I blogged about Star Wars first because it was my earliest foray into science fiction, and thus remains my favorite by default of seniority. It has its issues, but what film/series doesn't? It is wonderful for it's mythos, pioneering, and good ol comforting nostalgia.
Third on my list is easily the redux of BSG. I'm not Mormon, or at least not anymore, but having grown up surrounded by that particular religious culture I couldn't help but glean some of the beliefs. Some may know this, some may not, but the Mormon mythology played very heavily on the writing of Battlestar Galactica.
I never saw the original Battlestar Galatica, which lasted for one season in 1978, but I loved loved loved the remake that ran multiple seasons 2004-2009. When I first watched the pilot episodes to the remake I was quite lost. Thus I began at the beginning, with the prequel Caprica. I was instantly hooked with the characters, happenings, and over all establishment of the story. Sadly it was dropped after only 1 season.
All told, both Caprica and BSG were fantastic shows and I cannot recommend them enough. I have had discussions with other fans regarding the preference of the original versus the remake and people seem to like Edward James Olmos as Adama, whether or not they favor him over Lorne Greene I haven't heard. I think it's cool that Richard Hatch was in both. The one complaint that has been voiced many times is that Starbuck was a girl in the remake. I say it works anyway, besides...she's not very girlie.
Anyway, enough of the rambling here's some ships to ogle
BSG ships
Caprica was badly designed in that it doesn't grab you from the beginning - at least it didn't do a good job for me. The whole sex and violence thing in the virtual universe seems like a cheap "sex sells" thing. It didn't help that the show was a weird mix between Terminator and Dynasty. There was nothing fundamentally wrong; I just think they didn't know how to speak to their core audiences.
ReplyDeleteBSG(New) was pretty good, but again had a fundamental flaw: They had no idea what they were doing. Worked fine for season 1 - because they were on the run and dealing with the traumatic war and all - but afterwards they just slipped and lost their focus. Don't get me wrong - there are still some incredibly good episodes and mini-arcs later, but the show as a whole suffered gravely. What they really needed was an overall storyarc for the four seasons; they clearly didn't. To add insult to injury, their tagline was even "...and they have a plan".
Like hell they did.
BSG(old) is really campy. Rode on Star Wars' fiery trail. The Cylons were kinda cool designs, but beyond that, it's not worth watching nowadays, unless you are in it for the historic value. And yeah I did know it was kinda sorta based on Mormonism. ;)
Oh, Boomer was also a dude in the original which kinda made it hard for me to find Grace Park as hot as she is. (Yes I am weird that way, don't really go for them guys.)
In general the cast of BSG(new) did a good job. Olmos was awesome, as was the dude who played Tigh. I also really liked how Balthaar isn't a pure evil guy, although I think the "imaginary cylon" was silly.
Still, we get so little SF on TV, and BSG was probably one of the best TV SF shows I've ever watched. Despite all its flaws, and the ending.