Ok what are the weakest Episodes on the Original series?

I would think 'The Magnificent Warriors', 'The Long Patrol' and the 'The Man with Nine Lives' are the weakest... I have to admit that despite their faults I like 'The Young Lords' and 'The Lost Warrior' . The Latter is a stock western, not great but there is nothing wrong with that fact,. The former is a fun novelty looking at Cylons on an Orgaqnic planet, despite some ropey performances. I also like 'Greetings from Earth' despite silly villains...

[peter noble]

The Magnificent Warriors is the weakest, but I still can watch it all the way through.

Yes, The Lost Warrior is Shane by any other name, and Gun On Ice Planet Zero is The Guns of Navarone, but they are both entertaining on a basic level.

I think the series is at its weakest when tackling the science in science fiction, it fails miserably and makes me cringe to tell you the truth.

I think what pulls it through, is the chemistry between the actors and the fact that you were seeing something never attempted before on that sort of scale on the small screen.

I think the only thing that's come close scale wise is the first V mini-series IMHO.

Peter

[Darth Marley]

Hello Hector & Vector! My TOS obsession.
Gotta go Greetings From Earth, if that was the right one for their appearance.

[peter noble]

Oh and Hector and Vector dancing of course!

Now you've undone years of aversion therapy Darth!

Frellnits!

Peter

[Darth Marley]

I was just at the G03 board (Ted's Place) and in some "future episodes (mini)" kind of thread suggested that they imitate Southpark and kill Hector & Vector in a different way each episode.

[braxiss]

take the celestra.......................that episode just plain bores me to tears

[The Rain]

Originally Posted by Darth Marley

I was just at the G03 board (Ted's Place) and in some "future episodes (mini)" kind of thread suggested that they imitate Southpark and kill Hector & Vector in a different way each episode.

But what would be more practical is one of those time loop episodes where the characters re-live the same 5 or 10 minutes over and over. Then we could se them get whacked 5 or 6 times in one single episode but never have to see 'em again! :laugh:

[thomas7g]

What's really sad is that Hector and Vector were played by Bobby Van And Ray Bolger, two of the most talented song and dance men still working in the industry.

if only that scene could have been done better. Add in choreography, cinematagrophy and some good directing. Its sad that that scene didn't live up to its potential.

But the whole show was severly impacted by inadequate prepare time and constant deadline pressures.

[bsg1fan1975]

My least favorite episode was "Baltar's Escape" for the reason you knew that he was never going to be able to actually pull it off!

If you want to go for least memorable I would say, "Murder on the Rising Sun". As a person without the DVDs who watches the episodes as they come on television when I'm home to see them I honestly forgot this whole episode until I reviewed it in the episode forum. No one ever talks about this episode either. It's one of the few one show episodes that don't really contribute to the overall plot. I still enjoyed watching it and I am sure will watch it again one day but it obviously just didn't have an impact.

On the one that damaged TOS the most I say "Take the Celestra". It actually is one of the only episode that puts Adama and the overall situation in a negative light. Throughout the series they pretty much gloss over the really horrible situation the majority of the population must actually be under. The Rising Star would actually be a cruel joke to most colonials in the rag tag fleet. In this one episode however the happy everyone is fighting together theme gets a punch in the face. Adama is a distant commander who didn't know what was going on in other parts of the fleet. The people would rather run away or die trying then stay another day with the fleet.

Although Starbuck had an eye to the ladies he pretty much found Cassie at a time Athena wanted some distance. His relationship with Athena is portrayed in the back story as once pretty stable and long term. At this point in the series he came to be with Cassie and it appeared sealing would be next season. This was the first episode that threw out an old love and did not portray Starbuck in a positive light.

All in all this was a dark theme. I often thought if I was a member of the rag tag fleet I would have wanted off once the Terra system was found. Adama could tell me all he wanted about a being of light telling us to move on but life in a submarine for my family for an untold time would be insane as we pass a space faring race of humans with the only hope of having the technology to fight the cylons in the future. They would have been better off if they took the Celestra and went back to Terra.

[Dawg]

Originally Posted by antelope526

If you want to go for least memorable I would say, "Murder on the Rising Sun".

[whisper]Pssst. Antelope. Over here.

"Rising Star"[//whisper]



:laugh:

I am
Dawg

Originally Posted by Dawg

[whisper]Pssst. Antelope. Over here.

"Rising Star"[//whisper]



:laugh:

I am
Dawg

My brain keeps flipping sun and star! Usually I catch it when I reread my post. At least I hit a 50% on my previous post.

I think between living in Japan as a kid, reading, and watching too much World War II my brain goes right to Rising Sun everytime. I'd edit my statement to fix it but we would lose the humor.

P.S. - Dawg: Liked your fanfic. Started out on the Rising Star!

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned "Fire in Space" yet.

Godawful, impossible physics. The "spacewalk." Muffit in the air vents. "Mushies." Adama in a coma. About the best part of this one is seeing Boomer in a crisis situation.

At least this episode has already been remade as part of the mini, and the main problem took approximately 45 seconds to resolve.

[kingfish]

The weakest ones were the ones with no Cylons. TOS began to go downhill after one of the greatest two parters War of The Gods aired. However it went out in a blaze of glory with The Hand of God.

[bsg1fan1975]

I tend to agree with you there Kingfish!

[thomas7g]

Antelope- They talked about Murder on the Rising Star on the DVD. They said their production schedule was so fast, that on a Wednesday the script consisted of one line "Starbuck gets framed for Murder" (or something like that). But the finished PRINTED story was due on Friday!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by thomas7g

Antelope- They talked about Murder on the Rising Star on the DVD. They said their production schedule was so fast, that on a Wednesday the script consisted of one line "Starbuck gets framed for Murder" (or something like that). But the finished PRINTED story was due on Friday!!!!!!!!

That's amazing!

The one thing I can't figure out about Larson and crew is how with such a good concept he didn't have in his mind or on paper at least the outline for 10 or so shows before they started production. I understand they were under pressure but it just seems strange to me you'd pitch an idea, make a pilot and not really have an idea before the conclusion of the pilot where you are going. From what I understand Lucas had Star Wars entirely mapped out before he ever did the original.

Although you may or may not like Moore there is so much already foreshadowed you have to think Moore won't be under such pressure for at least the first season. I just hope they are good episodes.

[Boomer65]

As I understand it Larson had originally proposed to do several television movies. However the network wanted a pilot movie and then a weekly television series. He may have had a few ideas, but writing an entire script, rehearsing, setting up the sets, shooting the episode, then doing it all over again for the next week – that must have been a nightmare. I read somewhere that Anne Lockhart said that they sometimes would tape their scripts to the wall and read directly off them while shooting because there wasn't enough time to memorize their lines.

Although you may or may not like Moore there is so much already foreshadowed you have to think Moore won't be under such pressure for at least the first season. I just hope they are good episodes.

He has a hellava lot of loose threads to tie up.

[Muffit]

Ok what are the weakest Episodes on the Original series?

...The episodes that WEREN'T made...

[braxiss]

Originally Posted by Muffit

...The episodes that WEREN'T made...

i can't argue with you on about that

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Muffit

...The episodes that WEREN'T made...

You are very FUNNY! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I like your sense of humour!

[Muffit]

[LadyImmortal]

I don't know that it was the worst but I absolutely HATE "Murder on the Rising Star". It has my least favorite of plotlines - ie, one of the heroes is accused of a heinous crime he didn't commit and people have to jump through hoops to get him out of it. I've only seen this particular plotline done twice that I could tolerate. I usually only watch this to see the shuttle scene with Apollo & Baltar.... And Caribdys of course....

Otherwise, I'm fairly unpicky. Sure there are some that make me scoff but I still enjoy watching 'em! (including Hector & Vector's dance, lol!).

--Rhonda

[Boomer65]

Any episode involving Muffit saving the day. Even as a kid I remember thinking that it was too “Saturday morning cartoon-like”. I mean, how many times had [Bandit or other pet] saved the day in [Johnny Quest or other kid show]? Isn’t it almost mandatory?

Actually, Muffit pretty much bugged me in general. I don’t know why – he just didn’t have the charm of R2D2 or Twiki (Buck Rogers) even though all three served pretty much the same purpose in the storyline. (I can’t explain why I liked that goofy robot with the Looney Toons voice.) Maybe it was because Muffit *looked* like a chimp in a furry robot suit or that he didn’t seem to have any real intelligence above an average pet’s. I don’t know.

[thomas7g]

Originally Posted by Boomer65

As I understand it Larson had originally proposed to do several television movies. However the network wanted a pilot movie and then a weekly television series. He may have had a few ideas, but writing an entire script, rehearsing, setting up the sets, shooting the episode, then doing it all over again for the next week – that must have been a nightmare. I read somewhere that Anne Lockhart said that they sometimes would tape their scripts to the wall and read directly off them while shooting because there wasn't enough time to memorize their lines.


He has a hellava lot of loose threads to tie up.

Boomer essentially got this right. The original plan was for a pilot movie. Then it got extended to a 7 hour miniseries. But while they were shooting the 7 hours series they were informed that ABC wanted a whole TV season. So they went directly into full production for the series without any preperation time. The whole season was a mad race to get something on the screen every Sunday night. Which is why alot of the scripts weren't fleshed out as well as they could have been. ABC paid top dollar for the very best talent infront and behind the camera, but they gave them no time.

Originally Posted by thomas7g

ABC paid top dollar for the very best talent infront and behind the camera, but they gave them no time.

And that would pretty well explain the incredibly lame science, I guess. It always bugged me that the BG universe seemed to be two-dimensional rather than three. I mean, how hard can it be to avoid flying right past a planet with a killer gun if you know the gun is there? It's not like the fleet was an army convoy that had to go through a narrow mountain pass to get to their destination. No, I'm wrong. It WAS like the fleet was an army convoy that had to go through a narrow mountain pass.

And the Fire in Space? Why did they have to use a bomb to blow a hole in the outer hull? Why not just open an airlock or two? Was it THAT hard to defeat the safety overrides? And then, when the air was gone from the burning compartment, how is it that they crawled from the airless compartment, through a ventilation shaft, into an air-filled environment, WITHOUT passing through any airlocks?

Personally, I enjoyed the show. But I bet a lot of picky SF geeks gave up on it because it was too silly. Like Buck Rogers. I can believe that a Starfighter had anti-grav technology, but how did Buck's advanced Space Shuttle manage that slow approach to its first landing at New Chicago? Space Shuttles don't got anti-grav!!! (Oh, that's right, it was only a cartoon!) Anyway, Wilma was good-looking and Twiki had that Looney Tunes personality! (No wonder. Mel Blanc did his voice, remember? Mel did the voices for Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, et al.)

They did say in the show (Gun on Ice Planet Zero) that the Galactica had to go through the direction it did because going any other direction was worse. Some things might seem hokey but if you don't want to have a three episode discussion on something that doesn't advance the plot you just have to take some large statements at face value.

You don't need wings on fighter airctaft in space...but it sure looks COOL! Sometimes that's all that counts.

Originally Posted by antelope526

They did say in the show (Gun on Ice Planet Zero) that the Galactica had to go through the direction it did because going any other direction was worse. Some things might seem hokey but if you don't want to have a three episode discussion on something that doesn't advance the plot you just have to take some large statements at face value.

And that's the bottom line. If the story works and the show is fun to watch, then thumbs up! I LIKED Buck Rogers. But there was never any doubt that it was a cartoon, not a serious SF drama. BG teetered on the line; sometimes it tried to be a serious drama, but other times it was a comic book. I like the fact that BG03 is more serious, but I'm not sure Ron Moore is heading for the exactly right balance between realism, action adventure, and soap opera.

[Sci-Fi]

According to GEO's fan ratings, the lowest rated episodes (tied) are:
The Magnificent Warriors and The Young Lords (6.44 rating).
Greetings from Earth-part 2 (6.92), Murder on the Rising Star(6.94), Fire in Space (7.11), etc.

Can view the results yourself, http://www.geos.tv/index.php/quickguide/bsg/1
and signup to vote if you want to change the ratings...lol...j/k

Here's the link to see the top 10 BSG:TOS episodes:
http://www.geos.tv/index.php/index/bsg

BTW: there are other shows/series episodes there that you can vote on too...

Hope this helps...

[Rowan]

I loved the young lords because I was about the age of the oldest girl (I could put myself in her shoes) when I watched for the first time (back then) and Starbuck was tempted by her and well if he was tempted by her then maybe he'd be tempted with me :laugh: