SciFi Channel To Air A New Galactica Series

EvilBuu writes "The Sci-Fi Channel has begun airing ads announcing a full Battlestar Galactica series following the surprisingly (to some) good new mini series starring Edward James Olmos. Looks like it will be a straight forward continuation of the mini, with the same cast and more Cylon goodness!" According to this press release, Richard Hatch will guest star, and the show will air starting in January 2005.

Nostalgia

[Moderation abuser]

Am I the only one who finds the fact that nostalgia is driving the current Science Fiction series aired to be supremely ironic?

Re:Previews...

[Nishal]

the cylons are supposed to be robots dammit..robots!!!!!

Re:no mas no mas! or... "What's up with SG?"

[Anonymous Coward]

You would think that they could have come up with something more interesting than him becoming a desk jockey then. Maybe he could have somehow played a more vital role to that alien race (the greys who were like.. super super super advanced - and benevolant). And in that, he could have a periodic role, but without the dullness of the desk job thing.

Or maybe they thought the desk job bit was an unexpected twist that would normally not be pursued in a sci-fi show.

I saw the sci-fi special about stargate and the impression I was left with from some of the comments was that the 8th may or may not be the final season. They made it sound like they would continue to do both series simultaneously and didn't really appear to indicate that this *would* be it.

If they do end it, I hope they do the show justice with the ending. I really can't take anymore of this bullshit where we invest an hour every week for most of a decade into a show only to have the producers fuck us in the ass in the last season and feeds is melted cheese rather than tenderloin.

That's what pissed me off about X-Files and Farscape. Invested a lot of time and emotion into those shows and loved both only to have them tossed in the trash without an ounce of respect to the loyal audience that stayed along for the ride all those years.

Re:no mas no mas!

[Daemonik]

Sci-Fi has a Farscape mini series scheduled for next year too that's supposed to take up from where the series ended.

As for why Sci-Fi schedules the shows that it does, it all comes down to money. Science Fiction shows are expensive and easy to screw up in the eyes of the hardcore audiences that follow them like they're Jim Jones with a fresh batch of kool-aid.

The fact that Sci-Fi has any original programming is pretty cool, but it's far cheaper for them to run 'freak-of-the-week on their way to dvd' movies and 'reality' (*cough* Edwards *cough*) shows than to produce a good science fiction series.

Also, considering that broadcast television has f****d up with Enterprise and couldn't figure out Firefly, a network that goes out on a limb to update a series like Battlestar Galactica, creates 3 Dune mini-series, buys up Stargate and spins off another series, is developing an Earthsea mini and is finally giving Farscape a mini isn't all that bad in my book. At least they're trying dude, which is more than NBC, CBS, FOX or the others can say.

Re:Nostalgia

[Daemonik]

Am I the only one who finds the fact that nostalgia is driving the current Science Fiction series aired to be supremely ironic?

Considering that many of the sci-fi staples are either already here or have been discredited and that older series have a built in audience versus the financial risk of developing a new series that might not find an audience it doesn't surprise me in the least that many 'new' series are retreads of old shows.

Also, unlike the audiences of the past who had an optimistic, childlike view of the future, most people today are extremely cynical of technology and it's impacts on our future.

I enjoyed the new BSG

[beldraen]

Unfortunately, I think most people are just not going to "get it." I had a discussion with a friend who is the true "but this isn't like the original show, so it sucks!" The most fascinating thing about of this series is the fact that the Cyclons are now human. The pilot ended up with some great philosophical (for the Slashdot crowd, this won't work because it requires thinking about other positions than your own, I know..) ideas and plot points:

-- Are the Cyclons more human that we are? Can they have all their emotions without being socially destructive? Or, are they less human because they are so reigned in? Do they have freewill? Can they have freewill and yet also be sleeper programmed?
-- Is Baltar just psychologically unsound or did they plan a device in his head? We know that there are at least one other Cyclon on board, but I seriously suspect another. Are they the perpetrators or is Baltar unconsciously being controlled?
-- How will Starbuck deal with having passed Zack? In theory, this should lead to her resignation, but we cannot afford to lose any valuable pilots.
-- How with the X.O. handle his daemons now that his job isn't plush anymore?

This series has a lot more drama to it, which is probably why the "old crowd" doesn't care for it. I can say that the people I know who weren't raised on the old show really like this one.

Re:no mas no mas!

[iantri]

Anyway, my point is (the new) Battle Star Galactica is VERY well written. It passes the golden rules of good Space Opera (no plot holes, an imaginative but beliebable universe, character driven) with flying colours and bar Firefly is about the only decent (non-Japanese) scifi to appear in the last decade.

*COUGH* Babylon 5 *COUGH*.

Re:no mas no mas!

[Chris_Jefferson]

There is a very good reason that Stargate got 8 seasons and Farscape got 3 years.

I tried starting watching farscape at the start of season 3, stargate at the start of season 4. Stargate I got 90% of within 3 episodes or so and picked the rest up. Farscape kept referencing back so many times that after about 4 episodes I gave up. I wanted to like it, I really did, but I just could not get into it.

Now I've watched it from the start, and love it. But I also understand that you can't expect most people to put that kind of dedication into a TV series. Farscape just got so clever and complex that there was no way anyone could get into it.

I liked it too,

[Infonaut]

but for different reasons:

* The sequence of events during and immediately following the Cylon attack was well-handled, IMHO. It had the feeling of a real event, where nobody knew quite what was going on and people who were not expected to be leaders had to step up and take responsibility.

* The environment on Galactica, the crew reactions, and the overall tone of a fleet that had been on guard duty for years without seeing any combat, and was now engaged in combat felt right to me.

* The "combat journalism" style of dogfight footage was great. I definitely prefered it to the smooth, effortless and artificial feel of most Trek space combat.

* The characters were set up with individual personalities without reliance on alien cliches. It's a lot more difficult to make a show based on mere humans seem interesting to SF fans, but I wanted to know more about these characters, and I felt that there was a lot more to explore in each of them.

I loved the old show when I was a kid, primarily because of Starbuck, and because I could picture myself flying around in a Viper waxing Cyclon Raiders. But this is a very different show for a different audience. In my opinion it's better acted and richer, and it has the potential to be a solid series. I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.