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Many of you are looking at the original BSG with 2009 eyes not 1978 eyes.
For its day TOBSG was top of the line.
It was the most expensive pilot ever produced to that time. The series was the most expensive ever done to that time. (1 million + per espisode.
When it was cancelled it was still winning its Sunday night time slot. Supposedly it was cancelled to give Mork and Mindy its coveted time slot. M&M never got as good a ratings as TOBSG.
TOBSG really took nothing from Star Wars, more Star Trek. Glen Larson had been pitching the concept(originally called Adama’s Ark) since 1968.
Star Wars only helped finally get it on the air.
Much of the writing was excellent. The ‘Hand of God’ episode was great!
Does it look kind of hokey today? Certainly.
But so does the original Star Wars (Try to find a copy of the original release, not the ones after Lucas got to redo it twice. (Han shot first!)
Did they reuse a lot of shots over and over? Yes, due to cheapening budgets from the studio and network.
I certainly agree with another poster that if they wanted to do the new series the way they did, they should have kept the basic story and done it with a different name, characters, etc. and not tried to ride the coattails of the original, and then change everything.
Suck it Dirk. The original BG sucked. The latest incarnation is THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION.
The new Battlestar is also a product of its time and I personally find it too dark and depressing to enjoy it. Some aspects of the new show are interesting twists on the original, the characters certainly have greater depth and the program has more drama, but it's not enough to make me want to watch it. I tried. I know that others love the show, but I'm an easy target for scifi and they failed to hit me. It's dead, Jim.
I just don’t see the political correctness. I thought that when I first heard the news, and I really ralphed when I heard the Cyclons look like humans. But I gave it a chance and it came out remarkably well. And the re-imaged Starbuck is definitely a troubled character. And it goes into why she has the tough-guy thing going on. The original Starbuck was a cardboard cutout caricature of a man.
Give the pilot miniseries a chance. They do a good job of paying respect to the old show, too.
Having seen a lot of both versions I say ole Dirk is spot on. The new BSG has the dreariness of “1984” without the imagination.
I know a lot of folks on here really have liked BSG, but frankly, I have said from the beginning that it is a terrible series with no uplifting redeeming value. All it has been is a daytime soap opera in a sci fi skin.
Same here. Never watched an episode for the same reason. I figured they'd just turn it into a lame 90210 in space with great special effects.
Scanning through this thread it looks like I was right.
bump for a later read
Having watched both, the new version is technically better but is a complete bend-over to the PC crowd. There is no coherent plot direction at the present time and any show that will deny its own tradition in the interests of political correctness is not worth taking seriously.
By the way, this article is MASTERFUL.
Correct. It was intended to be very corny/cheeky. I understand the "re-imagined" version is vastly superior.
It is far, far worse. While it doesn't have the corny dialog and cheesy special effects, every one of its characters, even the noble leader Adama is so deeply conflicted it just winds up being even cornier on a much deeper level.
People with the kinds of dysfunctions of every single character usually wind up homeless and talking to themselves, not shepherding the remnant of humanity across the galaxy while constantly in danger of extermination.
They only survive because the Cylons are also so hopelessly dysfunctional your average high school could devise a strategy to wipe them out.
The whole thing represents the worldview of your average burned out, alcoholic, drug addicted, child molesting, five time divorced hollywood director.
“The original BSG really wasn’t very good.”
The original BSG was a good idea, ruined of course by Hollywood which turned it into a children’s show.
The re-imagined version is better. Grittier, slightly more believable once you invoke the willing suspension of disbelief. The women are hot. It’ll do for tv.
the neve version is VASTLY inferior. You end up wishing EVERYONE would lose and die.
The special effects are light years superior but that is not enough to salvate the pro-homo left wing union thug socialist nutjob writing.
Wrong.
Production values are better. Acting is probably better. But “old” BSG was about people being their best under bad circumstances. GINO (Galactica In Name Only) is about people being their worst. The story line sucks. And both sides are too stupid to live.
This part stuck out:
“Re-imagining”, they call it. “Un-imagining” is more accurate. To take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that a television show based on hope, spiritual faith and family is un-imagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction. To better reflect the times of ambiguous morality in which we live, one would assume. A show in which the aliens (Cylons) are justified in their desire to destroy human civilization, one would assume. Indeed, let us not say who the good guys are and who the bad are. That is being “judgmental,” taking sides, and that kind of (simplistic) thinking went out with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Kathryn Hepburn and John Wayne and, well, the original “Battlestar Galactica.”
At this point, I wanted John Hodiak to come out and call a Nazi a Nazi.
A pity that that new Battlestar Galactica will never be made now.
You’ve written off a great show then.
BSG is not the BSG of 1978, not even close, no doubt. However it is a very good show, adult oriented definately, not for kids, but a great show.