Battlestar Galactica (2003 Mini-Series)
40 years after a truce ended the Cyclon War and to the Twelve Colonies it seems a distant memory, with only a few senior military commanders remembering the carnage of battle when the very machines built to help the human race turned against their masters. Now the Cylons have left the solar system.
On the very day that the great Battleship Gala.....
40 years after a truce ended the Cyclon War and to the Twelve Colonies it seems a distant memory, with only a few senior military commanders remembering the carnage of battle when the very machines built to help the human race turned against their masters. Now the Cylons have left the solar system.
On the very day that the great Battleship Galactica is decommissioned and made in to a giant floating museum, the Cylons return. No longer walking toasters, they look and act like humans, walk amongst us and have one goal – to exterminate all traces of the human race from existence. Having infiltrated the colonial defence system with the unwitting assistance of Gaius Baltar (Callis), the Cylons decimate the colonies in a single day, leaving a few remaining civilian ships and Galactica, led by Commander Adama (Olmos) and President Roslin (McDonnel) to make a decision – stay and fight or flee and start again…
A re-imagining of the 70s series, Battlestar Galactica 2003 is an entirely different proposition. The original series (of which only a single season was ever made) rode the crest of the Star Wars wave, and whilst held now in cult status, was not the huge success that many think it was. The story remains largely unchanged, whilst the plot and characters have been massively overhauled to bring relevance to today’s audience. The main change that caused backlash in geeky fan circles was the change of Starbuck to a woman. This works really well – although the original Starbuck (played by the A-Team’s Dirk Benedict) spawned a chain of coffee shops, he was in reality fairly light relief – here she is a talented pilot who has an edge and a danger around her, along with an uneasy relationship with Apollo that could take an interesting arc in the upcoming first season of the show. Another big change is the introduction of human-looking Cylons. Whilst this must have been a very positive change in terms of budget for the production, it also brings about an emerging humanity to the Cylons, and a paranoid “they walk among us” theme that will no doubt be explored at a later date. It also gives them the opportunity to introduce the very tidy Number 6 (Helfer) as channel for thoughts and ideals of the otherwise faceless Cyclon race. Her presence later on in the film is rather confusing, and left open-ended, but certainly encourages me to watch the first season.
The production itself is impressive – expansive sets that show little budgetary restraint, and special effects that are used to emphasise the story rather than replace it, and I felt almost teased by the lack of serious SFX until the finale unleashes an awesome space battle. Shot in a similar style to the ill-fated Space – Above and Beyond, there is a gritty realism to the sets and battles that brings home the reality of war. And this reality is a strong theme through the movie, in fact some might find the first half too dark as questions about existence, religion and prejudice are explored against a background of genocide and loss – something that was kept to a minimum in the rather camp original series!
In terms of performances, there are a lot of characters to introduce and so screen time is somewhat shared, notable performers include the excellent Edward James Olmos, whose Adama carries the fate of humanity on his shoulders, and Tricia Helfer, who adds a new dimension to the enemy. To be fair the cast do well with their screen time and contribute to an enagaging story that runs at nearly three hours without ever feeling slow or boring – you can easily watch this straight through, although to be honest I paused it mid-way when it got a bit too depressing and I wanted a cup of tea… The photography is worthy of mention – shot in an almost documentary style – with hand held cameras, fast zoom and tight editing, it draws you in to the story and makes you feel like you are right there – there are times when you will find yourself on the edge of the seat, purely listening to the dialogue rather than watching some momentous space battle, which is quite an achievement.
In comparison to the original series, I would say that if the original was Adam West’s Batmobile, then this is Michael Keaton’s version – you can tell that they are basically the same it’s just that the newer one is bigger, badder, darker and without a camp go-faster stripe in sight…it doesn’t need one. As a standalone movie its an excellent production that shows that TV movies are getting closer and closer in quality to their high-budget cousins. As a pilot to a new series it makes me very excited as a fan of the old show, but will equally appeal to new generations of sci-fi who find the current stable of tired formats a little sanitized. This one could run and run and I hope that it’s given a chance.
Presented on a single disk, the three hour movie is presented in anamorphic widescreen and dolby digital 5.1 sound. The picture is clear and sharp, particularly good for a made for TV show. Sections of grainy footage are inserted on purpose, and both darks and lights are well presented. The soundtrack is active too…with minimal music, the channels are left to provide ambient sounds, which really comes to life during the initial attack…the low frequency thumbs of nuclear blasts will knock you off the sofa, whilst the surround field during the final battle will have you reaching for cover. For a TV show the production values on the DVD are very high indeed.
The 20 minute Making of documentary is in reality an extended trailer with a few cool interviews and footage from the original series but doesn’t really go in to much depth about the production. It would have been nice to see a documentary that went in to more depth, but as an introduction to the show it will do for now…
All in all a great re-imagining of the story that is up a fair few notches on the original, and a superb introduction to the upcoming series for new and old. If you are a fan of the original, or just a fan of cool sci-fi then this is one for you.
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