havoc315
December 16th, 2002, 05:55 AM
The original two-hour movie......
Had some positive thoughts, some negative thoughts, and some questions.
First, the perplexing question to the fan base more knowledgeable about the show than myself.....
It appears Baltar is killed by the Cylons in the movie, how was he spared??
Now the thoughts, as they relate to a possible remake/continuation.
The special effects were, while impressive for 70's television, pretty horrible for what modern audiences are used to. Essentially it was a bunch of model ships sitting there, with some poorly executed explosions. THis is one of the biggest possible pros for doing a remake.... Do for the initial BSG battle what Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbor did for D-Day and Pearl Harbor respectively. Let's really get to see and feel what it was like aboard the Galactica, in ther fighters, on the planet..... The original lacked the technology and resources to fully convey the horror. Not that it failed, but it could have been so much more.
For those who worry that the new BSG might be BSG 90210, I doubt it could be any moreso than the original. THe original already had the 90210ish love triangle between Starbuck/Athena/Cassiopia, meanwhile Apollo was romancing Serena and playing adoptive daddy to Boxey.... All very 90210.... so I would hope that the remake is less 90210ish than the original.
In the original, there is nothing in the Apollo/Starbuck relationship that requires Starbuck to be male. Unless of course you believe a male and female can't be friends (ala When Harry Met Sally). Every bit of dialogue between Apollo and Starbuck could have worked equally well if Starbuck was female.
The most important character to the original was Adama, IMHO.
The entire story moves way too fast, without time to explore or reflect. In 90 minutes the entire peace process is destroyed, their homeworlds and fleet are destroyed, they witness the devestation to their homeworld, they flee with a rag-tag fleet, and they are confronting the civilian problems and conflicts within the fleet, they talk about the mythical planet of earth...... and then they spend the last half hour with a poor Star Trek type story about evil insect aliens on Karoline. They completely gloss over the fact that many (thousands? millions?) of people were left behind on the homeworlds at the mercy of the cylons.
The best thing I can say about the original BSG, the story still felt timely and urgent, it still resonated.
SciFi has greenlit a 4-hour mini-series project, meaning about 3 hours of screentime after commercials.... That gives about an hour more than the original BSG movie.
So how to best use the 3-hour window? I know very little of RDM's plans. I know there are those here who would simply like to assume everybody already knows about the BSG origin, and would want to spend the 3 hours "catching up with old friends" (ie continuation.
Personally, I want to see the 3 hours spent doing justice to the original story. Extend the battle! Let's get a better idea of what the colonies were like both before the attack and after. Let's see more about the decision to flee the homeworlds, and those who were left behind. I enjoyed the civilian conflicts in the original BSG movie, but let's expand on it a bit more. Let's see why Baltar was so willing to betray the fleet. Perhaps let's even see the cylons' motivation.
I have no idea whether this is what the new project will look like, but it's what I would like to see.
Had some positive thoughts, some negative thoughts, and some questions.
First, the perplexing question to the fan base more knowledgeable about the show than myself.....
It appears Baltar is killed by the Cylons in the movie, how was he spared??
Now the thoughts, as they relate to a possible remake/continuation.
The special effects were, while impressive for 70's television, pretty horrible for what modern audiences are used to. Essentially it was a bunch of model ships sitting there, with some poorly executed explosions. THis is one of the biggest possible pros for doing a remake.... Do for the initial BSG battle what Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbor did for D-Day and Pearl Harbor respectively. Let's really get to see and feel what it was like aboard the Galactica, in ther fighters, on the planet..... The original lacked the technology and resources to fully convey the horror. Not that it failed, but it could have been so much more.
For those who worry that the new BSG might be BSG 90210, I doubt it could be any moreso than the original. THe original already had the 90210ish love triangle between Starbuck/Athena/Cassiopia, meanwhile Apollo was romancing Serena and playing adoptive daddy to Boxey.... All very 90210.... so I would hope that the remake is less 90210ish than the original.
In the original, there is nothing in the Apollo/Starbuck relationship that requires Starbuck to be male. Unless of course you believe a male and female can't be friends (ala When Harry Met Sally). Every bit of dialogue between Apollo and Starbuck could have worked equally well if Starbuck was female.
The most important character to the original was Adama, IMHO.
The entire story moves way too fast, without time to explore or reflect. In 90 minutes the entire peace process is destroyed, their homeworlds and fleet are destroyed, they witness the devestation to their homeworld, they flee with a rag-tag fleet, and they are confronting the civilian problems and conflicts within the fleet, they talk about the mythical planet of earth...... and then they spend the last half hour with a poor Star Trek type story about evil insect aliens on Karoline. They completely gloss over the fact that many (thousands? millions?) of people were left behind on the homeworlds at the mercy of the cylons.
The best thing I can say about the original BSG, the story still felt timely and urgent, it still resonated.
SciFi has greenlit a 4-hour mini-series project, meaning about 3 hours of screentime after commercials.... That gives about an hour more than the original BSG movie.
So how to best use the 3-hour window? I know very little of RDM's plans. I know there are those here who would simply like to assume everybody already knows about the BSG origin, and would want to spend the 3 hours "catching up with old friends" (ie continuation.
Personally, I want to see the 3 hours spent doing justice to the original story. Extend the battle! Let's get a better idea of what the colonies were like both before the attack and after. Let's see more about the decision to flee the homeworlds, and those who were left behind. I enjoyed the civilian conflicts in the original BSG movie, but let's expand on it a bit more. Let's see why Baltar was so willing to betray the fleet. Perhaps let's even see the cylons' motivation.
I have no idea whether this is what the new project will look like, but it's what I would like to see.