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Battlestar Galactica DVD Movie In the Works?
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Dec 30, 2006 09:14 AM
from the those-other-starbucks dept.
from the those-other-starbucks dept.
Philias writes "Although Battlestar Galactica has been going down in ratings and has yet to get picked up for another season, the sales of its DVDs has got Universal thinking of a Direct-To-Video Movie. GeekMonthly.com is reporting that plans are afoot for a film that will bridge the gap between Galactica and the new spinoff 'Caprica.' The film would be shot in March during the usual hiatus between seasons. The big difference between this and the mini-series and other seasons would be that this would be sold on DVD before being aired on the SciFi channel."
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Battlestar Galactica DVD Movie In the Works?
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awww... (Score:1, Funny)
What an disappointment!
Interesting (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.bleepsoft.com/)
"Unfortunately, nobody will be paid for any part of it." [slashdot.org]
Rips (Score:1, Funny)
No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:5, Insightful)
Other than that they really seem to be pushing the preachy morality play of the week. I think the listened too much to the critics who liked them touching "real issues" and now they have gone overboard on the "real issues" and the story and characters seem to be suffering, so much so that I have a hard time buying their actions. It is just not as good this season. I hope they get back to form soon.
They shouldn't try to drag this on endlessly, when the story is over they should stop and not inject filler seasons that increasingly make it unrealistic. I would rather have 3 or 4 good season ended properly rather than dragged out mediocre 5 or 6 seasons.
I expect modding down from fans who will claim it is better than ever.
Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://theravensnest.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday October 07, @07:05AM)
Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:5, Interesting)
Now they seem too human, too emotionally vulnerable and the base star's interior just seems like a space that's too large and relaxing. And seeing base stars filled with Xena's and Tricia Helfer's is somewhat detracting. Though the cylons I really really like are the Dean Stockwell ones and the Grace Park ones. Whereas Lucy Lawless' and Tricia Helfer's cylon characters have grown somewhat flat to me, the other two mentioned represent a lot more of the sadistic cylon determination (Stockwell) and the schitzophrenic identity crisis that organic cylons are bound to have (All those Sharons)
I listen to the podcast commentaries a lot and Ronald D Moore, the producer, openly acknowledges a lot of these issues, that whatever cylon sets they built wouldnt never live up to peoples' imaginations and that revealing more and more about the cylons was always simply too tempting for them as authors. I can appreciate that, but I still think they were perhaps incorrect choices.
What I think they should do with this current arc they are doing is to give Baltar back to the Galactica. The only problem with that is considering how enthusiastically they've ejected people out of airlocks for less, keeping him alive on Galactica would be difficult to do believably. Maybe strand him on the algea planet with someone like the Chief... Also, while another election episode would be rather dull, Laura has stayed in powr through so many unlikely twists that to remove her from power within the fleet would put her character in an interesting position.
For the record, I still think it's the best drama on television, and easily soars above the 99% of TV that's just utter cultural garbage.
Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a great reversal of the roles and I'm sure it will even out at some point because
*** SPOILER ALERT DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN LAST EPISODE BEFORE HIATUS ***
William Adama is pretty much willing to nuke the whole fracking planet at this point. It's pretty much a cold decision, considering Earth is in the balance. Maybe now will be a time for the humans to realize what they are turning into and shift their course. The executions "if were not with us on New Caprica you are against us" mentality also was pretty cold. Reminds me of a certain... nah... I won't go into that.
**** END SPOILER ***
It's interesting that the heart of the Galactica crew right now is pretty much Shannon (a machine) and her husband. It's also interesting that there is also one Cylon who distinctively thinks like a cold-hearted machine, the preacher, who coldly said last episode "Let's kill them, rid the universe of the human pestilence. We are machines, it doesn't matter if it takes us a 1000 years to find Earth", which, you got to admit, he had a really good point. The only thing preventing this is the other Cylons who are slowly evolving with more human feelings.
I just love how the show plays this, consciously or not. (but I bet the writers knew it all along)
The one thing I miss tough is the deliciously crazy Baltar being tormented by Number Six while he is going around on Galactica and having people look at him funny. And the shocker was realizing the Number Six on her own also had her own suggestive-manipulative-Baltar in her head. That was a great revelation. Too bad they didn't get to play more with this since Baltar is now on the base ship.
Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:4, Interesting)
As for Batlar being a Cylon himself, while an interesting idea (Baltar is even pondering the notion now), it would be anti-climatic, because it's such an interesting burden (for the viewer) to be responsible for the genocide of your race. It's a great burden to carry. It was great to have a delusional Baltar and it would have been for nothing if he is indeed a Cylon. One interresting plot twist tough would be if he turned to believe he is one and commited suicide to prove his point and we then realize he wasn't. That would be the perfect ending for this character I think. Or if the show ends with the destruction of the Cylons and he last ressurection ship, you end up with a lone Baltar without any ressurection ship to revive him if he is indeed one and you have him on the fringe of death and he will never know if was a Cylon indeed. Cue credits.
Re:No surprise ratings are falling. (Score:5, Insightful)
Every episode the writers add new canon. They reveal new aspects of characters, back-story, colonial religion, Cylon goals, and secrets about Earth. The problem is that this show started off with a huge bang, and due to its uniqueness and high quality, a lot of viewers "fell in love" with various aspects of the characters or plot or even style of presentation. Today, it's virtually inevitable that every episode will introduce some element to "taint" the adoration and respect viewers have. Starbuck's recent behaviour? Helo's? Discovering the Cylons want Earth as well?
I guarantee that when the "Final Five" have their faces revealed, for every fan who says "that's neat!", there'll be some disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-fan who throws his hands up in the air and says "that's not what I would have done".
The show continues to be a very high-quality, well-written and well-acted one. I expect the ratings problem is due much more to unrealistic expectations of many, many fans that BSG will contain nothing but plot elements THEY adore.
Try caring more about what BSG IS instead of what it ISN'T, each episode. What it certainly is, is the best show on television.
How to be stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
I learned last year that UniversalHD runs the BSG reruns after 6 months or so, in high def. So, now I am just going to wait it out until the show is available in HD.
I think Universal is just frackin stupid to run the premier episodes in crap-def on the sci-fi channel. If there is a single demographic most likely to own HDTVs and actively seek out HD shows, it is the one that watches BSG. They need to get their shit together and simulcast the show in HD, not make us wait 6+ months for it.
What did they expect? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure what Sci-Fi expects ratings to do when they run what amounts to half a season of episodes, call it a season, and run them the better part of a year apart. TV audiences of the TiVo generation have shown that they're not content to just watch reruns for long periods of time. With decreasing new episode counts, the problem of ratings getting harder and harder to come by shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
If Sci-Fi wants a show to succeed, they should try a novel approach: go back to a 30+ episode season. These silly little 10- and 13-episode runs are barely long enough to start getting into the action, then bam: 3 month hiatus....
no wonder ratings are declining! (Score:3, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Death by Multiplication? (Score:2, Interesting)
Now granted, it's a great show, and a direct-to-DVD movie isn't really uncommon, but doesn't anybody think it's a little TOO much? Almost like SciFi, RDM and Eick are riding the marketing a little too hard? Babylon 5 was probably the most famous for direct-to-DVD movies. Most of them were not really on par with the overall quality of the show (except for In The Beginning... which was just... unbelievable.) even though they were nice little departures.
Maybe it wouldn't kill the show per-se, but it seems like they're jumping the gun a little early on this one.
decline in ratings? (Score:1)
Well I'd Watch It... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://kweilo.chex-uk.net/)
I watch the US versions, a day after they air. You can work out the rest for yourself. But there is no point viewing on Sci-Fi UK when I've already seen it. If we had parity with the US, or at least something more sensible like a week, the viewing figures would be much higher!
and.. (Score:2, Insightful)
The cylon bayships are showing WAY TOO MUCH. Its like going into Darth Vaders bathroom and watching him take off his mask and slap on some aftershave. Cylons were more interesting when it was a mystery what is going on inside there. When we knew just as much of the cylons as the humans did. Now we are watching the cylons run around in their underwear, and the bayships seem like a pretty cush place no?The scariest thing going on there is the digital lights that are unnecessarily being flashed in the cylon faces to make it look FUTURISTIC, OOOOOH.
Why does Baltar still have Caprica(cylon) in his head? Shes right there!!!! What's the point? Hurry up and get done with the whole cylon/human hybrid baby, Sharon wants her baby storyline. Its really lame and unnecessary. First of all its just Madam President making another mistake cause really WHY tell the mother the kid died? So the cylons wont know she exists and take her and do experiments on her? Sorry but thats ridiculous. They would blow up gallactica before hoping onboard and kidnapping a baby.
Are these types of movies "swan songs" ? (Score:2)
Loss of stargate as a lead-in (Score:4, Funny)
Sadly... (Score:2, Insightful)
Not enough action (Score:1)
The whole "new Caprica" arc was what really killed the show for me. They skipped something like 10 years which just left a bad taste in my mouth and ruined the storyline. The lead up to it just didn't make any sense (Commander Lee Adama anyone?).
Don't get me wrong, I still love the show. It's actually one of the few things worth watching on TV and the last episode wasn't too bad but I hope they pull the show back in the direction of the original arc.
Recipe for BSG Success ... (Score:1)
(http://opensourcetoday.org/)
Even going high definition tv would not suffice, since I like others have only standard. I watch only two shows: BSG and House M.D. Until recently when he got smacked down I was on the course to drop the latter.
Going straight to DVD is great, I will buy it just to avoid the stupid ads and previews for the upcoming shows. SciFi insults its viewers by running miniclips while the current show is nearing its end. I hate SciFi Channel and I have nearly no interest in watching any of their shows, particularly the ones they push when BSG is on.
While I tend to read science fiction, I have always found most sci. fi. movies and tv series painful to watch. With BSG I may disagree with the story line or at times think parts were done badly, I still like to watch their attempts even when they fail. At least, most times they are not talking down to the audience.
One feature I now avoid is the podcasts, even the ones on the DVDs, there is too much stress on their own visceral response to their creation rather than the logic in the story line. That might be due to the need to avoid giving away future plot lines. Valid reason (somewhat), however, I had learned well in advance about the first 5 to 6 episodes of season 3 from reading a fan magazine. Actually I was disappointed I expected better execution of the ideas in the plots. So the discussions of the episodes do yield nothing positive for me, though other comments here found them of value.
I suggest: just produce the DVDs, run it afterward on TV. I suspect there will be a market for both, but with the shows timing on a shitty channel with idiots running it there is only so much any audience will bear. NBC could have done better, both for themselves and for the show.
I should state that the humans interest me less than machine intelligence, but religious nuts? Where did that come from? Mass murder followed by the tepid attempts to show the humans the right path, that's just too hard a sell. I would really like to know the rationale for the robots behaviour. And other questions, why were their more organic forms stopped so abruptly? Why are they scientific klutzes? This all hints that the core of the murderous rage and their frailty is human based. I am hoping Caprica might follow that logic, however, I do not have high hopes.
Nonetheless, I will continue to watch both, but preferably straight off of DVDs. I will still watch, because one is still the best of its genre and I have hopes the new series will do as well, at least in quality.
This Feels Too Familiar (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://www.gamersradio.com/)
The new season of BSG did the exact same thing. They started focusing on the morality of the world around us. They had terriosts and suicide bombers.
I'm sorry, but I watch SciFi because I want to escape from the problems we face in the world today. Didn't Universal learn anything from the ratings dive Enterprise took when they did this?
Then again, this is the same channel that is cancelling Stargate SG1, even though it's one of their highest rated shows.
BSG fan (Score:2)
(http://www.digitalhermit.com/)
1) The episodes are less balanced. I.e., they are more standalone episodes than before. IMHO, getting new viewers is very difficult if there's a lot of backstory needed to understand new episodes. For example, when X-Files was good it relied on some backstory. Regular viewers could be very interested. At some point they made it a freak-of-the-week show. Maybe this was at the direction of the marketing folks who said that they needed to appeal to non-regular viewers. Who knows. BSG seems to be heading in the freak-of-the-week direction...
2) Too much morality preaching. This is coming from someone who enjoyed watching Starbuck interview the Cylon because of the psychology war. Now it seems to be more about adding current topics to the storyline to make it, ummm, topical. Sure, science fiction always has a dose of morality, but don't beat us to death with it.
3) Not enough explosions. Seriously. My favorite movie is Apocalypse Now. I can appreciate the deep mind-fuck and the near-perfect understanding of Conrad's story, but it had lots of guns too. BSG is getting way too touchy-feely to appeal to the 25-45 male demographic.
4) Cylons are too human. No mystery, no intrigue. They're just human now and that makes it really boring. I.e., if it looks like a duck and talks like a duck, call it a duck. It was interesting that they could not die, but now they can, so the morality question of, "Does mortality make us human" just blows away. They're too human and too weak as a result. That's why the Borg was so terrifying at first. Then they became human and that just made them weak.
And for God's sake, please don't do any time travel or evil twin episodes..
bridge the gap... (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Wednesday December 20 2006, @07:31PM)
There's one problem right there. Why is there a gap? Why is there a spinoff? Did the events on Caprica really warrant a spinoff? Could the Caprica story, in no way, remain integrated with the main storyline in some way? And if it couldn't, and it didn't really warrant a spinoff, why not just let it be and move on?
Too many spinoffs these days - in the end, it merely divides focus (and money!) on the end of producers, actors, and audience alike. I'd like to see how many spinoffs+series remained doing as well separately, as the original did on its own. My guess: not many.
I wish the DVDs were cheaper. (Score:2)
I won't do it. It's a great show, and I'm glad to borrow it from people willing to fork out the dough. But it isn't worth it to me. And I think it's probably not worth it to other people either.
Does RDM have film rights? (Score:2)
Drop in rating no surprise (Score:1)
Here's a tip... move the story along already!!
I pretty much gave up on the slow moving show but then decided to give it one more chance. So, the next time I caught an episode... I see an hour of retarded boxing? Dear Lord, how boring can they force the show to be?? At least that stupid Kat vs Starbuck bickering is finally gone.
Touchy Feely Meets Cost (Score:2)
(http://hangarbay.niteshdw.com/)
This entire character driven story arch lately. Especially the shit between Starbuck and Apollo. Don't get me wrong I wanted to see them together since the Mini Series, but my god...that one boxing episode it was like one giant emo trip. All Apollo needed was a myspace to record his feelings on and the plot line would have been complete. They didn't need to dedicate an entire episode to boxing. Run it in the background along some other story arcs that ya know, go with the "oh shit we're being chased by killer fucking robots" idea.
And yea the idea of being chased by Cylons is like, gone. I think the last real time they had to worry about it, was the attack on the Ressurrection Ship. Sure, the Cylons found them on New Caprica, held them against their will etc But in the end what did they do? Sack'ed the Pegasus, which we all knew was coming, for a very short brief action sequence that basically was the equal of them getting people off the planet and running away, again. Since then there's been no real "omg we're in danger" aspect. Sure they ran out of food and such but it's been kinda a subdued role of the Cylons really being this threat. It just seems like Season 3 has been about them running this parallel course to get to Earth, not really attacking them.
Cost is the real killer for me. After I had seen the majority of Season 1 reruns, I went out and bought BSG S1 on DVD, which included the mini series. Well worth my $40 for it. Now I enjoyed Season 2 as well. But over $80 for it? I can get 2 seasons of basically any other show for that. Hell if I wanna buy "slimcase" editions of X-Files, Buffy or Angel for example I could get 3 seasons of those for the price of BSG Season 2 ($45 for each part, two parts).. That's god damn highway robbery. Don't get me wrong, other tv shows are just as bad. Doctor Who is upwards of $83 (Best Buy price) for 13 episodes of content...I love science fiction, it's my life. I just can't give it an arm, a leg, a first born child and a soul to buy some dvds.
WTF is up with this month long hiatus? (Score:2)
(http://www.bamph.com/)
Bill
Lose the shakeycam (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/)
I love BSG (Score:1)
(http://www.gamerslastwill.com/)
I love BSG and all of its stories. It's a great show and should be picked up for another season.
scifi is trying to kill it by holding it off the air.
Note to the author of TFA (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 03 2002, @12:06AM)