Screw the Star Trek Franchise!
I got me a new TV SF darling.
Did I ever mention I think Star Trek:Enterprise sucks? I can’t remember if I did, but I should have, because guess what? It sucks. It’s been Lili von Schtupp playing to a saloon full of drunks and half-wits for the last generation now. Maybe Galactica will goose them out of their ‘we’ll always have an audience so why do we have to improve?’ attitude. ‘If it aint’ broke, don’t fix it.’ (Hey, just like considerably-less-than-optimum but popular OSs!)
The new (ish) Battlestar Galactica TV series premiered on Space on Saturday night.
I’d been waiting for it for a while, and was hoping for something good, but figured, really, that the high quality of miniseries simply wouldn’t be maintained, or that they would make stupid changes (like when V went to a regular series). I was afraid that some of the cool characters like the President would go away or be replaced (like maybe Dixie Carter replacing Mary McDonnell - no offense to Carter but McDonnell owns that role).
I was re-rebuilding a computer (some projects just plain fail) when the show started, up to my elbows in stringy computer guts. I realized quite quickly that I would miss way too much if I didn’t just stop and watch. It turned out that if I didn’t keep my eye on the screen I would miss things like a shot of Adama’s stoicism as the 33 minute ticker was timing out, or a non-verbal exchange between Adama and Tigh or the look on Starbuck’s face as she was trying to disobey Apollo’s order to destroy the Olympic Carrier, but finally obeyed it anyway. The President’s desk on Colonial One, or the number ‘33′ marked on every analog clockface in the Fleet.
The external shots, of the ships, the battles, etc were interesting as well. Some of the establishing shots were unsteady zooms and pans, as if the camera operator was trying to find the right subject or part of the subject to focus on. Cylon handheld reality TV cameras? Except the Cylons are TVs, or more correctly, to quote Baltar, Cylons “looked more like walking chrome toasters.” Multitasking toasters, I’m sure. Then there’s Number Six and the other humaniform Cylons, including, omygod, - not Boomer, not her, no way. Not Boomer. Okay, Boomer.
I’m a little worried that the “Oh God, Cylons can look Just Like People” thing might be milked too much, but I fully expect to be manipulated, hoodwinked and surprised, willingly and happily, until the old girl finally jumps the shark.