[KJ]

With all due respect Eric, thats just probably YOU feeling so! And not the major majority feeling of everybody else who's an original series Galactica fan.

Special editions far as 'artistic integrity' go, and be 'bent' if such liberties are taken to either update and improve upon the original if touchups were made to them etc. If it were a matter of "general principle" as you say, then how do imagine Star Wars and Star Trek have survived and maintained their appeal for so long? Without their special editions/remastered cuts, they'd look pretty dated and out of touch much as folks try to deny it, they've reinvented themselves in various way from SE and remastered editions to spin offs, video games, merchandising etc to sustain their interests.

Battlestar Galactica as another popular/classic science fiction franchise and cult hit, doesn't have that luxury. and needs to regain its momentum by reinventing itself in this manner. Also by remastering its picture quality to HD and fixing the rough editing errors and haphazzard-ness of the editing styles of years gone by, it'll receive the necessary upgrades and keep its status within pop culture if he got these improvements. And its storylines if anything would be greatly imagined better yet by such a overhaul process or merely touching up the 'painting', metaphorically speaking!

DVD's 720p resolution compared to HD's 1080p is making even regular DVD picture quality look outdated almost. If any show is to survive, you should be for seeing that it'll survive to other forms of digital entertainment in the near future and not worry about whether or not a SE or remastering will ruin the series overall. It won't, long as the remastering process is handled by Larson and co or those that deeply care about the original series and its done properly with the right amount of due diligence put forth to it.

I love the original show, but even older shows have many inconsistencies that could be fixed with a SE or remastered effort. And Galactica has the advantage of being in a genre where that can easily happen if the support was there for it and it overall emphasized the importance of such a thing being a necessary step in keeping the old show viable as a cult classic and sustaining its interest for future generations. and making sure that HD upgrades keep the original untouched version intact as well along side remastered cuts of the episodes for the 21st century.

Lets not forget that on Blu-Ray the original Star Trek episodes are there intact, and you can flip between them using a DVD remote. Star Wars OT is on the 2007 limited edition DVD's although not remastered and without a 5.1 track (in 2.0 only?) nevertheless are present. Much as i'm for keeping the originals next to any SE, in time even the originals look dated and colourless and pale and you wonder, if it hasn't been for the SE, where exactly would the interest be in looking at the series/movie now? I remember reading in 1997 when the SW Special Editions were out, that John Dykstra wasn't in favor of Lucas' SE of Star Wars either? Don't think he's changed his opinion on that fact neither, BUT. Dykstra talented artist and special effects supervisor that he is, is but "one" voice in that opinion though. And coming from a man who bounced around from various productions back in the day, he might come across as somebody who didn't get along because of his opinions. Didn't he fall out with both Lucas at ILM and then later Larson at Apogee and leave both Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica for whatever personal reasons.

To each his own, and somebody's always going to have an opinion on something like this. But to me, if picture quality being improved upon and digital technology's ever growing etc and Battlestar Galactica and shows/movies like it are in that Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, shouldn't it be kinda prudent for them to take advantage of the technology and be "enhanced" by it, so we can still enjoy it many decades from now?! Showing such lastability is a fantastic concept nobody could've seen and envisioned when these shows and films were done 30 plus years ago.

I centainly think BG needs to go the HD/remastered route in order to survive and be quite viewable for many more years beyond the VHS/film quality it was first shot on!

KJ

P.S. Don't know about you, but i love my 5.1 Surround Sound, 2.0 pales in comparison these days and now we even have 7.1 on PC's and some advanced 'Home Cinema' systems. Yeah let the neighbours complain lol, BG would benefit greatly from this improvement in the sound department "major league" style. And wrap us up truly in the excitement of the episodes playing in such a fashion now!