Battlestar Galactica 2003? (1 Viewer)

Is there any news about a R1 DVD release of the Miniseries (which now should be called the Pilot)?

It's out in the UK - here's the only review I could find:

http://www.dvdlard.co.uk/content.php?id=1325

I hope the US DVD will have more extras and the longer version that one of the producers talked about in an interview.

Well since Sci Fi has issued almost all the other Mini's they've done like Dune and Taken I imagine it's just a question of When. I'm sure you'll see it before the series debut's to try to bolster interest. I'll pick it up I kinda Liked it...

I've bought the UK disc and the reviewer was wrong.
The picture quality is pretty bad - it's grainy, soft and has a lot of edge enhancemant.

The Making Of is actually very good - it is promotional but it includes interviews with most of the actors, writers and producers - there's even an interview with Richard Hatch, but he only talks about the old series.

The best moment in the Making Of is the beginning of the interview with the actress who plays Starbuck:

"Hi, my name is Katee Sackhoff and I play Starbuck. DEAL WITH IT!"

I second that on the video quality -- it's not particularly sharp. Thanks, Universal!

On the other hand, the disc is cheap, anamrophic, and available, so I'm not complaining too hard.

I enjoyed the darkness and paranoia of this version and am looking forward to the series.

"The best moment in the Making Of is the beginning of the interview with the actress who plays Starbuck:

"Hi, my name is Katee Sackhoff and I play Starbuck. DEAL WITH IT!""

A moment that earned her my eternal hatred.

I love it. Not mad about the remake, but good for her.

Actually that particular making of set an all time record for egomania and running down of the source material, which in large part explains the animosities that exist between those who made the miniseries and the fans of the original. The total in-your-face disrespect they have for the original which that remark of Sackhoff's typifies.

I'd agree with you 100% if you were talking about Galactica 1980! Now *that* was an abomination that betrayed every last charming aspect of the original show. The new Galactica mini-series was infinitely better than Galactica 1980!

Personally, I did not expect or even *want* a verbatim rehash of the original series. It had it's run. We enjoyed it. Why make the exact same show again? The mini-series showed some imagination and reworked the original into something recognizable, but fresh. Not everything worked, but on the whole it was a good pilot for what will hopefully be a good series. Besides, how good does it really have to be in order to compete with Enterprise?

"Why make the exact same show again?"

We were weeks away from getting a bona-fide *continuation* which did justice to the whole "next generation" concept. But 9/11 alas and the departure of Bryan Singer killed that whole project.

The only thing I want to see is a continuation set in the next generation, and one that maintains the values and core philosophy of Galactica, which this miniseries with its dysfunctional characters and obsession with sex while ripping off story elements from bad movies like "In Harm's Way" most assuredly did not.

In the review which I linked to in my first post gives a comparison between the old and the new show that I agree 100% with: The old show is like Adam West's Batman - the new show like Michael Keaton's.

I liked the old show when I was a kid - when I caught some reruns a while back I was a little embarrassed that I ever liked something THAT bad.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=1281

The R1 version is coming.

It's going to have a commentary, deleted scenes and a documentary.

DavisDVD is reporting that it's going to be 'uncut' with a running time of 185 minutes.

http://www.davisdvd.com/news/tv.html

If I remember correctly it was twice 88 minutes on TV - so it's going to have at least nine additional minutes - even more if they show it in one piece and cut the end credits of episode one, the opening credits of episode two and the 'Previously on' bit.

Wrong, Sven. The original was a classic work of sci-fi with strong characters, strong stories and it had as good a ratio of great episodes to clunkers as Star Trek did. The key difference is that Star Trek was a formula series which meant stagnant character growth throughout its entire run whereas Galactica gave us the first genuine case of story arc development as well as advancing the characters over what they were like at the outset.

The Ron Moore travesty is nothing more than a ripoff of bad Sci-Fi cliches that Galactica had the guts to avoid, as well as a ripoff of a bad movie like "In Harms Way", and now having gone out of his way to trash the original series and offend all its fans, Ron Moore, having suddenly discovered he is incapable of doing anything original with this woeful property, has now resorted to gimmicks to try and appease the original fans like casting Richard Hatch in a couple episodes (and not surprisingly get him to mute the criticism he engage in of Moore's efforts before the miniseries aired) and now vowing to remake a number of classic episodes (guess TOS wasn't so bad after all if it's now his lifeline for plots!).

The real difference between TOS and Moore's fake version isn't the difference between Adam West and Michael Keaton (which wasn't that great a movie to begin with), it's the difference between Classic Coke and New Coke. The former satisfies while the remake is tasteless junk that needed to slap the name of a classic on it to justify the existence it never should have had.

Don't both basically taste like battery acid...

I still marvel at the ability of anyone who was a "fan" of the original to see anything redeeming in Ron Moore's version.

I was a fan of the original when I was twelve. Now, it's just as Sven said. When I watch it now I see how incredibly cheesy it was. I'll still watch it for nostalgia and the camp value but I prefer the new version now that I'm an adult.

I don't know what Eric is talking about. I thought the Battlestar miniseries was awesome. I was really impressed with the acting and dramatic tone about it. It wasn't just all out action. I thought it was better than any of the pilots from Star Trek. Anyway, I've seen it twice and I can't wait for the DVD and the upcoming TV series.

Jeff

Considering that the original's enduring popularity with its fanbase has nothing to do with "cheesiness" and everything to do with the solid storytelling, epic premise and the ability of Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, Lorne Greene, Herb Jefferson, Anne Lockhart etc. to create likable characters easy to connect with, I think the argument that the original can only be enjoyed through a child's perspective is very silly, not to mention a demeaning insult to those of us who stay fans of the show as an adult even as things we might have liked as a child are consigned to the yesteryear bin.

Of course if cliches about dysfunctional families, recycled secularism and gratutitous sex floats your boat instead, then Moore's fake version is perfect.

In my experience, the thing that grates most upon the nerves of original fans of BG is that Moore and company choose to use the same name for the 2003 story they told.

Yes, there are supposed to be similarities, but if you call the ship something else and call the Cylons something else and change the names of the characters, well now you have a completely new story that's "in the vein of the old 80's BG series, but presented in an entirely new way".

You see, Moore - who I respect in all other ways expect for this one - could have chosen to put his story into a completely different universe, and happily told the press that he was inspired by Battlestar Galactica, but chose to give the idea a different twist (or perhaps it's that it's a number of differnet twists).

To take the property and re-do it this way dashes the hopes and dreams of the fans - like me - who for years nursed a (perhaps unreasonable) scenario that BG would experience a ST:TNG-ian "rebirth" and pick up where the story left off oh so many years ago.

Several people had ideas on how to make that happen (Richard Hatch, of course...but I also heard that Tom DeSanto wanted a crack at it, among others). But Moore's outbidding for the property, just to take his story and roll it up into that particular title, just hit a wrong nerve with die-hard fans of the classic original.

My purchase of the box set of the complete epic original series reminded me just how enjoyable this was, and how the people behind the show - both in front of and behind the cameras - put forth great effort to make it so solid. Look at how it's endured through the years...that's no accident.

And yet some of us are indeed capable of this amazing feat.