Battlestar Galactica

[Avotius]

I am a big fan of this show, I didn't like the original series at all, but the new series completely blows my mind. They have done with a TV show something that is amazing! Science fiction always came off as kind of a joke for many people I think, mostly the people interested in it were condemned in peoples minds to spend the rest of their days in their mothers attic watching old tapes and DVD's of the past's future.

Well I really think for the first time ever there is a sci fi show that can really be taken seriously by people who dont care for the genre. Yes of course there will be those types that will go nuts and be uber fans and those who will try to rebuild their living rooms into some set area of the show but as for me I take a more "photographic" look at it.

One of the things that alway stuck with me was a documentary about Stanley Kubrick and how he was a master of light play, it is one of the things that I tried to focus on in my own photography, the interaction of light and shadow, the ability to shape your subject by the way you interpret the light. Someone in the film crew for this new series of Battlestar Galactica was paying attention when they made this show, the use of light and the interaction between subjects, its almost worthy of Kubrick. Also the use of very complex shots in the show really adds an edge that a lot of other cut and paste shows today lack. A shot in the first episode of the 4th season of a hallucination Sol Tai had comes to mind, a very complex back and forth shot that had to be well planned out by a lot of people who were in it. These are the kinds of things that really brought my interest to the show.

At first it seemed like another sci fi space action that I expected to go the way of firefly (which I only watched one then lost interest) or the new outer limits, start strong then go downhill from there until it ended up bloated and uninteresting.

There are three shows on TV these days that I really enjoy, for their technical sides, to their entertainment value, to all the other things that make them great. Top Gear of course sits on that list as the most imaginative show. Battlestar Galactica because it makes me think of a time when I sat and looked curiously at the stars and is inspiring to my photographic eye, and finally Boston Legal, the show that makes me think about the world around me in ways that makes you scratch your head.


By the way, if you are a fan of BG and have not seen the 10th episode of the 4th season yet (I just got it on BT) it is one of the best yet, I never never sat in such suspense over a TV show.

 

[Avotius]

ps. a lot of people here in China love the show, we get it here on emule or bit torrent, yeah yeah I know the this and that about online file sharing but we dont get the show here. The dedication to the show is quite large too, hours after a release chinese subtitles can be found, quite well done as well.

 

[Morca007]

It is an amazing show. I have been putting off watching the fourth season though, so that I can watch it all at once. I'm greedy. 😉

 

[Avotius]

It is an amazing show. I have been putting off watching the fourth season though, so that I can watch it all at once. I'm greedy. 😉

now is a good time to go for it!

 

[telenous]

There's no comparison between the original and the reimagined (as they call it) series. I vaguely remember watching the original as a kid in the early 80's (it aired with a couple of years delay on greek tv) and even then I preferred, say, Star Trek in terms of plot. The creators of the new series went for a gritty, cynical, dystopian version that plays well with hardcore sci-fi fans. That dystopias resonate now with a wider audience is perhaps a sign of the times. And, no mistake, the one most crucial cinematic influence on the new Battlestar Galactica both in terms of content and style is no other than Blade Runner (in particular in the central tenet of the story where androids revolt against their masters and show signs of enlightenment that their creators often lack). But of course Galactica has the chance to explore this storyline further and in many different ways.

The cinematography and the directing are influenced by many different films. I 'd say the ligthing inside Galactica reminds me of the film Das Boot, emphasizing artificial even lighting and the claustrophobia from the crumped spaces these people have to live in. Caprica post-Cylon attack was often low-key with the same acid rain you see in Blade Runner. New Caprica was purposefully overexposed, with burnt highlights and corssprocessed to convey the look of an inhospitable environment. Some of the ground fights with the Cylons definitely nod in the direction of Saving Private Ryan and The Band of Brothers. The people who make this series are definitely movie buffs (and I think they admit so themselves), the list of references to other movies could just go on and on and on.

The most obvious one of course is no other but the inspired casting of Edward J. Olmos as Admiral Adama.

It's a very good series, I like it very much. I agree it could be interesting to people who don't normally watch sci-fi (my partner gets bored stiff with sci-fi but this one she can watch). Oh, and like Morca, I 'll wait for the fourth series to finish so that I can watch it back-to-back.



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