New BattleStar Galactica

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Matt Darcy
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Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 1:28 pm

New BattleStar Galactica

Post by Matt Darcy »

Has anyone been watching the build up to the new series of battle star galactica ?Not sure how much this has been discussed in here, but judging by the knowledge of people on here it would be a good topic.A female starbuck...she still smokes a cigar ?A Female Boomer ?The Cylons now have "human form"Baltar a scientist....and not just pure evil ?no more shiny suits for the cylons ?Richard Hatch directing.Any thoughts / pros /consJust curious.I'm keeping an eye out for it on Sky.
AndyThomas
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New BattleStar Galactica

Post by AndyThomas »

I hope you were keeping a sharp eye out - it was just on Sky Movies! I wasn't sure what I was going to think of it, but I really enjoyed it. Very clever remake with nods to the original left right and centre of course, but it oozed class and some really nice and even quite shocking moments. And of course being me I was liking the way they handled space combat - actual "proper" physics going on there with reaction control thrusters popping off like on B5 Starfuries. Also liked the idea of the humans having to go quasi-retro because of the Cylons' ability to infiltrate systems. Clever way to keep it at around the original's style of tech. Some original chrome-dome Cylons around too - #### even their ships are reminiscent of them now! Looking forward to the next part tomorrow. Plus it's now been confirmed that they've picked it up for a series. Can they keep the momentum going...
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FZeroOne
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Joined: Tue Aug 20, 2002 1:42 pm

New BattleStar Galactica

Post by FZeroOne »

I didn't catch most of it, but I saw enough to think that there is some potential there; it certainly seemed a better pilot than some others I've seen.I do think they've gone a touch too far in trying to get away from Galacticas 70s glitter-ball style, but I do like the idea of the Galactica being run like a "proper" aircraft carrier. Though I doubt any aircraft carrier - no matter how old - would allow anything to get as rusty as those bars in the brig ( pointless whitewashing is as old as military service; maybe the really bad offenders get to re-paint the hull! [1] )Interesting style for the combat scenes; a couple of things seem a bit odd though - they nod towards realism with the vernier motors on the Vipers, but then have debris plinking off the windshield like pebbles... ( even paint flakes in space can do quite a bit of damage if at high enough velocity...! ), though I don't know if they mentioned that the Vipers have some kind of special shielding or not...[1] see also Red Dwarf, or alternatively, polishing the laser lenses in Gunbuster...
"The power of bakers, the power of artists; even the power of witches! It must be a power given by God... sometimes we suffer for it."- Ursula, Kikis Delivery Service.
AndyThomas
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New BattleStar Galactica

Post by AndyThomas »

Well the Galactica was, quite literally, a museum piece about to be mothballed - it's suggested that there are other Battlestars which would actually be newer than her but we don't see any. Hence why she looks a little run down in places. As for shielding on the Vipers - not in the energy shield sense, that doesn't seem to play a part of this universe. Ships are even vulnerable to EMP up to a point. But they do seem to be quite heavily armoured because they stayed pretty intact when hit. It's actually another clever touch - with that many ships getting blown apart there'd have to be a lot of smaller debris like that, another one of the nice little touches. What's interesting is that there was an ex-Trek guy at the helm and apparently he really wanted to break away from what he'd been anchored in in doing Trek for so long. Job's a good 'un in that sense - although it was descending into a little bit of cheese towards the end, it definitely established a "feel" which it had to to stand any chance of getting picked up.
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Matt Darcy
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Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 1:28 pm

New BattleStar Galactica

Post by Matt Darcy »

Interesting views.I was in two minds about it.The positivesThe new effects - superbThe realism (I agree with Andy) the fact that ships didn't just "stop" or turn in mid air they had momentum and thrusters popping everwhere to keep the ships stable.The fact that the Galactica was not a party ship - it was a miltary ship - run like a miltary ship, this added a lot to the relism.The references to the old show (nice touch)The retro element. As the cylons where robots it would stand to reason they would have greater interaction with computers than man, a good elemet to the plot.The fact that Baltar betrayed Earth again (although this time by accident) was a good point of continuity.The negativesHumans created the Cylons ??? where did that come from The cylon ships - the origional cylon raiders piloted by "drones" where far better.The tension between Adama and Apollo, I wasn't a fan of this twistStarbuck being a girl, stunning as she was it just didn't work for me, neither did boomer. Apollo Starbuck and Boomer where like the three amigos, I enjoyed the twist but missed the "old gang" feelingThe new Cylons who look like Humans, a tedious attempt to bring in more hand to hand combat and "on earth" plot lines. This was tried in the "War of the Worlds" TV series, where the Aliens went from being able to live inside a human body for a short period of time to being able to clone aliens as humans - it went too far and took the focus away from the fact they where aliens. Voyager also suffered this with Speicies 8472 but at least they where only able to hold human form for a while.On the whole, I was dissapointed I expected a remake of the show with the same plot but twists (female starbuck etc) and better sub plots.That said as mentioned earlier it was a better pilot than others (I enjoyed it more than the first few DS9 shows, and I ended up loving them)If I did not know the plot of the origional I think it would make a good series, but as it is not a next generation style "in the future" story it is more a remake with a different basis for the plot I was looking for too much of the origional.I'll keep watching though, see how it progresses.
FZeroOne
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New BattleStar Galactica

Post by FZeroOne »

Another thing that I've only just realised - no laser guns...! It all seems to be either missiles or some form of very-rapid fire cannon. Not really for or against, it just suddenly struck me thats something very different from the original.
"The power of bakers, the power of artists; even the power of witches! It must be a power given by God... sometimes we suffer for it."- Ursula, Kikis Delivery Service.
Matt Darcy
Posts: 164
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 1:28 pm

New BattleStar Galactica

Post by Matt Darcy »

Just re-watched this as a mini movie, and I just can't get into it, they have kept have the plot from the origional, and then changed half of it.I think it will make a great TV series in the long run, but I think it would have worked better if they had kept the origional plot and idea but modernised it. There was nothing wrong with the plot, just the budget and technology in the 70's wasn't good enough to do it justice.
Matt Darcy
Posts: 164
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2002 1:28 pm

New BattleStar Galactica

Post by Matt Darcy »

I knew there was something I forgot to add.There are a few moments in the space sequnces, 2 that spring to mind are.1.) where boomber is running from the cylon missiles2.) Where Apolo throws his ship infront of a missile going after the passanger ship to draw the missiles pathThe effect is used often in Starfleet, and I have no memory of seeing it used anywhere else other than Starfleet and the new Battlestar.Its where you are looking at 1 point in space and the camera suddenly flys to a ship or object moving, but instead of the ship being in the center of the shot it is at the edge....as though the camerman has just seen it.Its used in Starfleet when single drone ships come flying in.....watch battle star, the starfleet and you'll see the effect I'm talking about.
AndyThomas
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New BattleStar Galactica

Post by AndyThomas »

I know what you mean, but at the same time it was a brave move to not simply recreate the original - surely that would have been a little boring? I thought it was a bit like Lost in Space in the sense that it bounced back and forth between looking modern and going retro for the old series feel. And effects wise - they've actually gone less overboard in a sense compared with the original, there was a reasonable amount of "hard" science in there this time round. I liked it.
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