Now that BSG season 3 has befuddled us...which is better, the Original or the new?

POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Monday, April 28, 2008 06:36
VIEWED: 7665
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CHRISISALL

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 4:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
after I did, I really liked it.

Jane was so beguiling....

Live and let die Chrisisall

JAYNEZTOWN

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by MacBaker:
The original is a cheese fest, and hard to watch now. The new Battlestar, while far from perfect, is still far superior to the original. The acting is better, the stories more dramatic, and the production values are movie quality.

I'm no fan of the original, it had silly episodes, badly written characters, it was very different with the Muffits and Dirk Benedict characters but at least it tried to be fun and it was original.

You've seen the Nielsen Ratings for the new series, people have stopped watching and with poor story telling and silly sub plots that's just too bad. It was once a good series that had great potential to be really good scifi, now its just got plain silly and people have stopped watching

There were many graphs posted on its poor ratings

The new series has taken a nose dive, there are many reasons why.

How groundbreaking was the new BSG ? Websites like battlestargalatcia seem to imply that the new guys borrowed a heck of a lot of material from DeSanto, Hatch and Singer's vision which were trying to push for a continuity on Battlestar's storyline, their films fell into development hell. The Dalton character from Richard Hatch's books is almost an exact match for the Kara Thrace character.

http://www.battlestargalactica.com/hatchvision.htm

The Battlestar got bad, Season 2.5 - S3 had too many poor episodes, yes you had cool CGI making Galactia planet jump in Exodus but the majority of the series was way below par, Black Market is a lame shock jock episode. Selling children off as some kind of hooker is just an example of depraved shock jockery directing and the new BSG directors/producers were trying to be controversial just for the sake of it. 'Hero' is also a bad ep, the Rocky in space episode was terrible. The new BSG became overly political, Joss is liberal and so are many other Hollywood producers but they write a show conservatives can also enjoy. The new BSG alienated viewers by using Cylon war apology, injecting political abortion stuff and blaming the U.S. for 9/11.

Season 1 of the New bsg did do its story telling very well, it was good scifi with good characters but there's more than just a LOT of remarkable coincidences between the films which fell into development hell and the re-imagined series by Moore and Eick suddenly got flying. Besides the word 'reimagined' does have a much better ring to it than rip-off.

STORYMARK

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 4:53 PM

I've shot down that graphic and reasoning before.... but I'll do it here, too.

Yes, the Neilson ratings have dropped for BSG - but that's hardly the entuire story.

BSG has been recognized as one of the most TIVO/DVR'd shows on the air, and the time delay numbers are still not factored accurately into the Nielson numbers. Secondly, it's a highly downloaded show. Last season, BSG downloads from iTunes were very high - equaled to several other TV series downloads combined. Third, the DVD's sell very, very well. And this isn't even counting the bittorrent viewers, which also represents a large group (among which I count myself, having ditched cable a while back).

That chart, though it has become a rallying point for haters of the show, is simply not an accurate representation of the show's popularity.

People havn't "stopped watching", they just don't watch it on SciFi, and catch it elsewhere.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

MACBAKER

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 5:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by JaynezTown:
Quote:
Originally posted by MacBaker:
The original is a cheese fest, and hard to watch now. The new Battlestar, while far from perfect, is still far superior to the original. The acting is better, the stories more dramatic, and the production values are movie quality.

I'm no fan of the original, it had silly episodes, badly written characters, it was very different with the Muffits and Dirk Benedict characters but at least it tried to be fun and it was original.

You've seen the Nielsen Ratings for the new series, people have stopped watching and with poor story telling and silly sub plots that's just too bad. It was once a good series that had great potential to be really good scifi, now its just got plain silly and people have stopped watching

There were many graphs posted on its poor ratings

The new series has taken a nose dive, there are many reasons why.

How groundbreaking was the new BSG ? Websites like battlestargalatcia seem to imply that the new guys borrowed a heck of a lot of material from DeSanto, Hatch and Singer's vision which were trying to push for a continuity on Battlestar's storyline, their films fell into development hell. The Dalton character from Richard Hatch's books is almost an exact match for the Kara Thrace character.

http://www.battlestargalactica.com/hatchvision.htm

The Battlestar got bad, Season 2.5 - S3 had too many poor episodes, yes you had cool CGI making Galactia planet jump in Exodus but the majority of the series was way below par, Black Market is a lame shock jock episode. Selling children off as some kind of hooker is just an example of depraved shock jockery directing and the new BSG directors/producers were trying to be controversial just for the sake of it. 'Hero' is also a bad ep, the Rocky in space episode was terrible. The new BSG became overly political, Joss is liberal and so are many other Hollywood producers but they write a show conservatives can also enjoy. The new BSG alienated viewers by using Cylon war apology, injecting political abortion stuff and blaming the U.S. for 9/11.

Season 1 of the New bsg did do its story telling very well, it was good scifi with good characters but there's more than just a LOT of remarkable coincidences between the films which fell into development hell and the re-imagined series by Moore and Eick suddenly got flying. Besides the word 'reimagined' does have a much better ring to it than rip-off.

Actually, it's shows with mulitiple showings, like Battlestar that have changed the way Nelson ratings are done this season. There are the "over nights", and then they now add the "Plus 7" ratings. Plus 7 ratings, are those that come from later showings and from DVR viewings. With those "plus 7" numbers factored in, Battlestar's ratings haven't slipped nearly as far as those initial ratings your cute little graph shows!

Bionic Woman is a prime example of this new system for ratings. ABC was touting the "Over Nights" ratings for Private Practice, claiming victory in that time slot, but when the "Plus 7" ratings came in later, it was a virtual tie between Private Practive and Bionic Woman for the wednesday night time slot.

Sci-Fi fans seem more inclinded to DVR and watch later. It's not surprising that we sci-fi techno geeks are ahead of the average viewer, and Tivo those shows we don't want to miss!

I'd given some thought to movin' off the edge -- not an ideal location -- thinkin' a place in the middle.

HOPERULES

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 7:55 PM

When I was a kid, I really liked the old BSG. I had a little thing for Richard Hatch. However, even as a kid, I realized the story got a little silly and repetitive toward the end. As an adult, I doubt I would enjoy it much. Just too cheesy for me.

I tried to watch the new BSG. I found it too depressing. There was not one human or cylon I liked. I did not care how the story came out.

May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.

JAYNEZTOWN

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 1:36 AM

The second episode of season four didn’t fare as well as the premiere, which also didn’t have great ratings (vs. the whole cable universe, not the SciFi channel, mind you). The second episode lost about 16% of its viewers from the premiere falling to 1.801 million viewers (from 2.138 million for the premiere). I predict it will lose more, perhaps even me for the time being, although I’m sure I’ll go back and binge on them when it winds up completing.

Before getting to the spoilers here are the first two episodes ratings in their debut airings. We don’t even get the first Friday airings via Nielsen because they don’t make the weekly cable top 40. I’d rate our odds of ever seeing any of the data for the subsequent airings as very, very close to zero..

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/04/15/more-battlestar-galactica-nielsen
-ratings-and-they-arent-great/3355

HIXIE129

Saturday, April 26, 2008 3:19 PM

Ratings mean nothing.. Firefly had terrible ratings and it was the best show on TV.. BSG and StarGate Atlantis are the only good scifi on TV.. The new BSG is far better than the old one.

JAYNEZTOWN

Sunday, April 27, 2008 8:00 AM

Firefly had not great ratings because Fox never advertised it, and the episodes were broadcast in the wrong order.

BSG is loved by Skiffy, heavily advertised etc

I rank new BSG over the old series but just barely

give the old show a 6/10, from what I've seen of it the show was dumb but it gets a 6 for its space battles or originality in its story.

I give Season 1 of the new re-imagined show a 9.5/10
Season 2 a 7/10 because its got great episodes but got dragged out too long and has crap episodes like Black Market
Season 3 I give a 4/10 because it sucked
Season 4 I haven't bothered with, and I won't rate

So IMO, on average this heavily promoted re-imagined show only scores a 6.8/10

IMNOTHERE

Sunday, April 27, 2008 12:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by JaynezTown:

Take this review
http://movies.ign.com/articles/444/444434p2.html
"The Cylons despise mankind so much that they will settle for nothing less than bombing us out of existence. So, the next generation model of Cylon...what...looks human?

The Cylons revere humanity as their creators and aspire to being "human" - but as they develop they start to realise that humans are sinful, worship the wrong gods and are generally not worthy parents. Some Cylon factions decide that the humans should die to make way for the Cylon pseudo-human utopia that we see at the end of Season 2 - and the attack happens when these factions are ascendent. Other factions are more pro-human, and gain influence after the attack. The result of this is the occupation of New Caprica - a typically senseless "political compromise" between the pro- and anti- human factions.

BSG's problem is that it is tacking quite deep issues about humanity's moral hypocrisy which some people don't really want to hear. Its not *meant* to be a fun show - its meant to be thought provoking. Yes - there is more padding in the middle of each season than around Fat Lee's stomach - but thats endemic in US TV's insistence on making too many bloody episodes of everything.

C.f. the original where Baltar thinks "Hey, I'll help the Cylons wipe out my entire race in return for power and money - yup, sounds like a good plan!".

P.s. What's the problem with "Fat Lee"? He was kicking around on the Pegasus for months with nothing to do, suffering guilt over abandoning the people on New Caprica and feeling like a coward for not rushing back to save them. Consequence: low self esteem => he lets himself go to seed. Perfectly good character development.

PARTICIPANT

Sunday, April 27, 2008 12:13 PM

People here need to check out Bryan Singer's version. Bryan Singer (Apt Pupil) and Tom DeSanto (Transformers) were going to try and continue the old story, like of like how the modernized Star Trek etc. It was going to start filming in late 2001, but the 911 attacks messed up a lot of people's lives. Impatient Skiffy axed their show
David Eick and Ron Moore then gate crashed the party, stealing ideas from the scripts and production efforts. Which is why much of reimagined Battlestar's first season shares striking similarities to Bryan Singer's cancellation.

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