Kevin's Watch

welp, the first 5 episodes are in the bag..anybody watch em? i boycotted the mini-series for various reasons, but caught some of it before the series premiere, and it was really good...now ive seen all the episodes and am getting into it...what'd everybody else think?

I had no clue BG had been remade until I happened to catch a commercial for the miniseries. I'm glad I ended up watching it, because it was some of the most exciting sci-fi I had ever seen on TV. Just about every aspect of the new show is superior to the original 70's series (though I do kinda miss those shiny, clunky Cylons of yesteryear).

I appreciate the big budget feel of the new show. It has a cinematic quality to it, but it's also lean and focused. It's also a gritter and darker style than the old show, and I love it.

The cast is fabulous. Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell are two actors I respect very much. What more could I ask? And then they throw in a female Starbuck! Wow.

I missed the first few episodes because I didn't know what time slot the show was in, but I'm definitely tuned in now.

Much, much better than I expected. A very pleasant surprise.

I refused to watch it because they changed it so much. I tried to watch it when it first premiered and turned it off. Now I finally watched last weeks episode and I hate to admit I really liked it. I was peeved that Sratbuck is a woman, but she is alright. I might grow to be ok with it. I am disappointed that Apollo does not have a son now. Otherwise, I have to admit it is really good.

The ending to the series was amazing, what a twist. I like the way all the characters seem real, rather than just being vehicles for the plot (a la star trek).

I think it's great and I'll carry on watching it as long as they keep making it.

The miniseries? Is that where the cyclons destroy everything and the small convoy with galactica leading escapes?

Next to "Lost", the new BG is THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION. "33" was absolutely riveting, and the subsequent episodes have all been great and very nuanced; strong characters, interesting plot twists (how 'bout them new Raiders?) and excellent production work. I was a big fan of the short-lived "Space: Above and Beyond", and there's a lot of that show in BG. Ronald Moore, the showrunner, has a GREAT blog on ww.scifi.com that's well worth reading. It's somewhat amazing that the creators were able to take arguably the biggest, cheesiest "Star Wars" ripoff of all and turn it into a thought-provoking, exciting, and adult drama - that happens to be set in space. Looking forward ot the rest of the season, and very excited that the show is kicking butt in the ratings - already renewed for season 2.

I'm a convert, too. I didn't want to like it, but damned if last Friday's episode wasn't quite good. That was my first but won't be my last. I expect to be hooked very shortly.

And let's face it, there ain't a whole lot of competition for the dedicated sf television geek. No Firefly, no Farscape, Enterprise on life support (in more ways than one) . . . I gotta have my speculative fix.

In the UK we have just finished the full run of the 1st series (13 episodes), it gets better and better. Starbuck... a woman, you get used to it, she is an excellent actress. As the series progresses the mythology factor increases, portents, visions, the search for god in man and in machine, the fusion of the two, oh the beauty of it all...

2nd series ordered, all good stuff!

The DVDs are out at the end of the month, and I can't wait to watch the eps I missed towards the end of the series.

It was aired last night in Australia. I have to say that I didn't like it that much. It was melodramatic and I think having cylons that look like humans is drab and a cliche. I miss the old cylon designs.
HOWEVER, the acting is excellent and some of the characters are very good.

as far as there not being any other sci-fi on, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis are both on right before Battlestar Galactica...I still like SG-1 better, but its also been aroun longer...and i really like Atlantis too...

and as far as the ole metal cylons goes, *(i dont think this is a spoiler)* in the mini-series, tours were being given of the Galactica, and they had a Cylon Centurion(the old metal Cylons form the old show) in a deisplay case...it was pretty cool...

A lot of criticism of the early BSG episodes relates directly to things that are addressed later on, namely the Cylon's apparently motiveless attack on the twelve colonies. I do wish they'd have the new CGI cylons in it more often because they look damn scary, but as the series progresses the humanoid cylons are fleshed out (if you'll excuse the pun) and there really is more to them than meets the eye.

I'm just loving the show! I'm with Warmark Jay - 33 was amazing!!

The only possible flaw in my eyes is that the characters are too screwed up. Their goal was to make it more realistic than the original; real people with real problems, instead of perfect, wholesome people who are in a terrible situation. I applaud this change. But sheesh, how does the ship manage to not destroy itself when the 2nd in command drinks; their best pilot is messed up in too many ways to mention; the commander and his son are sometimes barely speaking; one is unknowingly a Cylon (handled very well, so far); Baltar is... well; etc.

But I guess Adama and the chief (the guy in charge of the fighters) aren't too crazy. Yeah, they're just good people stuck in this horrible situation, but they're more human than any characters in the original series.

Adama as played by Edward Olmos is like this barely contained vessel of frustration and fury ready to explode any time. Yeah, you have to wonder just how much these people can take before the entire Galactica suffers a collective nervous breakdown. Man, I'm glad I live a boring existence with no Cylon clones to complicate my life...

The only possible flaw in my eyes is that the characters are too screwed up.

At times I think so too, but I think that the backstory set this up so that it makes sense. Basically, the peacetime Colonies were "fat, dumb, and happy"; the military was comparable to the U.S. military between WWI and WWII, in that discipline was lax, there was no sense of mission, and the government and citizenry saw very little value in even having a standing army/navy. The "best and the brightest" were getting rich in the civilian sector.

I just watched my first episode of the new Galactica on Monday night. I only caught a smidge of one of the prior episodes. I have a question- I know that Boltar will eventually be revealed as a major cylon conspirator, but who is this woman he is with all the time, and why can't anyone else see her? Is she a real cylon, or a figment of his twisted imagination? Forgive me if the answer is obvious, but I haven't seen any of the prior episodes and I don't know when they will start showing reruns.

She's real. She was physically with him before the destruction of the Colonies, and is now only seen by him, in his mind. Seems to be some sort of telepathy? The Cylons that look human each have many different clone-body copies running around. One of this one's clone-bodies was in another of the fleet's ships in another episode, though it didn't seem to know it was a Cylon. And, of course, one of her bodies that does know it's a Cylon is seen on Caprica in every episode. But we don't know if the body that goes with Boltar's mind-friend is somewhere else on the fleet, or if it's a much longer range projection. Heck, for all we know, this particular personality/mind doesn't actually have a physical body, but is only a mind, somehow existing only in Boltar's head.

Oy!

Actually, in the first episode, Baltar didn't know if she was just his guilt for helping to destroy the 12 colonies, or if she was real. She didn't give him an answer, but said maybe she was his guilt or maybe a chip was implanted into his head while he slept.

I guarantee they will eventually run a story line in a later season where there is a civil war within the Cylon empire - machines versus human-looking cylons.

Fist and Faith wrote:But sheesh, how does the ship manage to not destroy itself when the 2nd in command drinks; their best pilot is messed up in too many ways to mention; the commander and his son are sometimes barely speaking; one is unknowingly a Cylon (handled very well, so far); Baltar is... well; etc.

Yeah, it reminds me of a PG-13 version of The Gap. Adama looks very much like my mental picture of Warden Dios.