Stefan Jones  12-09-2002
12:25 AM ET (US)
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"the fact that ANYONE STILL CARES ABOUT A REVIVAL OF A NEARLY 25-YEAR-OLD "STAR WARS" RIPOFF is what's scary."
I was in High School and reading Anderson and Niven and even Stapledon when BG rolled around. It utter lack of redeeming SF values drove me up the wall. But . . .
BG was the *first* Star Wars ripoff, or at least the first to be televised. It gave a big group of wonder-struck kids a subcreation to latch their imaginations to. Kids too young to have any taste, or the experience to know any better.
What scares me: Why anybody who does more than push a mop for a living would have fond memories of Scooby Doo.
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cypherpunks 12-08-2002
11:10 PM ET (US)
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I agree that Firefly has already done much of this and in a better way. Their ship doesn't even have weapons (it's a cargo ship), so there are no dogfights or space battles. The closest they came was people standing in the airlock and firing guns at the other ship.
The idea of restricting camera shots to those which could actually have been created by the ship's characters doesn't make sense though. When we see a non-scifi TV show, we don't ask how they got the camera up there. If you have an establishing shot on a building, maybe an aerial shot, you don't say, why would that company have paid for a helicopter to go and film their building. Part of the language of cinema is that the camera's eye can be anywhere. Showing a ship or a wagon disappearing into the distance doesn't imply that they left someone behind to take the picture. So I think they are off base on that idea.
I also think that using Battlestar Galactica as the starting point for these ideas is a mistake. Any show with evil robots as the bad guys is going to have a big problem becoming a serious character drama. Maybe if they never show the robots it might work, but otherwise they are going to undercut the show's efforts to take itself seriously. I think that's part of why Firefly eschewed aliens (and robots), because they are just too much of a scifi cliche and they make it impossible to take the human drama seriously.
The one advantage would be the BG name, which could help bring in some viewers. Firefly has not found its audience despite some very good episodes.
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Mark Slutsky 12-08-2002
05:54 PM ET (US)
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I disagree--science fiction doesn't need to be restricted by the ideas they're rejecting. I'm happy to see people experimenting with the form; I don't particularly care if it's "Battlestar Galactica" or something new.
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WCityMike 12-08-2002
05:34 PM ET (US)
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You know, I have virtually no experience with "Battlestar Galactica." Perhaps one or two images in my head of some sort of robotic dog and Khan-like costumes. That's about it.
So I pretty much have no allegiance to the old way of "Battlestar Galactica." And that having been said, I couldn't help but thinking, "Boy, that description sounds like it's really going to suck."
Science fiction IS those ideas these people are claiming they will eschew. And the qualities they want to embrace should be in any good television series. They were in most of the good Trek series, etc.
*sigh*
Why is everything just sucking these days? Government, Hollywood ...
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jasonlubyk 12-08-2002
03:29 PM ET (US)
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"cinema verite" = lo/no budget
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Paul Riddell 12-08-2002
01:53 PM ET (US)
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The "cinema verite" isn't what's scary: the fact that ANYONE STILL CARES ABOUT A REVIVAL OF A NEARLY 25-YEAR-OLD "STAR WARS" RIPOFF is what's scary.
Ah well. The geeks working at "Entertainment Weekly" and "Cinescape" now have something to keep them busy in the bathroom for another two minutes or another seven orgasms, whichever comes first (pun intended). I just feel sorry for the janitor...
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Rand_Race 12-08-2002
01:19 PM ET (US)
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OK, lots of handheld shots, no aliens, no sound in space... I liked it the first time I saw it... when it was called Firefly... and had (has) Ben Edlund and Joss Whedon doing the writing. And no FTL travel? 20 seasons between star systems!?
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Warren Frey 12-08-2002
12:11 PM ET (US)
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This sounds like a blatant hoax; the geeks won't watch it, and casual viewers will hit the off switch as soon as they hear the word "cylon".
Don't get me wrong, Hollywood is dumb enough to try this, but I have my doubts.
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Mark Slutsky 12-08-2002
11:38 AM ET (US)
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That sounds amazing (and anyone who respects the "no sound in space" rule--and for a TV series, no less--earns my admiration).
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