Posted on 01/20/2009 8:30:14 AM PST by EveningStar
Once upon a time, in what used to be a far away land called Hollywood (but is now a state of mind and everywhere), a young actor was handed a script and asked to bring to life a character called Starbuck. I am that actor. The script was called “Battlestar Galactica.”
Fortunately, I was young, my imagination fertile and adrenal glands strong, because bringing Starbuck to life was over the dead imaginations of a lot of Network Executives...
Witness the “re-imagined” “Battlestar Galactica,” bleak, miserable, despairing, angry and confused. Which is to say, it reflects in microcosm the complete change in the politics and morality of today’s world, as opposed to the world of yesterday. The world of Lorne Greene (Adama), Fred Astaire (Starbuck’s Poppa) and Dirk Benedict (Starbuck). I would guess Lorne is glad he’s in that Big Bonanza in the sky and well out of it. Starbuck, alas, has not been so lucky. He’s not been left to pass quietly into that trivial world of cancelled TV characters...
(Excerpt) Read more at bighollywood.breitbart.com ...
I have to agree with Dirk, the New Galactica sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks. I turn it on each week and I’ve never made it through the full 60 minutes of the show. I keep hoping for it to get better, but it never does. And so a half hour into each episode I turn to the Discovery Channel or something else with more appeal like the Golf Channel.
I really miss well written entertaining programs.
Halo is no wimp- he survived for months, on his own, on post-holocaust Caprica. He had given up his seat on an evacuation shutte so civilians could flee. His refusal to commit genocide is an important point in the series- it's turning out that the cycle of near-genocide has been going on for thousands of years. Halo took the moral stand that the cycle has to end somewhere.
Never mind the fact that the Cylons tried to do exactly that to humans and were almost successful and never mind that the Cylons are freaking machines.
Which was kind of the point of the episode. Does any species have the right to commit genocide on another sentient species?
Find books written before 1965 to get a perspective of the change for the bad.
Maren Jensen had to retire from show business due to health problems involving fatigue. Sad for those of us who were fans of this amazingly gorgeous Danish Hawaiian actress but probably good for her life to not spend it in Hollyweird. I hope she’s happy whatever she’s doing now.
The old version was cheesy, but fun. Really the same plot for every show. Baltar in the old series was always sitting on his throne in the base star plotting the destruction of Galactica.
When they started the new series, I had my doubts as to what they could possibly do with BSG. However, having the human-looking cylons brings a brilliant bit of paranoia to the series.
Hatch sweated and slaved to bring Galactica back, the old Galactica, as a “30 years plus” show. He did a comic book series, he produced a fan-driven pilot movie to try and interest Hollywood in doing the show, but Glen Larson (am I right?) still held the rights to the series. Hatch was thrown a bone after keeping the show alive for thirty years, and even then they wanted no part of the Galactica he sought to build.
I’ve read quite a few books written before 1965. Whatever changes there have been are too complex to just write off as PC. Ever read 1880-1940 stuff? It’s a lot more economically liberal than most stuff today.
Er... After last week's episode, let's just say she's not going to make it to Earth.
In a move completely out of left field, Dee committed suicide by blowing her brains out last Friday night in the mid-season return episode.
I am a Christian. Roddenberry showed a chapel ONCE in TOS, hey I can live with that...his original vision of the future was one where our God (and the human invented ones) weren't a big part of their universe. But by the time Voyager comes around, they've got big chunks of major plotlines using "spirit guides" (which would read "demons" to some of my faith) and the female captain is going all gooey about how cool it is. ROWLS.
I am a Christian. Roddenberry showed a chapel ONCE in TOS, hey I can live with that...his original vision of the future was one where our God (and the human invented ones) weren't a big part of their universe. But by the time Voyager comes around, they've got big chunks of major plotlines using "spirit guides" (which would read "demons" to some of my faith) and the female captain is going all gooey about how cool it is. ROWLS.
Not completely out of left field. We knew all the way back in first season that Dee was seriously depressed, the last time she spoke to her family was an argument over whether she should join the military, and she had a lot of regrets about that (remember the “military tribute” episode). Then Billy dies, and her rebound relationship with Apollo turns out to be a rebound relationship, and then Earth, they’re one big source of hope, winds up being a burnt out husk. All that depression from first season came crashing back on her, she had a nice date with Apollo and decided to go out happy.
BSG, like all good arc TV shows, is all about small clues. If you remember Dee discussing how she wound up on the Galactica her arc right up to putting the bullet in her head makes sense. But you often times have to remember 2 lines of dialog from a 60 second scene 40+ episodes ago.
Yet you feel the need to comment on threads about popular culture. Interesting.
The real problem is the lack of risk taking and creativity in Hollywood today. Special effects have replaced stories that could well be written by computers. The use of sex to carry a show is a symptom of our age. (The Baywatch syndrome). I have hope that real men will win out in the end. Maybe the new Star Trek movie will start a new trend. We can but hope. Starbuck was right about a great many things in his article and there is bitterness there as well.
In the remake a few years ago, Robin was a clueless lackluster doofus. Moran Freemen (great actor, but not a white saxon from the Middle Ages by any means) played a "Moorish" black Muslim clad in Arab robes who was smarter and more scientificly learned than any of Robin's regular men. Thanks Hollywood.
Roddenberry showed a Chapel many times in the original series. Heck, he even wound up marrying her.....
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