Friday, January 14, 2005
Battlestar Galactica: The Series
Just some quick initial thoughts upon finally getting to see the first two episodes of the new Battlestar Galactica series:
When I first heard about Sci-Fi's attempt to remake BSG, I was highly skeptical, to say the least. The advertised changes -- Starbuck and Lucifer, the high-ranking Cylon official tasked with the destruction of the Rag-Tag Fleet (you'll remember him from the original series as the cyborg Conehead who'd swallowed a disco ball) both morphing into women, along with Boomer... well, those changes alone seemed wrong.
So the miniseries, which was well-crafted and intense beyond all expectations I had, was a pleasant surprise. The changes worked. (And are for the best, really; another male incarnation of Starbuck as a chauvinist womanizer who dates both the commander's daughter and a Prostitute With a Heart of Gold(tm) would be a jarring anachronism in today's society, and would probably doom the show, while Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck exhibits a perfect balance of nails-hard competitiveness, sardonic humor, irreverence, and vulnerability -- you get the feeling she would've had little trouble putting the male Starbuck in his proper place. )
So my hopes for the series were high, given the way the mini delivered. And to judge from the first two episodes (already aired long ago in the UK), my hopes are to be fulfilled.
Series creator Ronald D. Moore has a blog on the show. Hopefully it'll be regularly updated... but not if blogging keeps him away from producing more of the terrifically good writing he's been doing for the show.
James Lileks, who apparently saw the shows back in November, probably puts it best:
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When I first heard about Sci-Fi's attempt to remake BSG, I was highly skeptical, to say the least. The advertised changes -- Starbuck and Lucifer, the high-ranking Cylon official tasked with the destruction of the Rag-Tag Fleet (you'll remember him from the original series as the cyborg Conehead who'd swallowed a disco ball) both morphing into women, along with Boomer... well, those changes alone seemed wrong.
So the miniseries, which was well-crafted and intense beyond all expectations I had, was a pleasant surprise. The changes worked. (And are for the best, really; another male incarnation of Starbuck as a chauvinist womanizer who dates both the commander's daughter and a Prostitute With a Heart of Gold(tm) would be a jarring anachronism in today's society, and would probably doom the show, while Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck exhibits a perfect balance of nails-hard competitiveness, sardonic humor, irreverence, and vulnerability -- you get the feeling she would've had little trouble putting the male Starbuck in his proper place. )
So my hopes for the series were high, given the way the mini delivered. And to judge from the first two episodes (already aired long ago in the UK), my hopes are to be fulfilled.
Series creator Ronald D. Moore has a blog on the show. Hopefully it'll be regularly updated... but not if blogging keeps him away from producing more of the terrifically good writing he's been doing for the show.
James Lileks, who apparently saw the shows back in November, probably puts it best:
Bottom line: Yes. Yes, indeed. It’s very good. Even the Courtney-Love-as-Starbuck thing works. The slogan for the show: “The World is Over.” And that’s exactly how it feels. The show has a pervasive ache to its tone and timbre, and I applaud all involved. I can only hope that the people behind the 80s version of “Buck Rogers” watch it and soil themselves in shame.
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