How is show Battlestar Galactica?

[AnitaPeterson]

No, I paid attention fine.

Spoiler

The final five delivered resurrection to the cylons

Ron Moore is the genius behind BSG and wrote its best episodes. Caprica was lost without him. It was run by the awful Jane Espenson, who abandoned head writer position after the horrible first half of the season.

Caprica isn't "dark" at all. It is a poorly written meandering mess. The first half of the season was barely watchable and the second half completely unwatchable. A real joke. nothing about it was dark and its take on religion was a gimmick that never paid out. Religion was down 1000x better in BSG.

You missed the fact that "resurrection" was put together by Clarice Willow and her conspirators, as a way to raise and reward terrorists, using technology derived from the Graystones' breakthroughs.

But you're free to think whatever you like. Obviously, we "read" these TV series differently, and I'm willing to bet that one of the reasons for that is that our backgrounds are very different.

 

[techs]

You missed the fact that "resurrection" was put together by Clarice Willow and her conspirators, as a way to raise and reward terrorists, using technology derived from the Graystones' breakthroughs.

Spoiler

I always assumed the final five gave them the way to return the consciousness to living clones.
Right up till the final scene of the coda to Caprica when they raise Zoe in humanoid form from the the tank.

 

[mikeymikec]

Even Ron Moore apologized for how bad Black Market was in his podcast.

I would have to watch it again to get it completely fresh in my mind, but I guessed which episode from the name... I can't remember it being bad, so I googled for it and found a review that allegedly pans it.

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/battlestar_galactica/black_market.php?page=1

I got as far as page 2, and was wondering whether I'm reading a summary of the screenplay or a review. 24 page review, you have got to be freaking kidding me. I skipped to the summary, and it seems to be written by someone who hates the series, so it's difficult to sift through the venom to find actual unbiassed criticism. I hate the LotR film trilogy and like the books quite a bit, and I could write a more objective and readable review than that (even though I would hate every minute of having to watch the films again).

Yeah, it reminded me of that flashback bit, which potentially could be a bit cheesy, but I can't remember those bits well enough to give an opinion.

I'm wondering that if someone can tear BSG to shreds, they must have such a field day with a series like TNG which ends in a video of them taking a whizz on the season DVDs

 

[shadow9d9]

You missed the fact that "resurrection" was put together by Clarice Willow and her conspirators, as a way to raise and reward terrorists, using technology derived from the Graystones' breakthroughs.

But you're free to think whatever you like. Obviously, we "read" these TV series differently, and I'm willing to bet that one of the reasons for that is that our backgrounds are very different.

We are talking about two different things.

 

[shadow9d9]

I would have to watch it again to get it completely fresh in my mind, but I guessed which episode from the name... I can't remember it being bad, so I googled for it and found a review that allegedly pans it.

http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/battlestar_galactica/black_market.php?page=1

I got as far as page 2, and was wondering whether I'm reading a summary of the screenplay or a review. 24 page review, you have got to be freaking kidding me. I skipped to the summary, and it seems to be written by someone who hates the series, so it's difficult to sift through the venom to find actual unbiassed criticism. I hate the LotR film trilogy and like the books quite a bit, and I could write a more objective and readable review than that (even though I would hate every minute of having to watch the films again).

Yeah, it reminded me of that flashback bit, which potentially could be a bit cheesy, but I can't remember those bits well enough to give an opinion.

I'm wondering that if someone can tear BSG to shreds, they must have such a field day with a series like TNG which ends in a video of them taking a whizz on the season DVDs

http://www.jammersreviews.com/bsg/s2/blackmarket.php

 

[mikeymikec]

http://www.jammersreviews.com/bsg/s2/blackmarket.php

That's a better review, thanks. Based on the review, I would class it as a weaker (but not massively/significantly so) episode than the consistently decent average BSG episodes. It has its weak points, but I think there are a fair few series out there that I regard to be decent and yet have a much wider variation of good/bad episodes.

The problem for that episode was that it needed a significant event to start the investigation. The murder of a high-ranking officer definitely qualifies. Without that, there wouldn't have been an investigation - the black market would be a concern to the government but the overall feeling would have been "we've got much bigger issues to resolve, so we'll deal with this another time". I agree with the "kind-hearted prostitute" being an uncreative plot element*, but the child trafficking or something similar was needed to demonstrate Phelan's unreasonable relaxation of moral code under the guise of "pragmatism". I'm not a writer, but the only way that I can think of to do it better would have been a multi-episode arc that is a kind of cat-and-mouse game between a mafia-type organisation and the government/military.

* - what was the point of all of this anyway, it didn't seem to add anything of value. If him seeing a prostitute was purely a plot device, it wasn't a good one.

Perhaps I would be more critical of BSG episodes if I had seen another sci-fi series which took it to the cleaners, in the way that I see BSG did to TNG, another series I like.

 

[rayfieldclement]

How good and original are the sound effects? Are they household names like all great scifi or are they average?

 

[shadow9d9]

That's a better review, thanks. Based on the review, I would class it as a weaker (but not massively/significantly so) episode than the consistently decent average BSG episodes. It has its weak points, but I think there are a fair few series out there that I regard to be decent and yet have a much wider variation of good/bad episodes.

The problem for that episode was that it needed a significant event to start the investigation. The murder of a high-ranking officer definitely qualifies. Without that, there wouldn't have been an investigation - the black market would be a concern to the government but the overall feeling would have been "we've got much bigger issues to resolve, so we'll deal with this another time". I agree with the "kind-hearted prostitute" being an uncreative plot element*, but the child trafficking or something similar was needed to demonstrate Phelan's unreasonable relaxation of moral code under the guise of "pragmatism". I'm not a writer, but the only way that I can think of to do it better would have been a multi-episode arc that is a kind of cat-and-mouse game between a mafia-type organisation and the government/military.

* - what was the point of all of this anyway, it didn't seem to add anything of value. If him seeing a prostitute was purely a plot device, it wasn't a good one.

Perhaps I would be more critical of BSG episodes if I had seen another sci-fi series which took it to the cleaners, in the way that I see BSG did to TNG, another series I like.

You'd enjoy listening to Moore's commentary on the episode.

 

[shadow9d9]

How good and original are the sound effects? Are they household names like all great scifi or are they average?

They are amazing imo. Best in the business.

Visuals are by the people behind Firefly(which you could see in the Dr. scene with Roslin in miniseries).