Speculating Television: Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome
Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome has an interesting history. Originally, it was pitched as a prequel series for SyFy, showing us the adventures of William "Bill" Adama when he first joins the Galactica. This gave fans of Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica something to look forward too, because while it was intensely interesting, the prequel Caprica (which chronicled the rise of the Cylons) had a lot of problems and didn't feel like BSG, and was ultimately canceled (and boy, could I talk about the reasons why). The news that Blood & Chrome was in the works was far more exciting, because it would return us to a familiar setting (Galactica), it would give us space battles (woot!), but would also explore the universe the story resides, show us the first Cylon war, and all of that good stuff. Even if you were, like me, a wee bit disappointed by the BSG finale, it was hard not to look forward to this new series.
And then it was canned, despite the pilot being filmed and scored. Then it was announced that it'd be a ten episode web-series, which for someone like me who doesn't have time for web-series, promptly made me roll my eyes. Then, finally, SyFy announced they'd air it as a movie prior to the pilot's DVD release. Well, the DVD/BluRay release is Tuesday, February 19th, and I finally got to sit down and watch Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome on my DVR. I thought I'd talk about it a bit.
The first thing that struck me was how much I missed this world. Since I've been immersed in Star Wars lately, I'd forgotten about all the little things that makes BSG different from Star Wars and Star Trek. The fighter ships are called Vipers. The transport ships are Raptors (I've always loved that). I loved seeing the Galatica itself in its prime, but I will say that despite the fact the set was a 3D rendering of the original set for the show (and I didn't know that before I watched), I was keenly aware that while looking familiar, it didn't feel familiar. Maybe it was all the lighting and lens flare. J.J. Abrams haters might think he'd gotten his hands on this franchise too, but no.
Still, seeing Bill Adama was an upstart graduate of the Academy was a lot of fun. The actor who played him was an unknown to me, but by time the movie was over, I was convinced the actor had both enough charm, humility, and cockiness to be a lead. The other supporting cast was solid too: Adama's co-pilot Coker, Galactica's Commander Nash (an actor who's also appeared in Caprica as a detective and who's currently in Continuum) were characters I'd look forward to getting to know. And there were others, of course.
I don't want to get into the details of the plot itself. It's enough to know that this was the story of Adama's very first mission, and of course, that mission went super-awry. I loved seeing more of the fleet, a real fleet and not the ragtag fleet I grew to love in the original series. I loved seeing Cylon technology, how it looked somewhat older than the tech we saw in the original series but was still unmistakably Cylon technology. And the few surprises at the end were welcome too.
As a movie/pilot, the Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome did exactly what it was supposed to do: hook me in as a viewer to want to watch more. I will say this: Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome does NOT end on any sort of cliffhanger, believe me. It has its own arc that resolves rather nicely, but it also leaves the viewer feeling that yes, you could watch more episodes with these characters. Yes, you would like to see more of the original Cylon War. If anything, watching Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome has got me wanting to pick up my Battlestar Galactica Complete Series and start a marathon this summer. My husband, despite watching the show with me, still hasn't seen the first season. So there's that.
But for anyone who didn't know if Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome would be worth it, I can safely say it is. And Amazon says it clocks in at 188 minutes (which is far longer than what I saw on my SyFy DVR, I wonder why they'd cut it so drastically? The story felt very complete to me)***, so it's definitely eligible to be nominated for the Hugo Best Dramatic Presentation: Long Form, to which I say, let's do this. You never know: maybe with enough viewers and enough capital rolling in, SyFy might develop this into a series after all. Yes, I know it's a pipe-dream, but I can still dream, can't I?
Who else has seen Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome? Did you watch the web-series or the SyFy movie? If you watched both, how do the two differ? Knowing the difference in run times makes me want to pick up the BluRay to re-watch it and see what I missed!
*** = EDIT: According to SyFy's store, actual run time for Blood & Chrome is actually 94 minutes. Which means it's still technically eligible for "Long Form" for the Hugo. Also means there wasn't any crazy cuts I need to rush out and get the DVD for!