Battlestar Galactica

[techieMoe]

I must of course start this discussion with the obligatory NO SPOILERS PLEASE! Although I've seen the show from beginning to end I want to preserve the sense of surprise for those who haven't and decide to delve into it now that the show is off the air. Netflix is good for that sort of thing. Just saying...

At any rate, I just wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this show and the actors they chose for it. The bad guys were bad, the good guys were good, and the in-between characters were suitably ambiguous. For a Sci-Fi Channel production, the special effects, sets, costumes and music were top-notch. I felt less like I was watching a TV show and more like a very long epic movie.

Why all this BSG gushing today? Well, I enjoyed the music from the series so much that I ordered the soundtracks for the first 2 seasons on Amazon and they're supposed to be delivered today. I'm stalking the tracker page as we speak.

How many of you have seen the series, either completely or just up to a certain point? Without revealing any serious plot points, what did you think of it?

[Artesia]

I watched it when it first started airing and absolutely loved what they did with it. The wole concept, the story arc, the mystery, the characters, the whole thing. After Babylon 5, I kept thinking, we need to have another big story like this... and I think BSG is in that category.

Sometime in the middle of season 2, I lost track of it because I was busy... I don't remember what was going on anymore. But I bought Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and eventually plan to buy the whole series and watch it over a few marathon sessions. There IS such as thing as good TV.

And for anyone who's into BSG and hasn't checked out Babylon 5, they should!

[rokytnji]

I watched all the episodes on Sci Fi. Liked it. I also followed Babylon 5, Farscape, and one of my all time Favs, Lexx, Tales from a Parallel Universe.

[techieMoe]

I watched all the episodes on Sci Fi. Liked it. I also followed Babylon 5, Farscape, and one of my all time Favs, Lexx, Tales from a Parallel Universe.

Man, Lexx was weird. Interesting, but weird. I never watched Babylon 5 when it came out, but if it's the same kind of long epic storyline as BSG I might have to check it out.

[Artesia]

...if it's the same kind of long epic storyline as BSG I might have to check it out.

Epic, yes. It's a 5 year arc that has a beautifully developed story and characters that are complicated and real. You get to know several cultures and identify with them and see them clash. You get to see the big picture, all of existence and how the people you know play a part. I can't say enough good things about it. The first season may seem episodic at first but they actually introduce a lot of major concepts right off the bat.

BTW there's an excellent Lurker's Guide for it out there somewhere which is good to refer to after you've watched an episode.

[rokytnji]

My favorite thing about Lexx was the way the Dead Guy Assassin walked. He copied it from John Wayne.

[techieMoe]

My favorite thing about Lexx was the way the Dead Guy Assassin walked. He copied it from John Wayne.

Kai, wasn't it? I only watched the first 3 seasons or so. I must say, I prefer the second version of Zev to the original from the miniseries. On the topic of BSG, weren't both Lexx and BSG shot and produced in Canada?

[rokytnji]

Lexx was primarily filmed in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) and Berlin (Germany), with additional filming on location in Iceland, Bangkok (Thailand) and Namibia.

[glaston]

A few years ago they had a 2 night event for the pilot episodes of battlestar.
I watched it and liked it, but it ended so abruptly it pissed me off.

I liked how they depicted the planet that the humans came from.

I'm not that much of a sci-fi fan though.
I always liked Star Wars since I loved it as a kid.
And The Matrix was great.
My thing is the depiction of Apocalyptic scenarios.
The more realistic the better.

So I naturally gravitate to zombie flicks.
Although I like the campy ones like Return of the Living Dead, I especially like realistic ones like the original Dawn Of The Dead and 28 Days/Weeks Later.

I secretly harbor a fantasy of seeing the end of the world.

[techieMoe]

My thing is the depiction of Apocalyptic scenarios.
The more realistic the better.

So I naturally gravitate to zombie flicks.

I have to laugh at this. Of all the possible scenarios for the end of the world, re-animated carnivorous corpses are perhaps the least realistic there could be. You probably didn't mean it that way, but I find it amusing nonetheless.

If by realism you mean "showing plausible reactions to supernatural situations from believable characters" then sure, I get it. Too campy and it turns into a comic book more than a movie. I can't stand it when I see a monster movie and people just blindly accept the existence of some preternatural monstrosity without asking the question any sane human would ask: "What the hell?"

That brings me back to the original topic: Battlestar Galactica. I saw the show as less of a science fiction story and more of a human condition story. I think that's why my wife got into it as much as I did. Sure, they have space-age technology and non-human bad guys, but they also have plenty of human bad guys and human conflicts.

The way these people reacted to the destruction of their world came across as plausible to me. Some of them internalized it and went on business as usual, others got violent or turned to religion. I could see real people in those situations acting the same way. That's well-written drama, in my opinion.