Movies - Battlestar Galactica

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	Movies - Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica was first reimagined as a science fiction miniseries that was first broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel on December 8, 2003. It spawned a regular television series which premiered on Sky One in the UK on October 18, 2004 and on Sci Fi Channel in the U.S. on January 14, 2005.

This new series was promoted as a "re-imagining" of the Universal Studios 1978 movie and television series Battlestar Galactica
. It is not simply a remake of the original but a new direction taken from the same original premise, analogous to a "reboot" in comic books.

The series is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Overview

The new series departs from the original in several respects. In style, it rejects the traditional televised science fiction styles of Star Trek adopted by the original in favor of what executive producer Ronald D. Moore calls "naturalistic science fiction". In premise, the new series recasts several key characters from male to female and introduces the notion that the Cylons, the cybernetic enemies of the humans, were created by man. In addition to the Cylon Centurions there are also humanoid models that very closely mimic a complete human down to the cellular level. The look of the new series also benefits from recent advances in computer-generated imaging and digital special effects.

Although a small group of purists from the original series' fandom loudly disapproved of changes to the premise, the show was the highest-rated cable miniseries of 2003. In fact, it has been the highest rated original program in the Sci Fi Channel's history. Its strong audience draw was enough to prompt the channel to commission a new ongoing television series, the first episode of which drew an estimated 850,000 viewers — an 8% multichannel viewer share — on its world premiere on Sky One in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the miniseries and the subsequent weekly series have enjoyed general critical acclaim as being superior to the original, leading TIME Magazine to declare in the spring of 2005 that the new show was one of the six best drama series on television. In the tradition of science fiction series such as Star Trek, the writers use science fiction to examine contemporary social, moral and ethical issues in allegory.

Reimagining

History

Previous efforts to remake or continue the story of Battlestar Galactica by Tom DeSanto, Bryan Singer, and original series star Richard Hatch involved using either the original cast or the original characters and plot. None of these projects proceeded beyond the development stage.

Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and screenwriter of the new Battlestar Galactica, was noted for bringing darker story arcs to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the 1990s. Of Battlestar Galactica, he wrote in February 2003: "Here lies a slumbering giant, its name known to many, its voice remembered by but a few. For a brief moment, it strode the Earth, telling tall tales of things that never were, then stumbled over a rating point and fell into a deep sleep." He tackled the remake with realism in mind and portraying the show's heroes as being part of "flawed" humanity. Those flaws include Adama and his son harboring resentment toward each other, Colonel Tigh being an alcoholic with deep personal demons, and an outdated battlestar prone to problems and outside sabotage. The muted special effects are without the unscientific sounds commonplace in television and film science fiction. Comparatively realistic Newtonian physics and the use of bullets and missiles instead of energy weapons such as lasers make the programs unique.

Ronald D. Moore has also admitted that the miniseries and series drew inspiration from the tragic events of 9/11 and its aftermath. The shows feature elements such as "sleeper" agents, the threat of sneak terrorist attacks using civilian transports, Cylon suicide bombers, the torture of prisoners (alluding to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse), and a struggle motivated by intense religious differences. Season Two's episode thirteen also featured Useful Idiots, in the current political parlance, as foolishly idealistic activists attempted to use sabotage against the fleet to force "peace talks" with the Cylons.

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Movies - Battlestar Galactica

Overview

Reimagining

History

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