[Books] Battlestar Galactica: Sagittarius Is Bleeding

My first romp into the alternate reality of the Battlestar Galactica novels with The Cylon's Secret was rather disappointing, to say the least. It was a barely decent venture into creating a prequel story for the reimagined TV series but it wasn't anything spectacular. Plus the cover had been rather misleading versus the actual content of the story.

But I had already purchased this book, Sagittarius Is Bleeding, at a bargain book sale, so I figured that I might as well read it. Plus this book was written by Peter David, who has worked within the confines of many different franchises including the Star Trek universe. So that had to give this book some potential, right?

I think the biggest challenge of these books is the fact that BSG has always had a rather tight narrative universe to work in. It's not as open-ended as the Star Trek and Star Wars universes. And thus in order to effectively write a story into the primary continuity, you'd need some degree of disclosure from the show's writers and creators in order to properly plot your story. But given the show was still in-progress at the time these books were written, I'm sure a number of key plans for the characters were not available for sharing or may not have even been written just yet.

Tricky indeed.

[Books] Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon's Secret

Franchise books, like those created for shows like Star Trek and movies like Star Wars are the geek equivalent of romance novels for many women. They're typically nicely light reading, they allow you to celebrate your favorite characters from popular TV shows and such and in the end the question of whether or not these stories are "canonical" is pretty much anyone's guess.

I'm a major fan of the Star Wars novels (obviously) and I've dabbled in the odd Star Trek book as well, but this was my first time to venture into the books created based around the Battlestar Galactica universe. I had picked up a few titles in the bargain bins of various book stores some time back and it's only now that I've decided to dig them out of the stacks to read them.

As expected the cover of the book was rather misleading since it did not feature the infamous Caprica Six character. But by now we geeks should be used to these sorts of marketing tricks. Anything to sell a book based on a popular science fiction TV series, right?

[TV] Battlestar Galactica: Season 3

Yes, this is a review of season 3. Allow me to explain.

I got into the BSG game a tad late. Thankfully, a friend of mine started trying to stream the show at work and eventually I was hooked. And I eventually got my own copies of the show and managed to get through the first two seasons well enough.

But by the time I had finished season 2, a business trip to the US came up just as season 4 was starting. I watched a few of those episodes while there and for one reason or another never got back to finishing the third season.

Then the big last stretch started and I met my current partner and we ended up watching the last few episodes together - the gaps in my BSG "memory" having been filled with various iterations of the What The Frak show synopsis videos. It wasn't the same thing as watching the whole seasons, but it was enough.

So things ended up that I managed to see the end of the series without having seen the entire season 3 and the first half of season 4 either. Funny how things work out. So I finally decided to address these gaps in my idle time when Tobie doesn't happen to be home at the same time I am, which is an oddly rare occurrence given the alignment of our respective schedules.

[TV] Caprica: Season 1

The 2003 "reimagining" of the campy 80's science fiction TV series Battlestar Galactica was definitely a high point in the post Star Trek era. With Enterprise failing to complete a "full" seven season run, it was quite the surprise to see that BSG (as it's more commonly known) managed to pick up the space opera torch.

At the end of show's 4-season run, the science fiction fan world (along with SyFy) was left wondering what would happen next. Four years seemed pretty short for a show for most fans (including me!), but what can we do right? The writers did make sure to wrap up the story well enough and it didn't feel too dragged out either. But for a show as lucrative as BSG, there had to be more. If anything, I'm sure the executives over at SyFy knew that the industry would think them stupid had they not made some sort of an attempt to capitalize on the fan base.

The first venture was the oddly-crafted, The Plan, which I felt was a horrible, confused mess. It was like a really long and nearly pointless DVD extra that a lot of us wish had been never made. In fact, it portrayed that the Cylons didn't actually have a plan that was worth talking about, depending on how you look at it.

So given that experience, I have to admit I was a bit nervous about this spin-off venture set as a prequel to the reimagined series. But then like most other fans, I took the plunge in the hopes of learning more about the "history" of BSG and perhaps the story of how the Cylons and their seemingly eternal conflict began.

[Movies] Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (2009)

Ron Moore's reimagination of Battlestar Galactica was a landmark creation that helped bring science fiction to a broader audience and give hope to other science fiction fans that there was hope yet for the genre. In a time when major science fiction serials like Star Trek weren't at their best, to have a show like this come along and bring new life to science fiction entertainment was quite the relief.

Of course when the show ended with four power-packed seasons, a lot of us BSG fans were left wanting more. Naturally Hollywood won't let such a marketable franchise disappear into the vast darkness of space just yet, and thus we've seen new BSG-related projects like the potential TV series Caprica and then of course movies like this one.

[TV] Battlestar Galactica: Season 2

When Star Trek really hit it big, the series eventually dominated the airwaves. Let's face it - for the longest time the face of science fiction on television was Star Trek and it was odd to even consider a time without one version of the series actively airing.

Of course that eventually changed and the popularity of the show declined. That left a pretty significant void in the science fiction world. A few series came along here and there but there was nothing quite as epic as Star Trek was at its height.

Then came Ron Moore's reimagined Battlestar Galactica mini-series that inevitably got picked up as a regular TV series for the (then) SciFi Channel. It certainly got a lot of folks all excited and the reception to the first season was pretty impressive. So naturally the show was meant to continue on further given the strong support of a starved science fiction community.

The second of Battlestar Galactica picked up right after the thrilling conclusion of the first run. At the end of the first season, Adama had been shot by one of the Sharon "units" given she's actually a Cylon and naturally this threw the whole ship into chaos. That essentially becomes the main theme for the season - the increasing paranoia that anyone could be a Cylon infiltrator given the discovery that they could insert operatives that deep into the military chain of command.

Image via Wikipedia

Later on, things get even messier when a second battlestar is discovered - the Battlestar Pegasus, under the command of the rather "assertive" Admiral Cain. Given she outranks Adama, she then takes over command of the fleet and naturally this leads to other complications.

Of course there are all the other preexisting plot threads like the search for Earth, President Roslin's fight with her cancer and lots and lots of Cylon goodness all around. Yes, it's certainly an action-packed season.

The tension throughout this season was pretty intense and kudos to the writers for crafting such a complex tale. More so, credit should just go out to everyone involved for making the show feel as real as possible - the vividness of how the show is depicted has always been a major plus point for me. And then of course there's the drums, which deserves to be tagged as a character all on its own.

Of course the addition of Admiral Cain (Michell Forbes) is an amazing character and one who was extreme enough to be interesting but not overly so to make her seem unrealistic. Naturally there's a lot of back story to be discovered behind her actions and the show naturally teases us with bits and pieces here and there in order to explain her complex history and how the Pegasus became the hard-edge ship that it was.

Existing character development remained pretty good too, more so for the slow reveals of additional Cylon models in the fleet. Every time a new Cylon was revealed, it pretty much felt like those other major points in science fiction like whenever Doctor Who goes through a regeneration or whenever the Star Trek crews encounter The Borg or something. It just has that kind of potential every time that it really makes for good entertainment, hehe.

There's a lot of good things to be said about this season despite the odd slow episode here and there. Plus the fact that the whole thing was expanded from how it was run in the previous season really helped things along as well.

Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 gets 4.5 Admiral Cain bitch fits out of a possible 5.

[TV] Battlestar Galactica: Season 1

With the success of the pilot miniseries, it was inevitable that Battlestar Galactica was all set to become a full-fledged TV series. The two-part miniseries had become one of the most-watched shows on SciFi for its time and that kind of viewership can really push a show into the future.

It was such a revolution in writing - a reimagination / remake that had actually worked. Sure, there had been many other shows that had gone through the reboot process with varying degrees of success but few managed to be as compelling as this show. Thus the writers had their act cut out of them when the took the plunge in terms of developing this show into a full series - and they certainly didn't disappoint.

The first season of Battlestar Galactica picked up immediately after where the miniseries left off. The civilian fleet under the protection of the Battlestar Galactica under the command of Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos) is on the run from the pursuing Cylon forces and struggles with keeping alive despite numerous attacks. Plus they have all the other challenges of a colonial fleet on the move including supplies of food and water and the need to ensure the continued growth of the population. Thus this show was never meant to be an all-out space warfare kind of show since they simply don't have the resources for it. Of course the Cylons do.

At the same time the story has to address several plot threads laid out for us. We know there's tension between Commander Adama, his son Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber) and their top Viper pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff). There's Dr. Baltar (James Callis) and his continued internal dialogs with the Cylon model known as Number Six (Tricia Helfer) and Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (Grace Park) trying to come to terms with her growing suspicions that she's a Cylon. And of course there's the fledgling colonial government under the leadership of Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) who is trying to reestablish order while trying to deal with the overwhelming power wielded by the military in terms of the fleet and of course her own visions for where the fleet should go. Plus there are many other side stories, character plots and red herrings left for us to try and assemble into a recognizable pattern.

The show feels like a good science fiction novel - epic in scale yet able to play close attention to the minute details of the individual characters. The emotions tend to run pretty high in the fleet given the high-stress environment of being constantly on the run in such cramped confines and the actors manage to present this in a highly believable manner. Plus the way these characters were written is just phenomenal and you're constantly left guessing in terms of who's really the "good" guys or who might be yet another Cylon clone. At the start of the series we only know the identity of two of the Cylon models thanks to the miniseries by the identity of the 10 others is something that we'll spend the rest of the series understanding.

Everything from the actors, the production team, the special effects and most especially the music just made this an amazing experience for me. Seriously, I don't think I've seen a show utilize drum tracks so effectively in terms of driving particular emotions. Good job.

The first season of Battlestar Galactica gets a full 5 Cylon basestars out of a possible 5.

[TV] Battlestar Galactica Miniseries

While going over my library of titles trying to figure out what to discuss for this week's "TV Thursday", I realized that I had never actually posted reviews for any of the Battlestar Galactica seasons. Sure, I had posted a few videos and memes related to the show and discussed my excited about the upcoming seasons at the time but for some reason I never really got around to posting actual reviews.

How weird is that. I feel like I lost a geek experience point or something.

So let's rewind a few years and start a journey of discussing what I'd definitely argue to be one of the best science fiction TV shows in a long time. One can have all these different notions about how good this show was or not, but either way it deserves some discussion time.

It all started in 2003 when SyFy (then still SciFi) premiered what is known in the industry as an "inside pilot" for the show. The Battlestar Galactica Miniseries was a risky maneuver for its time given the original 1978 series was the kind of campy science fiction action that dominated the airways after Star Wars changed the movie landscape. So a reboot or reimagination (as they had practically coined the term at the time) of the series wasn't something that was commonly done. However the fan nostalgia was definitely there along with a new set of science fiction viewers who were curious as to what Ron Moore had in store for them.

The two-part series acted on a premise that was similar to the original series but it was not quite clear if it was supposed to have a direct connection to the old show continuity-wise. It is 40 years since the end of the last Human-Cylon war and every year a human representative is sent to Armistice Station waiting for a Cylon representative. When the Cylons finally send a representative, they reveal to the lone diplomat that the Cylons can now replicate human beings and this meeting marks the beginning of new hostilities.

Image via Wikipedia

In the series, the Cylons launch a massive attack against all 12 Colonies, killing most of the human race. Since they managed to get access to the computer codes of all government and military systems through the betrayal of Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis), their offensive is met with hardly any resistance. However the aging Battlestar Galactica under the command of Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos) did not have networked systems and manages to survive the attack on the very day it was being decomissioned and turned into a museum. Thus this ship becomes the backbone of human resistance and soon a motley fleet of sheets starts to form with the Galactica acting as its sole protector.

The series was just landmark for the time and certainly helped renew interest in science fiction stories on TV. The manner in which the story was handled and the detail that went into the crafting of the characters truly made for a rich and compelling story. Once this series was out, it became the most-watched TV show on SciFi in the history of SciFi at the time. Yes, the chances of it becoming a full TV show were beyond a doubt given its surprise success.

The big plot device at the center of the miniseries was the fact that the Cylons were no longer just the blocky robots of old but were now far more dangerous. The danger did not lie in their stronger Centurion soldiers and nimble Cylon Raider ships but in the fact that there were 12 different human models that the Cylons had used to infiltrate the human race. It's a classic storytelling device - introduce the element of fear and doubt into the mix and leave the characters to deal with the possibility that any of them could be the Cylons - the enemy.

Some might argue that the story was a bit too showy and some of the action that took place were just done for shock value. It's not often that an entire civilization is practically wiped out in the first 30 minutes or so on a TV show after all. Add in characters that one could claim were created to be stereotypically "cool" like the spunky Viper pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) or others possibly casts based on pure face value like Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber) and Karl "Helo" Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett). All nitpicking aside, the cast worked out remarkably well together and it just goes to show that regardless of the reasons they were selected, at the end of the day they worked together and managed to present us with a very believable crew that would soon evolve into a family. It was the only logical next step given the trauma they had all faced together and the continued challenge ahead of them.

When I first saw this series on some bootleg video streaming sight, I was totally overwhelmed. In my head I knew I was more than impressed and keen on seeing the rest of this dynamic series. It wasn't all about high technology or fantastic aliens. Instead of was just a gritty military story set on an aging ship against impossible odds. It had villains that were not on-dimensional and whose motivations weren't clear at all and thus one can't help but be curious as to the true nature of their plans. In other words, it was precisely the kind of pilot show that TV executives love - the kind with a great story but with an even greater hook.

The Battlestar Galactica Miniseries gets 5 nuclear strikes out of a possible 5.

[TV] Battlestar Galactica: The Plan Trailer

It's been a few months since the pivotal end of Battlestar Galactica. While many fans derived some level of satisfaction from the pilot for the BSG prequel, Caprica, it still doesn't quite scratch that BSG-itch a lot of us fans feel. Naturally, the folks at SyFy are more than willing to capitalize on that.

Thus the reason for Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, a new movie based on the hit series that will attempt to explain more of the Cylons' plan for humanity. We all know they had some master plan in mind - we were reminded of that fact in the opening credits of every episode after all. However it doesn't mean we fully understood what it was.

The movie is directed by Edward James Olmos, who plays Admiral Adama on the series and is scheduled to debut on DVD on October 27, 2009. It's also expected to broadcast on SyFy sometime on November of this year.

To get a taste of things, check out the trailer below:

New trailer for 'Battlestar Galactica The Plan'

[TV] Battlestar Galactica Top Ten List

It's always fun when our fandoms break out of their respective channels and hit "mainstream" television like the David Letterman Show.

Without further ado, here's the Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of Battlestar Galactica. Kudos to #6 and #5. =)


#11 - "Battlestar Galactica" Top Ten List