new Battlestar Galactica series on Sci-Fi this Fri

[Rooster_Ties]

Anybody catch the new Battlestar Galactica mini-series/movie last year?? It was shown on NBC this past weekend, and for those who missed it - I think it's on the Sci-Fi channel again tonight (Tuesday, 1/11). New episodes of the series start this Friday (1/14), at least here in the U.S. (on the Sci-Fi channel).

I saw the mini-series about a year ago, and thought it was generally pretty good. There were some interesting changes, like the Starbuck character is female this time, a real “Tom boy”. And the Cylons have some models that look completely human -- enough to blend in as spies.

This is definitely an edgier vision than the original, and I mostly like what they've done. It’s shot “documentary” style, in a way – and the space battle scenes have been great. Don’t know if they’re doing everything in CGI (more likely), or models (less likely), but it looks awfully damn good – and it doesn’t look like all the (IMHO) crappy “hyper-pretty” CGI sci-fi that you usually see these days. Ships really look like they’re in weightlessness, and the battle-scenes have a “documentary” look to them too.

But there were some bewildering changes too, like having a blond supermodel play one of the Cylon "human" units – along with several other generally oversexed characters. But then again, looking back at the original series (which Sci-Fi has been re-running a bunch this month), there was a bit more skin and implied sex in the original than I had remembered.

Nothing's perfect, but overall - this series has the potential to maybe be as good as the best of, say, what Star Trek The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine sometimes achieved. Worth a look, for those so inclined.

(Poking around on-line, it appears that overseas (or at least in the UK), the new series has already been running since October, 2004.)

Edited January 11, 2005 by Rooster_Ties

[Alexander]

My wife is a big fan of the original BSG series, and she watched the mini-series last year. I know she was disappointed on a couple of counts. Being a huge Dirk Benedict fan back in the day, she's outraged that Starbuck is now a girl. She also doesn't care for Edward James Olmos as Adama (the Lorn Greene character).

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I started watching this on NBC this weekend and I changed the channel. The plot seemed pretty thin and I just couldn't muster any interest. I suppose it could have gotten better but from what I saw, not much was there. Lots of sex scenes and implied (upcoming) sex scenes but other than that...

I mean, c'mon, a world that's as advanced as we're supposed to believe doesn't have a video feed of the Cylons killing that general in the opening scene? They have no idea that the space station was destroyed? Bogus. As I said, I shut it off. Maybe later they figure it out, but what I expected after that opening scene was a cut over to an "all hands on deck" response on the Galactica. Instead, it switched over to a sappy ceremony and then a card game. Lame.

Later,

Kevin

[Jim Alfredson]

Battlestar Galactica sucks.

(A companion to my "Star Wars sucks." statement.)

Oh, and before we even get there, Dr. Who sucks too.

[RDK]

Holy crap! Did anyone else see the Season 3 opener? This is easily one of the best shows on television. At least the most ballsy with its heroic depiction of suicide bombers striking out against an occupying force.

[B. Clugston]

Holy crap! Did anyone else see the Season 3 opener? This is easily one of the best shows on television. At least the most ballsy with its heroic depiction of suicide bombers striking out against an occupying force.

I'm really looking forward to this. Just finished the finale to season 2.5 and I agree it's a great show (though there was a run of stinkers between the Pegasus episode and the final three episodes). Great acting and a more deliberate slower pace than most sci-fi.

I've actually been on the bridge of the Galactica. My wife worked on the pilot.