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Starborn SocietySci-fi isn't just for nerds(Battlestar Galactica Ping)
NRO ^ | January 20, 2006 | Peter Suderman

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 ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: scifi
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To: GOP_Party_Animal
I've never seen the new show (no cable) but I thought that the latest version was roundly considered to be "PC crap" with so-called empowered women, sleeze, and moral relativism. That stuff turns me off. Is it really otherwise?

It sort of depends on your POV. They are all faced with really difficult decisions, and even in the show admittedly don't always do the right thing. The latest one had the basic question, "Can I perform an immoral act that I think is necessary for survival and still call myself a human worthy of living?" The answer was a resounding no, you can't destroy your principles because of immediate necessity. Your view of what is necessary may be wrong.

61 posted on 01/20/2006 9:33:16 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: isaiah55version11_0

It will #1 only when they rip it on South Park.

My only complaint with scifi friday is the amount of commercials vs story plot covered.

and the lack of use of frack and felterkarb.

Starbuck is definitely better looking too.


62 posted on 01/20/2006 9:36:16 AM PST by Waverunner
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To: doc30

Cain got wasted in the last show. Flag covered casket out the airlock and everyhting.

The actress playing Cain was a mere ensign (Ro Laara) in Star Trek The Next Generation.


63 posted on 01/20/2006 9:36:52 AM PST by L,TOWM (Liberals, The Other White Meat)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
How much per episode? I would love to have the first season.

$2/episode from iTunes. But I'd get the DVD instead; much better quality, extras, and no DRM silliness.

64 posted on 01/20/2006 9:37:10 AM PST by ThinkDifferent (Chloe rocks)
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To: Little Ray

Cain wasn't smarter or dumber. Cain was thinking differently. Cain was thinking the way Adama was until the end, only militarily and of finding a way to take the fight to the Cylons. Adama finally realized the new president was right, the war was over and the humans lost, now it's time to find some way to take the remains of humanity somewhere and try to rebuild. Both are potentially valid ways of thinking but given just how soundly the humans have been genocided Adama and the president are right, now is not the time to be kamikazi and go down fighting, now is the time to find somewhere and someway to rebuild. And part of that rebuilding is holding onto the society they had, including an elected government and a voluntary military (not like Galactica had a lot of spare equipment to be handing out to conscripts anyway "congradulations you're in the military, we have no gun for you, no body armor, no uniform, no bunk and no orders, but you're in the military").


65 posted on 01/20/2006 9:37:17 AM PST by discostu (a time when families gather together, don't talk, and watch football... good times)
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To: isaiah55version11_0
a show about spaceships and killer robots that is also arguably the most potent, dramatically vibrant series on television.

Since those idiots at FOX took "Firefly" off the air, anyway

66 posted on 01/20/2006 9:37:23 AM PST by agere_contra
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To: doc30

Cain was stupid then. People are assets even if they just hew wood and draw water or serve as cannon fodder. There is also the moral issue. Don't think I'm gonna like their shows.
If they don't work, they don't eat, breath or drink, but that would be my limit...


67 posted on 01/20/2006 9:38:39 AM PST by Little Ray (I'm a reactionary, hirsute, gun-owning, knuckle dragging, Christian Neanderthal and proud of it!)
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To: L,TOWM

I was trying to figure out where I'd seen that actress before. Thanks. She did a good job as Cain. Glad she's dead, though.


68 posted on 01/20/2006 9:39:13 AM PST by doc30 (Democrats are to morals what and Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
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To: brothers4thID
Wow. I can't believe the positive response this show gets from Freeper Geeks (FReeks?). Like a lot of people I loved the 70's version when I was a kid; hated the thought of seeing that show ruined. I'll have to check it out.
69 posted on 01/20/2006 9:41:28 AM PST by GOP_Party_Animal
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To: Little Ray

To a point I agree with you. There may not be enough practical work for people to do, but you can sure find was of keeping them busy. Being idle in essentially a cattle car to the stars is not healthy psychologically. And, the type-A's will find something to do. Like when the Chief built the Blackbird. Very inspiring and morale building.


70 posted on 01/20/2006 9:42:05 AM PST by doc30 (Democrats are to morals what and Etch-A-Sketch is to Art.)
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To: Little Ray

I think it was a poor choice by the writers to have had Cain executing families of the experts that refused to be conscripted; made her TOO cartoony-evil, not ambiguously-possibly-evil which is a far more interesting moral conundrum.

Otherwise it was a great set of episodes.


71 posted on 01/20/2006 9:42:19 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: doc30
Boomer, Boomer, Boomer.....my wife is Asian and is much, much hotter :)

You don't expect us to believe you without pictures, do you? ;-)

72 posted on 01/20/2006 9:42:45 AM PST by Ichneumon
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To: doc30
That actress also played President Palmer's mistress for a short time on '24'.
73 posted on 01/20/2006 9:44:22 AM PST by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
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To: doc30
But the BSG episode was a little creepy when the resssurection ship was straifed. Did you see the No 6's meeting hard vacuum when the hull was breached and the Vipers were mixed in with them as they passed?

Yep, spooky. BSG has their meneuver like in B5. A couple quick meneuver jet pulses realistically flip the Viper around, so a Viper you're following can be facing you in under a second.

It's actually liberating. Directors used to probably watch aerial fighter jet footage to plot their battle scenes, but in space you can do so much more.

74 posted on 01/20/2006 9:44:44 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Little Ray

Ooops. Meant a morale issue!
Folks don't do their best work with a gun at their head.


75 posted on 01/20/2006 9:44:53 AM PST by Little Ray (I'm a reactionary, hirsute, gun-owning, knuckle dragging, Christian Neanderthal and proud of it!)
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To: pillut48
Except for that 'hearing explosions in space" thing, ITA. :-)

I can kind of forgive that. I have to admit 2001 got pretty boring with no sound outside.

76 posted on 01/20/2006 9:47:18 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: GOP_Party_Animal

Approach it as a new show. Leave behind your memories, however fond, of the previous show. Forget you ever saw the previous show and take this one as a new storyline, new characters and new concepts. Give it a chance and it will blow you away.


77 posted on 01/20/2006 9:48:17 AM PST by brothers4thID (Being lectured by Ted Kennedy on ethics is not unlike being lectured on dating protocol by Ted Bundy)
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To: doc30; Little Ray
And when you see her, you will hate her.

But probably respect her. She earned Starbuck's respect, and she hates brass.

78 posted on 01/20/2006 9:49:09 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: isaiah55version11_0

Bump for later reading.


79 posted on 01/20/2006 9:50:07 AM PST by techcor
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To: GOP_Party_Animal
I've never seen the new show (no cable) but I thought that the latest version was roundly considered to be "PC crap" with so-called empowered women, sleeze, and moral relativism. That stuff turns me off. Is it really otherwise?

It really is otherwise (i.e. not "PC"). And very definitely not crap. Here is my mini-review of the show. It's actually one of the most conservative shows on TV.

80 posted on 01/20/2006 9:52:02 AM PST by Ichneumon
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