YO RAY HERE I AM!
Originally posted by timdgreat so does any one know how many more of the series they are doing or not? :rolly2:
Alas, The Scifi Channel has it's '04 schedule DONE. No series in ’04.
So, EJO & Mary McDowell & cast will not know till mid '04 if The Scifi Channel will do Battlestar lite in ’05. Hell The Scifi Channel does not know either, the DVD artwork has been done, it’s @ amazon but listed as not available, DVD sales could make or break a series. Ergo, I shall not buy one.
Bonnie is looking to do another one of Steven Spielberg’s favorite themes ‘aliens in our midst’.
He not only Directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he wrote it. Taken was very expensive for The Scifi Channel say around $40 million for ten episodes or $4 million per 44 minutes.
Spielberg was taken by The Scifi Channel’s two-week ‘Taken’ format, his critically acclaimed & award winning ‘Band of Brothers’ lost audience ratings and interest during HBO’s one episode pre-week presentation format.
Many Farscape fans think this is why Farscape was moved to a lesser timeslot in order to bring about lower rating allowing The Scifi Channel to use the low ratings to kill Farscape to allow Bonnie to be taken by ‘Taken’.
If Ronald D. Moore is to believed, a real great big IF. Battlestar lite cost $14 million bucks.
So a Battlestar lite would cost about $ 3.5, but Scifi saves a half a million in sets, another half a million in series CG and half a million in not from scratch start up cost that’s still $2 million per 44 minute episode. So you Battlestar lite fans better save those VHS tapes till amazon hits you for $24.95 for the mini on DVD.
Originally posted by ray gower I believe, in the absence of news otherwise from DVO, there are 4 episodes in the series. (4 hours)
Hello Ray, never fear, I’m here! Notice the odd start times? For you Ray, I accessed
www.scifi.com/schedulebot it’s on this
Internet thing Al Gore created.
Dec. 8th
9:00 PM SCI FI PICTURES BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -PT 1 (LBX)
11:09 PM SCI FI PICTURES BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -PT 1 (LBX)
1:17 AM SCI FI PICTURES BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -PT 1 (LBX)
Dec. 9th
6:52 PM SCI FI PICTURES BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -PT 1 (LBX)
9:00 PM SCI FI PICTURES BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -PT 2 (LBX)
11:04 PM SCI FI PICTURES BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -PT 2 (LBX)
1:08 AM SCI FI PICTURES BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -PT 2 (LBX)
Ray some oh so astute words from dvo……………………
Ok don’t trust me run Ronald D. Moore on
www.imdb.com not an original thing, everything has a history, and he raped Battlestar Galactica’s history.
Star Trek was a odd show in the 60’, now well-established subculture. It was science fiction for the robust, confident liberalism of JFK: of "New Frontiers" and "bear any burden, pay any price." Star Wars, on the other hand, was a giant clash of good vs. evil. It was Ronald Reagan science fiction, and it was no accident that it became a cultural landmark when American confidence was at a nadir just before Reagan.
Since then Star Trek has made numerous returns — some good, some less so. Star Wars came back, but without the power of the original.
Now, Battlestar Galactica, has returned on The Scifi Channel. The writing lacked the depth of Star Trek, the special effects lagged behind Star War’s, the characters were weak clichés, and it was often sappy and it still lacked any sort of epic quality. The 12 Colonies foolishly signed a peace treaty with the robot Cylons. But the treaty was only a cover for a giant sneak attack. The Colonials were forced from their homes, their civilization shattered. A few, with the will to carry on, gathered the survivors and began searching for a lie called Earth?
The original was a space opera filled with larger-than-life constantly plucking victory from the jaws of defeat. In the new version the characters are human, fallible, and uncertain. Lorne Greene's silver-haired Commander Adama was regal — whereas Edward James Olmos shows his age.
The change from space opera to "realism" a bizarre way to describe science fiction. makes the mechanics of civilization's destruction far more effective. We see leaders deciding to condemn thousands in order to save tens of thousands. On the other hand, the battle scenes are confusing and dull, which may be more realistic, but does not make for great viewing. This is the unintentional result of a limited special-effects budget.
Imbuing the characters with absolutely no depth or humanity requires that the series spend time developing them. But there is too much of a bad thing — the premiere, including commercials, was over four-hour long. There is a dizzying array of rivalries, love interests, and emotional rifts — and gratious sex everywhere.
Political correctness also changes the new version. Some changes are obligatory and cosmetic; the old Battlestar Galactica's womanizing Starbuck is now a woman. Other changes are more interesting. In the original the Cylons were vicious robots that hated humanity — period. In the new version the Cylons were created by humanity, and their animus against humanity takes on religious overtones (some can also pass as humans). Humanity, on the other hand, feels guiltily responsible for the Cylons. But get this the new and improved Cylons believe in God, all 12 models of ‘em?
It isn't Shakespeare, it isn't even Star Trek, but the central themes of Battlestar Galactica — of the fragility of civilization and of the consequences of its demise — it does not come through in the new version.
In a nutshell, BG is sorely lacking in the essentials that would have made this an epic journey as it was meant to be for the human race in a distant galaxy. Moore did not re-imagine this series; he remained true to the original while borrowing heavily from other scifi and stuck to the stereotypes we with some intelligence have come to abhor. All you who bellyache that the old show is dead and that this show is new/different are horribly mistaken not to mention willfully blind. If that were true, I wouldn't be able to draw so many comparisons with it. What Moore has done is produced a hackneyed dinosaur that should have been left incased in rock and only marveled at as a fossil. Clearly I can see intelligence does not rule the entertainment world. When I, a layman, can see directly through their pop psychology, I know I'm not being mentally engaged. And in the end, that's what matters, and it sucks, in addition!
