Battlestar Galactica getting rebooted (again) for NBS's streaming service

[137th Gebirg]

The point was they were trying to against the space opera norm and be, dare I utter it, "anti-Trek." Refusing to have aliens and doing "weird stuff" that has no rational scientific explanation is how they accomplished those goals.

Angels = Aliens. They wanted to avoid "weird stuff" to keep it grounded and relatable, but they had to do something to throttle-up the mystery of what was going on outside the human world. I was okay with that, for the record, but really feel like the rug was pulled out in the finale with too many missed opportunities and unanswered questions. I remember RDM crowing how he absolutely LOVED the Sopranos ending, while the show was still going, and I dreaded that the same thing would happen with BSG. What we got, I think, was only marginally better. And I sometimes wonder if RDM was a ghost writer for The Man In The High Castle, another truly excellent show that I had a profoundly messed-up ending in nearly every measurable way.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Angels = Aliens.

Why, when the the simpler nBSG-style answer (barring faith) is extremely advanced humans or something they created? Suppose “we” never create Cylons, but in 100,000 years become “the Lords of Kobol”, and decide to have a bit of fun with Greek mythology on that planet?

 

[Guy Gardener]

The Lords of Kobol; may have been AI, or they may have been Human.

If they were human, then they died.

If they were AI, then they may not have had Resurrection, and had to be very careful for 2000 years. Although the final 5 from Earth 1 said that they had to "reinvent" Resurrection.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Why, when the the simpler nBSG-style answer (barring faith) is extremely advanced humans or something they created? Suppose “we” never create Cylons, but in 100,000 years become “the Lords of Kobol”, and decide to have a bit of fun with Greek mythology on that planet?

I probably should have used a little "a" - I used the term "aliens" a little more figuratively, as in something that is unknown and arguably paranormal. The point is, RDM wanted everything in his show grounded in relatable reality, which is why he used modern military nomenclature and parlance in his dialog and why he used WWII battleship equipment and pencils labeled "Made In China" as props in the C&C set. Then he starts to go metaphysical with what the "head-" people really could be, the mysterious Maelstrom, Starbuck's unseen dad, Daniel, a resurrected Starbuck and other supernatural tropes, none of which would be considered "grounded in reality" by the ultra-rationalist. I personally love including supernatural concepts in shows like this, which is why I prefer the concepts of TOS over NuBSG, but as the latter series wore on, it was clear that the producers said several things, yet did vastly different other things which they said they didn't want to do from the beginning and they wrapped themselves around the axle for it with the viewership.

The moral of the story: Pick a lane and stay in it.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

I’d argue they did, by exploring from the very start a) religion b) a world substantially like ours, just not c) aliens. However, with religion you can always be a viewer believing in God and miracles, or you can be one who doesn’t share those beliefs or doesn’t accept their relevance to nBSG and decides there must be another explanation, even if the writers mostly went for the religious POV (with the exception of the line at the end that “it” doesn’t like the name). I just feel that literal aliens would be seriously anticlimactic for the show.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Normally, I would agree, but since the whole Van Daniken "Ancient Aliens" theory was baked into its DNA out of the original TOS source material whence RDM's version was inspired, like it or not, in this case and specific context, "angels" does equal "aliens" - little "a"'s .

 

[Boris Skrbic]

But even Larson was thinking of ancient humans, not ancient aliens in that context (“with tribes of humans, who may have been the forefathers of…”). And Count Iblis was supposed to be the Devil and a fallen Being of Light, which gives us the same ambiguity as that in nBSG except that the latter show chose not to create an a special depiction of religious elements.

 

[137th Gebirg]

When a sentient being ascends to such a higher plane of existence as to exhibit inexplicable abilities and powers far superior to standard hominids, the difference between "god", "alien", "angel", "seraph", "being of light" or "demon" or pick-your-mundane-title-of-reverence becomes one of semantics and dialectic preference.

I'd likely bend the knee to anything that has demonstrably proven can break my mind with a single thought and call it "Susan" if that's what makes it happy.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I periodically think that the BSG-TOS Beings of Light were the original Cylons who built the robot Cylons since they were "connected" to Count Iblis, who had the same voice as the Imperious leader.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Close - based on GAL's original plan, as elaborated on by Richard Hatch in his novels, Iblis was once a member of the Beings of Light and they ousted him for being...well...bad. Out of revenge, he found this race of semi-sentient and highly warlike reptiles hidden away near the Colonies and brought them the gift of hyper-advanced tech (which they obviously weren't ready for, ethically or emotionally). They of course embraced it, quickly borgified themselves and eventually made automatons that killed them off. In the original treatment, there were live aliens in the robot suits, but ABC nixed that because they didn't want to see the kids watching their heroes blowing away other living beings every Sunday night, so they went with the whole "evil robots overthrew their living masters centuries ago" trope.

Standard Centurions have one "brain". Gold Command Centurions and Lucifer/Spectre IL models have two "brains". When an Impy dies, an IL is promoted and it gets the unique "third brain", which is said to have been a piece of "divine" tech imbued with Iblis' essence, giving Impy his voice and, consequently, becoming Iblis' puppet, controlling the entire Cylon Alliance. This was all his plan to destroy the humans, whom he saw as the Seraphs' "pets" that were being helped along to ascension like they were. He was jealous of this and vowed revenge in this "cosmic chess game", with the humans and cylons being the pawns. The concept was wonderful, but the execution suffered horribly. To think about what could have been...

 

[JD]

I watched the show.

Zoey was the first Cylon.

Head 6 said that she worked for God A LOT, then at the end Baltar says that SHE doesn't like being called God.

The Cylons are monotheists, the Colonialists are pantheists.

We saw a religion/church being founded in Caprica season 2 preview, based on the Zoey AI, were humans and robots congregating together.

It's pretty obvious.

So it's just your theory then. The way you were talking about it I thought maybe it was an actual official statement made by someone involved in the shows.
I don't know if it really works for me, we just saw way to much stuff happening around the Cylon god that a simple AI wouldn't be capable of, Head Baltar and Six being the biggest. It really feels like God is some kind of a supernatural being, rather than just an AI or some other technological thing.

 

[DigificWriter]

Not canon.

All this means is that they accidentally said something that they had not intended to say, and now they want to roll it back years later.

RDM made his clarifying comments about Daniel less than 24 hours after "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" originally aired (3/6/2009).

Edit: All of RDM's BSG podcasts were attached to the BSG season DVDs as audio commentaries.

 

[Imaus]

What are the chances of this being a show set in the 'War', first or (somehow expanded) second? I think a lot of the Cylon War stuff, a decade+ long war, has been cooking around for quite some time and is relatively well received. Of course, it can't just be an event story where 'Cylons rebel, Colonials fight back, Cylons run away', it should be a more character-driven thing: divided loyalties might be too melodramatic, but maybe have it more based on these Colonies that are just getting united getting over their freshly buried and long-lived differences and injustices in a way?

 

[Guy Gardener]

RDM made his clarifying comments about Daniel less than 24 hours after "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" originally aired (3/6/2009).

Edit: All of RDM's BSG podcasts were attached to the BSG season DVDs as audio commentaries.

Still not Canon.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

FWIW, humans with an extraterrestrial origin, being extraterrestrials, would be aliens by definition.

 

[Saul]

O


Not expecting BSG to deal with concepts like angels is silly given the beliefs of the man who originally created the franchise and how significantly he based the concept on those beliefs.

That would have been a great response to what i had said if i had been talking about the original series and not the reimagining that he had nothing to do with.

 

[theenglish]

That part always annoys me. For a show so against having aliens appear it did weird stuff like that.

Only if you weren't looking for it. The groundwork was laid in the mini-series.

 

[DigificWriter]

That would have been a great response to what i had said if i had been talking about the original series and not the reimagining that he had nothing to do with.

Glen A. Larsen's personal religious beliefs underpin the RDM/Eick version of BSG just as much as they did the original 70s version of the series because they are so deeply linked to what the franchise is that you cannot extricate them from it.

Therefore, I stand by my statement that not expecting BSG as a franchise to deal with concepts like angels is silly.

 

[RandyS]

I periodically think that the BSG-TOS Beings of Light were the original Cylons who built the robot Cylons since they were "connected" to Count Iblis, who had the same voice as the Imperious leader.

Nowdays, I tend to think of the Beings of Light as the spirits of Bill Adama and his crew who are guiding Adama and his to Earth for obvious reasons.

 

[Saul]

Only if you weren't looking for it. The groundwork was laid in the mini-series.

How so?

Glen A. Larsen's personal religious beliefs underpin the RDM/Eick version of BSG just as much as they did the original 70s version of the series because they are so deeply linked to what the franchise is that you cannot extricate them from it.
Therefore, I stand by my statement that not expecting BSG as a franchise to deal with concepts like angels is silly.

How does genocide and suicide bombing in the name of God equate to the 70s version?
Why would I expect angels to appear in a show portraying machines with religious fanaticism?