Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Battlestar Galactica

Well, I managed to sit through the first episode of series 3 of Battlestar Galactica, but only managed to get three-quarters of the way through the second episode before I started to lose the will to live. This seems to be a series that is now rapidly disappearing up its own fundament. Maybe it’s because of those in the cast and those producing it make the claim that it ‘isn’t really that science fiction nonesense’.

This new production of Battlestar Galactica was originally successful because it produced SF with a sufficient injection of reality, but now it seems the producers and actors have started to take themselves far too seriously. I can see the meetings held before they got to work. “We need more of that stuff that made the series successful, let’s do more issues, more relationships. Let’s try and cut down on the exploding spaceships and robots.” “Yeah, great idea! How about we get topical and do stuff about an occupation, more about religion, maybe some obesity too?” “Damned right. We want people to keep taking this seriously, so we have to cut down on that squids in space nonesense…”

I guess we can look forward to future episodes of BSG covering annorexia, homosexuality, racism, the death penalty etc etc. Yup, get it more mainstream. The daft thing is that mainstream doesn’t have to lack action, fun, enjoyment – just take a look at 24. It seems with BSG they’ve gone the route so many writers in the SF world venture along, when they make the assumption that boring = literature. It’s sad, but then I half expected a fuck-up when the franchise got extended.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Back to the days of "Cattlecrap Badactica" then?

Bob Lock said...

Hi Neal,
Yeah it's a pity, they seemed to have lost their way, much like many mini-series do when they decide to flesh-out the story with extraneous plots etc just to try and make it last longer.
It's interesting to see your viewpoint on BSG as I followed a discussion on DeepGenre not so long ago about the same subject. However, some of it was about male attitude towards the female characters in the series, especially Tricia Helfer who plays Six, basically we only watch it for the soft porn...
The comments have reached 56 so far, I've been a bit scared of contributing anything there as...

Well, basically I watch it for the soft porn...

Bob

take a look at DeepGenre, cool website:

DeepGenre

brent said...

it does have a lot of crappy standalone episodes but the overall storyline is still pretty cool i think.

also 'exodus' in season 3 was probably the single coolest scifi show/movie i've seen since farscape ended.

Anonymous said...

Jamie Bamber aka Apollo said he'd like to see more homosexuality covered (he's straight, btw).

I don't know. We're getting Season 3.5 this coming Sunday and while I could find a nit or two to pick with the show (I find the argument that it isn't a polemic to be rather fraudulent) I still enjoy watching it.

Not like there is much else to watch here Stateside anyway.

Galactica doing a combat drop through the atmosphere though, that rocked! Love this one line.

"Ninety-nine thousand and fallin' like a rock."

Love that line.

Respects,
S. F. Murphy
Trapped in a Place Called Missouri

Anonymous said...

Hi Neal, excellent. I couldn't agree more.What turned me off about the New BSG is the friggin camera angles. I hate the camera floating around all over the place. I can appreciate their "artistic endeavors" and all but that was the first thing that turned me off about the show. I felt like I was in a first person shooter video game. Secondly, is this mainstream crap, what you talked about. I want space ships exploding. I want what made the original BSG great: Space opera. I hope though the network keeps BSG it's the only decent "Science fiction like" thing worthwhile out there.

Anonymous said...

It does seem to smack of bollocks in Season 2. Just be patient, and pray for more robots. That's the only advice I can give you, having watched barely half of Season 2 myself...

Anonymous said...

I thought the entire series was pants. I had big expectations though so that's probably my fault.

TV sci-fi is dead as far as I can see. We need something akin to Lost in Space or Space 2099 remade to get the juices flowing again, but then the writers will only dream up an excuse to have Koenig in a homosexual encounter with an alien. Worse than that would be the Eastenders like plot of Will Robinson calling the galactic child line because Robbie Robot touched his winkie.

Anonymous said...

Mark, your post resonates with me. New Sci Fi on TV imo died when they pulled Enterprise. I think when word got out that Enterprise was to be canceled it created more viewer reaction not seen since TOS.

Paul Swan said...

That's a shame.

I've only recently got into the new BSG. As I don't have sky just freeview I've just come to it on sky three so I've not long seen season one. Luckily my better half gave me the miniseries & season 2 for Christmas. Watched them both over two days (which didn't exactly make me the Mr Popular).

It's one of the best Sci-Fi show I've seen, not bad considering it's a remake (of sorts). It's typical that some thing starts going down hill just as it gets going. What with Stargate getting cancelled I'm running out of show to watch (which before anyone else says it; I realise isn't in the same league).

Which makes me wonder, Neal, anyone ever approached you for a TV adaptation or film version of your books?

Neal Asher said...

Hey, that was only my opinion, and in the eyes of many I'll be wrong. Maybe the things I've pointed at aren't the problem, however, when you start excavating you nose, wondering about another cup of tea or rolling another cigarette, and wishing you'd recorded it so you could fast-forward, then something has definitely gone pear-shaped.

Paul, much excitement ensued when Blue Train Entertainment (who along with Dreamworks made the Jackie Chan movie 'The Tuxedo') made enquiries about the film rights to Gridlinked. Nothing came of it though, and there've been no other queries since. Shame, I'd love to see a CGI sail from The Skinner, just as I'd love to trouser a disgustingly large cheque.

Paul Swan said...

Pity, it would be good to have seen a a gridlinked film. Large cheques are, I'm sure, always handy to have.

However... have you seen 'the tuxedo'? Maybe we all had a lucky escape.

InfoOverload said...

When it comes to BSG, I'll be honest, I don't like it. Frankly it bores me - I know, I know my friends all think I'm defective, as well.

But, my housemate watches it, and eve I've noticed it slipping into a badly lit version of Eastenders over the last few episodes.

It seems I'm prescient now... ;-)

...or it's just slipping away from it's target audience now the ratings have given it a thin veneer of Mainstream.

Neal Asher said...

Paul, no I haven't seen 'The Tuxedo' but then again I have seen some good stuff that Dreamworks did. It's not unusual, I guess, for a company like that to produce a crap movie or two. What I like was the size. Hey, if they could produce Tuxedo then there was some cash knocking about o make something decent.

Infooverload, Yeah, that about hits it on the head. It seems that when they look for drama they go the soap opera route of 'conflict in relationships' and all the rest of that bollocks. Fuck that. Where's my exploding spaceshps?

Anonymous said...

season 2 of bsg is where it's at.
I have yet to see as much space action and "squid in space" as on this show.

seriously, the last 2 episodes of season 1 is where one should start viewing this show.

The action doesn't die till the last 2 episodes of season 2 which herald the 3rd season - which has yet to wow me.....