The Scream
10 December 2003, 9:06 PM

Nifty.

Battlestar Galactica
10 December 2003, 12:33 AM

I remember the original "Battlestar Galactica" from Saturday mornings as a kid. It was one of my favorites at the time, but not something I kept up with later. Every couple of years or so something would come along to bring back a sense of nostalgia about it, but I never really had an urge to re-watch the old series. Perhaps, like the original Star Trek series, it had begun to show it's age and the camp and cheesiness took over.

I was intrigued when I started seeing promos for the new SciFi re-making of the original. Darker and grittier fits the story of the Battlestar Galactica - a few thousand survivors of a system-wide genocidal attack. I didn't read many spoilers, but what little I read on WIRED's site prior to the show was ... interesting. Starbuck is female?

Well, that seemed to work. I love this imagining of Starbuck. In fact, I think I like this Starbuck better than the original Starbuck. Nicely written, well portrayed.

The rest of the crew? Eh. It was okay. Edward James Olmos does give off something of the same aura as Lorne Green, so that worked. The rest of them? Well, to be honest, I didn't remember any of the other characters except Apollo and Boxy. I'd prefer a darker, less GI Joe version of Apollo, more like the original, but oh well.

The story was very well done, with a few nits about the lack of concern about radiation, etc. I do have a major nit with all the face-mashing. Gee whiz, I don't think these people are going to have any problem re-populating their race! The Victoria's Secret version of a Cylon was annoying when she was being sexy, but downright brilliant when she was being ... oh, innocently malevolent? The scene with her and the infant was great.

All in all? It was mostly okay, and pretty darn good in spots. That's pretty incredible for a series pilot, so we may be seeing more of this version of Battlestar Galactica.