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4.5
Battlestar Galactica Blu-ray & Series ReviewI’ve always been a fan of the original Battlestar Galactica show (1978) and I used to watch it as a kid but, truth be told, I had not seen a single episode of Battlestar Galactica 2004 - 2009 revival series until I bought it from Amazon in 2019 (a totally blind purchase). I typically have reservations about rebooting of old shows and that’s why I never got interested in catching the new Galactica. I will review the show and the blu-ray set from the perspective of a fan of the original series who had not seen the new show until recently.The new 2004-2009 show contains most of the essential elements of the original show such as humans and cylons being at war with each other, humans seeking earth, the old scriptures about the tribes of earth, Kobol, etc. Most of the characters from the original series are also present (Adama, Apollo, Starbuck, Gaius Baltar) but some of them have been altered. The biggest surprise for me was that Starbuck is female. Starbuck is still a cigar smoking, insubordinate, rebellious pilot (probably more so than the original series) with a sense of humor. She is also promiscuous and her flaws are analyzed in more depth throughout the show. I think Gaius Baltar is the most improved character of the show. He is also probably the most complex character who goes through phases of self-discovery. I think his interactions with Number 6 (a gorgeous, sexy, blonde Cylon woman) make the show in the first 3 seasons.The BIGGEST CHANGE from the original series is that Cylons look just like humans and it is impossible tell Cylons apart from humans. Apparently, Cylons found a way to create a new versions of themselves that are almost human. This new concept opens up a lot of opportunities about the interactions between humans and cylons (there can be cylon spies on Galactica which may be undetectable).In the original series, Baltar was a sleazy guy who conspired with Cylons and betrayed human kind. Baltar in the new series, as I said, is a more complex character. His motives are not always clearly malevolent. Unlike the original character, he evaluates his actions and their moral implications. He is brilliantly portrayed by the actor, just superb acting, amazing performance throughout the show, Oscar caliber, I say. Tricia Helfer has also done a brilliant job of portraying the sexy Cylon Number 6. She is not just a sexy robot; she goes through many different emotions. And you will see her role is written for multiple characters (there are many Number 6s) who display different personalities which make it very challenging. The relationship of Baltar and Number 6 is quite mysterious as you will see. Everytime they come on, it’s like fireworks in the sky. You will also see their relationship is the key to mystery of the overarching story. I say Baltar, Number 6 and Starbuck are probably the most important and elemental characters.Special and visual effects are far superior to the original series which was made in the late 70s when filming techniques were less advanced and there was lack of budget.Overall, I think they improved the story drastically. I especially loved the way they improved upon the mythology from the original series (looking for earth, the thirteen tribes, Kobol, etc.) and combined it religious elements. They almost wrote a whole new mythology that perfectly combines science fiction with religion. I also liked the way they covered military leadership and political leadership and how sometimes those different types of leaderships worked together and sometimes they turned against each other. I also liked how they portrayed positive qualities and flaws of both Democracy and Military Leadership under given circumstances. Even though I had reservations about it at first, I ended up loving the new show.Now as for the criticism; I thought the cylons are “so human” that they cannot be detected a bit unbelievable especially within the confinements of them being referred to as “machines” or “robots”. They are more like the “replicas” in Blade Runner (1982). They are made of flesh and blood. There is nothing mechanical about them. Robot means machines. Machines have mechanic parts. So Cylons are not really machines or robots (I am referring to the new models, not the “toasters” as they call the old robots). How did machines create human replicas, is a mystery never explained. It’s also never explained whether the cylon copies (the sleeper spies) that looked just like humans were always copies from the very beginning or whether they killed off the original human characters at one point and started to impersonate them. For instance, let’s say a character XYZ turns out to be a Cylon. Was there ever an XYZ character as human? And Cylons cloned that human, created a Cylon copy and got rid of the original human (kind of like in The Invasion of the Body Snatchers)? Or XYZ was always a Cylon, right from the very beginning? But then, they would be never born, they wouldn’t have an ID, no mother/father data, etc. That part is not explained.Another criticism is that sometimes the show does feel like a soap opera in space, with a lot of sexual relationships, betrayals, romance, cheating, jealousy, etc. At times, it felt like “Dallas” or “Flamingo Road” or “Falcon Crest” in space to me LOL.Blu-ray set was priced very reasonably when I picked it up (I think I paid $40-50). Some episodes are grainy and overall HD clarity is not entirely satisfactory but I think that’s due to the way the show was shot. Some TV shows and movies are just shot that way so even when they are HD, the clarity is not crystal (I am only assuming this since I have not watched the show when it aired on TV).I also did find it annoying that the creator of the show comes up in the beginning of each season, first episode without any option to turn it off (they could’ve added an option like “watch with intro” – “watch without intro”). I think special features are pretty good. There are tons of feature commentaries, deleted scenes, etc. Overall, I think this is a great set for any sci-fi fan.
