Battlestar Galactica

scrapbook · 17-10-2004, 12:53 PM

I was watching this on sky one last night (I believe it has been on sky movies previously?) but wasnt paying particular attention at the beginning, can someone fill in the blanks for me?

I used to watch this is the old days before it got really silly, can't say I particulary like the modern interpretation of the characters.

I assumed the story line would follow the same route, but right at the begining there was some chappy with a picture of the 'old' cylons and the text said something about the wat being over for 40 years???

Starburst · 17-10-2004, 1:15 PM

It's a reworking of the original, not a remake or a spin off.

Times do change though, BSG was extremely dated in terms of it's characters and how they were presented. A modern re-working had to move them away from the original to be half way relevant to a modern audience.
As always though the diehard fans of the original can not accept any change in what they perceive to be right, I understand where they are coming from but then again what would be the point of a remake that was exactly the same as the original.

As for the actual adjusted story, the Cylons were now created by Man and rebelled and left the 12 systems and have not been heard from for 40 years. In that time the Cyclon race had evolved from mechanical beings to hybrids and "returned home" with a few scores to settle. The story then kinda syncs back in with a rag tag armarda of human ships and a single Battlestar commanded by Adama with the crew more or less intact aside from the changes to Boomer and Starbuck.

dsw182 · 17-10-2004, 1:18 PM

In short:

Humans create the Cylons.
Cylons turn on the Humans.
-------> War with the Cylons
War ends, Cylons bugger off.

An armistice is supposedly formed at the wars end (~40 years before start of series) and the Humans believe that there will be an era of negotiations & peaceful co-existence with the Cylons. Instead the Cylons just go off somewhere and don't ever communicate. They remain silent until ....... kablammo.

**Greg** · 17-10-2004, 2:03 PM

They spent 40 years creating Tricia Helfer.

Ian J · 17-10-2004, 3:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregHook

They spent 40 years creating Tricia Helfer.

It makes you wonder which side we are supposed to rooting for when the evil Cylon look like every man's dream girl and the human heroine looks like a big butch Amazonian creature with shoulders to match Arnie in his heyday.

I had to grin when the evil Cylon Miss Yummie was wearing little more than a pout, sitting on the fellow's lap and saying "I'm sure that something will turn up soon". It certainly would have done if she had been sitting on my lap

Dipman · 17-10-2004, 8:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GregHook

They spent 40 years creating Tricia Helfer.

Seems like 40 yrs well spent to me !!

PoochJD · 18-10-2004, 6:29 PM

Evening,

Just to let you know, Sky did a deal with the US Sci-Fi Channel. Sky part-funded both the new "Battlestar Galactica" show and Francis Ford Coppola's new sci-fi extravagnaza, "The 4400".

However, in so doing, Sky had a choice to make. Which show will they choose to get a world premiere on their channel. They have chosen "BG", which we'll see before the US will. However, they've seen/are seeing "The 4400" before we do, and we'll get that in the New Year!

Just thought that might be of interest to you all.

Pooch

Indiana Jones · 18-10-2004, 8:51 PM

Its funny how they dont make any mention of the UK getting the series first (started on Sky tonight by the way) on the official website, just says January 2005 lol

lmccauley · 22-10-2004, 4:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian J

It makes you wonder which side we are supposed to be rooting for ...

If you're Australian, then it's obvious which side you should be rooting for

I have to say that my expectations were very low before I watched the mini-series, but I thought it was actually very good. I don't give a stuff about the original story line, even though I watched & loved the original series when I was a kid. The quick refocusing during space shots is quite effective, though a little overused. I like the fact that spaceship "wooshing" noises are kept to a reasonable minimum. The battle sequences between cylon base ships & Galactica were also well done - hundreds of missiles and "tracer" rounds flying between looked quite spectacular. The characters seem to have reasonable motivations, and even have to make hard choices without some hackneyed hollywood plot device making it alright in the end (e.g. the fire on Galactica that was threatening to take out the whole ship if they didn't vent the area where 100 crew members were performing damage control).

They've created quite a good atmosphere of survival at all costs, and now paranoia. I'm eagerly looking forward to the rest of the series.

Cheers,
Liam

Mr.D · 22-10-2004, 4:38 PM

Yep I was pleasantly surprised by this . I thought it sounded very lame but its got a suitably grim and dark feel to it.

Really like the kinetics of the space stuff: technically its a bit wishy washy in the texturing and lighting ( like most TV stuff) but the hand held camera , somewhat realistic space physics and ballistic weapons instead of poxy lasers are used to good effect.

Just needs a bit more blood and we are cooking (mind you that civvy did seem to get most of his lower back blown out by boomer's copilot.

Baby bit was very nasty.

The cylon chick !

Now I just need to get my hands on the latest Sky episodes.

**Greg** · 22-10-2004, 4:40 PM

I am well impressed with the mini series and first episode of the series.

Have never seen the original, before my time

Particularly like the space sequences and the way the ships jump. Characters and storylines seem good. I liked the first episode with the whole crew totally worn out as they all had to get the ship to jump every 33 mins.

Greg

Starburst · 22-10-2004, 4:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

Its funny how they dont make any mention of the UK getting the series first (started on Sky tonight by the way) on the official website, just says January 2005 lol

They shouldn't worry.
Every US scifi viewer with broadband has probably already seen the first episode, there is even a NTSC conversion on offer

Mr.D · 23-10-2004, 3:38 PM

Well I just watched it this PM from er...somewhere.
Pretty good , first episode felt like it seemlessly connected with the mini-series.
They just have to stay away from holodecks and time travel and they should be ok.

Bet you the "God" the cylon chick is refering to is their big AI leader.

lmccauley · 23-10-2004, 3:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.D

They just have to stay away from holodecks and time travel

Oh for the love of god, yes! I caught a couple of minutes of the first episode of Voyager this afternoon. That was a show I looked forward to and ended up hating. BSG has been the opposite.

Quote:

Bet you the "God" the cylon chick is refering to is their big AI leader.

Hmm, could be. Or, it would be a nice twist if their version of God is actually their human creator - but they haven't twigged yet.

It's very impressive to see the difference in sfx between the original series & the current one. From what I can remember, they produced half a dozen fly-by shots for the film, and then reused them for all the episodes. Oh, some were reversed, I think. And there were only about 3 explosions. I wonder how much of the current CG is reused, but disguised better, and how much is generated from scratch. Do the models get improved on over time?

Cheers,
Liam

stealther · 24-10-2004, 2:41 PM

I think the new series is great
its the very reason I had sky installed just in time for the start of the series.
I am a big fan of the origional series have the BOX set on DVD.
Hope they follow similar plot lines to the origional series and search for earth. I loved the fact that in the origional series there home planet had pyramids suggesting that egyptians were the lost 13th tribe.
The more continuity to the origional the better in my opinion altho the change made that man created cylons i think was a superb idea.

graham.myers · 24-10-2004, 4:08 PM

they already hinted in the original that Cylons were the creation of man didn't they?

iirc thats what the new producer said in the documentery the other week.

Starburst · 24-10-2004, 7:02 PM

I was always under the impression that the Cylon war in the original series/movie was triggered when the "humans" allied themselves with another race who were already in conflict with the tin cans. The show then kicking off with the results of their meddling in affairs that were none of their concern, a common occurance in our history.

Come to think of it I probably still have my BSG annual in the loft