Meanwhile back on "New Caprica" on "Battlestar Galactica" ...
Col. Tigh and ex-Prez R are in deep Cylon trouble!
Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica starts tonight!! I just watched the online version of Act 1 of the premiere episode "Occupation", it was pretty dark (and awesome)! Can't wait to see the first two episodes tonight after my house church meeting!
-DB-
update ....
Why Smart People Love 'Battlestar Galactica'
TV's hottest unreality show is the real thing.
By Vanessa Richmond
Published: October 5, 2006
TheTyee.ca
Robots, low-tech battleships and hot space babes: sounds like a sci-fi B-movie. But somehow, this small, made-in-Vancouver cult TV hit series is seeping into the mainstream.
Why? Apart from predictably attracting sci-fi viewers, fans say it offers the only fresh take on terrorism, religion, gender, abortion, civil liberty, democracy and corporatization to be found on TV. They say it's The West Wing, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under rolled into one.
The sci-fi is only the backdrop, apparently: the soap opera keeps people gossiping and the political allegory is what keeps people coming back.
I've never watched the show. So I asked six über fans to give me, the uninitiated, a guide to the political and emotional lessons available from Battlestar Galactica, just in time for this Saturday's season premiere. What follows are verbatim excerpts from our conversations.
Scott Ian, lead guitar player for Anthrax:
On what got him hooked: The webmaster for Anthrax is a huge fan and he kept raving about it to me in the first season, about how great it was, but I just couldn't get past the title: it's so cheesy. Then he sent me the series on DVD, and he said, just give it 15 minutes, and as soon as I started watching it I was hooked. From the first minute, you see it has nothing to do with the original show except character names.
On info for Battlestar virgins: It's The West Wing in space. It's a searing political drama that just so happens to take place on a spaceship. But for real: take away the fact that they're on a Battlestar and searching for a home. It's what's going on in the world today: deep, dark, brutal politics. I don't have a lot of time to watch TV and it's one of the few shows I watch. It's better than movies.
On Baghdad in outer space: The cylons (robots) are just an allegory for terrorists, or maybe the humans are the terrorists. There are direct parallels with current events, absolutely. There's bombing by the humans in the show, for example. One of the planets is like Baghdad and there's an insurgency and it's pretty much what's going on in the world today. And the cylons are religious fanatics and they're going to get their way no matter what. And I couldn't imagine anybody not catching all these allegories -- the show is just too smart. People aren't just watching because the space battles are really cool. They are, but there's not enough of that for it to just be that kind of show.
On the hot ladies: The fact that they've got a bunch of hot ladies doesn't hurt either. Tricia Helfer is in Maxim and Playboy. She's getting a lot of the uninitiated to watch.
Madeline Stanionis, Internet advocacy and fundraising consultant, and organizer of Frak Party:
On BSG 411: It's about real people like you and me who suddenly thrust into remarkable circumstances and who deal with that incredibly humanly. I love the complicated yet timeless themes of religion, politics, the search for meaning in life: what we're all trying to understand about ourselves and our role on this planet. Many programs are full of action or about a thing that happened; this show is about the experience of being human. No one is good; no one is bad. Good people make bad decisions; bad people make good decisions.
On frak parties, strangers in the house and civil society: Frak parties came about when a couple of friends and I were away on a political retreat having a couple of beers and it turned out we all like BSG. It turns out that everyone we really respect in the world watches this show. So we put together a house party campaign around it, just for fun, and it sort of took off. The idea is that you have a party at your house and invite other fans -- strangers -- over to watch it. There are now over 100 frak parties across the U.S. and Canada for the season premiere, and some of the cast members have found out about it and are coming. I'm a big believer in the way civil society works. We find each other and connect with each other and that leads to more. Sixteen people have RSVP'd and I have no idea who they are. They're going to ring my doorbell and I'm going to let them in and it's going to be great.
Kris Krug, president of Bryght, builds online communities and social software:
On what's dark and sexy: Battlestar is basically a unique sci-fi show that is dramatic and sexy and dark and interesting and not about spaceships and aliens but about humanity and interpersonal relationships and about a lot of interesting existential sociological issues, that just happens to be set in space.
On genocide and abortion: The show deals with some really tough issues which you couldn't deal with if it was set in 2006 on earth -- like genocide and abortion. But if you depersonalize them and take the subjective and take your own feelings out of it, you can be objective and analyze it and enjoy that. There was one recently where abortion was outlawed for the good of humanity, because there were only 40,000 humans left in the world. They decided the good of the group outweighed the individual. And they need everyone to repopulate the world. It twisted my brain. At what point do the rights of the collective supersede the rights of the individual?
On why über geeks are fans: Part of the reason the show blew up so much and appealed to people like me was because the director does a podcast about what's going on, including his thoughts on the daily tapings. And they've had a blog since the beginning. There are lots of online tools that had never been done. They reached out to the tastemakers and got them into it.
On why this blog works: In general, in the blogorati, people who write and talk about that kind of stuff, we're down on character blogs, like the kind they have on Whistler. We think of blogs as being from a human being: it's authentic and discourse based. A character blog is co-opting the tools of blogging to do marketing. So good luck with that. I'm sure it will be a cool online project. But that's not the same as the director of Snakes on a Plane blogging about the title change, or hearing from the crew and real people. Now if the guy from Whistler was blogging about the Ross Rebagliati thing, that's what I'd want to read. That's where they're going to get big people to link to them.
On Battlestar Aggregatica: For the last year, I've been running a superpowered aggregator on the Internet that monoitors everything to do with Battlestar Galactica, fraks, cylons, all the actors, you name it.
On where he'll be: I'm going to my buddy Bob's house. My friend AJ plays Mr. Gata on the show and he's coming over.
Dawn Buie, director of web technology, TheTyee.ca:
On community in space: I liked Star Trek as a youngster because I fanaticized about being part of the crew. Although Battlestar Galactica is light years more advanced than Star Trek for showing real human drama, I’m still attracted to that similar sense of the main characters being part of a team. They rely on each other; everyone has a place. Of course, in Battlestar Galactica, doing your job well usually means some one lives, and failing means you or others die, and since there are only 40,000 humans left, that’s a big burden. But it is shared.
On female leaders: I find the female president really fascinating. She suffers behind the scenes, but doesn’t reveal that. She makes people feel comfortable and cares about them but also lays down the law. When she’s made a decision, it’s to be abided by, even when it’s a bad decision. There’s a discussion in the show about what power is, who should be in power, how they should act. I think their assertion is that you have to have someone in power. Life on the Battlestars (Galactica and Pegasus) are modeled after life in the army. This probably because Ron Moore the head writer was in the army and people who have been in the army write in and say the show is an accurate account. The show explores our love hate relationship with our leaders, and the importance and danger of creating social order.
On low tech sci fi: I love how on the Battlestar none of the computers are networked and they use phones with coil chords. This is so the Cylons -- who are machines –- cannot infiltrate the system as easily. This prohibition forces the humans to come up with simple solutions, using the tools at hand. This reminds me of how some open source software like Linux is way better than an operating system designed by a company with vast resources, like Microsoft. The Cylons could take down a Windows operating system in a millisecond.
C. Michael Campbell, science fiction writer, just finished first novel-length manuscript, Jackson Orange:
On why BSG is better than movies: A series has the luxury to meander through character development whereas in a novel, it must be more concise because few will read or publish 1000+ page books of a fictional narrative, which is unfortunate.
On the problem of sci-fi: One of the problems with most sci-fi is there's too much leaning on technology. When writers create technology for sci-fi, it's usually a prototype for something that's actually in the works now. Decades later, people realize that won't work, then the show loses its believability. That's why it's good this show is so low-tech.
Dave Gowans, lead singer of The Buttless Chaps:
On soap in space: I've always liked sci-fi. But my partner has never been a sci-fi fan at all. And she loves it. I think it's converted a lot of people over because it's just like other really good adult soap operas like Six Feet Under. They leave you hanging and you want to know what happens next.
Vanessa Richmond is the managing editor of The Tyee.
Update # 2
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/42115/battlestar-is-back
From Yahoo!
the buzz log What the world is searching for...
Battlestar is Back
By Mike Krumboltz
Thu, October 05, 2006, 1:05 pm PDT
For years, the words "sci-fi" and "cool" were rarely uttered in the same breath. "Battlestar Galactica" has helped change the genre's geeky reputation with super cool characters and a sweeping story.
Searches on "Battlestar" are up 74% this month as it enters its pivotal third season. While both a critical and Search success, the show remains something of a cult phenomenon. Overall, it falls into our top 3,000 searches—respectable but nowhere near Buzz juggernauts "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost."
Not that "Battlestar" can't hold its own. The Sci Fi Channel's flagship series boasts one of Search's most sought-after actresses—the tempting Tricia Helfer. The blonde bombshell (who plays a Cylon bent on destroying humanity) proves evil can sometimes look incredibly hot.
Naturally, comparisons to "Star Trek" and all its off-shoots are inevitable. After all, sci-fi aficionados are an opinionated bunch. And while we believe the universe is big enough for Captain Kirk and Commander Adama, you may disagree. If someone held a raygun to your head, would you back "Battlestar" or stick with "Star Trek"? Leave a comment below and don't forget to check out Friday's premiere. It's gonna be frakkin' awesome!
* Update October 8 *
Friday, October 6, 2006
On TV: Far from Earth, 'Battlestar Galactica' continues to strike close to home
By MELANIE McFARLAND
P-I TELEVISION CRITIC (Seattle)
When last we saw "Battlestar Galactica," the last known humans in the universe, less than 40,000 of them, had been living for a year in tents and shacks on a cold, dingy planet called New Caprica. Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos) and his son, Commander Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber), orbited above them on the warships Galactica and Pegasus, each manned with skeleton crews. The military was far from fighting shape; reflecting this, Apollo packed on a beer gut.
Then the genocidal Cylons suddenly appeared, leading the Adamas to abandon their charges. Planetside, the survivors looked on in horror as robots marched through their cities, enemy fighters zooming overhead.
Humanity was, in a word, frakked.
To a person who has never seen "Battlestar Galactica," all of this probably sounds absolutely ridiculous. Cylons? Frakked? The title? C'mon.
Those anticipating "Battlestar Galactica's" two-hour third season premiere would tell non-believers that the joke is on them.
There are benefits to getting it. "Battlestar" isn't just another Sci Fi Channel trifle. Heavy-duty acting and harsh social and political commentary over the first two seasons cemented its reputation as serious drama.
In our so-called golden age of drama, filled with ambitious series people aren't avidly watching, "Battlestar" is a show people plan their Friday nights around. Its fan base is devoted, obsessive even, but relatively small: the second season averaged 2.3 million viewers. Fervent initiation through DVD exposure might grow the audience, though.
"Galactica's" DVD releases lend themselves to addictive gorging. You can't watch just one.
Revisiting a New Caprica (population 39,192 and plummeting) pinned down by a Cylon occupation is even more compelling. Citizens are detained without charge for months on end, gruesomely tortured and in some cases, disappeared. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) has an especially twisted jailer, Leoben (Callum Keith Rennie), who redefines the concept of fatal attraction.
In response, Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), Tigh (Michael Hogan) and Starbuck's husband, Anders (Michael Trucco), have formed a rebellion secretly headed by the former Colonial President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell). Their raids escalate when volunteers blow themselves up near high-profile targets.
It's relentlessly grim, with familiar characters orchestrating suicide bombings and planning to string up collaborators. And two hours simply aren't enough.
"Galactica" immediately amps up the political parallels this season as the Cylons discuss how brutal they should be to put down the human insurgency.
The usage of that term is no coincidence. "That's the phrase that we use to apply to all the violence taking place in this part of the world that we're so neck deep in," co-executive producer David Eick said earlier this week in a conference call. "It's that old adage: One person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist. It all depends on what your frame of reference is, and on what side of the ledger you're on.
"The nature of how we interpret the actions of our characters is, for sure, informed by what's going on in Iraq. ... But I think we also relate to these actions in a different way because, ironically, yes, that's the way this country was born too. So what does it really mean to be an insurgent?"
Asking such a question out loud and on the record in 2003 would have invited accusations of terrorist appeasement, even treason on the most extreme end of the political spectrum. In "Galactica's" corner of the universe, it's a natural evolution of an epic survivor's tale.
Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. For the those who haven't seen "Galactica," each show begins with a precise, chilly explanation: The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. There are many copies.
And they have a plan.
The nature of that plan is still unfolding, but Eick and series creator Ronald D. Moore know how this all ends. We're not there yet, but the stakes are increasingly interesting. If the first season was about looking at the darker sides of humanity, and the second was about, in Eick's words, "strange bedfellows," with enemies turning into allies, the third embraces the trickier task of getting viewers to better understand the Cylons.
"You've seen how these human beings can be darker and perhaps more unforgivable in ways that you don't normally do with protagonists," Eick said. "Let's see how these antagonists, whom we generally assume nothing but the worst from, have their own sympathies, have ways in which they're not exactly perfect. ... The heart of the show has always been about, in a way, how the humans and Cylons are so eerily alike. I think what we're saying with the first half of season three is, not so fast."
Intelligently executing bold ideas like this has earned "Galactica" the reputation as one of TV's top series. A George Foster Peabody Award and a spot on AFI Program of the Year list for 2005 backs that rep.
To an average fan, a main hook (besides the intergalactic dogfights and explosions) is the series' intense examinations of what humanity really is -- how the idea of it can augment or poison our capacity for compassion, empathy and serving the greater good.
Whatever that may be.
Because in "Galactica," the idea of what is "good" or "human" is malleable. A Cylon infiltrator, Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (Grace Park), has become the most sympathetic, humane character on the show. A peace movement was made to look traitorous, run by a Cylon copy of Number Six (Tricia Helfer).
And when she was president, Roslin banned abortion, claimed a mandate from the gods and tried to steal an election. Sound familiar? Except ... her decisions were correct. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) legitimately wrested the presidency from her, but when faced with the responsibility, he turned to booze, drugs and whores.
You can look at the moral as a conservative lesson -- or admire the way it turns our political story line on its ear.
Sympathy for these mechanical demons won't be easy to come by. Led by D'Anna (Lucy Lawless), Brother Cavil (Dean Stockwell) and copies of Six and Boomer, the Cylons justify the occupation by saying it's God's will. Along with the clash of species, conflicting religions is key to "Galactica." The humans worship gods modeled on the Greek pantheon, while the Cylons are monotheistic zealots.
"Fear is a key article of faith, as I understand it," Cavil observes, "so perhaps it's time to instill a little more fear in the people's hearts and minds."
That they do. And the trade-off is compelling, heart-in-your-throat stories that make "Galactica" more relevant and biting than it has ever been.
Upcoming chapters don't hint at much in the way of lighter moments, but the cast and characters have earned enough of our faith so we stick with them through the bleak points.
Humanity may be hurting, but "Battlestar Galactica" has returned in sharp, fighting form.
WATCH IT
"Battlestar Galactica," 9 p.m. Fridays on Sci Fi Channel
P-I TV critic Melanie McFarland can be reached at 206-448-8015 or tvgal@seattlepi.com.
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