IN SPACE! (BSG)
I’ve been reposting some ficlets to Dreamwidth and AO3 the last couple of days, one Dark Angel gen, baby’s first Sky High ficlets: two featuring Warren/Layla pining and one gen fic from Principal Power’s POV. I’ve still got a pile of fics to repost whenever I have the bandwidth. Trying to work out what I was thinking when it came to formatting and titles of documents in 2006 was a challenge..
Last night, I took advantage of the fact the BBC now has Battlestar Galactica on the iPlayer and I can watch that on my telly and watched the first part of the miniseries. I’m in - I thought I would be, but I was also curious, because I come at it having read some novelisations of the original series (don’t judge), not being able to see it when it first aired, but having picked up a lot by fannish osmosis.
It grew on me. The opening was a bit !?!?, and then it dragged a wee bit as we got introduced to everyone and the set-up while knowing imminent doom was coming. Things kicked up a notch once the hammer struck, and I was very excited about the look at leadership in space, with both Roslin and Adama having had to assume it and the battle between military and civilian instincts, which I can understand, because they’ve just been attacked, but like their whole civilisation has been smashed, so how do you prioritise?
It looked great. The whole nod to the original and how and why Galacica was oldskool and non-networked helped - I had a bit of fond nostalgia at the printouts - and the space fights were kinetic and the sets impressive. The sound, not so much. I had to turn the volume up quite loud to catch most of the dialogue, which meant that the loud bits were really loud, though I loved the percussion-driven music for fight scenes.
I like most of the women. ROSLIN! Her competence! I’d follow her (even without the whole blaming my dad for my brother’s death thing). I liked Kara and Sharon - COMPETENT LADIES (in space) is a theme I ca get behind. Six I was less bothered about because of the whole robot femme fatale thing, although the additional religious fanaticism and how she/the other models tie into the theme of the technology/AI humanity had created turning against us/their masters/creators is interesting. And is she going to be the Harvey rattling around in Gaius!John’s mind?
But while it’s just nice to enjoy sci-fi that is not targeted at the 12-14 year old boy market (e.g. the intergenerational thing of those few who remember the Cylon war and the kids who know nothing of it will be interesting), the male gaze seemed prevalent. Yes, there seem to be as many female main characters as male, but there were far fewer female-female conversations and women in authority. And like what was the whole not!Six snogging the official about other than titillation, exactly? And the initial het that they set up seemed did not quite spark for me. Well, Roslin/Apollo is intriguing, tho.
Possibly my feelings for Roslin may be influenced by Mary McDonnell and Sidse Babett Knudsen not being dissimilar looking. (WOAH! I just imdbed her name and Borgen is returning in 2022!?!?!?!?!?)
The requisite ‘how it feels to watch in 2020’ comment: lots of sympathy for everyone realising the universe as they’d known it had changed drastically and having to scramble to adapt/survive. Again, this is going to play out interestingly to the military vs or co-exisiting with civilians thing. For instance the decision with the crashed ship. I rolled my eyes at Gaius (he’ll need a redemptive arc, as I could sympathise to some degree with everyone bar him; he’d be in Silicon Valley if he was around now) because the audience knows that as well as being really smart, he’s also really dumb, and I’d have thought a healer/teacher (yes Adama, that snindeness about teachers was snide)/caregiver for a ship full of traumatised kids might be better. Admittedly, that’s not thinking strategically, but I was also hard-hearted towards the lady with reading problems, because I always have been towards part-timers re glasses.
Sorry, total digression. But there’s also the military youngsters adapting to be on a war footing. And the fact that the Cylons weaon of choice is thermonuclear is chillingly within out experience. Lots of interesting and exciting threads to follow, because I know lots of people thought very highly of this show. This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/438016.html.
Last night, I took advantage of the fact the BBC now has Battlestar Galactica on the iPlayer and I can watch that on my telly and watched the first part of the miniseries. I’m in - I thought I would be, but I was also curious, because I come at it having read some novelisations of the original series (don’t judge), not being able to see it when it first aired, but having picked up a lot by fannish osmosis.
It grew on me. The opening was a bit !?!?, and then it dragged a wee bit as we got introduced to everyone and the set-up while knowing imminent doom was coming. Things kicked up a notch once the hammer struck, and I was very excited about the look at leadership in space, with both Roslin and Adama having had to assume it and the battle between military and civilian instincts, which I can understand, because they’ve just been attacked, but like their whole civilisation has been smashed, so how do you prioritise?
It looked great. The whole nod to the original and how and why Galacica was oldskool and non-networked helped - I had a bit of fond nostalgia at the printouts - and the space fights were kinetic and the sets impressive. The sound, not so much. I had to turn the volume up quite loud to catch most of the dialogue, which meant that the loud bits were really loud, though I loved the percussion-driven music for fight scenes.
I like most of the women. ROSLIN! Her competence! I’d follow her (even without the whole blaming my dad for my brother’s death thing). I liked Kara and Sharon - COMPETENT LADIES (in space) is a theme I ca get behind. Six I was less bothered about because of the whole robot femme fatale thing, although the additional religious fanaticism and how she/the other models tie into the theme of the technology/AI humanity had created turning against us/their masters/creators is interesting. And is she going to be the Harvey rattling around in Gaius!John’s mind?
But while it’s just nice to enjoy sci-fi that is not targeted at the 12-14 year old boy market (e.g. the intergenerational thing of those few who remember the Cylon war and the kids who know nothing of it will be interesting), the male gaze seemed prevalent. Yes, there seem to be as many female main characters as male, but there were far fewer female-female conversations and women in authority. And like what was the whole not!Six snogging the official about other than titillation, exactly? And the initial het that they set up seemed did not quite spark for me. Well, Roslin/Apollo is intriguing, tho.
Possibly my feelings for Roslin may be influenced by Mary McDonnell and Sidse Babett Knudsen not being dissimilar looking. (WOAH! I just imdbed her name and Borgen is returning in 2022!?!?!?!?!?)
The requisite ‘how it feels to watch in 2020’ comment: lots of sympathy for everyone realising the universe as they’d known it had changed drastically and having to scramble to adapt/survive. Again, this is going to play out interestingly to the military vs or co-exisiting with civilians thing. For instance the decision with the crashed ship. I rolled my eyes at Gaius (he’ll need a redemptive arc, as I could sympathise to some degree with everyone bar him; he’d be in Silicon Valley if he was around now) because the audience knows that as well as being really smart, he’s also really dumb, and I’d have thought a healer/teacher (yes Adama, that snindeness about teachers was snide)/caregiver for a ship full of traumatised kids might be better. Admittedly, that’s not thinking strategically, but I was also hard-hearted towards the lady with reading problems, because I always have been towards part-timers re glasses.
Sorry, total digression. But there’s also the military youngsters adapting to be on a war footing. And the fact that the Cylons weaon of choice is thermonuclear is chillingly within out experience. Lots of interesting and exciting threads to follow, because I know lots of people thought very highly of this show. This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/438016.html.