BSG Thread on Trek BBS

Corwwyn · April 5th, 2003, 04:22 PM

Hiyas, I don't post much here. I generally lurk and soak up all the good stuff especially Michael's wonderful updates on the goings on behind the scenes.

I am currently involved in some vibrant discussion on Battleron Mooretica over on the Trek BBS that I thought I'd post a link to which some of you folks might find interesting?

Battlestar Galactica Discussion

Micheleh · April 5th, 2003, 06:15 PM

I have to repost this little gem, hehehe.....

My rewording of the Ronald D. Moore quote above to illustrate how I read it:

Here lies a slumbering giant, its name known to many, its voice remembered by many. For a brief moment, it strode the Earth, telling tall tales of things that never were, then stumbled over a shortsighted bean counter's displeasure and was soundly thumped into a coma by a bunch of cheapskates (a fate that Star Trek very nearly shared)!

I think there's life in that old giant. But I think that just poking him with a stick and expecting him to leap to his feet and resume his journey as if no time had passed would serve only to hasten his final death throes. He needs a makeover. You think I want to improve the stories and sfx. Ha, nope. what I really want to do is to change that '70s hair. I wanted to be the one to put nipples on the batsuit, but someone beat me to that so I'm doing this equally important task instead.

So we've (by "we've" I mean "I've" but I want to be able to spread the blame when things go wrong) set out to bring the old boy back to life and give him a new look and a new outlook on life, after all, I don't want to be the only one in Hollywood who doesn't destroy a classic, and they won't let me reimage Godzilla or Rollerball, so I'm gonna do that to this show. And we're going to ask him to tell his stories again, from the beginning. Tell them again, but this time go deeper, by which I mean, shallower. What I mean is, I really like how Enterprise might be rewriting TOS history, so I figure, by not even bothering with a prequel, I can rewrite the actual events themselves, and everyone will love me for it.

See, we were young once and when the old guy spun his tales of Apollo and Starbuck, we were satisfied with clear-cut heroes and nakedly evil villains. But we're older now, well I am anyway. We've eaten a lot of popcorn over the years. We're ready for a bigger meal, maybe a few quarter-pounders and a tub of deep-fried chicken. Make the story simpler. Make the people uniformly grey.

Don't challenge us, provoke us, grab us by the throat with those massive hands and dare us to invest ourselves in flawed characters who face ambiguous choices in an imperfect world. Enterprise doesn't. Don't give us heroes to root for, give us wimps who can't think their way out of a paper bag, wimps that can't figure out in an hour what the audience has in 5 minutes. See if we'll still embrace them if they fall prey to Our amazingly cleverly written imperfections if we do say so ourselves.

Ask us to care for 90s era stereotyped caricatures instead of human beings.

"Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science-fiction television series." And if that doesn't impress you as much as it does my bank balance, well, tough. I'm gonna do it anyway.

With those words leading the way, I turned in the final draft of Battlestar Galactica. Bold words, perhaps. Arrogant even. But they accurately describe the
fast one I pulled over the suits who don't understand good SF driving this project.

Hereafter, you may grovel before my words as I shall now refer to myself as the Royal We.

We believe you can explore adult themes with adult characters and still tell a ripping good yarn. Did I tell you I always wanted to do 90210 in Space?

We believe that to portray human beings as hollywood politically correct stereotypes does not weaken them, it strengthens them. We also believe the moon landings were faked.

We believe that bringing realism to science fiction is neither contradictory nor a fool's errand. We plan on being very pleased with ourselves.

We believe that science fiction provides an opportunity to explore our own society, to provoke debate and to challenge our perceptions of ourselves and our fellow Man. We won't be seizing that opportunity however.

We believe science fiction can still be relevant. Of course ours won't be, but that's beside the point.

We believe all these things and more. We have faith in Bonnie Hammer's visionary stance, and we are sure the Farscape fans will flock to see our product...hmmm guess it's too late to change our title from BSG to Farscape, not that it would
matter, the title will have nothing to do with show in any case. We are as bereft of innovative thinking as the rest of Hollywood, so we want an existing name to trade off of.

If you agree with us, then this is the show for you! If not, if you prefer good SF, then thanks for coming, but the popcorn is in a different aisle.

Over the course of the next year, this site will bring you news and updates on the Battlestar Galactica miniseries as it is shot and produced. Our aim is to provide you with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to photos, storyboards,
early story outlines, script pages, conceptual artwork, interviews, live Webcasts from the set, even preliminary cuts of scenes. You'll get to see things that are normally kept under tight lock and key — we're going to do this in an open, inclusive way *snigger*. Let you see the process. See the mistakes and hopefully see the triumphs as well.

Stick around, it's going to be a helluva ride. (We're told the sfx should be good. We might even throw you a decent space battle.) And I'm taking the first limo out of town. Enjoy the trainwreck.

BST · April 5th, 2003, 06:55 PM

Corwwyn,

Welcome to Colonial Fleets!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for your valiant efforts, on behalf of BSG, over on the TrekBBS. ( HEY FOLKS, we have WARRIORS all across the heavens!!)

I read the entire thread and found it to be a very enjoyable debate. Plenty of point/counterpoint exchange. This type of interaction is much preferable than the cases where someone, who is "intellectually bankrupt" (thanks LSF), has to resort to personal attacks.

Your defense of BSG:TOS is inspiring and shows your true appreciation of the story. There are many here who will echo that sentiment.

You will also find, (and may have already) that there are folks in this forum whose enjoyment of sci-fi crosses over to the ST franchise. I count myself among that group, hence my handle:

(BST-BattleStarTrekker)

I'll close by again saying, Welcome!
"Don't be a stranger"!!

KTFF (Keepin' The Faith Forever),

BST

P.S.

Quote:

Your defense of BSG:TOS is inspiring and shows your true appreciation of the story. There are many here who will echo that sentiment.

I hadn't even finished this reply and "someone" proved me right!!

LordStarFyre · April 5th, 2003, 06:57 PM

Micheleh, I WISH I could find a way to sneak that in to replace the Moore Letter.

That was Excellent.

It is the Truest interpretation of Moore-Speak I have ever seen.

Micheleh · April 5th, 2003, 07:37 PM

Isn't it great? I don't know who wrote it originally- it was a quote in that thread. Do you know, Corwyn?

Corwwyn · April 5th, 2003, 08:34 PM

I wrote it.

It was my "re-imaging" of Ron's letter.

Corwwyn · April 6th, 2003, 06:08 AM

Thanks for the welcome BST, and thanks for the kind words Micheleh and LordStarFyre.

I don't know if it's already been posted but I ran across this interesting (at least to me) bit from David Eick:

Quote:

Why did you decide to "reimagine" Battlestar Galactica rather than continue where the original series left off?

When I originally approached Ron Moore with the opportunity the studio presented to me, his initial impulse seemed uniquely appropriate, and Breck Eisner, who was attached to direct until prior commitments pulled him away, agreed. There are countless examples of remakes of classic stories of every ilk and tone that have seemed to work, because new life was breathed into an iron-clad franchise — everything from Mission: Impossible to The Brady Bunch to the James Bond films. Yet there seemed to be precious few examples of "continuations" that worked — and several that failed.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought of the successful Mission:Impossible was a continuation of the original also successful MI. It was still Peter Graves running the show, a bit older, and with more modern equipment. The agents were different but that was the nature of the operation. It was set at least a decade later. I think he's grasping at straws.

He says there seemed to be precious few examples of continuations that worked. I say he seems not to have done his homework.

His James Bond example is ridiculous, since, quite apart from Star Trek, there are so many movies with successful sequels (and even strings of sequels), from Star Wars, Alien, LOTR, Back to the Future, Rambo, Rocky, Terminator, Superman, Indiana Jones, Die Hard, A Fistful of Dollars, Dirty Harry, The Pink Panther, Mad Max, Lethal Weapon...the list is enormous.

Of course, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I'll assume to parallel BSG more, he really only meant tv series that had successful tv series, tv movies or miniseries continuations.

Ok, Perry Mason, Columbo, Gilligan's Island, Eight is Enough, Spenser for Hire, The Munsters, Star Trek of course, Cheers(Frasier), Kung Fu, The Avengers(The New Avengers), Hercules(Xena - think of Xena akin to DS9 to Hercules TNG in terms of how it fits, not a comparison of quality), Buffy(Angel), Baywatch (Baywatch Hawaii), The Waltons, Hart to Hart, The Six Million Dollar Man (The Bionic Woman), etc., and the above is just off the top of my head.

That doesn't look like "precious few" to me. :frown:

Oh, some might be called spinoffs, but as with DS9, a spinoff set in the same universe must count, because if Rontica2003 was akin to such a spinoff, it would fit BSG continuity, and would allow for future possibility of established actors to enter or even just make guest appearances as their established characters! And more, it would allow the possibility of a future true sequel series without Rontica being aprocryphal to BSG.

[Edited to include Lord StarFyre in my thanks - Cor.]

Stevew · April 6th, 2003, 07:09 AM

Well put and welcome Corwwyn. As I recall Pickard was in one of the first DS9's and there were crossovers as well as being in the same time frame. If you list continuations vs remakes, the remakes loose big time
S

BST · April 6th, 2003, 07:39 AM

There was also a cameo appearance, on the premiere episode of TNG - "Encounter at Farpoint", by an "old country doctor" who was being escorted, by Data, on foot to make his travel connection with the USS Hood, because he didn't like to use the transporter!!

Another link in the chain. Of course, additional links in the chain were in "Relics" (Scotty), "Re-unification", Parts I & II (Spock), and "Generations" (Kirk, Scotty, Chekov).

Continuity. Continuity. Didn't seem to hurt THAT franchise!

(No "smoking plant vapors" over there!!)

BST

LordStarFyre · April 6th, 2003, 08:03 AM

Man, I've got to tell you, I read the posts going on over there, and it looks like you are fighting those Moore Fans almost singlehandedly! And, wiping the floor with them.

Their whines seems to be the same all around. My favorites are "You just want 70's TV and Disco Hair" and "You just want to get Richard Hatch a Job". There was also one claiming that I was an an attachment to a piece of Richard's undergarments, but we won't get into that, because whining is whining. Maybe I'd have more faith in this Moore thing if he and his zealous Followers could come up with some original whines to defend their weak positions.

Welcome Aboard!!!!!

PS: Someone Re-Posted your Letter over at the SFC bboard, Please, if you get the chance, stop on by and post your response over there too, and introduce yourself. Be careful of the Clones, Trolls, Moore Fans, and the occasional visit from the Wicked Witch of the SciFi Channel Bonnie Hammer (Yes, she posts, she's got about 3 handles over there)

peter noble · April 6th, 2003, 08:09 AM

Welcome Corwwyn. Read the posts on the link provided. I was surprised t learn that some Trekkers wouldn't mind a reimagining of ST: TOS!

Peter

kingfish · April 6th, 2003, 08:10 AM

Remember that episode of Next Generation? Well Shatner was suppossed to star in it as Kirk but refused when he heard they were going to kill off Kirk. Jameson was a play on Kirk's first name James. Finally welcome Corwwyn.

Paul

April 6th, 2003, 09:15 AM

Corwwyn, Please post a link to the cylon alliance poll over there and ask for people to vote in the poll.

http://pub99.ezboard.com/bthecylonalliance

Belloby · April 8th, 2003, 03:07 PM

Welcome aboard! You'll find this place much friendlier. Warriors quarters are to the left, put your helmet in the rack, change into your uniform and get ready for this evening's activities. This sector's been pretty quiet for the last couple of centrons so we're relaxing a little. Colonel Tigh is giving a lecture on First Series Cylon Basestars on Beta Deck at 700 centrons. A Pyramid game in Blue Squadron's quarters follows and Lt. Starbuck is playing...so bring plenty of cubits and watch him...he's tricky!

Once again, welcome to the Galactica! :