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Battlestar Galactica Redux

The Sci-Fi channel is airing a new Battlestar Galactica miniseries. The first episode aired last night, but airs again this afternoon at 3:52pm PST right before episode #2. There’s an encore presentation of both episodes this Sunday at 4pm PST.

The series is pitched as a “re-imagining” of the original series, with changes that have met with strong reactions from fans. The most striking changes: some Cylons now appear as humans (and thus can infiltrate the colonies more easily), Starbuck and Boomer are women, and Commander Adama has to work with a Colonial President.

These didn’t sound like good ideas. Indeed, the new Adama, Edward James Olmos (best known as Lt. Castillo in Miami Vice, Harrison Ford’s enigmatic partner in Blade Runner, and the teacher in Stand and Deliver), actually advised hard-core fans of the old series to not watch the new one. So that, combined with the fact that the Sci-Fi Channel is a bunch of poopieheads for cancelling Farscape, and I had a tons of reasons to hate this going in. But I was actually pleasantly surprised.

The series is actually kind of a cross between a “re-imagining” of the original series and a “next generation” approach. In the back story, there was a truce ending the war between humans and Cylons. The series takes place forty years after that truce, and the Galactica is actually now an ancient relic about to be decommissioned (indeed, much of it is a historical museum, featuring props from the original series as exhibits, which I thought was a cute touch). Of course, it’s not strictly a “next generation” approach because it uses the same characters from the old series, but now in this new situation and altered from their original incarnation. Geeky viewers who want to insist that all the events in the original show was “canon” are just not going to like that approach.

Personally, I found the addition of President Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell (Donnie Darko, Dances with Wolves, Sneakers and Independence Day), to be pretty true to the spirit of the series. One of the most memorable episodes of the original series was the one where the council, over the objections of Adama, strikes a truce with the Cylons. Of course, predictably, Adama ends up being right, and the Cylons take advantage of the situation, and the council is made out to be a bunch of boneheads. So the civilian vs. military conflict was always one of the themes, although the show seemed staunchly pro-military. Given the depth of character development of Roslin we see in just one episode, and the fact that they depict her as being very competent despite being merely the Secretary of Education (she’s the only surviving member of the Cabinet), I expect the new one to have a more balanced and nuanced perspective of the issue, which would be a vast improvement.

I imagine the changes to Starbuck is going to be the biggest bone of contention, yet surprisingly, I found that this character was actually the least changed. Starbuck was always the character I identified with most, and in hindsight, this was probably the intention of the show’s creators. I mean, Apollo was just so straight-laced and dull, Adama was so old, and Boomer and Tigh hardly ever said or did anything interesting. Starbuck was the only one that had any fun and was the one pilot everyone knew was the most dangerous. While Apollo, Boomer, and Tigh have been made a bit more interesting (the new Boomer bears no resemblance whatsoever to the original), Starbuck is pretty much the same old Starbuck, with that one striking difference. Well, and she seems a bit more of a hothead. I, for one, like her. For those wondering why the change? The same reason for most of the changes. To make the relationships between the characters more complex.

Because let’s face it, the characterization was not a strength of the original show. All the relationships were pretty simple and didn’t really change much throughout the run. That’s just the way television was back then (which is now spoofed to death by The Simpsons). You just can’t do quality television that way anymore (with the possible exception of Law & Order, which, by its nature, is a special case). Nowadays, for a good drama, characters have to change and grow over time, and ditto for the relationships between them. So this is hopefully setting up to be one of those shows.

Anyway, the special effects are, as you might expect, greatly improved from the original show (when you’re a kid, you don’t notice all the stock footage they used, but it became painfully obvious when I rewatched a few episodes). I like the new ship physics, obviously influenced greatly by Babylon 5, but still retaining some of the old look (unfortunately, they didn’t take the cue from Firefly, still depicting sound in space). The vipers look good, quite similar to the originals, but I’m not too fond of the design of the new Galactica or the Cylon ships. Maybe I’ll get used to them, who knows?

The camera work is a bit busy with a good deal of panning (overly so in the FX shots, which gets distracting — like they’re showing off a new toy like in Attack of the Clones) but competently done in the live-action shots. I think the entire episode was very well-paced. The beginning is somewhat slow to get you introduced to all the new characters and faces, but it moves along. The action scenes are pretty gripping, even when you know some of what’s going to happen. I thought one of the high points was when Starbuck’s viper has trouble launching and she has to wait in the cockpit for the crew to fix it as she itches to join the raging battle — a battle that she can hear is not going very well.

And the acting is a huge upgrade. Olmos and McDonnell clearly know their craft. Michael Hogan as Colonel Tigh brings to mind John McCain, but does a good job as well. Katee Sackhoff has probably one of the toughest jobs, given that her character will be the one most compared to the original, and I think she pulls it off reasonably well, if a little over-the-top. Everybody else is fine with one sore exception: Grace Park as Sharon “Boomer” Valerii. I just did not find her convincing at all, mostly because she seemed to rush her lines a bit. She seems to be the least experienced of the new cast, so it might be just due to nervousness. Hopefully she’ll settle down with time.

Anyway, is it as good as Farscape? No, not hardly. There was never a chance of that. Is it better than the original? I think so. Perhaps that’s not saying very much, but overall, I think it’s worth giving a chance. Again, an encore presentation shows this Sunday on the Sci-Fi channel, so check it out.

Update 12/18/03

Well yes, I did see the second part last week, and hoped to update this entry before Sunday’s rebroadcast, but oh well. I’m sure Sci-Fi will show it again sometime, and I’ll be sure to announce that when I hear about it.

Anyway, there’s not much to add to my original review other than, THAT LAST SPACE BATTLE KICKS ASS, and that there’s a pretty good twist at the end. That, and I should’ve known to expect quality, given that this is Ronald Moore, who’s written some of the best episodes from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and has also written for the absolutely magnificent HBO series, Carnivale (I’m lucky my wife is a Clea Duvall fan, or I probably wouldn’t have bothered, having more than enough TV to watch as it is).

That’s all I have to add. If you’ve already seen it, Slashdot also has a few nice comments (I recommend sorting by “Highest Scores First”).

Update 2/14/04

Good news, the new series has been picked up for thirteen episodes. I discuss that (and some other, not-so-good news) here