Fun With Posters!
As Convergence approaches, I've been gettin' my geek on. One of my favoritest Intarweb toys is the Motivator poster maker, and I've been putting it to good use. Some of it's gaming related, some political, but most are devoted to the glory of Battlestar Galactica, which has a double pleasure for me - praising (and poking fun at) Ron Moore's marvelous project... and slamming the old show from the seventies.
Let me be clear - As an adolescent I adored the old Battlestar Galactica in its initial run. It was great fodder for a junior high school age geek in the seventies still reeling from Star Wars and lamenting the absence of Star Trek on TV; to my frighteningly young eyes it seemed huge and epic and ambitious and full of potential. As the season went on I had to admit, even at a young starstruck age, that much of its potential went unrealized, but at least a lot of stuff blew up.
Then it was canceled, and time went on, and many years later I stumbled across the fondly remembered series on cable and eagerly sat down to watch it...
... and was revulsed.
Watching Glen Larson's original Galactica through adult eyes was a massive disillusionment. It was nothing more or less than standard seventies-era formulaic drivel with spaceships and blasters and robots. It was small, petty, unimaginative, chauvinistic and insulting. The series that I remembered... had never existed. I still kept watching, waiting for it to grow on me on its own terms... to no avail. And so I put it away from me. It was un-fracking-watchable.
Time passed again, attempts at revival came and went, and then a remake was announced as a miniseries by the Sci-Fi Channel. The fan community started buzzing and then roaring at the rumors that it would be "re-imagined." How DARE they dream of changing any aspect of the Holy Original Series!?!?! Starbuck is supposed to be a MAN! Me? I was cautious because I though that bringing back Galactica was an interesting - but potentially very bad - idea. I wasn't sure they could do something modern without it being another formulaic cheese-fest. But I watched for the news with interest, curious about what they would do, hopeful that it wouldn't suck.
Shortly before the mini-series was broadcast, intrigued by the reports and screenshots and teasers that were coming out of the nearly finished production, I started watching the original series again. I thought that it merited another look now that it had been so long since I had last seen it, that maybe it would be pleasantly nostalgic at least.
I was wrong. If anything, it seemed even worse than I remembered from my last nausea-wracked viewing. It simply had no redeemable value whatsoever.
And then in December of 2003 I sat down to watch the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, proudly bearing the label "A Sci-fi Channel Original" (which by itself is enough to make anyone afraid), and all I asked of it was "Please don't suck."
What I got was one of the greatest things ever done in the history of television. It was one of those defining events, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Babylon 5 or Firefly, that show just how damned good television can be if somebody bothers to care enough about what they're creating. I was fracking jubilant.
And so was almost everyone else I knew who had watched.
Almost.
The self-styled "purists" were of course banging their pots and pans and screaming in self-righteous fury about the grievous wrong they had suffered. Interesting correlation - I found that most of the people who slavishly worshiped the original series also thought that David Lynch's Dune has merit. Yikes. And they would tell "But, Rick! What you need to understand is that I was young when the show was first broadcast! And it meant a lot to me!", and I would reply "Yes, that's true of me also. Have you watched the original recently? Say, in the last twenty years?"
So, to sum up, I'm an Original Series Hater. And the thing that makes me hate the original series is... the original series, all by itself. I realize that some people who run across my blog are bound to have the opposite view that I do, and that's okay. You are in no way obligated to conform to my tastes, any more than I have a similar obligation. And now everyone is prepared, I think, for what I offer my readers...
And here endeth the current crop of BSG posters. I hope you all felt whatever was most appropriate for you. Bye!
Let me be clear - As an adolescent I adored the old Battlestar Galactica in its initial run. It was great fodder for a junior high school age geek in the seventies still reeling from Star Wars and lamenting the absence of Star Trek on TV; to my frighteningly young eyes it seemed huge and epic and ambitious and full of potential. As the season went on I had to admit, even at a young starstruck age, that much of its potential went unrealized, but at least a lot of stuff blew up.
Then it was canceled, and time went on, and many years later I stumbled across the fondly remembered series on cable and eagerly sat down to watch it...
... and was revulsed.
Watching Glen Larson's original Galactica through adult eyes was a massive disillusionment. It was nothing more or less than standard seventies-era formulaic drivel with spaceships and blasters and robots. It was small, petty, unimaginative, chauvinistic and insulting. The series that I remembered... had never existed. I still kept watching, waiting for it to grow on me on its own terms... to no avail. And so I put it away from me. It was un-fracking-watchable.
Time passed again, attempts at revival came and went, and then a remake was announced as a miniseries by the Sci-Fi Channel. The fan community started buzzing and then roaring at the rumors that it would be "re-imagined." How DARE they dream of changing any aspect of the Holy Original Series!?!?! Starbuck is supposed to be a MAN! Me? I was cautious because I though that bringing back Galactica was an interesting - but potentially very bad - idea. I wasn't sure they could do something modern without it being another formulaic cheese-fest. But I watched for the news with interest, curious about what they would do, hopeful that it wouldn't suck.
Shortly before the mini-series was broadcast, intrigued by the reports and screenshots and teasers that were coming out of the nearly finished production, I started watching the original series again. I thought that it merited another look now that it had been so long since I had last seen it, that maybe it would be pleasantly nostalgic at least.
I was wrong. If anything, it seemed even worse than I remembered from my last nausea-wracked viewing. It simply had no redeemable value whatsoever.
And then in December of 2003 I sat down to watch the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, proudly bearing the label "A Sci-fi Channel Original" (which by itself is enough to make anyone afraid), and all I asked of it was "Please don't suck."
What I got was one of the greatest things ever done in the history of television. It was one of those defining events, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Babylon 5 or Firefly, that show just how damned good television can be if somebody bothers to care enough about what they're creating. I was fracking jubilant.
And so was almost everyone else I knew who had watched.
Almost.
The self-styled "purists" were of course banging their pots and pans and screaming in self-righteous fury about the grievous wrong they had suffered. Interesting correlation - I found that most of the people who slavishly worshiped the original series also thought that David Lynch's Dune has merit. Yikes. And they would tell "But, Rick! What you need to understand is that I was young when the show was first broadcast! And it meant a lot to me!", and I would reply "Yes, that's true of me also. Have you watched the original recently? Say, in the last twenty years?"
So, to sum up, I'm an Original Series Hater. And the thing that makes me hate the original series is... the original series, all by itself. I realize that some people who run across my blog are bound to have the opposite view that I do, and that's okay. You are in no way obligated to conform to my tastes, any more than I have a similar obligation. And now everyone is prepared, I think, for what I offer my readers...
And here endeth the current crop of BSG posters. I hope you all felt whatever was most appropriate for you. Bye!