206 replies to this topic

[Jason Panella]

Anna J, on 21 November 2011 - 03:38 PM, said:

There's still time to stop! I recommend a permanent moratorium after 2x09, "Flight of the Phoenix."

I just pretend no other episodes were made after that--I must say I quite enjoy this tactic.

There is still time to ignore Anna!

[Tyler]

The beginning of the third season is my favorite part of the series.

[Anders]

Agreed. I thought the show only really took off around the end of Season 2, though what came before was necessary to set things up. Sure it had it's missteps ("fat" Lee anyone?), but I liked it better once the search for the remaining Cylons kicks off.

[Anna J]

Just imagine, though....if no one on that show had a ~destiny....

[Jason Panella]

Anna J, on 21 November 2011 - 07:55 PM, said:

Just imagine, though....if no one on that show had a ~destiny....

Eh, the show got even more interesting as a result (and the destiny talk started in season one, didn't it?). At least, I think it did.

Oh, and imagining the above means that this wouldn't happen.

[Anna J]

Yeah, but think of all the other things that wouldn't have happened if it ended earlier:

Spoiler

Billy blocking a romance? Let's kill him off!
Lee has a hooker girlfriend! Surprise!
Chief and Cally's baby is actually Hot Dog's! Surprise!
Tigh raped Caprica Six and now they are in LOVE.
Cylons killed ten billion people last year including everyone you ever knew? Well, if you don't want them to be your roommates now you're racist.
Kickass Dee? Naw. Let's have Designated Soulmate Blocker Dee instead, and then kill her off too.
Helo and Athena are the love to end all loves and therefore their baby is specialer than everyone, even though Helo can't even tell Athena apart from another 8 model.
Kara is dead - no, she's an angel - no, she's a PIGEON!

On the other hand, we wouldn't have had Mark Sheppard as Lampkin or Gaeta being awesome.

[Jason Panella]

I'm too weary to form a defense. I think most of the points you listed work just fine. (Or, think you have it completely wrong.) I'll say no more.

Edited by Jason Panella, 22 November 2011 - 10:03 PM.

[Anna J]

Well, Greg and most people I know agree with you, so I think I'm probably crazy.

Maybe I'm just not a fan of the "hey look, a really important secret plot point we didn't tell you about until just now" tactic.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Anna J wrote:
: Maybe I'm just not a fan of the "hey look, a really important secret plot point we didn't tell you about until just now" tactic.

Well, the "tactic" is just a way of trying to cover up the fact that they're just inventing things as they go along. Hence, e.g., when they revealed that one character was a Cylon, they suddenly had to explain why that character had a child, since Cylons Aren't Supposed To Be Able To Have Children, Which Is What Makes That *Other* Kid So Special. So they end up devoting an entire episode to revealing that the character's wife cheated on him at some mysterious point in the past, which further besmirches the character in question. And all because they wrote themselves into a corner.

[Jason Panella]

Anna J, on 23 November 2011 - 03:04 PM, said:

Maybe I'm just not a fan of the "hey look, a really important secret plot point we didn't tell you about until just now" tactic.

For what it's worth, Peter does describe it well. Ron Moore was notorious for just making things up and telling his writers to go with it, and it shows. I just think they managed to sort of make it work. I still hate the Sam Starbuck Lee love triangle with a passion.

[Anna J]

Ha ha ha, that love triangle was one of the things that actually didn't bother me that much, although many of the other problems were ignited in the writers' attempts to accommodate it.

[Nathan Douglas]

Jason Panella, on 23 November 2011 - 04:06 PM, said:

Anna J, on 23 November 2011 - 03:04 PM, said:

Maybe I'm just not a fan of the "hey look, a really important secret plot point we didn't tell you about until just now" tactic.

For what it's worth, Peter does describe it well. Ron Moore was notorious for just making things up and telling his writers to go with it, and it shows. I just think they managed to sort of make it work.

Yeah. By the point where it was clear that the plotting wasn't going to get back to the tightness of the earlier seasons, I was so invested in the characters that I didn't care (except for the hope that Moore wouldn't drop the ball with the finale). I hold Season Two as the high water mark as far as good plotting goes, but it wasn't until near the end of Three that I realized how much I'd grown to love the characters who I'd disliked or been lukewarm towards - primarily Roslin, who I'd now say is my favourite character.

[Buckeye Jones]

Well, four episodes in (I'm watching "Acts of Contrition") and I'm getting a little impatient. So far, it feels like a bunch of establishing techniques. The characters are interesting, but the tension seems a little slight.

[Greg Wolfe]

Oh, you sad little linear people.

What made this show special was precisely the way that it didn't know where it was going.

The risk-taking -- the almost expressionistic, gestural plotting -- is what gave it an element of the sublime, like true "Space Opera."

Some people can love Dickens or Verdi operas -- complete, as they are, with wildly improbable coincidences, unpredictable reversals, mysterious benefactors, etc. -- but come down hard on poor BSG.

(And you know who you are.)

Most of you are too young to have read any real Space Opera sci-fi but it was once a staple of the genre. BSG is one of the few shows to actually achieve that genre on the small screen -- and make that screen look huge.

[Peter T Chattaway]

Greg Wolfe wrote:
: What made this show special was precisely the way that it didn't know where it was going.

I don't mind that it didn't know where it was going. I did mind that it didn't know where it had been.

[Tyler]

Battlestar Galactica reimagined as a 90s RPG, from College Humor.

The whole video is a massive spoiler, by the way.

[Buckeye Jones]

Am now halfway through season 2, (Resurrection Ship Pt 2, I think), and I'm glad I've stuck with it. Watching it in such a compressed fashion, two seasons in little over a month, its flaws and its virtues probably stand out a little more than if it was spread over years. Instead of it being a year since a coup (in the viewer's timeframe), its a week, and former adversaries now hug and kiss. Which at times is perfect, and at other times is, what, don't they remember two episodes ago?

I'm not about to watch the video above, though; I'm still being delighted in the surprises and the whiplash of military actions and spiritual visions.

[Peter T Chattaway]

[Tyler]

A trailer for the spinoff TV movie/show Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome premiered at Wondercon. NBC is blocking anyone who tries to put it on YouTube, but Crave Online has it on their site.

I wish they would've gone all the way and just called it Cylon with the Dragon Tattoo.

[Tyler]

Tyler, on 21 March 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

A trailer for the spinoff TV movie/show Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome premiered at Wondercon.

And now Syfy isn't going to pick up the show. It might still become a web series at some point, though.