Battlestar Galactica

[warsloth]

In the end it's about getting your fictional story straight.

[Jabe Adaks]

SO are they gonna still abort that kid? What about the president? Isn't there gonna be some kind of side-effect from that cylon blood in her?

Jabe

[X'an Shin]

SO are they gonna still abort that kid? What about the president? Isn't there gonna be some kind of side-effect from that cylon blood in her?

No. Don't know. Maybe.

[Dwilah]

One of my professors today in class goes, "Hey Kelly, are you into um...Battlestar Galactica?" I was like, OMFG YEEES. She was like, HAHA I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT BE ROFFLZ.

Yeah, that's the whole story.

[Dwilah]

BILLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[E-bo Obi]

BILLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I can tell you now that was not the best episode ever. I was a little disappointed with that story.

[Keer]

This just hasn't been Apollo's month. Adrift in a damaged space suit, beaten by gangsters, and shot in the Viper stick holding side of his chest.

At least he gets promoted next show.

[E-bo Obi]

Yeah, its the Rocky syndrome and I am getting a little tired of it. Anyway the thing that really bothered me about this episode is how convenient everything was. Someone close to all the big shots were involved and Starbuck and the marines were all ready to go and in position.

The thing is, why in the hell is a pilot leading a group of marines on a ground rescue assault? You mean to tell me that there is no group in the Colonial military that is trained for that? It seems to me there were scraping the bottom of the barrel getting Starbuck to go in. They shouldn't have been surprised by the outcome. Maybe I expect too much thought from writers.

Don't get me wrong, I love the show. This episode I think just triggered my bullshit factor button too much.

[warsloth]

I wish they would have used some futuristic looking carbines/rifles and stuff. The Daewoo and Barretta carbines look pretty futuristic, but skorpions and UMP's PLEASE!

The HMMV thing bothers me too. They need future cars. Using a firebird with rally lights may have worked in the onld ones, but these things kill the emersion for me.

[E-bo Obi]

The technology thing doesn't boher me too much. I just see it as a civilization that worked on space travel more than other possible advances. I mean we were in space in the 60's, and could have been before that. So I could see them spending their resources on space flight and not fancy cars or weapons. I mean the US is still using the 30 Year old M-16, and variants, as well as the B-52 bomber. I'd waiger that the B-52 was built before damn near any of us were born. Definately before the people flying it now.

[warsloth]

B1 rockwell should maybe have fully replaced it by now.

But they could at least dress the guns up a bit, all you need is some bondo, plumbing junk, and some militant Martha Stewart skills.

Look, a lovely pulse rifle.

They did it with the pistols, let me get some electical tape and PVC pipe, I can make my SKS look like freakin Hiroshima's bane!

[Keer]

Yes, to me this Sacrifices episode did seem to be filler and/or a way to kill off a character. The Starbuck-as-Universal Warrior gimmick was used before (Bastille Day). Coincidentally, to rescue guess who again?! Apollo captured on the prison barge with Zarek....("You know I'm the best rifle in the fleet, sir": to Adama. It was lame then too. Maybe it's in her contract. Good agent.

As for the curiously modern tech look of the show and it's props, I'd point to one of the prime killers of Sci-Fi shows, the budgets. Historically, budgets in sci-fi shows help them get cancelled because the networks can't offset the cost with enough of a wide advertisement audience. Same with any period piece. King Kong set in 2006 would cost less than if set in 1920 or 2120. Same CG, but more money for old/future costumes, cars, etc. Even Elmer's glue on a Sten is just that much more in the budget. Thus, in BG we get what we get.

Credit due to them getting at least Skorps. They could have gotten the surplus A-Team AK's and Uzis. How exotic is that? Remember, only a small portion of the audience knows the rarer machine pistols and assault rifles.

More "authentically" looking future wares popping up in the show would mean one of two things. Either the show has become so popular that it can't count all the ad revenue -or- the show is desperate to survive so it throws in an eye candy gimmick (see KITT-Transformers style from the last seasons of Knight Rider; the Delta Flyer from ST:Voyager ...didn't work, but 7-of-9's bodysuit did, etc. etc.).

[X'an Shin]

The thing is, why in the hell is a pilot leading a group of marines on a ground rescue assault? You mean to tell me that there is no group in the Colonial military that is trained for that? It seems to me there were scraping the bottom of the barrel getting Starbuck to go in. They shouldn't have been surprised by the outcome. Maybe I expect too much thought from writers.
.

They covered that in season one: she's the best sniper/shot the fleet currently has, Marines or no. Also remember that there's only 45 thousand people, civilians and military, so there will be a smaller percentage of highly skilled shooters with those numbers.

But yeah, the whole "the gang's all here" thing was iffy. I still love the show though, every ep

[X'an Shin]

I have to totally disagree with you guys on the tech angle.

Why should the guns or Hummer be some sort of "future gun/car"?

That concept doesn't fit at all with the show's look. The "horn" that Adama uses is military grade circa 1950. The clip boards, the conn tech, everything on that show screams "it's old and busted." Take a closer look at the President's office and that civilian ship. It's designed/decorated to look exactly like a first class airliner from 197x.

The fact is, they're using things that we immediately recognize as "oh hey, that's a military grade jeep type vehicle," or "hey, that's a skorp!" They're not BREAKING immersion, they're MAKING IT. BSG has the best immersion of any sci-fi show I've ever seen. The fact you recognize gear isn't by accident or because they don't have a budget. It's 100% intentional. They make the sets and props look real so that you the viewer have an immediate "buy in" to the scenery, and can now spend your eye time and brain cycles processing the scene, not the scenery.

[warsloth]

Yeah, they may not have a whole lot of ground force leadership, so they chuck in some naval/space officers to lead the marines. kinda makes sense when you think about filling a command chain with a handful of leftovers.