Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Epic...Announced! (1 Viewer)

[Chris Atkins]

Can't agree, Keith. Even if I agreed with the premise and story choices, it doesn't look like it's put together all that well.

I will watch the original, though, just to see how it is.

 

[Eric Paddon]

To me, giving it any kind of chance would betray everything I ever enjoyed and loved about Galactica and hoped for lo these many yahrens. If I wanted Galactica remade in the image of Star Trek, which I largely have no use for beyond the original series, I'd watch Star Trek. Destroying everything that was special about Galactica in her characters and philosophical underpinnings is what I can't forgive about this remake project. I am hoping so fervently that it will bomb in the ratings and that DVD sales will make those morons at Universal realize that a continuation of the original is what's needed.

 

[TonyTone]

Can one of you BG experts please explain the following--on one of the episodes (I think it was "The Magnificent Warrior" IIRC, but it's sorta irrelevant to the issue forthcoming), what's with the Viper flight stick buttons being labelled as follows, from left to right: "Stores", "Camera Angle", "Camera Tracking" (I don't remember at this very moment as to whether it was "Angle" and "Tracking", but the two right buttons definitely were labeled "Camera ", instead of the normal "Fire", "Turbo", "Im". What the hey--were some of the pilots flying simulator Vipers into battle?

 

[Eric Paddon]

I don't recall any such episode where that appeared.

 

[Jimmy M]

I kind of like the idea that back in the 70's they had the foresight to allow Viper pilots to either Fire at the enemy, Turbo their butts out of there, or Instant Message their wingmen.

Jimmy!

 

[Eric Paddon]

We never did get an explanation of what IM stood for, although pressing it enabled a viper to perform reverse thrust. Can't figure out what IM would mean in the context of that maneuver.

I'd like to see a full-fledged HTF review of this set (my deficiencies in audio knowledge hinder me from volunteering) because aside from packaging (I finally decided to place the big box, helmet and all on my shelf with the other TV sets since if I put it on the lower shelf at the far right and nothing else to the left, the display isn't as affected too bad; plus it's the only way to get a spine display saying "Battlestar Galactica" on my shelf) it is perfect.

 

[Dan Szwarc]

what's with the Viper flight stick buttons being labelled as follows, from left to right: "Stores", "Camera Angle", "Camera Tracking" (I don't remember at this very moment as to whether it was "Angle" and "Tracking", but the two right buttons definitely were labeled "Camera ", instead of the normal "Fire", "Turbo", "Im". What the hey--were some of the pilots flying simulator Vipers into battle?

Heh. Just watch the pilot for that "special stick". I noticed it for the first time in 25 years myself last week.

 

[TonyTone]

Jimmy--LOL...Instant Messaging! That's a good one...

I want to guess that "IM" stands for "Impulse"--as in impulse power?

Eric--it's there; I just for the life of me can't remember if it was "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero" episode or "The Magnificent Warriors" one--and I just watched both episodes last night (sheesh my memory is really failing me ), but I do know it was on the second disk. There is a scene where the Galactica sends out the B-team Viper pilots (what I call the backup pilots when Apollo/Starbuck/Boomer are usually indisposed on some planet or already on recon patrol) to encounter the Cylon fighter craft--there are at least two shots where they show the pilot's hands on the control yoke for a brief moment, and if you freeze the frame you can clearly see that the text on the right-most button (all three buttons for that matter, but the right-most is the most blatant since the commonly-expected label for it is the shortest of the three) is way too long to stand for "IM".

 

[paul_austin]

So ...how are the deleted scenes? Any good......im interested in knowing what was deleted from "Living Legend" and "War of the Gods" and if its good stuff.

 

[Eric Paddon]

If you haven't seen the obscure "Telemovie" versions of those episodes that aired in syndication, you'll get to see all those extra scenes (not part of the ABC broadcast) that aired there in the supplements.

Living Legend
1-After Apollo follows Sheba out of the club, their conversation continues as she goes down to her viper, in which Apollo basically puts in a good word for Cassiopeia. This cut scene explains a line later in the episode that never made sense before, when Apollo says to Sheba, "I guess we have found a weakness haven't we?"

2-Extra scene of Adama and Tigh on the bridge as the tanker mission begins.

3-Extra moment when Cain and Cassiopeia are reunited.

There are also raw outtakes in which we get to hear the real voices of the people inside the Cylon suits. Another outtake of Lloyd Bridges blowing a take.

The pilot film has the most deleted footage, over 35 minutes in all and they include the often-talked about subplots of Serina (Jane Seymour) dying of radiation poisoning. When this subplot was excised, Jane Seymour then got asked back to do the next episode "Lost Planet Of The Gods" where Serina ultimately met a different fate.

Most of the stuff for "War Of The Gods" didn't stick out with me, except for a scene of Apollo-Starbuck-Sheba returning to the Galactica and being reunited with everyone after their visit to the "Ship Of Lights." There's also an unused alternate scene of their first encounter with Count Iblis and raw footage of scenes that we saw in the episode shot in infra-red.

No TV show has ever had this much cutting room floor material salvaged and released on DVD and its magnificent.

 

[Tony Whalen]

No TV show has ever had this much cutting room floor material salvaged and released on DVD and its magnificent.

That sums that up very nicely.

I've just been AMAZED at the amount of deleted/alternate footage included on this set. It really is astounding! 35 minutes of stuff for the pilot! I just about fell outta my chair when I saw the counter on my player!

Plus that the occasional blooper is thrown in as well makes it great fun.

 

[TonyTone]

And as someone else mentioned regarding the excerpts, IMHO the funniest one so far (I've only gone through the first two discs) is the dagget "poop" scene...speaking of which, weren't there two of them--one where Muffit plops out of the Landram (or whatever you call their ATV) and you hear something which sounds like bolts hitting the ground, with the cast cracking up shortly afterwards...or was that scene supposed to imply that Muffit "fell" out of the Landram; and of course the other (and funnier of the two) where he leaves a pile of daggit "poop".

 

[Eric Paddon]

Galactica's own blooper reel has made the rounds at conventions in the past, so it's a little surprising they didn't make room for it in this set (great one of Colicos in costume saying something about property in Florida that I recall). It would also have been nice if a couple more episodes like "Living Legend" or "Hand Of God" had commentary tracks too from some of the other performers/creators like Anne Lockhart, Glen Larson etc.

But those are only trival points from my standpoint. To me the only area of semi-concern is that the Cylon helmet should have been detachable from the package at the very least. For a moment I thought of ripping it off to store the box in a normal fashion but that proved impractical. The box now rests normally on a shelf, spine displayed but I can't put anything else on the side of the helmet.

 

[TonyTone]

Waiting for you Galactica trivia buffs to explain the "Camera"-labelled flight yoke...I mean, if they could recycle shots of the regular yoke ad nauseum, why film shots using the "Camera" yoke?

 

[Randy A Salas]

Is it just me, or is Jane Seymour's voice dubbed in the first episode during the planetside scenes? Her lip movements don't always match the words, and the voice doesn't sound like hers--definitely not much of her British accent.

 

[Eric Paddon]

Which planet scenes are you talking about Randy? The ones in the Destruction sequence (where it clearly is her voice) or on Carillon (later in the movie). Either way, I never noticed any difference.

On the matter of vocal contributions to Galactica though, I should take the opportunity to provide the list of those who made memorable voice only contributions.

Imperious Leader-Patrick Macnee (the outtakes reveal that Ted Cassidy was used first before the switch to Macnee in postproduction)

Lucifer-Jonathan Harris

Spektor ("The Young Lords" episode)-Murray Matheson

 

[Randy A Salas]

Which planet scenes are you talking about Randy? The ones in the Destruction sequence (where it clearly is her voice) or on Carillon (later in the movie).

In just about all of the scenes before she boards the Galactica convoy, her lines seemed looped. In the scene where she's talking to Adama (with the angry mob) when he visits the destroyed planet, the lines seemed out of sync and her voice actually sounded different. It was probably just bad looping, but I had never really noticed it before last night's viewing.

 

[Tony Whalen]

IMHO the funniest one so far (I've only gone through the first two discs) is the dagget "poop" scene

Tony (nice name!), I couldn't agree more! My wife and I were both laughing our butts off at that!

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Listen to the commentary by Benedict,Hatch and Jeffereson the adress the looping issue saying that almost all the episodes were entirely looped

 

[Jon Bell]

To go back a few posts, regarding "IM" on the yoke, maybe it stands for "Immelman Manouver". IIR, this is a WWI dogfight move where a plane does a reverse loop so that it ends up behind the plane that it was just in front of. I think I remember them doing a similar move in the Viper.