Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome - Grading & Discussion

[Candlelight]

Bit of a lame let down after a good first half of the movie. I expected the Ghost Fleet to play a bigger part in the end but ultimately they went with the tried and true method of humans being frakheads over some long overdue toaster destruction.

I can see why SyFy passed on this, doesn't really hold up quality wise to carry on.

[teacake]

Can't get the stupid australian site to play more than 2/3 of ep 9

I am going to scream.

[bryce]

pst wrote:

---

i'm right there with ya. i always felt like old school basestars and raiders were constructed by one of the colonies - probably to fight another colony - and then appropriated by the cylons.

I'd bet that some colonies made soldier Cyons and buit the original Basestars and Raiders...humans probably originally *armed* the first Cylons who rebelled!!!

[Candlelight]

teacake wrote:

---

Can't get the stupid australian site to play more than 2/3 of ep 9

I am going to scream.

That's really bizarre. I get full access in NZ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH8EDRptVAQ

Can you use something like Downloadhelper and try and download the clip to your computer before trying to watch...?

[46379.1]

This ending was expected considering it was written as a setup to a new series. I'm not disappointed but I'm not 100% pleased by it's quality. But it's good enough as a nice little backstory. Too bad we'll never see a continuation of it.

[DarKush]

I thought the finale was okay. What really gave me the geek moment was the Six scene. Before that it was on shaky ground. I didn't get why neither man even discussed executing or arresting Beka after she had been exposed as a traitor. They just walked away. The pacing and everything just felt odd and a bit anti-climatic as they stumbled off, leaving Beka behind.

I also don't get why the Fleet signed on to this plan. There weren't easier ways to trick the Cylons? I am glad though that the commander explained that the Fleet knew about Beka's treachery the whole time, because I was wondering why someone would okay this mission in the first place.

Overall I thought B&C started off real strong but began to peter out in the third act. The limits of their special effects budget really started showing once they hit the ice planet. Though the FX were a little dodgy, I did like the proto-Six Cylon. She reminded me of the robots in I, Robot, and I always thought there was something creepy about those robots.

I wouldn't mind seeing more B&C adventures, though a part of me wishes they had left Adama out of it (though it was cool seeing why he was named Husker) so that it wouldn't conflict with Razor and so we could have a main character who could be in real jeopardy. The actor playing young Adama was okay in my book, but I wish they had just named him something else.

[DarthPipes]

That was Tricia Helfer's voice at the end, right?

I really enjoyed the ending myself. I'm sorry to see this won't be going to show.

[The Wormhole]

The finale was pretty damn good. Starting to when Coker shot Beka to the arrival of the rescue Raptor I was actually unsure of how things would play out. I figured Coker would probably live given the intent was to go to series, but given he's weeks away from the end of his term of service, they could always pull out that old trope and have him killed. And although Beka's betrayal was something I was suspecting since she and Adama made out las week, it was still a shocking moment regardless. Mainly because her getting shot by Coker was completley unexpected.

It seems a bit too abrupt that Adama is suddenly accepted by the other Viper pilots as "one of them," but whatever. That scene of him getting into his Viper and launching was cool..

Overall, I enjoyed Blood and Chrome. I now wich it were continuing as a series, this is exactly what sci-fi television needs right now.

On a sad note, this is likely the last time we'll see anything in the nu-BSG universe. As it turns out, it airs the day before the nine year anniversary of when the mini series first aired on SyFy (December 8, 2003).

[Saul]

Agree with what others said, there is no jeopardy if Adama is the main character for this series. I don't really see where the show could go and it seems nothing that there is nothing left unresolved or set up for future episodes.

[6079SmithW]

Now begins the wait for the blu ray/dvd release...

[Samuel Walters]

All things considered, I'm voting this "Excellent". It certainly wasn't flawless. But it was fun, exciting, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The "cameo" was great. And while the ending felt rushed (Adama's acceptance), it nonetheless sets the stage for plenty of adventure in future installments (even if those installments are never realized). To say that there's NO dramatic tension if Adam is the main character is too narrow a view, IMO. For starters, this show is less about "tension" and more about action and entertainment. To that extent, I see a great deal of potential - if the miraculous happens and the series sees another installment.

[Candlelight]

6079SmithW wrote:

---

I loved the cameo with Tricia Helfer's voice and that music. Unfortunately, the cgi human/cylon was absolutely horrible. It was seriously the worst looking thing I've seen in B&C. That scene would have worked better if we just saw the hand caressing Becca's face with Helfer's voice.

I would've preferred to have seen Tricia full stop. Not as herself (cos we've come nine years in real time since her first appearance) but as an obvious construct and still the actress underneath.

[Kegg]

That was clearly Tricia Helfer's voice. I read an interview a while back where she said she 'might' have a role in this, and well, what else could she have been but a Cylon?

Saul wrote:

---

Agree with what others said, there is no jeopardy if Adama is the main character for this series.

How many TV series actually kill off their main character? Adama is in as much jeopardy as Kirk or Picard ever were on their shows.

It was an alright ending to a competent webseries. I wasn't invested enough in the characters to care much about the betrayal or the arguments with guns pointing at each other, but mostly it was a solid mission-orineted bit of mil sci-fi and if it had gone to series I would have likely continued with it. The Wormhole is right, though, this is probably it for the nuBSGverse (unless we count the Blu-ray of this movie due next year, which will have extra scenes - i.e. likely nudity, as they've done for the Caprica pilot and The Plan and so on).

[Saul]

Kegg wrote:

---

That was clearly Tricia Helfer's voice. I read an interview a while back where she said she 'might' have a role in this, and well, what else could she have been but a Cylon?

How many TV series actually kill off their main character? Adama is in as much jeopardy as Kirk or Picard ever were on their shows.

That's a fair point but if the show were taken to series we know that his ultimate fate rests with nBSG.
And they've already pulled the trick of killing Adama once in Caprica.

[DarKush]

^
Granted the lead character is rarely in real jeopardy in any TV show, but when you do a prequel series it seems to rob even a little unpredictability regarding the fate of the main character.

A prequel show like Enterprise got around that by featuring a totally new (and up to then) unheard of Enterprise and crew. With any of the Star Treks, since they were taking place 'right now' respectively we could never be as certain that they would make it out alive. For example I didn't know if Picard was going to survive "Best of Both Worlds". Or what about Kirk in "The Doomsday Machine"? The Star Wars prequels both introduced new characters with old ones, but one of the main draws of those films was seeing how it all came together and set up the original trilogy.

With the Cylon War I think you could have something similar to the Star Wars prequel films in that regard, but with the TV show known for some unpredictability and twists, I say why not have the best of both worlds and go the Enterprise route?

Adama's story was well told during BSG, plus we got to see him during the first war in Razor, and to some extent his youth was covered in Caprica. He's a great character, but I would've rather seen new characters, totally fresh and new to the universe. It wouldn't have hemmed in the potential writers for the series as much. And it could open up more avenues for them to explore different aspects of Colonial lives and cultures.

Regarding Saul's feelings about the limited places B&C could go...I think there was a lot of stuff they could do to cover the war and how it affected the colonies. Perhaps we could get some new takes or interpretations of what we 'thought' had occurred during the war. Also there could be new Cylon models, Cylon homeworld, new Colonial ships, and a lot of cool stuff. Also B&C might give us more information about the Cylons and Final Five, while also tying up any loose ends from Caprica. Granted it's probably just filling in the blanks, but it could still be interesting. Especially if you base it around interesting characters and life and death situations. War is a terrible human experience that lends itself to constant exploration.