Okay, I need someone to find some screencaps to prove me right or wrong here....
I was watching the first part of the BSG mini series today to prepare myself for the premiere on Friday. In the first 10 minutes there's an establishing shot of Caprica City, and the next scene is looking up through a glass ceiling at several buildings and ships flying overhead from within the city. There's a big obviously military ship flying left-to-right that the camera seems to follow. One of those passenger liners is further in the background. And finally, in the lower left corner, flying right-to-left, is another ship that I swear is the Serenity from Firefly. It's only on screen for a couple of seconds, but could someone else confirm this? It wouldn't really mean anything if it's true, but would be a cool Easter Egg.
B.J.
{Edit: Added spoiler warning since thread's moving that direction - Siegfried}
[ January 12, 2005, 11:48 PM: Message edited by: Siegfried ]
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Aha! Answered my own question, I did. Found this picture at this website.
B.J.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
There you are, then.
I watched this for the first time yesterday. It was OK. I'm not sure why "no networks" is a better idea than "sensible network security," but that's the way things go, I guess; and I probably already grumbled about it the first time around. Also, they use a lot of paper.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"I'm not sure why "no networks" is a better idea than "sensible network security," but that's the way things go, I guess..."
Yeah, what was that little tirade about, anyway? I saw it for the first time when it aired on NBC Sunday, but I missed the first 15 minutes or so. Was there something in there that explains why the captain thinks that the computers will destroy everyone if they're allowed to transfer data to each other?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
The Cylons have mad computer hacking skills, is the deal. Which, OK, I can see why you wouldn't want your ship rigged for wifi in such circumstances, but if the Cylons can get into the cables connecting one computer to another, then they can get inside the computers themselves just as easy, and keeping them unconnected does you no good.
Anyway, I watched part two, and it was pretty good, network security issues aside.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Be forewarned, though, that's eight pages long. Oh, and it has tons and tons of spoilers.
quote:Originally posted by TSN: Was there something in there that explains why the captain thinks that the computers will destroy everyone if they're allowed to transfer data to each other?
I was initially going to say that wasn't an explanation given, but I'm waffling on that answer now. I suppose that if there were an explanation, it was just a very generalized "things can easily spread" answer. I don't recall the exact reasons for his paranoia being explained.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
It may not have been explained word for word, but it was kinda obvious from the events of the miniseries why he had such a problem with it.
Posted by Neutron_Bomb (Member # 1471) on :
over here in the uk we are up to about ep13,( or somthing like that) and this series just gets better and better.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Ron Moore has a Battlestar Galactica blog up over at the Sci-Fi Channel's website.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
From that link...
quote:A deeper truth is, I was never interested in coming up with an explanation for Why? Never. I mean, I suppose I could've come up with a sufficiently important-sounding bit of technobabble that would've made sense (you see, the Cylon double-talk sensors tracking the Olympic Carrier's nonsense drive signature needed 15 minutes to relay the made-up data wave through the pretend continuum, then the Cylon navigational hyper silly system needed another 10 minutes to recalculate the flux capacitor, etc.) but what would that have really added to the drama? How does explaining that 33 minute interval help our understanding of Laura's terrible moment of decision, or bring us to any greater knowledge of Dualla's search for her missing family and friends, or yield insight into Baltar's morally shattered psyche?
Learned much from his time on Star Trek, this man has.
I actually just got a hold of the Generations DVD the other week and listening to Moore's commentary showed just how much he'd learnt since. The man was scathing in his criticism of his own writing, which in my experience is very rare in the movie/TV business. He's defiantly the right man to helm BSG.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
I'll give the new series a chance (as someone's theory on Baltar has me intrigued) but the miniseries was pretty lame.
Nothing in it made me think these people come from an advanced culture (or even had a culture of their own at all!) and the characters were wholly unlikable (aside from *possibly* Tigh, who, it seems was made white for no real reason at all).
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
"He's defiantly the right man to helm BSG."
Indeed.
('Cause, you know. Zing!)
Moore and Braga have a joint commentary for First Contact, which I was looking forward to. I didn't realize Moore had one for Generations too.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Jason, I suggest you watch that special (Lowdown on BSG or something). They never meant it to be an advanced culture. They specifically say it's a drama about us. It just happens to be set in space.
Oh, and the production graphics after the ending credits of "Water" were hilarious. Moore gets knocked silly with a baseball bat!
B.J.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
It's even harder to watch if they are NOT supposed to be advanced. Fuck man, if I want the EXACT same military-drama crap, I'll watch JAG. At least there I can ogle Catherine Bell!
How can you NOT be "advanced" when you've had FTL travel for years and years....?
I think I'll go buy the Firefly DVD set instead (as I've not seen a single episode of that!)
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
(Whatever its sins, this new Battlestar Galactica does not seem to be lacking in the area of. . . I can't think of a non-creepily sexist way to say it. Anyway, there are some totally hawt chix.)
I can't imagine your reaction to Firefly's set of cultural oddities.
Posted by Neutron_Bomb (Member # 1471) on :
This really annoys me about you lot in the states. Galactica is a great new series that is both fresh and enjoyable to watch. But you guys are gonna get it canceled aren't you? You would be surprised how often this happens to great ( or at least promising) shows.Dark angel anyone? A lot of these shows did okay over here in the uk , but the networks you have don't care what we are watching , only what programme it is that you lot are moaning about. Goodbye galatica , I was just getting to know you. now I guess I never will.
message to ron moore , give up on the states and come over the pond to make galactica. There would be little to no budget but at least we'd enjoy it and the show might even survive. I mean lets face it its not there faults , they just don't have the attention span these days for complex shows( hence sg-1 does so well, i like it too but come on my, 3yr old gets it!), after all , its this lot that murdered Angel. Don't become just another great show that the yanks lost intrest in!
P.s god bless usa. ( I love you guys I just dont like the way youtreat your shows!)
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Incoherent but heartfelt. 8)
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Oh, come on. Dark Angel? Did you even watch the second season of that show? Yeah, the first season rocked and showed lots of promise. Yeah, Jessica Alba is hot. But the second season with the were-creatures and what not really blew big time. And I mean "Andromeda after he took over and started running the scripts through the valley of his ass" blowing big time.
Posted by Neutron_Bomb (Member # 1471) on :
quote:Originally posted by Siegfried: Oh, come on. Dark Angel? Did you even watch the second season of that show? Yeah, the first season rocked and showed lots of promise. Yeah, Jessica Alba is hot. But the second season with the were-creatures and what not really blew big time. And I mean "Andromeda after he took over and started running the scripts through the valley of his ass" blowing big time.
What about Firefly then?(I almost sobbed when that was canned)+ B5 crusade , ok lame to begin with but then the origanal B5 took time to get going. As far as your comments on Dark angel go , i totally agree that the 2nd season was crap. But it wasn't given a chance to recover.Even you admitted that its 1st season rock , therefore surely there was at least some small chance that the third would be a return to form. Buffy is a good example. Season 4 was totally lame but Season five was good. Anyway ,I didn't mean to be so scathing in my origanal remarks as its actually more the fault of the tv execs who , lets face it , only care for numbers. 'Just give things a chance people!' Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: It's even harder to watch if they are NOT supposed to be advanced. Fuck man, if I want the EXACT same military-drama crap, I'll watch JAG. At least there I can ogle Catherine Bell!
How can you NOT be "advanced" when you've had FTL travel for years and years....?
I think I'll go buy the Firefly DVD set instead (as I've not seen a single episode of that!)
Define "advanced"? What is this nebulous state of being that you think comes hand in hand with spaceships and striped toothpaste? If I'm interpreting the show correctly then the 12 colonies are, or rather were a decaying culture. Seemingly more concerned with internal politics than a "trekian" need to explore the universe and expand cultural understanding. Sound like anyone we know? That aside, if you really must justify anything, consider that this civilisation is (was) made up of colonies, so already they're a remnant of something greater that came before and I wouldn't be surprised if the "advanced" FTL drive technology is also a remnant of that time. Even if the colonies developed the tech themselves then that still doesn't mean that everyone gets automatic enlightenment, wealth and prosperity. In the last century we, as a species have made some pretty long technological strides, but on the ground level, are we any more advanced, individually as say someone living 100, 1000 or maybe even 10,000 years ago? Are our motives or drives any more or less primitive than our ancient hunter gatherer ancestors? At least that's possibly some of the questions this series will be posing. Indeed, Baltar is the very definition of a "colonial human", by all accounts a brilliant, intelligent genius, but driven by his own self interest and appetites. While on the other hand, the Caprican Boomer is at the other end of the spectrum.
Not that I want to discourage you from Firefly. That show rocks! Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Well, I can't speak for Firefly, Crusade, or Buffy, because I never watched any of them. However, there is a special place in Hell reserved for FOX solely because of Futurama.
You're not going to get any argument from me about TV network execs being idiots; however, Battlestar Galactica is being produced by a special subset of network TV execs: the cheap bastards running Sci-Fi Channel. Regardless of ratings, Battlestar Galactica could be at risk solely for its productions costs (see Farscape).
Posted by Neutron_Bomb (Member # 1471) on :
quote:Originally posted by Siegfried
You're not going to get any argument from me about TV network execs being idiots; however, Battlestar Galactica is being produced by a special subset of network TV execs: the cheap bastards running Sci-Fi Channel. Regardless of ratings, Battlestar Galactica could be at risk solely for its productions costs (see Farscape). [/QB]
Well if it comes to that, I hope they just scale back the sfx and keep the show going. Its the strong characters and great plot that do it for me anyhow, not fancy effects.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Unfortunately, studies show that the visual cortex in Americans is slightly less advanced, such that without explosions we are literally incapable of discerning a broadcast signal from background noise, though you probably haven't noticed due to the complete disinterest in American media beyond our national borders.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Neutron, the idea that people "just don't have the attention span these days for complex shows" is EXACTLY why we dont have any. The TV exec's think as little of their viewing audience as you do.
If they made something complex and entertaining, they would have a loyal fan-base of people that would find such a show refreshing. It's why (originally) the Discovery Channel did so well. (okay, bad example- that channel sucks saerious ass nowdays, but you get the general idea)
Rev, by "advanced", I dont mean morally: I refer more to their using fucking machine guns in space and not having the common sense to bolt down the large mainframes on Galactica's bridge (senseless layout there, but I'm willing to think that's a result of it's museum status).
It irks me that their culture (in the miniseries, this may have been corrected already) seems an exact match for WASP-y western civilization. A little diversity would have been easy to do and they decided to skip it in favor of that ol' "military flavor".
i'm not saying the old series was great (FAR from it) but the people at least seemed diffrent (for the time).
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I agree that it would be nice to see some cultural diversity amongst the colonies, which has sort of been hinted at, but to be honest we don't get to see much of the general population at all, let alone what the cultural scene is onboard the various ships.
As for the weapons, technically they're rail guns. That is explosive charges that are fired into space using magnetic accelerators and spread shrapnel on detonation, which takes out the targets.
I much perfer it over laser or plasma based weapons, since it helps ground things a little. I mean do colourful CG flashy lights and synthesized sound fx really feel dangerous or threatening, or even real for that matter?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
The problem with that idea is that those "railguns" are moving real sloooow. Barely faster than the Vipers, really (and those vipers are not exactly hauling ass either).
They could have used a simular effect to the OS and made a plausable explanation that the ordinance was charged from the railgun (or some dam thing- just not stuff that looks like WWII tracers).
With FTL tech, they should be able to just accelerate ordinance to near-luminal speeds and destroy entire basestars (if that's what they're called these days) with cannonball-sized pellets.
I'd really love to see some of the concepts from sci-fi books used in a sci-fo series instead of the tired old stuff we always see nowadays.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Exploding ammo isn't really a requirement of railgunness.
I do wonder, though, what the Galactica has in the way of heavy weaponry. So far (at least on our benighted continent) the fighters have only used those cannons, which, neat though they are, don't look like they'd do much good against those basestar things. Galactica's cannons (or, again, at least those used so far) seem to be primarily defensive, putting up a screen against missiles. Does she have anything larger, or is this just a modern aircraft carrier in space?
(I don't recall what they found on that station/ammunition dump.)
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Nukes. They found nukes.
Although how they plan to get these to a basestar before them getting cut to ribbons is beyond me. The sheer volume of Cylon raiders those things can swarm is, er daunting. It reminds me of when I had quite a bit more time on my hands, and I would play Tie Fighter for hours hovering just outside some destroyer or frigate's range just killing wave after wave of 3 TIEs thinking that they would have to run out of them some time. Well they didn't and I always lost patience and had to stop.
I still have a stick up my ass about the whole "NO NETWORKS WHATSOEVER" thing. I'll probably still buy the miniseries DVD just to relive this particular episode of pointless geek rage.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Or, if you were like me and didn't have that much time on your hands, you just destroyed the mothership instead. B)
"With FTL tech, they should be able to just accelerate ordinance to near-luminal speeds..."
Not all tech can be miniaturized.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Besides, it doesn't look like their FTL tech works that way. They don't accelerate anything, they just jump from one point in space to another.
B.J.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:The problem with that idea is that those "railguns" are moving real sloooow. Barely faster than the Vipers, really (and those vipers are not exactly hauling ass either).
Well when you have hundreds of the things fired at a swarm of enemy fighters, the effect is one of saturation biombing/wall-o-flak. These things are defensive in nature, so accuracy isn't a prime concern. If they're so slow that an enemy squadron need only break off to avoid the incoming round, then that's a good thing. Since it would mean an attack has been stalled and it gives the Vipers more of an oppertunity to take them out ship-to-ship.
quote:They could have used a simular effect to the OS and made a plausable explanation that the ordinance was charged from the railgun (or some dam thing- just not stuff that looks like WWII tracers).
That would be counter productive to the tone of the show. If I recall, WWII is the "feel" they're intentionally aiming for.
quote:With FTL tech, they should be able to just accelerate ordinance to near-luminal speeds and destroy entire basestars (if that's what they're called these days) with cannonball-sized pellets.
As Cartman pointed out, that might be impractical with their current level of technology.
quote:I'd really love to see some of the concepts from sci-fi books used in a sci-fo series instead of the tired old stuff we always see nowadays.
Again that's more of a fundemental issue with the show's whole direction and tone. They seam to be very deliberate in avoiding making BSG look "science fictiony". Indeed there's hardly a shortage of that knind of material and for me it's BSG's "grounded" approach that I fell makes it all the more appealing. Speaking of which it's on in about 2 hours and I've got colouring to do. Ta-ta!
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
I saw the first two episodes "33" & "Water" back to back Friday night. I liked them so much I went out and bought the miniseries DVD.
I am confused about one thing - in the miniseries, Starbuck tells Adama, "We've got plenty of pilots pacing holes in the ready room, we don't have any fighters." Then he tells her to go to the lower pylon and break out the older fighters.
Where did they GET the older fighters? Didn't Adama say that he hadn't seen a Mark-II in twenty years? Or were they all just rusting in the bowels of the Galactica for two decades?
Minor point, I know. Sorry.
Also: that ship looked a lot like Firefly, I agree.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
It's been a long while since I watched the miniseries, but I think you're talking about the Mark-II Vipers that were to be a part of the museum in the starboard (?) landing pod. I think you can see some of them on display when Apollo does the flyover at the museum dedication.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
(A Firefly.)
Posted by machf (Member # 1233) on :
Yep, people do get mixed up Serenity (the actual ship) and Firefly (its class). It probably has to do with the series being titled after the latter instead of the former...
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
Groan. Yes, I should've said "a". My bad. I am perfectly aware that the ship is named Serenity, it was a slip of the typing fingers - I meant to type Serenity, but my drain don't be a functionin' on a Monday...
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