Monday, March 14, 2011

Battlestar Galactica: Fighting advanced robots with sticks and stones.

(Great sci-fi wallpapers)
While BSG is not new (circa 2004) it's new to me. Yeah, I know, I'm behind. But I'm loving it!

Still, some of the sci-fi about this popular show, seems a bit...off.

For frak's sakes, they have artificial gravity, but current-era surgery. Can you say: What? Despite the irregularity of the science I honestly don't care. I ignore it for the incredible character struggles they show in every episode. I found myself comparing it to Stargate Universe for a while, but eventually I realized that while SGU may have taken some of the concepts (far from home, supply issues, crazy brilliant guy,etc.) BSG is so much more beyond SGU. I've hit season 2.5 and yet nothing comes off as stale or boring. Their absolute best trait is how well they know and work with their characters.

Let's look at weapons. Shell-based projectiles and nukes? That's it! They can jump about the universe, but that's ALL they have for weaponry? I liked the explanation of the lack of modern wireless tech in the first episode, but why would they forgo better weaponry in a universe that had experienced a long, drawn out war with an advanced adversary. Better yet, why hadn't they been upping the anté ever since, during those fifty years of peace. I know our own governments don't like to sit so placidly—peace, or not.

Does it make you wonder what is truly important in a good story? Is it believable science? Amazing magic? Intricate political struggles? Or just REAL people, conflicted with real problems making difficult life-and-death decisions every day. That's drama for you. Second to practically none.

If you haven't seen the series, get it on DVD, or jump on over to NetFlix. It's worth a watch.

3 comments:

  1. Sadly, you've seen the best of BSG. It's all downhill after the midpoint of Season 2. The rest of Season 2 is mediocre and then the long descent begins.

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  2. Keep on watching. There's plenty worthwhile all the way through the controversial series finale. You won't even know what's "really" going on until the 4th season.
    If you were more familiar with the science of weapons, you would appreciate they dropped sci-fi cliches (ray guns, etc) for relative realism.
    The 1 premise that was both unreasonable and, ultimately, unnecessary was that the "soul" of a dying Cylon instantly downloaded into a new Cylon at death.

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  3. Thanks for the comments!

    I've gotten to season 3 and though I can certainly see some of the issues "Anonymous" talks about, I think there is still a lot of worthwhile stuff going on.

    @Will - The entire download thing itself seems a tad on the let's-gloss-over-it-and-they-won't-notice-it kind of thing. I have many questions and I'm curious to see if they'll wrap them up or not.

    On Caprica, when the Cylons had settled, I think far too little thought was put into how their society would run. Twelve models identical in every way except for the experiences they create after "birth". However that can be a HUGE difference, depending on what they experience. So, for many of them to act so similar I find it a bit undeveloped. 'Course if you look at twins and how similar they can be over the course of a very disparate lifetime, perhaps they're not that far off track.

    Weaponry? Yeah, I can appreciate them avoiding sci-fi clichés, but I still think there would be more out there. They have FTL for crying out loud!

    Now, back to Netflix...

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Thanks for reading, now tell me what you think.