It's just a soap now

[Mighty mouse]

I am a geek and I like my scifi geeky.
I seems that instruction from on high has deemed that to have popular appeal big budget scifi shows must have their appeal broadened. Now, whilst I am all in favour of the evolution of scifi shows to include, dare I say it characterization, it seems to me that in season 2, BG became almost totally character-centric (with the only interest being was s/he or wasn't s/he). Now fascinating as it is to see characters decide whether or not to bathe their feet in alchohol, I for one would like some robotics rather than this display of can we out-soap the soaps.
It seems we are to get either the ultimate in dumbing down, say with the Blade series, where the lead now does little but grunt 'Die' or shows where scientific ideas are rationed down to the catatonic level.
Indeed series 3 seems to have started off with yet another reworking of the transposition of Nazi Germany. Not a single new idea, not one.

 

[steve12553]

With the incredible small amount of decent science fiction on television, It's hard to give up on anything with promise but I gotta believe you're right with your observations.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

I disagree, strongly, with two of your assertions, Mighty Mouse. There's far more going on in season three than soap-operatic relationships, and the war-time parallels go beyond World War II Nazi occupation.

I am impressed by season three's exploration of war's effects on people. The colonists are displaying a wide range of reaction as each is placed under extreme stress, and we get to see how each defines the line that he or she will not or cannot cross in trying to cope. The questions this season is asking aren't easily answered. To take just one example: when Laura and Baltar discuss the suicide bombings, both positions are logical--and both are horrifying.

As has become usual in the series, the actors rise to the challenge of delivering nuanced performances, so that the difficult questions are embodied fully for the viewing audience.

 

[Mighty mouse]

Yes, but drama at what cost?
Leaving aside my point about content, ultimately, is not one of the major reasons we watch a show our interest in and liking for one or more character(s)?
I just tried watching the third episode and left it part way. For me the most complex character is Baltar. He now features for a few minutes an episode as an increasingly incoherent drunk. The strong character of Starbuck is being reduced to a doting mother, the hard military seem to spend even more time hugging each other (yuk).
As for the plot holes ..

 

[Ash59]

One of the main reasons i love sci-fi and fantasy is that - at its best-it is the story of 'people' in all their tawdriness and splendour, even if the 'Humanity' resides within a machine (HAL, R Daneel Etc). Thats why the best is up there amongst the greats of literature.
(For instance look what happened to Star Wars after 'Empire' when all the human drama was essentially played out...Little teddy bears and Jar Jar Binks.)
Battlestar Galactica is an excellent show. Moving, gripping ,absorbing, exhilarating and as far as i'm concerned it is a morality play more than anything else. It makes us ask ourselves wether we would have the courage to 'do the right thing' - assuming we knew what it was.

 

[edott]

I felt it more resembled Japanese occupied china than Nazi Germany. Perhaps you see it that way as you are viewing the show with your own cultural and historical lens.

 

[Ash59]

I felt it more resembled Japanese occupied china than Nazi Germany. Perhaps you see it that way as you are viewing the show with your own cultural and historical lens.

Surely the occupying Japanese were more brutal to the people of China than the Cylons were to the humans on Caprica - they did'nt bother with 'secret police' they just slaughtered people wholesale...
Surely it's all 'about' the situation in Iraq...Or am i missing something?

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

With the incredible small amount of decent science fiction on television, It's hard to give up on anything with promise but I gotta believe you're right with your observations.

I gave up on it last season. Landing on the planet seemed like a lame attempt to make the series last longer than it should.

Galactica is reminiscent of the Biblical story of Exodus (i.e. the colonists are searching for the promise land in this case it's Earth). So maybe the excursion to the planet was intended to parallel the grumbling against the Lord and the turning from the Lord to idols. Not that a smart parallel like that gave it any redeeming story value.

The planet both parallels WW2 prison camps, but also Vichy France. The cylons turned Baltar's government into a puppet government after all.

By chance I did tune into the last episode of this season. Though it was some how entertaining I still see that it hasn't really gone anywhere. But it really likes to make you think it will soon.

It seems things change, but remain statuses quo. Which really makes me think I didn't miss anything by not watching most of the season.

I'm not sure about the soap-opera-fication of the show. But it is very character driven, but with a story that goes no where it ends up being like Gilligan's Island.

I can see it now:
Adama (Skipper): She was blond, beautiful and some how atracted to a nerd like you. And you didn't stop to wonder if maybe she was a Cylon?

Baltar (Gilligan): Well gee Adama I just thought she was a nice girl that wanted to know how to mess up our computers because it was cool to know about.

Adama (Skipper): Baltar!

By the way not all soap opera's are bad. A good example is the SF / Fantasy dominated Dark Shadows.
Also when I was a kid (80's ish) Days of Our Lives had some cool spy stuff and a few super villains.

 

[thinbalion]

I didn't feel that it was over dramatized during the beginning of season 3, however when it got bogged down into the whole Lee and Kara thing around the second half of the season it was a bit much. Frankly that was a big waste of time. There were probably some better stories that could have been told, that were not bogged down in such deep characterization (some of which felt redudant to me). At the time there were some more interesting things going on with Baltar and it just grated as I watched the Lee and Kara soap unfold.

-Thinbalion

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

The Lee and Kara thing sounds kind of like the stupid "meanwhile back on Caprica" crap that Season 1 and 2 dished out. It was pretty meaningless for the most part, added very little to the story, and distracted from stuff that was actually kind of interesting.

With how much production value goes into this show imagine how good it could have been if the writers actually took the time to think about there audience and what it takes to write a good story.

 

[Connavar]

Lee and Kare bit i dont like at all.

Me i was suprised by the time jump and how they became ruled by the cylons on new caprica. It was uber interesting.


This show has always been a space opera, always been about the humans survivle against thier enemy. Sure it has had some not so greats eps but its by far the best show on tv, with best cast. Original writing,story etc


Now that i have seen the end of season 3 with trial,them maybe being closer to earth. I mourn that i have to wait to jan next year for the new season

 

[thinbalion]

Yeah, and not only do we have to wait till january - but its probably going to be the last season.

Oh, and if its some consolation we only have to wait until the fall, thats when the "movie" will air. The show was renewed for 22 episodes, 2 of which are this movie that will air in the fall.

 

[Connavar]

Its very unlikely it will be the last season cause they would have said that when they confirmed the season.

I think it will be a minium 5 seasons. Sci Fi wont let it milk cow die to early and the creators still has alot of ideas left.

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

. . .
This show has always been a space opera, .. .

Good point, but even a space opera needs a coherent plot.
The early seasons hinted that they were building up to something.
They seemed to indicate that there was going to be answers to some of the stuff that just confusing. But instead of answers we got delayed and sidetracked.

You know some people complain about lost being a show about nothing, but I think this version of Battlestar Galactica has that crown.

 

[Connavar]

Okay i cant take you seriously when you compare Lost to BSG.....

 

[Aegon the Unworthy]

In the podcast for the last episode RDM says there is a definite conclusion and did hint that this is the last season.

For the record BSGs ratings werent that good. The audience was reasonably broad but it lost a third of its numbers to TIVO/DirectTV. Advertisers dont pay for those numbers because most of us fast forward through the commercial. Where BSG rocked the house was critical acclaim, received praise and what not and raised the prestige of the network. Without the critics and peer reviews the network would have cut the show.

Dont think Im smart, this is all in the podcast I mentioned above.

 

[Connavar]

Sci fi channel sucks apparently.

I dont see how they can lose viewers with shows like BSG.


Still about being the last, it isnt confirmed. Hint or not.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

In the podcast for the last episode RDM says there is a definite conclusion and did hint that this is the last season.

Yes, in the podcast he said that this show has a definite arc and that in writing this show they thought about it "in context of what's the end of the show, what's the third act of Battlestar Galactica." He said that this episode "pushes us to the end" and that we are now "moving into the final chapters of what the show is." He also said that Tigh and the others being Cylons--"these poor people are Cylons"--ties into that end.

But I don't know if that means one more year, or two more years, because later, someone said that he seemed to mean two more seasons, and he didn't deny or confirm that speculation.

He did say definitely that he didn't want the series to last seven or eight seasons, because it has "a certain narrative arc" that would make a long run inappropriate.

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

Okay i cant take you seriously when you compare Lost to BSG.....

Well if you think about it . . especially in the early seasons . . they keep dropping these hints that just don't seem to make any sense. And between the confusion there are some pretty good character stuff, but the actual plot is unclear in a bad way. [Okay Lost does add another layer of confusion with all the flashback stuff, but I think over all the analogy still works.]

Yes refuges try to find Earth and Cylons go after them, it's a simple plot, but they try to twist it with stuff like Cylons believing in God and this goofy survivors on Caprica / Arrow of Athena subplot. I'm all for plot twits, but I like them to be understandable.

Galactica to Babylon 5. B5 had loads of plot twists, but they made sense. You could follow a thread from episode to episode. The twists weren't quite so weird that you can't understand them either. Add to that that B5 actually had an over all episode story that dominated the episode. But in Galactica the twists seem to be half (or all) of any given episode. I loved 1.05: You Can't Go Home Again, but close to half the episode was mindless crud about the Cylon in Baltar's head and Caprica.

Now maybe it will come to an end, but I wonder if all the confusing stuff will make sense in the end.

 

[zebedeemunroe]

As a hard core Sci Fi fan I have to disagree, I am only just watching Battlestar and I am really enjoying it, the twists the well thought out chracters, its ace.
President Rosalyn and the Admiral are just intriguing to watch.
As a Trek mourner I am engrossed and wont have a word said aginst it!
Roll on series 4 after RAZR