Quote:
Originally posted by michaelfaries
Nope.
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“If brevity is the soul of Wit” as the Bard is oft quoted. Your “Nope” makes ‘War and Peace’ a mere footnote. Indeed that when a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus brevity is a by-product of vigor.
Ok Mr. Vigorous, Havens still has a link to
http://www.battlestargalactica.com on the right hand side of the aforementioned
http://www.filmjerk.com/nuke/article353.html One must scroll for the Languatron info.
But why bother I have taken on Ronnie’s little fairy tale.
I took a creative writing class in college, the professor’s often repeated a line that I’ll paraphrase here.” Grab the reader’s interest in the first paragraph”, Ronald D. Moore, did that as well as confuse me. With the opening of his version of Battlestar Galactica.
This version of Battlestar Galactia starts off at Ragnar Station, established after an apparently nasty war. Between humans and a human created robotic race called the Cylons. After 40 years of no contact the human officer is surprised to see two (very well updated) of the familiar Redeyed Cylon robots enter, then a very attractive young woman walks up to the now confused officer. He is looked over then asked “are you human”? The guy is puzzled, then beyond befuddled, when she puts a world class lip lock on him. Now it is our turn to be perplexed, a Cylon space ship then blows all four to oblivion. To what end, other than to create any doubt that the Cylons are ruthless? The war starts but the humans do not yet know this interesting tidbit, so it is superfluous.
What RONALD D. MOORE posted
www.filmjerk.com/nuke/article353.html
Battlestar Galactica: Call it "Naturalistic Science Fiction." Or Taking the Opera out of Space Opera
“Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science fiction television series. We take as a given the idea that the traditional space opera, with its stock characters, techno-double-talk, bumpy-headed aliens, thespian histrionics, and empty heroics has run its course and a new approach is required. That approach is to introduce realism into what has heretofore been an aggressively unrealistic genre.”
Ok lets delve into Wing Commander II, shall we?
Editorial. “Our style will avoid the now clichéd MTV fast-cutting while at the same time foregoing Star Trek's somewhat ponderous and lugubrious "master, two-shot, close-up, close-up, two-shot, back to master" pattern. If there is a model here, it would be vaguely Hitchcockian -- that is, a sense of building suspense and dramatic tension through the use of extending takes and long masters which pull the audience into the reality of the action rather than the distract through the use of ostentatious cutting patterns.”
I don’t watch MTV so I cannot go there. I don’t follow Star Trek anymore, these “somewhat ponderous and lugubrious” comments by Moore an old Trek writer and producer (& ignominious Kirk killer) must be an attempt to distance himself, from what made him? Like Hitchcock, Ron has been in a few movies, Trek’s, I have not heard if he was in this one. Unfortunately he is not Spike Lee who does this, and well.
Story. “We will eschew the usual stories about parallel universes, time-travel, mind-control, evil twins, God-like powers and all the other clichés of the genre. Our show is first and foremost a drama. It is about people. Real people that the audience can identify with and become engaged in. It is not a show about hardware or bizarre alien cultures. It is a show about us. It is an allegory for our own society; our own people and it should be immediately recognizable to any member of the audience.”
RONALD D. MOORE forgot to eschew on “bizarre alien cultures” Therein consists the most elementary definition of paradox. Why the presence of Cylons, that cannot easily be medically differentiated from humans presents a paradox some real that fills out and blocks the perspective openness which is constitutive of "reality." In addition, the man made Cylons believe in God?
Science. “Our spaceships don't make noise because there is no noise in space. Sound will be provided from sources inside the ships -- the whine of an engine audible to the pilot for instance. Our fighters are not airplanes and they will not be shackled by the conventions of WWII dogfights. The speed of light is a law and there will be no moving violations.”
RONALD D. MOORE forgot that pesky Albert Einstein, “The speed of light is a law and there will be no moving violations.” Pray tell what is this Faster Than Light (FTL) nonsense, who sneaked in that whopper in?
No doubt by the folks, that wanted to make money?
RONALD D. MOORE succumbs to Vipers blasting Cylon fighters in some off the oddest-looking dogfights in any science fiction production I have ever seen. Indeed with “missiles” those flies very slow in relationship to the fighters and leave contrails? Like slow motion AIM-9 Sidewinders without a seeker heads. Oh yes I have seen this in old Vietnam era 2.75" Hydra-70, unguided rockets behave like this, when out of control. Really he did eschewed reality, our reality. As in the U.S. Air Force is testing particle beam weapons on and in aircraft today, in the air as in NOW.
On Sound: Plus all those space ship’s made plenty of that noise thing, where SOUND cannot exist in that great big vacuum called SPACE. Remember Dave bypassing HAL 9000 in returning to the ship, no noise because sound waves need a conduit like oh say an atmosphere to do that NOISE thing! The fighters make noise; the weapons made noise, engines on fighters made noise. RONALD D. MOORE had sound, lots of sound in a TV movie where: “Our spaceships don't make noise because there is no noise in space.” Like the ‘dog’ that ate some kids homework, so maybe The Scifi Channel’s, President Bonnie Hammer made him eat this one?
Time travel: Seeing how FASTER THAN LIGHT is indeed time travel, RONALD D. MOORE chucked this one out the window that had TRUTH writ large in reality. Read Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity”.
And finally, Character. “This is perhaps, the biggest departure from the science fiction norm. We do not have "the cocky guy" "the fast-talker" "the brain" "the wacky alien sidekick" or any of the other usual characters who populate a space series. Our characters are living, breathing people with all the emotional complexity and contradictions present in quality dramas like "The West Wing" or "The Sopranos." In this way, we hope to challenge our audience in ways that other genre pieces do not. We want the audience to connect with the characters of Galactica as people. Our characters are not super-heroes. They are not an elite. They are everyday people caught up in an enormous cataclysm and trying to survive it as best they can. They are you and I.”
Poppycock!
Ok on this Peyton Place in Space: How many countries besides the Russian’s, with Naval vessels carrying Thermonuclear weapons and nuclear reactors have senior serving Officers that indulge their alcoholism on board and initiate fights with junior Officers?
Do everyday people look like Victoria’s Secret lingerie models, or have photo shoot’s done in Maxim?
Sex in the City, never had this much sex in any three episodes.
We have a "the brain", Baltar talking to # 6 who is a Cylon hologram via alien techno-babble gets him, a free get out of Holocaust pass. While leaving the desperate left on Caprica to die? Oh this #6 is his lover that helped him write the computer software the Cylons destroy billions of human’s is one of twelve model’s of the Cylons?
We do not have "the cocky guy" heaven forbid! Now we have “the cocky chick”. Complete with winning at gambling, knocking ‘em back with the other cocky boys and girls, cigar butt a smoldering, and with fists a swinging!
RONALD D. MOORE: He must feel like Casablanca’s Capt. Louis Renault’s outraged about gambling, while pocketing his winnings.
Filmjerk.com review, yes it's by Havens
