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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2018 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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johnnybear wrote: | What was in Starbuck's hand originally, Bud? A cigar I'm guessing...
JB |
Right. I had to remove the cigar, rearrange all his fingers, and rotate his forearm clockwise to make room for the cup.
I also improved his skin tone a little.
![](https://i.imgur.com/8w1TtvB.jpg) _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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johnnybear Mission Specialist
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Joined: 15 Jun 2016 Posts: 441
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 2:23 am Post subject: |
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Dirk was diagnosed with cancer years back and survived by eating sea weed style foods! Or macrobiotic as they call them! Right on Dirk!
JB |
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Custer Space Sector Commander
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Joined: 22 Aug 2015 Posts: 932 Location: Earth
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2018 7:38 am Post subject: |
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I did mention the cigar, as I'd come across that photo when doing my search. Clever work with the hand and the Starbucks mug, for sure!
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2018 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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I recently started watching Battlestar Galactica on discs I got from Netflix, and I noticed something amusing.
Within the fist few minutes of the pilot episode, right after Apollo and his brother Zach launch their Vipers to go on partrol, we see a shot of the two ships racing towards the camera while the brothers are chatting. They’re several minutes away from discovering all the hidden Cylon ships in the gas cloud (or whatever that “harmless mist” — as Apollo called it — was supposed to be).
If you look quickly in the lower left-hand corner just before they cut away from the shot showing the two approaching ships, you’ll a see a Cylon fighter come into the frame for an instant!
Obviously the shot was originally made for a scene in which the Cyclon ships are coming up behind the fighters. But the complete shot wasn't used that way, and they didn’t edit the shot quickly enough to catch the Cylon ship from appearing briefly.
This is the first hint that Glen Larson and company were underestimating the way their sci-fi loving audience would be scrutinizing this show and spotting the flaws that would hurt its reputation and its ratings.
We loved what we were seeing . . . but we were seeing a limited number of FX too often.
The problem, of course, was that those great FX were so damned expensive that the series had to use many of them repeatedly, and the sharp-eyed viewers who absolutely loved those great special effects quickly noticed they were seeing the same ones on a regular basis!
Admittedly I did admire all the new FX that were used for the first time in the second episode (Lost Planet of the Gods: Part 1), and even the writing seemed better. All the dogfights with the newly trained female pilots were depicted with excellent special effects when the ladies filled in for the regular pilots who had become infected with a strange disease.
In other words, the second episode renewed my enthusiasm for the series after the series' pilot episode was somewhat disappointing.
And the way the story focused on the inclusion of the first female fighter pilots and the way they performed flawlessly in combat was a concept fifteen years ahead of the first female pilot in the United States Air Force in 1993!
The funniest scene in the third episode ((Lost Planet of the Gods: Part 2) shows us a group of newly combat tested and extremely cocky gals — every one of whom were drop-dead gorgeous — sitting around with mugs filled with cold brew while they engaged in a Top Gun-style discussion of boastful fighter pilots, bragging about how they had recently performed dazzling combat maneuvers!
Meanwhile (a few feet away) Starbuck and his newly engaged friend, Apollo, are deliberately imitating giddy females who are discussing the "cozy little cabin" in one of the fleets' freighter ships which Apollo has found for himself and his future bride, and how he was going to decorate it with a "little paint and just the right curtains!"
It was hysterical!
This well-written scene proved to me that Battlestar Galactica has more merit than I had previously given it credit for.
Concerning the special effects, sci-fi fans who say they dislike CGI and prefer model work don’t seem to realize that one of its greatest benefits is the way it generates digital elements that can be combined in various ways to create NEW scenes using old elements!
For example, once a spacecraft has been rendered in 3D, it can viewed from any angle, moved in any direction, lit in a variety of ways, zoomed in on, panned over, and (best of all) blown to smithereens . . . without doing a bit of damage to the "actual" spacecraft!
And after several backgrounds have been created — landscapes, spacescapes, alien atmospheres, or bright blue skies with beautiful clouds — that same ship can cruise through any of them, from any angle and at any speed!
My point is that the sad days of building models and backgrounds — which were used a few times and then destroyed during filming, or stored away and forgotten — are happily over!
Battlestar Galactica is a prime example of how the limitations of model work, even when used by brilliant people like John Dystra and Douglas Trumbull, make it too difficult to provide the number of FX needed to keep keen-eyed viewers from feeling cheated when they see good special effects recycled repeatedly until they’re so familiar they’ve completely lost their visual impact! _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Jul 08, 2018 1:50 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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I'm still enjoying the DVDs of Battlestar Galactica from Netflix and eating my words from the earlier post I made, in which I stated that the recycled special effects spoiled my enjoyment of this series.
The stories have been much better than I remembered, and the special effects haven't been nearly as repetitive as I thought! In short, I've been enjoying the fact that I was dead wrong.
And tonight I watched the episode called The Magnificent Warriors, which is a delightful blend of action and comedy.
The action is provided by a Cylon attack that destroys two of the fleets agricultural ships (using footage of the domed forests in Silent Running).
The comedy is provided by a wealthy love-starved matriarch who owns a hi-tech "power unit" which the Colonials desperately need to trade with a farming community on a nearby planet, so that the fleet can get replacement seeds for the ones destroyed in the Cylon attack.
Unfortunately the wealthy matriarch is hot for Adama and demands that he "court" her in exchange for the power unit!
And if the scenes between a very nervous Commander Adama and this middle aged woman who wants to snag him into a romantic relationship aren't funny enough, the love-crazed vixen is played by . . . Brett Sommers!
Older member of All Sci-Fi will remember Miss Sommers as the dizzy old gal who sat right above Richard Dawson for years on a silly quiz show called Match Game and provided answers to the questions Gene Rayburn asked the panel.
Unfortunately Brett's answers rarely matched the poor contestants, and her answers didn't make a lick of sense even on the dizzy lady's very best days!
The opening for that goofy show claimed that the panel was comprised of "celebrities", but I never understood why Brett Sommers was considered a celebrity!
Little did I know that Brett played a pivotal role in such an enjoyable episode of Battlestar Galactica!
If you need a little help remembering who the hell Brett Sommers is, watch this.
_______________ Match Game 78 - Weird Intro
__________ ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6_9niqOd3Xw/hqdefault.jpg) _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Jul 08, 2018 1:49 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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orzel-w Galactic Ambassador
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014 Posts: 1872
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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I always liked Gene Rayburn's mic-on-a-stick. (We allow tangents here, right?) _________________ ...or not...
WayneO
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2018 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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orzel-w wrote: | I always liked Gene Rayburn's mic-on-a-stick. (We allow tangents here, right?) |
No.
Please start at Gene Rayburn thread and move your comment there. I'm sorry, but we have to maintain a strictly anal-retentive adherence to All Sci-Fi's basic purpose.
(On a more serious note, please DON'T start a Gene Rayburn thread. And if we DIDN'T allow tangents here, half the really good posts wouldn't exist!) ![Shocked](images/smiles/icon_eek.gif) _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I made it to episode #12, Fire in Space, but I did not get the next disc from Netflix as expected today, so I finally broke down and bought the complete series on Blu-ray from Amazon for the paltry sum of $40.59!
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That means I can enjoy the other half of the series without having to wait for Netflix to deliver the damn things!
The box set has 19 customer reviews, and their combined rating is 4-out-of-5 stars. The negative reviews are from two bozos, one of whom is a cry baby who said his disc didn't play right, and the other who said he liked the reboot, Galactica 1980, better.
A mama's boy and a wuss!
The box set I bought today includes both the original and the reboot, so I'll be able to judge them for myself.
I'm looking forward to getting my box set on Tuesday, July 10th! ![Very Happy](images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif) _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Jul 08, 2018 1:48 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 1:32 pm Post subject: |
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My box set of Battlestar Galactic should arrive on Tuesday (7/10/18), and I'll be able to enjoy Galactica 1980, which I don't remember watching when it aired back in . . . ummm . . .
Gee, what year was that?
Oh. Right. 1980.
Anyway, I found this article about the rebooted version of the original series in Starlog issue #34 and thought I'd share it.
If the series is good, it's a shame there are only 10 episodes. If the series is bad . . . thank God there are only 10 episodes!
You know the drill, folks. Click on each page here to see a large, easy-to-read version you can zoom in on. Click on the large version again, and then zoom in as close as you want!
Below each image you'll see this:
Click here to see the original page above, before I enhanced it.
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~ Click here to see the original page above, before I enhanced it.
~ Click here to see the original page above, before I enhanced it.
The scan of the picture in the magazine is marred by faintly visible lines of text which are especially noticeable on Miss Douglass' white uniform. The text bled through from the other side of the page (the one shown below.
I had to paint the text out to improve the enhanced version above! I also made her skin rosy, her lips redder, and I put highlights in her eyes.
~ Click here to see the original page above, before I enhanced it.
The color photo above which I used to replace the blurry B&W one in the magazine has the actors standing in different positions than the original picture, so I had to change the order of the names in the caption!
Lorne Greene looks like he's ready to play Captain Nemo if anybody offers him the role. ![Cool](images/smiles/icon_cool.gif) _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Jul 08, 2018 4:08 pm; edited 6 times in total |
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orzel-w Galactic Ambassador
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014 Posts: 1872
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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Bud Brewster wrote: | The scan of the picture in the magazine has faintly visible text on Miss Douglass' white uniform, which bled through from the other side of the p. I had to paint it out for the enhanced version! |
There's still a faint bleed-through face just above her elbow. And the color of her left arm and fingers looks a bit zombie-ish. ![Cool](images/smiles/icon_cool.gif) _________________ ...or not...
WayneO
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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orzel-w wrote: | There's still a faint bleed-through face just above her elbow. And the color of her left arm and fingers looks a bit zombie-ish. ![Cool](images/smiles/icon_cool.gif) |
Ah-ha! I see what you mean. I'll fix it. Thanks.
The white hand and wrist were caused by the fact that I used Paint.net to isolate the uniform and turn the color all the way down to reverse the pinkish hue that was caused when I boosted the color to improve her flesh tones.
I didn't notice that I'd included her hand and wrist when I turned the uniform white — especially since her hand and wrist ended up matching the white uniform so well that they just blended in with it! _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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orzel-w Galactic Ambassador
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014 Posts: 1872
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Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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All's well. _________________ ...or not...
WayneO
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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I read the first part of the Starlog article above, and I was impressed by what I learned. I stopped reading when I realized that it might be giving away plot elements I didn’t want to know in advance.
I remember absolutely nothing about Galatica 1980, but the description of the show’s premise provided by newcomer Robyn Douglass has left me eager to open up my new DVD box set and give it a try!
I was surprised to learn that the ambitious new storyline involves the fact that the Colonial survivors find Earth and discover that mankind’s technology is not sufficiently advanced to protect us from the Cylons. So, the Colonials plan to travel back in time and “plant the seeds” with key scientists who can accelerate our scientific progress.
Then the Colonials can come back to the present, where they hope to find a more advanced mankind they can join with and defeat the Cylons.
But unbeknownst to the Council of Twelve, a scientist aboard the Galactica has secretly chosen Nazi Germany to receive the scientific advancements he takes back in time!
Hot damn, I LIKE that idea! I’ve always wondered what the world would have been like if the Allies in World War II had defeated Hitler without destroying Germany’s scientific research and development facilities and killing so many of the people involved with it.
Better yet, if someone other than old nutcake Hitler had inspired Germany to be great without turning them into ruthless Arian bastards, the world would have benefited enormously!
When I watch the DVDs I hope I won’t be disappointed in the bold story line which Galactica 1980 presented. _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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Gord Green Galactic Ambassador
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Joined: 06 Oct 2014 Posts: 2945 Location: Buffalo, NY
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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Well......It would have been great if that was the prime point ongoing. No spoilers for now...We'll discuss it after you've watched them. _________________ There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child. |
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Bud Brewster Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013 Posts: 17175 Location: North Carolina
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Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, Gord. Lowering my expectations a little might be just what I need to keep from being disappointed by the series.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica on DVDs from Netlfix after having so few fond memories of the series when I watched it in the 1980s. As I said above, I had no memories at all of Galactica 1980, and when I read the Starlog article and learned about its ambitious premise, I got pretty excited!
On a unrelated note, when I opened my new box set today for the first time, I discovered that the crappy plastic box it came in had several broken hinges for the flaps that held the six DVDs, and I debated ordering a new set and sending this one back.
But I quickly realized that ALL the DVD boxes for this set would be equally fragile, so I just dug out a few of the empty boxes I kept when I toss out old DVDs I replaced or don't want anymore, and I threw away the cheap containers the Battlestar Galactica DVDs came in! ![Very Happy](images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif) _________________ ____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:35 am; edited 1 time in total |
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