The Original Battlestar Galactica - A New Appreciation of it

[Joelist]

Over the last couple of weeks I rewatched the whole original BSG series in between working 15 hour days. And the interesting thing is I developed a new appreciation for the show. Granted it is a bit dated and the costumes are a bit naff but it has good points such as:

a) Epic feel - this is something neither NuBSG nor any of its SoapFi brethren succeeded in creating. They managed to take a big story - the survival of the race - and make it feel small and almost dingy. Old BSG made it feel like a grand odyssey of survival and yes, adventure too.

b) Heroes you can root for with a straight face. Were the Colonial characters fairly simple? Yes. But they also were really "good guys". They rose to the occasion and were not defined by their flaws but rather by their strengths. It made them immensely easier to root for. Of course, so did the next point...

c) True Villains. The Cylons are flat out bad guys - no real grey shades in there. One can argue that the rank and file are not truly evil but the IL class and especially the Imperious Leader are VERY bad individuals. And in this universe Baltar is truly nasty - treacherous, vengeful but also intelligent (except for his insane idea that the Cylons were really going to spare his colony and let him lead it).

Of the stories, I liked the premiere a lot. Also the two part episodes Living Legend and War of the Gods (Patrick Macnee as Count Iblis is superb).

Watching these was a good way to see how the "reimagining" was not all that - it was just turning Science Fiction into a muddled soap opera.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Scifi has two modes.
Humanity triumphant, and dystopia.
I would wager that everyone here roots for the former, rather than the latter. We -appreciate- dystopia, but we do not -WANT- it. Blade runner is an excellent film, as is logans run, but no one wants those futures as anything more than warnings.
NuBSG was a cool concept, but no one wants to live in that world.

 

[Joelist]

Blade Runner and Logan's Run were well executed dystopias. NuBSG started out okay but turned into a bad soap opera.

 

[Gatefan1976]

I

Blade Runner and Logan's Run were well executed dystopias. NuBSG started out okay but turned into a bad soap opera.

I would argue it started as an interesting dystopia, and grew into a crappy "humanity triumphant" load of shit.

 

[Joelist]

Humanity triumphant? When they just decide to give up all their technology and in all likelihood die of starvation?

 

[Tripler]

NUBSG was such a fricken let down but I did enjoy it when Odama blew him self up . I don't think I laughed once watching that series until he did that ... Beautiful !!! If only the whole gang all did that in the first season and accepted that the robots were better . We would not have seen one glowing backside orgasm once or had to endure the mysterious all in fricken white and made no fricken sense even once girly Starbuck...
Not the fact that she was a girl .. No . Because she was all in fricken white along with her stupid ship !!! WTH !!! And then just disappear !!! WTH !!!

 

[shavedape]

Galactica 1980 was pretty lame though.

 

[ecgordon]

I was 28 when original Galactica premiered and was already a big SF fan, but mainly from books. At that time, as well as at least three other times since then, I have attempted to watch it but have never completed that single season. It's just not very good, imo.

 

[Joelist]

OMG, Shaved....Galactica 1980 was HORRIBLE. I always thought it should end with Adama waking up with a start in his bed on the Galactica and realizing it was all a bad dream...

 

[Joelist]

I was 28 when original Galactica premiered and was already a big SF fan, but mainly from books. At that time, as well as at least three other times since then, I have attempted to watch it but have never completed that single season. It's just not very good, imo.

See I liked it more for the reasons I posted. It feels epic, has real good and bad guys and it was spinning off some good stories. I think had ABC not messed with its scheduling (in its original timeslot it was pulling big numbers then they started moving it around to try to boost other shows) it would have enjoyed a longer run.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Humanity triumphant? When they just decide to give up all their technology and in all likelihood die of starvation?

Spiritually triumphant Joe.
Not intelligently

 

[Rac80]

LOVE the original BSG here. Bought the dvd series (with a big ass cylon head on it) for mr rac when he was laid up after foot surgery! and we have enjoyed it ever since.

 

[Overmind One]

LOVE the original BSG here. Bought the dvd series (with a big ass cylon head on it) for mr rac when he was laid up after foot surgery! and we have enjoyed it ever since.

Hey Rac! How is that remodel going? Havent seen you here in a while. I still love the original BSG. I just could not warm up to the new one because of the old one.

 

[Bluce Ree]

Hey Rac! How is that remodel going? Havent seen you here is a while. I still love the original BSG. I just could not warm up to the new one because of the old one.

I couldn't warm up to the new one because it was a festering melodramatic turd.

 

[Bluce Ree]

NuBSG was a cool concept, but no one wants to live in that world.

Cool concept that was poorly executed.

 

[Rac80]

the Remodel is done - loving my "new" old kitchen! still haven't gotten our cable back on - next tuesday is the day.

Been very busy here - school is back in session in Indiana big time and it seems everyone had a "rough" summer- lots of gang problems happening here (the local gangs vs the hispanic gangs fighting over "turf"), lots of violence in the city despite a nice cool summer, luckily no cops killed here in Indy.

Indianapolis got it's LDS temple too over the summer - we volunteered as tour guides, etc... It was a lot of fun. Made cookies for the protesters and they thanked us.

Looking at getting carpal tunnel surgery for me early in 2016-- the braces just aren't enough anymore.

 

[YJ02]

Humanity triumphant? When they just decide to give up all their technology and in all likelihood die of starvation?

they were following the prime directive to the point of self harm

------------------------
everyone here already knows my opinion on the show

the ending though... they really missed the boat when they had them arrive 100,000 yrs ago

of course it was to be able to say that Hera was Mitochondrial eve--that skeleton that was pictured on the Nat Geo cover. guess RDM got obsessed with it and said "thats our ending!"

if they would have had them arrive 10 to 12,000 yrs ago, imo it would have been more interesting

though to get why, ppl would have to know some things that I am pretty sure most americans don't know about

that is, that time was when several things happened to man. things that are accepted academically that is (there is much more that probably happened--see LOST CIV's thread)

it would have been a great way to fictionally explain why people suddenly started to have blue and green eyes as well as things like some blood type issues, beginning of agriculture, permanent settlements,etc

 

[Joelist]

The NuBSG finale was just a mess, and yes they had them arrive way too far in the past.

 

[Overmind One]

they were following the prime directive to the point of self harm

------------------------
everyone here already knows my opinion on the show

the ending though... they really missed the boat when they had them arrive 100,000 yrs ago

of course it was to be able to say that Hera was Mitochondrial eve--that skeleton that was pictured on the Nat Geo cover. guess RDM got obsessed with it and said "thats our ending!"

if they would have had them arrive 10 to 12,000 yrs ago, imo it would have been more interesting

though to get why, ppl would have to know some things that I am pretty sure most americans don't know about

that is, that time was when several things happened to man. things that are accepted academically that is (there is much more that probably happened--see LOST CIV's thread)

it would have been a great way to fictionally explain why people suddenly started to have blue and green eyes as well as things like some blood type issues, beginning of agriculture, permanent settlements,etc

Well, with this generation that might be dangerous, because it can fill little millennial bobbleheads with fantasy info and they will believe it. There are videos on YouTube showing that most millennials could not tell you simple things like where in the country certain states are. Most of them cannot read cursive writing because they are not taught cursive writing in school anymore. I think there is way too much fantasy out there vs anything else. Even science documentaries have become full of "dramatizations"

We are IN the Idiocracy.

But I was entirely meh about NuBSG. It was visually cool, but to me it represents the first SJW show to come around.

 

[Lord Ba'al]

We are IN the Idiocracy.

Love that movie.