Okay... so NOW what do you all think of it?

[thomas7g]

[Dean Martin]

Well I watched the first part.

I am a die hard fan of the fist but can honestly say this was not the horror show I was expecting.
I still don't like that Starbuck is a woman.
For the rest I thought it was interestingly portrayed almost as a documentary.

Some things I liked/disliked:
Early mock ups of the original cylons.
Nice touch having one in the gift shop.

The new Cylons and their ships look cool.
I still don't care for the human Cylon and could have done without the glowing spine but I like some of the twists that were made to make this appear more plausible.
Making Baltar the fall guy rather than a traitor is an interesting plot twist.
Having the secretary of education as the newly sworn in president is interesting as well.

The original Adama would have went on the recue mission. It is interesting that this Adama was looking for a military solution.
I liked the original music during the ship tour but I didn't like there not being any real battle since thw whole thing was done with Nukes. I guess it is more realistic that way.
All in all while this was not an action packed movie I think I found it interesting to watch and liked it.
I think it helps when you go into something expecting total trash because your expectations can be met. You can only go up.

[Starbuck]

I have another 25 minutes before I get to see it!

[Trevor Angelus]

I wouldn't even use the script alone to line my ferrets' cage!

The scale modeling guys I hang out with online all seem to have liked it so far. Some seem to have forced themselves to but their general take was positive...

Mark Snyder
Seoul, Korea

[dec5]

Yum....yum......

I thought it was pretty bad!!!

[dec5]

I am in shock......this show is gritty...serious.....not at all trivial...

The realism is down right impressive.....

After watching all my old BG DVDs I have to say this version is a lot more frightening......as well as dark.....


Whoa...I want to see more....


This show has the darkness of the Matrix and and the cool hardware of Cowboy Beebop..........I am shocked and in AWE......

[JLHurley]

We're into the first two hours of it and at this point I don't actually know how I feel about it--i.e. liked it vs. don't likei t. So far I'm just...yawn...bored.

Some cool stuff (the fight scenes are, imo, interesting if not always exciting) and lots of tedious stuff (the Apollo/Adama "heart-to-heart" comes to mind--does a father/son relationship have to be filled with anger to interest an audience??? NOT!)...but so far I'm less than thrilled. We'll see if that changes tonight--I'm definitely "open" for an exiciting new BG series. This doesn't appear to be it, though.

[Stevew]

The FX are the only things that are watchable, Should have been called something else
S

[JLHurley]

Stevew- I agree; although part one pretty much bored me, I don't think it's a horrid offering--just NOT Battlestar Galactica. If Moore didn't appreciate the original series enough, he should have written his own story and stayed away from BG entirely.

Dean Martin- re: this Adama's attitude, you've gotta wonder what the hell Moore and Company would mold Commander Cain into should he be introduced in an ongoing series. (I'm personally scared to even think about it...)

[Dean Martin]

dec5 I agree. I like my Scifi served seriously. I don't mind a tad bit of humor but I don't like corny stuff.
The only thing that could be contrued as corny was the glowing spine, but that was about it.

JlHurley,

Yeah I mean I agree on certian levels. The problem here is it has been so many years since the original. Almost like Lost in Space that anything you try is going to b risky. Look at Trek, they broght it back and fans hated the motion picture and that was a continuation. But it got better.

I think that a military commander would act the way Olmos did and plan for a retalitory strike rather than a rescue op. I think once he sees that Cylons can look human that will be his nudge to get the rest of the humans out of there.

[Stevew]

Had they used Richards story with these FX...... It had no soul, 5 min of Richards trailer and you melt into the story
S

[Dean Martin]

How can you see Richards trailer?

[Trevor Angelus]

Originally posted by Dean Martin
How can you see Richards trailer?

Only at convetions, but you can view screenshots at

battlestargalacticaclub.com

[Stevew]

Thanks Trevor
I hope he can some day get permission to put it on the net

[Trevor Angelus]

Originally posted by Stevew
Thanks Trevor
I hope he can some day get permission to put it on the net

Itwill be a glorius day, I'm gonna qutoe Baltar now, spoken out through the star system for a thousand yahren!

[Stevew]

LOL
Nice quote
S

[jeditemple]

I kept waiting for Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard to show up on the flight deck and ask where their "Raptors" were.

Seriously though...

(1) Special Effects: This version of Battlestar Galactica put the "special" back into Special Effects...NOT. The herky-jerky camera shots almost made me carsick from watching. It was reminiscent of the scenes from "Attack of the Clones" and I hated it back then. Haven't they heard of slow-zoom? Case in point: When Starbuck launched from the Galactica, they could have zoomed in slowly to her ship. That would give you a point of reference for her launch point and then show where she was heading. Instead, the view jumped up her exhaust pipe. The shots with the raiders were almost as bad. I swear I saw them re-use a clip of the two raiders banking left. I honestly thought if I could freeze frame the shots, I could count the polygons on the ships and the pixels in the explosions.

(2) Ship Design: Okay, I liked the Viper designs (both old and new). I can even live with the Cylon Raiders, but did they have to rip off Star Wars again with the droid fighters? The Raptor was okay too, but looked too much like a bastardized Apache on a crane. The Basestar looked like something out of Babylon 5...you know, a ship from one of those wussier races that became extinct. It was uninspired and awkward looking, like something from "Close Encounters." I totally hated the Galactica...from top to bottom, front to back. It looked like the Borg took over the original ship and covered it with armored plates. I shudder to think that the landing bays retract into this "Trek clone" of a ship. Why do they have to retract? Uhg!!!

(3) Weapons: So, we're supposed to believe that ballistic weapons are all that the Colonials have in space? No partical beams? No lasers? How about EMP? Did anyone think about fighting ROBOTS with EMP? Did anyone consider that the ROBOTS might use EMP against the human's technology? Here's a thought -- where were Galactica's point-defense weapons when that nuke was coming her way? They had enough rounds in the museum for the Vipers, but not enough for the point defense?

(4) Pilots: So, we're supposed to believe that some of these pilots don't know what a Cylon Raider looks like? Weren't there any ARCHIVE photos or references? As for Boomer's co-pilot, what the hell was he thinking staying on Caprica and letting Baltar take his place? Was it because of his celebrity status? If the world was blowing up, you wouldn't see me giving up my seat to a silly Dr. Bashir clone.

(5) Music: There was music in this movie? Could have foolded me. Oh, wait, I remember it now...it was a Casio keyboard and a drum.

(6) Acting: Have to hand it to Olmos...he did the best he could with what he was given for Adama. You could see the transition from retiree to leader through the course of the first two hours. Mary McDonnel was pretty pathetic as Roslin (in all of her breast-grabbing glory). At least she was able to recall her character from "Independence Day" and pull off a few lines. Her "take charge" attitude is going to get on my nerves, because you know she's going to bump heads with Adama again and again. I don't like Tigh, as he looks and acts like any surly bum off the street. Starbuck didn't tick me off as much as Katee Sackhoff does in real life. Her "frack me" line was delivered with so little enthusiasm that I almost didn't catch it. She came across very butch and I think it's because Apollo is so full of Estrogen. What little interraction they had at the brig made for a very dull scene. Apollo came across as a smug little punk, with the acting talent of Casper van Dien.

Apollo: "Hey Starbuck, have you ever been mistaken for a man?"
Starbuck: "No, and you?"

(7) Costumes: It looks like someone robbed the local "Gap" store and picked up the leftovers from Babylon 5. I guess "sweats" are in style on Caprica these days and sports bras are standard issue for the military. I did like the pilot helmets, but again, it's stuff we've already seen from B5, "Wing Commander" and "Space: Above and Beyond." The classic helmets were more distinct and memorable.

I could go on and on, but I'm going to watch the 2nd half tonight and take some more notes.

[dah66]

I decided to watch. I figured that since I'm not a Nielson member that it didn't really matter one way or the other.

Here's what I thought:

It wasn't horrible, but it was painfully slow. Too much of the action took place off screen which added to the overwhelming feeling of detachment that I felt to towards the characters and their predicament.

The Cylons: Hard to judge the Cylons because you don't see them. You have number Six and two clunky CGI centurions and that's it. Their supposedly motivated by God. OK, that's weird, but what's the point besides drawing a parallel to modern terrorism? Why, after 40 years, must they now destroy humanity? Obviously the humans didn't care about them, so what was the threat that humanity presented to the Cylons? Villain's with no apparent motivation.

The Humans: Overplayed (Starbuck) and underplayed (Adama) to the point of parody and boredom.

Paying "tribute" to the original: Offensive across the board. The inclusion of the original theme during the flyby was the worst.

The effects: Very good for television but too jittery for my tastes. Also, the effects sequences seemed to be under lit, which was distracting, especially during the space battles.

Music: Scenes that needed more "punch" fell flat time and time again due to the sparseness of the score.

Dialogue: Speck the f@#k up for god sakes! I had the TV turned up and still had trouble hearing what they were mumbling. This minimalist approach to acting is a stone cold drag.

Sets: Better than what I was expecting based on the publicity shots. The extras around the command center seemed to lack direction. They looked more like volunteers answering the phone during a PBS fund raiser then seasoned military officers.

Baby killing: I suppose this was a "mercy kill" on the part of Six. In my opinion, that scene would have worked better if she would have said the line about "all being well soon" and placed the child in the carriage and walked away with a pained look on her face. This would show emotional conflict and would have foreshadowed the impending attack.

Best scene: The warrior giving up his seat for Baltar and the subsequent launch of the ship.

Worst scene: The card game - Starbuck, buck, buck. Just plain embarrassing.


Sex: I guess this was downplayed from what was in the script. Still, the scenes between Baltar and Six were not very good and the glowing spine was good for a laugh.

Costumes: Was Baltar wearing the same suit as Ford Prefect from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Those stripes would be a fashion disaster no matter what planet you were from. Seriously though, the overall look was rather bland. This was especially true of the background characters (they appeared to be wearing whatever they had on when they showed up for work).

The Cliffhanger Ending: Is there anyone over the age of eight that would actually be fooled into thinking that Apollo is dead? The end of part one did not leave me anticipating part two. Isn't that what a cliffhanger should accomplish?

Overall: This is not Battlestar Galactica. Taken as an entirely new entity it fails to ignite any passion in the viewer. I do not see this appealing to a young audience. The pace is slow and the space battles, with their wimpy sound effects, and confusing angles, fall flat. I was bored and found the extreme amount of commercials ridiculous. I may tape part two or better yet, just forgot the entire thing.

Dave

[jeditemple]

Originally posted by dah66
You have number Six and two clunky CGI centurions and that's it. Their supposedly motivated by God. OK, that's weird, but what's the point besides drawing a parallel to modern terrorism? Why, after 40 years, must they now destroy humanity? Obviously the humans didn't care about them, so what was the threat that humanity presented to the Cylons? Villain's with no apparent motivation. Dave

I wonder if the Cylons were infected by a virus? They left to find their own world, so maybe they found something that corrupted them. I do have to wonder about the references to Number Six's "religion."

I found that with the right mindset I could watch it without dwelling on how insipid and watered down they had managed to make a rich star saga.

I watched it from the point of view of a "What If" book. I tried to convince myself that BG2k3 took place IN ANOTHER DIMENSION. That way, I could simply ignore the hideously written dialog ("You make me so HOT, baby!") and the flat emotionless acting.

When I considered that these were just alternate versions of my beloved characters that had fallen into an original Star Trek plot device, it became an academic excercise.

"Colonel Tigh is white in this dimension and seems to be a short tempered indecisive dick. It's just like EVIL SPOCK!"

"In this dimension, " I say to myself, "Cylons stopped being threatening mockeries of humanity and become unrecognizable, unidentifiable, Terminator robots! It's like the episode of Lost In Space where the formerly evil Dr. Smith who had stopped being evil suddenly became a vegetable!"

With this flash of insight, and a good measure of self-delusion, I managed to watch this mini-series as the Anti - "Independance Day." That is to say, it was awful, but I could focus on the little things that were cool.

For instance, Edward James Olmos, a great, subdued actor actually was less interesting than the aformentioned CGI Cylons, however, I thought his actions as the Captain of a U.S. Navy vessel was spot on!

I honestly loved the parallels to Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks. In my opinion, the battle scenes near the end were the strongest part of the show, actually creating a haunting echo of the horrors that those events inspired. Of course, then someone opened their mouths and stupid fell out.

The original Galactica was a story about family and community from the first scene. The new Galactica is about hot chicks and military warfare. It's got some good military foundations that appeal to the mil-scifi lover in me, but nothing to appeal to the Galactica fan in me. If I wanted that, I'd read Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" again.

Luckily, the dimension that Battlestar Galactica 2003 inhabits is not mine.

Raieth

[jonahlee]

My favorite thing was how the Vipers flew in space, with the little air jets, and the big engines on back. That was pretty cool. I did hate the new vipers though, though I like the concept of the Raptor.

I hated the costumes. Absolutely hated them, nothing at all like the old costumes.

I thought Boomer is gorgeous, but nothing like the old Boomer, though I did think their scene on Caprica was one of the best in the new show.

In fact I didn't find any character to be even slightly reminiscient of the old characters. And I don't like the fact, that instead of their names it is now their callsigns. I really didn't like anyone except boomer, and maybe the flight deck guy (which I thought was a cool addition to the show. I hated Apollo completely, and Starbuck was just annoying.

As for the sets, I wasn't too big of a fan. That bridge didn't seem like the bridge of a ship as much as a command and control center. Which makes partial sense, except the Galactica is also a ship of war. I hated the vaulted ceiling passageways, the old passageways make much more sense. I did like the Caprica ship that the new President was on though.

And I did hate the reaction of everyone to the fact that the 12 colonies are pretty much destroyed. It seemed like no one really cared.

[dah66]

Jeditemple,

A virus would make sense, but I'm thinking it was more of an "evolution" that happened after they became self aware and left their creators. Once apart from humanity they would have time to reflect on their origins and start asking the questions that all sentient beings wonder about - Why are we here? Is there nothing more? What happens after death (or being deactivated)? Still, I'm thinking we are probably giving this more thought then Ron Moore did when he wrote the script. He's admitted that he's lazy as a writer and I think it shows in this production. He has some ideas that are worth exploring, but fails to live up to his overall potential.

Dave

[LadyImmortal]

And I couldn't post the rest of it...

All right, clones, you've all had your say. We know most of you are one person (that one person REALLY needs to get a life).

Now, on with the show.

First, let me say that, even though I've been calling the Mini the 'Abomination' since February or March - I decided to watch with an open mind.

I told myself 'ok, you already know this show is NOT Battlestar Galactica, has nothing to do with Battlestar Galactica and will be nothing like Battlestar Galactica. Think of it as a separate entity and go from there."

So that's what I was looking at. Just as a brand new sci-fi franchise and since I tend to like most everything sci-fi I ever watched, I decided it would be possible to like this one so long as I didn't think of it as "Battlestar Galactica."

Also, let me preface this by saying I KNOW the original had flaws. It doesn't mean that I love it less. There were things that could be fixed properly in a continuation. Plot holes filled (all the fault, btw, of ABC and not the original writers of BG). But I'm not one of those fans who thinks everything about the Original were perfect. I KNOW it wasn't perfect. So anyone who's looking to bash me as a purist can go take a jump from the stern of the Galactica.

Ok, now on with my thoughts.

(continued)

Thing I liked - there were a FEW.

1) Boomer and Hilo and the Deck Chief, whose name I don't remember. Granted, I LOVE Herb Jefferson's Boomer from the original but I actually liked the female Boomer. I really liked Hilo and I really really liked the Deck Chief. And I really liked the scene with them on Caprica - hard for them to have to make those kinds of decisions. Hilo came off as someone to really like - he showed his nobility - I didn't see that in many others...

2) I liked the scenes with Apollo and Adama. Granted, I think Apollo is a whiny wuss but I liked the scene anyway. Don't know why exactly.

3) I'm probably one of the few people who LIKED the card game scene - only because someone hit Tigh a good one...

4) The FX themselves were good... but not great... I'll have more to say in the things I didn't like.

-----------------------------
(continued)


Things I don't like:
1) EJO's flat acting in his scenes. Sorry, he sounded as exciting and emoted as much as cardboard.

2) Kara Thrace just didn't do it for me. Sure, she was tough chick. But... she overacted, she overreacted and I thought she was just plain bad.

3) Tigh. This is the character I despise the most, up to and including Baltar (whom I also hate). Tigh had NO redeeming qualities - at all. Baltar was at least a snivelling dupe with the brains of a termite but Tigh... marital problems or not, he's just a complete a$$ whom I'd like to see bite the big one in a major way.

3) The jerkiness of the fight scenes. Granted it was some documentary style whatever but it was hard to watch, it was very chaotic and I felt motion sick watching the scenes. (And I was REAAAAALLLY looking forward to the FX!!!!)

4) I won't get into the baby killing scene and the gratuitous sex - let's just say I hated it. Leave it there.

5) The 'telling' and not 'showing'. Let's face it - it would have been much more effective if they would have SHOWED us the back story instead of telling us what it was. I think that's why the whole thing seemed to plod along so much in the first (yawn) hour. Too much telling, not enough showing.

6) The 'realistic' crap like phones, phone cords, etc... let's face it, I watch Sci Fi to escape - that wasn't escaping. (And I couldn't help wonder why they didn't have cordless phones at least!).

7) Nukes. EM field. Dead Cylons galore. 'Nuff said.

8) No lasers. And darnit, I love good laser fights! Phaser fights. Electric energy fights. Call it what you will, I like 'em better than fights with bullets....

9) Doesn't it seem weird that a society that can make ftl drives can't make better weaponry???

10) Laura Roslin - the whole thing just didn't work - and what's with yet another leader who doesn't have the common sense God gave termites in charge? ::sighs:: I had hopes for her - that she'd at least be a STRONG president - stronger than people gave her credit for - but so far no go. Of course, there's tonight to go yet. She could come through in the pinch and change my opinion (I'm willing to let her at least).

Face it people, this WASN'T Battlestar Galactica. (I didn't expect it to be, not after reading the script in April or May, whenever that was). I still watched it with as much of an open mind as a fan of the original could come up with. However it was missing two glaring things that the original had in abundance - the things that set it apart and most drew me in (and still draws me in).

Faith - faith that no matter how bad things get, there's always something that can happen to make things better.

And Hope. This had no hope at all. At least not so far. I'll see how it goes tonight but there was none there.

And no heart. This show had no heart at all that I could see or find or discern. It was too much going on, too many things not connected.

I'll continue to watch tonight with hopes that some of the things that I saw missing the first night will show up.

--Rhonda

[Starbuck]

Okay, I just finished watching the last half hour that I fell asleep on last night, so now I've seen the whole thing. I watched it with the mindset that it's just another pilot episode of a new series. "Hate" is not a word I would use to describe my feelings. I thought it was......well......boring. Stardoe wasn't on the screen long enough for me to like or hate her. But Apollo was just plain awful, too whiny of a wimp for my liking. The effects stuff was alright I guess. Indifference probably describes my overall feelings about it. I will watch part 2 tonight, but I hope the pacing picks up or I'll be asleep much sooner than the last half hour! :laugh:

[repcisg]

My assessment of what we have seen so far.

In general this new Battlestar has MODEST BUDGET written all over it. By staying close to Earth like clothing, many dollars were saved. The quality of the CGI left a lot to be desired, I have seen better on Colonial Fleets and other web sites. The story so far is shallow and a bit choppy, several points simply made no sense at all. For example why the space station scene? What was its purpose? I did notice the sexual assault was cut way back, leaving the viewer the impression she was just holding him in his seat. Buy why? Why not just show a big ship whacking the station and move on. If it was just background for the intro why not show fleets of ships, showing the audience the size and scope of humanities power. Or why not show the vastness of space? Why the gratuitous violence?

Moving on to the basic premises; why a huge battle fleet? Sackoff says 30 Battlestars was 25% of the fleet, that’s more than 120 Battlestars. Who have they been fighting or competing against? In the old series, a large Battle fleet was called for because the war was still going on. But not in this case. In simple terms a large and very EXPENSIVE battle fleet is described as existing after forty years of peace. Why? The very foundation of the story does not ring true.

There was far too much gratuitous sex and the violence, the baby killing in particular was simply un necessary. I can imagine young mothers not allowing other mothers near their infants, for fear of running into a copycat. This scene needs to be cut!

As a reinvention of science fiction I think not, as a composite of other science fiction stories yes, very much so. I saw nothing new or creative here. I did see components from Star Trek Next Generation, Voyager, Babylon 5, Starship Troopers to name a few. I did see a number of similarities with the old show, it was clearly a derived work. Over all there are a number of components that will appeal to a measurable segment of the viewing audience, in a word this was typical Hollywood science fiction and not a major new work.

I would also like to point out the original was a major event on both the wide screen (in theaters) and on national network television, this new effort will never come anywhere near that level.

MacDonell and Olmos could have done better, to me their performances were shallow, under developed, flat. The command characters in Hunt for Red October were far better, even in In Harms Way old John Wayne projected a better command presence. Rymar, the director, really dropped the ball with these two fine actors. Then there is Bamber, depth of his character is near zero, presence in the show seems to be only to antagonize Adama, save the president and spend some screen time pouting.

The Starbuck character is garbage, in no way does she come off as the female equivalent of the original. Dirk’s Starbuck new where the line was and never crossed it. This new Starbuck does NOT know where the line is and does not care. I see virtually no likeable traits here. Nor do any stand out with Tigh, he is simply dumb. The thought that such a person would be an XO on a major warship simply does not wash. So much for the main characters.

Now for the minors, the new Boomer is a rookie, and is played like one. Grace Park actually makes it work, and so does the chief. His impassioned face off with Adama was one of the better moments and the chief carried his end better than Olmos, in my opinion. The chief’s performance reminded me of the old Dallas pilot where Bobby and Pam Ewing were supposed to be the main characters. JR was a minor character. But Larry Hagman did such a good job eating Pam and Bobby alive at the dinner table the studio had the series rewritten to play him as the central character.

In summery this is just another typical SciFi shoot’em up with pretty CGI space ships. A true classic story has been lowered to the level of common entertainment.

I would rate this two out of five stars.

[jeditemple]

Good points, all...

Dah66, I think the "evolution" theory makes sense.

jonahlee, I agree with you on the CIC comment. It felt like they moved some computer monitors and tables onto an ice skating rink and the lighting was terrible. Did anyone ever sit down? I think they least they could have done was have a viewscreen or huge tactical display. Instead, we got a copier/fax center at Kinko's.

[JLHurley]

This thread is packed with interesting comments/reviews. Thanks for the great read, fellow BG fans!

At the moment, I'm thinking that tonight's episode calls for a bottle of wine. Maybe I just need to get plastered to enjoy BG 2003.

[jonahlee]

Originally posted by JLHurley
At the moment, I'm thinking that tonight's episode calls for a bottle of wine. Maybe I just need to get plastered to enjoy BG 2003.

Too bad I quit drinking recently as that might help me enjoy it.

I was talking with another super geek friend of mine about it, and he loved it. He wants it to become a new series.

I personally want a more traditional Galactica series.