My thoughts on the new Battlestar Galactica series

[Atrahasis]

It's not too bad, but the characters I just don't like are the Madame President and Boomer!

I can't tell if it's the casting or the way the actors are doing it. Possibly a bit of both.

Olmos, however, is great.

I still can't get over the look of the ship....it's just a big chunk of scaffolding in space!

I like the warp effect though.

[USS Mariner]

Atrahasis said:

It's not too bad, but the characters I just don't like are the Madame President and Boomer!

I can't tell if it's the casting or the way the actors are doing it. Possibly a bit of both.

Olmos, however, is great.

I still can't get over the look of the ship....it's just a big chunk of scaffolding in space!

I like the warp effect though.

I actually like the way they made the Battlestar, because it's both new and old in it's form and design. It's shaped sleekly, but it's "exoskeleton" scaffolding is quite distinctive, almost reminicient of H.R. Giger's designs, which is quite cool.

I'm a great fan of the show, though obviously I'm way behind the rest of the world along with the rest of America...

[Atrahasis]

I might like the ship better if it weren't so dark....I have a hard time seeing it.

I'm watching another episode now, and as soon as it started, there's Madame President.

I really really really really hate her acting! Nobody likes a smug expressionless woman.

Which brings up my next point: The best sci-fi bitch of all time is probably Diana from V. Now wasn't she a deadly combination of ambition and beauty? She was a pleasur to watch.

In contrast, Madame President puts a damper on the show!

[Atrahasis]

I'm watching the one with Richard Hatch guest-starring...it's great to see him back!

In my university days, I had in a girl in my class who claimed she dated Hatch's son...She said "Richard still looks like he's 30."

In fact, he hasn't aged badly at all.

[Lord Schtupp]

In the SFX shots the camera nervously moves around too much, like Ray Charles is doing the camera work. What they are trying to do is like a "saving private ryan" type of action feel to it, but it is way way overused, and shouldnt be used in the space shots at all.

The first big battle scene in the priemire was probaly the best SFX battle i have seen, esp between the capital ships.

[Lord Schtupp]

Atrahasis said:

I might like the ship better if it weren't so dark....I have a hard time seeing it.

Agreed. I really like some of the rag tag fleet ships.

[CptSavage]

I haven't seen the series yet actually.

But I did see all of the miniseries.


It just didn't feel like BSG to me.

I may be a young man, but I grew up watching reruns of the original BSG....

It's good...it's GREAT, but it just didn't have the right feel.

[Atrahasis]

CptSavage said:

I haven't seen the series yet actually.

But I did see all of the miniseries.


It just didn't feel like BSG to me.

I may be a young man, but I grew up watching reruns of the original BSG....

It's good...it's GREAT, but it just didn't have the right feel.

But it's so freakin' good! Especially after episode 10. Let me put it this way: For people who have wanted a sci-fi series that depicted realistic ships, this is it.

[Captain KoraH]

Well I have to disagree with ya on this Atra. The new BSG is just crap. I don't like most of the ships, most of the actors, most of the story and most of all, I don't like that it's BSG.

The new Galactica is cool. Yeah it's dark, yeah it's different, but it does have an "updated yet not over the top" look. On the original show I always wondered why the docking bays didn't move... the storyline parts of the ship like the old style printouts and no networked computers are really cool to. Gives the ship real character. The "new" viper looks like a 1960's Buck Rogers ship though. the "old" style viper like the one Apolo flew in the pilot looks cool though. The Cylon fighters look just plain kooky to me though, I mean it looks like a flying cow with wings! It's way over the top man, WAY over! the civilian ships in the human fleet are really excelent, and I even kinda like the new Cylon base star.

As for the characters, OMG what a tragedy. Boomer and Starbuck are female, and Boomer is a Cylon? OMG what crap is this?

new BSG characters:

Apolo: "Yes ma'am I'll act like a submissive male and do your bidding without question, and also hate my weak minded pig of a father while doing it. Not because of any particularly good reason, just because he's my father and fathers don't treat women like goddesses because they're weak minded pigs. All males are weak minded pigs right?"

Starbuck: "I can disobey rules, crack my superiors in the jaw, and generally be a total cunt because men are weak minded pigs and women rule. I'm supposedly a soldier, even though I have no discipline whatsoever and no concept of teamwork. I get more screen time than most male actors on the show."

Boomer: "I'm a cylon. I'm actually 2 cylons. No, wait, I'm 3 cylons. And oh yeah, I'm supposed to be a pilot or something too. There's this one cute guy who we lead around in a rat maze, poking him and shooting him to see what he'll do. That's so cool! I never realized what weak minded pigs men are. Did I mention that I'm a cylon? No, wait I'm 2 cylons... I get more screen time than most male actors on the show. "

Adama: "I'm the male authority figure that the women can burn down every couple episodes. Since I'm unatractive, I'm the only member of the crew not having sex regularly. I am a good soldier, I know when to obey orders and when to break them, but so far that only makes me look like a weak minded pig."

President: "I'm the real hero of the show. I got cancer so people would feel sorry for me, because if not nobody would feel anything for my untalented and drama-less performances. I get more screen time than any male actor on the show."

Richard Hatch: "I'm a sellout. I'm living proff that for enough money, anyone can be bought. While I was the most outspoken detractor of the new BSG in probably the entire civilized planet, I'm on the show now. Of course along with my tiny bit part and some cold hard cash I have to sign this waiver saying I'll stop pointing out how sucky this show is... what a weak minded pig I am. But a RICH weak minded pig! Muahahahaha!!!"

And that about sums it up. They should call it "Femme-star Galacti-sex" instead of soiling the good name of the original series and using it to exploit feminist agendas upon their target audience of young males ages 13-25.

Captain KoraH

[CaptainPierce]

Wow, dude, that's even more harsh than I've been on the new show.

I have to say, after hating the pilot miniseries with the white-hot passion of a thousand suns, the series is really not bad. Starbuck being a woman has oddly never bothered me; the actress they cast (I forget her name) is actually pretty good, IMO. She has a good take on the character; she manages to give it a lot of the same attitude as Dirk Benedict did without trying to rip him off. And, quite frankly, the Boomer on the Galactica has gotten to be one of my favorite characters. The way she's trying to figure out who the hell she is has been pretty interesting--and, if what I hear about the season finale is true, it's going to get more interesting yet.

[Atrahasis]

I do in fact have a lot of gripes with MOST of the characters, now that you bring it up. The only one that I can say I like without reservation is the blond Cylon bitch (whatever her name is) who leads Baltar around like a puppy dog. There does seem to be a theme of male submission....even the most prominent Cylons are females. But you know, as long as the woman is sexy it doesn't seem all that bad.

I think the show is exploring gender roles in modern society, and quite possibly from the persepctive of how much personal attractiveness and attraction play a part in domination and submission, or in other words what sex has to do with power and control. If you look at it from that perspective, the show becomes a social commentary, which increases its worth...like certain episodes of TOS.

[Captain KoraH]

I guess taken purely as an experiment in human sexuality the new BSG is somewhat interesting. Don't get me wrong though, I don't care if women play pivotal roles in Sci-Fi or in real life. I loved Voyager, which had a female captain and a female engineer. The part I don't like about BSG is where the males on the show are constantly put in a bad light. It's not an equality deal, it seems to me that the show focuses on the females and the sex because the target audience is young males and that's a cheap way to get ratings if you ask me. Even if it's not true, if none of it's true, the characters are still pretty 2 dimentional. What motivates the character? What kind of person are they? Would you like them or hate them if you met them (the character, not the actor) in real life? You can watch a single episode of a great show like StarGate SG1 or Babylon5 and know the answers. Not BSG. Why does Boomer love the Chief? Why does Lee Adama hate his father? these are things you don't know about the characters, things that make them 2 dimentional and difficult to really care about. If Adama died tomorrow, not many viewers would care.

The actress playing Boomer isn't really that good. Her range of expression is like streching a single look out over the whole spectrum and changing her voice. You can never tell if the character you're watching on screen is angry, sad, scared or just pretending to be because she's a cylon. While some might say that makes it more intriguing, I say that if you could see the fear, tell when the hate was real and when the pain was too much, then the switch back into cylon-brain would be a lot more convincing. Maybe the idea of indistinguishable cylons is interesting, but it's not interesting if the audience of the show has no idea what's going on and can't follow the story. For cryin out loud why are the cylons chasing after the galactica in the first place? Why do they want to destroy humanity as opposed to punnishing them or some other alternative? Why death? What makes the cylons hate humans so much that they would die trying to kill us? Again, poor storylines and bad writing leave us not really caring about the cylons. Kill them by the hundred, who cares?

I like the blond chic the most out of all the females. She's actually not even an actor though, she's an ex-supermodel from Canada or somewhere. She really gives you a range of expression in her face and body language not just her voice like Boomer.

I'd also say that the actress playing Starbuck, while not very attractive, is a good actress. The problem with Starbuck isn't that the acting is bad, it's that the writing is bad. If Starbuck died in the next episode, a lot of people would be happy that they didn't have to watch her anymore. The character is nothing like Dirk Benedict's Starbuck. Old-school Starbuck was a warm, friendly guy with a soft spot for the good life and hot women. He was the truest friend a guy could have. New Starbuck is a loudmouth antagonist who picks fights and likes to irritate people to their breaking point. Old Starbuck followed orders, unless he had a damn good reason not to. Old Starbuck was loyal and honorable. New Starbuck cheats at card games, tosses tables at people, shows a total lack of respect for superior officers and has no discipline. Why the hell she isn't locked away in prison long before the pilot episode is beyond me. Not bad acting, but bad writing. Nobody likes to watch an asshole on TV, we have plenty right here in real life.

Lee Adama is about the most cardboard cutout character I've seen on a show since Twiggy on Buck Rogers. Who is he? What does he like? What does he hate? Why should we care if he lives or dies? Schmuck.

Sex is great though. (oops, I mean SIX, but they're so hard to seperate) She displays a range of interesting emotions, while at the same time leaving us no doubt that she is a cylon. You know when she's lieing, you can tell when she means business, and you can see her motivations. While noteworthy for being the gratuitous sex symbol on the show, she's really not that bad.


Until next time...