Where Cylons Failed, Ron Moore and David Eick Succeeded:  The Deconstruction and Subversion of Battlestar Galactica (1978)

Introduction

Skip the introduction.  We all know what happened.  Ron Moore and David Eick “re-imagined” a series originally aired in 1978.

Why did Moore and Eick do what they did?

It wasn’t for love or respect for Battlestar ( Read more... )

"S. Elizabeth Bird critiqued this definitively, really, in her recent book on audiences for Routledge - pointing out that ‘cult’ and ‘edgy’ TV was getting lots of academic attention (and we could elaborate on this to suggest that fans of these sorts of shows also get more academic attention… plus they just-so-happen to share levels of cultural ( Read more... )

"This character does have a name, by the way. While we always call Six, Number Six is how she's referred to in the scripts. This character is called Gina. And Gina comes out of the fact that there are certain- (laughs) I love this- there are certain people out there in the fan- in the fan community, and I know who you are, that refer to the show as ( Read more... )

Vanity publishing at its worst.

( Starbuck and friends )

The Sci-Fi Channel’s Flash Gordon is another provocative and insightful rereading of the source matter in the manner of Battlestar Galactica.

Instead of the simplistic binary oppositions of good and evil as previously embodied by Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless, this production has brought the characters down to Earth by portraying them as ( Read more... )

"On the other hand you can rarely do Shakespeare in completely modern dress because that limits the imagination.  Basically the audience is saying 'Why does he look like that, and yet talk like that?'" - Peter Hall, Managing Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company

Source: 
"Avoiding a Method"
Hall,Peter
Theatre Arts, August-September 1963, Vol. XLVII ( Read more... )

"As I said, there are always people willing to endure the most dismal boredom if it enables them to boast of superior perception." - Ben Hecht

Source: 
"Audiences are Too Acquiescent"
Hecht, Ben
Theatre Arts, July 1963, Vol. XLVII, No. 7
Page 15

"Higher education in our society is, to quite some extent, an education in detachment, abstraction, and decontextualization (and against naturalism), and this results in an attitude which does not equate the appearance of things with reality, but looks for a deeper truth 'behind appearances'."

Source: 
Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design
( Read more... )