Lucite hardening … must end life in classic Lorne Greene pose from "Battlestar Galactica." Best … death … ever!
(Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror X: Desperately Xeeking Xena")
Perhaps chalk it up to nostalgia, but the Sci-Fi channel’s new Battlestar Galactica series has got me hooked. Seriously hooked. It ain’t Citizen Kane (or even Buffy), but I watched three hours straight on Saturday and, on Sunday, watched the exact same three hours over again. Give it a look-see.
Now, if they’d only remake Space 1999. And, this time, maybe make it not suck. (Which I’ll concede it did, in retrospect.)
I too was transfixed by the three hours the showed on NBC (was it?)…especially liked the blend of campy weapons and political intrigue. Don’t have cable though, so will need to wait until it’s on DVD.
And Space 1999…what a painful memory…
Carnivale has its slow-paced-yet-enthralling claws hooked into me, but you need HBO to see it. [Or $100 to drop on the DVD set which, naturally, I don’t have.] I’ve heard good things about BSG from a number of people who ought to know better, though, so maybe I’ll give it a try.
Skiffy still shoulda kept Farscape, though :/
Ohh, Farscape. And the little tack-on mini-series was rough. They tried to pack a whole season’s worth of story arc into four hours. It was just a bit rushed.
Would it be inappropriate to admit that Crichton is my fantasy space-man? [yes–ed] If I had a discretionary man in my head I probably wouldn’t let that out. 🙂
They made Starbuck a woman. Interesting. Do they still have Muffit, the robotic dog-thing?
They make this show in a studio less than five minutes drive from my home. A neighbor does background and stunt work for it as well. I hated the original series, but perhaps I’ll take a look at this one.
You’re nuts, von. The new Galactica is worlds better than the lazily-written, poorly-acted teenage angst-porn that was Buffy. And don’t you dare bring up “Once More With Feeling” – my ears are still bleeding.
Now, Farscape. THAT was a show.
Best series ever is still Babylon 5, followed by Buffy. Buffy caused us to invent the ‘smartie moment’, when suddenly you taste through the sugarcoated layer and find the real nice chocolat inside ;-).
Since Joss Whedon rocks Firefly is number three (but you have to see it from DVD, in the right order, not in the order it was broadcasted in). Farscape is my number four I think, but the new Battlestar Galactica is definately a hit too. I hated the old serie, but I really like this one.
Carnivale is stylish, beautifull but slow, capturing but not in the addictive way the other series are IMHO.
And I really love LOST too.
I downloaded most of them (bittorent, not all series I want to see will be broadcasted here) and if I really like them I buy the DVD’s once they are out.
The new BSG is FANTASTIC. You can look around on the Net for episode reviews up through the eleventh if you’re curious – they’ve been showing in Britain since October. The NBC mini was heavily edited, from four to three hours, but I didn’t tape it, so I don’t know what was dropped.
I don’t understand why Sci-Fi dropped Farscape and picked up this, considering the fanbase that show had, but the Peacekeeper Wars miniseries was a total fan gift. I’ve watched it a dozen times, and I spot something new every time. Yum.
I wish I knew why Sci-Fi thinks that “sci-fi” means ghosthunting and magic more than spaceships and galaxies. The only three spacebased shows (being generous with Stargate and Atlantis, since most action is planetside) are all on the same night. Makes Friday night good for the dateless (like me) but the other six nights of the week need BOOM too!
CS
Being a member of the reality-based community and a resident of Baltimore, I prefer The Wire to any of the sci-fi series.
Haven’t seen the new Galactica yet. I may BT the episodes later in the week.
I’m liking the new season of Carnivale. It’s nice to actually get some answers to the questions from S1 and have those answers at least make some sense.
Which segues nicely into a point about Babylon 5 which is, why the hell does this show get the avalanche of plaudits from the geek masses? I mean, it wasn’t a bad show, on the whole. There were some decent ideas in there and some good intentions. But there was always a promising build up and piss-poor payoff.
Bleh.
I must confess, hilzoy, The Wire does roundly thrash any genre show made in the last three decades. Then you get to The Prisoner and I have to hold the line. There’s nothing quite like Patrick McGoohan going up against a totalitarian Welsh village and their semi-sentient weather balloon, losing every time, and coming back for more.
I get the love of B5. The story was pretty cool, even if the dialogue was awful and the ending was a rushed mess of a deus ex machina.
What I don’t get is the Buffy-love. And I say this as someone who’s watched nearly two seasons of the show, often at gunpoint or something close to it. There’s trauma here, I don’t deny it. There’s only so much “you’re a vampire, so I hate you, but I want you, because I hate me, but I hate you, but I want you, but you’re a vampire” melodrama I can take before permanent damage sets it. 90210 with bad plastic fangs.
I’m going back to Carnivale for Season 2, but I’m hoping the payoff will be something more than So Much Atmosphere!!!. Let’s see some more action, some more Doin’ Stuff, some less of the bearded lady.
Damn, is every blogger a complete and total geek?
I prefer The Wire to any of the sci-fi series.
Now there is someone with taste, The Wire best drama on TV, best cop show since the “Naked City”.
Being a member of the reality-based community and a resident of Baltimore, I prefer The Wire to any of the sci-fi series.
My dad’s been *raving* about it but it’s on at a really inconvenient time (well, multiple really inconvenient times) for me. This HBO On Demand stuff kicks ass though; once they cycle back to the beginning, I’ll take a look.
[My cable company restructured their billing plan so that I lost about 50 channels I wasn’t watching anyway but, for an additional $8 a month, picked up HBO, Starz and Skinemax, plus the relevant On Demand channels. I haven’t been the same since.]
You’re nuts, Iron Lungfish. The brilliance of Buffy is that it was 90210 with fangs, but in a way that made it much more interesting than 90210 was capable of being: It took the simple metaphor “high school is hell” and made it completely literal. I got tired of the Buffy/Angel love story eventually, too — in fact, both series got a bit better when Angel left for his own series, which was also excellent — but nothing can convince me that the entirety of Buffy Season 2 does not approach the level of the best Greek tragedy.
The new Battlestar Galactica is a stretched metaphor for the War on Terror, which is why I guess alot of people groove on it.
However, I’m glad you like it. A fella I went to high school with wrote the 3-hour NBC deal and produces the series. He’s also involved in Carnivale and some STNG seasons. But, don’t be emailing me for souvenir Klingon underwear or Captain Apollo stun guns.
I loved the BSG miniseries, and was eagerly looking forward to the new series. Saw the first two eppies the other night, and will likely be a fitfully-faithful viewer.
The first ep left me a little cold. I stopped watching (went on-line, and just listened to the TV in other other room) so can someone tell me if there was ever an explanation of why the fighters didn’t just go to triple-shifts? Or is it impossible to sleep through a warp change, even if you are on triple-shifts?
But the second ep I loved, because that whole Cylons-as-moles things really interests me. Not only do some of the moles not know they’re moles, but even when they’re ‘activated,’ apparently they do so in fugue states their non-mole identity is unaware of. I loved the way they played Boomer’s horror and fear.
I don’t know whether to be intrigued or irritated by Gaius. I do have a feeling his visions (hallucinations or ‘real’ thought bombs) of No. 6 are going to get tiresome real fast.
I’m one of the few (apparently very few) people who were passionate fans of ‘Space: Above & Beyond,’ so excuse me if I say a little prayer that they bring on James Morrison and Kristen Cloke as guest stars.
Sorry to gabble on so, but TWoP doesn’t have a BSG room yet 🙁
I take it back! TWoP just opened a forum for BGS! See ya there!
Mmmm, TWoP snark.
Oh, missed that above: SAAB was a show that sadly never found its niche. I hated the pilot, but by the end I was hoping they’d get another few seasons to expand on the various plotlines and characters. Ah well… we’ll just have to tell their moms they done their best.
You don’t know how if it’ll be any good. Then again, who does?
Space 1999 had cool titles.
Are all bloggers geeks?
Well, I am.
(Used to play _In Nomine_. Still providing role-playing material and consulting to the tiny gamer community in my Eastern European host country. Recently posted a long thread to soc.history.what-if about an alternate universe where DC comics did not survive the financial crunch of 1978.)
If we could get skiffy here in Bucharest, I’m sure I’d be watching it. Failing that, I’m reading all your comments on it.
And maybe that’s the geekiest thing of all.
Doug M.
I concur with von. BG is (at least based on the first two episodes) shockingly good. Granted that I wasn’t expecting that much, but if you’re into to sci fi and don’t have an unholy allegiance to the original series, check it out.
As for Ironlungfish and Buffy love – Season 2 and 3 were probably the best thing on TV at the time. Later seasons had their moments, and were still much better than most crap on TV, but weren’t as consistently good. I got into Buffy during season 2 because my roommate’s girlfriend would watch it. I decided to sit in one night to make fun of her and got surprised by it’s quality, expecting nothing. Sounds like you heard so much buzz before you ever saw it that it couldn’t live up to it. Our expectations do a lot to shape our perceptions.
And while speaking of Joss Whedon projects, I can’t wait for Serenity.
I loved 0Space 1999 when I was a kid — though I have not the faintest memory of what the stories were like. Just that there was this cool scientist lady.
I am happily completely unhooked on TV right now so I will resist any looking at BSG, lest I once more be sucked into thralldom.
I will confess muchly to Aeryn-love, Spike-devotion, and Xena-sympathy (and let’s admit it; Ares is cute). B5 was great but I never did fall in love with any of the characters; although it was a close thing with Ivanova.
As for Ironlungfish and Buffy love – Season 2 and 3 were probably the best thing on TV at the time.
I have to agree — as well as ending Buffy’s reign with the death of the Mayor at the end of Season 3. (You have to love a big bad who’s constantly warning his vampire henchmen to “watch their language.”) There were flashes of the old brilliance after — “Hush,” “The Body,” and, yes, “Once More with Feeling” — but Joss had already told the story he set out to tell by that point.
You have to love a big bad who’s constantly warning his vampire henchmen to “watch their language.”
Life imitates art.
Hmm … I wonder what Bush’s to-do list looks like?
[/snark]
Von and I know via Delilah’s one of the gentleman on the current bacherlorette (sp?). So I can be found on the couch watching this show (TIVO of course) with the girlfriend. As I alternately laugh and cringe while Wendell does his thing on the boob tube I wonder if knowing someone on this show someone makes me uncool. Not that I had a lot of cool to lose you see. But this doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that would happen to a true punk rocker (or someone that masqueraded as such for about 8 years).
I believe this is an experience that all of the makers and coke in the world will be unable to erase. And yet there I am at some point during the week watching the show wondering if Wendell is going to be the lucky guy that finds true love on TV in 7 weeks or will he get tossed off the show like that psycho Stu who sounded an awful lot like a stalker.
Guess I will have to wait until next week to find out.
And while speaking of Joss Whedon projects, I can’t wait for Serenity.
Me neither. I soooo love Firefly. Which is weird, because I hated it at first (pffff, stupid western in space), but once I saw the proper sequence I started to really fall in love with the characters. Counting the days till fall…
Who’d have thought Gaff would have wanted to be a Commander when he grew up?
Von and I know via Delilah’s one of the gentleman on the current bacherlorette (sp?).
Whaaa? Wendell’s on The Bachelorette? I leave Chicago, and all hell breaks loose. Or monkeys fly outta my butt. Or something.
Or, to bring it back to topic, is it possible that Delilah’s is located on a Hellmouth? I thought Delilah’s various spikey-haired and metal-affixed patrons were merely free spirits of the punkish or biker variety, but perhaps there is a more disturbing explanation.
I guess this means I’ve gotta start watching the show.
Best-written and best-acted science fiction on television, ever. Even the plot’s good.
Space 1999 had absolutely brilliant FX model work, but the basic premise was so goofy there’s really no way to salvage it. The original BG, on the other hand, had some interesting basic ideas wrecked with horrid execution, which we can see in the current version.
Buffy suffered greatly when the characters left high school and Joss Wheden turned much of his attention to other projects. I’m looking forward to his Serenity as well.
And, if you’re a fan of British SF, both Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 are in the midst of revivals. Both sound very promising, but I don’t know when or if they will reach the US.
(My apologies if this message went out twice; I was getting error messages.)