![]() And Bamber's Apollo is a mix of heroic action and self-doubt which balances well. Sackhoff's performance as Starbuck is "subtly obvious" - she plays the brash, cocky pilot a little too well, something that's explained in later episodes. Olmos has the presence to give Adama the air of authority required. His tortured performance as the guilt-stricken Baltar are a joy to watch as he flips from near-hysterical lunatic to scheming toad to smooth womaniser. Whenever any "science" turns up, it's integrated in such a way as to have minimal impact on the plot and, unlike Star Trek, it isn't used as a Deus Ex Machina to simply resolve the "crisis of the week." In fact, I'd go as far as to say the show is closer to 24 or The West Wing than it is Star Trek or Babylon 5, with the focus being much more on the people and their individual actions, rather than a wide-scale "space opera." Performances are all strong, with James Callis being the real star. ![]() ![]() Additionally, the show is very non-sci-fi, but in a good way. The new BSG is a much more adult production, both in terms of the writing and performances and the intended audience. The impact of the Cylon attack - never explored in the original series - is a major emphasis in the show and the viewer genuinely does get the feeling of the "rag tag fleet." Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the original series as much as anybody, but it was a product of its time and audience-slot. The point is that in the new BSG, the impact of the loss of the Colonies is something everybody must deal with, be it on a resource-management level to dealing with the loss of their families. Here the characters are real people who make mistakes, grow and learn from their errors. Yet unlike Star Trek, they're not resolved by the end of the episode. Unless of course, you want to miss one of the best dramas currently airing. Instead, wait and see what the new show is about and give it a chance. The head-rush whoosh as the fighters launch along glittering tubes into the battle was just ace.Before I proceed, I'll just add a quick comment for those slating the series without seeing it: please, stop it. The effects too, while never touching Star Wars’ galactic ballet, are vigorous and exciting, the human’s spacecraft designed with natty Aztec motifs. It may just be a launching pad for the popular series that jetted onto BBC2, but there is thoroughness to the script that allows the pilot to stand-alone. Here, the plot hides a particularly nasty about-face for the do-gooder heroes. Their adventure rattles on at a great pace, dividing its attentions between the initial escape after human betrayal leads the forbidding Cylons, with their oscillating red eye-bulb, warbling computer speak and shiny metal hides, to crash the human party, and a pitstop on decadent planet Carillon. John Ireland’s dialogue even manages a sly reflexive irony: “Ten thousand light years from nowhere, our planet shot to pieces, people starving, and* I'm* gonna get us in trouble?” smarts the ever-chirpy Starbuck. Larson fully obliges here: Richard Hatch as the noble, straight-faced hero Apollo, the splendid Dirk Benedict as smart-tongued Han Solo clone Starbuck, and leathery Lorne Greene lending his wise basso-tones to their leader Adama. Larson’s keen nose for a story, and grasp that what made Lucas’s blockbuster sing was fundamentally a punchy set of memorable characters with really cool names. Although evidently a rip-off - there were hints of Lucas even taking the matter to the courts - this spacebound wagon train, whose limits are readily apparent, is great fun. Although a pilot for a subsequent American TV series, Battlestar Galactica was released as a full theatrical movie in Britain to cash in on the demand for sci-fi cowboy movies in the mould of George Lucas magnificent Star Wars.
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