Battlestar Galactica to Return 496
Chris Curtin writes "Looks like SciFi channel is redoing the classic series! I don't know about a female Starbuck but it might be interesting." I can't picture a Galactica without Lorne Green. So long as they don't bring back that stupid robot dog, it might be okay.
Galactica without "Loren Green" is easy to imagine (Score:4, Informative)
The one with Lorne Greene [imdb.com] was enjoyable though.
Am I the Only Person... (Score:5, Funny)
Worst. Remake. Ever.
Re:Galactica without "Loren Green" is easy to imag (Score:3, Informative)
I never actually made the connection between Bonanza and New Wilderness either, and it turns out he was also known as "The Voice of Doom" from his CBC radio days.
special effects (Score:5, Funny)
No, really.
Re:special effects (Score:2)
Re:special effects (Score:5, Interesting)
Sick individual that I am, I actually rented "Space Mutiny" to watch it in its unmitigated awfulness. Picture a space opera filmed almost entirely in an abandoned factory of some sort, and a couple of drop-ceiling offices with surplus late-80's office computer equipment, with costumes consisting almost entirely of lycra.
However, it does feature Cissy Cameron in all her middle-aged-waitressy glory dressed like Denise Austin in "Thin Thighs in 30 Days" the musical, by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Punt Speedchunk!
Big McLarge Huge!
Space Mutiny (Score:5, Funny)
Not only was that effect used over and over BG, but also in a really awful Z-grade BG-ripoff movie called "Space Mutiny" riffed ever-so-eloquently by Mystery Science Theater 3000.
What was even funnier is that they used the shot of launching fighters as though there were launching MISSILES at the "space pirates" (whose ships bear a striking resemblance to cylon battleships). You can clearly see that those are fighters being launched, yet the plot claims they are missles. The "battle" lasts about 5 seconds (no exaguration here!) after which they quickly jump to some already-seen footage of the bridge crew partying!
Sick individual that I am, I actually rented "Space Mutiny" to watch it in its unmitigated awfulness. Picture a space opera filmed almost entirely in an abandoned factory of some sort, and a couple of drop-ceiling offices with surplus late-80's office computer equipment, with costumes consisting almost entirely of lycra.
Whenever I think of Space Mutiny the words "railing kill" spring to mind! Pretty much every single person who dies in this movie does so by falling off the railings in the factory that is supposed to be the engine room of their ship!
This is one of the best MST3K episodes ever and you can download it off of KaZaA. The commander looks exactly like Santa Claus, a woman gets killed and then is clearly visible in the background of the next scene, the hero demonsrates his courage by setting his disabled opponent on fire, and the climactic chase scene at the end with in those rediculous golfcart buggies must be seen to be believed. Do yourself a favor and download it today! Best. MST3K. Ever.
GMD
Female Starbuck? (Score:5, Funny)
I mean, Starbuck was the womanizer - the fighter pilot stereotype. I can see writing female pilots to play off the stereotype, or rewriting some of the tremendously shallow female characters of the show (Athena, Cassiopaea), but Starbuck?
Worse/Better Analogy: It's like remaking the A-Team with J-Lo as Face. (March 1 is "Let's Pick on Dirk Benedict Day")
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Re:Female Starbuck? (Score:5, Funny)
So why can't a woman do this? I think America is ready for a kick-ass lesbian who drags her scores back to the cave for some hot stuff.
Re:Female Starbuck? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the "a beer after a hard day's work" factor (Score:3, Insightful)
Sometimes it's not just the muscles-and-bimbos thing, it's the atmosphere. Baywatch was a success for the same reason The Fall Guy and The Dukes of Hazzard were successes. The formula was much like drinking a relaxing beer after work. It's no mystery to me why such series do best if given the Friday night slots, when everyone is sick of their 40 hour work week and just wants to vegetate for a while. Hell, I watched 'em myself, mainly for that reason -- they were relaxing and undemanding, without being completely dull. Crap TV if analyzed for content, but great for unwinding at the end of the workweek.
Re:It's the "a beer after a hard day's work" facto (Score:3, Funny)
>
I would have volunteered to help her with her breathing.
Re:Female Starbuck? (Score:2)
Re:Female Starbuck? (Score:2)
Re:Female Starbuck? (Score:2)
Hey, this is the 21st century. Nothing has to change. What is wrong with a lesbian fighter pilot?
Hell, considering that their target demographic is geek guy, that would do more for the ratings than anything else they could come up with.
Galactica: Girl on Girl Action (Score:2)
Female Starbuck = Stardoe (Score:2)
It's a Dagit (Score:3, Informative)
Yea, but now (Score:5, Funny)
Well now we have Lauren Green [foxnews.com], I can stand to watch her all day!
Also, I hope the wardrobe departments continue the Science Fiction media tradition, tighter clothes and less of them on the chicks please. Stop underestimating slutty so much and PLEASE higher heels!
Will the Cylons finally learn how to shoot? (Score:5, Funny)
Bad Aim: An old literary tool. (Score:2)
Here's a link I found to some sort of essay about this: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~jparsons/twain/coope
This work of Twain's is found in many Twain anthologies and other collections.
Re:Bad Aim: An old literary tool. (Score:3, Informative)
robot dogs (Score:3, Funny)
Great Show.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Great Show.... (Score:2)
Production Companies Running out of Ideas (Score:5, Insightful)
I would imagine that every year there will be thousands media graduates and new creative writers coming onto the market who would love to have a pop at a large scale production like this.
Either; the big companies are so scared at taking a risk that they just tart-up the same old crap, or all these new brains on the market are not up to the job (unlikley)
when something slightly new and fresh comes along in this niche marketplace (e.g. Farscape) the public lap it up (until it gets cancelled)
These people need to remember how to take risks
Re:Production Companies Running out of Ideas (Score:4, Insightful)
No, networks unwilling to take risks (Score:5, Insightful)
A friend and I were just discussing BG as a golden example of old hokey TV. What's next, a Fantasy Island remake?
Anyway, I wouldn't blame the production companies that pitch new ideas and are shot down, but the lumbering networks that choose the same formula over and over. Perhaps too one should look at the advertisers. So many acclaimed series are coming out of a private network I don't subscribe to (HBO) that something is going on here. (Sopranos, Band of Brothers, Six Feet Under, Sex In The City, etc. Quick, name equivalent ad-driven TV creations.)
And then, there's always the audience. ST:DS9 was the only one of the modern series to attempt a serious departure from formula, and was not widely accepted by audiences looking for, I suppose, the comfort food of the old style. (It looks like Enterprise is twitching for something new; we'll see if it works; but I'd rather flesh out a whole new universe in the uneven but ingenious Farscape.)
Did I mention I'm pissed at SciFi for dropping Farscape? [savefarscape.com]
Re:Production Companies Running out of Ideas (Score:2)
I liked Battlestar Galactica, mainly because the technology/tactics were internally consistent. I got into the whole universe a bit too much, though, because several weeks after I got a warrior jacket, I was explaining to my fourth grade teacher that "frack" was not a curse word. Unfortunately, you can't go very far as a story when you are running away to some distant destination all the time (...cough cough Voyager), and the show just got worse and worse until it basically fell apart quite horribly by the time they reached Earth. I watched "The return of Starbuck" during the last marathon and almost gagged. It's hard to find science fiction that sucks more than that.
I never could get into farscape. It's one thing to have flawed characters, quite another to have a bickering band of characters so self-absorbed and just generally pissy that you can't sympathize with any one of them for more than a scene.
Re:Originality Is Hard...But, Then, You Know That (Score:2, Funny)
New mormon connections as well? (Score:5, Interesting)
See http://www.proaxis.com/~sherlockfam/art5.html [proaxis.com] or http://home.earthlink.net/~billotto/Mormon_N_BSG.
or anywhere else you can google up from "battlestar galactica" and "mormon" [google.com].
Re:New mormon connections as well? (Score:2, Interesting)
Mormonism: religion -> science fiction
Scientology: science fiction -> religion
Re:New mormon connections as well? (Score:2)
In the Book of Mormon, the angel Moroni fulfills this "mysterious being" slot, with Joseph Smith being the "narrator" (author).
[Tho in The Worm Ouroboros, after a couple chapters the author forgets to use the "narrator" convention, so the rest of the book is written in the "direct" mode of modern fiction.]
[disclaimer: I'm not a Mormon, and in Montana was on their local blacklist, because when those nice young missionary boys came to the door, I'd drag out my annotated Book of Mormon and ARGUE with them, using their own source materials. Yep, there were advantages to growing up with a Mormon landlord after all!!]
Re:New mormon connections as well? (Score:2)
Not much hope with Moore attached (Score:3, Insightful)
I really wish they had gone with Richard Hatch's proposed series.
Of course, the new Galactica series will be perfect for Moore, since he like to "reimagine" (read screw up) things, like Trek.
Re:Not much hope with Moore attached (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not much hope with Moore attached (Score:2)
Re:Not much hope with Moore attached (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, Moore was involved with the lamentable Star Trek Generations screenplay - but that film was ultimately Berman and Braga's baby (Braga co-wrote the screenplay), with predictably lame results. Moore has been responsible for much of the *best* of modern Trek, including writing or co-writing TNG episodes like "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Sins of the Father", "First Contact", "Family", the "Redemption" 2-parter, "Tapestry" and the series closer "All Good Things". On DS9, he wrote or co-wrote episodes like "Our Man Bashir", "Trials and Tribble-ations", "In the Cards", "The Die is Cast", and "Soldiers of the Empire". Hardly a poor record, especially considering how many shows he was banging out a season. He also helped come up with the story and write the screenplay for the most successful Trek movie in ages, First Contact.
If you want to see someone screw up a series, look at Berman and Braga. Trek's ratings have been spiraling downward ever since they achieved their death grip on the show, and even their movies (Nemesis) flop.
Quite frankly, I don't see how you could make Battlestar Galactica much worse than it already was. Dirk Benedict was the only good thing about the show, and even he was just doing a credible Harrison Ford impersonation.
TV is dead (Score:2)
They have run out new ideas for TV programs already, in less than 100years, now all we have to look forward to are more re-runs of the same old (paid for) shows all because TV companies won't take risks on new material.
There are millions of talented writers,authors,actors,musicians etc etc all hungry for the chance at getting their work out to the public and yet TV firms still keep re-using the same old stock formulas/actors until we become sick of them
Oh how far we have travelled in 100years of TV/Cinema when even kids are sick to death of old reruns
Is there no ambition or willingness left in the television/film business to create new and inspiring shows/stories that people will replay in generations to come as examples of pioneering work ?
if todays television is anything to go by i guess not
Re:TV is dead (Score:2)
No.
Move to a city and see some theater. That is where the original stories are.
YES! (Score:2)
Me and my bro had all of the toys. We had the Vipers that actually shot the missile. YEAH! Of course with in a day we had lost them!
Another SciFi show I will boycott.... (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Cancel Farscape because of money.
2. Run non-SF crap like Crossing over and Dream
Team (and soon Scare Tactics).
2. Spend tons of money on Spielberg to do Taken.
3. Spend tons of money on a show that was NEVER
any good (Battlestar Galactica).
I'll be boycotting BSG like I did Taken.
Anyone remember when MTV played music videos? Same thing is happening with SciFi. At some point seing actual science fiction will be a rare oddity on SciFi.
Re:Another SciFi show I will boycott.... (Score:2)
Anyone remember when MTV, Inc. made a TON of money and began to branch out with their flagship brand into stuff besides music videos but also started multiple other cable channels to actually show music videos? At some point, seeing actual science fiction will be a rare oddity on SciFi, but hopefully by attracting more viewers and more advertisers with 'phony' scifi, they will be able to subsidize the production of REAL scifi to be published on other channels...hopefully.
Why not just buy Firefly? (Score:5, Interesting)
No Maren Jensen - not the same! (Score:2)
Re:And you still troll slashdot? (Score:2)
Where have you people been? (Score:5, Informative)
Where to start. There is no more 12 colonies on 12 planets. There is 12 colonies on 1 planet. The cylons weren't created a reptilian race. The cylons were created by the humans to fight each other. All the characters are pale shadows of themselves. Anything that made them look and act like a hero is gone. Starbuck & Boomer are both now woman. Mr. Moore turned this once great show into a social propaganda engine. Don't expect this to be anything like the original because he is basing this on the the original Battlestar Galactica movie which was the first few episodes of the show and does have a lot of the character development.
Re:Where have you people been? (Score:4, Funny)
Here we are about to go to war and people have their undies in a knot over a television show. Maybe George Bush is representative of the American intellect.
Re:Where have you people been? (Score:2)
Don't expect you child to be able to watch this show. The original show could have been watch by people of all ages! This is aimed more for the 18 - 25 range, if I remember the articles correctly, with more sexual content than in the past. I won't recomend you let you kids watch this.
The sci-fi channel has been censoring any post on the quality of leadership from Bonnie (head of Sci-fi channel)--i.e. the complaints raised by the massive non-scifi content.
Re:Where have you people been? (Score:2)
I'm too young to remember the show from when it first appeared, but I watched the reruns as a child and, despite the comically overused footage, loved the show. Heck, the was even willing to tolerate Muffit the daggit.
Re:Where have you people been? (Score:2)
But no. It's in fashion these days to "remake" old properties with no involvement whatsoever from anyone who was involved with the original. Pay lip service to the concept, drag it through the mud, and make it so crappy that neither the old fans nor new curious viewers have any interest in it. Bleah. This new show is just wrong. It's a blatant spit-in-the-face of Hatch, and of all the old-time fans who have been trying to get Hatch's show made.
Sure, Hatch might be a starry-eyed dreamer, but if it weren't for dreamers, nothing would ever get done. And you have to hand it to him...he's written the stories. Not Shatnerically ghost-written them. He has a lot of creativity, a lot of charisma...if only they would give him the reins.
Detailed script review (Score:2, Interesting)
I hope it's better than the first one. (Score:2)
AICN Script Review (Score:2)
I remember "Galactica" from my youth, but I just remember the spaceships zooming around. I was like 7 or so, so I don't remember much. I was excited when they were going to bring it back...but then, we don't speak of "Galactica 1980." (My God! It's been over 20 years)
When I went back in the last few years and caught it on SciFi, I was surprised how detailed the series was--the polictical infighting, the "civilian control of the military" overtones, etc.
The new script sounds like it picks up on its legacy, and expands on it immencely.
Remember: twenty-five years ago, SciFi was not nearly as generally accepted as it is today. There is such diversity out there now, and the audiences are much more mature. It could be said that it is much more accepted. So, more sophisticated plotlines can be accepted.
Female Starbuck? (Score:2)
stupid robot dog (Score:2)
Insert #Farscape.h (Score:5, Interesting)
I am _so_ glad that there is a new Science-Fiction-based tv channel being created. Never thought I'd see the day. I used to watch SciFi all the time. Now? One hour, once a week.
Watch Farscape. Tell your friends. The "We're So Screwed" Trilogy started last night. It'll replay this weekend.
Re:Insert #Farscape.h (Score:2)
I remember BG very well. The premiere was one of the dullest and most weakly-plotted things I'd ever seen outside of maybe Star Trek: The Motionless Picture, and BG had additional problems with very poor acting and lack of chemistry. It got tolerable after a while, but it was never what I'd call good TV on any level.
And IMO the whole premise was too weak to begin with, so how does it deserve a second chance now? A: Well, we can't think up our own stuff, so we'll use this one that we already have handy.
Glah, and then they wonder why SF series tend not to be the big hits they envision.
Speaking of little Daggits... (Score:2)
Speaking of saving, they need to give Herb Jefferson Jr. [imdb.com] some kind of cameo, simply for showing up in his "Boomer" costume at a zillion SF conventions, so that we never quite forgot Battlestar Galactica.
Baltar's Death (Score:3, Interesting)
Farscape? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Farscape? (Score:2)
Oh great... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh great... (Score:2)
And the original BG was pretty bad. Things like the control yoke in their spaceships having buttons labelled "Turbo" (looking eerily similar to arcade controls of the era) to the names of the characters to Twiki and...well, you know.
Maybe this time they'll know not to bother... (Score:5, Funny)
Also, there's the question of their immigration status. Now, they can't really claim to be asylum seekers 'cos they started the war with the Cylons in the first place by being a big bunch of Buttinskis and not letting the Cylons subjugate a vassal race as they saw fit (subjugation's kinda the point in being Galactic Overlords after all...) It'd be funny of they got to Earth and the Department of Homeland Security just stuck them in a camp.
Thinking about it that way, the smartest thing we could do when the Galactican's arrive is stick them in a camp. Then when the Cylons turn up we cosy up to them and point out that our most powerful nations are those with the strongest rule of law, and by the way have you thought about extraditing the Galacticans to Cylon as war criminals? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they commit genocide when they destroyed a planet in the movie? "Oh, it was just an 'accident', was it? Well I'm very sure that if you're innocent then you'll have nothing to fear at trial. On Cylon."
Then we're well in with our new alien masters, obviously being a different, more pragmatic breed of humanity and a bright shining future awaits humanity as the Cylons' premier client race.
It's what I'd do.
If you listen carefully.... (Score:3, Funny)
I never noticed this, but if you listen carefully to that sound that thing makes, it sounds a lot like "Jar Jar....Jar Jar"
Coincidence, I think not.
Starbuck('s) (Score:3, Funny)
What OS do Cylons run on??? (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe a poll would be good,
option D. Cylons are just Cowboy Neal in Metal-Drag
Frack! (Score:2)
Aiiieeee! (Score:2)
They cancel the last season of Farscape and blow their money on THIS!?
It's official. I hate the Sci-fi channel.
Cattlecar Galactica 420 time! (Score:2)
Series rarely survive being "remade..." (Score:2)
The series flopped after (barely) getting through four or so episodes. Why? A complete cast change. None of the original actors got used, with the possible exception of the voice talent for that scaly librarian, and the replacement "talent" had about as many neurons between their collective ears as a cubic centimeter of space dust.
Look also at "Earth: Final Conflict." Fantastic series until Tribune Entertainment got their grubby mitts on it, and decided (God only knows why) it needed some changes. What'd we get? Death of the leading character(s) and, after a while, nothing but badly-written 'Monster of the Week' episodes. I'm surprised Kevin Kilner even bothered to reappear later on. I wonder if that was a move of desperation, on the part of the producers, to try and revive what they'd already effectively killed?
Few series survive being re-made. Does anyone really trust the production skills of a studio that has given us such... wonders... as "Crossing Over with John (shyster) Edwards," and the cancellation of their single most popular series (Farscape), to be able to do justice to the original BSG, as campy as it may have been?
I think SciFi needs to leave well enough alone. Unless, that is, they plan on hiring Richard Hatch as the producer of the thing. Then it might stand a chance.
what about that robot? (Score:2)
Oh, my... (Score:2)
Considering the quality of "Roswell" and his other accomplishments, I believe I will give his image of what BSG could be a chance before I pan it outright.
As long as they don't misuse the units again... (Score:5, Funny)
Sigh. It's OK to invent units. It's not OK to have those units already mean something vastly different in real life.
Oh, man is this going to suck! (Score:2)
Directed by Michael Rymer:
Queen of the Damned - The worst hack job of a novel in recent memory, and a snooze-enducing piece of crap that made me want to just get up and walk out in the middle of the movie.
Written by Ronald D. Moore:
Mission: Impossible II - Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to make a movie even dumber than Mission: Impossible.
Produced by David Eick:
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - NEED I SAY MORE???
This is going to be a schlockfest!
I still have a crush on Sheba (Score:3, Funny)
Product Placement! (Score:3, Funny)
Also staring Aibo(tm) as the Robot Dog
(Aibo(tm) appears courtesy of Sony(tm) Entertainment)
Re:And I can't imagine one without (Score:2, Informative)
Re:And I can't imagine one without (Score:5, Funny)
Man, if he did that to my gramps, I'd kick his ass.
Re:And I can't imagine one without (Score:2)
You mean Lorne Greene [imdb.com], right?
There was a Red Green [redgreen.com] episode about this that aired a couple of weeks back, involving Red's scheme to turn Possum Lodge into a tourist attraction based on finding an old oar with the name "Loren" written on it.
That's how I remembered the "e," actually. Amazing what you can learn on public television [pbs.org].
Re:And I can't imagine one without (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And I can't imagine one without (Score:3, Interesting)
Isn't he in Angel too? (Score:2)
Re:Galactica was a piece of crap (Score:2)
Re:Galactica was a piece of crap (Score:2, Insightful)
My biggest criticism of BSG has been (as with many sci-fi programs) that they speak English but come up with their own units of measurement (centons, etc.). Kudos to them for trying to make it interesting by creating everything unique to the series, but sometimes it was just hokey.
I have to admit, though - seeing the Cylon in costume on an episode of (and, I believe, the opening credits to) the A-Team, having a brief exchange with Dirk Benedict, was priceless.
I think that if a scifi writer is going to allow some "inaccuracies" in (like the English language) they need to be consistent and talk about minutes and seconds and parsecs and lightyears, too... Just my opinion.
Re:Galactica was a piece of crap (Score:2)
Re:Galactica was a piece of crap (Score:2)
But standards are mostly good today, at least for costumes and special effects, the other day I finally saw the first version of Dune, and compared with the miniserie it looked... well, old, and different from the book in other aspects
Convergence (Score:3, Funny)
Dirk Diggler Benedict
Action
Re:Convergence (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Scott Bakula (Score:3, Interesting)
Dirk [dirkbenedictcentral.com]
Separated at birth?
Re:Scott Bakula (Score:2)
Re:Scott Bakula (Score:2)
Nope, sorry, he already has a bad sciffy series [upn.com]. If it weren't for that, though, you would be right.
Re:re-airing (Score:4, Informative)
Re:ah hell... (Score:2)
Re:If the Cylons look too much like the Borg... (Score:2)
Re:Yay! (Score:5, Insightful)
What? Sieze him! (Score:2)
Re:Yay! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Build better dog (Score:2)