Post by larocque6689 on Jan 15, 2005 20:27:26 GMT -5
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Jan. 15, 2005. 01:00 AM
Does old sci-fi have a future?
Battlestar Galactica retooled for 2004
VINAY MENON
Fans of Battlestar Galactica, you may now exhale.
Since 1978, when the original ABC series first aired, devotees have waited with bated breath, hoping a spirited remake might finally exorcise a quarter-century of musty nostalgia.
In 2003, some intergalactic hope arrived with an ambitious mini-series. But while a ratings hit, the four-hour project drew a decidedly mixed reaction, gaining new adherents and alienating purists who objected to the re-imagined characters and grim, darker milieu.
Tonight, another chapter begins with a new series of Battlestar Galactica (Space, 8 p.m.). It picks up where the mini-series left off, which means bleating over the philosophical and aesthetic changes from the original will continue.
Unlike some of my esteemed colleagues, I don't claim any great love or appreciation for science fiction. When a press release begins, "It has been more than 40 years since the humans of the 12 Colonies of Kobol battled with the Cylons, the sentient robots that turned on their creators with deadly results ..." I know the night will involve A) a dangerous amount of vodka and B) an urgent long-distance phone call.
So I poured myself a martini, screened the pilot and rang up Ronald D. Moore, Galactica's executive producer and a chap with some sci-fi cred — Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roswell, Star Trek: Voyager, Carnivale, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
"I have always thought of the show as a drama first," he says from his office in Los Angeles. "It just happens to be in a science fiction context. But the show has never been, and will never be, about the alien of the week or the planet of the week or mind control or time travel or body snatching or all the other clichés that go along with the genre."
Okay. Now we're getting somewhere.
To those of you not particularly well-versed with Galactica's backstory or space-Armageddon mythology, allow me to impart some random and, quite possibly, wildly inaccurate observations.
First, there's a war between the humans and the machines. The robots are called Cylons. They're metallic and menacing, fitted with illuminated red eyes that scan from side to side. They initiated a nuclear attack and reduced the human population to 50,000. There are some renegade human fighters, led by Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos).
There is a giant spaceship. There's a scientist with a British accent, one Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) who appears to be having an affair with a mysterious Cylon who has manifested in nubile human form. Known simply as Number 6, this comely robot is played by Canadian model Tricia Helfer.
"The show really is geared to people who enjoy shows such as The Shield, nip/tuck and The Sopranos," says Moore. "It's about complicated, edgy, ambiguous characters and their relationships and dynamics."
Moore says he has "a lot of sympathy" for fans of the original who were less than thrilled with the mini-series and, quite probably, the new series.
"When I was growing up in the '70s, I was a fan of the original Star Trek series. And certainly if somebody had come along and reinvented Star Trek and recast the roles and changed everything, I would be upset, too."
Science fiction, he says, especially when experienced in youth, creates a warm glow of romance. Understandably, fans want to recapture those feelings and reconnect with the beloved, original worlds.
"It was impossible for me to give that to them," he says. "A lot of the key decisions on what the show would be and what it would not be were made even before it was announced in the press and the first hue and cry started."
Still, mindful of the core audience, Moore reached out, talking to fans, gathering opinion, tinkering with minor elements. He even attended a Galactica convention where he was promptly booed.
But he's detected a surge of interest in the new show, especially in Internet chat rooms.
"You'll see there are a lot more people there than have been in there in the past 10 years combined. And people are into the show. The core, old guard that refuses to even watch the new series really don't have anything to talk about."
There's a deeper irony, isn't there? Would the 1978 series, with its campy escapism, ridiculous writing and, at times, shallow characterization, even hold up today? What are people clinging to?
"What I responded to on the old show when I was looking at it a year or two ago and considering the project is, at its heart, there is a dark and interesting premise to Battlestar Galactica," he says.
"The Cylons come in and commit genocide in the pilot; wipe out the civilization in a heartbeat. Our heroes are part of a core group of survivors who flee into the night, run away, and are pursued as they hunt for Earth. The problem with the old show was, yes, that it was also trying to be escapist fun at the same time.
"There was a really good premise. But it was not able to also be Star Wars, also be Star Trek, also be everything else ABC wanted it to be in the late '70s, so it couldn't square the circle."
When Moore watched the original pilot again, the first time in more than 20 years, he says the psychic heft and free-floating anxiety from our post-9/11 world was inescapable.
"When you watch that pilot now, it really strikes a chord," he says. "You are struck by the emotion of an attack from the blue, of a fundamental reshaping of everything you thought you knew.
"And I realized that if I retold the story today and played those emotions truthfully, it would be a powerful piece. It would be an opportunity to comment on, to explore and to challenge things that are happening today."
The new series has 13 episodes. Next month, Moore will get network word on the possibility of a second season. So the power now shifts to viewers.
Is Moore's brave new endeavour a worthy addition to the Battlestar Galactica canon? Nearly three decades after the original, has he managed to square the circle?
Jan. 15, 2005. 01:00 AM
Does old sci-fi have a future?
Battlestar Galactica retooled for 2004
VINAY MENON
Fans of Battlestar Galactica, you may now exhale.
Since 1978, when the original ABC series first aired, devotees have waited with bated breath, hoping a spirited remake might finally exorcise a quarter-century of musty nostalgia.
In 2003, some intergalactic hope arrived with an ambitious mini-series. But while a ratings hit, the four-hour project drew a decidedly mixed reaction, gaining new adherents and alienating purists who objected to the re-imagined characters and grim, darker milieu.
Tonight, another chapter begins with a new series of Battlestar Galactica (Space, 8 p.m.). It picks up where the mini-series left off, which means bleating over the philosophical and aesthetic changes from the original will continue.
Unlike some of my esteemed colleagues, I don't claim any great love or appreciation for science fiction. When a press release begins, "It has been more than 40 years since the humans of the 12 Colonies of Kobol battled with the Cylons, the sentient robots that turned on their creators with deadly results ..." I know the night will involve A) a dangerous amount of vodka and B) an urgent long-distance phone call.
So I poured myself a martini, screened the pilot and rang up Ronald D. Moore, Galactica's executive producer and a chap with some sci-fi cred — Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roswell, Star Trek: Voyager, Carnivale, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
"I have always thought of the show as a drama first," he says from his office in Los Angeles. "It just happens to be in a science fiction context. But the show has never been, and will never be, about the alien of the week or the planet of the week or mind control or time travel or body snatching or all the other clichés that go along with the genre."
Okay. Now we're getting somewhere.
To those of you not particularly well-versed with Galactica's backstory or space-Armageddon mythology, allow me to impart some random and, quite possibly, wildly inaccurate observations.
First, there's a war between the humans and the machines. The robots are called Cylons. They're metallic and menacing, fitted with illuminated red eyes that scan from side to side. They initiated a nuclear attack and reduced the human population to 50,000. There are some renegade human fighters, led by Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos).
There is a giant spaceship. There's a scientist with a British accent, one Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) who appears to be having an affair with a mysterious Cylon who has manifested in nubile human form. Known simply as Number 6, this comely robot is played by Canadian model Tricia Helfer.
"The show really is geared to people who enjoy shows such as The Shield, nip/tuck and The Sopranos," says Moore. "It's about complicated, edgy, ambiguous characters and their relationships and dynamics."
Moore says he has "a lot of sympathy" for fans of the original who were less than thrilled with the mini-series and, quite probably, the new series.
"When I was growing up in the '70s, I was a fan of the original Star Trek series. And certainly if somebody had come along and reinvented Star Trek and recast the roles and changed everything, I would be upset, too."
Science fiction, he says, especially when experienced in youth, creates a warm glow of romance. Understandably, fans want to recapture those feelings and reconnect with the beloved, original worlds.
"It was impossible for me to give that to them," he says. "A lot of the key decisions on what the show would be and what it would not be were made even before it was announced in the press and the first hue and cry started."
Still, mindful of the core audience, Moore reached out, talking to fans, gathering opinion, tinkering with minor elements. He even attended a Galactica convention where he was promptly booed.
But he's detected a surge of interest in the new show, especially in Internet chat rooms.
"You'll see there are a lot more people there than have been in there in the past 10 years combined. And people are into the show. The core, old guard that refuses to even watch the new series really don't have anything to talk about."
There's a deeper irony, isn't there? Would the 1978 series, with its campy escapism, ridiculous writing and, at times, shallow characterization, even hold up today? What are people clinging to?
"What I responded to on the old show when I was looking at it a year or two ago and considering the project is, at its heart, there is a dark and interesting premise to Battlestar Galactica," he says.
"The Cylons come in and commit genocide in the pilot; wipe out the civilization in a heartbeat. Our heroes are part of a core group of survivors who flee into the night, run away, and are pursued as they hunt for Earth. The problem with the old show was, yes, that it was also trying to be escapist fun at the same time.
"There was a really good premise. But it was not able to also be Star Wars, also be Star Trek, also be everything else ABC wanted it to be in the late '70s, so it couldn't square the circle."
When Moore watched the original pilot again, the first time in more than 20 years, he says the psychic heft and free-floating anxiety from our post-9/11 world was inescapable.
"When you watch that pilot now, it really strikes a chord," he says. "You are struck by the emotion of an attack from the blue, of a fundamental reshaping of everything you thought you knew.
"And I realized that if I retold the story today and played those emotions truthfully, it would be a powerful piece. It would be an opportunity to comment on, to explore and to challenge things that are happening today."
The new series has 13 episodes. Next month, Moore will get network word on the possibility of a second season. So the power now shifts to viewers.
Is Moore's brave new endeavour a worthy addition to the Battlestar Galactica canon? Nearly three decades after the original, has he managed to square the circle?