Another Remake
I’ve been writing a lot of short fluffy posts lately, so prepare for a long one, although there's nothing very personal.
Today I watched the second in Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica miniseries. Now let me first give you some info on the old 1970’s version.
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(Adapted from another site)
First airing in September 1978 on ABC, Battlestar Galactica was a special effects laden science fiction TV series that followed on the success of the motion picture Star Wars. The story of a human society in another part of the universe waging a war with a robotic foe known as the Cylons, in the beginning of the series the Cylons launch a sneak attack against the twelve human colonies and wiped out all but a handful of humans who managed to barely escape in whatever spaceships could carry them. The huge Battlestar Galactica, led by Commander Adama, leds the rag tag fleet away from the remains of the Colonies to seek refuge on a legendary and distant planet known as Earth.
The series was initially extremely popular, but budget problems and an increasingly rushed production proved too much, and the series was cancelled after a year on the air. Less than a year later, a sequel known as Galactica: 1980, ran briefly. In this series, the Colonials arrive at Earth in the year 1980 and attempt to work with humanity secretly to prepare for the imminent attack of the approaching Cylons. Aimed at a juvenile audience, the series ran for only a few episodes. Then, after numerous attempts to revive the show, a third television incarnation was aired in December 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel. More mature and dark in tone, this two-part mini-series revisited the opening storyline of the original series with some significant changes. For one, the robotic Cylons can appear as humans, and they are not simply an alien threat but were originally created by the humans of the Twelve Colonies.
~~~~~~~~~~
These “significant changes” are both what make the new version better and worse imo. Gone are the stock characters, techno-double-talk, and campiness. The new version is more gritty and realistic, however, “realistic” seems to also include sex. First of all, the first human Cylon introduced is a sexy blonde female who spends much of her screen time in low cut, curve hugging outfits. Okay, so they got their hot sexy villains, but they didn’t stop there. Cigar smoking rogue Starbuck, Apollo’s buddy, was seen on the original series as somewhat of a lovable chauvinist, but now he’s gotten a sex change. I will give them this much: the female Starbuck at least has the adventurous attitude. One could even laugh at the irony of the chauvinist now being female, but the show has dealt a double whammy. Lt. Boomer, once a black man, is now a young attractive, Korean chick. The estrogen has taken over.The problem I have is I’m not sure of the reasoning behind these changes. Was it because they liked those actresses and wanted to give them key roles, was it to sex the show up, was it because they really thought it’d make for a better plot, was it to nip any Starbuck x Apollo slash in the bud, or was it to be more PC (women’s rights, equality, etc.)? There were two other female characters in the 78' version, one who I think was a pilot, so why didn’t they just beef up their roles? I also wonder why they introduced human Cylons, ones that even bleed and apparently love or lust or whatever. Granted, it makes for a more intricate plot, because you don’t know who is the enemy and who isn’t, but was it really necessary? Finally, there’s the music. With a bigger budget that means a better soundtrack, except at times it’s almost too much, like it’s trying too hard; the airy female voices singing a trendy, ethereal quazi-Celtic tune, for instance, made me snicker, because it’s kind of overused.
However, according to one site, in an odd way the new reinvented show is more true to the original premise than the one that aired in 1978. ABC’s meddling led to poorly written scripts that resembled a planet hopping adventure similar to Star Trek. Every week, the larger-than-life heroes would find another human civilization and find a way to right a social injustice. This was a departure from the dark heart of the original premise where survival against a superior robotic enemy in a quest to find a new home on a mythical world was the truest essence of the show. Despite the high controversy in the fandom, the final cut of the miniseries was well received by many viewers, and overall it was good. Thus chances are I’ll see how the series itself is, but expect me to maintain a bit of cynicism. You never know, though; I used to not care for Stargate, and that changed. Then again, that has Richard Dean Anderson, a.k.a. MacGyver.
On an unrelated topic, there are two commercials I don’t care for: that AOL commercial with that lady talking about her kid’s first bite of real food, and that Napster commercial about “being like Mitch”. Mitch is kind of sleazy looking.
Today I watched the second in Sci Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica miniseries. Now let me first give you some info on the old 1970’s version.
~~~~~~~~~~
(Adapted from another site)
First airing in September 1978 on ABC, Battlestar Galactica was a special effects laden science fiction TV series that followed on the success of the motion picture Star Wars. The story of a human society in another part of the universe waging a war with a robotic foe known as the Cylons, in the beginning of the series the Cylons launch a sneak attack against the twelve human colonies and wiped out all but a handful of humans who managed to barely escape in whatever spaceships could carry them. The huge Battlestar Galactica, led by Commander Adama, leds the rag tag fleet away from the remains of the Colonies to seek refuge on a legendary and distant planet known as Earth.
The series was initially extremely popular, but budget problems and an increasingly rushed production proved too much, and the series was cancelled after a year on the air. Less than a year later, a sequel known as Galactica: 1980, ran briefly. In this series, the Colonials arrive at Earth in the year 1980 and attempt to work with humanity secretly to prepare for the imminent attack of the approaching Cylons. Aimed at a juvenile audience, the series ran for only a few episodes. Then, after numerous attempts to revive the show, a third television incarnation was aired in December 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel. More mature and dark in tone, this two-part mini-series revisited the opening storyline of the original series with some significant changes. For one, the robotic Cylons can appear as humans, and they are not simply an alien threat but were originally created by the humans of the Twelve Colonies.
~~~~~~~~~~
These “significant changes” are both what make the new version better and worse imo. Gone are the stock characters, techno-double-talk, and campiness. The new version is more gritty and realistic, however, “realistic” seems to also include sex. First of all, the first human Cylon introduced is a sexy blonde female who spends much of her screen time in low cut, curve hugging outfits. Okay, so they got their hot sexy villains, but they didn’t stop there. Cigar smoking rogue Starbuck, Apollo’s buddy, was seen on the original series as somewhat of a lovable chauvinist, but now he’s gotten a sex change. I will give them this much: the female Starbuck at least has the adventurous attitude. One could even laugh at the irony of the chauvinist now being female, but the show has dealt a double whammy. Lt. Boomer, once a black man, is now a young attractive, Korean chick. The estrogen has taken over.The problem I have is I’m not sure of the reasoning behind these changes. Was it because they liked those actresses and wanted to give them key roles, was it to sex the show up, was it because they really thought it’d make for a better plot, was it to nip any Starbuck x Apollo slash in the bud, or was it to be more PC (women’s rights, equality, etc.)? There were two other female characters in the 78' version, one who I think was a pilot, so why didn’t they just beef up their roles? I also wonder why they introduced human Cylons, ones that even bleed and apparently love or lust or whatever. Granted, it makes for a more intricate plot, because you don’t know who is the enemy and who isn’t, but was it really necessary? Finally, there’s the music. With a bigger budget that means a better soundtrack, except at times it’s almost too much, like it’s trying too hard; the airy female voices singing a trendy, ethereal quazi-Celtic tune, for instance, made me snicker, because it’s kind of overused.
However, according to one site, in an odd way the new reinvented show is more true to the original premise than the one that aired in 1978. ABC’s meddling led to poorly written scripts that resembled a planet hopping adventure similar to Star Trek. Every week, the larger-than-life heroes would find another human civilization and find a way to right a social injustice. This was a departure from the dark heart of the original premise where survival against a superior robotic enemy in a quest to find a new home on a mythical world was the truest essence of the show. Despite the high controversy in the fandom, the final cut of the miniseries was well received by many viewers, and overall it was good. Thus chances are I’ll see how the series itself is, but expect me to maintain a bit of cynicism. You never know, though; I used to not care for Stargate, and that changed. Then again, that has Richard Dean Anderson, a.k.a. MacGyver.
On an unrelated topic, there are two commercials I don’t care for: that AOL commercial with that lady talking about her kid’s first bite of real food, and that Napster commercial about “being like Mitch”. Mitch is kind of sleazy looking.