SIMONWHO

When I was a child, I was a very big fan of a TV programme, Doctor Who. I collected the books of old stories, watched new ones avidly and participated in numerous acts of fandom. I even managed to convert the entirety of my school year into watching the show at Prep School when I was 10, the perfect age to be a Doctor Who fan. Then in 1989, the show was dropped. Ratings had been disappointing but the BBC never actually said it wasn't coming back. Years past, there were short skits for charity, a TVM with American co-production, a huge range of new adventures in books, webcasts and audios. But even though I always considered myself a fan, they didn't really count. If it wasn't on TV, it wasn't part of the official history (as witnessed by the fact that the books, comics and audios have now all gone in separate directions). But this Saturday, the man comes round again. A brand new series. Yes, it probably won't be as flashy as modern American shows. It will be still be aiming at a broad audience including children. But when I switch on to watch this Saturday evening, I'll be ten years old again.

OXYOPIA

[b]Introduction:[/b] I recently concluded my viewing of the revamped Battlestar Galactica and felt compelled to add my personal observations about the show, including its characters, presentation, and story. I am certain that many of these points have been covered at length by a plethora (Si, El Guapo, you have a plethora...) of other sources and, from this, I make no claim of sole propriety over the opinions stated below. I do claim that my comments originated from my own brain and are based on personal viewing experiences, so I apologize now if they resemble another's work in any way, shape or form. I would like to point out that I am attempting to keep this post SPOILER FREE (caps make readers pay attention more) to the best of my abilities, so I ask those who have been through the series to not ruin it for anyone else. Most of the references I do make are based off of the 3hr movie, which I consider fair game since it is basically bait to draw the viewer into the series. So, without further ado, on with the review. ----- I would like to begin by first going over Battlestar's several faults. This may not be the best way to introduce the show, but I would like to point out now that, despite these objections, I still consider the series well worth watching and am eagerly anticipating the second season. [b]Age:[/b] This may be a minor consideration to most people but it is a major annoyance to me. You see, almost everyone (on the military side, at least) is in their 20's or early 30's. The commander and his XO are both the world-weary veterans you would expect, but nearly everybody else looks barely old enough to drink, let alone fight for the future of humanity. The show's creators make some attempt to explain this, but even their supposedly senior NCO is only in his early 30's! I find it hard to believe that this ship couldn't rate at least one grizzled vet to help run the day to day operations. Understand, I don't mind so much that the pilots are young...since that is the way things are...but with the myriad of personal they use to service the fighters, as well as run the ship, you would think they could have come up with at least a few more spots to stick in a 40+ year old here and there. I believe the writers noticed this problem and created the ship's doctor to help balance out the age scale (the character is wonderful, btw), but it doesn't go far enough to fix the problem. [b]Race:[/b] I realize that this can be a tender subject for most people, but I assure you that my intentions are pure. Like most sci-fi shows, Battlestar seems to lean toward caucasians as the primary casting genotype. Several key examples exist where the show diverged from this standard, but a vast, vast majority of the faces you see are white. Now, don't get me wrong, the people they chose to play the main characters are, for the most part, very well selected. My complaint centers around all those superfluous faces you see around the ship. Those other pilots in the ready room who probably have names, but aren't yet important enough for the viewer to know. The scores of mechanics, technicians, and support personal you see running around the the hangers and milling in the background of every scene. Is there some unwritten rule that says 99% of those people HAVE to be white? Understand, I am not asking for a complete overhaul, but how about seeing a little more racial variety here and there? [b]Movie:[/b] Battlestar began as a 3hr movie created to set up the series. This movie is, in short, weak. It is so weak, in fact, that I almost gave up on the show altogether after watching it. Several months passed after my viewing of it before I even bothered starting on the series. Fortunately, it is the weekly episodes that save Battlestar. It seems that the writing for the series itself jumped in quality by several orders of magnitude over that of the movie. There are several reasons why this may have happened, not the very least of which being the time constraints a movie faces with not only introducing the characters, but the en

OXYOPIA

Now that I have gotten all that negative energy out of my system, let's talk positive! [b]Presentation:[/b] This is almost as important to a show as its story and characters. Battlestar does an excellent job presenting itself both through its CGI and camera work. I would be remiss, however, if I did not point out the origins of both of these styles. There once was a little show called Firefly. It aired for a very brief time in 2002 on the Fox network. It was, without a doubt, the very best science fiction has to offer. Part of what made it great was its use of a wonderful company by the name of Zoic Studios to create its CGI space scenes. They were able to do so with such style and realism that the viewer couldn't help but be drawn into their universe. Battlestar uses this same company, in a similar capacity, with much the same result. Before I get into how this is achieved, I need to mention the camera work. Firefly also introduced the viewer to the 'shaky-cam'...scenes shot using the imitation of a hand-held camera to make the viewer feel as if they were in the room with the characters. Firefly incorporated this technique with their CGI space scenes as well as included zooms and focus corrections. Battlestar incorporates many of these styles into its own series and creates a similar 'viewer involved' feel. I should point out that Battlestar doesn't go so far as to incorporate the signature lens-flares that became almost a trademark to Firefly, so I would not go so far as to say that their style is outright theft...more like flattery though imitation. Despite this questionable originality, Battlestar does do an excellent job presenting itself such that the characters feel more accessible and its story that much more involving. [b]Continuity:[/b] This is something that I feel is more important than presentation, in a way. Nothing is worse than a show that either A. Doesn't go anywhere or B. Doesn't take into consideration events that have happened previously. I believe that much of these problems are the result of a screwy American program schedule that demands over 20 episodes from a show each season, regardless of the nature of the series involved. It is pretty darn hard to come up with significant and meaningful material each week that both develops your characters and furthers the overall story. Let me exemplify my point by presenting Stargate SG-1. I was a late adopter of this show and even now, while I consider myself a fan, have very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it has a great plot and intriguing characters that steadily evolve through the life of the series. On the other, there are only about 8 to 10 REALLY good shows each season, supported by about 5 to 8 enjoyable ones...with anywhere from 4 to 7 completely useless ones that are totally 'episodic' in nature. Any fans of the series doubt me? If so, I dare you to defend the 'Citizen Joe' episode which aired little more than a month ago. Back on topic, my point to this is that shows tend to sacrifice continuity and development in order to meet their episode totals. Battlestar did an amazing job tying the series together in such a way that almost everything that happens has some significance later on. In addition, whereas the original Battlestar pretty much refused to take any meaningful steps towards achieving their goal of finding Earth/destroying the Cylons, each passing episode of this newest incarnation seems to progress the series towards some significant conclusion. I realize that the purpose of a TV show is to remain on the air as long as possible, so any REAL conclusions in plot are generally avoided like the plague or needlessly extended...but I have hopes that Battlestar will buck that trend and offer its viewers some sort of resolution in a relatively brisk time frame (say 5 seasons or so). Of course, there were only 13 episodes for the first season. If future seasons are expected to play out to the 20-something length and its powers-that-be decide to follow the same tired route that every other show seems to take,

RAY53208

im writing my own home brewed Firefly RPG. im sick of waiting and hoping. its just for me and my players. im not going to use any pre-existing mechanic. so "up yours" fox. ill play what i damn well want and you cant stop me. douche bag fox... mumble grumble... ray :finger:

NRKANGEL

Hi There! After a small hiatus from this board, I'm back with a favor to ask. Some of you may know that six-months ago, I left my job in Silicon Valley in order to make movies. (If you read the earlier entries, you'll see the story of a man who angsts waaaayyyy too much and has some pretty strange ideas about what living is all about.) Well, we completed filming at the end of Jan, and are currently doing post-production work which I hope will be finished in another month. That's when we'll start submitting to film festivals. The movie is a romantic comedy called Finding Love For Annie. Here's the website: