We now have Battlestar Galactica on TV. Since I kinda liked the original series when I was a teenager, I had a look at the pilot and the first sequel. The idea for the new series is nice: the new plot is 40 years after the original one. The ship itself is about to be taken out of service and to be transformed into a museum. But there are quite some inconsistencies which annoy me a bit. Not that I am a hardcore fan of the old movies, but still it is a bit annoying. Here is my list:
- The battlestar got a makeover. It is more soft, with rounded edges. The original battlestar was more bulky and angular. Though the new ship looks nice, it’s inconsistent with the “taken out of service after 40 years” setting.
- Commander Adama was an old man already in the original series. Now he is an old man again, but (perceived) 55 years + 40 years makes – uhm – 95 years. The new Adama is again maybe 55 years old… Or did I miss a generation change in Adama too?
- Though the succession of battle names is a nice idea, I still don’t feel comfortable with Starbuck being a woman (Katee Sackhoff). And a “butchy” woman too. Starbuck was always the pretty boy, but not Brigitte Nielsen on steroids!
- The sexual innuendo. Not that I’m against it as such – but it is sort of disturbing. This might eventually work out in the long run – we’ll see.
- They did an extremly poor job on the walking animation of the Cylons. I know enough about 3D computer animation to spot that this is a poor job. Also the compositing into the footage is often done poorly.
- Atomic missiles hit the ships (with impressive smoke tails in SPACE!) and – so what? Nothing! Refugees walk through green, sunlit landscapes with several mushroom clouds in the background – so what? Nothing! Helo flees through fallout rain and – injects himself a shot of “anti radiation”. COME ON!
- The cast. Hmm. I am positively surprised that they chose – well – “ugly” actors. Of course they are not ugly, but they are neither supermodels. I tend to think that this is actually a smart move. They look “normal”. They look like my mates around the office. Especially the technical staff in the hangars (Aaron Douglas and Nicki Clyne). You’ll never see them on a fashion advertising, but they are the kind of people who hang out at your local bar. Maybe it is meant as a contrast to the I’m-almost-showing-my-breasts-in-every-epsiode-Cylon (Tricia Helfer) and the I-could-have-done-Hugo-Boss-adverts-Scientist (James Callis). But I like the idea of “normal” people. Still it is annoying.
Ok, folks over at the production studio: you have one more episode to convince me…
Sidenote: Get a good laugh and access the site with Flash disabled – they have “Lorem Ipsum” text on it 🙂
P.S. I like Boomer (Grace Park) best.
Update: OK, we might be a bit behind the moon (pun intended) in Germany… I just learned that it is actually not a continuation of the old series, but a reenactment. Oh well… Wired has a pretty good article covering most of what I wrote above.