KAMN Show #6: Battlestar Galactica

by Summer
January 17, 2006, 12:20 am | In Shows, TV |

Welcome to Show #6!

This week, we discuss Battlestar Galactica, both the old and the new.

Summer, Joe, Dave and special guest Tee Morris (Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy) talk about the original Battlestar Galactica, the new Galactica, and a few things in between.

This week’s Old School Anime Reviews for Your Ears, by Aaron from Weekly Anime Review, is the classic ninja movie, Ninja Scroll!

There were also way too many collectibles and related goodies to go through on the show, but here’s a small sampling of what’s out there: 14 original series novels by Glen A. Larson, 4 or 5 old series magazines, 5 continuing novels by Richard Hatch, a new novelization of the miniseries that launched the new Galactica, a companion guide for the new series, a brand spanking new magazine for the new series, and too many old school toys to count. If I missed anything, let us know in voicemail or comments!

Yes, we’ve noticed that the shows have been getting longer. We’re kinda working on that.

Movies and Books mentioned:

Promos and Links:
Promo: Dragon Page Wingin’ It
Promo: I Should Be Writing
Link: Battlestar Galactica.com: Ultimate Guide
Link: Battlestar Galactica: Original Costume and Prop Museum (still being built)
Link: SciFi Channel: Battlestar Galactica

 
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  1. Best KAMN Podcast yet!
    I loved BSG when I was a kid and am completely addicted to the new BSG.

    Comment by RapidEye — January 17, 2006 #

  2. Awesome show guys! It was neat to have Tee on, but his sound level kept dropping. I’d turn up the volume to hear his comments only to be blasted away by any respondant.

    Despite that, the show kicks ass! And boxy! How could I have forgotten. *sigh*. I guess I need to invest in the DVDs and re-watch some classics.

    Pod On!

    Comment by J.R. Murdock — January 17, 2006 #

  3. Loved the show, Summer and gang…but have to second the comment about the audio problems with Tee’s voice. Looking forward to more book discussion also, as not only do I really enjoy those but that sort of commentary is much harder to find in the podcast world.

    Comment by J. Flugel — January 17, 2006 #

  4. Great show.

    Trivia on IMDb says that Jane Seymour was offered the role of Admiral Cain in the new series but she turned it down. Another great link the original if she had accepted!

    Comment by Jeremy — January 17, 2006 #

  5. Cool show gang. I wonder who was the one that kept clinking their ice in the glass. SUMMER!
    Anyway, the major dividing line for me between the old and new battlestar is the cylons. The old cylons were part of an ever expanding empire, which helps explain why backwater moons with human populations were not targeted for extermination for they had no space fairing governments, and why they were hell bent on getting the colonials. In the new, as far as we know, only humans exist and the cylons are not interested in the traditional conquest of wealth. The new cylons want to go from reincarnation of a manufactured self to a creation of individual self, and the humans must pay the bill in blood. Insert evil laugh here.

    And with this change in the nature of the cylons the series are forced to be radically different. The older series, especially considering that in the 70’s if you missed an episode you were ass out, lent itself to self-contained shows. With the new cylons, it’s hard to conceive that the series could make it on stand alone shows.

    Also, I think the old battlestar was written with a very broad audience in mind. The new is for a more mature audience and the sci-fi fan who has the word canon and franchise as part of their geek lexicon.

    Comment by fred — January 18, 2006 #

  6. That was a Kick-Arse show. :)

    There was some stuff in there I didn’t know. Re: missing scenes. There was a scene where a Cyclon beheads someone on Caprica. This was edited down in later screenings. The other interesting thing is that in the 3 hour premire. Casiopia is posisioned within the narrative as a prostitute. Its never openly highlighted but people do look down on her and she is called a “entertainer” or something similar. This was later glossed over later in the series.

    I am forever glad we don’t have “Boxi” in the new Galactica. That would have been too corny I think. The origianl was very much a childrens show (with something for the adults as well). The new Galactica is very much an adult show.

    I was thinking the other day about good plots for Galactica finding earth in a way that would not suck.

    What if they got to Earth and there were no people. What if it was the final battle with the Cylons that cased the Galactica to enter Earths atmosphere. What if that was the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. Those Humans left would be abandoned on the planet without technology. What if They were our missing link ?

    Comment by fourthof5 — January 18, 2006 #

  7. Absolutely Fracking fantastic show!! Brought back some great memories! Summer, I too have the photonovel and remember those extra scenes. I also had all the comics. Don’t have those anymore. I watched everyone of them when they originally aired and saw the film in Sensurrond(SP?) in the theatre too!

    There were not only 3″ action figures, but two 12″ figures as well (cylon and Adama). I still have a bunch of the 3″ figures. Don’t know if I can part with them. I still have the first set of Star Wars figures as well!

    I adore the new show, but I am in the camp of hating the mini-series as well. After going back and watching it now, I like it more. I am really glad I gave the TV series a chance!!

    Comment by Shane — January 18, 2006 #

  8. Not I this time, Fred! The ice maker culprit was Tee’s wife.

    Fourthof5: That’s similar to the idea I threw out on a recent episode of Slice of SciFi… “what if the fleet found Earth, but no one was home?” only my idea was either that we’d already advanced, and left the dead planet, or we’d already destroyed ourselves… basically they get to Earth, and it’s a shadow of what they found on Kobol.

    Yes, that idea hit me because I’d watched “Serenity” about 12 times that week… your point?

    Comment by Summer — January 18, 2006 #

  9. OMG, what a great frakking show. As I was listening to it I was Googling felgercarb. I have also reached the limit of my wife’s understanding when it comes to saying ‘frak’ in normal conversation.

    The podcast has me itching to go out and get TOS and re-watch it. Forgot so much about it. Anyone have a link to a hosted copy of the Hatch trailer for his show-concept. The idea sounds great, though.

    Having listened to RDM’s podcast in reference to the new series, I know he has no particular end to the series. It is an interesting conundrum. The show idea is great, but it is not one that lends itself to a very long term run (such as Doctor Who, which can re-invent itself as it gets long in the tooth). The trick will be to see if he kills it before it goes down hill.

    But how?
    - Find Earth? No one home, they blow themselves up?
    - Give up the search?
    - Peace with the cylons and the next step in human evolution?
    - I am at a loss.

    You guys are Frakking Great. Can’t wait for the next one.

    Bob

    Comment by Bob Bohanek — January 18, 2006 #

  10. One correction to something that was said in this podcast: The Buck Rogers series with Gil Gerard debuted in 1979. On a related note: you guys should do a show on Buck and the crew.

    Comment by Ash — January 18, 2006 #

  11. BTW: Where the frack can I get a copy of the Richard Hatch produced Battlestar trailer? I’ve heard so much about it but have never seen it!!

    Comment by Shane — January 18, 2006 #

  12. Its called “Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming”

    Comment by fourthof5 — January 18, 2006 #

  13. [quote=Summer]
    Fourthof5: That’s similar to the idea I threw out on a recent episode of Slice of SciFi… “what if the fleet found Earth, but no one was home?� only my idea was either that we’d already advanced, and left the dead planet, or we’d already destroyed ourselves… basically they get to Earth, and it’s a shadow of what they found on Kobol.

    Yes, that idea hit me because I’d watched “Serenity� about 12 times that week… your point?
    [/quote]

    Well my point was basically to think of an idea that would fit in with the show and not end up Galactica 80. The last thing in the world I want to see in a Sci Fi show is a programme which ends up in the now. I always ruins the suspention of disbelief.

    Besides that last idea I had ended up a mirror of what the Enterprise producers did for solving the human looking Klingon paradox. :)

    Comment by fourthof5 — January 18, 2006 #

  14. fourthof5: Hee!

    Ash: I think I mentioned that Buck came on the year after Galactica. And yeah, that might be a fun one to try, since I know that Season 1 (the entire series) is on DVD.

    Comment by Summer — January 18, 2006 #

  15. anyone have a link to the trailer - Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming???

    Comment by Shane — January 19, 2006 #

  16. Glad to hear everyone loved the show, and yes…it was my wife who was working the ice machine, but later in the interview you hear ice swirling in the background during someone’s comments. That was me. I honestly thought the mic I was wearing wasn’t that sensitive! *DOH*

    Meanwhile, while listening to the show, I was recalling many other famous SF actors who appeared on BSG in the 70’s. Dan O’Herlihy from THE LAST STARFIGHTER and ROBOCOP played father in the two-parter Gun on Ice Planet Zero. (i.e. BSG does Guns of Navarone!) You also had in the same episoide Roy Thinnes who was in the 60’s show THE INVADERS and a character actor who managed to play Xavier in The Series The Must Not Be Named.

    In the modern BSG’s, the only crossovers, apart from Mr. Hatch himself and Edward James Olmos who was Batty in BLADE RUNNER, is Lucy Lawless (Xena) and Michelle Forbes who was our beloved Ensign Ro in ST:TNG.

    Yep…let’s all play Six Degrees of SciFi!

    Comment by Tee Morris — January 19, 2006 #

  17. Love the show..

    Number of episodes -

    During the eight months after the three-hour pilot episode aired, 17 original episodes of the series were aired (five of them two-parters), totaling 25 hours of broadcasting. Citing declining ratings and cost overruns, ABC cancelled Battlestar Galactica in April, its last episode “The Hand of God” premiering on April 29, 1979.

    Comment by Ban Basher — January 19, 2006 #

  18. Follow up on epsiodes

    taken from - http://epguides.com/BattlestarGalactica_1978/

    1. 1- 1 50280 17 Sep 78 Saga of a Star World (1)
    2. 1- 2 50281 17 Sep 78 Saga of a Star World (2)
    3. 1- 3 50282 17 Sep 78 Saga of a Star World (3)
    4. 1- 4 50204 24 Sep 78 Lost Planet of the Gods (1)
    5. 1- 5 50205 1 Oct 78 Lost Planet of the Gods (2)
    6. 1- 6 50908 8 Oct 78 The Lost Warrior
    7. 1- 7 50902 15 Oct 78 The Long Patrol
    8. 1- 8 50206 22 Oct 78 The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (2)
    9. 1- 9 50207 29 Oct 78 The Gun on Ice Planet Zero (2)
    10. 1-10 50912 12 Nov 78 The Magnificent Warriors
    11. 1-11 50905 19 Nov 78 The Young Lords
    12. 1-12 50919 26 Nov 78 The Living Legend (1)
    13. 1-13 50920 3 Dec 78 The Living Legend (2)
    14. 1-14 50917 17 Dec 78 Fire in Space
    15. 1-15 50921 14 Jan 79 War of the Gods (1)
    16. 1-16 50922 21 Jan 79 War of the Gods (2)
    17. 1-17 50916 28 Jan 79 The Man With Nine Lives
    18. 1-18 50924 18 Feb 79 Murder on the Rising Star
    19. 1-19 50926 25 Feb 79 Greetings From Earth (1)
    20. 1-20 50947 25 Feb 79 Greetings From Earth (2)
    21. 1-21 50927 11 Mar 79 Baltar’s Escape
    22. 1-22 50928 18 Mar 79 Experiment in Terra
    23. 1-23 50929 1 Apr 79 Take the Celestra
    24. 1-24 50930 29 Apr 79 The Hand of God

    Comment by Ban Basher — January 19, 2006 #

  19. Okay, as for “muffit” or should we say the robotic daggit. It wasnt played by a midget/little person…in fact it was played by a specially trained chimpanzee. I know this as one night on “johnny carson” they had the trainer and the actual chimp on hia talk show and mentioned that the chimp was trained to wear tje costume…just so ya know.

    mark

    Comment by aurdumir — January 20, 2006 #

  20. In your cultural background to Battlestar Galactica I was surprised that you didn’t mentioned the Berserker novels by Fred Saberhagen. After all if you change the name “Cyclon” to “Berserker” and the story backdrop from a “Lost people trying to find Earth” to an “Earth based empire fighting for survival” you have the Berserker novels.

    (As far as the story backdrop, Hollywood TV just can’t get it into their heads the Science Fiction does not equate to lost peoples trying to find/return to Earth.)

    Comment by Russ — January 20, 2006 #

  21. Regarding episode count:

    I’d always counted the pilot as one episode and the two-parters as separate episodes, because except for the pilot, none of them were ever originally aired together.

    Guess that’s why the 22 episode count always stuck in my mind, but I could see how the folks who actually filmed and acted in them see them as 17 episodes (’cause likely they were filmed together).

    And yes, I’ve never read the Berserker novels. I’ve read Empire of the East and some of Saberhagen’s Dracula novels, but not those.

    Comment by Summer — January 21, 2006 #

  22. Just when I was about to spend some money and check out the new BSG series you come out with this show and scare me off. I only wathched a few episodes of the old BSG series (in first release) and was very disapointed. I remember it as being pretty awful and the script writer obviously didn’t know what the word “turbo” meant and threw it in liberaly and usually inappropriatly.
    I just figure if you think that the old BSG was great TV then you are probably wrong about the new series as well.
    I did love this turbo episode I just didn’t care for the old turbo BSG.

    Comment by John — January 23, 2006 #

  23. I, on the other hand, am re-thinking my idea NOT to pick up the new BSG on DVD. I refuse to watch anything on television unless they promise to deliver it sans commercials; I figure by the time a new show’s been out long enough for an entire season to come out on DVD I’ll have had time to decide whether it’s worth my time. Still fence-sitting on BSG.

    I was a senior in HS when the old one came out (that’s the sound of my old bones creaking) and hot for more sci-fi, so I watched it for longer than I probably should have–or maybe it was that it started out good and then jumped the proverbial shark. I still think the original theme score ROCKED, though. Just one of the coolest sci-fi themes ever. I’m kind of let down to think they have a different one for the new version of the show. At any rate I shudder at the memories of the last episodes I did watch, but to hear you guys dissect the good stuff helped ease that pain. Isn’t there a DVD release that has the mini-series plus 1.5 seasons all in one package? I can’t seem to find it at Amazon.

    Congrats on getting listed in iTunes, it makes getting your kick-ass show so much easier!

    Mark in NY

    Comment by Mark in NY — January 23, 2006 #

  24. John: the original BSG was good tv for its time. Many of the episodes don’t hold up well after 30 years, but they still hold a special place in the hearts of many, including myself. How many average TV viewers back then had any general knowledge about how space flight worked (since we’d only been in space for 10 years, and Hollywood had been getting it wrong for 40 years)? Honestly, I don’t expect anyone who didn’t see and love the show first time around on TV as a kid to have that same love… it’s kinda the same for people who never saw the original Star Wars on the big screen because they were too young, or hadn’t been born yet.

    Seriously, the new BSG is something you need to see. Period. I don’t understand how we could have scared you off with this conversation.

    But definitely start with the miniseries, so you won’t get lost on a handful of backstory points.

    Mark: there is a box set that has the miniseries and the entire first season. It’s a blue box that has Six prominently featured on the left, and Apollo and Starbuck farther back on the right. It also has more extras than the first version of the season 1 set.

    The first release of the first season was a Best Buy exclusive release (July instead of September), and for copies purchased in July and August, you got a Serenity preview DVD along with BSG season 1. Can’t get that disc anymore, and I’m not sure that first season set is still available either (a brown box with just S1 and a couple extras).

    Comment by Summer — January 23, 2006 #

  25. Thanks, Summer; that’ll keep me pointed the right way if/when I take the leap.

    As far as show length goes, more is always better, sez I.

    Comment by Mark in NY — January 26, 2006 #

  26. Well, just ordered the miniseries plus season 1 in the set you described. I’ll probably want to get season 2, based on my expectation of liking season 1, but I’ll wait until the full second season comes out. Wish me luck!

    Comment by Mark in NY — January 26, 2006 #

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