Battlestar Galactica 2003? (1 Viewer)

[Sven Lorenz]

Well, I know several people who didn't watch the new Galactica because they thought it was just a remake of "that silly show" and who loved it after I talked them into watching the DVD (which has been released here already).

I actually bought the boxset of the original show because I had fond memories of it - sadly it turned out that I had grown up since last seeing it and I had to file it under "Knight Rider and other silly shows I used to like".

 

[Eric Paddon]

"Well, I know several people who didn't watch the new Galactica because they thought it was just a remake of "that silly show" and who loved it after I talked them into watching the DVD (which has been released here already)."

What that says about their standards of taste from my standpoint is unprintable.

"I actually bought the boxset of the original show because I had fond memories of it - sadly it turned out that I had grown up since last seeing it and I had to file it under "Knight Rider and other silly shows I used to like"."

If you wish to hold the belief now that dysfunctional characters, gratuitous sex and cliches from bad soap operas now constitutes "quality" TV be my guest.

 

[DougFND]

I love Katee Sackhoff's line about dealing with it. I'm sure she's tired of seeing her name surrounded by childish comments on every board on the internet.

 

[nolesrule]

I've never seen this many posts that basically say "anyone who disagrees with me is a mindless idiot" by one person in one thread.

Maybe SciFi should have just had Gus Van Sant do a shot-for-shot remake of the original BG pilot film.

 

[Eric Paddon]

When it comes to childish remarks, what we've had to say about Sackhoff (whose performance like the rest of her fellow thespians was lousy) pales before the disinformation and lies put out by Moore, Eick, Hammer etc. to justify their effort. Moore was the one who when he started production blew us all off by snidely suggesting our love for the original series was based on a fondness for 70s hair and special FX. If there is a poisoned well today between fans of the original and him it is entirely the one-sided creation of his part and those of his allies.

As for a "shot for shot remake" that would only have been an improvement since it at least would have stayed true to the themes Galactica is based on that has given it long term appeal. But what we wanted and fought for 25 years to get was *continuation*, and if Ron Moore wanted to do a putrid soap opera story of dysfunctional people ripping off In Harm's Way, the least he could have done was leave the name Galactica and its characters out of it.

I'll plead guilty to being intransigent on the subject, and if it comes off as rude to those who like it so be it. But as someone who saw the original series get the biggest bum rap of any sci-fi show of its era, and who was part of the fanbase that fought to correct the lies and try to get the show some long overdue respect that could provide the basis for making others realize how viable a continuation project was and is, the mere existence of Moore and his series is an offense that can not and will not ever be forgiven by those like me. Especially when the existence of something with the name "Battlestar Galactica" that is so untrue and disrespectful of the source material is then used by people as another occasion to trash the original.

So if I choose to think that those who see Moore's travesty as some wonderful example of quality television are lacking in good taste, then all I can say is maybe you should just borrow Stardoe's advice that you love so much and "deal with it." Because those like me aren't going to feel better about this until the show is given its cancellation notice and we can see work resume on a true continuation project with the original cast, or failing that a next generation idea set within the same universe and building on the unfinished storyline we have waited to see finished for too long.

In the meantime, I'll let the real Starbuck, Dirk Benedict himself, have the last word.

"Witness the “re-imagined” Battlestar Galactica. It’s bleak, miserable, despairing, angry and confused. Which is to say, it reflects, in microcosm, the complete change in the politics and mores of today’s world as opposed to the world of yesterday. The world of Lorne Greene (Adama) and Fred Astaire (Starbuck’s Poppa), and Dirk Benedict (Starbuck). I would guess Lorne is glad he’s in that Big Bonanza in the sky and well out of it. Starbuck, alas, has not been so lucky. He’s not been left to pass quietly into that trivial world of cancelled TV characters.

“Re-imagining”, they call it. “un-imagining” is more accurate. To take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that a television show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family is unimagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction. To better reflect the times of ambiguous morality in which we live, one would assume. A show in which the aliens (Cylons) are justified in their desire to destroy our civilisation. One would assume. Indeed, let us not say who are he guys and who are the bad. That is being “judgemental”. And that kind of (simplistic) thinking went out with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne and, well the original Battlestar Galactica. In the bleak and miserable, “re-imagined” world of Battlestar Galactica, things are never that simple. Maybe the Cylons are not evil and alien but in fact enlightened and evolved? Let us not judge them so harshly. Maybe it is they who deserve to live and Adama, and his human ilk who deserves to die? And what a way to go!"

Just a small sample of Dirk's dead-on analysis that can be read in full at http://forums.battlestargalacticaclu...showtopic=2864

 

[David_Blackwell]

Eric, I wtached the pilot of the original series recently (again) and I have to say I like the new mini better. The pilot of the original series is bad (the casino planet plotline is just horrible). The Lost Planet of the Gods was a huge improvement over the pilot. I didn't like War of the Gods, but I liked The Hand of God.

I will want to see the BSG mini on DVD.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

Regarding Eric - I really hope I don't sound like that when I'm talking about getting the original Star Wars movies unaltered on DVD.

I'll stop posting about this before Eric has a stroke while writing a response.


:rolleyes

 

[Eric_Connelly]

Whew...someone needs a little time with the opposite sex me thinks.

I watched the original, again, when I was 8 or 9, and yes enjoyed the show very much, but I was 9.

And I enjoyed the new mini too and look forward to the new series.

 

[Eric Paddon]

And me thinks someone else needs to improve their moral standards in life.

 

[Sven Lorenz]

 

[Kevin Hewell]

As opposed to all those award winning performances on the original show?

 

[Eric Paddon]

"Well, it is a story about genocide. Maybe they should have done something happy-go-lucky, like, I don't know, go to a casino planet immediately after the human race is nearly annhilated."

Sorry, but you're not even recalling the plot accurately. They went to a planet that was supposed to have mining resources that had fuel to help them in their long term journey for Earth (which is the product of genuine faith and not deceit and deception, unlike in Moore's), and they stumbled across the casino operation being used to entice unsuspecting humans from before the destruction in. And as far as being "happy go lucky" goes that isn't accurate either considering that in the original we actually *saw* scenes of planets under attack and battlestars being destroyed, and emotional reactions from all concerned, unlike Moore who gave us the cliched destruction free shots of mushroom clouds in the distance and had his crew read off "30 battlestars destroyed" as if they were reading a shopping list.

Dirk's point was that in the original we had characters to sympathize with because of their nobility and core principles, and how they showed why this was a race worth saving. That isn't being "happy go lucky" that's merely pointing out how if you're going to show the horror of a genocidal conflict, you do not muddy the waters by suggesting the victims earned it because they're comprised of dysfunctional dorks.

"As opposed to all those award winning performances on the original show?"

If we want to compare the acting of the original series to Moore, I'll gladly take the fine performances of Hatch, Benedict, Lorne Greene, John Colicos etc. over the wooden one-dimensional stiffness of Olmos and the prissy whinings of Sackhoff and Bamber any day of the week.

 

[Adam Barratt]

Equating someone's opinion of a science fiction television show to their personal moral standards is likely to get you into trouble very quickly, Eric.

I think you've made your opinions on the subject clear, and I strongly suggest you tone down your responses to the differing opinions expressed by others.

Adam Barratt
HTF Administrator

 

[Eric Paddon]

The moral standards comment was prompted solely by the suggestion that I was in need of spending time with the opposite sex merely because of my own personal opinion about a television show, which I felt was out of line.

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Good grief, and I thought the Star Wars DVD thread had some vitriol in it...

It seems to me that the "continuation vs. remake" debate would be better served in the Television forum, and let discussion of the R1 DVD of the remake remain in this thread.

I loved the original 1970's Galactica at the time it was broadcast here in the UK, and I enjoyed the remake sufficiently to buy the R1 DVD as and when it comes out (completist, and all that). But, it doesn't alter my 25-years-hence regard for the original series, and I have to say I find it insulting that a Forum member should label fellow Forum members' opinions about two different TV shows as wrong because they differ from his own.

 

[Eric Paddon]

What has happened in Battlestar Galactica is a unique situation regarding the kind of usual debate one might see over "orignal" vs. "remake". When this kind of debate happens you see those who will praise the original and blast the remake and that's the end of it because they still have a self-contained original that they can happily enjoy.

But Galactica is different. The mere existence of this Moore version came at the direct expense of something the fans of the original had fought so many years to try and make possible, and that means there is also with it a ton of resentment that anyone out there is enjoying something called "Battlestar Galactica" that does not embody what the original show was about, and was made according to the standards of those who hated the original.

Even worse, the existence of this series threatens any realistic hope that still remains of a true continuation being made, and that is something that also breeds well-justified resentment. That resentment can only end if a true continuation gets made, and since the Moore series is an impediment to it, then that means those of us who will never forgive Moore for making the miniseries, will never cut him any slack either in whatever follows.

To paraphrase the moderator of a Galactica list I belong to, those who like Moore's thing may complain that we're raining on their parade, but the fact is, the parade they're enjoying now came only as a result of raining on the one we'd been trying to get for 25 years and that is always going to be too bitter a pill to have to swallow.

 

[Jeff]

If the original Galactica had been a better show and had a larger following, it might have been continued in the form that it was; but it's just not the case. Maybe it's just time to move on and be glad the original series is on DVD.

 

[Eric_Connelly]

Dude! Relax!

My comment on meeting someone of the opposite sex was to point out you REALLY need to get out and find something else to do with your time.

It was a cheesy Sci Fi show from over 20 years ago. You talk about it like its way more, but thats it, a cheesy sci fi show from over 20 years ago.


Jonathan,

I'm not saying he's wrong, but he certaintly isn't right

 

[Tony J Case]

Well, I shant be touching the new series with a 20 meter cattle prod. This thing stank on ice. Even if you left the Galactica baggage behind, it was sloppy writing, disfunctional characters, horny characters getting it on in the hallways, and shamless rip-offs of much better movies and shows.

This thing was dreadful. I feel stupider for having watched it. May god have mercy on their souls for making it.

 

[Eric Paddon]

"If the original Galactica had been a better show and had a larger following, it might have been continued in the form that it was"

This kind of remark is the kind of misinformation that inevitably prompts the kind of posts I've made since none of the premises are correct.

#1-Galactica had the highest rating of any Sci-Fi show in the history of network television. It's cancellation had nothing to do with "lack of a following."

#2-The only reason why this precious Moore version got made to begin with is *because* of the following the original series had, and as has been pointed out the DeSanto-Singer continuation version was derailed by circumstances that had nothing to do with lack of a following and everything to do with studio politics.

And the show had a lack of a following, why was the old name slapped on it and misleading PR put out by Sci-Fi to suggest linkages to the original that did not exist? Evidently Moore and company had no faith in their story to succeed unless they could glom on to a property they had no use for.

$20,000 was raised by fans of the original to take out full page ads in both Variety and Cinescape magazine to demonstrate the support that still exists for a continuation movie. These will appear in September, and will hopefully get some people to take notice of the following that does exist and which is a lot bigger than for some TV shows that did get their revivals and continuation movies.