Showing posts with label BSG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BSG. Show all posts

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Battlestar Galactica's War on Terror

Today is the tenth "anniversary" of the 9/11 attacks.  While televisions shows (like 24) and action movies fed the anti-Islamic Western fears and fed off those fears as well, other shows handled terrorism with dignity and reason.  Enter Battlestar Galactica, the show that made us think about ideas that we never thought of before.  By not using real places like America or Afghanistan, it could touch on themes without angering too many people.  Some could see it as entertainment, while many who watched loved it for the messages it brought forth as it entertained with thick plots and rich characters.  Let's take a look at how BSG made us rethink our position on terrorism, good and evil, and "the other".

Sunday, October 25, 2009

DVD Review: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

If you've never watched the re-imagined BSG, do not watch this first. Actually this should be watched last of all things because it would ruin so much of what makes BSG great the first time around.

Sooooooo this was a little disappointing. I think it could've been better. EJ Olmos, come on! I think the writing was great. Although I do wonder if Jane Espenson wrote in her script "ZOOM IN ON NAKED PENIS." Not sure why they did that but it made me laugh. The nudity though I think was fine. I would expect people to be naked in the locker room. And I think a bar where the bartender is topless says something about where Ellen Tigh hangs out and even says something about the culture of that colony. Anyway, getting the nudity out of the way.

The background stories of the cylons like Cavil and Number Four really bring in character development for some cylons that needed it. I never thought I'd like Four, but he turned out to be very humany. Impressive. And The Plan makes you hate Cavil even more. In The Plan we find out what the cylons were doing when the bombs when off, who was with whom, what the cylons knew about themselves before the blast. We see the beginning of Anders' insurgency, which was the best part of The Plan. That and Four's marriage to a human, whom he actually developed feelings for. It's awesome to think that the cylons really loved, aside from Cavil (I geuss we don't see much origin on Doral). D'Anna's love was a different love, but nonetheless she loved. But Cavil hates. The thing is, though, which cylons embrace love and which deny it and stick with Cavil? This is what leads to the cylon civil war. Sharon's storyline was a bit strange. I guess it makes sense, but I didn't care for it.

We don't get Number 7 in it at all, which is what I was hoping for. I wanted to see how all the cylons interacted together when they were first born and all that jazz. (Let's hope for that though!) Rather, this is comprised of vignettes that fill in gaps of why cylons did certain things throughout the first three seasons. This makes it very un-movie like, so don't expect to be watching a perfectly flowing movie. It jumps around with somewhat of a semblance of storylines in itself, but if you've never seen the series, it would be confusing.

The Plan comes out on DVD this Tuesday. Buy it if you're a hardcore BSG fan.