Waaay OT: Battlestar Galactica

[Glenn Fricker]

Been wanting to write this for a while: Just curious.... are there any fans of this series on this board? I'm not too much into TV, I'm much more of a film fan, but this series has drawn me in like no other. Someone got me the first season on DVD for Christmas one year & I couldn't stop watching it. What a fantastic story! Nothing at all like the cheesy series from the 70's. Great writing, very dark themes and metaphors of terrorism, occupation, & martyrdom. That & the Cylons traded in their chrome exteriors for models that look like this:

I know I'm not completely alone, Scott Ian writes a fan blog on it:
http://blogs.scifi.com/battlestar/scottian/

It's a shame that this, the fourth season, is the last. Better to go out in a Blaze of Glory than overstay your welcome, though!

-0z-

 

[Keregioz]

Yeah...I also like battlestar galactica alot! Great series.
That the 4th season is the last is not necessary a bad thing though. A lot of successful series in order to stay running and make more money for the networks go into a 6th or 7th season but they lose in quality. It's nice to know when to stop.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I entered this thread thinking of the old series (thinking that this thread would suck) and who the fuck would like that show.

Anyhow I was wrong this thread wins.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Mm.

 

[LSD-Studio]

7of9 would beat the crap out of the cylons
!

 

[Metaltastic]

I've heard it's really good, though haven't watched it - I know one of the former writers for one of my two favorite shows of all time (Ronald D. Moore, from Star Trek DS9) is now a writer for BSG, so that seems promising, but I can't deny, I feel all those "babe" shots (and the fact that it seems I always see them mentioned whenever I read or hear anything about the show) is incredibly tacky and really an insult to the (assumedly, from what I've heard) smart and thought-provoking content of the show. Now I've got male libido as much as the next alcohol-fueled college student, but I love sci-fi for its sophistication and intelligence, and this pandering to the grunting masses who need to see some side-boob action to have any interest just really seems like the equivalent of a magazine like Car and Driver suddenly bringing out all the fucking implanted bikini models to stand next to their cars like Import Tuner or some other retard street-racer rag - it's got all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

But I guess that's the curse of network television; I've watched enough of the behind-the-scenes stuff of the aforementioned DS9 (and Babylon 5, my other favorite show) to know that it was a constant struggle for them to stay on the air, so if tromping out a fashion runway is the only way they can keep funds coming to spread their message, then assuming that those chicks can actually act (like Jeri Ryan AKA 7 of 9, who actually was a good character), I guess I support it. But not without a big rant prefacing it first!

 

[vespiz]

What a great show! It's what scifi should be, IMHO.
Nothing too gratuitous; if they show some skin, it's usually for a reason. (er... not that they'd need it )

 

[Glenn Fricker]

I've heard it's really good, though haven't watched it - I know one of the former writers for one of my two favorite shows of all time (Ronald D. Moore, from Star Trek DS9) is now a writer for BSG, so that seems promising, but I can't deny, I feel all those "babe" shots (and the fact that it seems I always see them mentioned whenever I read or hear anything about the show) is incredibly tacky and really an insult to the (assumedly, from what I've heard) smart and thought-provoking content of the show. Now I've got male libido as much as the next alcohol-fueled college student, but I love sci-fi for its sophistication and intelligence, and this pandering to the grunting masses who need to see some side-boob action to have any interest just really seems like the equivalent of a magazine like Car and Driver suddenly bringing out all the fucking implanted bikini models to stand next to their cars like Import Tuner or some other retard street-racer rag - it's got all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

But I guess that's the curse of network television; I've watched enough of the behind-the-scenes stuff of the aforementioned DS9 (and Babylon 5, my other favorite show) to know that it was a constant struggle for them to stay on the air, so if tromping out a fashion runway is the only way they can keep funds coming to spread their message, then assuming that those chicks can actually act (like Jeri Ryan AKA 7 of 9, who actually was a good character), I guess I support it. But not without a big rant prefacing it first!

Grab or rent the first season on DVD & watch it. Great stuff.

As for the 'babes' angle, I'll quote Scott Ian:
"We're not evil, we're not inhuman."
"We're just dirty murdering slut robots."

 

[spioraid]

I've enjoyed parts of the story, but like a lot of sci-fi shows these days it tends to emphasize the not-so-great aspects of story telling to pull in more watchers. It is tons better than the original, fo sho. Enterprise seemed to completely bottom out for me, hated what they did to the captain's character. Babylon 5 was good for a while, but occasionally lacked in depth of story telling. DS9 and Voyager were tight.

Now Doctor Who? That's the sci-fi show to watch.

Glad to know I'm not the only sci-fi geek here.

 

[R-Stuur]

I'm really into Stargate sg-1. I like the simplicity and the low budget-ness. The decors are pretty cheap but I like the stories.

 

[kaomao]

lol

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Oh, I almost forgot: One of the coolest things was the end of season three: They played the most hair raising version of "All Along the Watchtower" I've ever heard. I never really got that song until I heard it in that context. VERY cool.

 

[abyssofdreams]

You guys should check out Firefly/Serenity. One if not the best sci-fi series out there

 

[Glenn Fricker]

You guys should check out Firefly/Serenity. One if not the best sci-fi series out there

I enjoyed them very much. Galactica drew me in like no other, though.

 

[midget donkeys]

I actually have a Batlestar Galactica t-shirt. Thats right I am a nerd.

 

[Metaltastic]

Hahaha, don't worry, I have a Babylon 5 t-shirt, which I fully plan on wearing if and when I get famous Because famous people can do anything!

 

[vespiz]

All the shows mentioned in this thread are what I consider to be the best in the field. Although Voyager started out a bit lame, I hear it gets better.

<RANT>
Damn Finnish tv-stations won't broadcast anything these days.. We got like the first two seasons of Voyager, four seasons of DS9 (it ended with that big battle scene with the Klingons), kept moving The Next Generation (different stations also!) and B5 around... now I'm waiting for them to stop showing reruns of SG-1 and get on with it! And Galactica too.
I'm surprised that we got to see Firefly and Farscape entirely.
Hmm.. might sound like there's enough scifi on tv to some, but all this has spanned some 10years or more...
</RANT>

Yeah, I'm a nerd..

Damn, just remembered that a new channel started that shows nothing but scifi... but it's pay-tv and doesn't show everywhere (like where I live, for some odd reason). Ah, well..

 

[Metaltastic]

Honestly, I've seen more than a few Voyager episodes (though mostly only from the first 4 seasons or so), and found it to be trying to somewhat unsuccessfully cop the Next Generation-style of "meet these people/discover this planet/have this self-contained story happen" each week, pressing the proverbial reset button at the end. I really liked the characters, but from what I've read, combined with what I've seen, the show can best be described as somewhat anemic. That's why DS9 is far and above my favorite of the Star Treks - TNG did the whole "new story each week" thing well enough, so I didn't mind that, but DS9 was unique in the sheer depth of its continuity and serialization - there was a freakin' war that lasted for the last two seasons and the majority of the episodes in those seasons concerned it, not to mention everything leading up to said war in the seasons before (Season 4 is when it really started getting serialized).

And on the topic of serialization, B5 sets the standard, which is why I love it so much - it had the virtue of being written by ONE DUDE (well, there were other contributing writers who followed his guidelines for some of the earlier episodes, but he wrote EVERY EPISODE of seasons 3 & 4 and all but one of season 5 himself), J. Michael Straczynski, who had come up with the overall plan for the show before he even pitched it and as such put in tons of awesome foreshadowing and incredible character development, all planned. The only downside is that now that I own all the DVD's for both shows (B5 & DS9), I'm more inclined to watch individual episodes of DS9 because they often are a little more self-contained, but on the other hand, the overall arc of B5's drama can't be overstated (and Spioraid, I have no idea where you're coming from with the lacking depth of storytelling bit, if anything there was too much of it for a TV show medium because of how JMS considered each season to be a chapter in a book and thus how everything was so interconnected. Still, he made an effort to resolve certain mysteries/problems/situations in a relatively short amount of time while still able to heighten the drama by stretching out others; the show just fucking rules).

 

[RipShredmohr]

Those pix prove that in the Battlestar universe 6>8. I can't wait for Xena to be unboxed next week , and there is no way Gaeta is the fifth! That's all I am tryin' to say here.:Smug:

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Those pix prove that in the Battlestar universe 6>8. I can't wait for Xena to be unboxed next week , and there is no way Gaeta is the fifth! That's all I am tryin' to say here.:Smug:

Yeah, well we all thought Tigh wouldn't be, either.


Hell, I'm thinking it might be Cally.