Unofficial Battlestar Galactica Blog

Action figure update

It was announced back in August that Majestic Studios will be doing some 12-ich action figures for the new BSG. I just received an email from Brett J. with the following info:

Hi, I sent Majestic Studios an email about the BSG (04) line a while back, and a fellow by the name of Bob Langer just replied saying that the first wave will be out in August and will include Apollo and a Cylon Centurion.

Thanks Brett! That is great news. I checked the Majestic Studios website and there have been no updates that I can see... so for now this is all that we got.

Paul Davidson is BSG

Paul Davidson runs a blog called Words for My Enjoyment. He has come to the conclusion that BSG mirrors his own life. It's a fun read:

Humans are attacked by robots (Cylons) that they themselves created in the first place. The other day I was using one of those Black & Decker can openers in order to get at some of that juicy chicken in a can stuff, and as I was in the middle of opening it the top of the can opener flipped back and snapped at me, slicing open part of my finger and causing me to bleed in the process.

There’s a character named Starbuck, who is a female fighter-ship operator constantly whipping the other soldiers into shape. This morning, before I wrote this post I went to Starbucks, where a female employee operated the blender in order to get me my caramel Frappacino with no whip.

Read more

Thanks to James Futterman for the link!

CIC Interviews Bear McCreary

Andrew over at The CIC has an exclusive interview with Battlestar Galactica composer Bear McCreary:

A little project that I've been working on for a little while now, and a holdover from my job on another website, www.clonewarz.com - Interviews. So, it's a very great feeling being able to put up the following interview that I conducted with Bear McCreary, the man behind the music of the show:

CIC - Hello Mr. McCreary, and thank you for having a couple of words with us. First of all, do you follow the Battlestar Galactica Series at all, after everything is finished an on TV? If so, do you have any favorite moments or episodes?

Bear McCreary: Sure thing, thanks for the interview. I am actually a really big fan of the show, so I tune in every week to watch the episodes on the air, even though by that point I’ve probably seen each episode about a hundred times. As for favorite moments, I’m obviously a bit biased by what the score is doing in any given sequence. The opening and closing sequences of the “Kobol’s Last Gleaming” storyline will always resonate with me. However, honestly, my favorite scenes are often not ones where the music is featured prominently. For example, in Litmus, the scene where Tyrol confesses his crime to Adama in his quarters just gives me chills. The performances and writing are rock solid. The music is one of the best cues I’ve done for the show, even though it never stands out at all.

Read more

Thoughts on Black Market

Truth be told, I have been putting off writing my thoughts on “Black Market” for almost two days now. In all honesty, I was quite disappointed with this one. It isn’t fun to write about an episode you didn’t enjoy. I do a pretty good job of keeping this a fan site, not a critical review site. I love this show… I love seeing it succeed. Sure, there are ways that I wish the episodes would go sometimes and I don’t always agree with where the writers are taking the characters, but this week, I don’t know what happened.

Maybe I am still watching in the shadow of Resurrection Ship, Part II. That episode was everything I have come to expect from this show. To have it followed up with Epiphanies was a little bit of a damper… although compared to Black Market, Epiphanies was a hell of an episode.

I am betting not all of you will agree with my assessment. I will do my best to explain what I found so disappointing. If you disagree, feel free to leave comments.

Disposable characters
Killing Fisk ticked me off. One of the things I was always surprised with in this show is the level of detail given to every character, no matter how minor or small. Remember back in season one? We knew the names of the viper pilots. Remember watching them burn up in Hand of God? There were entire episodes that focused on people like Crashdown and Socinus. When they died, you felt something because no matter how small, you knew them.

Secondary characters have been suffering a lot lately. Remember Cally? Dee? Billy? Gaeta? Ellen Tigh? Where the hell are these people? Why would I possibly care about some Apollo bed buddy we just met or some random crime boss, especially when you know they will never be back again? I think I complained about this back with the episode Pegasus… there are so many good stories to tell with the people you have, why do you have to add an entire ship of new people? You can’t tell me they couldn’t have come up with a black market story involving Zarek, Ellen, Dee and the criminals from Colonial Day that would give Apollo the same opportunities in the story.

Neglected stories
It isn’t just the treatment of secondary character that has me disappointed, it is also the treatment of the plot threads. Here are a few off the top of my head:

• What is up with the Pegasus crew and Adama as Admiral?
• Is Kara still the CAG?
• Hello! The nuke!!
• The other Cylons that Sharon said were in the fleet?
• Earth anyone?
• The heavy raider?
• The aftermath of Roslin’s abortion attempt on Sharon?
• The prophecy?
• What is the quorum of twelve up to with all this?
• Ellen Tigh anyone?
• Giaus as the father of the child?
• The Cylon detector?
• You can’t tell me they haven’t found a Simon in the fleet…

I am sure you could all list a lot more that I am forgetting. The simple point is that there are some great stories to tell. Black Market just really came out of no where. Sure, it adds some realism and texture to the fleet, but it could have easily been a B-storyline and accomplished the same thing.

Apollo
The only moment in the episode that really had me involved was the showdown with Phelan. I honestly didn’t know if Apollo was going to shoot or not. It was definitely the more interesting decision to have him go through with it. It shows he is already falling far from his previous moral sensibilities. Apollo is rapidly giving up on the idealism so prevalent early in the show in favor of pragmatism more befitting Zarek. I have always thought Apollo and Zarek would become good buddies, but Apollo’s moral compass always got in the way. Maybe now the time is right.

It is good that Apollo is getting more screen time. His relationship with Adama and Starbuck allows for great character interaction, but this episode is a long ways away from the awesome work done in You Can't Go Home Again or Hand of God.

Conclusion
That is all I am really going to say this week. I don’t know really where else to take it. I never thought it would happen, but this was the first episode in the entire series so far that I just didn’t like. It felt out of place… not in the good and quirky way that Tigh Me Up Tight Me Down did, but in a very unneeded way that I hope is never repeated.

I remember reading an article with Ron Moore where he described the final season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and how he was disappointed that they got a little too inside people’s heads near the end… as writers they got too involved in the complexities of the characters and veered away from simple, powerful storytelling. While I never understood what he was talking about with DS9 (I thought the season was fine), I think I now understand what he was talking about.

Just a side note, I did enjoyed the scenes with Roslin and Baltar, although I don’t think they went far enough. Normally after a scene like that I would expect some sort of internalization between Baltar and Six where she twists his mind into acting against her or something. That is a larger critique on this episode: Everything is too clean in the end. There is no big hook to draw you into next week. When the episode ended, it didn’t leave me excited for more… I just saw credits… and all I could think was “Huh?” That is never a good sign.

Principal MVP of the episode goes to Jamie Bamber’s role as Apollo, if only because this was his episode and he struggled to succeed where the writing tended to fail. I do appreciate that he went through with Phaylen’s execution and also stands up to President Roslin, so that counts for something.

Secondary MVP of the episode goes to Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek. There is not nearly enough Zarek in this season. Maybe someone will see me awarding him an MVP and give him more to do. Hell every secondary character who has been neglected in season two earns the MVP. You know who you are. They need to bring all those people back…

Additional Resources

• Official episode synopsis
• Episode 2.14 podcast commentary
• Battlestar Wiki page for 2.14

Richard Hatch teleclasses

Check this out, from the Richard Hatch website:

Richard will be joining Mike McCleary of Beacon Media for the second session of the Anything But Ordinary Vision teleclass! Richard will be presenting on the topic of Unleashing Your Power & Creative Vision. At the end of the teleclass Richard will also conduct a special Q&A session with class participants on his television and film career (including of course his involvement in the original and current incarnations of the Battlestar Galactica series). Registration for the class is free!

The class was suppose to be tonight, but I just received an email that it needed to be rescheduled. So now it will be:

February 1st, 2006 7PM EST Register now, it is free

Learn to unleash your creative vision and learn about BSG, all in the same night!

BSG CCG Update

David emailed me and said "Why haven't you done any updates for the BSG CCG?" Like I said in the initial post about the card game, I am not really a CCG fan, so I haven't been following it that closely... But, since David sent me the link to the updated information he made it too easy! Here is the update for the rest of you:

Title: Battlestar Galactica™ Collectable Card Game Starter Deck
Stock Number: WZK8502
MSRP: $10.99
Expected Release: May 2006

Title: Battlestar Galactica™ Collectable Card Game Booster Pack
Stock Number: WZK8504
MSRP: $3.49
Expected Release: May 2006

Want to see what the cards look like? View some pictures! Also check out the promotions guide for additional details.

Thanks David!

Episode 2.13 ratings hold steady

According to Gateworld.net:

Battlestar Galactica anchored the night at 10 p.m. "Epiphanies" built on its lead-in to earn a 1.9 rating, holding even from the previous week and landing in the network's top-rated spot once again.

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It appears that slow and steady win the race!

Unofficial FRAK clothing

Is FRAK your favorite word? Would you like to wear it proud upon your body or scattered about your cube at work? Look no further than this Cafe Press shop!

http://www.cafepress.com/estashop

Go get your frak on...

BSG on the cover of Rolling Stone

Alex emailed me this bit of news today:

Apparently, there is an article about BSG in the upcoming Rolling Stone. I
can't find any reference to it on the site, but look at the magazine cover
on this CNN article:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/01/24/people.kanyewest.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

Good to see! More hot press!

I am going to keep watching the Rolling Stone web site to see if they post anything...

Update 1/27/2006 5:02pm CT

Here is the article on the Rolling Stone site:

Civilization is under attack by religious fanatics -- and the fanatics are winning. There are suicide bombers, a clueless president and prisoners who get tortured by the good guys. No, this isn't a particularly grim night on CNN: It's Battlestar Galactica, the smartest and toughest show on TV. In its second season, this remake of the 1978 camp classic has become -- no joke -- TV's most vivid depiction of the post-9/11 world and what happens to a society at war.

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JeffrySG's Viper 3D

Check out these photos that just came down the Flickr Feed:

WIP Wings3D / Strata Battlestar Galactica Viper Mk2

Make sure you check the large versions! That is some hot stuff! Great job Jeffry!