Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome - Grading & Discussion

[Kegg]

^
And this show frankly looks quite a bit cheaper than Defiance.

And what you were saying Candlelight is you think Syfy's bean counters would go out of the way with the aim to intentionally minimize profits on the sales of a title. Dislike what they do all you want (and you know, fair enough) but that's just not very likely.

[Samuel Walters]

I dunno about anyone else, but I'm very much enjoying the look of the show so far. Sure, it isn't exactly photo-realistic ... but it's more than close enough for me to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the action. And whether it's the Osiris or the dogfight or the scenes on the snow planet, I completely bought into the action - which is, clearly, what this show is all about at this point. It's damned good fun, solidly (if not state-of-the-art) produced. More than just being pleasantly surprised, I'm thoroughly enjoying the show.

[teacake]

Episode V: "Brace for contact, my friend."

Episode VI: Wow, creepy. And a new person. And the story is moving along nicely

[pst]

Samuel Walters wrote:

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I dunno about anyone else, but I'm very much enjoying the look of the show so far. Sure, it isn't exactly photo-realistic ... but it's more than close enough for me to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the action.

i'm conflicted about the aesthetics. not-quite-photo-realistic seems antithetical to the BSG experience to me.

battlestar worked because it was real - even though it was about very unreal things, it always felt tangible and the people always felt real. that's mostly lacking in blood & chrome which feels like a video game. sure it's a video game set in one of my favorite fictional universes and it's expanding that universe and giving it more color, but it's in no way tangible - which is what drew me to that universe in the first place.

so we can either chalk this to deliberate stylistic differences between BSG's gritty realism and caprica's soap operatics and now B&C's video game frivolity. or, more likely, it's just trying to recapture something great and achieving diminishing returns.

[Kegg]

^
Visually I'd say Caprica kept to BSG's realism (to its budgetary detriment because it required way more outdoor shooting than BSG ever needed). But otherwise yes.

[Samuel Walters]

Thinking about it a bit more, perhaps I look so favorably on B&C because it's not taking itself too seriously - as nBSG and Caprica did. I'm willing to sacrifice a bit of visual realism in the VFX shots (the interior of Osiris seemed fairly realistic to me), if it means a different, more entertaining approach to the fictional universe. If I want to watch hyper-melodramatic-realism, there's still four seasons of nBSG and its miniseries and TV movies. If I want glacially paced melodrama, I can still go back to Caprica.

And while B&C certainly isn't going to win any awards for its dialogue or character development (or characters themselves), at least at this point, it's presenting an enjoyable change of pace - in such a way that draws me back into a universe I thought had, at best, completely stagnated.

[Ridcully]

Quite more enjoyable than the series...that became dreary at places...
I rather like it for what it is.

[Worf2DS9]

Last two eps were enjoyable. I liked the dogfight in the snowy skies, and it's always great seeing those classic raiders zooming around.

Next week looks like we see some actual centurians, though sadly not the classic model.

[Guy Gardener]

What else can you do with that snake other than eat it?

They have to make at least as good a sleeping bag as a tauntaun.

[WeAreTheBorg]

I'm really starting to like it. I couldnt get over the lens flare in the first installment, and the constant cameos of previous BSG actors were distracting in the second, but this last one I had no such issues (apparently John Pyper Ferguson was in it but I didn't recognize him).

[The Wormhole]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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They have to make at least as good a sleeping bag as a tauntaun.

I wonder which one smells better?

WeAreTheBorg wrote:

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apparently John Pyper Ferguson was in it but I didn't recognize him.

I think he's the crazy Marine tech sergeant.

[Candlelight]

DarthPipes wrote:

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I thought Coker's friend was a goner once he learned he had a kid...I didn't except him to abandon them. Though if he doesn't find a ship he's dead anyway.

I'm hoping he somehow makes it back to Galactica or the ghost fleet.

Gotta have 'splosions to finish the movie off.

[B.J.]

I also noticed the less-than-stellar effects, but it didn't distract me from the action. It's a heck of a lot better than Syfy's usual movie of the week anyway.

I said before that the Osiris had nice shiny chrome and the basestar did not, but this time I noticed that the basestar's disc was matte, but the arms were nice and shiny. Interesting decision there.

As for the Raptor's crash sequence, I could have bought it if it wasn't quite so violent. But the way it was shown, the ship should have disintegrated. Even if it didn't, the crew would be chunky salsa by now.

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Well, they do have artificial gravity. It would stand to reason that they have structural integrity fields and inertial dampeners as well. The BSG showrunners have always made a habit of not focusing on such technical minutiae for the sake of the story, unless the story itself demanded some kind of specific technical explanation - Hera's blood and the comparative blood types between human and cylon come to mind for NuBSG. As far as the ships go, aside from using Tylium for fuel, we know very little how any of them really work.

[lurok]

Thank god. All that technobabble is bumnumbingly tedious. More sex and violence please.