<\/p>\n
Well, the new Battlestar Galactica<\/em> Oh! Oh! Hold on! I know it’s a cult classic that’s almost as big as Star Trek<\/em>. Well, more toward the Star Trek<\/em> end of the spectrum than, say, Mann & Machine<\/em>. So, you see, as a creepy, lonely uberfan, I’m allowed to say it: The But despite the flaws, like JFK, Galactica’s untimely and bizarre death (it had higher ratings than Mork and Mindy<\/em> The purpose of this drunkenly written, often last-minute column is to That was before the mini-series aired and, yes, I made some disparaging The comeback mini-series recast Starbuck as a woman, Colonel Tigh as a So now that I’ve seen it, and the first two episodes of the series, what’s my take as the cynical fanboy?<\/p>\n I love it. It’s a new cult classic in the making, though I’m hoping it I think it’s also thanks to those sales that the shows are reflecting Providing a spokesperson for the people, in the form of acting Meanwhile, the wolves are among the sheep. Not only do the Cylons look In the new series, we get a different sort of weasel. Losing him to the From the viewpoint of a rabid fan and loyal supporter of the crippled, You get: Cleavage, fun space battles, good acting, fairly tight Normal people have to wait two more months but, if you’ve got savvy,
\nseries is upon us. It starts on the Sci Fi channel in January and,
\nsince Skyone in the UK paid for the show, our cousins overseas are
\ngetting to watch it right now. Of course, unlike the rest of America, I
\nhave the internet and I’m downloading the Skyone episodes like a crack
\naddict. The common man wants to know: What is it about BG? Because,
\nhonestly, the original series sucks.<\/p>\n
\nI love it, too. I have the Cylon head DVD box set, the toy gun, a toy
\nviper, a jigsaw puzzle of Dirk Benedict, all the scripts, the
\nunofficial technical manual and controlled dreaming every night where I
\npretend to be Commander Adama.<\/p>\n
\noriginal series was lousy. I watch the episodes again and again and I
\nknow this to be true. The gaps in the story arc’s greater themes are
\npainful, the novice approach to a great socio-political sub-plot makes
\nmy teeth hurt and the final few episodes make me faint. By the way, Galactica: 1980<\/em> never happened. It’s a myth created to damage the Kerry Campaign. Not even Galactica’s harshest critics will mention it.<\/p>\n
\nwhen it was cancelled) has made it famous. It won a loyal fan base that
\npounded DVD sales through the roof and, thanks to that, facilitated a
\nrevival.<\/p>\n
\ncast light on pop culture that You Should Know About. I’m going to keep
\nit short this time because, a while ago, I wrote a loving queer-boy
\narticle about Galactica, complete with an episode guide. You can hit
\nthat around here somewhere.<\/p>\n
\nremarks. I said the mini-series had the potential to be truly painful,
\nan insult to the fans, a bastardization of the great and lofty ideas
\nthat appeared to be somewhere on the minds though not in the words of
\nthe original scriptwriters. Being a wild fan, I said all these things
\nweeks before the mini-series hit the screens.<\/p>\n
\ndrunken white man, and Boomer as an Asian girl. The Galactica got a new
\npaintjob and general redesign, the Cylons were frighteningly effective
\nand Baltar was given a conscience. Sorta. Those were some of the things
\nthat worried me. Change. Change is never good. Look to Planet of the Apes<\/em>
\nfor that lesson. I used to get excited about remakes but, after that
\nmovie, I’m gunshy. Hey, this is the Star Wars prequel generation.
\nThere’s no hope.<\/p>\n
\ngets more space to breathe than the original series. They were
\nhamstrung by arcane TV studio rules right out of the gate. Back then,
\nsci-fi always tended toward children. At least, that’s what the
\nstudio’s liked to believe. And maybe they were right since sci-fi today
\ncaters to the 20 and 30-somethings who, as children, got hooked on BG
\nand Star Wars<\/em>
\nand what have you. Nowadays, fortunately, we children have a say so in
\nratings, and DVD sales, and feedback. For the first time in TV history,
\nthe people have more power than the studios. Look to Farscape<\/em>, whose recent mini-series is thanks to the fans. Look to Firefly<\/em>,
\nwhose upcoming movie is thanks to out of control DVD sales. Look to BG,
\nwhere a revival idea is fueled by millions of collectors snatching up
\nthe box set. Doctor Who<\/em> follows suit in March. Buffy and Angel
\nhave made more off of DVD sales than the complete run of both series,
\nincluding reruns and overseas rights.<\/p>\n
\nthe popular desires. The new Galactica brings forward the characters,
\nthe social issues between the civilians in the fleet and what remains
\nof the military, and the real problems of a handful of survivors on the
\nrun. The conflict between refugees and the ruling military was a big
\nfeature when the old series started out but, after the first
\nestablishing episodes, all but vanished. We followed the lives of
\ncharacters from the ruling elite who, for the most part, weren’t really
\nstruggling with the very real horror that was surrounding them. It went
\nfrom wise crack to canned space battle stock footage back to wise crack.<\/p>\n
\nPresident Laura Roslyn, the Galactica refugees have more of a place in
\nthe series. No more are they simply the “rag tag, fugitive fleet”
\nthat’s tagging along, they have a face. We even get a death counter on
\nan erasable board. As for the military, they’re stretched thin. Adama
\nis less the spiritual warrior-priest and more the tired commander in an
\nimpossible situation.<\/p>\n
\nhuman, they have agents scattered throughout the fleet. Trust no one.
\nEspecially Baltar, the deliciously psychotic bad guy from the original
\nseries, who is now a genius scientist on the President’s personal
\nstaff, struggling with visions (real or imaginary) of our main (and
\nwell-advertised) Cylon babe. She’s sort of his spirit-guide in that
\nCylon Werewolf in London way. Baltar’s not only guilty of wiping out
\nthe human race, but those familiar with the series know that he has to
\ncross the battle lines at some point. He is both my greatest hope and
\nmy greatest worry for the new series. Baltar was one of my favorite
\nthings about the original: Skulking around the throne room and throwing
\nchildish fits whenever Adama’s name was mentioned. Wheedling and
\nbegging whenever things went south. He was the ultimate weasel. Played
\nto the hilt by the late, great John Colicos, Baltar’s often brief
\nscreentime was something to look forward to.<\/p>\n
\nhuman factor, having him struggle with his loyalties, creates a real
\ncharacter that the original Baltar never approached… Two episodes in,
\nthere’s no way to tell if that’s good or bad.<\/p>\n
\nham-fisted original series, it’s easy to say that the new series is
\nworth your time and your effort.<\/p>\n
\nscripts, a larger focus on the situation at hand, intrigue and the
\nmodern day sci-fi drama that works so well in things like Stargate<\/em> and Farscape<\/em> and the Buffyverse.<\/p>\n
\nyou know just where to go to download the episodes. Don’t miss out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,352],"tags":[291,365,403,353],"class_list":["post-2558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cult-culture","category-gsarchive","tag-battlestar-galactica","tag-bsg","tag-cult-culture","tag-gs-archive-2004-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2558"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2794,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2558\/revisions\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}