meanings of Battlestar Galactica (2003) definition of Battlestar Galactica (2003) books about Battlestar Galactica (2003) references on Battlestar Galactica (2003) articles about Battlestar Galactica (2003) web search for Battlestar Galactica (2003) dreams about Battlestar Galactica (2003)
 Battlestar Galactica (2003) - Definition 

Missing image
BattlestarGalactica2003.jpg
The cover from the North American DVD release of the miniseries. Shown are (left to right) President Laura Roslin, Commander William Adama, Number Six, Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama, and Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace.

Battlestar Galactica is a science fiction miniseries which was first broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel on December 8, 2003. It spawned a regular television series which premiered on Sky One on October 18, 2004.

This new series was promoted as a "re-imagining" of the Universal Studios late-1970s movie and television series Battlestar Galactica. It was not simply a remake of the original but a new direction taken from the same original premise, analogous to a "reboot" in comic books.

Although purists from the original series's fandom loudly disapproved of changes to the premise, the show was the highest-rated cable miniseries of 2003. Its strong audience draw was enough to prompt the channel to commission a new ongoing television series, the first episode of which drew an estimated 850,000 viewers (5% multichannel viewer share) on its world premiere on Sky One.

Contents
1 Reimagining

1.1 Differences from the 1978 series
1.2 Similarities and homages to the 1978 series

2 Miniseries (2003)

2.1 Synopsis
2.2 Cast
2.3 Air dates

3 Season 1 (2004)

3.1 Cast

3.1.1 Main characters
3.1.2 Recurring characters

3.2 Broadcasters

3.2.1 First-run
3.2.2 Reruns/syndication

3.3 Episodes

4 Other resources

4.1 See also
4.2 External links

Reimagining

Previous efforts to remake or continue the story of Battlestar Galactica have mainly involved using the original cast, or at least the original characters and plot. None of these projects proceeded beyond the developmental stage.

Ronald D. Moore, executive producer and screenwriter of the new Battlestar Galactica, was previously credited with bringing darker story arcs to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the 1990s. Of Battlestar Galactica, he wrote in February 2003: "Here lies a slumbering giant, its name known to many, its voice remembered by but a few. For a brief moment, it strode the Earth, telling tall tales of things that never were, then stumbled over a rating point and fell into a deep sleep." He tackled the remake with realism in mind, and intended to portray the show's heroes as being part of "flawed" humanity. Examples of this include Commander Adama and his son harboring resentment towards each other, Colonel Tigh being a drunkard, a "primitive" battlestar prone to problems and outside sabotage, muted special effects shots lacking unscientific sounds commonplace in TV and movie sci-fi, and guns firing bullets instead of lasers.

Differences from the 1978 series

Changes from the original series include:

  • The Cylons are now a creation of the humans. They rebelled against their creators during a war forty years ago and formed their own civilization, and are now resuming the same genocidal crusade after an extended truce.
  • There are twelve different designs of Cylons. Some are similar to the "classic" design, some are more modern fighting machines (both humanoid and vehicular), and some are stealth units designed to impersonate humans for the purpose of infiltration. Some stealth units might not even know that they are Cylons.
  • Baltar, now a scientist instead of a Count, was tricked into betraying humanity. He now helps the refugee fleet as a valued scientific advisor, and he desires to help, but is influenced by the Cylons and by his own fear of his betrayal being discovered.
  • The Cylons have the ability to remotely seize control of sophisticated enemy computer systems for their own use (in an obvious parallel to modern-day malware), which enables their rapid defeat of the human colonies.
  • Instead of being a frontline warship in the human fleet, the Galactica is an outmoded ship, the last of its kind still in operation. It was originally slated for decommissioning, but was brought back into full service because it uses older technology that Cylons cannot gain control of easily. There are no computer networks on the Galactica, and all communications on board are conducted using old-fashioned wired telephones.
  • The costuming strongly resembles contemporary fashions, as does some of the technology. Soldiers carry rifles, Viper fighters fire bullets, and communications often take place on radio telephones.
  • Most of the strange dialect of the original series (including the decimal time-measurement system of "centons" and "yahrens") has been removed and replaced by conventional present-day language.
  • There are no references to "daggitts" (dogs) and no robotic daggitt like the original's Muffit, though there is still a boy named Boxey.
  • There is no longer a ruling Council of Twelve. Instead, President Adar and most other government officials are killed in the initial Cylon bombardments; next surviving in line is the Secretary of Education, who is sworn in as new President and capably shares equal authority with Commander Adama.
  • The personal details of various characters have been changed; for example, Starbuck and Boomer are now women and Colonel Tigh is white. The unusual names of some of the characters ("Starbuck", "Apollo", "Boomer") have become pilot call signs.
  • The Galactica itself has become much more military in its design and operation. Many of the details are taken, somewhat anachronistically, from present-day aircraft carrier operations, such as the pilots undertaking what are explicitly referred to as combat air patrols, and use of "CAG" referring to the Galactica's senior Viper pilot.
  • In the new series, Apollo's brother Zak is killed in a Viper accident prior to the first episode, and this becomes a major plot point in later episodes. In the original series, Zak dies in the initial Cylon attack.

Similarities and homages to the 1978 series

  • The "museum" section of the Galactica features both a suit of "classic" Cylon armor as well as the original model for the Cylon Base Ship.
  • The Colonial Anthem, heard briefly during the Galactica's decommissioning ceremony, contains a signature fanfare from the original Battlestar Galactica theme by Glen A. Larson and Stu Phillips.
  • The "cubit" is still the unit of currency in the Colonies, even though it appears now as regular paper money rather than the gold ducats seen in 1978.
  • Despite the removal of most of the original Colonial dialect, the word "frack"—often described as a way to get "fuck" past network censors—has been retained as the all-purpose expletive of choice for most humans. The other BSG ersatz—"Felgerkarb", for bullshit—has yet to make an appearance.
  • The original series' Colonial Viper design—referred to as the "Mark II"—is retained with a few tweaks as the mainstay fighter of the Galactica, while a newer design introduced in the miniseries—the "Mark VII"—occasionally makes an appearance. One of those tweaks is the steering mechanism with manuevering jets which can enable moves such as a 180 degree pivot to attack a pursuing enemy, much like Babylon 5's starfuries.
  • The military rank system is basically the same as in the original series. The officer ranks in the Colonial fleet are Ensign, Lieutenant j.g., Lieutenant, Captain, Colonel, Commander, and Admiral (never actually used in the original 1978 version, although it is safe to assume the rank exists there as well).

Miniseries (2003)

Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The Twelve Colonies of Kobol long ago created the Cylons as machine worker drones for humanity. These machines became independent, after fighting in wars between the Colonies, rose in rebellion, created their own empire, and launched war on their masters. The war ended forty years ago when peace was declared and the Cylons have not been seen since... but, meanwhile, they have been evolving into more human form, becoming machine-created biological beings who seek to exterminate true biological humans. The Cylons are now motivated by a form of religious fundamentalism, believing that humanity is too flawed to be allowed to continue to exist. They also fear that if any humans are left surviving, the humans will someday return to take revenge on the Cylons.

The Cylons use a human scientist, Dr. Gaius Baltar, to help one of their infiltrators (known as Number Six) penetrate the Colonies' master defense mainframes. Baltar is reluctant but is smitten by Number Six, who appears as a woman of seemingly insatiable sexual desire. The result of their affair is a nuclear sneak-attack which rapidly obliterates the Colonies and the fleet deployed for their protection.

One ship, however, survives; an obsolete battlestar designated BSG 75: Galactica, which had been scheduled for decommissioning. Its commanding officer, Commander Adama, assumes leadership of the fleet. President Roslin convinces him of the futility of continuing to fight and the importance of escaping. The Galactica must now lead the fifty thousand surviving humans on a quest for a new homeworld on which to rebuild humanity. Adama inspires his crew by pretending to know the location of the legendary thirteenth colony known as "Earth".

Galactica's first task is to lead surviving ships of the Colonies to a weapons deployment base within a spatial storm. This rendezvous leaves them trapped when two Cylon base stars track them down and open fire...

Cast

Air dates

Season 1 (2004)

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The opening text before each episode:

The Cylons were created by Man.
They Rebelled.
They Evolved.
They Look and Feel Human.
Some are programmed to think they are Human.
There are many copies.
And they have a Plan.

Battlestar Galactica follows on from the miniseries to chronicle the journey of the last remaining humans from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol after their annihilation by the Cylons. The last surviving humans are led by President Laura Roslin and Commander William Adama in a ragtag fleet of ships with the Battlestar Galactica at its lead. Their mission: evade the Cylons and search for a new home.

The first series of thirteen one-hour episodes aired in the UK between October 18, 2004 and January 24, 2005 on Sky One, which co-financed the series with the Sci Fi Channel and NBC Universal. Produced in 2004 by David Eick and Ronald D. Moore and starring the original cast from the 2003 miniseries, it was aired in the United States from January 14, 2005 and from January 15 in Canada. Moore left his position as producer on HBO's Carnivāle after its first season to concentrate more fully on BSG.

The series proved successful on its UK premiere, attracting favourable comments from reviewers and generating considerable anticipation in the US. The first episode aired there became one of the highest-rated programs ever on Sci Fi with 3.1 million viewers. No decision has yet been taken on whether the show will be picked up for a second season, but Sci Fi has ordered six scripts that, if filmed, could comprise the first half of a second season.

The series aired in the UK three months ahead of the show's premiere in the US and Canada; this is a rare occurence of a North American television show being aired across the Atlantic before its first broadcast "at home". This has led to the inevitable postings of episodes to peer-to-peer networks, such as eDonkey and BitTorrent, as soon as possible after Sky One have aired them.

Cast

Main characters

Recurring characters

Broadcasters

First-run

Reruns/syndication

Episodes

Other resources

See also

External links




de:Kampfstern Galactica (2003)

Copyright 2008 WordIQ.com - Privacy Policy  ::  Terms of Use  :: Contact Us  :: About Us
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Battlestar Galactica (2003)".