Battlestar Galactica Gets Spinoff Prequel Series 297
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."
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?
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.
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: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking more like "Dynasty" for this decade (the 00's?). I can see them using Joan Collins as a proto Cylon...
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
Exactly! Except, without the spaceships.
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...
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.....
Re:Not good... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
All the proto Cylons will talk like Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century:
"biddi-biddi-biddi"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Everybody knows that "bears beats battlestar galactica" anyway. They should just skip straight to a show about bears.
Exactly because bears are freinds with sharks. Who doesn't want to see a show about bears and sharks? I certainly don't but I'm the exception that proves the rule.
Re: (Score:2)
He'd rework it so the Cylons shot first.
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.
Really? (Score:2, Insightful)
Remember 1980 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Remember 1980 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
How do you explain season 3?
Bender: WhooooOOOOOooooooo!
Re: (Score:2)
Morbid curiosity and obsessive-compulsive need for closure.
At least, that explains it in my case. I'll probably ride the "BSG re-imagined" train to its final bitter end.
Did I ever mention that I'm the kind of guy who won't drop quests in MMORPGs, even after they're worthless for experience or faction reputation or anything, because I hate to be a quitter? Thank God I never took up any destructive habits; if, for instance, I started smoking I'd probably drop dead with a cig in my lips rather than be a quitte
Re: (Score:2)
No shit. Season 1 & 2 -- Capital. Glorious. Tight. Everything fit. Then the rescue off new caprica where I think the most awesome cut scene in the bloody history of scifi/drama has ever happened, and then...
The suck monsters descended. The series didn't just jump the shark right then and there, it jumped over the shark and into an anime-styled suck hole, to the screams of Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhn!
Re: (Score:2)
we'reeeeee goiiiiiinnnnng the [youtube.com] wrong waaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy!
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.
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:2)
You might find yourself drinking profusely for weeks to forget all about it.
If not a full frontal lobotomy. Seriously, GP, forget about it and simply consider yourself lucky that you never saw it. It's easily one of the worst sci-fi shows I've ever the displeasure of watching.
Re: (Score:2)
Is it just me, or does that seem more like a challenge than anything else?
If I hadn't watched it when it first came out, I'd be running out to get it now based on that description.
But, I have already watched it. Yeah, it's bad. Really, really, bad. Especially so if you liked the original.
But, that said, definitely worth watching. But make sure you do so with a group of friends who like the whole making snarky comments at bad TV thing.
And definitely liquor. Lots of liquor.
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:2)
There is one episode that is worth something. It was an episode where Starbuck is stranded on a desolate planet with a Cylon. It is a total rip off of Enemy Mine but it is worth watching. Note that this is Starbuck's only appearance in the new series. Most of the original cast did not appear in the second series.
Re: (Score:2)
It's clearly because Samus watched the show in 2002. Duh!
Re: (Score:2)
Because it was a novella [wikipedia.org] first in 1979.
Re: (Score:2)
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...
With that can do attitude you too can be a network executive.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
It's the BSG fan equivalent of Nemesis. It didn't happen, okay? Did. Not. Happen.
You mean it's the BSG equivalent of Highlander 2:The Quickening?
Re: (Score:2)
It's the BSG fan equivalent of Nemesis. It didn't happen, okay? Did. Not. Happen. You mean it's the BSG equivalent of Highlander 2:The Quickening?
A sequel..but....but there can be only one.....must...supress..memories....GAHHHHH!!!!!
Re: (Score:2)
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.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Mr. Snuffleupagus and an Adama grand-pere would indeed make quite a team.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. Too bad they can't turn over the show to HBO or Showtime and have them do it right.
I agree. I tried to get my wife interested in the show, but after the third or fourth "Frak You!", she said, "That's it, I'm out."
Re: (Score:2)
Why'd you marry a non-geek?
Life's too short.
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
Re: (Score:2)
I only have room in my schedule to keep up with a few shows at a time anyways.
I can keep up with about 20 different shows. I use mythtv and export a lot to my ipod itunes auto-magically picks up the episodes from my server and all is well. nothing like watching Colbert report on the way in to work...
Plus I watch everything on my terms. It's a refreshing change to TV.
Re: (Score:2)
And to think people complain about just texting while driving! Thank ${DEITY} I work from home and don't have to share the road with the likes of you.
Re: (Score:2)
I disagree with that sentiment. I'd rather have quality than speed. If it takes them a long time to finish, then so be it. If I want to watch them back to back then that's what DVD/iTunes is for.
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.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Lets not even get into
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What do you mean? The last episodes have been filmed and in the can ready to go since late August. Now they're just stretching it out to string along as much advertising $$$ to as few episodes of the show as possible.
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.
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:2)
I'm in agreement, but not for your reasons.
To me this sounds uninteresting. Caprica is toast, and any kind of day to day drama will always have this overtone of futility. How much of the day to day drama and plot points will be completely irrelevant given how the future plays out in BSG proper.
I mean the show kind of set itself up as a, oh crap starting over, thing. Do the day to day trials and tribulations of the show's Montague and Capulet equivalents even matter to fans?
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,
"recently"?! (Score:2)
This is old, old news... 3.5 years old, [google.ca] in fact.
Re:"recently"?! Sure is. (Score:2, Insightful)
Apparently, Slash articles need to have pre-posting supplemental research/vetting/URL-add-ons before going into the wild:
http://www.galacticawatercooler.com/ [galacticawatercooler.com]
Then, it might have read:
"Previously-announced BSG-Prequel 'Caprica'green-lighted"
Actual editorial activity? (Score:2)
Apparently, Slash articles need to have pre-posting supplemental research/vetting/URL-add-ons before going into the wild:
Then it just wouldn't be Slashdot ...
I've seen this before... (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder if it's going to be as good as when it was the Harkonnens and the Atreideses.
Re: (Score:2)
If only the people in BSG had learned the lessons of the Butlerian Jihad...
And In Today's News... (Score:2, Insightful)
The Day The Earth Stood Still?
King Kong?
Star Wars XI:A New Source Of Revenue?
No, Battlestar Galactica: The Prequel.
pfft.
Debate (Score:2)
Once the last cylon is revealed, the first season of the new spinoff will be a lengthy debate about what the definition of "Not in your fleet" means.
Yes! (Score:2)
... with sexy results.
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.
Only 50 years (Score:2)
Anyone else think the whole BSG storyline would have been a lot more interesting if the time between the 1st Cylon war and the current series had been something like a few hundred years? Maybe even a few thousand?
Re: (Score:2)
Do they have a plan? (Score:2)
Yea right.
They still can't make sense of the last series b/c they messed it up so bad -- they kept telling us they had a plan, oh really? what "plan"? it was a random mess.
And Boomer and clones got so "fraked-up" I don't think it's even possible to square it with any logical consistency.
BSG no longer falls under SciFi, it's FrakedFi.
Old, Old news. (Score:2)
io9 has been reporting on Caprica since at least January [io9.com], if not earlier. The real news here is that SciFi's ordered up a full season, even though it hasn't aired the pilot yet.
This could be a rash decision on their part - the series pitch is loudly devoid of anything that's made the rebooted series interesting (namely, spaceships and explosions), instead loudly billing itself as Dynasty in spaaaaaace.
I don't know about you, but my gut reaction to this is a bored "next!"
If the story gets over its pretentio
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect they are going for the daytime soap watching audience, including, yes, the kind of people who watched Dallas. That is a pretty hefty and reliable market, there are millions of people with time to watch these things, so if they could get it, the advertising space revenue would be good.
However, without a helluva loads of advertising, they just won't reach their target audience, since last I checked, people who don't normally watch SF don't even look at the SciFi channel.
It sounds pretty boring to me
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. The pitch as I understand it sounds like a show that would really rake it in on Lifetime or maybe AMC. Any net that doesn't "specialize" in Sci-Fi.
(of course, SciFi runs wrestling, so who knows what they're thinking...)
Re: (Score:2)
It would, but for me, "family drama" is just a shorter way of saying "42 minutes of filler."
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.
New series? Let's finish the current one first... (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Obvious "hark-backs":
That's just off the top of my head.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably not.
Ever notice how the Enterprise in Enterprise looked way more advanced that the Enterprise in Star Trek (I'm not enough of a fanboy to remember the ship model numbers.)
You can tell the story, and even pay a small homage to the old designs, without being stuck to 1970s special effects and set design. A few die-hard fans might bitch, but you'll be way more likely to attract new viewers by making things more modern.
Also, it's not completely clear that BSG2003 was a reboot. Lots of fans postulate
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
Re: (Score:2)
Not necessarily. It simply that Moore and the show's directors know how to choreograph and direct action. Zoic's excellent FX help enormously. However, Moore has no idea how to use drama and discovery over a long arc. Hence much of the show is tedious, disoriented and lacking dri
Re: (Score:2)
The best example of this is the "eye of jupiter" and the "final five" popping up OUT OF NOWHERE in Season Three, and the series from that point forward depending completely on those events. While the "models of cylons" bit is certainly foreshadowed right from the get-go, the way bits of Holy Text have a tendency to appear late in the game with no foreshadowing to speak of is a pretty clear indicator that the writers are making it up
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the ultimate antithesis to creativity is the standard television series. The theory is if you like a show, you tune in week after week to see more of the same thing. Do something different, and you piss the fans off.
Faced with the challenge of adapting each and every episode to the fans' expectations, the creative challenges of adapting an entire series isn't so daunting. It's like getting the regular customer who always buys the curry to try the saag paneer; that's much less risky than twea