Well I'm new, registered because I wanted to talk about this reimagining.
I'll be honest and say that I think a remake (NOT a reimagining) is the best way to go, because the gap of time between the end of the old series and the start of the new one would have to be so long. That said, I do not like this script at all.
I like your ideas Michael, but to be honest I think you don't call for enough changes. I agree that the characters should be, for the most part, less flawed. All characters should have a flaw or two, but having every character be so flawed that all relationships are dysfunctional is absurd. That's a good change, but there remain these other things which annoy me:
I strongly dislike the gender reassignment of established characters. Yes, the original's division of labor would not go down too well with a modern audience, but the need for greater diversity should be met by adding characters, not changing existing ones. Casting Starbuck as female is pathetic, and putting her in charge of Boxey is just a gutless decision in my opinion. It is pandering to the public's view that the single father is always a suspect figure, it is the easy answer and I hate writers who take the easy answer. Moreover, the Apollo-Boxey relationship was an inspiring model of father-son relationships and it's lack lessens the story.
The fact that the new script is a vessel for the author's obvious luddite leanings also offends me. For one thing it's been done to death (Terminator, The Matrix, any number of cheap one-off evil robot movies). It's a knee-jerk theme that goes back to "Frankenstein". The Cylons make far more sense as the servants of an extinct race running rampant because they have no masters.
The sex and coarse language are way over the top and dysfunctional relations are omnipresent. I'm not a fundy, I honestly have no problem with any of these things in their proper context, but the script makes it clear that they exist in this work purely for purposes of making it "darker" or "grittier" rather than because they actually need to be there. The work should dictate it's requirements, not the other way around. I agree that there should be a certain amount of dysfunction involved, but the draft of the script we have makes me feel like these people deserve to be annihilated, I mean, it's obvious their society is an abject failure, they can't get along with each other in the slightest.
And does anyone else get the strong impression that the "look" of the series will be changed? I dread seeing Trek style leotards or some more real world but equally modern costuming. Part of the appeal of Battlestar was the greek/romanesque/hippy quality of the costuming... It added to the mythological/mystical/spiritual element of Battlestar that is what set it apart from the mass of science fiction. The fact that this was a people seeking its past, preserved by the spiritual is what truly drove the series for me, personally. That is utterly lacking in the script as we have seen it.
To sum up, if it were me handling the property, I would choose to remake it, yes, but stick to the plot as it was originally laid down, changing only the things absolutely necessary to make it accessible to a modern audience. I would get as many members of the original cast as possible, not to play their original roles, but to play the parts of the commanders, the older roles. They would bring continuity to the project. Have Richard Hatch play Adama and Noah Hathaway play Apollo, something like that. I know Hatch isn't really old enough looking to fit the part, it's just a for instance, something like that would preserve the sense of connection to the original.
You could follow the plot of the original as far as possible and then just continue it along. I think it would work.
But that's just me.
-Musashi
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