Posted on 01/20/2006 8:29:57 AM PST by isaiah55version11_0
Science fiction has long been stereotyped as a hardware-obsessed, techno-jargon laden refuge for computer nerds and outcasts. Especially on television, which lacks the geek chic afforded by big-screen Hollywood budgets, the genre's reputation for hokey dialog and cardboard-and-wire effects have saturated it with a distinct odor of disrespectability. It is somewhat ironic, then, to see the Sci-Fi Channel, a network which often seems devoted to the pulpy and lowbrow, serve up Battlestar Galactica, a show about spaceships and killer robots that is also arguably the most potent, dramatically vibrant series on television. An unflinching examination of how the military, government, family, and religion interact in the fragile ecosystem of society, it as morally and intellectually serious as it is thrilling.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
BTW, warpcorebreach, please don't take any of this personally. This is just a fun Friday opinion swap. I enjoy your opinions as much as I thoroughly disagree with them!
No doubt it is the best show on TV.
I pray that it doesn't ever get picked up by a broadcast network for prime-time though. They will ruin it!
Sci-fi channel, is a gift from God!
I have the same reaction to Farscape (love Firefly though). Not all shows are for all people.
I really didn't understand the reason for the drama in the episodes with Admiral Cain.
Both Adama and Cain recognized Roslin as the President, and both admitted that they came under her authority. The obvious answer would have been simply to order Cain to retire (and if she refused, court martial her and strip her of her rank), promote Adama, and be done with the whole thing.
One thing they talk about in the DVDs that didn't make it past the cutting room in the shows was more of Bill's back story. Turns out the Adama family does not have a proud military tradition, Bill's dad was (wait for it) a civil liberties attorney. Once they mentioned that on the DVDs Apollo made a lot more sense to me, he inherrited his father's physical abilities (great pilot) but really has his grandfather's sensibilities (clearly not a military guy).
If you're in a foxhole with someone and you are just at that moment finding out he/she is your superior, you're probably already "fracked".
Actually, the new Baltar reminds me of Dr. Smith from the old Lost in Space... spends all his time sucking up, whining and making promises he never intends to keep.
Unlike Dr. Smith, he actually seems to have a working intellect, though.
I think most of her supposedly butch attitude is really just self defense. One way or the other she is still a chick in a male dominated profession (how many female Viper pilots have we met, I think 1 other and Starbuck trained her) and if she doesn't act like one of the guys she won't have a social group. Lots of female soldiers or cops in the real world have a real badass attitude in uniform (if you ever really want to get beat up bad disrespect a female cop, they do not take abuse at all), it's the only way to get by in a job that's generally considered outside their gender role. People question them for their chosen work, and all their co-workers are used to hanging out with guys.
Gosh that has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I said. I was talking about THE PRESIDENT, if the President is with you in a foxhole you're probably already f###ed regardless of their gender.
I think this is the premise of the whole series. Do humans deserve to survive? Is humanity deserving of redemption? It's almost as if humanity is facing a test for redemption, not just physical survival. Look at it this way. When people take the 'ends justify the means approach,' bad things happen to them. Cain killed by a cyclon is one example. Look at Crash's death on Kobol. He was going put people at risk that didn't need to be put at risk and he died. Even in the most hopeless situations, when people are put first, the door to further survival was opened.
I don't agree that the escape of the cylon was not feasible. Look at how another #6 appeared then dissappeared in one episode and that was on the Galactica. The other male cylon that was captured was found hiding in a locker. These things think like machines. They are very good at hiding for days or weeks in places no human would go. There is no true discomfort for them. That female cyclon may never have left the Pegasus. She may have hid and bid her time. Or she could have gotten into the computer systems to hide her flight passage.
The first episode 33 did have the fleet on battle alert constantly. The 250 some odd Cyclon attacks cycled every 33 minutes shows this. That 130 hours without rest or break for the entire fleet. There is no way that a COndition 1 could be maintained indefinitely. Even if it was, the cyclons seem to know how to evade the high security conditions. That's why they are more insidious than in the 70's version.
That's become my new favorite word LOL....
One thing they talk about in the DVDs that didn't make it past the cutting room in the shows was more of Bill's back story. Turns out the Adama family does not have a proud military tradition, Bill's dad was (wait for it) a civil liberties attorney. Once they mentioned that on the DVDs Apollo made a lot more sense to me, he inherrited his father's physical abilities (great pilot) but really has his grandfather's sensibilities (clearly not a military guy).
"she was butt-ugly and looked like a man "
You said it. That's what I'm talking about-- haha
Arnold too. :)
Actually that was the second time the original BSG there was played. The first time was in the pilot. As a nod to the original series, they put a lot of things in the pilot. The old BSG theme music has been adopted as the National Anthem of the Colonies. If you take a close look at the pilot, one of the hangar bays was converted to museum displays. Look closely and you will see the original Colonial Warrior uniforms on display. You will also see a Cyclon from the old series, too. And the Viper on display was from the old series, too. Almost like the elements of the old series now represent the first Cylon war. They did find a way to pay homage to the old series in a very asthetic way.
"BTW, warpcorebreach, please don't take any of this personally. This is just a fun Friday opinion swap. I enjoy your opinions as much as I thoroughly disagree with them!"
Oh no, not at all. You guys are great. I even got a kick out of the "come out of the closet, Tom", Southpark graphic. ha
Believe me I WANT to be able to get into a scifi show these days. Guess it's like music- I can't listen to the radio. It's either gangsta rap or it's in spanish. What happened to my planet and my little predictable life? ha
What happened to simple entertainment? Moral/social questions are for shows like Law & Order SVU.
Sci-fi should get back to what it's short for: science fiction. IMHO
For modern sci-fi, I find some Japanese anime (i.e. Ghost in the Shell) to be far more entertaining. Great music too.
There you go-- good point. Mind-bending stuff. When, on a show, and they go to a planet, I want to see some aliens. I want something completely alien to what I see around me 24 hours a day- it's an escape. I get enough drama and such in real life. Don't need to hear about a crewmember's love life, or how hard their working, or how their cancer is doing. I want monsters, explosions, time travel,heroics, talking slime-blobs, kung -fu wise-cracking robots, etc.
I saw the old props. Didn't catch the Colonial Anthem though. I really do like how they built the show, basically except for the Cylons no longer being alien in origin they said "OK everything that happened before the original series happened, except the Cyclons actually did sign the treaty and went away". I thought it was a really good way to build it, gave the old fans a building block to work with.
then you were made for Farscape :D
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