My Review and Rant (Caution! gets political)

[gallandro]

Wow, is all I can say…. Wow at the sheer badness that is the BG remake. This had to be some of the worst sci-fi I have seen in recent memory.

Just to give you a little background I am a fan of the original series. I loved the sweeping, epic feel of the story interspersed with some moments of family drama. BG really reminded me, in a lot of ways, of one of my favorite shows as a kid, namely Bonanza… but this time it was in space.\

Anyway, to get back on point, despite my fondness of the original show I was really ready for this re-imagining of Galactica namely due to one person… Ronald Moore. I have always loved Moore’s writing (especially on Star Trek DS9), and I was really excited at the prospects of his take on the Galactica saga. I really thought he would bring some life, and some fresh ideas to the show… Wow! Was I wrong.

After a promising opening teaser, what I sat through was one hour of complete and solid boredom. The characters were completely un-engaging and devoid of any real emotion. Of course, what Moore does to compensate for this lack of feeling is throw in some steamy sex scenes and some sexual references to make sure we know these characters care for each other (no, they really do)… gee three sex scenes (if you include 6’s scene with the Colonial diplomat) within the first 30 minutes must be a cable television record, with the exception of late-night Cinemax, or pay-per-view porn channels… good job Ron.

For one hour we get to sit through Six (whom I affectionately began calling 6 of 1, Half a Dozen of the Other… my friend of course called her 6 of 9, but I digress) telling us something amazing is going to happen… then BAM… something tepid happens. We see a couple of ships fight, then get to see a couple of explosions happen on a planet… and just like that Humanity has been defeated by the evil Cylon forces… oh, but wait you see the Cylons are not really evil, you see they were just retaliating against those evil Humans who created them… it was at this was the point that I began to see the real problems infecting this show.

Back in the day, Galactica was a larger-than-life space opera about Humanity’s struggle to survive against the evil, oppressive forces (Communists – the Cylons/Fascists – the Eastern Alliance…insert your villain here) who sought to destroy them. It was about mankind’s courage, heroism, and ability to bounce back after disaster. But what’s more important the show’s message was “there are some things worth fighting for,” namely freedom. The show almost seemed counter-culture to isolationist attitude in the U.S. (post-Vietnam).

Fast foreword to 2003 (post September 11)… Now Ron Moore and David Eick have made a number of statements how they wanted to update Galactica and use it to examine our post 9-11 experience here in the U.S. Okay fine, run with that Ron, sounds like a good idea… some very similar themes to explore… U.S. (12 Colonies) viciously attacked by the Cylons (Fascist Islamic Extremists who want to impose their will on the infidels… namely anyone, including fellow Muslims, who do not share their views). Great, sounds like a good idea.

Oh, so sorry, that’s not the same world view that Ron Moore and David Eick share… don’t you know it was our fault that Bin Laden attacked us. Sorry but Ron’s politics are clear as day, and that is the core problem with this show. I almost lost my lunch when Adama gave his big speech at the Galacitca dedication, when he suggested that we needed to examine all of our faults and determine whether we as a species deserved to live… what a bunch of clap-trap. Yeah, that’s a great motivator for the troops. This theme is further reinforced by 6’s conversations with Baltar (mankind must pay for it’s sins), and with Adama’s conversations with the Cylon on Ragnor station.

What complete and utter garbage… oh yeah 3000 U.S. citizens (not soldiers, with the exception of those 200 or so at the Pentagon) deserved to die because Bin Laden and his ilk are a bunch of whack-jobs who want to impose fundamentalist Islam on the world, and really don’t like our foreign policy regarding Israel… Well boo-hoo.

Sorry, Ron, I know you wanted the Cylons to be sympathetic, and show that we are not that far removed from them, but you don’t see too many U.S. citizens flying over to the middle east to volunteer for suicide bomber duty. Hmmm odd though, extremists have flown from all over the middle east to Iraq (and Israel) to volunteer for suicide bomber duty… hmmm that’s weird.

Yep, this is not your daddy’s Battlestar Galactica.

[Dean Martin]

Oh, so sorry, that’s not the same world view that Ron Moore and David Eick share… don’t you know it was our fault that Bin Laden attacked us.

Well there are a great many people who feel that it was years of poor politcal policies that ALLOWED people like Bin Laden to exist. As a matter of fact Bill Clinton, when given th eopportunity, did not take advantage of detaining Bin Laden.
And as everyone knows we supported Saddam Hussein during the Reagan years because the United States was at odds with Iran.

I don't meant to get too politcal here but there are some parallels.

Also I don't think snapping the neck of a baby make them look sympathetic at all if that was his intention as you say.

[Rally]

This was one of the first things that bothered me about Ron Moore's take on BSG. "We are the flawed creation..." meaning, its all our fault!

Way to motivate the troops old man, I really want to know that we've got a leader who will inspire us. Man, could anything have been more depressing than Husker's "WE SUCK!!!" speech at the ceremony in the first episode. Talk about a mood killer, thanks a lot, commander. When would you like us to go and take that hill?

Cylons (re: Al Qaeda) are the creation of the humans (re: United States), therefore we deserved what we got. We had it coming to us and we should just surrender to the murderous aims of our enemies, because we were in the wrong in the first place. All the hand wringing and gnashing of teeth are for us, we are to blame for EVERYTHING, the billions of people who died in this holocaust are OUR fault, don't blame the people who actually pulled the trigger, because if we hadn't done what we did, they wouldn't have tried to kill us; well shame on us. The poor Cylons have done nothing wrong, in fact, they did us a favor by making us have to see what our evil has wrought.

I guess its not edgy enough for viewers to see the good guys as "good guys", and the bad guys as "bad guys". Our good guys have to be flawed and immature, with personal issues clouding everything. Our heroes can't have good families, strong ties of brotherhood, fellowship and comradeship. No, they must all have issues, there must be tension between EVERYONE, because that makes for interesting drama.

I get enough depression from watching the news everyday, I don't need to see it replayed on TV.

[jeditemple]

You're right. Whatever happened to escapism on T.V.? Everything has to be reality shows and real drama.

[gallandro]

Thank you Rally couldn't have said it better myself. You know what really struck me was the stark differences, politically, in the themes of the mini series and the episode "Experiment in Terra."

In the mini we have the humans walking around moaning about how they are "paying for their sins" and we had it coming. We have the President of the Colonies actually advocate the unconditional surrender of the Colonies to the Cylons... a bunch of touchy-feely PC garbage.

Contrast that with Apollo, going before Terra's council, and advocating an aggresive stance against the Eastern Alliance... a strong statement that some things, like freedom and personal liberties, are worth fighting (and dying) for.

Two totally different views... one, very Neville Chamberlinesque... the other very Winston Churchill... sorry but I'd rather follow ol' Winston, otherwise we'd all be speaking German.

Yancy