quote:Originally posted by Malnurtured Snay: Jason --
Frankly, it sounds like you don't want to like Battlestar Galactica, and are using whatever you can to justify that. Which you're perfectly within your right to do, but I think you're missing out on the best sci-fi television show in the last twenty years because you don't like some of the set dressings.
Not at all- in fact, the exact opposite. I really wanted to see that I had been "missing out" as everyone has been saying. Stargate's a looong ways off and nothing else is remotely intresting just now).
But if I was disapointed in the miniseries, I was blown away at the lack of caring about visual story dynamics. Might as well have Starbuck wearing a Gap shirt and Nike's from what Reverend says about how it's all "better spent on the story". Consider that even the zero-budget weekly "sci-fi Presents movies" take more care in props and vehicles. I really think it shows the producers of such shows that they can get away with far less than ever before and that we're likely to see a decline in overall quality from producers if that's their attitude.
But then, maybe such total lack of concern only bothers people when they're used to a higher level of visuals- I sure have seen people here bitch about anything re-used in Trek, but BSG somehow manages a complete slide...
Amazing how defensive people get over this show.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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While I can see your point Jason, I think your being a bit closed minded. In Sci-fi, aren't you supposed to suspend belief? If you can believe in a world where people fly around in starships with pointed-ear aliens, can't you believe in a world where spacecraft are commonplace in a world where people still use fossil-fueled power vehicles.
If so, then you can be one of us BSG fans.
One of us One of us One of us...
Registered: Feb 2005
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Wait, are you saying the visual effects suck? You mean the ships, the FTL jumps, the Centurions...? I guess it's just a difference in style preferences, because the shaky and off-focus look is deliberately done, to emulate the "the photographer was really there" documentary appearance.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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No, all the CGI stuff is incredible- I think that'sall top notch. It's all the glaring (to me) lack of props that bugs me to distraction- from army trucks to Hummvees to the .45 and 9mm pistols.
Dont talk to me about costs here- a plastic casing for a handgun would cost less than a dollar (prahaps $10 for the vac-form master and paint). Even Stargate (which is free to draw on real-world weapons) goes the exta mile for the "high-tech" look. If BSG's goal ws to go "low-tech", then break out some old sci-fi props and go retro (pneumatic gun would rock).
Fuck, even if they re-used stuff from "B" sci-fi movies, I'd be happy- at least then I really could "suspend my disbelief" that think of the show as being space-based.
Pointy-eared humanoids I can (mostly) take, if you can see commercials for the very vehicles shown on BSG (during the breaks), it's pretty bad.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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But the producers don't want the show to look foreign. That's why characters eat apples, as opposed to neon-blue pears. This is a familiar world, a sister-culture that has developed very similarly to us.
As for your point about the handguns ... we've seen two military-issue. One looks like a regular semi-auto with an extra toy underneath the barrel -- that's an "explosive bullet" firing mechanism (think a grenade launcher underslung on a rifle). The pilot's sidearm is only in shape close to a handgun you might actually find in a store.
I don't see commericals for Colonial Vipers on TV!
Did it ever occur to you that people get defensive because it seems you judge the show on the props as opposed to the qualities it should be judged on? The writing and acting?
posted
Strangely enough, they do seem to have gone backwards in the pistol dept., from a plastic shell covering a revolver (giving a Bladerunnerish look) to just having a FN Five-seveN with a plastic greebly stuck underneath. And it does seem to be a retcon - people who had the shell-revolvers suddenly had the semi-autos.
quote:Even Stargate (which is free to draw on real-world weapons) goes the exta mile for the "high-tech" look.
Which is why they use the Tapwave Zodiac for all their sensor and virus-cure-carrying needs.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Might as well have Starbuck wearing a Gap shirt and Nike's from what Reverend says about how it's all "better spent on the story".
I don't recall saying that. Just that fake vehicles aren't worth the expense. Clearly they are spending tons on visual effects, the Centurions (that ironically enough look more real than the old costumed ones) space suits, full size mockups of Vipers, Raiders & Raptors, not to mention the logistics involved in making a tent city populated by hundreds of extras and the digital backdrops to sell the scale of it all.
Really Jason, it sounds like you're looking for something to complain about.
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: No, all the CGI stuff is incredible- I think that'sall top notch. It's all the glaring (to me) lack of props that bugs me to distraction- from army trucks to Hummvees to the .45 and 9mm pistols.
Dont talk to me about costs here- a plastic casing for a handgun would cost less than a dollar (prahaps $10 for the vac-form master and paint). Even Stargate (which is free to draw on real-world weapons) goes the exta mile for the "high-tech" look. If BSG's goal ws to go "low-tech", then break out some old sci-fi props and go retro (pneumatic gun would rock).
Fuck, even if they re-used stuff from "B" sci-fi movies, I'd be happy- at least then I really could "suspend my disbelief" that think of the show as being space-based.
Pointy-eared humanoids I can (mostly) take, if you can see commercials for the very vehicles shown on BSG (during the breaks), it's pretty bad.
Yeah, but then the show would look cheesey and it would be harder to take it more seriously.
Registered: Feb 2005
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I'm just giving you my own POV- I'm not bashing it- there's solid acting (at least by Stockwell) and the CGI is nice.... I just dont "buy" it. Part of my brain is always expecting it to all be on earth- everyone and everything is just "today's world" for me to think of it as being a bunch of humans removed for (minmum) thousands of years.
For the record I've watched this episode almost three times now trying to see only what everyone's so thrilled about.
Again, I'm not dismissing out of hand- I might in fact buy some of the incredible ship models being made from this- but it's tough for me to compare this against shows where a lot of effort is spent of visual storytelling (like DS9, Farscape or even the old BSG) and favorably compare this to it.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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