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Battlestar Galactica (2004 series)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:53 am    Post subject: Battlestar Galactica (2004 series) Reply with quote



I was never a fan of this series, but it certainly deserves a thread on All Sci-Fi. But I can't make original comments about the series because I only watched the pilot when it first aired.

So. here's what IMDB has to say about it, just to kick of the discussion.
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The second war against the Cylons is over, and The Twelve Colonies have been destroyed. Now Commander Adama of the Battlestar Galatica and President Laura Roslin lead a ragtag fleet of refugees in a supposed search for the fabled lost thirteenth colony, Earth.

However, the dangers they face are many, which compound an already difficult situation.

In addition to the Cylons hunting and attacking the fleet in space and their infiltrator units carrying out sabotage — even as their former unwitting pawn, Gaius Baltar, helps in the hunt for them while hiding both his own guilt and the strange presence that haunts his every thought — the fleet also faces internal political conflict

The rabble-rousing figure Tom Zarek is merely the loudest dissenting voice, not to mention recurring shortages of food, water, and even oxygen.

In the midst of these trials, however, clues begin to appear to suggest that Adama's bluff about finding Earth might hold more truth than anyone could have guessed.

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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 Mon Jan 08, 2024 11:46 am; edited 1 time in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 1:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Watched both version of BG, Bud.

While I admired the excellent production values and cast of the first version, the reality was that the writing was less than stellar with only a few decent episodes.

The reboot of BG was far superior to the original. Ron Moore and the writers presented intelligent scripts with twists & turns & plenty of tension. The cast was fabulous & their development as the show went on was wonderful to behold.

Again, superb production values throughout the series.

I also was awed at how Moore & company specifically chose NOT to recycle science-fiction tropes that the majority of sci-fi TV series often use — and overuse.

BG saw no alien civilizations during their long, lonely journey through deep space.

The show also managed to avoid alien space ships, time travel, parallel worlds, omnipotent beings, evil twins of the cast members, etc.

I enjoy all those sci~fi tropes, make no mistake, but how daring and refreshing it was for the creators of the new series to chuck all that and focus only on their main theme of humans vs Cylons.

That took guts.

I loathed the finale to the series but remain in awe of the show and consider it one of the finest sci~fi TV series along side Star Trek, Farscape, Space: Above & Beyond, and The X-Files.

BG is simply a classic.
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Morbius
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 8:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Battlestar Galactica functions on several levels. As a sci-fi action adventure series, it’s great. But on another level, it is prophetic and thought-provoking. The early Cylons looked like chrome tin cans. But the Cylons were much smarter and eventually made human look-alikes, so much so that they could not be distinguished from real humans (flesh from technology). Even the Cylon ships were a composite of technology and organic. The Cylon ships themselves had their own identity. (Makes me wonder if UFOs are actually AI individuals, thus accounting for extreme velocity and direction changes.)

So, in Battlestar Galactica the Cylons replicate humans indistinguishable from the real humans. This from the minds of artificial intelligence evolved over the years. To me, the series highlights a concept of galactic evolution; namely that the organic phase eventually is able to create artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence eventually is able to create or replicate organic beings. I see this as a recurring theme perhaps throughout the universe. Flesh begets technology begets flesh begets technology begets flesh and so on.

The series, Battlestar Galactica, as a sci-fi thriller was certainly entertaining, but, on another level, was thought-provoking and even religious. In the organic phase (of evolution), death is important. In fact, all species are programmed to die. The reasons for this have to do with adaptation to a changing environment. Some individuals in a new population may be better fitted to adapt because of various mutations etc. A static environment is just too vulnerable for extinction. For example the dinosaurs, overly specialized, having evolved over a long term in a static environment are less opportunistic and adaptable to a changing environment. After the asteroid impact and following extinction of the dinosaurs, small mammals that scurried about were able to continue life.

A technological being devoid of flesh, could have a longer life-span.

From Battlestar Galactica an interesting concept, to me anyway, was the concept of an organic phase, flesh, begets technology begets flesh begets technology and so on.

Maybe not necessarily on one particular planet but possibly throughout the universe. It seems like the organic phase must progress and prove itself to the point where it can slip into the silicone phase. From Battlestar Galactica, also a religious implication in that Kara was able to assist the cycle (flesh begets technology begets flesh) when she returns from her journey, revealing the direction to Earth, saving the remnants of humanity. Then once her mission is completed as they embark on Earth she simply disappears.

Now if you watch the series, Starbuck (Kara) returns in her Viper, the Viper looks brand-new (even though she crashed). This is a mystery to the crew but the story line continues as Kara now knows the location of Earth. These revelations don’t all come at once and it helps to watch the entire series. And not that I want to be a spoiler but when Kara comes back unscathed (makes you think that there was something beyond technology working here {God perhaps?}). She knows where earth is. This tidbit of information is the salvation for mankind. As I said I don’t want to reveal a spoiler here, but the ending scene of the series shifts to present day Earth (after many years) with Cylons in human flesh form, walking about enjoying their longevity on present day Earth.

The more salient (other level) revelations from the series are that Starbuck comes back and eventually leads what humans remain, (Capricorn was destroyed by the Cylons) to earth. This seems to happen from some external force which (you could assume, relate to, as God) especially after once on Earth, Starbuck simply vanishes, given that her (work was complete, as an angel might do).

One of the most striking moments in the series was when Kara remembers. The song from the scene, with the piano player which stimulates the (future) memory of Kara, and the scene is haunting. Even Kara seems unaware of her designated Role, responsibilities/fate. But as summed up, for me, a very poignant piano/guitar presentation known as Kara remembers. Very thought-provoking with excitement beyond the sci-fi storyline adventure.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1RNxaLd-Hg
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 9:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Morbius wrote:
Even the Cylon ships were a composite of technology and organic. The Cylon ships themselves had their own identity. (Makes me wonder if UFOs are actually AI individuals, thus accounting for extreme velocity and direction changes.)

What a brilliant idea! Very Happy

The idea that UFOs aren't alien spacecraft, they're actually alien beings is fascinating. The small size of many UFOs and their almost "playful" maneuvers seems to fit your idea very well.

And your theory about how organic beings evolve until they create artificial intelligence, and then the A.I. invents organic life in a higher form is mind boggling as well.

Bravo, Morbius.
Cool
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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 Mon Jan 08, 2024 11:47 am; edited 4 times in total
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Morbius
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

How the Cylons got started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhwqMI6783A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj5b3P0ibqk
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 30, 2023 7:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ronald D. Moore on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica.

"We wanted to do a naturalistic approach to science fiction by taking out the Opera from Space Opera."

"Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science fiction television series."

"We take as a given the idea of the traditional space opera with its stock characters, techno-double talk, bumpy-headed aliens, thespian histrionics, and empty heroics has run its course and a new approach is required. That approach is to introduce realism into what has heretofore been an aggressively unrealistic genre. We will eschew the usual stories about parallel universes, time-travel, mind-control, evil twins, God-like powers and all the other cliches of the genre."

When I had read that this BG reboot series was going to chart this kind of direction, I was immediately intrigued. How does one do a SF TV series and eschew all, or most, of the usual plot devices we are all so familiar with, and make such a show entertaining? But I was willing to see just what they had in mind, and I wasn't at all disappointed with their results.

I'd grown up with Star Trek: TOS & had dedicatedly watched all of the Trek shows that followed afterwards. Farscape floored me as a magnificent SF series that took wild chances and made them work beautifully.

So, for me, SF shows required all of the standard tropes as long as a new series could breathe new life into those tropes and present them in an original manner. Plus, don't we watch SF shows because they can give us aliens, parallel worlds, time-travel, omnipotent beings, and so forth? After all, we won't see those kinds of stories on Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, or St. Elsewhere.

This new iteration of BG pulled off Ron Moore's mission statement wonderfully. The show was compelling, intense, profound. And it managed to do so without encounters with alien civilizations, alien star ships, journeying through time, beings of unimaginable abilities, and all of the other cliches Moore cited. I was hooked.

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy all of those SF kinds of plots to this day if they can be done in new ways that I've never seen before. Repetitive, recycled stories can be a big bore, and SF shows can fall into the trap of rehashing stories. However, I loved that Moore & his talented cadre of writers took what was old and brought new concepts and dimensions to it all and still managed to provide fantastic entertainment.

Besides imagination, it also took courage by Moore and company to embark upon this path. The easy way out would have been to resort to all of these SF tropes and simply inject brand new makeups & visual effects technology to dress up otherwise familiar old plots.

This doesn't mean at all that I now only want to see television SF done the Ronald D. Moore-way. If you can create a premise utilizing all those SF devices we know, but execute it with originality, then I'm all for it.

So far, the first season of The Ark hasn't given us any of those tropes. No alien inhabited planets, no evil robots, no supreme-like beings, and so forth. The series only did 12 episodes, next season may get into those SF ideas. Who knows? I'm open either way as to what these producers attempt. Just keep it enthralling.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2024 7:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Peacock network is making plans for a brand new BG. Why bother? We had the mediocre 1978~1979 series. The 2004~2009 reboot was sensational. . . until its very disappointing finale. I don't need to see BG come up to bat for a third time. There are so many other previous science fiction shows that deserve another shot.

UFO (1971), The Starlost (1973~1974), Space: Above & Beyond (1995~1996), Mission Genesis (1997), Reverie (2018). Some of these series had marvelous writing, some did not. However, their premises were very intriguing and held wonderful potential. These are shows that require serious consideration for another revival with terrific writing and production values.
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