Preface
The original Battlestar Galactica was easily my favorite shows as a kid. I had all the toys. Send away (with a metric ton of General Mills box tops) the fold out Viper cockpit. Saw the movie/pilot in the theaters (in 70mm, baby!). Then something happened. It was much more campy bad science fiction than anything resembling good science fiction. When this happened I do not know. I tried to watch the re-runs on SciFi.
Then SciFi announced it was doing a remake. The Galactica fan boys went apoplectic. I am not a BSG fan boy, but I remembered the show fondly and to a 9 year old kid in 1978 it was awesome!
Does the new Battlestar Galactica manage to deliver the goods? Yes, but it is not perfect either.
I will try to avoid any blatant spoilers, but be warned there will be some.
The
Plot
The new BSG definitely spins some new concepts within the framework of the concepts set up by the original. The Cylons are not an alien race bent on the destruction of humanity; rather they are creations of humanity with the same goal. BSG spends much of the first installment (out of two) setting up the characters and plot line. The cylons are much trickier and smart…they are not the walking chromed toasters of yesteryear.
As expected the human colonies are attacked, not with somewhat ill-conceived strafing by Cylon fighters, but rather with nukes…a lot of nukes.
Humanity is caught utterly by surprise and the Cylons compromise all their modern defenses. Why? Because they can subvert computerized systems…something the to be mothballed Battlestar Galactica lacks. Commander Adama has seen to that.
This is clearly a backdoor pilot and the rest of the plot revolves primarily around a flight or fight instinct. It comes down to running like hell, because the Cylon won’t be happy till every human is dead. 8 billion down…fifty thousand to go.
The Cylons
A nice tip of the hat to the original series is that the
Cylons from the old show are the old models that humanity fought forty years
previously. The new centurions are
wicked and have maybe a minute of screen time total. The fighters are now Cylons proper, thus no
crew of three bumbling toasters at the mercy of Colonial fighter pilots. The much more interesting new Cylon is the antagonist, No. 6. She looks human, but has a Cyclon brain and is far more autonomous than her
cousins. The Colonials figure this out
and much of the set up for the next mini-series or installment revolves around
this. The spoiler at the ending of the
second episode in the mini-series was somewhat disappointing.
The
Characters
A revamped plot is one thing, but what the original show lacked in good plotting it made up for in great characters. The new BSG does things differently with mixed results.
Starbuck: Now a woman, get over it. Still a loose cannon, but much more spiteful and bitter. Sadly not much was done with her until well into the second episode where she her guilt over a mistake. As well, we see no proof she is the best pilot in the fleet until late in the game. It was certainly not as impressive as fooling a basestar to kiss a planet, but crazy flying none the less.
Commander Adama: Edward James Olmos is a definite step up from Lorne Greene. This version of Adama is much more convincing as a character. Olmos is a much more physical actor and in the new BSG that is a definite plus.
Apollo: A whiny flyboy that won’t forgive Adama for the death of his brother. This makes for some interesting conflict between the characters, and is perhaps the best inter-action between the human characters.
Dr. Baltar: Unlike the original BSG, he is not directly on the Cylon’s side, but certainly culpable due to his lack of morals. He is driven by what is affecting him…and his lot is ironically enough with humanity. Luckily for the Galactica he has a few tricks to thwart the Cylons advantages. His on going relationship with the Cylon, No. 6, is an interesting turn.
No. 6: She is mostly an agent for the Cylons, a new
model that has ties to Dr. Baltar. While played by a very hot actress, that is
about the best thing about this character early on. Her actions seem at odds with her mission as
an operative. As the second episode goes
on she has a couple of surprises for Baltar…but it
could only be his imagination.
Boomer: What was a side character in the original
series is given a big uplift. Sadly
while the character was interesting enough, it was the most unlike a pilot I
have ever seen. She was far too weak in
personality to be a pilot, even in a
Laura Roslin: The secretary of education and 32nd (or so) in line for the presidency. She is pragmatic and driven to recover what ever humanity has left and run like hell. A lesson learned by becoming the president in short order after the Cylon attack.
The acting was not bad, but much of the writing behind it left the characters a little flat in comparison to the much better writing of the plot. Unlike the original series this variant of BSG is definitely story driven and not character driven. The characterizations pick up steam as the plot progresses, especially for Starbuck who proves to be deeper than the fun loving Starbuck from the old series.
Production
Values
Overall the new BSG had better values than the original, courtesy of CGI. Thus you have much more dynamic space battles and background effects. There were only a couple of scenes I thought had somewhat sloppy CGI inserted. It is leaps and bounds better than the original and slightly better than some big budget science fiction movies in recent times.
Space combat is much quieter than other science fiction efforts. The music in the whole show is mulled, but there is a snippet of the original theme to be found.
The sets were slightly below the mark set by the original series. CGI can not cure all problems, but there was nothing wrong with the new sets, they just lacked some polish.
The Good
The Colonial Fleet and the Galactica have a much more military feel harkening back to WWII.
The story and characters are far grittier than the original BSG. While this makes the new show less fun, it also is much more compelling and entertaining.
The Cylons are to be feared.
Batlar is less an pansy traitor, so much as a sociopath who got fooled.
The new vipers rock! Until they meet the Cylons…then the old ones are back in action (they are just slightly streamlined versions of the old show).
The characters have to make tough choices and do lousy things to survive, which made for a compelling detail the original lacked (or the question who will/can you save?).
The ships have FTL drives, which is a better solution to running like the wind.
The whole motivation to go to Earth.
The
Bad
The plot driven mini-series takes some of the fun that was the old BSG: the characters, who come off as slightly flat.
The sets were somewhat plain…but I am not sure how to sex up hangers and storage compartments.
The character No. 6 had problems that skin tight mini skirts could not correct.
If the Galactica was to be a museum, why would it be in deep space?
Overall
All but the most diehard of fanboys
should enjoy the new Battlestar Galactica.
It left me wanting more, which I think is the best praise I think I
could give it.
