What Did You Watch? 2018-07-16 (Monday)

[Ubiquitous]

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) - Premiere episode. I haven't watched this
in more than 30 years. It's amazing how much of it makes no sense at
all, yet didn't seem to register at the time.
The Cylons somehow managed to utterly destroy 12 entire planets in about
a half hour with just a handful of fighters that did nothing but make
strafing runs on the surface, literally shooting at individual people.
One would think that they'd need to deploy nukes to take out whole
cities in one blow or something like Imperial Star Destroyers' orbital
bombardment. But no, they use fighters. It would be like us going to war
with China and trying to take down the whole country with a dozen
fighter planes.
And why wouldn't the homeworlds have *any* kind of defense systems? This
is a society that has-- according to the president of the Quorum of 12
in his toast-- been at war with the Cylons for 1000 years. Yet their
home planets have no way to defend themselves, not even a fighter wing
or two they could have launched?
There was some surprising locker room near-nudity from Maren Jensen
(Athena) that I wouldn't have thought would make it past the network's
censors back in 1970s for a family show.
The show's writers don't seem to understand the difference between a
solar system and a galaxy.
I enjoyed it for its nostalgia, but if this was a new show, I'd be
skipping the rest.

I remember my friends and I liking that show in first run, but am
hesitant to watch it again and destroy the nostalgia.

Actually, I think SFC played it as part of their "lost SciFi" show,
back when they actually played SciFi.

[Mike Van Pelt]

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) - Premiere episode. I haven't watched this
in more than 30 years. It's amazing how much of it makes no sense at
all, yet didn't seem to register at the time.

Oh, yeah. The only reason I kept watching was that it was the
only vaguely skiffish thing on TV at the time. Some episodes
were better than others (I really wanted to know where they were
going with Count Iblis) but I finally bailed in disgust when they
revealed that the whole rag-tag fleet had been going sub-light
the whole show; only the Galactica itself could "go lightspeed."

The Cylons somehow managed to utterly destroy 12 entire planets in about
a half hour with just a handful of fighters that did nothing but make
strafing runs on the surface, literally shooting at individual people.

Yeah, one of the many brain-dead things about this series.

The show's writers don't seem to understand the difference between a
solar system and a galaxy.

"Firefly" seemed to have this problem in the intro to some of
the earlier episodes, but later, they made it clear that it was
a solar system with an unreasonable number of habitable planets/moons.

[anim8rfsk]

Post by Mike Van Pelt

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) - Premiere episode. I haven't watched this
in more than 30 years. It's amazing how much of it makes no sense at
all, yet didn't seem to register at the time.

Oh, yeah. The only reason I kept watching was that it was the
only vaguely skiffish thing on TV at the time. Some episodes
were better than others (I really wanted to know where they were
going with Count Iblis) but I finally bailed in disgust when they
revealed that the whole rag-tag fleet had been going sub-light
the whole show; only the Galactica itself could "go lightspeed."

The Cylons somehow managed to utterly destroy 12 entire planets in about
a half hour with just a handful of fighters that did nothing but make
strafing runs on the surface, literally shooting at individual people.

Yeah, one of the many brain-dead things about this series.

The show's writers don't seem to understand the difference between a
solar system and a galaxy.

"Firefly" seemed to have this problem in the intro to some of
the earlier episodes, but later, they made it clear that it was
a solar system with an unreasonable number of habitable planets/moons.

Firefly is possibly the only more science impaired bring on the stupid
set up than Galactica, and I'm including Galactica 1980 and flying
around the Earth in different directions in order to go forward or
backwards in time.

So they can't go translight, but they've got tech so powerful it can
transform *any* rock or *any* size into a Class M environment;
atmosphere, gravity, temperature, regardless of it's distance from the
primary. And they spend hundreds of years getting to a system that's a
'whole galaxy of new Earths' because - why? When they could terraform
every hunk of rock on Sol System into a habitable place? Including
'Earth-that-was'?


http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=8646

Here are the 3 openings, and a listing of which episodes had which
version:

ttj - book
bw - book
omr - book
jt - book
oog - mal1
sd - mal1
safe - mal2, followed by previously
ariel - mal2
ws - none, starts with a previously
ois - none, starts with a previously
serenity - none

scifi uk airings:
hog - mal2
tm - none, starts with a previously
trash - none, starts with a previously

Mal1 : Here's how it is: Earth got used up, so we terraformed a whole
new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the new technologies,
some not so much. Central Planets, them was formed the Alliance, waged
war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight
it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity. Got
a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher,
and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor, too, took his genius
sister out of some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile.
You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is.

Mal2 : Here's how it is: The Earth got used up, so we moved out and
terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the
new technologies, some not so much. The Central Planets, them was
formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a
few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds,
captain of Serenity. Shes a transport ship, Firefly class. Got a good
crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher for some
reason, and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor too, took his
genius sister out of some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low
profile, you understand. You got a job, we can do it, don't much care
what it is.

Book : After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system and
hundreds of new Earths were terra formed and colonized. The central
planets formed the Alliance and decided all the planets had to join
under their rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the
War, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the
edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people
struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would
bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was
simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.



Then they tried to clarify it for the movie, but what they said doesn't
match what we've seen, and we have no reason to assume an Alliance
teacher even knows much less speaks the truth:

Earth-That-Was...
...could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many.
We found a new solar system.
Dozens of planets and hundreds of moons.
Each one terraformed, a process taking decades...
...to support human life.
To be new Earths.
The central planets formed the Alliance.
Ruled by an interplanetary parliament...
...the Alliance was a beacon of civilization.
The savage outer planets were not so enlightened...
...and refused Alliance control.
The war was devastating.
But the Alliance's victory over the Independents...
...ensured a safer universe.
And now, everyone can enjoy the comfort...
...and enlightenment of true civilization.

Read more:
https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=serenity

[BTR1701]

Post by Mike Van Pelt

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) - Premiere episode. I haven't watched this
in more than 30 years. It's amazing how much of it makes no sense at
all, yet didn't seem to register at the time.

Oh, yeah. The only reason I kept watching was that it was the
only vaguely skiffish thing on TV at the time. Some episodes
were better than others (I really wanted to know where they were
going with Count Iblis) but I finally bailed in disgust when they
revealed that the whole rag-tag fleet had been going sub-light
the whole show; only the Galactica itself could "go lightspeed."

The Cylons somehow managed to utterly destroy 12 entire planets in about
a half hour with just a handful of fighters that did nothing but make
strafing runs on the surface, literally shooting at individual people.

Yeah, one of the many brain-dead things about this series.

I remember one episode where they had to send the main characters down
to a frozen planet to take out some huge gun that could vaporize the
Galactica in one shot.

Even as a kid, I remember being like, "Well, why don't they just avoid
that planet and go somewhere *else*?" It's not like the gun was mobile.
It was literally built into the side of a mountain.

Even if there was some reason they had to pass right by that planet,
they could go over it, or under it, or wait for it to rotate around so
that the gun was on the other side of the planet pointing in the other
direction.

When an 8-year-old is picking apart your sci-fi, you know that you've
pretty much abandoned the 'sci' part of it altogether.

Still, the show does have one superlative going for it: Even to this
day, it has the best main title theme song of just about any TV show I
can think of, and the scores to its individual episodes were pretty
good, too.

[Ubiquitous]

Post by BTR1701

Post by Mike Van Pelt

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) - Premiere episode. I haven't watched this
in more than 30 years. It's amazing how much of it makes no sense at
all, yet didn't seem to register at the time.

Oh, yeah. The only reason I kept watching was that it was the
only vaguely skiffish thing on TV at the time. Some episodes
were better than others (I really wanted to know where they were
going with Count Iblis) but I finally bailed in disgust when they
revealed that the whole rag-tag fleet had been going sub-light
the whole show; only the Galactica itself could "go lightspeed."

The Cylons somehow managed to utterly destroy 12 entire planets in about
a half hour with just a handful of fighters that did nothing but make
strafing runs on the surface, literally shooting at individual people.

Yeah, one of the many brain-dead things about this series.

I remember one episode where they had to send the main characters down
to a frozen planet to take out some huge gun that could vaporize the
Galactica in one shot.
Even as a kid, I remember being like, "Well, why don't they just avoid
that planet and go somewhere *else*?" It's not like the gun was mobile.
It was literally built into the side of a mountain.
Even if there was some reason they had to pass right by that planet,
they could go over it, or under it, or wait for it to rotate around so
that the gun was on the other side of the planet pointing in the other
direction.
When an 8-year-old is picking apart your sci-fi, you know that you've
pretty much abandoned the 'sci' part of it altogether.
Still, the show does have one superlative going for it: Even to this
day, it has the best main title theme song of just about any TV show I
can think of, and the scores to its individual episodes were pretty
good, too.

If memory serves, that was a ripoff, err, homage to FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE.

[anim8rfsk]

Post by BTR1701

Post by Mike Van Pelt

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) - Premiere episode. I haven't watched this
in more than 30 years. It's amazing how much of it makes no sense at
all, yet didn't seem to register at the time.

Oh, yeah. The only reason I kept watching was that it was the
only vaguely skiffish thing on TV at the time. Some episodes
were better than others (I really wanted to know where they were
going with Count Iblis) but I finally bailed in disgust when they
revealed that the whole rag-tag fleet had been going sub-light
the whole show; only the Galactica itself could "go lightspeed."

The Cylons somehow managed to utterly destroy 12 entire planets in about
a half hour with just a handful of fighters that did nothing but make
strafing runs on the surface, literally shooting at individual people.

Yeah, one of the many brain-dead things about this series.

I remember one episode where they had to send the main characters down
to a frozen planet to take out some huge gun that could vaporize the
Galactica in one shot.

THE GUN ON ICE PLANET ZERO

Post by BTR1701
Even as a kid, I remember being like, "Well, why don't they just avoid
that planet and go somewhere *else*?" It's not like the gun was mobile.
It was literally built into the side of a mountain.
Even if there was some reason they had to pass right by that planet,
they could go over it, or under it, or wait for it to rotate around so
that the gun was on the other side of the planet pointing in the other
direction.

It's the same principal as why the aliens on UFO always attack Earth by
flying right past the Moon.

Post by BTR1701
When an 8-year-old is picking apart your sci-fi, you know that you've
pretty much abandoned the 'sci' part of it altogether.
Still, the show does have one superlative going for it: Even to this
day, it has the best main title theme song of just about any TV show I
can think of, and the scores to its individual episodes were pretty
good, too.

The encores of the theme were the best part of the remake.