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In August 2009 I reported that Bryan Singer was looking to make a new movie about Battlestar Galactica and that this movie would serve as yet another reboot to the BSG mythos. Needless to say I railed against this proposed movie two years ago. My core belief is that it is far too soon to be rebooting BSG, especially since the critically acclaimed TV show has only been off the air a few years. Then we got lucky and Singer accepted the task of making a new film and the BSG reboot was put on the back-burner. Sadly, Singer’s current film has been shut down and he has expressed an interest in returning to the BSG universe.
Details are starting to come out about the newest reboot to BSG and now it’s looking like they might try to connect this movie with the rebooted TV show’s universe. Don’t get too excited yet though. It has been learned that John Orloff will be writing the script for Bryan Singer and in an interview yesterday he let some information out about the possible plot. According to Orloff:
I’m a huge fan of the original series and of the second show, too. But I always thought the first show was a little too heavily reliant on Star Wars, you know? Whereas I think the second show was really original and really cool.
And I think I’ve come up with a way to write this movie that won’t [frick] any of that up. I’m not sure how much they want me to talk about it. Let’s just say it’s not what you expect. It will all work in the universe that exists. It will not conflict with anything Ron Moore has done. I don’t think you can compete with what he’s done.
So what does this truly mean? Are they going to keep the story that has been established by Ron Moore’s show? It sounds like they might… assuming the quote above is something that is stuck too. Part of me almost thinks this was said to try to quell the fanboy rage over this BSG reboot.
They want to keep the continuity established in Ron Moore’s show yet make something new with the characters. The only way I can think of to do this is to take something from JJ Abrams playbook. By that I mean, copy what he did in Star Trek and create an alternate timeline that has all of the same characters. That way you can do whatever you want and claim not be changing the history of BSG.
Now, I’m wasn’t really a fan of the way in which Star Trek was rebooted but I cannot deny that it worked. They threw out years of history and established characters to make a movie that had the same characters as the original Star Trek, but it never really felt like Star Trek. That’s what I’m afraid will happen with this reboot of BSG. To be fair fans of the original BSG TV show were probably saying the same things when Ron Moore’s reboot was about to debut. But, there had been years since the last BSG TV show had aired and BSG simply was not relevant in the public anymore. Ron Moore changed that with his reboot and made BSG relevant outside of nerd culture. The show won Peabody Awards and critical acclaim. That was something that could hardly be said about the original.
Ron Moore assembled an incredible cast to tell a fantastic story in the modern BSG. To reboot the series again smacks of sweeping all of this epic story under the rug. This still rubs me the wrong way. I’m sure many other fanboys feel the same way; there were many of us who truly loved Ron Moore’s series. The simple fact of the matter is that its way too soon to be rebooting Battlestar Galactica. With the BSG prequel set to debut soon on Syfy Channel the story is still continuing. However, in closing, it’s not really BSG unless Edward James Olmos is in it!
My love of Battlestar Galactica is well established on this blog. To do this day I think it is one of the best, if not the best, TV shows of recent memory. Sadly, the show is over but that hasn’t stopped the memorabilia to continue being released. I’d say that right now the folks over at Quantum Mechanix have what is quite possibly the coolest BSG piece of memorabilia that I have ever seen.
They have developed what is referred to as the Viper II Artisan Replica and it is a beautiful piece of artwork. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the picture below.
Is that now frakkin awesome looking or what? Just to give you an idea of detail, here’s the description of the Viper off of the Quantum Mechanix web-site.
Now you can join the fight against the Cylons with this frakkin’ awesome Viper Mark II Artisan Replica from QMx.
Our 1:18 scale filming-quality miniature is being offered in three editions: Adama Edition, Starbuck Edition and Fleet Edition. The limit has been set for 500 replicas per edition.
The QMx Viper Mark II Artisan Replica boasts a cockpit chock full of hand-cut details, including gauges, data screens, throttle, ejection seat, and seat belts with fabric belts and metalized buckles. But the pièce de résistance of the QMx Viper is the active, working DRADIS – a 9/16” OLED (organic light-emitting diode) video display of the remote sensing system in action, displaying the actual DRADIS video used in Battlestar Galactica. The canopy can be opened for an optimal view of the cockpit and this first-ever digital model effect.
In addition, the ship’s three rear engines feature a pulsating lighting effect that is randomized using a white-noise generator.
It takes our artisans about 50 hours to hand assemble the 140 parts that go into this spirited fighter, hand layering 18 different colors of paint, and adding special decals and hand-painted stencils.
Just imagine the amount of time that went into constructing this beautiful looking starfighter replica. 50 hours doesn’t seem like it would be enough for this ship. If you’re interested in getting one of these beauties for yourself check out Quantum Mechanix’s web-site. They have tons more pictures and videos of the Vipers. Keep in mind, this is a limited run and only 1500 Vipers will be produced. After that, there’s no more. If I had $1500 lying around I would shell out for one of these. If anyone does get one, let me know what you think. I’ll try to see through my insane jealousy, I promise.
Whoever got this picture gets credit for obtaining one of the greatest nerd pictures ever! Don’t believe me, then take a look below.
I mean seriously there’s 3 Starbucks in this picture and both the human ones have cigars. I’m geeking out, its Starbuck cubed! Good job to the guys at Topless Robot for bringing this picture to everyone!
Honestly, I just thought this video was too cool to not share. As a big fan of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica pretty much anything about it grabs my attention. That’s doubly so when it has to deal with the awesome music from composer Bear McCreary.
The Sacramento Jazz Singers performed a version of Bear McCreary’s arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’s All Along The Watchtower, and it turned out wonderfully. The really cool thing is that the instrumental parts from the original work was done via a wide range of voices. If you have a sec, check out the video below, it really is pretty cool.
Via: Topless Robot
The credit for this find goes to the folks over at io9, but I just had to share. This chart breaks down the twisted and sometimes confusing history of the Battlestar Galactica universe into one handy chart. This also includes information from the Caprica pilot. Maybe there will be a refresh to reflect some of the changes that came around in that series.
Take a look and see if it clears up any confusion for you. Its a big picture so click to see if full size.
Via: io9
Last week it was announced Stargate Universe was being cancelled. After moving to Tuesday, and being paired with the recently cancelled Caprica, its rating were in rough shape. Notice that the show was being cancelled was not sent out via a press release or notice on Syfy’s web-site, instead the news was sent out via Twitter. This was the first anyone had heard that the show was being cancelled. This includes the cast of Stargate Universe. Needless to say this news took a lot of people by surprise, but mostly the cast and crew of Stargate Universe.
The fact that this was the only notice the show was being cancelled was fairly disrespectful to the cast, crew and fan. Stargate fans are vocal to say the least. They would have fought to keep the show on the air but the cancellation was done in a way that fans could easily be ignored. After all how hard is it to ignore messages on Twitter?
My concern for SGU is, will they be able to finish the storyline that has been started. SGU just took its midseason break and the next 1/2 season, which has already been filmed, will serve as the finale for the show. Since they had not been given notice the show was being cancelled I doubt the storyline has been finished. We, the loyal fans, are probably going to be left with no resolution to the storyline of Stargate Universe.
So, how do we resolve the story of SGU if there are no more episodes to be filmed. It would be ideal if Syfy would give the show an extra few episodes or a TV movie to wrap up the storyline. Do I think thats likely to happen? No, I don’t. Remember Syfy promised there would be additional Stargate Atlantis movies that would continue the story and presumably get Atlantis back to the Pegasus Galaxy. Even if Syfy promised an SGU movie to wrap things up I’m not sure I would believe it based on the track record.
The cancellation of both Caprica and SGU can probably be linked to one thing. The, now, Syfy channel is moving away from its core fan-base. It wasn’t too long ago when there was a SciFi Friday with a solid block of shows. That was back in the day when Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica were on the air. On Friday nights there was a 3 hour block of awesome SciFi shows. Now what’s on Friday nights? Anyone want to take a guess? Syfy’s Friday night lineup consists of WWE Smackdown? How does this appeal to your core fan-base that made your channel a success? Simply put, it doesn’t.
Needless to say I’m a little miffed with Syfy Channel right now. Back in its heyday the channel had lots of shows that I wanted to watch, and reruns of shows I had never seen before. SciFi Channel introduced me to Firefly, a show I had mistakenly missed out on when it first aired. Now the channel cancels quality SciFi shows to make room for professional wrestling and terrible B-Movies.
There’s really nothing I watch on Syfy now except for the occasional rerun of Stargate and new episodes of Stargate Universe. I plan to watch the final episodes of Caprica and Stargate Universe but then I’m going to be taking a break. I have great hope for the upcoming BSG mini-series Blood and Chrome. I really want to watch it and hope that its successful and turns into another series. However, if it becomes a series and struggles I don’t have faith in Syfy giving it a chance to recover. Their history shows it. Personally I think that Syfy got spoiled by the success and critical acclaim that came with Battlestar Galactica. It’s very tough for shows to live in the shadow of such a successful show and so far nothing has lived up to the success of BSG.
Hopefully I’m wrong and BSG: Blood and Chrome succeeds. I really hope I’m also wrong and Syfy gives the fans a chance to see how Stargate Universe should truly end. The fans don’t deserve to be left hanging. There’s only so much abuse the fans will be willing to take when it comes to unresolved stories. Caprica is going to be left unresolved and more than likely Stargate Universe will be too. Eventually fans of the Science Fiction genre will stop coming back to Syfy and in order for the channel to succeed they will have to move further away from its fan-base in turn losing them. Its my fear that in the end Syfy channel will turn into a poor man’s SpikeTV loaded with pro-wrestling and Ghost Hunters. That’s not a channel I want to watch and I’m sure there are many fans with me.
William 'Husker' Adama
This could be bad news for Caprica, but it hit the web last week that the SciFi Syfy Channel has greenlit another prequel to the critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica. TVSquad’s Maureen Ryan broke the news that Syfy will air the 2 hour tv-movie Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome in late 2011 or early 2012. This movie will focus on a young William “Husker” Adama as a Viper pilot in the first cylon war. According the the news I’ve seen so far ’Blood & Chrome,’ takes place roughly 20 years after the events of Caprica and about 40 years before the end of the worlds depicted in BSG. On a sidenote, I’d just like to say I called this back in March 2009 and asked online for the SciFi Syfy Channel to please take this idea and run with it. Now they are doing so… not that I’m taking credit or anything.
Some other interesting news is that the movie will take place on the Grand Old Lady herself, the Galactica. Now I am truly excited; Galactica is back and Adama is back. Seems like good news to me. The movie will take place during the 10th year of the Cylon War and follows Ensign William Adama as he undertakes a mission that could change the tide of the war. See? This is good stuff!
Mark Stern is Syfy’s executive vice president of original programming and gave some news on the potential timeline of the series being filmed. He said the network hoped to begin production on the pilot in Vancouver in early 2011. This maps up quite nicely for a late 2011 or early 2012 release. Stern gave a lot more information that I am going to quote directly so I can get everything across:
“This is very much an action-adventure, war series,” Stern said. “This is definitely dealing with people who are fighting the fight. … As you hope ‘Battlestar’ would do, it kind of comments on that process a little bit… but not in a preachy way, not in an issues-oriented way, not in a hitting-you-over-the-head way. Really, the fabric and the canvas of the series are people in the fight and what they grapple with when it comes to each other and what they grapple with when it comes to the enemy they’re fighting.”
“Your way into the story is a young William Adama who is not the grizzled old veteran we have come to love in ‘BSG,’” Stern noted. “This is someone who is more like us, in terms of coming into this with certain preconceptions and learning as you go. … It’s very much about relationships along the way. I think ultimately the arc of the pilot and of the series is about getting Adama to be who you came to know in ‘BSG,’ but it’s also about the deep relationships he forms. And I don’t think there are any deeper relationships than the ones you form in life-or-death situations.”
The interesting thing is Syfy originally intended to show Blood and Chrome as an online series, but they liked the outline so much that have turned it into a TV movie with the intent of using it as a backdoor pilot. Meaning, that if the movie gets good rating we might just get a new BSG prequel on TV. This is actually the same process that was used for BSG back in 2003 and turned out successful so keep your fingers crossed.
I can tell you that I am 100% sold on this new prequel, however that might be mostly because I’m such a huge Battlestar Galactica fan. This is what I had originally hoped to see as a prequel to BSG and I think it has a better chance of capturing audience interest than Caprica. I still enjoy Caprica but it’s very plot-driven and slowly developing. That’s fine for me but many fans need something they can get interested in that keeps grabbing their attention. A war time series should do that. Hopefully Caprica can chug along and be paired with the new BSG in the future. However, it seems things might be looking a little grim for Caprica right now. It’s not bringing in a lot of new viewers.
It’s a mixed bag of news for Battlestar Galactica fans right. Lets start with the good news for all the fans out there. SciFi Channel is supposedly considering doing another spinoff of the hit TV show. I tend to think this might actually happen when the SciFi Wire blog reports it. Since the blog is run by the SciFi Channel they probably have a fairly good idea of what may or may not happen. Mark Stern, VP of development was quoted as saying:
“We’re looking for other ways to spin-off ‘Battlestar’ beyond ‘Caprica,’” he said. “That world is so rich. We’re sitting down with (executive producer) Ron Moore and his team. It would not necessarily be a traditional series.”
That’s some hope right? Well we have some more news on the potential spin-off. Ron Moore, the brains behind the rebooted BSG, seemed to be a bit reserved when it came to the possible spin off.
As for that other potential BSG-related project, Moore insisted it was “really nothing yet.” Syfy approached him and producing partner David Eick, and it’s still early stages. “[They] said, ‘We have this concept for a format in which to do a show. Would you be interested?’” Moore recalled. “We kind of said, ‘Yeah, that’s interesting. What would it be?’ And we had some conversations about what the parameters of the show would be. We’re really at the very beginning of that whole process, so there’s really nothing definitive yet, but we are sort of talking back and forth about what it might be. It’d be in this [BSG/Caprica] universe.”
Personally I think this is pretty promising to create another series. I’ve really become a convert to Caprica and have thoroughly enjoyed the show so far. But, if we could get a new space drama similar to the BSG I love so much I’d be ecstatic. Here’s my idea of what it might be for the spin-off… the first Cylon War. We’ve already gotten the flashbacks in Razor but this would be a chance to fully see how the war progressed. Additionally we might get some really good character development when it comes to showing how William Adama and Saul Tigh become such great friends. If anyone from SciFi channel is listening, please take this idea! Just think, we have the BSG shows that showcase the birth of the Cylons, the rise to power of the Cylons, and then the fall of the human race. It’s quite the trilogy that’s put together there!
Here’s the downside to all this news. SciFi channel still hasn’t announced whether the critically acclaimed Caprica will be renewed for a second season. I certainly hope so, but I think Caprica’s renewal is going to hinge on the ratings from here on out. Supposedly there’s a lot of big revelations coming up and that could draw in new viewers. But lets remember that this show his given new definition to the term slow burn. My only concern is that the SciFi executives might be considering this new spin-off as a Caprica replacement. We’ll keep an ear to the ground and let you know what else we can find out. Until then lets hope Caprica gets renewed and we get the spin-off.
If you guys have seen my site, you’ve probably realized that I am a huge fan of the re-make of Battlestar Galactica that launched in 2003. But in all fairness, it took a while for this show to catch on with me. I remember back in 2002 when I heard about the upcoming relaunch of BSG, the first thing that went through my head was, ‘Oh this is going to be just as lame as the original. Why are they even bothering.’ For that reason I didn’t watch the mini-series or season one when they first aired. Yes, you read that right, I was not originally on the BSG bandwagon.
I was home on summer vacation from my freshman year of college when I finally gave the show a try. My Dad had watched the mini-series and season one and was telling me how great the show was. Since I was unemployed for a good deal of that summer I gave it a chance. The mini-series was slow burning but at the end I was having a lot of fun.
33 Minute Mark
What really got me hooked though was the first episode of season one entitled 33. The basic gist of this episode was the the remnants of humanity had escaped the Cylon massacre but they were running for their lives as the Cylons attacked them every 33 minutes. I thought this episode was brilliant with edge of the seat excitement and trying to figure out humanity would escape. At the same time this episode really highlighted one the main differences between humanity and the Cylons. The Cylons had no breaking point; as machines they could just keep coming while humans gradually began to weaken and fall apart. 33 was a great episode for getting hooked on the show.
From that point on I was hooked. I watched all of season 1 in about 1.5 days. Now here is where you might need to beware if you haven’t seen the show I’m going to talk about a couple of the cliffhangers. The season 1 finale was hell on me. William Adama has been my favorite character in the series and to see him betrayed, shot, and at death’s door made for a cliffhanger that was ridiculously intense for me. Luckily, I only had a few months before my favorite show would return to TV. BSG became famous for me with its mid-season and end of season finales. They always had big cliffhangers. And of course the then SciFi channel would put the show on break for a minimum of 6 months before the next episode would air. It was like a punch in the gut at the end of season 2 when the Cylons invaded New Caprica, and it was a long 12 months trying to figure out what would happen to the remnants of humanity.
Season 3 was probably worse in the cliffhanger factor. Not only had 4 of the final 5 Cylons been revealed but the fleet was trapped in nebula and somehow Starbuck had returned from the dead! I had another almost year to sit there and wonder how all this had happened. What was the significance, had I missed the clues that hinted that Chief Tyrol was a Cylon? How was it possible that Saul Tigh the biggest toaster hater in the fleet was a Cylon? And also, how the hell could Kara Thrace return from the dead, was she the 5th and final Cylon?
Hey guys, I’ve been talking about the guest piece I’ve been writing for Tom Baker’s blog Morning Erection for a while now and it went live this weekend. The subject was Battlestar Galactica: Best Show on TV.
After all, what else would I write about since I’m a self admitted BSG nut. If you’ve got a few minutes check it out!
I'm an opionated nerd that enjoys all things good and nerdy. Anything from video games, and comics to movies. I write for Gonna Geek and also the co-host the All Things Good And Nerdy podcast. Its the best podcast that you aren't watching.
