OT: Please Help Battlestar Galactica

[informant]

OK, I'm going out on a limb, since I this is off-topic, I guess, but I thought there might be someone interested:

The SciFi Channel has recently announced that a new 'Battlestar Galactica' production is being made. The new production is said to be a remake of the seventies TV show, and is to be headed by former 'Roswell' writer Ronald Moore.
This news surprised and shocked most 'Battlestar Galactica' fans, since another project had already been announced last year, to be headed by X-Men producers Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto.
Bryan Singer eventually left the production team last November, but Tom DeSanto had kept pushing for the return of 'Galactica'. Now, without any warning, he seems to have been taken off the project by Vivendi/Universal.
The fans are particularly aghast since DeSanto was reputed for listening to the fanbase of the show, and wanting to do a sequel of the original series with at least some of the original cast back, along with younger actors, and to keep faithful to the spirit and themes of the original 1978-1979 'Battlestar Galactica'.
Ronald Moore's project, on the other hand, has been announced to be a remake of the show, without the participation of the original actors, and likely with substantial changes to the look and themes of the show.

About Tom DeSanto's plans for the new 'Galactica' show you can read:

http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/531/35220

The following is a link to an article about Ronald Moore’s newly announced remake:

http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/531/35234

Petitions have been started by some fans in protest for this turn of events:

http://www.petitiononline.com/bsg2001a/petition.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/bsg2001b/petition.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/bsg1/petition.html
http://www.petitiononline.com/bsgffs/petition.html


See also

http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/531/32956.

Please spread the word if you know anyone who might be interested.
Thank you.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: informant on 2002-04-19 15:57 ]</font>

[Silas]

Might be off topic, but thank you for letting us know! I, for once, will make my views known!

(It was a goofy show, but it had a lot of good points too. But, heck, I'm still in love with Mara from Space: 1999...)

Silas

[Chip]

Hi,

My (undoubtedly unpopular) opinion is to let sleeping dogs lie and save the budget for a really innovative, new science fiction TV concept.

Since there are some really good recently produced shows, (Farscape, Babylon 5,) and of course the ongoing Star Trek jugernaught; all of which have a premise of a consistent crew going through many adventures together, why not a series that brings great classic science fiction short stories to the screen, with different characters and plots each week? (Yes, that's in the Twighlight Zone, Outer Limits tradition, but those shows are not strictly "science fiction.")

My impression is that Battlestar Galactica was the first commercial TV response to the popularity of Star Wars. The oil-leaking, metal-still-rusts-in-space charm of Star Wars was lost in the senselessly pretty "4th of July" pyrotechnics and chrome polished robots of Battlestar Galactica. Also, the plots didn't capture my imagination, and the show lost me as a viewer. (Just one opinion though.)

Chip (Not normally known for sour grapes.) [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Conrad]

NO!no, don't spend any money on Battlestar Galacticack, instead spend it on a film of the James Blish "Okie" Quadrology!

(Especially "Earthman, Come Home")

Well, I can dream, can't I?

[informant]

They're going to spend the money anyway. It's been announced.
So we might as well push for a GOOD show instead of a CHEAP one, which is what it looks like it's going to be.
Galactica never had a real chance. It was supposed to be a series of telefilms at first, but then ABC got greedy and wanted to turn it into a weekly series. The episodes were rushed into production.
With DeSanto at the helm, I believe all that would not have been repeated.
With Moore at the helm, get ready for another Roswell/Lexx-level show. Woo-hoo...
(That was sarcasm in the last sentence, in case you didn't notice.)

Galactica had many problems - and some bad astronomy, so I guess I'm not that off-topic after all -, but at least it was a fun show with an exciting premise and cool special effects.
I don't want to see it turned into a teen show.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: informant on 2002-04-22 07:40 ]</font>

[Donnie B.]

Sorry, informant, but I'm with Chip on this one. There are no words to describe my indifference to a remake of BG.

[David Hall]

Hard one to say. On the one hand, I agree with Informant that, as long as you're going to spend the money anyway, you might as well get it right.

But on the other hand, I say let sleeping dogs lie. It's better to spend the money on new, interesting stories with GOOD writing and special effects. How about another Babylon 5 style show instead?

There's a very strong and insidious form of nostalgia going on right now. There aren't many new ideas being floated at the moment. Over and over, old shows, music, ideas and such are being dragged out of the attic, given a fresh coat of paint, and presented again as something new. The baby boomers are bringing back their childhoods, and originality is suffering for it. A little bit of homage to the past is one thing, but rehashing old stuff just smacks of a creative void.

Give us new stuff!

[informant]

Moore is the one who wants to do a remake. The petitions are against his remake.
DeSanto wanted to do a sequel. Since the series was cancelled, there were still stories to be told. It wouldn't be just about recycling old ideas.

[The Curtmudgeon]

This is the series that all my friends and I referred to as Cattlecar Gigantica. Refresh my memory as to why I should support more of the same?

The (or rather, please don't) Curtmudgeon

[informant]

Who cares what you and your friends called it?

The (if you don't care about the show, kindly keep it to yourself; this thread was obviously meant for those who do give a damn about it) informant.

[odysseus0101]

On 2002-04-23 04:16, informant wrote:
Who cares what you and your friends called it?

The (if you don't care about the show, kindly keep it to yourself; this thread was obviously meant for those who do give a damn about it) informant.

Hmm... Mr. Informant, that was a bit unnecessary. You posted your statement on an open forum, where ideas are batted around and differing positions are valued.

Now, as for my position: It would be best if the original series had been done better the first time around. Although the show had some great themes (including the long-term plotline), newer series like Babylon 5 and the later days of DS 9 are superior. A new BSG could be an excellent politico-sci-fi 'No Exit' / 'The Flies' Sartrefest, but alas, that is unlikely to occur no matter who is at the helm.

[informant]

Mr. Informant, that was a bit unnecessary. You posted your statement on an open forum, where ideas are batted around and differing positions are valued.

No less necessary than the attempted insults to the show made by some of the previous posters.

[The Curtmudgeon]

On 2002-04-23 12:43, informant wrote:
No less necessary than the attempted insults to the show made by some of the previous posters.

You're completely right, the insult in my posting was totally unnecessary, and I apologise for it. I will only claim in my defense that my own opinion of the show has met with such general agreement among all my sci-fi-loving friends here locally that I do find it hard to believe that anyone could care that much for the show, and so I really meant the remark to be taken as humourous and not insulting. But you are right, I missed my mark by a wide bit, and the comment is herewith withdrawn.

The (we all talk/write before thinking at some time, I think we can agree) Curtmudgeon

[AKONI]

... And here I thought comic book conventions could get ugly.

[Chip]

To paraphrase a quote from a famous Klingon:

"Battlestar Galactica was a garbage skow that should not only be hauling garbage, but should be hauled away as garbage!"

(Fight breaks out...furniture is broken...)

Security comes in, breaks it up...Kirk orders Chip to return to quarters. Chip is happy because he can now study his "technical journals." [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Valiant Dancer]

On 2002-04-28 15:07, Chip wrote:
To paraphrase a quote from a famous Klingon:

"Battlestar Galactica was a garbage skow that should not only be hauling garbage, but should be hauled away as garbage!"

(Fight breaks out...furniture is broken...)

Security comes in, breaks it up...Kirk orders Chip to return to quarters. Chip is happy because he can now study his "technical journals." [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Kirk: What happened, Chip?

Chip: Well, they started off by calling you a tin plated tyrant with delusions of godhood.

Kirk: And that's when you hit him?

Chip: No. I figured we were big enough to handle a few insults.

Kirk: When did you hit him, Chip?

Chip: He called Battlestar Galactica a garbage scow. Then it was a matter of pride.

Cylon: By your command.

[informant]

And I though HUB' lived in a world of his own... LOL.

[Chip]

Alright...you can have your Battlestar remake, but first...you have to pick up every tribble on this website. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Russ]

I know I'll get a penalty call for "piling on" but I must admit, in my opinion, the return of BG is sends a cold chill down my spine. BG:OS was a rip off of "Star Wars: A New Hope" in the hackiest, cheapest, poorliest produced, schlockiest scripted, dumbest TV, tradition. Again, in my opinion, there is little redeaming quality to this show. It makes "Lost In Space" look like Shakespear.

I know that agreeing with Chip and Donnie will earn me flames but...... Ya gotta draw the line somewhere. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[David Hall]

I want to chime in here and say that I have nothing against the original BG series. In fact, I really enjoyed it, even though I was pretty young at the time. The ship models were really cool, and I think the overall idea behind the series was kinda neat.

If they can make a new BG series with quality and a fresh feeling, then that's great. Good luck to them. I'll be the first to line up to check it out. But I really think the effort is better spent elsewhere. I think that it's time has passed now. I'm tired of seeing rehashes of old series. I want to see fresh, new stuff.

[odysseus0101]

One nice thing about BG was that it was greasy. As I've mentioned elsewhere around these parts, sci fi is usually too clean. For example, nobody in Star Trek ever gets dirty, not even the mechanics (if they even show mechanics). BG had dirt and grime, and when stuff broke it took more than a polarity reversal to get it working again. The Vipers showed wear and tear, and the Galactica itself was no prom queen.

[Kaptain K]

I'm tired of seeing rehashes of old series. I want to see fresh, new stuff.

Then you won't be happy about this summer's line-up. Every summer release is:
1) A remake.
2) A sequel.
3) Based on a known success.
or
4) A combination of the above.

[Conrad]

On 2002-05-01 06:57, Kaptain K wrote:

I'm tired of seeing rehashes of old series. I want to see fresh, new stuff.

Then you won't be happy about this summer's line-up. Every summer release is:
1) A remake.
2) A sequel.
3) Based on a known success.
or
4) A combination of the above.

Then it's about time for my script of "Captain Potato!" to get filmed. Captain Potato! - all singing, all dancing, two-fisted caped(*) avenger of the downtrodden!
Plus, he makes a pretty good plate of chips.

[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

* Please note that the good Captain doesn't wear a mask because that would be, well, silly.

[Alan]

The public acccess channel here had on it about 12 years ago, "Spud Trek" using potatoes as puppets with, if I remember correctly, pipe cleaners as arms and legs. I only saw two episodes of it. I think they had a red-shirted spud end up as fries, and in the second episode, Spock was having problems since he was sprouting and growing roots. He was fixed by using the transporter.

[David Hall]

On 2002-05-01 06:57, Kaptain K wrote:
Then you won't be happy about this summer's line-up. Every summer release is:
1) A remake.
2) A sequel.
3) Based on a known success.
or
4) A combination of the above.

Yech. I gave up on Hollywood a long time ago. Nowadays I only scope out a few of the choicest morsels. The only one I'm interested in now is Spider-man, mostly because he's always been one of my favorite characters. The new Star Wars falls into the same category. Of course, both of them fall into the categories above, but at least they have some freshness to them. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

My rant mostly comes from simply revamping old stuff, without much thought to creativity. Recently, most of my complaints have come from movies and music. It seems that just about every series from the 60's-70's with a baby boomer following in the US has been released as a movie in the last decade (Adam's Family, The Flintstones, Lost in Space, My Favorite Martian, Charlie's Angels, ad nauseum...). And at first musicians just appropriated riffs from old songs (Mozart in Rap), but now they've simply fallen back to just covering them, like 'American Pie', 'I'm a Believer', etc.

As for TV, well, in truth, I don't have to worry much about it now, since I don't even get most of it over here. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Japan only gets a few of the most popular shows, and even then quite a long time after they've premiered. One of my cable channels has only just finished broadcasting the first season of Andromeda (not too bad, but it fell into the Star Trek idealism trap), and we'll probably get Enterprise sometime around the end of this year. (Japanese programming, OTOH, is another realm altogether.)

What happened to creativity? New ideas? Where are all the next B5's (which BTW, had a lot of that grease Odysseus was talking about. I am in agreement with him there.), 2001's, even X-files?

How about at least trying to put out some new stuff, instead of going to the old filing cabinet and pulling out whatever's handy? Actually, I think I can at least partially answer that question myself. Especially in movies, since they cost so much to produce now, the big shots are afraid to risk their necks. So they only go with stuff that's pretty much guaranteed to show a profit. And what brings in the most bucks right now is pushing John Q. Public's nostalgia button.

[ToSeek]

On 2002-05-01 00:58, odysseus0101 wrote:
One nice thing about BG was that it was greasy. As I've mentioned elsewhere around these parts, sci fi is usually too clean. For example, nobody in Star Trek ever gets dirty, not even the mechanics (if they even show mechanics). BG had dirt and grime, and when stuff broke it took more than a polarity reversal to get it working again. The Vipers showed wear and tear, and the Galactica itself was no prom queen.

I have to agree with that. One of the bones my wife and I had to pick with Star Trek: Voyager was that they completely dropped the concept that they were stuck out in the Delta Quadrant with no starbases. After a while, they would have been holding Voyager together with baling wire and duct tape - but they never picked up on this.

[Roy Batty]

But they did stop off places & trade for new supplies... which were always completely compatible without the need for duct tape of course [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[ToSeek]

On 2002-05-01 12:40, Roy Batty wrote:
But they did stop off places & trade for new supplies... which were always completely compatible without the need for duct tape of course [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

And anyone on the ship can do anyone else's job on the ship (like piloting a shuttlecraft), except when the plot demands otherwise.

[Kaptain K]

Actually, I think I can at least partially answer that question myself. Especially in movies, since they cost so much to produce now, the big shots are afraid to risk their necks. So they only go with stuff that's pretty much guaranteed to show a profit. And what brings in the most bucks right now is pushing John Q. Public's nostalgia button.

You hit the thumb squarely on the nail.

I too am waiting for Spiderman. I have been a fan since the first issue. Spidey changed the face of comics. He was the first to have a real life with real life problems. Every time he saved the world from Mysterio, he broke a date with MJ. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img] Sometimes they laid on the pathos and angst a little thick, but that's life!