Battlestar Galacticrap?

Jack B. Badd

I know it's only been a few episodes of absolute and utter cack but given the weak nature of season 3 (barring the first 4-6 episodes) does anyone expect this once magnificent sci-fi show to return to greatness? I, for one, am a bit sceptical

aidan_walsh

The fact that the fourth season has only been confirmed for 13 episodes means that they will have to get back to much tighter writing next year.

Zombrex

I'm a bit worried that they are running out of ideas or that the few ideas they have are being dragged out (a bit like Lost) with fillers that don't really go anywhere. It seems to be the same old thing, they find a planet with something they need, the Cylons show up, there is "tention" as those on the ground battle against the clock, before they all escape just in the end. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

There are only so many times I can be bothered watching Apollo and Starbuck almost get it on and then not get it on, or Baltar nearly get found out and then not get found out. Its really still the same old plot stories from Series One. They need to move it on a bit (which I thought they were doing with New Caprica, yet a few episodes in and it is like they never even landed on New Caprica), wrap some sub-plots up and start some new ones.

Overheal

More shooty death! SPLODE! 5P10D3!!!!!!!!!

Mr E

Next weeks episode is supposed to turn everything on its head (thank god). I agree that the last few episodes have been pretty dull.

Khannie

oh noes. I haven't seen past episode 8, but I was disappointed at that point. My hope is now with Season 4 too. COME ON SEASON 4!!!!

youcancallmeal

Overheal wrote:

More shooty death! SPLODE! 5P10D3!!!!!!!!!

I AGREE!!!1!!one!!11!!eleven!1!

thelordofcheese

Now hold on lads, i enjoy a good bout of the sky is falling as much as the next guy, but we've only really had two bad [and i mean proper bad, not mildly disapointing, or slightly below par] episodes so far this season "the woman king" and "a day in the life". It doesn't help that they came back to back, but still, thats 2 out of 15, not too shabby.

It's hardly a sign that BSG is mutating into fair city in space. Just calm the feck down.

aidan_walsh

fair city in space

:eek:

youcancallmeal

Fair City is space is not unrealistic at this stage....

Last decent episode imo was Exodus, Part 2, after that maybe Hero but the storyline for that went downhill pretty quick and ended as a shambles. Thats only two episodes out of 15 so far in season 3. Just read the synopsis for episode 16 aired last night and it sounds terrible, having said that I'll still watch it in the hope this is the start of an upward climb from the recently dreadful filler episodes.

Looking back on Season 2 I find it hard to pick out bad episode.

aidan_walsh

Looking back on Season 2 I find it hard to pick out bad episode.

Black Market.

Jack B. Badd

thelordofcheese wrote:

It's hardly a sign that BSG is mutating into fair city in space.

Hmmmm... :rolleyes:

youcancallmeal

Actually forget Fair City in space I think its more closer to The West Wing in space.

aidan_walsh

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Hmmmm... :rolleyes:

Space Dingos stole my baby

Classic Sheldon

Actually forget Fair City in space I think its more closer to The West Wing in space.

That had better not be West Wing bad-mouthing...

youcancallmeal

aidan_walsh wrote:

That had better not be West Wing bad-mouthing...

No not at all I just don't think sci-fi and overly political themes mix.

Overheal

they might've had more to write about but they decided to blow up pegasus....and somehow I doubt another battlestar is on the cards.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

sheesh, I must be the only one who's been happy with just about every episode this season

doesn't have to be nail gripping stuff to be interesting or worth watching, babylon 5 suffered from a hell of a lot of ****e episodes, but in the end they all came together to make the best sci-fi series of all time.

battlestar galactica is still well on the way to being number 2, whatever you heretics have to say about the matter.

iguana

Episode 16 isn't bad, or it wouldn't have been bad if the last 9 episodes hadn't been filler. It's a filler episode which isn't too bad and if it had come on the heels of some action and arc driving episodes I would have quite enjoyed it. But coming on the back of most of this season (I haven't really enjoyed an episode since Collaborators - which I would put 16; Dirty Hands on a similar level to) it is just not enough yet to make me feel like my show is back.

Why does everything I love turn to poo. (Season 4 & 5 Babylon 5 anyone?)

Karl Hungus

Mordeth wrote:

battlestar galactica is still well on the way to being number 2, whatever you heretics have to say about the matter.

It's got a while to go before it knocks Farscape out of the #2 spot.

tvnutz

The last 3 episodes have been filler. I don't care about the daily lives of the crew or them striving to form a union blah blah...bring the cylons back already!

Khannie

aidan_walsh wrote:

Black Market.

Jesus, that was such ****e.

So, watched the first episode of firefly. It's pretty decent, certainly as pilots go (no pilot will ever outclass the BSG miniseries tbh. EVER.). I've never watched farscape either...might give that a bash. The ol' psp needs content for the long commute on the train.

Talisman

Babylon 5 was and remains the best Sci-Fi show in the history of television for me. Farscape was a close second and possibly would have surpassed B5 if they were allowed to do a final season instead of The Peacekeeper Wars. I had such great hope for BSG but the show has been murdered this season and it's difficult to see how it can recover. I've stopped watching it for now - I just don't see the point in investing my time in the show when those creating it clearly have been going through the motions and squeezing the life out of it. The season started well and I enjoyed the first 6/7 episodes, but since then it has ceased to be BSG and started to follow the TNG/SG-1 formula of self contained episodes with the odd two parter and the main characters go home happy at the end of the show. Hero, Unfinished Business, The Passage, Taking a Break from All Your Worries, The Woman King, A Day in the Life, Dirty Hands - If you were to take out those episodes would we have missed a whole lot? Coincidently it would reduce season 3 to 13 episodes. I haven't watched the last two episodes but I understand that they are the same format. The last four episodes are supposed to be back to the BSG of the start of the season but I'm not convinced that it will be as good as what went before. The move to a 13 episode series will certainly help for next season, and if they churn out some more rubbish then it certainly will be the end of the show.

lostexpectation

so is still the best thing on tv?

or whats taken its crown...?

iguana

lostexpectation wrote:

so is still the best thing on tv?

or whats taken its crown...?

Gotta say I prefer Heroes at the moment.

MisterAnarchy

iguana wrote:

Gotta say I prefer Heroes at the moment.

Its not bad but I think it will struggle to get past 2-3 series as they will run out of material.
BSG will come good in the final 4 episodes of the series.
Ron Moore has promised its a rocket ride from here on in.
I believe him as he tends to call a spade a spade.

Jack B. Badd

iguana wrote:

Gotta say I prefer Heroes at the moment.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo, don't watch it. It'll turn to poo too

Haruspex

Talisman wrote:

Babylon 5 was and remains the best Sci-Fi show in the history of television for me. Farscape was a close second and possibly would have surpassed B5 if they were allowed to do a final season instead of The Peacekeeper Wars. I had such great hope for BSG but the show has been murdered this season and it's difficult to see how it can recover. I've stopped watching it for now - I just don't see the point in investing my time in the show when those creating it clearly have been going through the motions and squeezing the life out of it. The season started well and I enjoyed the first 6/7 episodes, but since then it has ceased to be BSG and started to follow the TNG/SG-1 formula of self contained episodes with the odd two parter and the main characters go home happy at the end of the show. Hero, Unfinished Business, The Passage, Taking a Break from All Your Worries, The Woman King, A Day in the Life, Dirty Hands - If you were to take out those episodes would we have missed a whole lot? Coincidently it would reduce season 3 to 13 episodes. I haven't watched the last two episodes but I understand that they are the same format. The last four episodes are supposed to be back to the BSG of the start of the season but I'm not convinced that it will be as good as what went before. The move to a 13 episode series will certainly help for next season, and if they churn out some more rubbish then it certainly will be the end of the show.

I, too, used to think that the 20 episode haul for seasons 2 and 3 would be a great thing for the series but it's becoming apparent that they really struggle to stay focused on what makes the series great. As I've mentioned in the season 4 renewal thread, 13 episodes can only be a good thing from a creative point of view.

I don't think they actively set out with the intention to make us disinterested and pad out the season with these standalone, exploratory fleet episodes. I can't imagine them frittering away what must already be a very tight budget like this.

Of course if you look at it another way, these episodes could also be seen as a way to allow the casual viewer "plug in" to the series with minimal background information. But who are they pandering to here and why alienate long term fans with this strategy?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i think they're cool because they take away from the war element and remind us that these aren't just soldiers, they're people.. that can be boring or often enough irrelevant to the war story but it adds to the realism.

realism is a pretty difficult thing to strive for in a show about 41000 people fleeing from self aware robots in an intergalactic space fleet and I think they're doing well to add these filler episodes. It adds to the atmosphere of the show, it's not just nitty gritty balls to the wall space fighting action.. it's about these 41000+ people and the **** they are going through.

it's all about love man, it's all about love.

quad_red

tv sci-fi and the in the last few years we've seen a couple of very interesting series.

Certainly, BSG and Firefly sit well on top of the pile.

However, I have to disagree with Talisman in regards to Farscape. Something like BSG, even in it's wobbliest moments, beats Farscape hands down.

Now if we could only get Claudia Black onto BSG and get her involved in some threesome hot cylon action with 6...

Ahem. Sorry. I've gone off point, haven't I?:D

I still haven't lost faith with BSG despite the 'lull' of late. The only BSG episode I've seen that made me fear was Hero.

Overheal

^ modern scifi would be better off without Claudia Black imo /=/

Jack B. Badd

Latest episode was marginally better than the last few but still not up to scratch. I really hope Moore is right about next week's episode.

lostexpectation

iguana wrote:

Gotta say I prefer Heroes at the moment.

really is it as dramatic?

for a while there BSG reached beyond TV

Overheal

^ Heroes is very good stuff. Check out the board under Scifi

Vokes

lostexpectation wrote:

for a while there BSG reached beyond TV

Wow, that is deep ..........and a little cheesy

iguana

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo, don't watch it. It'll turn to poo too

Sorry, but it's a chance I'll have to take.:D

lostexpectation

SofaKing wrote:

Wow, that is deep ..........and a little cheesy

i typed it with in a whispering cringe, im sorry i didn't put italics in it

ep 16 brought it back to its bests,I dunnoo if its just is darkness that makes it good, it sorta more like OZ then any, is there anybody from that working on BSG?

sopranos was dark but more dark comedy.

Jack B. Badd

!! Spoilers !! Run aweh!!!

Hmmm....Starbuck dead, you say? Really? Call me a sceptic but I think not and even if she is, I no longer really care.

Bring back proper season 2, all is forgiven!

Right.
Advise me people.
I've the last 5 or 6 episodes unwatched sitting in my sky box.
Should I delete them ?

Jack B. Badd

Yes. PM me if you want a synopsis of the important stuff. It'll be a short one.

quad_red

Tristrame wrote:

Right.
Advise me people.
I've the last 5 or 6 episodes unwatched sitting in my sky box.
Should I delete them ?

Well, even dodgy BSG is better than most of the **** on tv. If you've got them on your sky box, then you can fast forward them.

The only anger inducingly crap episode in season 3 (imho) is 'Hero'.

Stark

quad_red wrote:

Well, even dodgy BSG is better than most of the **** on tv.

I don't watch most of the **** on TV

I guess it's like that filler song on an album by a band that you otherwise like. You'll always skip over it when listening to it on the CD, but if you're stuck somewhere and it's on the radio, you won't turn it off.

Duras

tvnutz wrote:

The last 3 episodes have been filler. I don't care about the daily lives of the crew or them striving to form a union blah blah...bring the cylons back already!

Why would they bring back the cylons? The cylons don't give a damn anymore about president Roslin and her brave fleet... The cylons are looking for Earth and so are the humans... That's all there is left... and they plan 2 more seasons! :eek:

youcancallmeal

I reckon bsg is going to end up like sliders. i.e. Acting, Budget, Storyline, Viewers all dropping in quality or quantity as the series continues.

Its going to very difficult for them to pull out of this slump I reckon.

Jack B. Badd

Ugh, Sliders. What a pile of sh*te! Although tbh it was a pile of sh*te since about 5 minutes into episode 1, whereas BSG has taken 2.5 seasons to get crappy.

Tea drinker

Yeah, this season is a bit of a dissapointment.
I would have put it close to Serenity/Firefly, but BSG goes up it's own anus a bit. Now it's dropped down to Enterprise....
But I enjoyed tuesday nights episode, we'll see where it goes from here.

Bazookatone

Wicknight wrote:

I'm a bit worried that they are running out of ideas or that the few ideas they have are being dragged out (a bit like Lost) with fillers that don't really go anywhere. It seems to be the same old thing, they find a planet with something they need, the Cylons show up, there is "tension" as those on the ground battle against the clock, before they all escape just in the end. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
QUOTE]

Damn, you just articulated perfectly the thing I didn't even realise I didn't like about BSG. I love battlestar, best show made since "the next generation" ended (although I can appreciate the quality of B5, it was never my cup of tea), but they've fallen into a loop.

If they're clever, they'll wrap it up in the fourth season. What would be great would be a miniseries finale like the miniseries that became the pilot. I'd like to see at least two major characters die. On another note,m I'd like to see Starbuck die, but's that's a whole other story.

Pepe LeFrits

Season 4 will be 20 episodes, Scifi increased their order.

I'm enjoying season 3 a lot. Some episodes have had a bit too much of a relationship focus but other than that I've no complaints, they just need to structure season 4 a bit better. As far as comparing it to other scifi shows, for me it's still superior to Bab5 and everything else really.

Overheal

STUPID SCI FI CHANNEL

Just when the writers were sitting at home, thinking oh we can write a really fantastic 13 part finale season...now they have to plug 7 episodes of filler.

Bleh.

youcancallmeal

Jack B. Badd wrote:

Ugh, Sliders. What a pile of sh*te! Although tbh it was a pile of sh*te since about 5 minutes into episode 1, whereas BSG has taken 2.5 seasons to get crappy.

Ah come on now there's no need for trash talking Sliders

Johnny Storm

Overheal wrote:

STUPID SCI FI CHANNEL

Just when the writers were sitting at home, thinking oh we can write a really fantastic 13 part finale season...now they have to plug 7 episodes of filler.

Bleh.

I agree.

Overheal

And might I add: why not give those 7 episodes to a show that might have used it to explain some things better....like SG1. the Asgard death will lay in infamy forever.