The Ninth Lord

These are some of the things I didn't like about the mini. I wasn't going to post it, but I'm trying to get my post count up so that I can have an avatar. No personal offence intended to anyone who may like the new show. Also, I'll probably offset this post with another one listing all the things that I did like about the mini-series.

I went in with an open mind - I was willing to watch a new interpretation of BSG and judge it on it's own merits. I did not go in already hating the show because it wasn't the original. In fact, I was excited and optimistic, and I was looking forward to seeing it, hoping that it'd be a great show.

First off - Where were the cool digital watches? I was really hoping to see an updated re-interpretation of all the nifty gadgets, especially those watches. And where were all the cool costumes? When the original show came out, there was just something about those costumes that I liked, on an instinctual or gut level. I wasn't even aware of it at the time. But I don't like the new costumes at all, and the flight suits are particularly dark and ugly. Who would want to buy one of those outfits? Where's the mythology? Where's the beauty?

Second - the entire thing was much too dark, and not just the lighting and the costumes. In general, I don't like seeing sex perverted - I like seeing it presented hand-in-hand with healthy, shared love. But then seeing it perverted and mixed up with cylons and violence. Too much. And don't even get me started on the baby thing. The whole thing was really sick and twisted, like a lot of the sci-fi channel's other programs.

I also don't like seeing the cylons as borg/shadows (talk about lack of originality), and having human form, either. Wasn't there a humanoid cylon in Galactica 1980? I always liked robots as robots, and that was one of the reasons I liked the original. It's just something I personally enjoy. No robots, less for me to be interested in. Did the sci-fi channel decide to have humanoid cylons because they couldn't afford costumes or CGI? It certainly looked like they only had 3 sets for the entire series. A civilization is destroyed, but we don't see any of it - just a cut-off news cast and a lot of talk about it.

There was much too much DS9/bad-trek/B-5 influence. The cylon base stars were basically shadow ship knock-offs. And then there's the whole "oh, we've got a cylon spy on board, who is it?" thing to deal with where the audience knows and the characters don't. Hasn't that already happened in B-5 and every imitator since? Yuch.

And the humans! I didn't like any of these people, the choices they made, or their stupid and immoral behavior. Where's the wisdom? Where's the message? Where's the hope?

And the writers should really have studied the source material.

"Starbuck" made a comment to "Apollo" about how she was responsible for Zak graduating flight school, and thus for his death. When asked why she was telling him this, she said something about the end of the world and confessing her sins. That was one of a bunch of specifically Roman Catholic influences that I noticed in the writing. But these people are supposed to be Mormons, not Catholics! It's an entirely different way of thinking, and the Colonial mythology and way of life are heavily based on (or inspired by) the Mormon culture and set of beliefs.

In fact, the entire 13th tribe back story is a retelling of the Book of Mormon (something I hope to expand on in another post), and the Galactica's quest is heavily inspired by the real-world quest that Mormon founder Joseph Smith made in a caravan of covered wagons, to eventually found Salt Lake City.

I'm not criticizing, praising, or passing judgement on Catholicism, Mormonisn, or any other religion here. In fact, I'm Catholic myself. But I think that the show should remain true to its sources and to a coherent mythology - that's one of the things that made it great and so appealing.

OK, so tell me how a guy who has a cylon implanted in his own brain is able to have a virtual conversation with it, then walk out on it, leaving its image behind in the corridor?

Overall, the only parts of the miniseries that I enjoyed were the parts of the original series that they hinted at, but then dropped. Nothing that they came up with on their own was likeable. I'm not saying that I didn't like it because it was new - I was perfectly willing to like anything new that was well done, on its own merits. I liked the original music - but it was only in one scene. The new music was sadly lacking in any emotion or inspiration, barely noticable. And an original cylon - but it was an antique and we only saw it for a couple of seconds. The new centurions might have been interesting, but we saw them for even less time, so I never got a chance to find out. We did see the ultra-cool botanical ship (which is a great idea, and a great message - that humans will take a garden with them) - but then it was left behind to get destroyed??? I take that as a direct slap at the original series, where that ship was heavily featured in many episodes. Or when "Adama" quoted the tagline from the original series - but then says that it's the beginning of the Book of the Word (now called the "ancient scriptures")? I don't buy it. And then he doesn't even believe in Earth! That's like saying Moses didn't believe in God, he just thought it would be a good story to tell the Jews, or that Thomas Jefferson didn't really believe in Democracy! After all, we can't have a character who might actually believe in something. He has to lie about it. Who are these people?