Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 13, 2016 7:39:38 GMT -5
I still have the Galactica photonovel somewhere... It was great to have so many stills of the show in one book! |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jul 13, 2016 10:17:43 GMT -5
I still have the Galactica photonovel somewhere... It's was great to have so many stills of the show in one book! That's a bit of a collector's item, apparently. Especially if it's in good condition. I've read that those Fotonovels were notorious for falling apart because the binding wasn't strong enough to hold the thick glossy pages. My best friend, when I was a kid, had the Lord of the Rings one (with stills from the 1978 animated movie). |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jul 18, 2016 20:20:02 GMT -5
I loved those old photonovels, I lost most of them in a flood as a kid but I still have one of Raiders of the Lost Ark that's in decent condition.
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 19, 2016 10:53:57 GMT -5
I loved those old photonovels, I lost most of them in a flood as a kid but I still have one of Raiders of the Lost Ark that's in decent condition. I would have killed for that one! Well... perhaps not. Sold my siblings, though, that might have been an option. |
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Post by Jesse on Jun 17, 2017 14:23:52 GMT -5
MeTV started airing the original series from the beginning a couple weeks ago and I've been enjoying rewatching it for the first time in years. The only thing Battlestar I think I haven't watched in full is the 1980s series.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 18, 2017 19:49:37 GMT -5
MeTV started airing the original series from the beginning a couple weeks ago and I've been enjoying rewatching it for the first time in years. The only thing Battlestar I think I haven't watched in full is the 1980s series. Not missing a thing there. Apart from the pilot movie (well,chunks of it) and the Starbuck episode, there is little worth viewing. |
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Post by brutalis on Jun 19, 2017 8:06:34 GMT -5
MeTV started airing the original series from the beginning a couple weeks ago and I've been enjoying rewatching it for the first time in years. The only thing Battlestar I think I haven't watched in full is the 1980s series. Not missing a thing there. Apart from the pilot movie (well,chunks of it) and the Starbuck episode, there is little worth viewing. Galactica was a product of it's time. Trying to be Star Wars for the television set. Which it mostly failed at and yet there were lots of great ideas and things within the series which has allowed it becoming "classic" science fiction that continues to be loved by many and a viable option for continuation or recreation from Hollywood. Consider that Battlestar Galactica and Space: 1999 and the Six Million Dollar Man were the top American science fiction television creations of the 70's that approached science fiction/fantasy as more than just being a children's level kind of show. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 19, 2017 10:25:43 GMT -5
Not missing a thing there. Apart from the pilot movie (well,chunks of it) and the Starbuck episode, there is little worth viewing. Galactica was a product of it's time. Trying to be Star Wars for the television set. Which it mostly failed at and yet there were lots of great ideas and things within the series which has allowed it becoming "classic" science fiction that continues to be loved by many and a viable option for continuation or recreation from Hollywood. Consider that Battlestar Galactica and Space: 1999 and the Six Million Dollar Man were the top American science fiction television creations of the 70's that approached science fiction/fantasy as more than just being a children's level kind of show. I'm referring to Galactica: 1980. The original series has some really great episodes and a few clinkers (Magnificent Warriors). It's problem was no timeline for finding Earth, so they had to resort to filler episodes. When they focused on another clue to Earth or a major Cylon obstacle, it was great. The other problem was too great a reliance on homage/rip-off episodes. Gun on Ice Planet Zero (which is a great two-parter) is Guns of Navarone-meets-The Dirty Dozen. The Living Legend is Patton, Fire in Space is The Towering Inferno, Murder on the Rising Star is Perry Mason (et al), The Lone Warrior is Shane, Magnificent Warriors is Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai. When ratings started dropping, they started with the teases of Earth, with the Terra episodes. They had a knock-out two-parter with Count Iblis, then forgot him (the books used him a bit more), though they kept the beings of light for another episode (with Terra). I think that if they had stuck to the original plan of a series of movies, the story would have been more focused and would have sustained the rating. Might have proven more cost effective, in the long run. Despite its faults, BG was an exciting and memorable series. Galactica: 1980 was not. They tried to go super cheap and it looked it. The bulk of the cast was gone and we were left with Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke; not the most charismatic actors available. Gone was the cocky, fun character of Starbuck, a major mistake (as was shown when he returned for one flashback episode). The pilot gave us some interesting stuff, with the rogue Colonial scientist and time travel to WW2; but, that was about it (apart from the Starbuck episode). One episode with a Cylon scout ship crashing on Earth at least had a bit of tension, as they try to stop a Centurian, before it can send a signal about Earth. The rest were pretty generic and the ones with the Galactica super-kids was horrible. Nobody wanted episodes about the Galactica secretly helping agricultural production. They wanted space battles and they wanted Baltar. Richard Lynch's character only appeared in the pilot movie, so there is no antagonist upon which to build drama. Buck Rogers ended up being more of the sequel to BG that fans wanted, although in a different vein. Still, it would have been nice if Glen Larson had brought the two together. There's a great fan trailer, "United," which has the Galactica finding Earth and sending out a patrol, who are intercepted by the Earth Directorate. They then prepare to face the Cylons, with Baltar. Really whets your appetite for a full-on movie. |
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Post by brutalis on Jun 19, 2017 10:55:46 GMT -5
My oops when reading the post. Agree 100% on Galactica 1980. Only watchable if you like viewing train wrecks. Guess you can't really fault Larson for trying to salvage some costs by getting a trimmed down cheaper version approved once the original Galactica was canned. but boy could they have gotten better scripts and actors and moved the timeline within Galactica itself even further ahead so people might not want or expect survivors from the original.
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Post by rom on Jun 22, 2017 8:32:59 GMT -5
A while back, for the first time I watched - in chronological order - the entire original Battlestar Galactica series (1978-1979). I have never seen the majority of these episodes, and the few that I had seen were as a kid on their original broadcast release, almost 40 years ago.
And, I was pleasantly surprised that the show was a lot better than I remember it being - at the time it was on, I remember thinking it was a Star Wars-rip off. However, on re-watching it many years later as an adult I definitely see the SW-like elements, but the series is actually much more nuanced than I previously gave it credit for.
The 2-hour premiere with the Cylons attacking the humans & forcing them off their home planet was quite gripping, especially the scenes with the Cylon raiders attacking the civilians/buildings. Also liked the "nightclub" where Starbuck, Apollo & co. find themselves with all of the aliens; the four-eyed, two-mouthed female singers were both groteque & fascinating, and the Ovions (and what they were doing with the humans) were quite disturbing.
I also thought it was interesting that that these humans were possibly descendants of the Egyptians - this was mentioned in the opening sequence of some of the episodes & heavily implied by the design of the Colonial warriors' helmets...
Also liked the iconic theme music - this is one of the few things I remember about the show when watching it as a child...
The rest of the series was impressive as well; IMHO, there weren't any bad episodes, though some were obviously better than others. Some high-points included:
- "Lost Planet of the Gods, Part I & II": Great two-parter where the BG crew stopped on a desolate planet to get further clues about how to get to Earth; I thought the Egyptian-like pyramids were interesting...
- "The Lost Warrior" - this episode was an homage to old Westerns; Apollo was marooned on a frontier planet, and had to go up against "red eye", a Cylon who had been damaged in a crash & who was controlled by one of the corrupt officials on the planet.
-"Experiment in Terra" - great episode involving a totalitarian government in an almost "alternate reality" Earth; liked how the aliens from the War of the Gods episodes made an appearance here....was intrigued by the interesting artwork/designs in the blonde woman's apartment...
-"The Magnificent Warriors" - well-done episode involving the Colonial warriors battling a group of Boray aliens on a remote planet; liked the alien make-up re: the Borays here - these are some of the few actual aliens we see in the series...
-"The Hand of God" - excellent final episode, and one of the few where we get a good glimpse of the rarer gold-armored Cylon. Very cool ending where they inadvertently picked up the Apollo-11 moon landing transmissions from Earth.
-"War of the Gods, Part I - II": I felt these were the strongest two episodes of the series; extremely creepy episode dealing with Count Iblis, an individual who may or may not have been the devil?! I remember seeing this episode as a kid & being extremely disturbed - especially by the scene when they found the crash site...Also very interesting was when Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba found themselves in the "White Light" ship, and were all wearing those very cool white uniforms...
Several points about these two episodes:
I found it intriguing that Patrick M. played both Count Iblis & was also the voice of Imperious Leader, the Cylon leader/mastermind. This was also mentioned by Adama?! in one of these episodes. I'm sure this was not coincidental...it sounds like Count Iblis & Imperious Leader were supposed to be the same being...Also, Patrick M. did the voice-over for the intro to some of the episodes...
It was also interesting that you never got a full glimpse of Imperious Leader - his face was always in the shadows. However, the late 1970's action figure looked quite bizarre...
The only real complaint I had about the series was Baltar: I honestly thought that he was a pointless villain. The Cylons should have just eliminated the character off in the beginning, as they actually did in the original two-hour premiere & the Marvel comics; they re-did this scene for the series to show Baltar begging for his life, and he was then spared. However, this never made any sense to me - the Cylons, who considered themselves an advanced race, didn't trust Baltar since he had betrayed the other humans - but they spared him anyway, presumably because he convinced them that he could be of service to them - even though they considered themselves superior to all humans?! Bull$#$#! And, to top it off, they gave him his own Base-star to command?! Yeah, right....That all being said, it did seem that they tried to take him out by bombing the pyramids in the "Lost Planet of the Gods" two-parter...
A couple of side-notes:
The Cylon Raider/Colonial Viper space battles were obviously "inspired" by the Space battles at the very end of the original Star Wars film (1977); not a criticism, however, since J. Dysktra did the effects for both Star Wars & BG...
In the past, I have compared this original series to the re-imagined 200x series - however, after seeing this original series in it's entirety, I won't be making these comparisons any longer. Both series are completely different, and a show from the late 1970's shouldn't be put up against a show from the 200x's...
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Post by rom on Jun 22, 2017 8:39:52 GMT -5
Along with my previous post on BG, I'm digging up some of my older reviews. Here's my review of the 10-episode Galactica: 1980 series. I recently re-watched this on the DVD set. This was not a horrible show by any means, though I know that it's typically either despised or ignored by BG fans. Note there are SPOILERS below, if you've never seen this.
-The series is never specifically called Galactica: 1980 in the opening credits, it's called Battlestar Galactica - IMHO, it was basically treated as S2 of BG - i.e., the opening theme song & scenes are overall from the regular BG series, not Galactica 1980.
- In the last episode of the regular BG series, the Galactica picked up a transmission from Earth re: the Moon Landing in 1969. If they were getting this transmission in "real-time", then it would mean Galactica 1980 is taking place 11 years later, after Apollo has died?! (as implied in EP1) and Starbuck has been lost (as seen in EP10). In any case, though I know a lot of fans didn't like that they "replaced" Apollo & Starbuck with Troy/Boxey & Dylan, at least there was a logical explanation for this in the story.
-The series was somewhat dis-jointed: I.e., the first three episodes dealt with the Galactica finding Earth & dealing with a renegade Colonial warrior named Xavier; in episodes 2-3 he went back in time to Germany during WW II to try to give them modern weapons so that in the future, Earth would be better equipped to deal with the Cylon threat. Troy & Dylan stopped him, and they eventually all went back to 1980 - but then Xavier escaped again, and at the very end of episode 3 they mentioned that he had gone back in time to the era of the Napoleonic wars. So, the strong implication at the end of E3 was that future episodes would deal with the two heroes (Troy & Dylan) & Jamie Hamilton (R. Douglas) going back in time to stop Xavier at various eras in history.
However, in E4-on, the time-travel storyline went on the back burner - and, though Xavier was mentioned again - the idea of the heroes chasing him through time was discarded. I'm guessing this was either partially or completely because it would have too expensive to have a network TV series set in a different historical era every week. And, I'm actually glad this happened since if they had continued with this storyline, we may not have seen the Cylons later in the series.
Also interesting here was that in these time travel episodes, when they went back in time their clothing & helmets turned completely white (the reason given was the disruption in time/space, or something like that ). In any case, this brought to mind the episodes from the original BG series where Apollo, Starbuck, and Sheba went to the "angel" ship - in that sequence, their clothing turned white as well.
-In episodes 1-3 when the Troy/Dylan were in modern 1980 California (actually, the series was probably filmed in '79) they were wearing leather jackets/contemporary clothes & there were numerous times they were chasing someone/being chased on foot, and/or involved in a car chase. So, if I hadn't known better, during these scenes I would have thought I was watching an old episode of Starsky & Hutch 
-The first three episodes got a lot of laughs since Troy & Dylan were clueless on how to use pay phones, money, etc.
-It was amusing to see Mr. Brady from The Brady Bunch (the late Robert Reed) play a scientist in the first several episodes, and even funnier was his haircut - hilarious.
-The scene in E1 when Troy/Dylan communicated with this scientist by solving a complicated equation on his computer was almost certainly inspired by a similar scene in the classic 1950's film The Day The Earth stood still; in that film, the alien (Michael Rennie) communicated with a scientist by solving an complex equation on his black board.
-The brilliant child scientist Dr. Zee changed actors between E3 & 4.
-Episodes 4-6 dealt with a group of children who were born in space on the Galactica - these children, due to the different gravity on Earth, were able to jump higher, run faster, etc. than regular people. At the time, I identified with these characters to some extent since I myself was in elementary school back in 1980, and was roughly the age of most of these kids.
- IMHO EP 7-8 (The Night the Cylons Landed, Parts I-II) were two of the best episodes in the series. Cylons crash-landed on Earth, and one of them looked human - though he was a cyborg. This was the first time we saw human-looking Cylons in this series. And, I wonder if the re-imagined BG from the 200X's (with all of the humanoid Cylons) was inspired by this character?!....
-As I'm sure many agree, the very best episode in the series was E10: The Return of Starbuck. This was the story of how Starbuck had crash-landed on a planet years before, and gotten stranded there. Very poignant episode, especially the way he formed an actual friendship with a Cylon, "Cy", who ended up saving him at the end (at the cost of Cy's "life"). This was a fascinating episode on a lot of other levels as well. I.e., who was the mysterious woman whom Cy found, and where did he find her? Was she an alien or an angel? Who was the father of her child (Doctor Zee)? She somehow ended up back on the planet (on a cliff) after Starbuck had put her & her baby in the spaceship, which was also mysterious, though the baby in the ship made it's way to the Galactica (shades of Superman's origin!). Also, did Starbuck ever end up getting off the planet? You would have thought he could have used the Cylon craft that the 3 enemy Cylons landed in, since that was presumably still operational....
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Roquefort Raider
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jun 22, 2017 10:11:54 GMT -5
I found it intriguing that Patrick M. played both Count Iblis & was also the voice of Imperious Leader, the Cylon leader/mastermind. This was also mentioned by Adama?! in one of these episodes. I'm sure this was not coincidental...it sounds like Count Iblis & Imperious Leader were supposed to be the same being... My interpretation at the time was that while we humans had been created by God, the Cylons had been created by the devil! |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 22, 2017 10:47:56 GMT -5
Baltar helped give the series a focus, as you needed a face for the Cylons, someone to direct them. The Imperious Leader could have done that (as in the early novels), except, the make-up didn't look very good, close-up (you can see it better in some of the deleted footage, on the DVDs), which is why I think he was kept in the shadows. Lucifer and his IL series could have possibly filled the role, I suppose. Personally, I liked Baltar and John Colicos and Jonathan Harris had a nice back and forth. The problem was that you can come up with a rationalization for why the Cylons spared Baltar the first time (to aid in relocating the fleet); but, it's pretty hard to rationalize them keeping him alive after failure, especially more than once. The Count Iblis/Imperious Leader connection is made by Baltar, when he first meets Iblis, saying he recognized the voice. Iblis remarks that would be impossible, since the Imperious Leader isn't human, though suggesting that the Cylons might be agents of Iblis. In the pilot, we learn that the humans came into conflict with the Cylons when the Cylons attacked another race, with whom the Colonies had a relationship. You are left to wonder if Iblis' people instigated things.
I was a huge fan of BG and was excited to see it return in Galactica: 1980. However, disappointment hit almost immediately. The cost cutting was immediately apparent, with minimal spaceship sets and the staging on Earth. The Vipers were jettisoned quickly in the series for the motorcycles, with really bad rear-screen projection for the flying bits. That method worked better in space scenes, with the black and starfield backgrounds being less obvious. However, the writing was so below what had come before. It just felt like an average 70s sci-fi show: fish out of water jokes, Fugitive template (moving around, secretly helping people), same Southern California film sites.
The Starbuck episode was such a welcome change. Once again, we are focused on a dynamic character and Dirk benedict had the charisma that Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke lacked. We have a bit of mystery and a bit of action. The basic template is Hell in the Pacific, in the grand tradition of the original series, adapting a classic film into a BG story.
Galactica '80 died the same quick death that most of those sci-fi shows of the late 70s and early 80s did. They just didn't give you much visual wonder, the scripts mostly followed the Fugitive template, and they were done on the cheap. Galactica had broken that, in the original incarnation; but, expense killed it. The next big sci-fi hit would be Buck Rogers, which also used more sci-fi and space opera wonder to interest the audience, though cost also started dragging it down. Like Galactica '80, it's cost-cutting second season was a massive disappointment, with mediocre stories, less exotic locales, and fairly stagebound sequences. It also had the sin of turning Erin Gray into a glorified stewardess, complete with uniform to match.
Space 1999 was the other big late-70s sci-fi show; but, I always found it painfully boring. Gerry Anderson was always imaginative in the concepts of his shows and in the design details; but, they varied wildly in the story content. Space 1999 had a similar problem to UFO, for me; it was way too in love with its models and effects and not enough in the human characters. Too many episodes of both feature long shots of space ships just moving. The human actors don't get a lot of meat in an episode. I loved Landau and Baines in Mission Impossible; but, it was hard to recognize those same qualities here. They famously complained about the scripts and most of the actors remarked about how Anderson was more focused on the look of the show, rather than the content. It had moments; but, the far lower budget Doctor Who and Blake's 7 were far more engaging.
The series that really proved that you could do the grand space opera of BG was Babylon 5, in my opinion. Star Trek NG proved you could do quality effects; but, they stuck to the more episodic, utopian Trek template. That worked fine for them and their audience; but, didn't necessarily give you the thrills of something like BG and Buck Rogers. B5 gave you an epic story and made good use of cost effective technology to give you alien environments and races, a dramatic conflict, and a definite destination for the story. It had some clunker filler episodes, though more in the first season (and part of the 5th), with the rest being fairly integral to a central story. I think it, more than anything else, set the stage for the BSG remake, which carried the scope that fans of the original always wanted. I will admit to being one of the old school fans who was put off by the marketing of the series and the changes made to characters; however, I changed my tune when I watched the series (once it was finished). I didn't necessarily agree with the route they took; but, I felt they were far more focused, writing it in story arcs, as B5 used. Of course, B5 had been influenced by Blake's 7.
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Post by rom on Jun 22, 2017 22:26:39 GMT -5
Baltar helped give the series a focus, as you needed a face for the Cylons, someone to direct them. The Imperious Leader could have done that (as in the early novels), except, the make-up didn't look very good, close-up (you can see it better in some of the deleted footage, on the DVDs), which is why I think he was kept in the shadows. Lucifer and his IL series could have possibly filled the role, I suppose. Personally, I liked Baltar and John Colicos and Jonathan Harris had a nice back and forth. The problem was that you can come up with a rationalization for why the Cylons spared Baltar the first time (to aid in relocating the fleet); but, it's pretty hard to rationalize them keeping him alive after failure, especially more than once. The Count Iblis/Imperious Leader connection is made by Baltar, when he first meets Iblis, saying he recognized the voice. Iblis remarks that would be impossible, since the Imperious Leader isn't human, though suggesting that the Cylons might be agents of Iblis. In the pilot, we learn that the humans came into conflict with the Cylons when the Cylons attacked another race, with whom the Colonies had a relationship. You are left to wonder if Iblis' people instigated things. I have the opposite opinion of Baltar - after he was shown to be the traitor in the pilot, they should have kept the scenes where the Cylons killed him after he had served his purpose - it would have been fitting, given that he thought he was going to be rewarded for this horrible act, and then the Cylons took him out because they had no more use for him. That being said, Baltar was repeatedly killed in the BG Marvel comics series - LOL: starlogged.blogspot.com/2012/03/battlestar-galactica-they-keep-killing.htmlI do agree it makes no sense that the Cylons kept him around as long as they did. He was a traitor so they obviously couldn't trust him. And, he didn't help them after the initial time. So, why the he$$ did they keep him around?! If Baltar had died in the pilot (as originally intended), it would have been fine to have just seen the Cylons going up to the in-the-shadows Imperious leader & reporting to him throughout the series. Seeing Baltar on the Cylon ship was ridiculous & pointless. I hated the character - and, to me, he was the one weak link in the original series. I agree 100% that Galactica: 1980 was not that great of a show. However, I didn't despise this. I did think it was cool to see the Galactica reach Earth, given that this had been their goal in the original series. That being said, the show would definitely have benefited by having Apollo & Starbuck in the lead roles instead of the two "other guys". Also, it's obvious the series suffered from disjointed writing, drastically changing storylines, and a low budget. I guess it was doomed to fail from the beginning, but it was still a diverting series. And, if it had never come out, we would never have gotten "The Return of Starbuck" - which is my #1 episode in either BG or Galactica: 1980. Stellar episode! I never watched a full episode of Space: 1999 - I found it incredibly boring - what a snooze-fest. I have 0 interest in ever seeing the show. That being said, I am a huge fan of the original Mission: Impossible series - I never caught it when it was first on TV (not born or too young - LOL), but I caught the whole series on DVD back in the early 20XX's. I'll have to dig up my old review of that series. I still need to check out Babylon 5 - Thanks for the reminder. A girl I knew in college recommended it to me back in the '90's, but I never made time to check it out. I will do so soon. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 23, 2017 0:38:11 GMT -5
B5 takes a little patience, in the 1st season. Also, the pilot is a bit disjointed; but, if you can be patient, you will quickly be rewarded. Once Mr Morden arrives and we get hints of the Shadows, it gets interesting. There is a lull again, before they kick it into high gear, at the end of that 1st season. The second season starts with an abrupt transition, as Cmdr Sinclair is gone and Capt. Sheriden arrives. He gets acclimated for a couple of episodes (and Delenn is otherwise occupied); but, then it gets going. There are a couple of shaky episodes; but, nothing as bad as the 1st season. Season 3 will have you jonesin' big time, and Season 4 is epic. Then, it gets a bit off track. It originally looked like WB wouldn't renew B5 for the 5th and final season; so, JMS truncated the battle to free Earth a bit (it was originally supposed to carry over into season 5) and filmed the final episode. They got a last minute renewal; so, they had to fill in a bit, while they set up the main thrust of season 5. The final episode is tremendous.
I prefer B5 over later Trek. It had a more realistic view of humanity, got the military relationships and protocols correct, and created truly different alien races, with unique features, culture, and design aesthetics. There were more advanced races and less, political maneuvering, humor, drama, quiet moments, epic moments, great battle sequences, real physics and a lot of metaphor. Also, the tie-in media helped fill in gaps. The novels were used to tell stories they didn't have time for, in the series, like what happened to Sinclair's love interest, from the 1st season and Sinclair's time on Mimbar (also covered in the comic book series). There was an excellent Centauri trilogy, from Peter David, which helps set up the final episode, in part, and wrap up some things from the end of the series, prior to that episode (which jumps ahead several years, from the previous episode). There are also homages to classic sci-fi, with the character Bester (named for writer Alfred Bester), the use of the Prisoner salute, by the Psi Corp, a bit of an homage to A Canticle for Liebowitz, several homages to the Lord of the Rings, Blake's 7 (the Drazi ships were based on the Liberator), the Lensman Saga and the Foundation Trilogy. Neil Gaiman and Peter David penned episodes and an alien race, the Gaim, were named after Gaiman and given a look based on the Sandman (with a helmet like his, from the early part of the series).
Peter Jurasik and Andreas Katsulas are the standouts, with Londo and G'Kar as central figures who grow and change. G'Kar starts as the supposed villain but soon becomes a hero and a religious figure. Londo is a comic buffoon who makes a dreadful error and bargains with the devil, then seems to get the better of the bargain, only to fall again. Mira Furlong gets some great stuff too, as do Bill Mumy and the late Stephen Furst. Somehow, though, JMS neglected to have Bill Mumy have any scenes with June Lockhart, when she made a guest appearance. Wasted opportunity!
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