View Full Version : New "Battlestar Galactica" on Sci Fi


TJL
12-08-2003, 08:53 PM
Well space opera fans Sci Fi Channel unveils it's long awaited "reimagining" of "Battlestar Galactica" tonight.

I was never a big fan of the original series, but I am looking forward to seeing the changes they've made.

Will you be watching?

EricIdlefan
12-20-2003, 05:03 PM
No matter how many remakes any and all shows make, the original, in my opinion and book, IS THE ORIGINAL!!

TJL
12-20-2003, 09:43 PM
I was going to post an in depth review of the mini series, but I didn't get around to writing it, and I forgot what I was going to say.

But I really enjoyed the remake of "Battlestar" and I hope they make another mini series soon.

EricIdlefan
12-30-2003, 10:26 PM
I hope they do too and I wished they put back on Babylon 5!!

TJL
02-03-2004, 09:32 PM
Just got this of of moviehole:

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Sci Fi Channel has picked up the options last week on key cast members of the “Battlestar Galactica” mini-series – including Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell and Katee Sackhoff.

The trade says the cable network is aiming to bow "Galactica" as a full-fledged series as early as fourth-quarter 2004. At least six episodes are expected to be shot in Vancouver as soon as April.

The four-hour mini-series averaged 4.2 million viewers last year, making it the third-highest-rated multinight program Sci Fi has aired.

Kickass! I enjoyed the mini series and I look forward to picking apart to series when it premieres.

;)

TJL
02-03-2004, 09:36 PM
Oh, I realized I just bumped up an old thread, but I don't give a rat's rear!

:mooner:

;)

Nikitabee
03-11-2004, 04:18 PM
I've only seen clips so far and wasn't overjoyed to see the cylons looking like humans. They useto scare the socks off me when i was little. They should have kept them the same, to scare a whole new generation :lol: They help make the show. And Starbuck a woman? I'll haveto wait until i see a full episode to judge properly though. Never know, might love it :eek:

TJL
03-11-2004, 05:57 PM
Originally posted by Nikitabee
I've only seen clips so far and wasn't overjoyed to see the cylons looking like humans. They useto scare the socks off me when i was little. They should have kept them the same, to scare a whole new generation :lol: They help make the show. And Starbuck a woman? I'll haveto wait until i see a full episode to judge properly though. Never know, might love it :eek:

According to the show, The Cylons are still a species of robots, the human looking ones are some "new models" designed to infiltrate the humans. There was a brief glimpse of the robot cylons in the beginning of part one, and hopefully they will be seem more when the series premieres.They have made some changes from the original series, but it's for the best, I hated the original!

;)

H. E. Pennypacker
01-07-2005, 08:56 AM
Viewers in America be sure to tune in Saturday to see an edited version of the Miniseries on NBC 8/7c

http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Movies_&_Specials/images/201x176_mov_battlestar.jpg

Australian Viewers the Miniseries and Series will premiere early this year (2005) on the Ten Network
http://www.ten.com.au/images/Untitled-1_r1_c1.gif

TJL
01-07-2005, 09:45 AM
An edited version? That stinks. I was hoping Sci Fi Channel would run it again before the series premiered.

dlemond
01-07-2005, 11:14 AM
An edited version? That stinks. I was hoping Sci Fi Channel would run it again before the series premiered.

The miniseries is now out on DVD if you are interested.

TJL
01-07-2005, 11:17 AM
The miniseries is now out on DVD if you are interested.

That's true, it just came out on DVD.

But you would think that Sci Fi would be rerunning it, to maybe promote the new series?

dlemond
01-07-2005, 11:23 AM
That's true, it just came out on DVD.

But you would think that Sci Fi would be rerunning it, to maybe promote the new series?

Who knows what they do at Sci Fi except for everything wrong (getting rid of Farscape, their highest rated show, comes to mind).

Apparently next week they are airing the first two episodes of the new series.
I think that is odd, it's like they are backlogged or something.

And almost the entire first season has aired in England already.
Explain that to me.

H. E. Pennypacker
01-07-2005, 04:17 PM
Either the finance was coming from Britain or they're using it as a test-market (likely) they seem to be very nervous about this. If I was anybody else producing a Science Fiction show I'd be the one who is nervous. Brannon Braga and Rick Berman should be breaking out into a cold sweat over this, Ron Moore leaves Voyager under bad circumstances and then comes back to make them all look like fools, with this very superior show.

It's a shame that NBC is cutting the miniseries from 4 hours to 3, but what do you expect. Last year I downloaded an episode of Scrubs that had just aired in the US, no problem, then a few weeks back the same episode finally made it to Free to Air here in Australia, I saw two whole scenes on the Australian broadcast that were completely missing from my downloaded US version, I think this sort of thing is happening all of the time, basically Network TV in the US is slowly becoming either unworkable or unaffordable and they're having to fit more ads in to pay for it.

Amazing that a country of 20 million (Australia) can sustain 5 free to air television stations (3 of them commercial networks, the other two public broadcasters) as well as 40 cable channels, and yet they don't have to show as many ads as a US TV Network in a country of 260 million plus!

So what's up with this picture, the cost of production, basically TV shows cost a lot to produce, in Australia they get around this by not only producing their own shows but by buying overseas hits, a typical one hour drama in Australia probably costs $200,000 to $300,000 to make, the network doesn't cover all these costs and Australia is too small to have a syndication market so these shows have to attract overseas sales to survive, compare this to an episode of Scrubs which probably cost the network $20,000 to air twice.

Australian productions are where Australian networks base their prestige or reputation, but they make their money on US shows which are cheap to buy (depending on their popularity - Murphy Brown, for example, was a big hit here and Warner Bros renegotiated with Channel Nine to sell the show for $100,000 an episode, this was around the time of Dan Quayle!)

Maybe this is what US Networks will eventually need to do, in fact I don't know why they don't do it already. Take 'the office' for example, NBC is remaking this Britcom, unless Norman Lear is involved Britcom remakes seem to head south real quick (in fact there hasn't been a good Britcom remake since Three's Company which in the UK was 'Man About the House') WHY, Why not just save money and air the original (probably a lot cheaper than making something new I'll bet!) thereby cutting some costs. Think of all the money that has been wasted on the US Coupling or Payne or Men Behaving Badly or other Britcom remakes through the years, we all speak english so what's the problem!

On the same subject I saw something freakish the other day on SBS (Australian Public Broadcaster [Special Broadcast Service] showing multi-cultural non-english speaking fare, South Park, and a lot of soccer!) it was a Turkish version of The Nanny, man it freaked me out, but this I understand because Turkish people don't speak English, so a new version of a Sitcom (humour is very dependant on language) is a good idea in that case, but not Britain to US!

andybhoy
02-20-2005, 06:00 AM
And almost the entire first season has aired in England already.
Explain that to me.


It aird in the UK, not just England. Uk channel "SkyOne" paid for a large percentage of the show's production costs and one of their stipulations was that the Uk got episodes first. The US could have shown them a week later but sci fi chose to air after the New Year.

On the other side of the coin, years ago, the series 7 or 8 (or season 7 or 8 if you prefer) of UK show Red Dwarf aired in the US before it had all been seen in the uk (only 2 or 3 episodes had been seen) so that PBS stations could raise money from fans of the show by getting the new series much quicker than usual.

Hell, the BBC even upped the number of episodes per series from 6 to 8 for the final two series to get the show up to the requisite number for syndication in the US (and diluting the quality of the show, as there was only one writer left by then). It's swings and roundabouts - without skytv's money, you wouldn't be watching BSG at all.

TJL
03-07-2005, 11:32 PM
I'm bumping this thread up again to sing the praises of Sci Fi Channel's new Battlestar Galactica series, which is now in its first season.

It is a superb sci fi adventure series which completely buries the original series. The dramatic reimaging of the characters and theme of the original show has just amazed me to no end.

If you haven't seen this show, please tune in as a favor to me.

If you've seen it, let me know what you think.

Mysty Eyes
03-20-2005, 01:34 PM
I am really liking this show.

At first I was skeptical, because I was a fan of the original version. But I find that I really like this one better. Maybe it's because FX and filming techniques have improved enormously through the years. Maybe it's because I have gotten older, and like things in a different way.

But...

I don't think that it is either of those things.

I think that it is simply a better show.

The overall acting is better. The stories are better. The balance of characters is better.

I have the DVD set of the original, and watching it I see a lot of things that I had forgotten that I disliked about the original. Among those things: I never liked Boxey. I wasn't overly fond of Serena, Boxey's mother. Apollo was a stuffy do-gooder who drove me nuts. Adama was stiff and stuffy (Apollo was a chip off of Dad's stuffy block). Since these were most of the major characters that were concentrated on, that seems like there wouldn't be much for me to like.

But... there was Starbuck. He made up for the rest, I guess. He was fun, and Dirk Benedict did a great job with the roll.

Nothing against Lorne Greene and Richard Hatch, but they each did none-so-great a job in their rolls. I know they are both wonderful actors, but there is only so much that can be done with stuffy, stilted characters.

Of the supporting characters in the original, I only miss one: Cassiopea. And I miss the voice of Patrick Macnee as the Cylon guy (Imperious Leader); he was also a different character in later episodes. But then... I am a fan of Macnee since the days of The Avengers.

In the new series we see much, much more of those "lesser" characters. I am very happy to see the fleshing-out of Tigh, Boomer, and Baltar even though we saw quite a bit of him in the original. I like that we are seeing the "victim" side of him in this version. He was pure evil in the old.

I like the President; her aide (glad he got a new hairstyle!); the female Starbuck and Boomer; the "human" Cylons (great twist!). I like the new "lesser" characters on the Galactica.

And I see that it got renewed on SciFi. Any indication yet as to when we'll see more eps? We're about to see the season finale.

All in all, after '24', this is my favorite TV show.

TJL
04-02-2005, 12:02 AM
Holy ****! What a season finale!

I agree with everything you said Mysty Eyes. It's a wonderful series, a million times better and beyond the original. The stuff they're doing is the best sci fi on TV right now.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking to a woman who works in the marketing department at the Sci Fi Channel and they are totally in love with this show.

I can't wait for the new episodes.

Mysty Eyes
04-02-2005, 05:26 AM
Holy ****! What a season finale!

You can say that again! WOW!

I'm glad to hear that they are behind the show. I noticed the ad tonight, saying to watch for new episodes in July. It's gonna be hard to wait.

:yippee:

TJL
04-02-2005, 10:53 AM
I noticed the ad tonight, saying to watch for new episodes in July. It's gonna be hard to wait.

:yippee:

Hopefuly they'll rerun season one again. I could watch it a second time.

Look on the bright side. It's not like we'll have to wait a year and a half for new episodes like "The Sopranos."

H. E. Pennypacker
04-24-2005, 11:48 PM
Here in Australia we're seeing it on Free To Air on Wednesday Nights (Ch 10 folks tune in!). In a fall season which has seen the launch of some big dramas in Australia including Desperate Housewives, Lost and Medium this is actually the best of the lot.

Last week they aired "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down" (for once we're not too far behind the US!) they went for some broad comedy there and pulled it off superbly, managed to explain a lot about Col Tigh and significantly develop the Baltar character.

The revelation at the end that everyone would pass his screenings left me with chills and after weeks of wondering what would become of this character I can see that they're slowly turning him evil! (They've even got him swivelling in his chair like the old Baltar!)

PS: Is anyone else in love with the constantly changing Vanity Card for R&D Productions at the end of the show - you know the one where Ron Moore and David Eick stand there, one will have an idea and start blabbing on "blah blah blah" the other one will trot out some creature to kill him (So far the attacks I've seen include Jaws ("Make it stop"), King Kong, a Baseball Bat, squished into a Basketball, pushed out into traffic, Axe to the Head, Bitch-slap - a small series within the series!

H. E. Pennypacker
07-23-2005, 03:30 PM
So dudes no that this is back on TV what does everybody think of season 2? No word on an Australian air-date yet but that's why god invented bit-torrent!