Has the Blood & Chrome miniseries aired yet?

[Sindatur]

Mars wrote:

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Cause it didn't have "planet of the week" episodes with humanoid aliens with bumps on their heads? BSG was more intelligent with less rubber science than most typical space operas.

I'm not arguing the quality NuBSG absolutely was art, and deserved all it's critical priase. But, that doesn't make it financially successful. If it's not financially successful, it won't last long, unless, in the case of BSG they were willing to take the loss in order to gain the prestige for keeping the show on the air long enough for it to play out. That kind of backfired on them, though, because despite their loyalty to those fans, they did not get the loyalty back from the fans.

I won't knock TOS BSG, though, because I do have a nostalgic affection for it

[Robert Maxwell]

Mars wrote:

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Well then tell me, how many sci fi shows has PBS offered? Dr Who? I happen to be a fan of hard science fiction and there are precious few examples of that, one in particular was "Defying Gravity", it is interesting seeing how they write science fiction shows that don't have planet of the week episodes. Mostly Defying Gravity was a soap opera set aboard a spaceship, and only had one planetary landing episode and lots of flashbacks. the walk on Venus was very believable.

There's not much of a market for it, and the public does not want it. (Those mean the same thing, basically.)

[Harvey]

Sindatur wrote:

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If it's not financially successful, it won't last long, unless, in the case of BSG they were willing to take the loss in order to gain the prestige for keeping the show on the air long enough for it to play out.

The ratings certainly declined over the life of the show, but I'd say they were at perfectly fine levels for a basic cable network like SyFy until the second part of the third season (you can see a chart of the series' ratings here).

By that point NBC/Universal (which paid for the series and, importantly, is also the parent company of the SyFy Channel) had already paid for most of the series, and it made financial sense to finish it so that the studio could have a complete product to sell in ancillary markets.

Critical acclaim likely helped with the series renewal, but ancillary markets, not acclaim, was probably the decisive factor in the show receiving a fourth and final season. (The fact that they shot additional footage for the sole purpose of inclusion on home video more and more as the series progressed indicates how important ancillary markets were to NBC/Universal).

[Jimi_James]

roliver wrote:

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And next to it is the master copy to Bear McCreary's score, which needs to get released no matter what.

Indeed. I love McCreay's scores for BSG. They're in heavy rotation on my pc.

[Mars]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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There's not much of a market for it, and the public does not want it. (Those mean the same thing, basically.)

Kind of shows you how much of a science education they got as children. How many people bought into Space 1999 in the 1970s for instance? You know how much science is in that one? Zilch! As a kid who didn't know about such things like the speed of light, momentum and inertia, the show was fun, for a 20 something watching the show, he probably would have had to have had a very bad science education to suspend his disbelief about it. I mean, year and explosion of a nuclear waste dump on the Moon causes it to be hurled out of orbit into "Planet of the Week" adventures. Even Star Trek was harder science fiction than that, the existence of a warp drive at least acknowledges that there is a speed of light barrier to get around, as far as Space 1999 was concerned there was no speed of light limit.

[Mars]

Harvey wrote:

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The ratings certainly declined over the life of the show, but I'd say they were at perfectly fine levels for a basic cable network like SyFy until the second part of the third season (you can see a chart of the series' ratings here).

By that point NBC/Universal (which paid for the series and, importantly, is also the parent company of the SyFy Channel) had already paid for most of the series, and it made financial sense to finish it so that the studio could have a complete product to sell in ancillary markets.

Critical acclaim likely helped with the series renewal, but ancillary markets, not acclaim, was probably the decisive factor in the show receiving a fourth and final season. (The fact that they shot additional footage for the sole purpose of inclusion on home video more and more as the series progressed indicates how important ancillary markets were to NBC/Universal).

I'll have to admit, I didn't watch the show much when it was broadcasted, instead I bought the DVDs for all the shows and Caprica, it is easier to appreciate the individual episodes when they are viewed in order, because the combine to tell a single story. Its hard to enjoy an episode without knowing what went on before, and if you miss an episode, you sort of lose incentive to watch the next one, because seeing the next episode would tend to spoil the plot for the previous episode, that might in part explain the Nielsen ratings decline, the other thing is, it is sometimes hard to tell who the good guys are, you don't know whether your getting the "good Kara" or the "bad Kara" that likes to torturer Cylons. The first big turn off of the show was in the Miniseries when Six decided to kill a baby. I have to be careful when I watch that show because I have children.

[teacake]

She spared the baby dying in a much worse way shortly after.

[Mars]

teacake wrote:

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She spared the baby dying in a much worse way shortly after.

I don't know about that, war is fairly impersonal killing, going up to a baby and snapping its neck is fairly personal. I'll bet there are a lot of people who couldn't do that but had no problems dropping gravity bombs on Dresden in World War II.

[teacake]

You're looking at it from the killer's perspective. From the baby's perspective it could have died quietly in its pram OR it could die in fire and terror with the adults around it screaming.

[Robert Maxwell]

Her expression upon the baby's neck snapping seemed like one of surprise. Given that the skinjobs didn't have babies at that time, she'd probably never had close contact with one, and didn't realize how fragile they were. I would chalk it up as an accident, just based on how Helfer played it.

[Mars]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Her expression upon the baby's neck snapping seemed like one of surprise. Given that the skinjobs didn't have babies at that time, she'd probably never had close contact with one, and didn't realize how fragile they were. I would chalk it up as an accident, just based on how Helfer played it.

Naw it wasn't an accident, she meant to do that deliberately, maybe she regretted it afterwards.

[Wereghost]

I'm pretty sure that Caprica Six, even post-pregnancy, would do it again if the need arose. Like the rest of the Sixes, and even Head Six, she appears to be something of a solipsist when it comes to human beings who aren't Baltar. At the very least she has an insouciant approach to life and death.

[teacake]

And there's no other reason to be bending a baby's neck, surely? She certainly meant to do it, though she may have had a momentary surprise at how little resistance she got.

This scene is horrible and difficult to watch, but so are the scenes of what happened to the 6 in Razor.

[Sky]

teacake wrote:

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And there's no other reason to be bending a baby's neck, surely? She certainly meant to do it, though she may have had a momentary surprise at how little resistance she got.

That's exactly the impression I got. She did it on purpose, and then was surprised at how easy it was / how it felt to do it.

That reminds me; must watch Razor.. still haven't seen it, or The Plan.

[Mars]

Scrawny71 wrote:

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I'm pretty sure that Caprica Six, even post-pregnancy, would do it again if the need arose. Like the rest of the Sixes, and even Head Six, she appears to be something of a solipsist when it comes to human beings who aren't Baltar. At the very least she has an insouciant approach to life and death.

Head Six was never in his head, Kara Thrace was basically the same thing as Head Six after she got killed and came back, the only difference was that everybody could see her. Also Head Six was not really a Cylon, she thought she was for a time, she was different from Caprica Six.