Battlestar Galactica review

[gridlore]

OK, I really liked it.

What, you want more? OK.

The framing story, with the Galactica being retired and turned into a museum was nice, and was used effectively during the story. I believed in this state (although we have the same damn "multiple Earthlike worlds in a single solar system" thing that pissed me off about Serenity) and the Fleet was believable.

The whole look was right. At first the use of current fashions kind of bugged me, but as the show went forward I realized that putting people in SF costumes would have lessened the impact. Seeing people in suits and ties increased the impact. And the tech on the Galactica itself was beautiful. You really saw this as a warship.

Dr. Baltar... OK, i now need to add the series disks to my queue to see what's up with the Cylon sexpot in his head.

I give it five stars.

I was having fun spotting all the nods to classic science fiction stories and other cultural references. The fact there are 12 variants of Cylons reminded me of the Philip K. Dick story Second Variety. The little girl on the biosphere ship waiting for the missiles was a shout out to the infamous anti-Goldwater commercial Daisy. There were a few others.

Next up: Stargate SG-1 Season 1 Disk 1

Comments

[arib.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that the colonies were all in the same system.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

I'll have to watch it again, but there were several comments that made it sound like everything was in one system. Specifically, "we have to leave this solar system" and the fact that Boomer was microjumping to find survivors.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

IIRC, there are colonies in different systems, hence the need for FTL drives on a lot of the commercial ships.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

FTL's still useful in a solar system. Even if you had a 1-G torchship, it's about a week to Jupiter's moons, more to Titan and outer points.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

I've watched the first season, and my main critique is that Dr. Baltar has become so profoundly irritating that I often fast forward through bits with him in it.

It's a shame, really. A good character could be written with his characteristics. Self-interested, brilliant, fearful, very possibly going off the deep-end. But the real Baltar is a caricature, and often "comic"-relief (quotes used most advisedly).

Very rarely, that alternate Baltar leaks out. There's a good scene with Boomer in his lab about midway through the season, and another where he gets away with a one-line outburt about a particularly touchy piece of lab equipment (I've de-spoilered those, but you'll recognize them when you see them). Most of the time, though, gaahh!

[arib.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to spoil, but he's gotten much better as the second season's gone on.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Colonies in Firefly were terraformed, so having them in the same system is somewhat more plausible.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

IMO, not really.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Not more plausible than naturally occuring earth analogs is what I meant.

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

"At first the use of current fashions kind of bugged me, but as the show went forward I realized that putting people in SF costumes would have lessened the impact."

In Babylon Five, they hac the civilians in 'futuristic' suits that were still recognizable descended from modern day clothing, they could have done something similiar in Galaxtica.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Could have, but I enjoyed the effect created by the "suits and ties" look of the civilians.

Serenity flyby

[nimrodjcs.livejournal.com]

Did you notice the Serenity flyby? It was in one scene on Caprica inside a mall or something. They looked up through the glass ceiling and there was the Serenity.