Battlestar Mini Series

[Radioflyer]

What's your take on the Battlestar Galactica mini series?

here is mine....


The original was hokey by todays standards, but so was classic Trek! And the science represented in the new Batttlestar Galatica mini series is state of the art today,

This series is the equivalent to painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. When you change the characters you change the essence of the show. A hounded years from now, casting a midget to play captain kirk in Star Trek twelve would be just as criminal.

Here Boxy is not Apolo's son but just another little refugee! I kept wanting to see Adama space the Colonial president! The battle scenes were top notch. The basic story was okay but so much was wrong. The cylon slut was over the top gutter trash! The Viper mark two looked cool, but the advanced models were not impressive. The galactica looked great but I kept looking for hints to the old ship, particularly the indentation on the side of the ship that housed the lazer cannon. Starbuck acted like starbuck we all knew and loved but he was in a the body of a female. That had to be painful for loyal fans everywhere! They might as well gave Adama two heads and called him a mutant! One of the main characters named Boomer was not only changed to a female, but was revealed in the end to be a enemy sleeper agent for the Cylons. If there is any possibility to counter this mini series deconstruction of a classic beloved series, say it is so!

[Beady Eyes]

I was skeptical after watching the first hour of the show. I missed the third hour, but caught the last two. I think it is really interesting the way they have redesigned the myth.

I think the changes were well done. Starbuck as a female will be much more interesting that two lead males. Yes, they changed Boomer into a woman and then into a traitor, but really, what did the original Boomer ever really contribute to the series?

Who says Boxey wn't turn out to be something more than a survivor?

One word for you.....Daggit?


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"If you lose a lot, maybe that's just your thing."

[Thanet]

One word. SNOOOOOOOOOZE!

and I mean that literally. Around the third hour, I just got up and went to bed . . . there was no impedus to stay for the last hour, at all.

The only hope I can see if this becomes a series is that TWOP gets their snarky little teeth into it. Starbuck was okay, Baltar was okay . . . . and, admittily Boxy was not annoying this time around.

The best thing about the old series is that it was tripe. Really good tripe, you could watch Dirk trip lighthearted through scenes of absoultly nothing, root for the Cylons to hit something, anything! and wonder if Lorne had killed his agent yet.

The second series we will not mention, lest we have to ask Buffy for help.

This one was dark, and deep, and deadly dull. Too many anvils for a show that used to understand its fans wanted gunfights and action, and really didn't care that their ships had no supply line whatsoever, and that aliens other than Cylons didn't exist.


my two cents anyway.

[Tigress35]

I hated the way they changed the characters so much. And the costumes were terrible.

I hated the first part, but the second part wasn't so bad, I kinda got into it. I still think there should have been a third part, or they should have made it a real series.

[Radioflyer]

It might become a series, depending on the ratings of the mini series. I'm hoping the ratings were poor! I was hoping Richard Hatch's version would be made.

[Thanet]

Thanet's Husband here,

Boomer in the not to be named second series had made Colonel and was second in command. But as my wife pointed out it was dull, so dull I didn't stick around to find out that Boomer was a Spy. I really liked the original cylons at least you could tell they were the bad guys.
This was more like Data's children take revenge on humanity.

Mike

[hanemg]

As far as science fiction goes it was a pretty good story, but as far as Battlestar Galactica goes it was a waste of a good franchise. Frankly except for the names used and the overall fact that it was about the human race being almost wiped out and having to flee their worlds I saw little resemblance to the old series.

The bad points were:

The entire portrayal of the 12 colonies. It was too similar to Earth for me. I wanted to see alien culture. Supposedly they are descended from the same people who colonized Earth, but I didn’t see enough of the differences I would expect from a divergent culture especially one that was still in touch with the roots of their race. It was like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century that just happened to worship the Lords of Kobal.

Starbuck being female isn’t really a big deal for me in that if it’s done right the friendship between that character and Apollo could still work. Unfortunately, I sense romantic tension ahead in any attempt to do a series. The thing about Starbuck and Apollo was the fact that they were like brothers. That closeness probably couldn’t be portrayed with a female/male on TV because of the temptation to throw in the sexual tension. Also, it screwed up a pretty good sub-plot from the original series in regards to the Athena/Cassiopia storyline.

Boomer as a female works pretty much the same as Starbuck above, plus they made her not a viper pilot AND a Cylon spy. What the original Boomer added to the old series in my opinion was the fact that with Apollo and Starbuck he rounded out the three best pilots in the fleet. It was kind of a Three Musketeers thing. You really felt a closeness between the three and he was kind of the bridge between Starbuck’s brashness and Apollo’s right side of the road.

Now we come to the really bad stuff, at least in my opinion:

The Cylons as a creation of man come back to destroy their creators. Done to death. And the series debuted AFTER Terminator 3. Gee, no resemblance there. The thing I liked about the original series, at least the original concept, was that the Cylons were a reptilian race that augmented themselves with cybernetics almost from birth. Kind of like a one species only Borg. Their hatred of humanity stemmed from the fact that we were alien to them and for once instead of humans being portrayed as the ones seeking to destroy what they didn’t understand it was an alien race. To me that gave them an understandable motivation for pursuing humanity across the galaxy. If it isn’t Cylon then it must be wiped out. Humanity is a danger to our way of life because we cannot control them. Their mission? Destroy. Every. Single. Last. One. Of. Them.

I too thought that the Cylon “babe” was over the top and hated the way she could just pop into Baltar’s head. It also showed too much of an understanding of humanity or at least our baser instincts for my taste.

We should have seen Zac die. To me one of the best scenes of the original movie was of Zac’s ship being destroyed just short of the Galactica and the interaction between the President and Adama.

“What was that?!” The President cried.

“That was my son, Mr. President.” Adama replied.

It drove home the horror and loss of the situation and also provided a motivating factor for Apollo who always blamed himself for having to leave Zac behind and Starbuck who always felt guilty for letting Zac take his place on patrol.

Also, I felt that the entire friction between Apollo and Adama was a waste. One of the strong points of the original series was the strong family ties between Apollo, Adama, and Athena. They supported each other. Also, it was a good motivating factor for Apollo to be as straight laced as he was. A lot of people saw his rise in rank to be a result of his relation to Adama and that made him work three times as hard to prove them wrong.

In regards to Col. Tigh, they made him a drunk and a horse’s behind. This was someone who was Adama’s right hand man. Who commanded the respect of the crew just by walking into the room because he simply deserved respect and tolerated no foolishness. In the original series it was unusual for him to drink in the officer’s lounge unless he was imparting some secret mission, but here he’s drunk in the middle of a sabbac game and starting fights.

And even all of that I could have taken and dealt with. But then they gave us:

Adama. Now, don’t get me wrong. I like the character and I like Edward James Olmos’ (sp) acting, but the way he was written he might as well have been Cain, because I saw little resemblance to the Adama of old. The two were respected military commanders who commanded a Battlestar. That pretty much was it. To me, the best parts of Adama were written into the new President’s parts. Adama was the one who organized the refugee effort. One of the best scenes from the series was Adama standing on the hillside addressing the refugees.

“Let the word go forth, to every man, woman, and child…”

It was like Moses addressing his people before the Exodus. It was why people followed Adama. He was the savior of the human race. He was always thinking ahead toward the future. He could suffer small losses if it meant that he would win in the long run. EJO’s Adama was ready to slug it out until the bitter end. Very Cain-like.

Which brings me to my last point. He MADE UP the story of Earth!!!! That was one of the defining elements of the original series and of Adama, himself. His unshakable belief in Earth and the Lords of Kobal. It made everyone else want to believe as well. The mythology they traced along the way also added to the story, I felt. I see little reason for this fleet (the current mini-series) to travel past the first habitable planet they find. Even if they keep up the “pursued by the Cylon” reasoning they still just seem to go in circles.

Just a few errant rants on my part :).

[Radioflyer]

I was saying they should have gave it another name! It's a whole other story, it's not battlestar!

I got the impression Adama was lying to the president about making up the story about earth, because as far as he knew she was a Cylon sleeper as well! If I'm mistaken then this story is worse than I thought!

[hanemg]

I hadn't thought of it that way, but Adama did say it was known to the high command and the Pres said that she had discussed it with the former Pres who had no idea where Earth was and thought it was a myth.

I'm afraid that the story was probably just that bad.

[Radioflyer]

I give it high marks for the battle scenes! I also bought the Starship Troopers movie for just the battle scenes too!

[brock9233]

I haven't understand till date that why they choose the same name as on going TV series and is there any sense of starting a mini series of a particular renowned show.