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Online usersPollWhat should the government do about ailing financial institutions? Nothing, except to back off and get out—as any Objectivist knows, intervention is treating the disease with the disease 84% Intervene judiciously—enough to avert a catastrophe that is otherwise imminent 3% Intervene massively—as it's doing 3% Nationalize the whole economy and be done with it. Bring on the USSA! 1% Something else (specify) 9% Total votes: 76
 Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
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Battlestar Galactica Submitted by Daniel Walden on Mon, 2007-03-19 21:28.
Occasionally a television show comes along that is so god damned good that one has no choice but to declare it a masterpiece. Battlestar Galactica, a sci-fi drama about the last remnants of the human race, is just that kind of show. The show begins with 12 planets settled by humans, each planet named after one of the signs of the Zodiac. When the show begins, it has been forty years since the humans signed a peace treaty with the Cylons, a race of true AI robots initially created by human scientists. The Cylons had rebelled against their creators and a ten-year war was waged until the stalemate and treaty. Then, forty years later, the Cylons return and launch a massive nuclear strike against all twelve of the human worlds. The only survivors are those in rural areas and those who were on board spaceships at the time. The only surviving military vessel is an old Battlestar (flagship) called Galactica, a remnant of the Cylon war. Galactica is accompanied by a fleet of civilian ships that carry the only remaining humans in the universe; fewer than 50,000 people remain. All this happens in a three-hour miniseries, before the start of the serial proper. The key to Galactica's success is that it treats its characters like real people. One comes to know each of them (and there are quite a few) intimately, like a good friend. In that respect it's very similar to Joss Whedon's Firefly. BSG, however, is much grander in scale. Political struggles and clashes of will between the military and the civilian government play a huge part in the series, and the drama comes from the fact that we know and, to some extent, understand all the parties involved. That said, the show has no place for cloudy ambiguities. The shining exemplar for viewers to look up to is the commander of Galactica, Commander William Adama. He is presented as a man who has seen what war with the Cylons is like and does his job superlatively, in spite of extraordinarily difficult personal circumstances. He wants to maintain civil relations with the civilian government but does not hesitate to assert himself when he believes that the government's actions endanger the fleet. He is a strong and sympathetic character who is clearly in the moral right in almost everything he does. There is no character on the show who is not flawed; indeed, many have flaws that run very deep. But (and this, I think, is part of BSG's greatness) we forgive them their occasional lapses. At the same time, we grow to understand the "bad guys," but if anything this works to deepen our disgust at them. The Cylons committed genocide out of religious fanaticism (yes, the robots got religion!) and there are no excuses made for that. The characters are both realistic and romanticized, and I think that Ayn Rand would gladly give the Commander her finest salute. I urge all my fellow SOLOists to give this show a look. The first two seasons are on DVD (Season 1 contains both the miniseries and the first season), and season 3 is currently running. You will not regret it.
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Just discovered this thread
And couldn't agree more about the new Battlestar Galactica show. I've got to add a plug for the revived Doctor Who series which (although not a complete re-imagining of the show like the new BSG) is an excellent KASS update from the original series which I loved as a kid. I recommend it, even for those who despise the shoddy effects and child-like simplicity of the original.
In recent sci-fi genre, as discussed on other threads, the Firefly/Serenity film and series is worth catching on DVD.
I would also agree with the comments regarding much underrated Logan's Run and Planet of the Apes TV series. ITV's UFO was superior to its semi-sequel Space: 1999.
But the ultimate sci-fi oriented TV show of all time, for me, is THE PRISONER. Patrick McGhooan's one-season show helped frame my Objectivist and Libertarian ideas, I loved every single show and I HIGHLY recommend it.
Ah ...
Now you're talkin'!!
Linz
Best way to find out what we're talking about is to rent the new Battlestar Galactica DVDs and wait for the bits where Apollo has his shirt off
Linz-Fart...
...it's a multi-inter-intra-super-quasi-extra-generational thing.
Very difficult to explain.
What on earth ...
... are you lot wittering on about?!
Linz-Fart
Old BSG
Old BSG was an example of precisely the WRONG way to immerse an audience in a television world. They came up with so much gobbledygook jargon in an attempt to appear "otherworldly" that it wound up looking just plain silly. They thought that if the viewers were continually hit over the head with the differences between the world of the show and the real world, they'd eventually suspend their disbelief. Any good screen director or stage performer could have disabused them of that notion in a heartbeat; the only way to get the audience to suspend disbelief is to make them see the similarities, not the differences. They will identify with the similarities and eventually forget the differences entirely. This is what good drama does. Old BSG opens up with Zak Adama dying a few minutes after the beginning. Apparently the audience is supposed to feel sympathy, but all we feel is confusion and frustration at the bad presentation of the whole thing.
Hmmm...
...let's not forget that in the wake of Star Wars (1977) a lot of movie and TV producers jumped on the science fiction/space opera bandwagon. Even Roddenberry got it wrong with the horrible, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
As I recall, Battlestar Galactica was, at that time, the most expensive one hour regular series ever, coming in at $1 million per episode. I can only imagine the money must have gone on hair stylists and shiny body armor, cos the writing was cheap.
Oh, and let's not forget...
...the Cylon War that lasted "one thousand yahren." And the one lady who was a "socialator" (whatever the hell that means) because you couldn't say "whore" on prime-time
Old Battlestar
Yep I hope it's better than the old one. I recall one scene when an enemy ship was "closing fast at 100 microns... 90 microns... 80". *snort*
The old Battlestar show
had three different spaceship explosions, which they rotated with alarming frequency. Sad.
Ross
Yeah, I think one of the reasons for the impressive effects is that they simply don't use them very often. Because it's such a character-driven show, most of the action is taking place on board Galactica or some other ship. When they have to do a dogfight out in space, they can make it count
Daniel...
...I did catch a few episodes of the new series when it was on here about two years ago. I was impressed with the effects on what is obviously a limited budget.
The NEW Battlestar Galactica...
Ahhh, didn't know they'd remade it - I'll have to give it a chance to wipe its ugly predecessor from the memory banks.
On a side note, anyone else seen the Planet of the Apes TV series? It only ran for 14 episodes before it was axed, but it enjoyed great popularity outside of the US.
The thing I loved about it was the clever story device of two highly-advanced American astronauts being stranded on a future earth that had regressed to the stone age. Each episode levered the anachronism with Burke and Verdon teaching the primitive humans, oppressed by evil gorillas, how to irrigate their fields and fight disease, dispelling their mysticism along the way. In the final episode they revealed the secret of flight by building a hang glider and taking to the skies! Now that's a show they should remake...
Ross
This is the remake. Old BSG sucked like nothing this universe has ever seen. New BSG is absolutely wonderful. Note that they totally overhauled many of the characters. The Commander Adama of the first series was a mincing little mystic, always prattling on about the Lords of Kovol and the Sacred Scrolls. The new, KASS Commander Adama is a hardcore atheist who will happily put a gun to the President's head if he believes she's endangering his ship and his men. And that's just the best of the changes they made.
The remake
of course.
Couldn't find a nice one of Apollo with his shirt off.
Wm
Islam insofar as it is directed by governments, and as a measure enforced from above by any government, is to be done away with.
Logan's Run
was my favourite sci-fi TV show with its excellent theme of man's right to live and be free. The film with the delectable Jenny Agutter was superior, but Farrah Fawcett had certain well-rounded assets too...
For my money, No. 2 sci-fi TV show was Six Million Dollar Man with Battlestar ranking a light-year's distance behind Planet of the Apes, UFO and original Star Trek re-runs.
Is this the...
...same Battlestar Galactica from the late 1970s that I know and loathe, or the newer remake?
The first one was crap! Crap, I say! It sucked chunks--big ones!
Lorne Greene in command, my ass. He should have stayed on the Ponderosa.
"Pa, can I fly the spaceship tonight?"
"No, you can't, Little Joe, it's Hoss' turn. Besides, you're too young to go chasin' Injuns--I mean, Cylons. And I'm too bowlegged. Yup."
Heroes, despite being misnamed, is a little ripper.
Blake's 7, now that was a show
Universal HD
I second this recommendation, I have said that with 'Heros' being a close second, BSG is the best show on television. It is now showing in HD on Universal HD seasons 1 and 2. If you have HD and get the channel I can't recommend it highly enough. 'Firefly' is also available and my Tivo Series 3 has dutifully recorded all of the episodes in HD for my viewing pleasure.
Wm
Islam insofar as it is directed by governments, and as a measure enforced from above by any government, is to be done away with.