Galactica on Sci-Fi channel now

[Bok_Tukalo]

The mini series. Forgot how good it was.

(my DVD has not arrived yet)

[Beetwasher]

1. Potential: Best Sci Fi Series EVER

James Edward Olmos

His performance could do it alone, and he's not alone.

This pilot shows the best promise of any SF series ever.

[Bok_Tukalo]

2. I agree

Incredible. I am looking forward to the series.

[NewJeffCT]

3. On second look

I like the miniseries better than my first take, however I still say the baby killing scene in the beginning and the scene with the little girl getting blown up were gratuitous.

[Bok_Tukalo]

4. Both were important and not gratuitous

The baby killing scene especially.

[NewJeffCT]

5. why? (mini series spoilers possible)

Isn't systematic genocide by the nuking of 12 planets enough to prove the evilness of the cylons?

What purpose did it serve to have Cylon #6 snap the neck of a baby in a stroller in the beginning?

Why show the little girl picking flowers as she dies? We already know she's been left behind because the President's assistant told us she had to be left behind.

[Bok_Tukalo]

6. It's the difference between the abstract and the personal

100,000 Iraqi dead vs a story about a mother looking for the head of her decapitated two year old daughter.

Genocide was just big explosions. The true malevolence came out with the casual murder of the baby.

Same with the "Daisy" style little girl gone in a flash. A couple thousand left behind sucks but the kid with a doll showed exactly how much.

[Enraged_Ape]

7. Plus the fact that they had to make a "Sophie's Choice"...

with the daisy girl. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and all that.

I bought the DVD and watched it again. I didn't hear the screaming and pleading of those "left behind" by the FTL jump until now. It really hits you on a visceral level--much more so than in the original series, where they were partying on the casino planet an hour and a half after genocide.

[NewJeffCT]

8. and the baby killing?

sorry, some things shouldn't be done.

[DrWeird]

15. Establishing mood.

And character.

If they had wanted to be gratuitous they would have shown it.

[Beetwasher]

9. Actually, It's More Than That, And It Wasn't Gratuitous

What were her motivations for killing the baby? If you remember, after she did it, there was a look that crossed her face. It was almost like she felt bad about it, or had a twinge of consience about doing it.

She also now claims to "love" Baltar.

Was it an act of heartlessness to kill the child? Or mercy, considering what was about to happen?

This was a part of the development of her character and poses some cool philosophical questions about the nature of conscious machines.

[Touchdown]

13. To personalize and drive home the nuking of 12 planets

"30 deaths is a tragedy. 30,000 deaths is a statistic." -Josef Stalin.

[Xithras]

16. I always thought the baby was a mercy killing.

The Cylons that we have seen so far seem to be a bit torn. On one hand they want to eradicate mankind, but on the other there seems to be a slight grudging respect, and even some human feeling. My first impression after seeing the baby killed was that she knew what was coming and killed it to spare it the agony of being incinerated.

[Love Bug]

10. I haven't been this excited about a new series since Babylon 5

I have all my fingers and toes crossed that this series lives up to it's promise! I remember being disappointed with the original series when it devolved into stories about a kid with his toy dog and stupid battles with robots and a shakesperian villian (Balzar). Feldercarb, indeed.

Wouldn't it be a kick in the new series if they eventually get to earth and it's still the Dark Ages here? There's no reason to believe we would have progressed at the same rate.

[YankeyMCC]

11. BG 1980

In the gear up for the new series they are showing everything BG and today they are showing BG 1980 episodes. I didn't think there were enough of these to show all day. I haven't watched an entire episode but I've been catching bits and pieces.

Boy this was a pretty bad show. And it looks like they didn't put much effort into it, the opening is just an edit of the old opening and some old episode clips...and I think just a slightly different arrangement on the music.

And the episode I just saw a bit of there was a Cylon attack and I'd put money on it being old footage from the original series.

[NewJeffCT]

12. I remember

I remember them always using the same cylon raider ship strafing shot over and over, week to week.

[Touchdown]

14. I remember the first G-1980 episode

There was an attack on Los Angeles, as dreamt by some Wesley Crusher type wiz-kid. and they had Cylon ships superimposed onto stock footage from Earthquake. I remember Earthquake (bad movie too!) and it was obvious. The dropping louvers from the Capital Records building was a dead giveaway, Cylon ships flying by didn't hide it.

[Technowitch]

17. The show is WAY better than I would've thought it could be

I love how dark it is, too. That first episode "33" basically convinced me that Moore (the producer) knows what he's doing.

Without a doubt, it's the best SF on TV right now.

My opinion anyway