............. 
Posted on 01/14/2005 3:13:14 PM PST by ChicagoHebrew
The British have been watching Ron Moore’s reimagined “Battlestar Galactica” since October (and get its 12th installment Monday). But at least America's tardy SciFi Channel is good enough to kick off the show’s first regular season Friday night with two new back-to-back hours. The reviews are pretty spectacular. (Even original “Galactica” actor Richard Hatch stopped badmouthing the new series after it cast him as a guest star!) The critics speak:
http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=19133
"In fairness, some Freepers will be pissed that the show's heros are secular polytheists and the Cylons are religious judeo-christian monotheists."
LOL That was the only thing that bothered me about the whole deal.
I FINALLY watched the mini-series and the series premier yesterday. Six hours of pure Sci-Fi joy.
Points I am so happy with:
1. Hard Physics. The ships, missles, etc., behave consistently. The FTL travel is plausible.
2. Military logic in weaponry.
For example, human pilots are so 20th Century. They gave a very logical reason why they have human pilots --- in Vipers with analog guages, no less --- in that Cylons have the ability to infiltrate the most basic of computer systems.
Similarly, I was pleased to see "pilotless" (as in, no humanoid robot pilot) in the cylon fighters. Always seemed a bit silly to me for robots to mess with the SLOW AND BIG analog transfer/integration between a humanoid and traditional aircraft controls. Much more logical to stick the brain directly into the ship. (The explaination for the former being that the Cylons were designed to be human servants --- and only later abadoned the humanoid design when free of the yoke of their masters.)
Guided missles, use of nukes, etc. were similarly logical.
3. Hard issues --- e.g., shooting down civilian craft filled with nukes --- classic 9/11 issue; leaving craft without FTL travel behind (last line "May you rot in Hell for what you do today.").
4. I think No. 6 and/or Boomer may be in love with the Dr. and/or Boomer with her ECM (the guy who stayed on the ground). There is some tension between No. 6 and Boomer.
Bump
.............
Poor acting. And no character is really endearing. I'll keep watching to see if it gets any better.
I especially hate Apollo. He's such a wuss.
Col Ti is kind of cool, though. And I think Donnie Darko's mom is hot so I'll watch just for her.
That's one episode that I saw.
SPOILER ALERT -- turn away if you don't want to know what happened to Starbuck
After the battle, when he was left behind (because his engines were damaged), he crash-landed on a barren world. He found some Psilon(sp?) wreckage and re-activated a psilon warrior to keep him company.
Then I changed the channel.
When I came back, Starbuck was sort of married to this woman and they had a baby. I have no friggin' clue where she came from. Then Starbuck decides to load his wife & baby into a special escape pod that will take them back to Galactica HQ (he has to stay behind because he's too heavy). Three Psilon warriors approach to fight Starbuck, and Starbuck's Psilon (that he re-activated) dies killing them all. Then the escape pod flies away, but the woman is standing up on the cliff instead of in the pod, and she says some psuedo-religious babble about being an angel and how she was testing him and Starbuck turned out to be "so VERY good" or something like that (I can't tell if it was sexual innuendo).
So the baby is all alone in the pod and it flies off to rejoin the fleet. The fleet finds the baby, and apparently that's who the kid-commander is of the fleet... (the little kid who talks with Adama). And they know this story because it's what the kid tells Adama he was dreaming.
<< ... the new BG might be the best show that's been on TV the past 20 years at least >>
Yeah, except Buffy, Angel, Babylon 5.....
Dan
The show is ANYTHING but PC (heck, Colonel Tigh was changed from a black man to a white guy, can you really call that PC?). I don't mean to pester you, but give it a chance, if just for the excellent story and acting.
Just thought I'd chime in here. Hubby and I watched Enterprise after the BSG premier, and the two shows just don't compare.
BSG is really good. The writing and the acting are excellent.
I can't wait for the next episode!! Finally a really good sci-fi show on TV. I hope it's on for many years.
I thought 33 was excellent. Water was a little slow but okay. Considering the premise, I think tighter writing might have made it a more suspensful.
This week's Enterprise was okay too. After the first seven episodes of the season, it was a nice break.
I really don't have a problem with Enterprise. Sure it started a little slow but last season was really good and this one has been good so far. Its better then TNG and Voyager, IMO.
Sci-Fi *ping* (thread is slightly stale)
Definately way better than the old Mormons in Space.
Have you seen eps 10 and 12? If not you are in for an uber-treat.
What's wierd is, even though I've seen them all, I still can't wait until Friday to catch 'em again. I'm a little surprised at how much I like this series.
Just finished watching tonite's episode (BASTILLE DAY)...interesting stuff...
*Minor Spoiler*
Is it my imagination or was the terrorist/rebel leader strongly based on Tim McVeigh?
Actually, I see more of a 'Weatherman' vibe. (ie. a reprehensible scumbag given hero status by certain naieve or venal segments of society)
True, there was an element of that, but some of the other elements stuck out to me;
1) He blew up a government building.
2) "You reap what you soe", very close to McVeigh's argument for the OKC bombing, ie Waco/Ruby Ridge.
I thought it was pretty clear he was leftist, not a rightwinger. He appears again in ep. 12
Well, McVeigh wasn't a conservative himself either. Well the press has painted him as such, he was pretty much a libertarian. True, a similar philosphy, but not quite the same.
btw, the season finale rocks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.