Post by Swifty on Jan 26, 2005 2:17:37 GMT -5
slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/26/010241&tid=129&tid=186
The news story was that they're bringing Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as guest stars on Enterprise to save the show. Apparently, the conversation was shifted to how great Galactica is to other science fiction shows out there. Here are the most profound quotes I found.
-----
Can't they get the terms right. It should be Battle Stations or Red Alert--not Action Alert.
Actually, they say "action stations," not "action alert." "Action stations" is correct military jargon …for the Royal Navy. They also say "set condition one," which is correct jargon for the US Navy.
The milieu of the new "Galactica" is a blend of US Navy, Royal Navy, US Marines and a few of the less silly aspects of the old, 1970s show. For instance, during the series pilot if you listen carefully you can hear a voice on the 1MC say, "Do not radiate or rotate antennas while personnel are aloft," which is exactly what you'd hear aboard a ship in the US Navy. I mean, word for word. On the other hand, the order of battle for the officers goes lieutenant, captain, colonel, commander, which is not similar to any existing military force structure. It's a direct lift from the old show's character names: Commander Adama, Colonel Tigh, Captain Apollo, Lieutenant Starbuck.
There's no great technical advances in the show as far as the character's technology.
Correct. This is by conscious design. The show was written from the start to be a very low-tech science-fiction show. The in-band story behind that is that cylons were able to infiltrate and corrupt any computer system they encountered, so the Colonials got rid of almost all of their automation. After decades of peace, the Colonials reinstated their automation, and it was because of this automation that the cylons were able to so overwhelmingly defeat the Colonials with their surprise attack.
BG has no such exscuse besides the laziness of the wanna-be writer.
It's not laziness. It's much, much harder to write a sensible, internally consistent story from realistic premises than it is to just make up technobabble every week. When he sat down to write "Galactica," Moore asked, "What if this happened to us?" In doing so, he set a nearly impossible task for himself: to tell a story set in a distant solar system about spaceships and robots in a way that would be not merely alien-of-the-week science fiction but character-driven high drama.
Now, you may not like that sort of thing. But it seems like, from looking at things like TV ratings over the past few years, that most people do. Shows like "The West Wing," "NYPD Blue" and "Lost" have been both critically lauded and phenomenally successful. "Galactica" is in the same class.
If you're looking for space aliens and shoot-em-ups and jargon and gadgets, "Galactica" probably isn't the show for you. Doesn't mean it's bad; quite the contrary. In my opinion, with the lackluster performance of "The West Wing" this year and the fact that "Lost" isn't paying off quite like I think it should, I think "Battlestar Galactica" is the best scripted drama show on US television right now. Not just among genre shows, but among all shows.
But if you don't like those kinds of shows, then you're not gonna be happy with "Galactica." That's not because it's trying to be genre science fiction and failing. It's because it's trying to be character drama that happens to be set in outer space … and it's succeeding.
----------
I'm no BSG fanboy, but it has a hell of a lot more going for it than shaky camera moves. BSG feels much grittier partly because of the cinematography, but also because the writers don't suck, the setting and mood are completely different, and the acting and backstory are quite intense. I wouldn't say that they reinvented the genre, but it is frankly some of the best space opera I've seen. period. I don't say that a lot, and I used to be a major TNG fanboy.
The writing in BSG refuses to let the technology get in the way. On Voyager, it was always a damned alient of the week using the particle of the week. On BSG, it's a story about the people, how they interact, how they respond to extraordinary stresses, etc. Star Trek always claimed to be that, but then Geordy saved the day with a fancy modification to the main deflector dish.
BSG explores ideas of how we define God, and who is eligible for religeon, and stuff that Star Trek wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.
That said... I don't watch much TV anymore, so there may be other shows I've been missing that are very impressive. I've been reading a lot lately. much better than any space opera TV show.
---------
BSG doesn't shove as much bullshit ("Let's transport the deflector dish into holodeck 3 and reverse its tachyon pulse to the 4th power!") into its lines as TNG, which I find refreshing.
--------
They've been using the shit out of that technique on the show. The film-school-poseur name for it is in media res, which basically means "we now join our show already in progress." It's a really powerful technique if employed deftly.
I love the fact that Sci Fi in the US decided to air "33" and "Water" back-to-back. If you watch them a week apart, it's easy to miss what I think is one of the most clever storytelling devices I've seen in a long, long time. At the end of "33," Boomer on Caprica is soaking wet from the rain, huddled with Helo beneath a tree. In the opening scene of "Water," Boomer on Galactica is soaking wet, sitting in the locker room. It really does a lot to connect the two Boomers together in the viewers' minds, but it lost a lot of its impact in the UK airing because of all the time that transpired between the first and second episodes. I think it's great that Sci Fi decided to air them together.
----------
Funny story. The series pilot (a 3-hour movie that was run in December 2003 as a miniseries, and later edited down and run on NBC as a movie-of-the-week) is out on DVD now, and it comes with a commentary track. The writer, Ron Moore, is on the track, and he talks about the one part of the pilot that he really, really regrets.
I don't know if you've seen it, but at one point Capt. Lee "Apollo" Adama uses a set of electric pulse generators to send out a big burst of radiation in order to cover the refugees' escape from a cylon attack. In the commentary, Moore says that he hated putting that kind of technobabble bullshit into his script, but he'd written himself into a corner and that the jargon was the only practical way out of it.
But he did poke some fun at himself along the way. After Apollo gave his wordy, jargony, meaningless speech to one of the other characters, her slightly glazed-over reply was, "The lesson here is not to ask follow-up questions."
I thought it was a good line at the time. Now that I know the story behind it, I think it's brilliant.
---------------
And this is my favorite comment from Slashdot
Somewhere I read that the premise behind "Star Trek" was, "Let's see what's out there," while the premise behind the new "Galactica" is, "Run like hell, they're after us."
The premise of the old "Galactica," of course, was, "Run like hell, they're —ooh, a casino planet!" First recorded instance of a TV show with ADD.
It's nice being able to see praise for Galactica from ordinary people coming from outside of TNS Galactica boards.
The news story was that they're bringing Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as guest stars on Enterprise to save the show. Apparently, the conversation was shifted to how great Galactica is to other science fiction shows out there. Here are the most profound quotes I found.
-----
Can't they get the terms right. It should be Battle Stations or Red Alert--not Action Alert.
Actually, they say "action stations," not "action alert." "Action stations" is correct military jargon …for the Royal Navy. They also say "set condition one," which is correct jargon for the US Navy.
The milieu of the new "Galactica" is a blend of US Navy, Royal Navy, US Marines and a few of the less silly aspects of the old, 1970s show. For instance, during the series pilot if you listen carefully you can hear a voice on the 1MC say, "Do not radiate or rotate antennas while personnel are aloft," which is exactly what you'd hear aboard a ship in the US Navy. I mean, word for word. On the other hand, the order of battle for the officers goes lieutenant, captain, colonel, commander, which is not similar to any existing military force structure. It's a direct lift from the old show's character names: Commander Adama, Colonel Tigh, Captain Apollo, Lieutenant Starbuck.
There's no great technical advances in the show as far as the character's technology.
Correct. This is by conscious design. The show was written from the start to be a very low-tech science-fiction show. The in-band story behind that is that cylons were able to infiltrate and corrupt any computer system they encountered, so the Colonials got rid of almost all of their automation. After decades of peace, the Colonials reinstated their automation, and it was because of this automation that the cylons were able to so overwhelmingly defeat the Colonials with their surprise attack.
BG has no such exscuse besides the laziness of the wanna-be writer.
It's not laziness. It's much, much harder to write a sensible, internally consistent story from realistic premises than it is to just make up technobabble every week. When he sat down to write "Galactica," Moore asked, "What if this happened to us?" In doing so, he set a nearly impossible task for himself: to tell a story set in a distant solar system about spaceships and robots in a way that would be not merely alien-of-the-week science fiction but character-driven high drama.
Now, you may not like that sort of thing. But it seems like, from looking at things like TV ratings over the past few years, that most people do. Shows like "The West Wing," "NYPD Blue" and "Lost" have been both critically lauded and phenomenally successful. "Galactica" is in the same class.
If you're looking for space aliens and shoot-em-ups and jargon and gadgets, "Galactica" probably isn't the show for you. Doesn't mean it's bad; quite the contrary. In my opinion, with the lackluster performance of "The West Wing" this year and the fact that "Lost" isn't paying off quite like I think it should, I think "Battlestar Galactica" is the best scripted drama show on US television right now. Not just among genre shows, but among all shows.
But if you don't like those kinds of shows, then you're not gonna be happy with "Galactica." That's not because it's trying to be genre science fiction and failing. It's because it's trying to be character drama that happens to be set in outer space … and it's succeeding.
----------
I'm no BSG fanboy, but it has a hell of a lot more going for it than shaky camera moves. BSG feels much grittier partly because of the cinematography, but also because the writers don't suck, the setting and mood are completely different, and the acting and backstory are quite intense. I wouldn't say that they reinvented the genre, but it is frankly some of the best space opera I've seen. period. I don't say that a lot, and I used to be a major TNG fanboy.
The writing in BSG refuses to let the technology get in the way. On Voyager, it was always a damned alient of the week using the particle of the week. On BSG, it's a story about the people, how they interact, how they respond to extraordinary stresses, etc. Star Trek always claimed to be that, but then Geordy saved the day with a fancy modification to the main deflector dish.
BSG explores ideas of how we define God, and who is eligible for religeon, and stuff that Star Trek wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.
That said... I don't watch much TV anymore, so there may be other shows I've been missing that are very impressive. I've been reading a lot lately. much better than any space opera TV show.
---------
BSG doesn't shove as much bullshit ("Let's transport the deflector dish into holodeck 3 and reverse its tachyon pulse to the 4th power!") into its lines as TNG, which I find refreshing.
--------
They've been using the shit out of that technique on the show. The film-school-poseur name for it is in media res, which basically means "we now join our show already in progress." It's a really powerful technique if employed deftly.
I love the fact that Sci Fi in the US decided to air "33" and "Water" back-to-back. If you watch them a week apart, it's easy to miss what I think is one of the most clever storytelling devices I've seen in a long, long time. At the end of "33," Boomer on Caprica is soaking wet from the rain, huddled with Helo beneath a tree. In the opening scene of "Water," Boomer on Galactica is soaking wet, sitting in the locker room. It really does a lot to connect the two Boomers together in the viewers' minds, but it lost a lot of its impact in the UK airing because of all the time that transpired between the first and second episodes. I think it's great that Sci Fi decided to air them together.
----------
Funny story. The series pilot (a 3-hour movie that was run in December 2003 as a miniseries, and later edited down and run on NBC as a movie-of-the-week) is out on DVD now, and it comes with a commentary track. The writer, Ron Moore, is on the track, and he talks about the one part of the pilot that he really, really regrets.
I don't know if you've seen it, but at one point Capt. Lee "Apollo" Adama uses a set of electric pulse generators to send out a big burst of radiation in order to cover the refugees' escape from a cylon attack. In the commentary, Moore says that he hated putting that kind of technobabble bullshit into his script, but he'd written himself into a corner and that the jargon was the only practical way out of it.
But he did poke some fun at himself along the way. After Apollo gave his wordy, jargony, meaningless speech to one of the other characters, her slightly glazed-over reply was, "The lesson here is not to ask follow-up questions."
I thought it was a good line at the time. Now that I know the story behind it, I think it's brilliant.
---------------
And this is my favorite comment from Slashdot
Somewhere I read that the premise behind "Star Trek" was, "Let's see what's out there," while the premise behind the new "Galactica" is, "Run like hell, they're after us."
The premise of the old "Galactica," of course, was, "Run like hell, they're —ooh, a casino planet!" First recorded instance of a TV show with ADD.
It's nice being able to see praise for Galactica from ordinary people coming from outside of TNS Galactica boards.
