Battlestar Galactica

Most reboots are terrible and this is a brilliant exception. They took what was good about the original series, which I grew up watching and loving, threw away the camp, and built up a beautiful use of new technology and sensibilities around it. Most of the cast are top notch and the storyline is smart and generally compelling. There are stumbles along the way but this is a solid series from beginning to end that bears rewatching.

Before this re-imagining was even announced I had never before heard about "Battlestar Galactica" except when an overweight comic book geek mentioned it on TV. But when I heard such a show was airing I found myself....well, gitty. Never watching the old series I spent the night that it first aired glued to my TV waiting for it to come on. And after I watched the whole miniseries, I was blown away. A sci-fi show with no lasers? No elaborate, all too clean, spacecrafts? No weird talking animals? A sci-fi show that is actually relevant to today? Can such a show exist? Yes, my friend.

Never before has such a show like this been created, "Naturalistic Science Fiction," is what the producers call it. It was created to shake things up in the sci-fi genre the only problem is that it came too late. Sci-fi is now associated to too extremes, Star Trek and Star Wars, both are great, I prefer Star Wars, but, whatever. And there have been smaller shows in between the two, Farscape, Stargate, the old BSG. But never before has this entered.

The new Battlestar Galactica is simply saying "screw those guys, I am the evolved one." And it shows, it shows. The story of the miniseries starts where the original series starts, the original series started with a movie by the way.

One of the most noticeable differences is the camera, what i mean is that you are aware that there is in fact a camera recording the action, from shaking to zooming in and out this is to give the impression that this is all really happening and that you are viewing war footage. Another thing is that everything feels authentic, from the towns to the corridors of the ships, everything is alive and is used in the scene, you actually feel that theses ships are real. Speaking of ships the new look of the Cylon ships is eerie to say the least.

The characters are also unique, for the first time you can have a tough WOMEN soldier without her being regarded as a lesbian. All the characters change, meaning they don't simply stay, the tough one, the scared one, the dumb one, they all switch to different roles.

The technology of the show is similar to that of our own and of Blade Runner. They also make do with what they have, there isn't a piece of technology that is presented to the characters at the beginning that will vanquish the enemy that will be introduced in ten minutes.

All in all if you are looking for something different to watch than the new Battlestar Galactica is one to see. In fact everyone should at least give it a try. Do not listen to those who say that it is bad they are the ones who would rather see the women as background characters, and who want the kid to be smarter than everyone else.

Give the miniseries a try.

I give it 9 "Screw you were more evolved" statements out of 10

To think that I heard of a remake of BSG and thought 'pfft, probably rubbish'. Dear God I was wrong. This is possibly the best example of television I've ever seen. The sheer cold, clinical, detached storytelling style makes for an enrapturing viewing. The miniseries is what, 3 hours long?, and I didn't flinch once when I first viewed it.

The characters were wonderous, especially I found Colonel Tigh to be a terrific re-imagining of the previous incarnation. Commander Adama and Captain Adama had an almost painful on screen chemistry. Oh, and Mary McDonnel? Inspired choice.

The thing that I truly love, however, is that there is very little noise. No massive explosions. No screaming and shouting. Everything is detached, everything is calm, in a slightly sick way. Only one word can truly sum up this miniseries and what follows.

*quiet*.

Those who are used to SciFi's standard fare are likely to be a bit bored by the realism, character development, intelligent dialog, and lack of explosions, mutant organisms and/or poor special effects. This is REAL science fiction, not cheap shock effects strung together with a mediocre plot. Hand-held photography- pioneered in groundbreaking series like ER and Firefly - has started to become cliché. Nevertheless, it works in this film partly because it is not overdone. The shots alternate between a hand-held documentary feel and a more standard dramatic presentation.

I was never a big fan of the original Battlestar Galactica TV show, and I have only seen a few SciFi originals which did not embarrass me on behalf of the entire genre of science fiction (Farscape and both Dune Mini-series being the exceptions). SciFi hypes their productions heavily, and they are almost always disappointingly silly. So, I was not inclined to go into this with an open mind. If anything convinced me to give it a shot, it was the fact that E J Olmos was hired to play Adama and that Mary MacDonnell was on-board. To say the least, I was very pleasantly surprised by the production quality, intelligent script, and the cast. This is more than a reinvention of BSG, it is a vast improvement over the silly cowboy histrionics the first series devolved into.

The story begins just before an invasion of 12 planets colonized by humans. The invading force has infiltrated all of the defense networks by positioning key agents in positions where they can easily exploit vulnerabilities, and has basically disabled all planetary defenses, leaving everybody and everything vulnerable. There is no battle. The few vestiges left of the once thriving human population are those who were fortunate enough to have been in space at the time of the attack. From this dire premise, Battlestar Galactica proceeds.

All considered, this is a film about the human will to survive, redemption and the spirit of hope. Though dark, moody, and as fragmented as life often is, BSG is also driven, suspenseful, and very well written. The cast is as talented as it is visually striking - mixing weird beauty, youthful energy, and hard-edged agedness. None of the actors misstep, and each seems to know their character particularly well. This is an unusual quality for SciFi originals, and shows that the network invested in quality directing talent and worked with reasonable production deadlines (as opposed to rush-jobs).

I strongly recommend this film for serious science fiction fans.

I've read a lot of your comments, and it amazes me how some people seem to think that the function of this mini-series (and hopefully series) is to cater to the whims of the fans of the original series. Sorry, that's not it.

The die-hard types -- the "fans" (and I am one, of BSG, BSG2003, Trek, B5, etc.) -- are never going to be more than a small fraction of the viewership of any television program. It must appeal to a broader audience, or it is DOOMED.

Ronald D. Moore -- in my opinion, one of the better writer-producers in sci-fi today -- took a concept that pleased just about nobody but the fans and reproduced it in a manner that made it interesting and watchable to a modern audience. And if you step outside of your "I want Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, and Dirk Benedict" temper tantrums, you will find it interesting and watchable as well.

As for some of the main cast members -- like the Adamas pere et fils -- being stiff and inhuman...my friends, welcome to career military officer types. I would bet you're the same people who complained about Commander Jeffrey Sinclair in the first season of Babylon 5 as well. These are TRUE TO LIFE heroes, not the Saturday morning cartoon comic book heroes.

As for remolding Starbuck (does she drink a lot of coffee? ;-) and Boomer into women... well, I had my doubts at first, but I thought they did a magnificent job. As for the Cylons looking like humans now... well, only some of them do. And, to be perfectly honest, it makes a lot of sense for them to be able to blend in with their enemies. Anyone who has knowledge of terrorists in the Middle East knows that the reason they can get in to major civilian population centers and cause hideously evil damage and destruction is because THEY BLEND IN. Use some logic, people!

Much like when going to see a movie based on one of Tom Clancy's novels, I didn't go into this expecting to see the original. I went into it expecting to see something new and interesting with some similarities at the plot level. And I was not disappointed.

Since ENTERPRISE seems to be killing the Trek franchise -- and I admit, I enjoy ENTERPRISE a lot of the time, but a lot of people don't, and I can see why -- I am in high hopes a series based on BSG2003 can revitalize hope for on-going TV science fiction. I don't see why it shouldn't as long as people stop thinking they're going to get Lorne Greene. They're getting Edward James Olmos, one of the most brilliant actors in Hollywood, coming BACK to TV after a successful movie career... and how often does THAT happen?!?