Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome - Grading & Discussion

[Saul]

DarKush wrote:

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A prequel show like Enterprise got around that by featuring a totally new (and up to then) unheard of Enterprise and crew.

It also got around it with the introduction of the Temporal Cold War leaving things a bit up in the air. Did Earth have contact with the Klingons sooner than originally? Was the Enterprise meant to be destroyed before being saved by Silik in Season 1. We also had the unexpected introduction of the Xindi attacking Earth something which didn't originally happen.

For example I didn't know if Picard was going to survive "Best of Both Worlds".

Nobody did. Patrick Stewart himself wasn't even sure and there was doubt that he would actually return to the series after season 3.

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.

Star Wars had a story to tell. How did Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader.

We already know who Adama is and what makes the man tick. We've explored him and his background thoroughly in nBSG.

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?

Time travel?

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.

I agree, but they didn't do that. They told a pretty average story with not so many twists. It didn't leave me wanting more. By the end of the nBSG series I wasn't really sold on it until the end which had a few twists and revealed a Character being a Cylon and made me wonder who else could be a Cylon. *cough* Roslin *cough*. It got me back to check out the opening of Season 1.

Blood and Chrome has a lot of cool stuff but I think I need a little bit more story and characterization. Some holy sh*t! moments.

[Kegg]

Basically any character in the miniseries other than Adama could have died, and some did. That's the same level of threat you get with most sci-fi shows.

It's true you could do a more unusual and elaborate prequel series for Battlestar Galactica, whose protagonists have unknown endpoints - but then, that was basically Caprica (Willie Adama was not just a fakeout, he was also a minor character). B&C wanted to put the focus back on Adama's career and the battlestars, which is fair enough.

[Lyon_Wonder]

IMO, the semi-humanoid Cylon with glowing red eyes with Six's voice looks like a reimagined IL Series Cylon. For some reason I can imagine one those Cylons named "Lucifer" and uttering a Jonathan Harris-type voice

[bigdaddy]

It was fine. I don't need more though.

[DarKush]

Lyon_Wonder wrote:

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IMO, the semi-humanoid Cylon with glowing red eyes with Six's voice looks like a reimagined IL Series Cylon. For some reason I can imagine one those Cylons named "Lucifer" and uttering a Jonathan Harris-type voice

I didn't think about that before. Good catch.

[Brandonv]

Is Tricia voicing the cylon at the end a continuity error? I though that the 6 model was designed by the final five, after the war.

I enjoyed B&C a lot more than I expected to. I was hoping for a big space battle at the end (It would have been cool seeing more of the Galactica in her prime), but otherwise I wasn't disappointed.

Its strange - back in 09 when nuBSG ended I was satisfied, and didn't feel any need to return to that universe. But after watching B&C I suddenly find myself wanting more. I'm kind of sad that this is the last we will see of the nuBSG universe.

[Kaijima]

Brandonv wrote:

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Is Tricia voicing the cylon at the end a continuity error? I though that the 6 model was designed by the final five, after the war.

I think it was more of a tribute than a continuity error, same as with using the piano bars of NuBSG's teaser music and the question "Are you alive?"

Anyway, I actually really enjoyed B&C and if it had gone to series, feel it could have really been used to clean up a lot of the messiness of NuBSG's retcons and convoluted backstory. I would have liked if it was as much about the Cylons as the colonials (but showing mostly war action as was the basic idea).

The could have had an ongoing subplot delving into just how the Cylons rebelled, the connection there with Caprica. The end of the series could have possibly gone a little bit past the end of the war, showing where the Cylons went when given their own homeworld, and the arrival of the Final Five.

One of the aspects of NuBSG's retconned backstory that never made much sense to me involved the Final Five making the Significant Seven. So they show up, bring some kind of spiritual salve to the Colonial-created Cylons, and then convince those Cylons to turn most of their race into slaves (the Centurions / non-humanoid AIs) and make themselves mostly a bunch of clones of only 7 different faces / personalities. It was all probably just a buncha crap made up on the spur of the moment to justify what how the Final Five fit into everything.

But it still would have been nice to see it play out first hand, and perhaps come up with a better way of presenting it and telling the story.

[Lyon_Wonder]

Kaijima wrote:

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I think it was more of a tribute than a continuity error, same as with using the piano bars of NuBSG's teaser music and the question "Are you alive?"

Anyway, I actually really enjoyed B&C and if it had gone to series, feel it could have really been used to clean up a lot of the messiness of NuBSG's retcons and convoluted backstory. I would have liked if it was as much about the Cylons as the colonials (but showing mostly war action as was the basic idea).

The could have had an ongoing subplot delving into just how the Cylons rebelled, the connection there with Caprica. The end of the series could have possibly gone a little bit past the end of the war, showing where the Cylons went when given their own homeworld, and the arrival of the Final Five.

One of the aspects of NuBSG's retconned backstory that never made much sense to me involved the Final Five making the Significant Seven. So they show up, bring some kind of spiritual salve to the Colonial-created Cylons, and then convince those Cylons to turn most of their race into slaves (the Centurions / non-humanoid AIs) and make themselves mostly a bunch of clones of only 7 different faces / personalities. It was all probably just a buncha crap made up on the spur of the moment to justify what how the Final Five fit into everything.

But it still would have been nice to see it play out first hand, and perhaps come up with a better way of presenting it and telling the story.

I wonder if the writers originally intended to have Beka Kelly killed in B&C all along, or decided to have the Kelly character killed off since they knew B&C didn't have a chance of being green-lighted as series?

It reminds me of Count Baltar's intended demise in BSG78's pilot "Saga of a Star World". When the TOS pilot originally aired in it's theatrical version Count Baltar was executed by the Cylons after Imperious Leader gave the order. But when BSG78 was ordered as full series the scene in the pilot was changed and a later scene added where Imperious Leader spared Baltar's life and introduced him to Lucifer.

It makes me wonder had Syfy ordered an entire season of a followup Cylon War series well in advance of B&C's airing, the scene of Kelly with the proto-humanoid Cylon have been been changed with Kelly retained as a recurring character collaborating with the Cylons.

[Maurice]

Just watched the ending. The whole thing was by-the-numbers and boring.

[Saul]

Were those new lines by Six at the end? Seemed like something I already heard in the past series and the sound was a little off as if they had taken it from another scene.

[Wereghost]

I thought it was quite good overall. Not as visceral as BSG at its best and nor was it too consistent with established continuity, but on its own terms it was quite enjoyable and visually very appealing.

Liked the Helfer cameo (complete with signature neck-snap fetish), though it doesn't really make sense that a Six's (humanoid) vocal chords would be made to imitate the sound of a mechanical cylon's voice. Still, it's entirely plausible that the personalities of the sig seven - or eight, including Daniel - were downloaded versions of existing cylon personalities.

Note of interest: So according to the proto-Six the cylons do "hate" the humans. Hmmm...

[pst]

boy that really just kind of crapped out didn't it?

i've already talked about my overall unhappiness with B&C so i won't repeat myself... despite a pretty optimistic start this just totally ran out of steam once they got to the ice planet which in no way felt like a rehash razor... in no way. looking at that proto-six or whatever, i was sort of shocked that it was created by the same people who gave us the beautiful cylon from caprica and the amazing battle sequences in BSG. what a shame.

[Samuel T. Cogley]

Surprisingly good.

Loved the last few minutes. Nice bookend to Adama's final Viper flight off of Galactica in "Daybreak."

[Ar-Pharazon]

B&C was good enough that I hope they'll do another or chapter.

After all, this was only a few days or something like that. It's a long war.

[milo bloom]

Not a *crash-bang* ending, but still a very fun turn of events. Was very stoked to hear the Six voice cameo, and I still think we've gotten a bit of continuity-wank regarding Adama's "first" mission in Razor. If he's part of this black-ops ghost fleet, then the Razor mission might be after he gets moved to the regular fleet, and that's his "first" true combat mission.

I'm totally game for more of these, I find it hard to believe they won't want to get some kind of return on their investment with at least a few more movies to sell on Bluray and DVD.