd be more likely to watch a re-imagining ala the new trek than a continuation of the new series or laughing through the originals trying to recapture the original feel.

[Vortigern99]

What exactly was so "bad" about the 2003 pilot movie?

Are you sure it isn't just nostalgia for the old series getting in the way of your enjoyment?

I remember watching that movie and being bowled over by how good, intelligent, and well-made it was. My friend recorded it and we watched it a second time the very next night.

[kennermike]

Bsg Classic Vs Bsg New

wow look at this thread! personally will never watch the new one the pilot in 2003 was bad enough for me.but let me say this the original did have alot of cheesey flaws it was not perfect

[Gorn Captain]

I need to stop reading this thread.
Haven't seen any 4th season episodes yet, and I'm trying to dodge any spoilers...

[Vortigern99]

All very good questions... for which I have absolutely no answers!

[kryptosmaster]

I just cannot get my head around the whole Cylon story for the new show. They existed on Earth but then went out to the colonies and told the original Cylons how to make human looking ones. which confuses me more because when they found Earth Tyrol flashes back to remembering he was on Earth buying fruit at a stand when the planet was destroyed. Did he know he was a Cylon then. Did I miss an explanation of something? (If there is someone who watches the show more than I could explain it better?) In '78 it was easier for me to interpret: Cylons=Klingons, Galactica = Enterprise. I got that pretty quickly

That's where I'm getting lost. Did they really find Earth? Was it not our Earth? Or is this where they veer off from the original's storyline? I'm nervous that 4 episodes isn't going to be enough to answer all the hanging questions and end the series satisfactorally.
Are we Cylons? Were the final 5 the only Cylons on Earth? So did the (seemingly) unintelligent Centurions make the skinjobs? If so, then why are they subserviant to them and cannot speak? ["By your command"]. I'm very confused.

Rich