Did TNG take itself too seriously?

[Orphalesion]

Except the colonies do have something to do with Earth, they're supposed to be our ancestors that set on Earth as their new home. Even the original show had characters wearing clothes that were reminiscent of Egyptians. BSG isn't supposed to be like Star Wars set in an entirely fairy tale universe, it's set in the very distant past (well, except Galactica 80, which everyone hated). Of course, a lot of it requires suspension of disbelief, like the colonies on both shows literally have the characters use English, spoken and written.

So the Egyptian look actually did make worlds more sense, considering that BSG takes place in the distant past AND looked more exotic/interesting than the pinstripes and ties of the imagined series. A flowing, robe-like style like it was prevalent in the old series would have made more sense under those circumstances.
To me it snapped the suspension of disbelief.
Caprica was even worse about it "it's set 50 years before our other series, so of course the characters wear 50s clothes "
Even if they didn't wanted to get all-out with their clothing designs, at least some sort of variance would have been good like the fashions in Andromeda or even Babylon 5.

And TOS didn't "beat you over the head" with the Cold War because that's not what the show was about. Hence my earlier post about that show having a more versatile premise.

Then why make a show about humans from alien worlds battling robots and not just a show about the Iraq war?
There's is being subtle about influences and allegories and then there's BSG.
The Undiscovered Country pretty much is an allegory of the collapse of the Soviet Union, yet you don't see background characters that looked like they were ripped right out of 1990 to drive the point home.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

Because Moore didn't want to make an Iraq War TV show? I thought it was an interesting way of putting a post-9/11 interpretation of the show, and I'm not the only one. I can understand why some may not be into that because we all have different tastes. You say it's too relentlessly dark, I'm glad it was because I got so much more out of it. But that's just me, and maybe a lot of others.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I watched the 1st Season of Battlestar Galactica, having been attracted to its visual style and the show's premise sounded promising.

Interesting, the visual style was certainly one of the biggest reasons I could not get into the show. Tere was very little interesting to look at, just a lot of steel and metal and people dressed in 100% earth like business clothes.

Why would I want to see a SciFi show in which people are dressed like people today? It makes no sense that a culture from the far flung corners of space would have the same aesthetics as our own.
Again I understand why they did it, I just disagree with that choice.
I still find the culture depicted in the old Series, as drenched in the 70s as it was, far more interesting, visually and what little we learned about it.

I was only aware that the previous series existed and I didn't really see what all the hype was about, once I watched the reboot. There were very sexy women in it, which doesn't suck. The stories seemed very contrived to me, however, with all of these characters, every last one of them was all about posturing and making a point about something, just from the simple fact of their existance. The only real pleasure I consistantly got from this show was its look ... the visual appeal of it. And I liked the idea that people wear clothes according to the fact that we've got a certain body design, rather than wearing all of this outlandish shit better suited for a Fashion Show at an Art Festival.

In a way, it kind of grounded Battlestar Galactica into a reality for me. Especially when Boltar ended up having all of these visions about Seven of Cylon, or whatever her name was. The show started going off on some weird tangent and, again ... to have them cut to a scene where there's Starbucks, puffing away in her normal-looking civvies playing poker was such a relief, because it's like wow ... finally ... HERE the show is actually ABOUT something, content wise. Otherwise, I had to watch the show with an appreciation for Art Direction and costuming and some of the CGI work, because that's all that ended up interesting me, in the end.

 

[Orphalesion]

. And I liked the idea that people wear clothes according to the fact that we've got a certain body design, rather than wearing all of this outlandish shit better suited for a Fashion Show at an Art Festival.

There's many options between "we get our costumes at H&M" and "we raided Bjork's, Lady Gaga's wardrobe" . There's lots of SciFi which looks more mundane than the Fifth Element, but still more creative than the BSG costuming,
like Andromeda or Babylon 5.

cut to a scene where there's Starbucks, puffing away in her normal-looking civvies playing poker was such a relief, because it's like wow ... finally ... HERE the show is actually ABOUT something, content wise..

Please don't be offended but how does "grimy woman smokes and plays billiard" equal "this show is about something, content wise" ?
I get you find something like that visually appealing (and I'm not trying to judge you about it, whatever floats you boat), However I find smoking very, very UNappealing and don't see how it would provide content for a TV show. In general I see no excuse anymore to have characters smoke in any form of media.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

The smoking was a carryover from the original Starbuck in the 1978 show, as he was always seen with a cigar. I like the few nods the new show gave to the original. The best being that the Colonial Anthem is actually the original BSG theme.

 

[Makarov]

I loved the look of the ship and uniforms in the new battlestar galactica. That command area in particular was really cool. That's why I really liked the earlier seasons where there was more tactical stuff going on in that area of the ship, and you'd have a lot of Adama being a bad ass there. I wasn't keen on the rest of the show though.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Please don't be offended but how does "grimy woman smokes and plays billiard" equal "this show is about something, content wise" ?
I get you find something like that visually appealing (and I'm not trying to judge you about it, whatever floats you boat), However I find smoking very, very UNappealing and don't see how it would provide content for a TV show. In general I see no excuse anymore to have characters smoke in any form of media.

For me, those off duty moments, where the characters are playing billiards and all that, are where the drama's served better, than anywhere. Problems started elsewhere are underlined, or new ones get started, or even become resolved. Personalities show more clearly and in a more interesting way than when they're in uniform. The rest of the time, as I say, it seemed like the show was trying too hard to be cool. So, I preferred the Cigar Scenes, if you like. And Starbucks knew - only too well - how suggestive smoking a stogey could be ...

 

[RandyS]

I like the few nods the new show gave to the original. The best being that the Colonial Anthem is actually the original BSG theme.

I suspect that came out of the original series doing the same thing. The second-to last-episode, "Take the Celestra" featured a scene where the Galactica crew was honoring a retired Battlestar Commander, and the anthem played at the celebration was the shows' opening theme.