Battlestar Gallactica

[shipperx]

[show] So NewApollo meet OldApollo. Hee! When does Dirk Benedict get to meet his sex-changed alter-ego?[/show]

[meta commentary] Anyway, I continue to find the re-imagining of Battlestar Gallactica to have its good points. It's not as "fun" as the campy original. It's far more dour and intense. However, there's real intelligence under it and that's always a good thing. They are definitely using the old fashioned "use sci-fi to re-stage modern issues" format.

Last week I noticed the strong 9/11 connection of the series. Certainly 9/11 was an unmistakable parallel in the original mini-series with the way that the Cylons came in and took out humans in a unanticipated attack. Last week had the fighters sent to intercept a "commercial carrier" that might be carrying a bomb with orders to shoot it down. This week a question of terrorism as a political tactic. There are interesting topics at work here.

I have to think that this is the story that Ron Moore has been wanting to tell. I remember when Moore was brought on to write for Roswell. Honestly, his work on Roswell mostly stunk. I think he did the series no favors. That said, when he was brought onto Roswell I remember reading his views from having worked previously on Star Trek Voyager (He had previously worked on Star Trek DS9... which come to think of it is probably where the religious subtext in Gallactica is coming from). Anyway, back to his views on Voyager. Moore had complained about how a ship separated from the Federation would have problems with provisions, that military order would inevitably begin to break down, etc. Looking at it, Moore's "Re-imagining" of Gallactica bears a lot of resemblance to what he had been saying he had wished would have happened with Voyager. We're already getting the conflicts with provisions. We have the same sort of mixed society (military and non-military forced together). And I'm anticipating seeing the slow erosion of some of the military order as the series progresses. So I do think that Moore has a passion for this material. It's what he's wanted to write. [/meta commentary]

[show] Oh, looks like tonight's episode is about to go all Waco/Branch Dividian on us now. [/show]

[meta commentary] All in all, Battlestar Gallactica's re-imagining has been intelligently done and has good production values. The only thing that would really be helpful is a sly sense of humor as well. It's perhaps a bit too earnest and needs a bit more irony every now and then. However, I suspect that Moore isn't looking for irony anywhere in this. He's going for earnest, dramatic sci-fi. But I do think they needed to have brought in a character or two with more wit. The character who should be designated for sarcasm and wit should be Starbuck, but, she hasn't been allowed to be truly snarky as yet. Starbuck should be allowed to be snarky. (Wasn't Benedict's Starbuck snarky?)[/meta commentary]

[show] My, NewApollo, you're getting a bit big for your britches aren't you what with demanding the President step down for elections.[/show]

And the commercial for the Sci-Fi movie. I'm sorry, I don't care how Alien-esque meets Speed II you make the commerical. I'm still laughing my butt off that you're making a movie of the week out of a [Scully voice] Mexican Goat Sucker [/Scully voice]. Hell, not even X-Files could turn that into an effective villain. (Though I still love Scully's petulant "And it's not that Mexican Goat Sucker thing either." quote from...er...hmm... "Bad Blood?")

Comments

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the original BG was fun because of the cheese factor -- I mean, Lorne Greene, for God's sake. I also remember being attracted to Dirk Benedict's glossy, jokey '80s-male-model smarminess (hey -- he was the Josh Holloway of his day!). Hatch annoyed me, but whatever. I watched it sporadically, but I cannot get into this new incarnation, mostly because I loathe both Edward James Olmos and Mary McConnell (McDonnell? Whatever -- the First Lady in "Independence Day," in which she also stunk), and none of the rest of the cast does anything for me. In fact, the guy who I privately call "Bridget Jones' gay friend" just reminds me of a poor man's Julian Bashir and is therefore incredibly annoying.

I know everyone loves this updated version, but it leaves me absolutely cold.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I admit that this version has a low metabolism. However, there are enough interesting concepts at play and the writing is intelligent enough that I'm giving it time to see what percolates up. There's potential there. Sometimes things take a while to develop he necessary heat. I don't think it's got it all straight out of the box. But there's enough potential for me to give it time.