ranthony
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
[quote=”mandara k”]Did you watch the mini; season 1, season 2, i mean all the way through?[/quote]
I watched every episode, and I have every episode on mpg so that I can rewatch them as broadcast.
The show has been a roller coaster ride from the beginning. believability has been a bit of a strain since day one, IMHO, and yet it is miles above the previous incarnation, and better than most other dramas on TV.
I watch it because I like it. There are plenty of other things on that I could watch, including [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433309/][i]Numbers[/i][/url] (for example) which is on at the same time. I watch BSG and record [i]Numbers[/i] for later.
[quote=”mandara k”]But if you go to skiffy you will see i’m not the only one who cries foul, and like a few I’ve watched the re-imagining from the beginning.[/quote]
There’s the negativity problem, if you ask me. I don’t hang out on boards much (look how long I’ve been a member here, and how many posts I have logged) because all the so-called fans do is pick the shows apart. It’s like being subjected to a daily rectal exam. It’s not fun, and it makes the experience of watching the show not fun. So I don’t do it regularly. Just when I want to throw out some ideas and get some feedback.
[quote=”mandara k”]I keep hoping for that ZOWEEE ep of the season[/quote]
And you won’t find it coming in with a jaded attitude. I could run a list of objections longer than the one that you presented myself. (court martial offenses, such as mutiny, being dismissed without trial for example. That was first season) but if I’m going to suspend disbelief and watch the show, I might as well try and enjoy it with the flaws.
On the other end of the spectrum are shows that I can’t watch, even though I’ve watched the previous incarnations without too many objections.
As an example, [i]Enterprise[/i] was so flawed in conceptualization that I couldn’t even watch the show. (read the full rant [url=http://ranthonysteele.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-about-example-of-bad-show.html] here[/url]) There were two episodes of the last season (I tuned in to watch Brent Spiner open season four, stayed for the end of the season) that I actually could sit back and enjoy. They were the two part [url=http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/9440.html][i]”In a Mirror, Darkly”[/i][/url] which could be viewed as canon because the existence of Vulcans on the ship was explained, and they were watchable because Bacula made a very convincing bad guy.
That’s a pretty piss poor record (two enjoyable episodes) for a show that was on for four seasons.
BSG had that beat by the time I had watched three episodes of the series. So I’m not complaining. Not yet anyway.
-RAnthony
[quote=”mandara k”]
And um what did torturing Baltar teach us about torture being ineffective?[/quote]He lied. He misdirected the Cylons. Which is what happens when you subject people to torture. They’ll tell you anything to make the pain stop.
[quote=”mandara k”]
Are you going to use the old line about “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it?” Yeah, i think that is going around a little too much. that is what’s happening and the numbers of new fans are not replacing the fans leaving.[/quote]http://www.gateworld.net/galactica/news/2006/10/season_three_premieres_with_strong_ratings.shtml
[quote][i]The 2-hour season premiere, “Occupation” / “Precipice,” earned a 1.8 average household rating and drew an estimated 2.2 million viewers.
This is a two percent increase from the second half of Season Two, which aired on the cable network from January to March.[/i][/quote]
It’s seems your observations are incorrect. The audience remains reasonably solid, even though it faces competition from other cable channel shows that it didn’t in previous seasons.
-RAnthony
http://ranthonysteele.blogspot.com/2006/11/classic-trek-gets-makeover-what-was.html
I said I’d wait for the premiere when I wrote [url=http://ranthonysteele.blogspot.com/2006/09/classic-trek-gets-makeover.html]Classic Trek Gets a Makeover[/url] a couple of months back. Now, after having watched about eight re-mastered episodes, I have to wonder what all the fuss was about.
I guess Paramount wanted to hype the fact that they were changing Classic Trek so that they could get more people to watch it. I’m still waiting to see an effects heavy episode (they are holding those back until later in the release schedule, although some preliminary tests for the Episode “The Doomsday Machine” were uploaded to YouTube) to see how close they will stay to the original shots when they are in an extended effects sequence; so far I’ve been hard pressed to find any real differences.
Oh, the transfer quality is beautiful, crystal clear. The effects are state of the art and, so far, they’ve slavishly followed the original effects sequences. We watched Arena a few weeks ago, and I did notice that they cleaned up a good portion of the Gorn’s rubber suit problems, and gave him blinking eyelids, which I thought was a nice touch. Personally, for regular broadcast quality, I hardly think its worth the trouble.
Of course, they didn’t do it for the TV watchers out here in legacy TV land. They were looking toward the advent of HiDef broadcast, which is still being rolled out. According to those in the know, there will be a clear line between shows that were aired before HiDef, and shows that air afterwards; because the flaws that went unnoticed on the old TV set will be glaringly obvious on the HiDef, making the old shows virtually unwatchable unless they are updated. Or at least so they say.
I guess they know what they are talking about. I can’t imagine why they would go to the expense to re-master Star Trek and make as few changes as they have, unless they had a valuable future profit reason to do so.
I’m sure that the purists out there will object to even the small changes that have been made. I say this because I live with one. She rolled her eyes at a Gorn that blinks, and hasn’t stopped complaining about the colors being too bright, and the makeup being all wrong; the effects looking too “video game-ish”.
As for me, I just can’t get enough of the grand old lady of Trek, as she sails crystal clear through unclouded starfields, and circles planets that no longer look like painted balls of paper mache’. But then I’m watching it with my children. Something I’ve not been able to get them to do until now. “Watch Star Trek? That’s for you old people.” They both are glued to the set now. So, I’d say Paramount’s plan will pay off. Star Trek will live on through the HiDef era, with a whole new group of fans.
…IF they don’t screw up the next movie…
[quote=”SadGeezer”]I personally found the reference to Bladerunner (‘skin jobs’) a bit off putting. It felt like a bit of a cheap shot to me rather than a homage. [/quote]
I find it off-putting myself, but more because the term sounds racist (as it is supposed to be. That’s why Dick coined it) It shows in the willingness of the humans to exterminate the Cylon. The inverse is also true, the Cylons are willing to exterminate the humans, they apparently don’t have any moral qualms about it. Why do we?
[quote=”SadGeezer”]And I was a bit disturbed to see one of the main characters go – she was great and I think we’ll all miss her! (But we were warned in recent press releases).[/quote]
I hate to say it, but I couldn’t stand her. I wouldn’t be too sad to see [i]both of them[/i] go. I don’t think we are done with the crew changes yet.
-RAnthony
The Pegasus Episodes were some of my favorite ones (speaking of ‘Star Trek Stars’ ) Picking Michelle Forbes (I liked Ensign Rho) as Admiral Cain this time around was an interesting choice. Having her end come about like it did made for an interesting change in the show.
I think they fumbled the end of season two, trying to compress too much story into one episode. I almost expected a “Bobby steps out of the shower” moment at the beginning of this season. Luckily we avoided that. They could have spent this entire season just going through Baltar’s presidency and the occupation of New Caprica; apparently they didn’t want to change the dynamic of the show that radically.
As for the “they’ve done that before” comment; no, in fact, they haven’t. Yes, they’ve tortured someone/thing in the past, and dealt with the moral angle there. No, they’ve not addressed exactly why torture doesn’t work, which is part of what happened last week.
Like I’ve said with other shows, I’m not the one they pay to make these decisions, so I’m not going to pretend I have some control over the decisions being made. I watch when I’m interested, and I don’t watch when I’m not. (Enterprise being a classic example of this) So far BSG has delivered, so I keep watching.
-RAnthony
[quote=”SadGeezer”]The Red Dwarf changes were awful!! The ship itself went from being short and stubby to being long and sleek. Lost all it’s charm.[/quote]The look and feel of the show changed for the worse after second season anyway. I would have been in favor of going back to the old Dwarf at that point. Instead they update the best two seasons.
Of course, the mistake in watching Red Dwarf is in taking any of it seriously. The effects are sort of beside the point.
-RAnthony
http://ranthonysteele.blogspot.com/2006/08/eureka.html
I’ve managed to catch most of the episodes of this new offering from SciFi so far. I’ve found it quite the most enjoyable bit of television viewing that I’ve stumbled across in a long time. It’s also one of the few shows that I feel comfortable letting the kids watch with me.
I liked the approach of the show introduced in the pilot, and they’ve stuck with it in the episodes I’ve watched. The lead character (Jack Carter, played by Colin Ferguson) is an average Joe who is presented with unbelievable events that he has to make sense of as the episode progresses. You see this never normal town of [url=http://www.scifi.com/eureka][i]Eureka[/i][/url], inhabited by geniuses and inventors, through his eyes, allowing you to make the journey from disbelief to understanding with him. Colin Ferguson’s delivery as the straight man in a comedy sketch seems to work perfectly as his character attempts to make sense of the apparently chaotic mess that [i]Eureka[/i] is always threatening to become.
Mixed in with the usual SciFi fare is the occasional tidbit of hard science and philosophy. I recommend it. In fact, I mention my interest in the show now, because SciFi will be re-airing the episodes that they’ve shown to date, next Wednesday starting at 4:00 pm. Just in case you want to catch up on the ones you’ve missed.
Additional: SciFi has been airing the episodes out of order. Check the [url=http://www.scifi.com/eureka/episodes/]episode numbers[/url] for the correct watching sequence. You’d think they’d learn from the mistakes of other networks (Fox and Firefly springs immediately to mind) but perhaps not.
