Battlestar Galactica: The Mini Series

In honor of the upcoming series in January 2005 here is an updated review of Battlestar Galactica the Sci-Fi channel mini series. For those who may have missed it the mini series originally aired in two parts on Monday and Tuesday night, the second week of December 2003.

What the original review set out to do is 1) provide an overview and critique of the mini series, 2) provide insight into the role-playing potential of the series, and; 3) compare the mini-series to the classic series of yesteryear. However the review that follows has been re-edited, re-formatted, and all but totally redone from the original. While the aforementioned points are still valid the review that follows is really meant more as an aide to refresh our memory about the mini series. That said…

Battlestar Galactica?

What is Battlestar Galactica: The Mini-Series? It’s a cross between space opera and post apocalyptic drama. Traditionally Space Opera is best known for spinning vast mythic tales centered on fantastical galaxy spanning battles between arrayed forces of good and not-so-good ala Star Wars, Wing Commander, Babylon 5, Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, Battle Beyond the Stars, Star Crash, and to a lesser extent Starship Troopers. The Battlestar Galactica mini series present what is more of a cross between a cautionary futuristic military science fiction drama and a post-apocalyptic tale of survival that happens to be set in space. You could call it a Space Operacalypse, but I wouldn’t suggest it as most seem to find that to be a incredibly silly term. So just stick with calling it a Space Opera. Or, better yet, Battlestar Galactica.

The really special series are those that you don’t mind watching again in re-runs. Sadly, and to be perfectly honest here, I so far have not been able to stomach watching the mini through a second time. And that makes me sad. Then again, when compared to the current wasteland of “reality” programming, the Battlestar Galactica mini is a glittering gem on the putrid shores of a rancid cesspool sea.

Yet when weighed against the pre-show hype and the promissory statements made in various reviews and articles the immediate knee-jerk reaction might be to pan the series as lacking heart. I certainly said as much in the original version of the review. Why? Because I felt the mini lacked depth.

In many ways the mini series skirts the fringe edges of the genre. It is, yet is not, Space Opera. Nor is it quite the traditional post-apocalyptic story either. Yet it very much is a Post-Apocalypse tale, albeit one on a grand scale concerning multiple worlds.

The “classic” Battlestar Galactica from the seventies was straight up, undiluted, epic Space Opera about humanity struggling to survive against an unrepentant alien menace, in the form of cybernetic beings that overthrew their creators and became dead set on wiping the nearest enclave of organic life out of existence. This miniseries is essentially a completely different story using the Battlestar Galactica name, though it does manage to retain a similar undercurrent, namely humanity facing the wrath of cybernetic beings dead set on wiping them out of existence. While this “re-envisioning” is not terrible, it is also not terribly spectacular.

The “re-imaging” has taken a once vibrant mythic story, stripped it of all sense of noble glory, gutted it of the legendary larger than life background, and overlaid a uninspired pseudo modern America-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off society in place of the truly alien feeling society of the original series in an effort to spin a pallid tale of updated 50s red menace fear mongering replaced with terrorists lurking in every shadow doom and gloom mediocrity. Sadly this means there exist very little solid setting information for gamers to mine and build upon.

However the big plus for gamers is also the setting. Because it is so generic and non-specific gamers should have little difficulty recreating it. There are a number of established generic systems out there well suited to such threadbare SF settings: BRPS, CORPS, FUDGE, FUZION, GURPS, JAGS, and RISUS, just to name a few. And more are being released on the internet in HTML and PDF publications all the time!

The Setting: Unspecified futuristic setting with action set primarily aboard the carrier vessel, Battlestar Galactica. There are a few scenes planet side on Caprica; Caprica being one of twelve colony worlds of mankind; with one decent CGI rendered cityscape. The underlying premise as the show opens is that the aforementioned vessel, in space near Caprica, is, now that the “Cylon Wars” have been over for several decades, about to be turned into a museum as its commander prepares to go into retirement.

The Colonials: The colonials are the central protagonists. It is their planets/colonies that are attacked. Character wise the colonials could easily be Americans or Australians with the serial numbers filed off.

Colonial CGI: The ships look good. The Galactica has a nice retro feel. Alas sparse screen time is given to vessels, and then usually in all too short cut-scenes. The Vipers, as with the old show, still look too small to be feasible craft. But they appear a bit more plausible with those updated cockpits. Nicely done.

The Cylons: The shows central bugaboo. Originally the Cylons were clunky robot like cyborgs. In the mini series they introduced a new version that are indistinguishable from normal humans. It is unclear is this new strain are biomechanical with biological aspects or if they are rather some as yet explained advanced synthetic life form.

Cylon CGI: A bit of a cop-out. The CGI of these bugaboos were obviously thought to be so poorly rendered that they were relegated to cameo appearances in the first and last five minutes. As for the re-envisioned cylon raiders, let’s just hope the folks behind the Batman movies don’t sue. Too, I’ve seen the “hand turn into weapon” done to better effect elsewhere. Anyone remember Cleopatra 2525? Cheesy as it was they did something very similar with their cybernetic menaces. So much for originality.

Plot: The story primarily unfolds aboard ship, located in an unspecified galaxy in a solar system of what, at a minimum, is supposed to be twelve habitable planets. Each planet being a colony world of humankind, and- one assumes- a few space stations and moons; which have just been attacked in a 9/11 slash Pearl Harbor like raid.

Opening Scene: Obviously meant to appeal to old school fans, as the first thing we see is a side view of an old-show shuttlecraft. Alas the homage is halfhearted at best. Threadbare narrative scrolls by, explaining how an “Armistice” space station was established after the war as a place where Cylon and Human could come to talk about their differences. Shadows of Babylon 5 aside these simple sentence blurbs pop up as the shuttle flies through space. Blurb attempting to provide background and set up as the scene unfolds? The trope struck me as lackadaisical at best. Worse, the cut scene that follows leaves a bad taste. Either it was written by someone who feels women have treated them badly and is also of the opinion that military officers, or perhaps just military personnel in general, lack the innate intelligence of a lemming or. . Well I don’t know. The scene grates. Too, the entire premise presented in this framing introductory scene was very obviously lifted out of Babylon 5. Even when discounting that factor this entire sequence is inelegant, not very informative, and does not make sense. I wont even mention the CGI Cylons, which don’t appear again, at all, until the last five minutes of the series.

Characters: As everyone knows by now the entire cast of characters for the mini series has been “re-envisioned”. Oddly what that seems to mean is that formerly male characters have been turned into female characters and, shock and gasp, given love interests; or rather love scenes. (See “Pointless Sexcapades” below.) What can yod do, sex sells, and who is more appealing than a beautiful young woman wielding a blaster?

Speaking of Starbuck: The first appearance of the “re-envisioned” Starbuck character shows her jogging down a corridor. The scene didn’t work for me. Luckily her later appearances are much more relaxed and, with the exception of the brawl scene, are far more realistic. Speaking of being relaxed the new Gaius Baltar character is certainly a different facet off the old Baltar character. Of course what some may not realize is that the original series Baltar was a bit of a re-imaging of the original character conception as well. Both have their flaws, though it is easier to sympathize with the current Baltar, though it‘s doubtful he‘ll have the same on-screen presence as the original.

What fools mortal be, especially when they are males being strung along by vivacious vixens! And speaking of Number Six, who happens to be one of the new model Cylons, seeing her side by side with Baltar was kind of funny. I got the distinctive impression that the story between her character and Baltar’s was recycled from someone’s unused “Seven of Nine and Dr. Bashir” love story. Probably not, but who knows, the scriptwriter was involved with various series in the Star Trek franchise.

Problems: My main gripe with the mini series was that the colony worlds are never really developed. Not even with throw away visuals, which one would have expected at the very least to have been included. As a viewer I was never really able to properly suspend my disbelief, much less become invested in the premise that this, indeed, is some far-flung alien solar system. Not even the CGI effects gave me the sense of this being anything more than cheap window dressing. Of course that may have just been me. I would have liked to see more but then again the primary story of the mini series concerns the Galactica and her crew and little else.

Pointless Sexcapades: I’m giving this a separate entry from “problems” because they all occur within the first 15 minutes. Worse, the scenes seemed to exist for no good reason and when considered as part of the story arc over all, totally lack substance. Why? First, the scenes do nothing to advance plot. Second, they do not inform the viewer of anything about characters or back-story. Third, they come off as scenes included merely because someone thought they needed to “sex up” the mini series.

Worse some of the seems appear to have obviously been written by someone with an axe to grind against military types. Actually the entire presentation of military character in this mini series is dreadful. It is so bad that, on deeper reflection, one wonders if the person responsible for cluing the actors in on how their characters should act had a clue. One can only hope that the when NBC airs their version of the mini series they will edit out these pointless scenes. After all scenes should exist to inform the viewer.

For example 1) We are treated to fraternization between ranks, while on duty, during operations on the flight deck. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect to see in “JAG” as the set up to some dire story requiring the lawyers to step in to spend an hour trying to uncover the fact that whatever untoward event happened aboard ship was because an officer and non-com were doing the nasty in a broom closet. Yet the scene set up nothing. It was just there, like dog feces on a sidewalk. 2) The audience is never informed of anything as these scenes don’t show anything, explain anything, or serve to advance the plot. They are beyond pointless. 3) The “love scenes” that are shown are stale, flat, and manage to neither achieve anything approaching a level of eroticism or sensuality. Even the scene between Number Six and Baltar seemed to exist only to use a throwaway cheesy “glow up her spine” effect. An effect that was never mentioned again or integrated into the overall story in any way, shape, fashion, or form.

Basically Game Masters can pretty much use any system designed to portray a modern style setting with spacecraft. Those wishing to translate BG into a campaign really will not have a lot to worry about when importing the mini series over to their systems, it is just a pseudo-modern group of people dropped into a non-specified futuristic setting with spacecraft. Setting up for play shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s finding ideas for adventures that will be hard. Sadly the mini series offers slim pickings for GMs looking for ideas, though the series proper should have plenty of ideas. Until then the mini-series can be portrayed as a pseudo-modern day society overlaid on a non-specified futuristic space faring culture that hasn’t managed to combat cancer yet. I’d suggest using something specifically designed for post-modern settings, like D20 Modern, a suitable GURPS sourcebook, or maybe something like Spacemaster.

Of course abundant supplementary material also exists for the D20 product line- ranging from d20 versions of Star Wars and Traveller to totally original, sometimes generic, rule templates that may be suitable for creating a gaming universe with the feel of a Space Opera based campaign. Of course D20 isn’t to everyone’s tastes. Some other systems that seem promising include: Core Command, the Tri-Stat Core System, and perhaps StarCluster. If you are pressed for money you may also try demo/free versions of systems like: Adventures in Space, Aurora, Future Shadows, or the classic Star Frontiers rule set. There are also lite fast play rule versions of Alternity, Light Speed, and Transhuman Space available for download.

There are more than enough game systems out there so shop around, read the rules, and be sure the system is capable of doing what you want it to do before purchasing it. Just be aware whatever system you decide upon is likely to require some major tweaking to get the feel of the Battlestar Galactica setting just right.

Adapting the Story: While the story drags a bit at the outset, especially where it is punctuated by the rather limp and boring attempts at inserting character ‘sexcapades’ as filler between fade scenes, the premise is rather easy to adapt for game use. All the player characters are going to be aboard a space ship traveling through space, ala Metamorphosis Alpha, for the duration. Sadly the mini-series wasn’t very inspiring regarding setting, so if you want to start the game in the colonies you will either need to wing it or rely on the old series for potential ideas.

Sources of Ideas: For any Game Master looking for role-playing source material I would suggest the official mini-series magazine. Be warned: It was a ten dollar (American) purchase that, despite a synopsis of the mini series story, doesn’t actually provide a whole heck of a lot in the way of useful campaign detail. Good luck finding a copy now as you’ll probably have to pick a copy up at a convention or, if you have one in a strip mall, maybe a mom and pop newsstand might still have a copy lurking around somewhere. Either way if you are planning to use the setting of Battlestar Galactica as a backdrop for your next space opera campaign this magazine in a must have supplement.

It is really hard to appraise this mini series. The mini-series was not terrible, but neither was it Battlestar Galactica. Rather what we have here is a property that has been taken and twisted into a balloon animal of it’s former self. On the whole I liked the look, especially the detail of the space vessels, which sadly were all too fleeting a presence on screen. Yes I thought the mini series could have been much better. But then again it could have also be worse, much worse.

In my original review I commented that I did not feel it has that special spark that will raise it above television mediocrity. And with good reason. There is nothing original here. The plot about the cylons might as well have a neon sign saying “RIPPED OFF FROM THE INVADERS!” Don’t know what The Invaders is? It was a science fiction series from the sixties in which, gasp, alien invaders that can take human form come to earth. Of course, just like with the cylons, there are certain ways they can be identified. But it ain’t easy. Why? Plot contrivance.

Only time will tell whether or not the new Battlestar Galactica is remembered or goes the way of the 1995 The Invaders mini-series. Sadly not even Scott Bakula could do much to make that dud of a mini series memorable. So where does that leave us?

Waiting for the series to come to the States, that where. That’s right it’s already been airing overseas in the UK on Sky One. That sad little fact alone speaks volumes. The original Battlestar Galactica was a homegrown American space opera series once vaunted and much loved by it’s adoring fan base. Sadly, as often happens with “properties”, it received a less than stellar re-envisioning. Many negative comments were made. One wonders if perhaps the producers didn’t take that criticism to heart and thus took the series to a more forgiving audience. Certainly it can’t be because they felt an American audience wasn’t worthy or because they are hoping the longer they take to put it on the less we will remember the let down that was the mini series?

A number of what could be viewed as internal inconsistencies with the mini series that comprise those gripes lovingly referred to as continuity errors by nitpickers exist. One possible mains ones, or perhaps minor depending on how you look at it, is question of whether the "Human" Cylons are, in fact, bio-mechanicals. If they are then they can have glow in the dark spines. However if they are biologicals, meaning clones of some time, it does not seem likely they should have any glowing bits. As a casual viewer one can blink and miss this in the mini contradictory statement about the only way of determining if a person is a cylon is to cremate them leaves a wide opening for further development.

Why does any of this matter? Because the series has already been signed up for- drum roll please, a second season! Of course fans of the original series have a lot to look forward to as well. For instance Richard Hatch makes an appearance, the original series episode “The Hand of God” is reprised, there’s an episode based on “Lost Planet of the Gods”, and of course there’s a second season in the works.

Negatives: The mini series had no input from the original series/story creator. Serious changes were made to the underlying story from that of the original, many major characters were altered or just not presented. The CGI visuals were average, pilot costumes lacked flair, the character of Number Six came across as nothing less than a “re-envisioned” Seven of Nine. Worst of all the characters, supposedly aboard a military vessel and military personnel themselves, displayed a near total lack of proper military discipline. The re-envisioned CGI cylons, for all that they looked clunky when shown up close, could be forgiven. Even the dress of the average Caprican citizen, what was all too obviously “bought off the rack” modern, can be forgiven. But when the show calls for characters to be aboard a military vessel, in uniform, one expects military characters!

Positives: The mini-series was a new production working with a stated goal of bringing a story with a different tone and vision to life for a new generation of science fiction fans. It was a success and, to date, has seen one full season air and has second season in the works. Overall the actors did a very good job. Adama, played by esteemed veteran actor Edward James Olmos, manages to convey great depth of spirit and heart in his portrayal of a military commander struggling with personal ghosts. Mary McDonnell, the woman who becomes president, plays her role with great emotional conviction. While the CGI cylons, perhaps by design, aren’t on screen long enough to be scrutinized by nitpickers a number of the ships in the “rag-tag fleet” are well rendered versions of ships similar to those in the original series. How can you not like that?

Too, there are a number of familiar actors faces in the background that many should recognize from other series and movies. No big name actors, but well-established background players to make you sit up and ask yourself which series or movie you saw them in. No, the mini series was not the Battlestar Galactica of the seventies, but it is better than no science fiction series at. Hopefully it will come into its own and attract a new generation of viewers.

To learn about Space Opera I suggest the following articles/links:

SF Site SF genre overview, http://www.sfsite.com/columns/amy26.htm

A New Breed of Space Opera, http://www.orionsarm.com/intro/space_opera.html

Space Opera Redefined, http://www.sfrevu.com/ISSUES/2003/0308/Space%20Opera%20Redefined/Review.htm

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_opera

The Spectrum of Space Opera, http://trashotron.com/agony/columns/10-03-02.htm

In Genre: Space Opera, http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/ingenre27may03.html.

To find out more about the post-apocalyptic genre in books, movies, and role-playing games I suggest the following links: Post-Apocalyptic Media and Empty World.