"If you think Scripture is telling you what you want to hear, take a long, hard second look."
- The Ancient Mariner
Friday, August 14, 2009
My wife and I just started watching them on DVD about two months ago, each episode in order from blockbuster.com. We don't get the Sci-Fi channel so we'd never seen an episode before.
Wow. It's awesome. One of the best television shows ever and possibly even the best Sci-Fi show ever. ("What?!?!", you say. "Even better than LOST and Star Trek?" Yes.)
Critics have been saying since it came out that it's so good, that even non Sci-Fi fans would love it. Being a Sci-Fi fan myself, I don't know if that's true, but I believe it would be.
The writing, the acting, the characters, the story-arc - everything about this show is near perfect. Another thing I really like about the show, is that each episode is unique. Though they are all a part of the story arc, each episode is a "different kind of episode." So many TV shows (Star Trek, lawyer shows, cop shows etc...) follow a formula. In BG, every episode is so unique. You never know what you are going to get. One episode, will be about space battle. The next episode about people on a planet. The next episode will be about internal politics. The next episode about someone's relationship. One episode was about boxing! But one thing that is consistent - it's all first-class.
We just started Season 4 this week (the final season) and I'm already sad that we're almost finished. I'm really looking forward to the BG movie "The Plan" that will be released this fall.
The purpose of this post: If you've never watched it before, watch it. If you have been watching, sound off. Let's talk about it, but do give people spoiler warnings. There are lots of surprises in this show.
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Comments on "Anyone Else Out There Watching Battlestar Galactica?":
2. Shrode
- 08/14/2009 7:52 am CDT
About the religion on the show:
The "good guys" (humans) are poly-theists, and there gods seem to be the Roman gods - athena, apollo, zeus etc...
The "bad guys" (cylons) are mono-theists and talk a lot abou "the one true God".
Some other interesting points.
The President is sworn in by a priest of the human religion. When one character needs counseling, he visits with a priest.
When people curse they say things like "gods".
The gods are called "The Lords of Kobol" which sounds a lot like the planet mormons say we came from - Kolob. (This element actually came from Glen A. Larson, the creator of the original BG from the 70's - the one with Dirk Benedict.)
The President and others will often search "the scriptures" to decide what to do.
I find myself hoping that the good guys win, but that they at least adopt the monotheism of the cylons. :)
3. jen
- 08/14/2009 8:00 am CDT
I hated DS9, but I really liked BSG. I can't think of anything else to add that wouldn't give away the end for you. =)
4. Bob Sacamento
- 08/14/2009 8:28 am CDT
So much good to be said about BSG. The best acting in TV Sci-Fi ever, hands down. Some of the best acting in TV, period, now that I think about it. Fully 3D characters. No shying away from religion. Special effects were not only the best I've ever seen, but also the most intelligently used. (Even though, after the first season, they finally gave in and added "swoosh" sounds to ships flying through empty space.)
I would have done some things differently, though. There were the occasional racy scenes that were, by and large, purely gratuitous. And I like a show that takes itself seriously, but BSG was just too dark. I watch sci-fi to be entertained, not bummed out.
I think the high point of the series was the rescue from New Caprica. It kind of wandered off into wilderness after that. The final season was especially bad in this regard. At times near the end it felt like the writers suddenly realized, "Whoops! We've still got ten shows to go? I thought it was just five! Well, maybe we can have Starbuck mope twice as long here and here."
And I don't think I'm giving away much by saying that the ending left alot of loose ends lying around. Philosophically, I appreciate the recognition that some things just remain mysterious. But aesthetically, it just didn't satisfy. Nevertheless, Shrode, get yourself ready for a knock-your-socks off finale. It is one of the few finales in TV history that live up to expectations.
On the whole, a great show. BSG did for Sci-Fi what "Hill Street Blues" did for TV in general -- elevating it to an entirely new level. It has set the standard for whatever drama in space there is to follow.
Oh yeah, on the Star Trek connection, the stronger connection is with "Voyager," as I understand it. These guys were working on that show as well, and for several seasons they kept lobbying for showing wear and tear on the Voyager ship, and even killing off major characters every once in a while, but the powers that be wouldn't hear of it. Eventually, they got the idea that they could do it themselves.
5. Bob Sacamento
- 08/14/2009 8:30 am CDT
The gods are called "The Lords of Kobol" which sounds a lot like the planet mormons say we came from - Kolob.
Yeah, the original creators intentionally borrowed Mormon themes. There's no proselitysing (or however you spell that) here. They just thought it would make for a cool story line.
6. nhe
- 08/14/2009 8:33 am CDT
eh....it had its moments.....particularly the (topic spoiler) mutiny attempt in the final season - very compelling.........but the whole thing with the guy who kept having visions of the blonde cylon chic, and a lot of the "where is earth?" stuff, I just found kind of boring.........B- overall.
7. Lars Walker
- 08/14/2009 10:07 am CDT
They made Starbuck a chick. Nothing they could possibly do would make for that abomination in my eyes.
8. dani
- 08/14/2009 10:08 am CDT
We tried to watch it because Mark heard that it was great and we were both child fans of the original show, but after a few episodes we finally turned it off. It was just too racy. I got tired of the over the top "romance" (to use a nice word) scenes with the blond Cylon and the bad guy(can't remember his name). I just kept having visions of my children coming down the stairs and seeing the TV. I actually cringe when I think of teen boys (and girls) watching the show. It would do their minds and hearts real harm.
9. nhe
- 08/14/2009 10:46 am CDT
BTW.....Starbuck (well, the actress) is joining the cast of 24 as the head of CTU for season 8.......Dani, I watched it a lot, and I don't remember anything over-the-top with the blonde Cylon.....though she was scantily clad at times. However, I did find that storyline utterly pointless.
I would call it pretty mainstream PG/PG-13 - my teenagers could watch it, but they weren't interested.
10. Brian
- 08/14/2009 10:48 am CDT
We just started Season 4 this week (the final season) and I'm already sad that we're almost finished.
If you liked BG then I suggest you go back and watch the Babylon 5 series. Especially once you get past season 1, I'd put it up there as one of the best TV shows ever. Great story, fleshed out characters, not afraid to explore religious themes. And if I remember correctly, not nearly as racy as BG.
13. Chestertonian Rambler
- 08/14/2009 1:17 pm CDT
BSG is awesome. Unfortunately, most of my comments would involve the final episode (you know, where Roslyn and Adamo turn into evil Cylon transformers and wipe out the human race in an epic battle between themselves) and will have to remain unsaid.
I think BSG is often at its best when discussing politics, which it manages to do in an often-partisan way that never preaches. Primarily, because one never entirely knows who the good guys or bad guys are on a given issue--even Roslyn and Adamo constantly have to re-evaluate their positions and sometimes make mistakes.
But quite simply, the show is (mostly) perfectly-written. It asks interesting questions; it (almost) never takes a cop-out answer, and yet the characters are so lovable and the season-long storyarcs so interesting that it works as an adventure show.
It also, btw, has a lot less of a focus on sex (in terms of time on screen) as the seasons go on--I suppose because they realized that they had characters and story that would involve people, without resorting to titillation.
14. Milly
- 08/14/2009 10:36 pm CDT
was this the show in the eighties with Richard Hatch? He was yummy
16. jen
- 08/15/2009 12:13 pm CDT
I agree with Dani and also Chestertonian - there were some scenes that were a bit too explicit in the first season. And maybe the second season as well. Later seasons I don't remember much sex at all, really.
18. Shrode
- 09/06/2009 6:37 am CDT
Two of you have mentioned Babylon 5. I'm gonna try that next... Looked it up though. There were so many movies that it's going to be hard to figure out what order to watch it all in. Plus there will be the ongoing dilemma of deciding whether to watch something in chronological order, or the order in which it was released...
dac, have you seen Star Trek: Deep Space 9? It's up there in quality with BG. (And probably Babylon 5 as well, though I haven't seen Babylon 5 yet, DS9 has all the qualities people rave about B5. ) Great characters, darker, overall story arc, religous themes. It's quite brilliant. Start at about Season 3, and watch through the end. (And the parallels with BG are legion, since Ron Moore was cutting his teeth on DS9)
Leave a Comment:
The following is just too geeky to have been written in the main post.
The mastermind behind this reimagined BG is Ron Moore, who was one of the masterminds behind Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I used to think that DS9 was the best Sci-Fi show ever, but now he's outdone himself.
DS:9 was a very different sort of Star Trek. Not forumulaic, not traveling around space, an overall story arc (like LOST and BG). It was much darker, and the characters were the best ever.
A lot of the lessons he learned from DS:9 seem to have been applied to BG, only this time it's even better. (There are lots of parallels between DS:9 and BG for those of you geeky enough to want to talk about it with me. If there's anyone out there that's seen both, let me know, and I'll share them with you. :)
I think Ron Moore's a genius. Though not a Christian, he seems to fascinated by religion, and unlike the typical Sci-Fi show, religion plays a VERY important part in both DS:9 and BG.
I like that, in the sense that he seems to be acknowledging that humans are spiritual people and that no matter how "advanced" we get technologically, we never outgrow our need for God.