Anyone watch the new BSG on SciFi?

Okay, I admit it... I was a Battlestar Galactica fan when I was a kid. Sure it was toe cheese with horrible acting, even worse writing, and a blatant ripoff of Star Wars, but to my 12 year old geek eyes it was a wonderful thing.

When I heard SciFi Channel was doing a remake/rework of it I wasn't sure whether to laugh or just shudder in horror (anyone remember Battlestar Galactica 1980? lol).

So last night I watched it and I was so pleasantly surprised. The production values were probably the best for any made for tv sci fi I've ever seen. Steller sets, stunning sfx, great acting, the writing was passable... all in all I was pretty blown away by it. I'm looking forward to part two tonight.

Anyone else catch it? If not they're rerunning part 1 at 7pm est followed by part 2 at 9pm est.

If you saw it what did you think?

Yeah, pretty cool. Although I am disappointed they picked a somewhat dorky-girl-actress to be Starbuck. (With the stereotypical "rouge pilot" = "must be good" theme.)

And it does have the stereotypical "person you want to hate" with that guy they kept alive...Dr Baltar or whatever his fool name is. What a lamer...

I hope they start showing the cylon pilot guys some though, like they did in the original, rather than just the ships. I also hope they don't show too many annoying kids.

You aren't gonna see Cylon pilots, because the fighters are automated. It actually makes more sense that way. Why have machines driving other machines instead of giving the fighters their own AI.

BTW, I'm sure this will make us all forget that abomination called Galactica 1980.

yeah having machines flying machines made no sense in the original series... and cylons with swords? lol. I haven't made up my mind about the new female starbuck character. They haven't fleshed her out enough yet to judge. Hopefully in tonights episode they'll develop her a bit more. I really like how dark the new series is. You really get a sense of the horror of the situation that was totally lacking from the original series. Now there are difficult choices that cost real lives. This is making me hate sci fi channel a little less for cancelling farscape (just a little).

You mean we're not gonna see those robot guys in the fighters look stupid before they're about to be blown to smithereens?

And I don't care if it makes sense! (It would, if the ships were meant for humans but stolen for their own use. I don't know if that was the original plot or not. I cannot remember these things...)

Oh yeah the general mood is definitely much better. Independence Day was a general letdown (but still not bad) but it simulated the right "mood" on occassion and this reminded me of ID a little; or of what it'd be like for the US during a nuclear war. People freaking out and such when they realize the world is over...heh heh. I just love to see people break up like that, I don't know why. lol

The Starbuck is nerdy. Hardly passes off to me as an ace pilot; seems pretty cliche to me.

Not saying the show's bad, I'll watch it.

I liked the part where the idiot jumped on top the ship as it was taking off and then got shot off of it....roflmao!!..dumbass.... now that's entertainment!

3 things I noticed:

1. The interior of Colonial 1 looked alot like the interior of the Pan AM shuttle from 2001.

2. The swearing in ceremony for the President reminded me alot of the emergency swearing in of Johnson on Air Force 1 after Kennedy's assasination.

3. That scene where we see the kid playing with her doll moments before Cylon missiles destroyed her ship looked ALOT like that Johnson "Daisy" political ad from 1964. I wish I could find a link to that 64 ad, but I gotta go make more money now.

Edit

Found a link here here

Its really kinda creepy. Quicktime didn't work well with Opera, bur the Real (ugh) clip seems to work.

coulda been worse, that's for sure. I really liked how space battles were presented, still could hear sounds but it had a nice style. Zooming over vast distances with abit of jerkyness were refreshing changes to a very tired genre. the way FTL travel was presented was cool too.

Overall I liked the miniseries. I liked the old BSG too. Too me they are too dissimilar to really have to pick a favorite. I stopped watching the old BSG once they reached earth and the old Starbuck came back to life with the fairy angel woman. It got to painful to watch!!

But the new one has some potential. I like the fact that the 'earth' homeland myth was made up and there was discussion about it not being real. May lead to some fun debate later on in the series.

I enjoyed part two just as much as part one... my favorite part was when they had to leave all the sub light vessels behind and sacrifice tens of thousands of lives and you hear them screaming for help over the radio. That was heavy. And then the shot of the little girl playing with her doll before she gets disintigrated. The big space battle when they're providing cover fire so the fleet can clear the storm and jump was pretty awesome. I also really like how they handled the dr. gaius character and his implanted number 6 so you don't know where his allegience is... and even number 6 has her own motives that aren't necessarily just for the good of the cylons. Great stuff. I hope they make a series out of it. The cliffhanger at the end about who the cylon onboard galactica is was a pretty clear indication that it was the pilot for a new series. Really well done. Hope we get to see a lot more

For the most part I enjoyed it, but I guess I would have liked it more if I hadn't grown up watching the original series. The origianl series is chessy looking by todays standards, but back then it was about normal for Sci-Fi.

The thing about Earth being a myth, is that some myths are based on some fact. So actually Adama didn't lie about that, he just lied about knowing where its at.

Yep, but he doesn't know that it actually exists. It's only legend. I kinda wish it wasn't Earth since as earthlings we KNOW it exists so that removes a bit of the drama of not knowing if it's just a pipe dream or not.

I did like the way that they slipped in a few of the original convoy ships from the first series. Watch carefully. Even the "Colonial Movers" transport was back.

wow, I didn't notice that! (memory isn't that good). I liked how they used the original theme music as a fanfare during the decomissioning ceremony.

yeah, the ship that the little girl was in,the one who was playing with the doll, was the botanical ship in the original series.

Well they do have that stupid kid with the 70's haircut or whatever....where's his dog at?

I liked the space battles too...really good. I'm still waiting for a scifi show that has FLAK CANNONS and BEAM CANNONS in a Freespace 2 style, complete with FS2 sound effects and everything. Throw some Shivan and Vasudan and other stuff from the game in there like ship designs. That'd blow all Scifi space shows away.

...Until SciFi finds a way to screw it up like they always do. "dUh leTs canCel tHat fArscrape shOw! It maks 2 mucH mony 4 us!" Anybody have the misfortune to see some of the latest "orignal series" they coughed up? What was the one..."black scorpion"? UGh...
Heh, I want:
Lexx
First Wave
Farscape
Invisible Man
Sliders
BSG

Okay bitching session over.

Anyway, the battles weren't totaly silent like they'd really be in space, but they are quiet enough that it's not too bad. There would be sound inside the ships anyway, sorta. When they're getting blown up anyway, hehe. I think the music covered that "sound in space" thing up pretty well.

I don't think it's too much like the original, though. Only in name and plot. Characters? Heh, is even one character similar to the original ones? I can't remember that far back too well so maybe some are, but I think they deviated a bit there.

I still think a "robot revolution" where they had actual ground battles with robot cylons which go and steal/take over ships would have been good. No idea if that's how the original played out, but--they'd be able to have the dumb lookin cylons flying those fighters with the red sensors goin back and forth making that funny sound. Yeah, that's the main thing I remember about the old show!

All I remember from the original was my parents pointing to the screen and saying "Look that man is canadian".

I loved part 1 & part 2 of the remake. How many more are they going to make?

When I grow up I want to marry starbuck

You want to marry the original starbuck, eh?

Not sure how many more they'll make. It got the best ratings for any sci-fi original so far so I'd say chances of a series are pretty good, or at least more miniseries. I imagine the production costs per episode are pretty enormous which is exactly what killed farscape. Not enough ratings to justify the costs.

Speaking of farscape... They're making a new farscape miniseries. No idea if sci-fi channel will run it or not or if it'll show up somewhere else. Should probably be out towards the end of next year. Yay! Although I was so bummed out about it getting cancelled that I thought the way the last episode ended was perfect. "cancel us will ya?! well take THIS!!" hehe. After the shock wore off I just started laughing.

the original starbuck is way to old for me. i have a mad crush on the new starbuck though

Ack, comeon man she's a dork! What you need is the blond chick from Stargate SG1....same look, only with brains!

2 further comments.

The new Starbuck isn't dorky. Goony, maybe, but not dorky.

The botanical ships were a new design. The ships in the original series were stock footage taken from an old film from 1972 called Silent Running. In that movie, they were space freighters owned by American Airlines. Also, that film was written by a young unknown writer named Steven Bochco.

lol okay fine goony then... as long as it's insulting!

That's an impressive bit of incredibly obscure trivia Teeny!

Just found out a couple of days ago that SciFi channel picked up the new BSG as a series. Yay! (Okay, so I'm a dork. Sue me.)