Keep the Premise, Forget the Plot

[alexvss]

Event Horizon. Had the potential to be a brilliant film, but all went a bit silly.

@Mon0Zer0
FWIW, Paul WS Anderson produced a movie called Pandorum years later. I like to call this movie "Event Horizon done right".

 

[.matthew.]

I would nominate Battlestar Galactica, whether the old 70’s series or the more recent remake. There was so much that could have been done with the original premise.

Yes. I loved the premise but the remake at the least had one of the dumbest plots I've ever seen.

 

[BAYLOR]

Yes. I loved the premise but the remake at the least had one of the dumbest plots I've ever seen.

The original Galactica was not a very good tv show, and at the time too expense to produce. The cite at that time didn't think too much of either and at television award show the only member of the cast to show up was the Chimpanzee that played Daggit.

The Ron Moore reboot was far better.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Ive seen it several times, I wouldn't change a thing.

Fair enough, there are lots of people who would agree with this sentiment.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

The original Galactica was not a very good tv show, and at the time too expense to produce. The cite at that time didn't think too much of either and at television award show the only member of the cast to show up was the Chimpanzee that played Daggit.

The Ron Moore reboot was far better.

Controversially, it seems, I think the original was better.

Ron Moore's started off well but soon came off the rails under the weight of its own portentousness. Technically, it's CGI was more realistic, it took the source material more seriously - but it was a bit drab.

Pretty much every character in the original had more personality, especially Baltar. Yes it was campy and under budgeted - it certainly wasn't shakespeare - but dammit if it wasn't fun. The music was better, the cylons were far better. It had colour and imagination. The ship designs couldn't be beat! The sound design was iconic! For a cheap star wars cash in meant for kids, it's had a bigger impact than rebooted BSG.

I don't think it's true to say the cast didn't think much of it, certainly not later. Richard Hatch wrote several BSG books and was always trying to get a new series off the ground up until his death, iirc. I stan Lorne Greene as Adama, too, although Gaff was pretty good, too. Patrick Macnee as the imperious leader and even Doctor Smith himself hamming it up for Lucifer. Fantastic.

One thing I think going for original BSG is the writing, which is surprisingly literate. If you think of it not as a realistic attempt to portray space travel, but instead as a classical greek play set in space - the odyssey in space - I think BSG TOS wins hands down.

 

[BAYLOR]

Controversially, it seems, I think the original was better.

Ron Moore's started off well but soon came off the rails under the weight of its own portentousness. Technically, it's CGI was more realistic, it took the source material more seriously - but it was a bit drab.

Pretty much every character in the original had more personality, especially Baltar. Yes it was campy and under budgeted - it certainly wasn't shakespeare - but dammit if it wasn't fun. The music was better, the cylons were far better. It had colour and imagination. The ship designs couldn't be beat! The sound design was iconic! For a cheap star wars cash in meant for kids, it's had a bigger impact than rebooted BSG.

I don't think it's true to say the cast didn't think much of it, certainly not later. Richard Hatch wrote several BSG books and was always trying to get a new series off the ground up until his death, iirc. I stan Lorne Greene as Adama, too, although Gaff was pretty good, too. Patrick Macnee as the imperious leader and even Doctor Smith himself hamming it up for Lucifer. Fantastic.

Under budgeted ? The original cost one million per episode, thats alot in 1970' s money. it's ratings numbers were decent but in the end, not enough to justify keeping in on the air. Originally, it was supposed to be miniseries with the title Starworlds Lost but the network shoved it in favor of going full tv series. Interestingly , the agroships were props and sets reused from the 1972 Douglas Trumbel film Silent Running. The Galactica 1980 revival was definitely under budgeted and the network put other impossible constraint on the show, mandating that show had to be educational and worse , most of the original cast didn't want to come back. It had nowhere to go and and it was lousy. Richard hatch tried to get a revival of the original going in the 1990's and even did short pilot film for it for proposed series , but the networks were not interested and, even if they were, and it got made, it wouldn't have likely lasted a full season.


In the Ron Moore revival Richard got critical alarm as Tom Zarek. I prefer the Reboot to the original

Also there has been about theatrical version of Battlestar Galactica , baed off the original concept , That would actually work verynie but so far nothings happened on that front . And there also talk about another Galactica series but so far nothing.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Under budgeted ? The original cost one million per episode, thats alot in 1970' s money. it's ratings numbers were decent but in the end, not enough to justify keeping in on the air. Originally, it was supposed to be miniseries with the title Starworlds Lost but the network shoved it in favor of going full tv series. Interestingly , the agroships were props and sets reused from the 1972 Douglas Trumbel film Silent Running. The Galactica 1980 revival was definitely under budgeted and the network put other impossible constraint on the show, mandating that show had to be educational and worse , most of the original cast didn't want to come back. It had nowhere to go and and it was lousy. Richard hatch tried to get a revival of the original going in the 1990's and even did short pilot film for it for proposed series , but the networks were not interested and, even if they were, and it got made, it wouldn't have likely lasted a full season.


In the Ron Moore revival Richard got critical alarm as Tom Zarek. I prefer the Reboot to the original

Also there has been about theatrical version of Battlestar Galactica , baed off the original concept , That would actually work verynie but so far nothings happened on that front . And there also talk about another Galactica series but so far nothing.

Under budgeted for what they would have needed to do it properly. Yes, expensive - agree, but still not enough!

It would have been better as a miniseries, or even as a series of movies. There are definitely filler episodes.

Galactica 80 was trash. No arguments there! A real embarrassment.

One of the interesting things is that, at conventions you will almost always see a cylon or someone as a G1 BSG character, but almost never G2, which I think speaks to its place in culture.

I'd enjoy a movie, very much so.

 

[BAYLOR]

Under budgeted for what they would have needed to do it properly. Yes, expensive - agree, but still not enough!

It would have been better as a miniseries, or even as a series of movies. There are definitely filler episodes.

Galactica 80 was trash. No arguments there! A real embarrassment.

One of the interesting things is that, at conventions you will almost always see a cylon or someone as a G1 BSG character, but almost never G2, which I think speaks to its place in culture.

I'd enjoy a movie, very much so.

Im thinking that the miniseries route and TV movies afterward would have been the better idea . It would given them time improve the overall writing and come up with better stories. I would have definitely gotten rid of Daggit.

As what kind of Earth they would arrived at. Why not the Earth of Buck Roger in the 25th century? Actually someone wrote a piece fan fiction in which that happen. It was quite good , I would like to seen is as a film .

One more not on Galatica 1980. Do you rmeber in the fist episodes when Dr Zee showed them a Computer simulation of what would happen if the Cylons found Earth? They used footage from the 1974 film Earhquake and just added the Cylon Fighters , They actually didn't do a bad job with that.


As jaded as I am , I have to admit a big screen Galactica feature film could be alot of fun. could be alot fun of fun.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'm still undecided on The Island. When I watched it, I had no idea of the storyline, so it was a genuine shock when I saw what was really happening. I also liked the way that Ewan McGregor's 'human' character was totally different to his kinder more sympathetic island-self.

Perhaps if it had been made into a HBO serial and had more time to develop. it may have helped.

Not sure if this is mentioned later in the thread but the "original" - they settled out of court - Parts: The Clonus Horror wasn't bad for a low budget film of its era.

Parts: The Clonus Horror - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Toby Frost]

I think Paul Verhoeven did a good job of making an entertaining film out of the dreary tract that is Starship Troopers.

Falling Down had a pretty interesting premise, but didn't choose its targets very well and eventually became "Oh, he was a loony anyway". There's an obscure British thriller called A Lonely Place to Die that has a great premise: a group of mountaineers find a girl in the Scottish wilderness who has obviously been kidnapped, and try to bring her to safety. The second half introduces gunfights, Serbian gangsters and a weird pagan festival, and is much weaker than the first part. I'd like to see that remade.

 

[JunkMonkey]

@Mon0Zer0
FWIW, Paul WS Anderson produced a movie called Pandorum years later. I like to call this movie "Event Horizon done right".

About the only film with his name on worth watching.

 

[KiraAnn]

Re Battlestar Galactica, and a bit off topic perhaps, does anyone except me think that the front end of Toyotas in the past few years look like Cylon heads?

 

[Toby Frost]

How about Goliath Awaits? With a modern budget it could be really good (although you might need a better explanation of why the people have survived at the bottom of the sea for so long).

 

[BAYLOR]

How about Goliath Awaits? With a modern budget it could be really good (although you might need a better explanation of why the people have survived at the bottom of the sea for so long).

Not possible.

 

[Toby Frost]

Well, it's basically a nonsense premise, but aliens could have kept them there or something. Given that Hollywood made a multi-million dollar film based on the game "Battleships", I can't see why it couldn't be made to "work". With a story like that, atmosphere counts for a lot.