Slashdot Log In
Battlestar Galactica Gets Spinoff Prequel Series
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:08 PM
from the frak-here-comes-more-fraking dept.
from the frak-here-comes-more-fraking dept.
It was recently announced that sci-fi remake series Battlestar Galactica is getting a whole new spinoff prequel series called "Caprica." Signed on for twenty hours worth of finished product, including a two-hour pilot, the new series is to be set 50 years prior to Battlestar Galactica, and will focus on two rival families, the Graystones and the Adamas. "Enmeshed in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics. 'Caprica' will deliver all of the passion, intrigue, political backbiting and family conflict in television's first science fiction family saga."
Related Stories
[+]
Idle: Battlestar Galactica Hosted At the UN 252 comments
TheDopp writes "The United Nations hosted the cast and crew of Battlestar Galactica Tuesday evening in New York. Clips of the show were shown as discussion points during the event, touching on the morality of Suicide Bombers in war, Abortion and the use of torture on enemies of the state. At one point during the event an attendee mentions 'the "Old Man" launched into a passionate speech about casting off the idea of race as a cultural determinant, and said we were one race, the human race. His voice echoed throughout the chamber growing louder until — I kid you not — he was yelling, "So Say We All," and the crowd answered right back. Hell, even I yelled it, I was in the fraking United Nations with Adama, the gods themselves could not have stopped this moment.' The full video of the event is located on the UN website."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
So... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It'll be like "Dallas" or "Knot's Landing", but with spaceships? Wow!
No, that was V [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It'll be like "Dallas" or "Knot's Landing", but with spaceships? Wow!
You mean exactly [youtube.com] like The Colbys [wikipedia.org]?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
They already said there will be less spaceships -- thus, motorcycles is the way to go!
Seriously though, hopefully the writing quality of this is superior to the remake of Battlestar. In that it has far fewer gaping plotholes and some sense of forward momentum. I gave up with this show during the hendrix jumping the shark moment. The scripts had poor dramatic tension up to that point, but hendrix was the final straw.
Tag this one Flying Motorcycles. (Score:3, Funny)
next up buck rodgers. bee dee bee dee bee dee
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
You sure it wasn't the Bob Dylan moment?
Parent
Re:So... (Score:4, Informative)
Never mind that we're light-years away from 1960's Earth, and they're apparently not hearing it through radio waves since nobody else can detect it. I can understand some sort of "signal" waking up the last remaining Cylon models, maybe even a musical signal, but a song from earth?
Nope, it's not a song from Earth [bearmccreary.com]:
I learned that the idea was not that Bob Dylan necessarily exists in the charactersâ(TM) universe, but that an artist on one of the colonies may have recorded a song with the exact same melody and lyrics. Perhaps this unknown performer and Dylan pulled inspiration from a common, ethereal source. Therefore, I was told to make no musical references to any âoeEarthlyâ versions, Hendrix, Dylan or any others. The arrangement needed to sound like a pop song that belonged in the Galactica universe, not our own.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do fields of study have to proceed at the same relative paces we're familiar with? What is it about building robots and giant spaceships that necessitates a cure for cancer?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Damn you! I had to look that up and there goes another 5 mins of my life.
You're right of course.
I'm now humbled by your magnificence!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
And no hawt skinjob Cylons either. Why, exactly, would I watch this?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
And, if The Register and its headline on this story can be believed, without spaceships either. And no hawt skinjob Cylons either. Why, exactly, would I watch this?
I totally agree. Really, who cares what happened 50 years before the current series? Back biting and family bullshit is why I stopped watching BSG. I want to see space ships, hints of 13th tribe, and cylons getting their ass kicked. I don't care if Tye drunk off his ass 90% of the time, apollo is fucking starbuck or his old man. And I really really don't give a rats ass about baltars love cult.
More spaceships, more ass kicking, and more story about earth. Fuck the rest.
Now if they did a series ab
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Exactly! Except, without the spaceships.
Parent
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think a boy from one family and a boy from the other family would get more ratings from the shock value and resulting media frenzy.
If you want really high ratings, use a girl from one family and a girl from the other...
Parent
Recently announced? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, I even thought I saw a trailer for the series as much as a year ago.
As I recall, it was entirely impossible to tell from watching the trailer that it was in any way related to BSG, aside from the title. Looked boring.
Not good... (Score:4, Insightful)
This probably should wait until George Lucas is dead, just to be safe.
Re:Not good... (Score:5, Funny)
1. GreyStones Wars
2. Revenge of the Adamas
3. The Greystones Strike Back
4. Profit!
Shudder.....
Parent
Re:Not good... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Not good... (Score:5, Funny)
This probably should wait until George Lucas is dead, just to be safe.
Good, idea......I'll be right back.
Parent
Really? (Score:2, Insightful)
Remember 1980 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Remember 1980 (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Remember 1980 (Score:4, Insightful)
Simple. Season 3 was good, and people are just whiners.
The show has, imnsho, been extremely high quality from start to finish. I never have understood, and probably never will understand, where people get this idea that the show has gone downhill.
Parent
Comparing BSG with B5 (Score:3, Interesting)
I think this is definitely true. I don't watch a lot of TV and I bought the first 3 seasons of BSG after a friend recommended it. I've enjoyed it, mostly for the drama, and I'll probably buy S4 when it's finally available just so I can see how it ends, but there have also been a lot of inconsistencies that I've found irritating or confusing.
This isn't exactly a new thing, though. It go
Re: (Score:2)
I never knew about this series... I may actually have to get it (or atleast rent it).. I am curious now.. I imagine it will be horrendous... but hey its just TV.. maybe a bad TV series night and make a drinking game out of it...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's easily one of the worst sci-fi shows I've ever the displeasure of watching.
Worse than the Star Wars Christmas Special?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
hulu has it:
http://www.hulu.com/galactica-1980 [hulu.com]
may you forget quickly and are able to heal.
Re:Remember 1980 (Score:5, Funny)
The First Rule of BSG Fan Club Is You Don't Talk about 1980. The second rule is WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT 1980! It never happened. That series doesn't exist. It vanished into a black hole like disco okay? Eye bleach, neeeeeeed! It's the BSG fan equivalent of Nemesis. It didn't happen, okay? Did. Not. Happen.
Parent
Re:Remember 1980 (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, but I have a friend who's dad is a BSG fan too; Has all the DVDs, so we went over and I found 1980. So I borrowed it. I'm soooo sorry. It was worse than eating three chili cheese burritoes and a Vault while on the rag. It just... omg.
Parent
Spinoff + Prequel (Score:4, Funny)
Spinoff + Prequel all we need is an alien life form or a ghost that only the main character can see and talk to who only heckles the main character to make it a truly horrible idea.
Late in the game (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, it's hard for me to drum up any interest in this at this point. The new BSG was one of my favorite TV shows of all time. It was truly amazing and I have loved it. HOWEVER, the Sci-fi channel has done almost everything in their power to crush my interest in the show. The between season and mid-season breaks since season 2 ended have just been utterly ridiculous. It's an exaggeration, but I swear it feels like I'm watching the last 2 seasons of this show at a rate of 3-4 episodes per year. I'll finish out what's left of the show at this point because I'm already embroiled. I'm not sure I want to endure getting involved in another series that Sci-fi controls though.
Personally, I'm far more interested in sticking with Terminator: TSCC so long as it maintains sufficient ratings to avoid cancellation. I only have room in my schedule to keep up with a few shows at a time anyways.
Re:Late in the game (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree. Too bad they can't turn over the show to HBO or Showtime and have them do it right.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
HBO is all about pushing subscription sales. Yes they have really awesome shows, but unless they are "mainstream" enough to convince new subscribers it just isn't worth it for them. Deadwood and Rome were awesome, but they didn't have the same kind of audience appeal as Entourage and Sopranos where you're left
BSG doesn't air in "Seasons." (Score:4, Informative)
Sure, they CALL them seasons, but if you think about it what we're really getting are UK-length series* of the show, mislabeled.
Think about it.
Series 1 : 13 episodes, Jan-April 2005
Series 2 : 10 episodes, July-September 2005
Series 3 : 10 episodes, Jan-March 2006 # called "season 2.5" for the DVDs and considered to be "second half" of season 2.
Series 4 : 20 episodes, October 2006 - January 2007 # called "season 3," the only time the new BSG has run in anything approximating a traditional TV "season" form.
Series 5 : 10 episodes, April-June 2008 # called "the first half of season 4"
Series 6 : 10 episodes, January-?? 2009 # called "the second half of season 4"
* UK TV shows don't run in seasons, they run in "series" (eg series 1, series 2, etc. as listed above), typically of 1-10 episodes... though for British comedies, 4-6 episodes is considered a "series" - compare to the US "season," which typically consists of 18-22 episodes. Imagine waiting 46 weeks to get your weekly dose of Red Dwarf (or No Heroics or The IT Crowd or whatever).... it kinda makes the several-month gap between BSG series look positively brief.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Lets not even get into
Re:Late in the game (Score:4, Informative)
Personally, I'm far more interested in sticking with Terminator: TSCC
TSCC is the new BSG. They even have Bear McCreary doing the score.
Parent
Watch it on Hulu.com (Score:3, Informative)
If you are in the States, watch BSG on hulu.com
oh hell. (Score:5, Funny)
It's reality TV from the fuuuuuuture. I can haaardly wait.
Episode 1: It begins with a street fight between the Adamas and the Capule--I mean Capricas. They try to marry off the young future commander adama but is turned down for not being gay enough for Baltar's grandfather.
Episode 2: Adama is asked to wait a few years and then go to a bar, where he'll meet his future lover, Tye, who unfortunately is also a Caprican. Angst results.
Episode 3: Adama professes his love while standing on a balcony having a conversation with his mother about toaster studels. Tye overhears this, and they agree to a civil union. The rest of the Adama family hears of this and declare war on the Capricas. They're so distracted that they fail to realize the toasters have become sentient. A trail of burnt strudel leads to the outskirts of town.
*six month break due to writer strike -- online commentary -- this plotline SUCKS!!! It has a political agenda! Doom upon the soothsayers* ...
Yeah, I can see it now. Now watch me get modded "-6000, damn slash fan"
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's reality TV from the fuuuuuuture. I can haaardly wait.
Episode 1: It begins with a street fight between the Adamas and the Capule--I mean Capricas. They try to marry off the young future commander adama but is turned down for not being gay enough for Baltar's grandfather.
Yes yes, it's the Jets versus the Sharks-with-lasers. And a cylon officer Krupke tries to keep the peace.
Jebeezus, how many people know what the hell we're talking about! Funny thing is, it's 90% of all TV.
your sly post cracked me up,
Sounds like... (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like a cross between Dune and Star Wars Episode 1.
With all the fast-moving action of the former and all the rich storytelling of the latter.
television's first science fiction family saga (Score:3, Insightful)
Lost in Space (also 1965) -- John Robinson, his wife and three kids.
Plenty of "families" in SF, depends how you define "saga", which on TV usually means "multi-generational soap opera". If so, not really a drawcard, I think.
Clueless Network (Score:4, Interesting)
"One of the network's frustrations with [Battlestar Galactica] has been its dark and increasingly complex mythology."
If *that's* why the network was frustrated by the show, then the network is run by morons. The dark, complicated mythology is part of what made the show so good. Multidimensional characters with complex motivations were a great added bonus to high quality, space-based visual effects.
The frustrations that *should* have been keeping network executives up at night involved huge downtime between seasons. That, above all else, is what caused viewership to decline. People simply lost interest in a show that appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be canceled every year. People were actually surprised when the next season began, and had already decided to watch something else.
Granted, season 3 lost a lot of credibility when the space opera turned soap opera (that season sucked really bad), but the main problems came from scheduling mismanagement by the network.
this is the problem with spin-offs (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to do a spin-off right, it should really have something to do with the original show. Now there have been exceptionally successful spin-offs, mostly American comedies. (I say successful in that they ran a long time, making no judgment on quality.) In fact, it's often surprising to find out which show they spun off from. Frasier came from Cheers, Jeffersons came from some other show that you wouldn't have thought of, Laverne and Shirley spun off of something else, Mork and Mindy was based on something else. But then there's also all of the really crappy spin-offs that simply could not stand on their own two feet, just like a band that works because of all of the members coming together and the solo acts never have that same magic after they split.
The thing that's always funny to see is when something is spun off in a completely nonsensical way. She-Ra was a spin-off of He-Man. What were they thinking? No boy worth his salt is going to play with a girl's toy and why would the girls want to play with something tied in to a boy's toy? And as far as this goes, we're taking a spaceships and robot scifi story and spinning it off into a soap opera? I mean yeah, there are some soapy elements to BSG already but this really does sound like Dallas in Space (except they never travel off-planet.)
I don't get it. The Paramount suits said they'd never do a show on a space station becuase that's like taking the wheels off the cart, you never go anywhere interesting and it would require a lot of contrivances to get interesting things to come to you. I think the more appropriate complaint would be setting a show in the Star Trek universe in a restaurant in a backwater town on Earth that doesn't get much traffic from offworlders. Yeah, look at this big neat universe we're not seeing!
They had to wait (Score:3, Interesting)
until the final five got revealed.
We will see human personalities downloaded into a human like Cylon after Zoe Graystone dies in a terrorist attack. Then Zoe-R will be the prototype for the human Cylons. 50 years before the fall of the Twelve Colonies.
The Adamas will most likely be opposed to the creation of the new Cylons and feud with the Graystones who created them, but they have Graystones involved in relationships with the Adamas to make it more complex.
I saw this - man did it suck! (Score:4, Interesting)
I was walking through the mall connecting two Las Vegas hotels with my brother a few months ago when a someone asked if we have "a few minutes to watch a program". After signing up, we were in a room with two TV sets, holding a pair of buttons on cords - press the green one when you liked what you were seeing, the red one when you didn't. That red button got quite a work-out. After the sucking stopped (nearly an hour later!), we answered an electronic questionaire where we could explain why we thought it sucked, and in what ways. I took it as the opportunity to mention other non-dreadful SF programming like the new Doctor Who. In brief, I hated every character in this show and didn't much care for the actors playing the characters. If I ever see an episode of it again, it will be far too soon./pP
Re:How faithful to the 1970s series will it be? (Score:5, Informative)
watch the pilot again- first minute.
The colonial officer is perusing plans of the original cylon model-- that looks like the original series model.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Obvious "hark-backs":
That's just off the top of my head.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Ever notice how the Enterprise in Enterprise looked way more advanced that the Enterprise in Star Trek.
It got to be embarrassing. The original Star Trek bridge now looks like an outdated comm center for mall security.
The original Battlestar Galactica bridge from the 1970s was powered by Tektronix, and many of the controls actually did something visible. This was a real problem for the actors, who had to learn how to operate the systems.
"2001" was more futuristic. An AI took care of the details, and