Battlestar Galactica

[Krusshyk]

Does she know Kung Fu?

[Zannon]

Dunno yet...but in the two-part mini she did get to decide who lives and who dies.

[warsloth]

I DID NOT EVEN SEE THIS THREAD BEFORE!!!
yesterday I was watchin part one of the mini... I love the silence during space scenes, with the subtle drums... Reminds me of my coreographed gunfights to Classical music. War is art.
The trailer for ep1 shows Cylons running through rainy jungle.... Awesome.

[Keer]

Furthermore...I recall Cylons looking like a big pile of mean metal with a cool visor that had red lights on it.

In the book that BG was based on, the Cylons were all reptilian creatures with 3 brains. They were trinary oriented with 3 pilots to each ship that flew in elements of 3. The original TV series showed the triple robot pilot format.

Interesting book.

[warsloth]

Whats really wierd is that I heard the 12 colonies were representative of the 12 tribes of Israel. Some website I saw about the show, claimed that the robots were built by the reptilian race, and they killed their masters and began a conquest that included the 12 human planets... In the original series they meet up with another battlestar or two. The reason in the original was that the comander of the Pegasus was such a brilliant tactician. This show came out when there were some other crappy ones on, and around the time Lucas put out the original Star Wars. As far as a TV show is concerned, it had great special effects.
To me the original had more depth than Star Trek TOS, and bieng a TV show, not a mega budget Sci Fi epic like Star Wars, it still competed well. If you look hatch tried to start it up again, he was almost successful. The New series leaves some wierd questions. They refer to a first war, where the equipment looks like TOS. An integration of the story would have been interesting. But there is too much depth to the new one for me to throw it out. We may see some original looking cylons "those models are still around, they have their uses.". If the story had been written like the future generation of the original it would have been really cool.

[warsloth]

That kid is Boxey, the (Cylon) boomer is taking him in. I don't know how the sleeper agent thing is going to work with boomer, but it seems like that could get really interesting. Number six seems to be very individual (and hot) so we could have a defecting Cylon? (or two) its funny that whatever the doctor did by randomly selecting that dude, he picked a cylon. His actions on the Colonail 1 were much like spy efforts in ww1-2. we would put people in enemy uniforms just to throw of troop movement. The Cylon the doctor found was trying to create a power struggle.

[warsloth]

I grabbed this pic off sciffy's site




I think the new look is pretty killer.

[Keer]

Tonight I finally twisted the time to watch the series premeire of the new Battlestar Galactica and I'm still impressed.

Things that I like:

1. The Cylons, who are renegade artificial intelligence, apparently have a religious bent. While I'm not trying to discuss religion here, there were several mentions of God by one of the Cylons. Robots with religion. Though it's been done before, it's still and interesting angle for the writers to take. I'm looking forward to see how it plays out.

2. The "old-tech" of the setting. Though they can travel at faster than light speeds, wired phones and dry erase boards are in use with the characters. The land lined tech has been explained as an anti-hacking measure and though a dry erase board was used by the president, it still seemed to fit in. Surely not enough to get wrinkled about. We still write with lead/graphite pencils in our real world of nuclear weapons and interplanetary space probes. Plus, I'm sure it saves production money for other things.

3. Watching the series documentary, I see that Jamie Braber (Lee "Apollo" Adama) is British and speaks with a pronounced accent. Not amazed that he can hide it, but still cool to see one of the tricks that actors use and use well.

4. Smoking. A good bit of cigarette and cigar use on the show or at least more than what we've seen recently in this anti-smoking era. I think that smoking can be employed to create an atmosphere and toss some accent onto a character. Nothing to be frightened of. Definitely can't remember the last time that I saw a sci-fi show with regularly smoking characters. Slick enough.

5. Best Line of the Show:

"There's a reason why you separate military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people".

This is the type of wrangling that I hoped to see the show explore. The new relationship between a military force and civilian populace, both thrown out of their own natural element and trying to adapt to it despite each other. It also happens to echo some of the real life situations that we see in the world today.

The head writer, Ron Moore, says that he's comitted the show to be character driven and more drama oriented. Good to hear. I'm looking forward to following this show's development.

[X'an Shin]

Tonight I finally twisted the time to watch the series premeire of the new Battlestar Galactica and I'm still impressed.

Things that I like:

1. The Cylons, who are renegade artificial intelligence, apparently have a religious bent. While I'm not trying to discuss religion here, there were several mentions of God by one of the Cylons. Robots with religion. Though it's been done before, it's still and interesting angle for the writers to take. I'm looking forward to see how it plays out.

Dude, the Dr. IS God. To them, anyway.

I'd bet real money on it. I think that's why Six is having so many conversations about God with him. I think basically their whole "bent" on destroying humanity is possibly due to some reaction to finding out that God is actually just this mortal guy who isn't really perfect, and sorta stumbled upon creating you.

Imagine the dissappointment of Santa, but times ten million fold.

Imagine if we found out God was just some alien, and that we had eclipsed "him" in both power and knowledge. That's some serious let-down material, regardless if you're machine or human or whatever.

Overall, I'm downright flat-out in love with this show. It has succeeded in eclipsing my previous favorite Sci-Fi (not the network) space series: Space: Above and Beyond for both believeability and deep plot/character lines.

Skarr, you should hit this thread with my seal of approval. ;)

[X'an Shin]

This question must be asked...why the crap is Boomer an asian chick instead of a bad ass black guy like he was supposed to be?

Furthermore...I recall Cylons looking like a big pile of mean metal with a cool visor that had red lights on it.

I haven't even seen an episode, but if these two things are as I have heard, I won't be seeing any of them.

Delt, quitcherwhining and sit your ass down in front of the TV, STAT.

This show is easily TEN TIMES as good as the original series, and I'm even counting Sci-Fi "inflation" into the mix (the progression of technology and the public's understanding of it).

If you don't like that Boomer's an Asian chick, your jaw will hit the floor when you find out Starbuck is not only a chick, but she's TOUGHER than the original Starbuck. That's right. She chews a cigar.

But seriously, the casting is downright SMOKING HOT regardless if it's "true" to the original series or not.

[Keer]

Dude, the Dr. IS God. To them, anyway.

I'd bet real money on it. I think that's why Six is having so many conversations about God with him. I think basically their whole "bent" on destroying humanity is possibly due to some reaction to finding out that God is actually just this mortal guy who isn't really perfect, and sorta stumbled upon creating you.

If Baltar is God then how do you account for Six asking him to "repent" and telling him to be "careful" because God's gifts can be "given or taken away"? If Baltar is God to them, she wouldn't be saying those things.

Even if that turns out to be the case, then the letdown would be in bad writing.

And how could Baltar have invented the Cylons anyway? He's far too young to have "stumbled on" inventing the AI that eventually became the Cylons . They've been at war for generations, remember? Baltar is what, 35 at most?

So naw, I'm not seeing that angle of Baltar is God making too much sense without some hokey time travel gimmick that I really hope is not coming.

[Jabe Adaks]

1. The Cylons, who are renegade artificial intelligence, apparently have a religious bent. While I'm not trying to discuss religion here, there were several mentions of God by one of the Cylons. Robots with religion. Though it's been done before, it's still and interesting angle for the writers to take. I'm looking forward to see how it plays out.

My interpretation of this is that they are most likely referring to themselves as God and when he wanted to repent the Cylons threw him a bone... Interestingly enough the Cylons were created by humans. It could go either way.

Jabe

[X'an Shin]

Dude, the Dr. IS God. To them, anyway.

I'd bet real money on it. I think that's why Six is having so many conversations about God with him. I think basically their whole "bent" on destroying humanity is possibly due to some reaction to finding out that God is actually just this mortal guy who isn't really perfect, and sorta stumbled upon creating you.

If Baltar is God then how do you account for Six asking him to "repent" and telling him to be "careful" because God's gifts can be "given or taken away"? If Baltar is God to them, she wouldn't be saying those things.

Even if that turns out to be the case, then the letdown would be in bad writing.

And how could Baltar have invented the Cylons anyway? He's far too young to have "stumbled on" inventing the AI that eventually became the Cylons . They've been at war for generations, remember? Baltar is what, 35 at most?

So naw, I'm not seeing that angle of Baltar is God making too much sense without some hokey time travel gimmick that I really hope is not coming.

I don't remember the generations war thing (not saying you're not right, just saying I don't recall hearing it). I was under the impression that this scientist was the AI creator. Now I'm wondering if I'm watching the right show ;)

And I thought that the talk of repenting and God's gifts was again a bit of ironic touch, like, what if you could ask God what he'd like to repent for?

At any rate, the show's certainly damn interesting if we can have this kind of talk about it.

[Keer]

I don't remember the generations war thing (not saying you're not right, just saying I don't recall hearing it). I was under the impression that this scientist was the AI creator. Now I'm wondering if I'm watching the right show ;)

In the beginning of the story, the Colonial representative is waiting in the pre-designated diplomatic space station for a talk with a Cylon representative. The Cylons haven't shown up at this meeting for decades then they suddenly call for a sit-down. It's been about 30 years since their last war.

The poor human guy is sitting at a conference table, the Cylon soldierbot enters and the station is destroyed.

There's also the nod to the old series during the "museum tour" on board Galactica. The 1970's style Cylon robot suit is shown as a relic.

[Keer]

This from BSG Writer/Producer Ronald C. Moore. Talk is cheap, but so far he's made a damn good down payment.

"Ask us to care for human beings instead of caricatures.

Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science fiction television series.

With those words leading the way, I turned in the final draft of Battlestar Galactica. Bold words, perhaps. Arrogant even. But they accurately describe the ambition driving this project:

We believe you can explore adult themes with adult characters and still tell a ripping good yarn.

We believe that to portray human beings as flawed creations does not weaken them, it strengthens them.

We believe that bringing realism to science fiction is neither contradictory nor a fool's errand.

We believe that science fiction provides an opportunity to explore our own society, to provoke debate and to challenge our perceptions of ourselves and our fellow Man.

We believe science fiction can still be relevant.

We believe all these things and more.

If you agree with us, then this is the show for you. If not, then thanks for coming, but the popcorn is in a different aisle.

Stick around " it's going to be a helluva ride."

Star Trek writers need to heed.
EDITED: To say that Paramount needs to heed. I bet the writers have all kinds of stories they'd like to try out, but are gagged.

Full Interview here:
http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/mini/about/intro/