#(prequel to BSG)

[egoborderline]

Damn... Caprica is really.... Supremely okay, isn't it? Lol

#I wanted to do a bsg re-watch that includes the extra stuff I missed last time namely the movies and the prequel #This show. Is fine. Acting and writing are pretty weak coming off bsg but the story is interesting #It is a more interesting package to receive my lore from than reading a wiki I suppose #Woof

[hazelcephalopod]

I’ve stumbled into reading about Battlestar Galactica and am astounded by several things-

Jane Seymour was in the original. Her character, Serina, is not in the remake. Also Jane Seymour declined to play Cmndr Cain in the remake.

The OG lasted one season of 24 episodes. The 2004 version was a mini series and then four seasons with several dozen episodes.

Oh, wait to go on about Serina actually. So again, no she’s not in the remake. However that character, in earlier concept, was supposed to be on the Council of 12 and named “Lyra”. In the remake there is the charcter “Laura Roslin”, as the President (played by Mary McDonnell. Now, I need to follow up but… is that intentional? Did they take her potential character shift some sounds in the name and make her a main character whose really great actually?

The character Boomer is played by an actress who also plays a charcter called Athena -well those are their call signs actually but no one calls them “Sharon”- adapting two different characters from the OG. On of the male pilots and Adama’s daughter who doesn’t exist in the remake as far as I remember -at least not alive.

She’s also actually a Cylon. Who have various versions including. Metal bots. Bioships with the intelligence of dogs. And clones with a weird basically psychic link to the motherships so when they die they will “download” and be reborn in adult bodies. All that is pure remake stuff.

Ok so I knew there was some Mormon inspiration going on but the OG? Well, it had much more than I expected. Like their marriage custom. Inspiration for their Government. Etc. So, that’s a thing.

In the remake the Colonies are basically proto-Greek polytheists (with big “this is a tv-show so not one for one at all”) -even more wild to me now as I’ve been researching very early history humans and uh, that’s a choice to say the least (tween me was endeared but it tho so I have a soft spot too*). (The Greek gods with some unique in world myth tbf) Meanwhile the Cylons were monotheists, and their god was called “God” and they talk about Heaven and stuff -bc uh, they are idk protochristians? Somehow… actually we’ll get to that.

The Cylons were made by some reptilian aliens in the og series, that they wiped out. Vs the remake where humans made them and they rebelled. And then sought vengeance for their enslavement (they were robots… mostly. It’s complicated, in the prequel especially) Also there were other aliens of human level intelligence.

Humans and Cylons were at war for 1000 YEARS in the og. In the remake it was uh, a few decades, a century maybe?

One of the Cylons is named LUCIFER! Yes I am serious.

Again tbf all the religion stuff is WILD and it gets really WEIRD! I love it. Baltar starts having visions, God might be real? There are angels? And demons??? All this keeps happening over and over and might happen again? The monotheists practice polyamorous marriage, and actually there’s a sect of monogamous humans that preceded Cylons, even seeming to have been the progenitors of the Cylon faith. Baltar becomes their leader.

Baltar is a count in the OG. Otherwise nearly the same guy, same function, similar character it seems. I mean good choice tbh. (Ok things get weirder near the end but hey, 3.5 extra seasons make that kinda inevitable)

Both series are looking for the mythical Earth after the destruction of the 12 colonies. In the OG they get like transmissions from actual Earth of the moon landing?! And then I think the series ends but I haven’t gotten to the comics or whatever the 1980 continuation thing was. In the remake they find like, Neolithic age Earth where humans have also somehow evolved. Except before that, they also find another “Earth” in the post apocalypse having wiped everything out and it’s like, still smoking when they get there. Technically they are hinted to have named “Earth” Earth I guess?!!

People were big mad that Stabuck “manly mc man rogue” was gender bent. This was one of the best decisions ever made.

Her dying and coming back and then being revealed a as… a ghost? Angel? Ascended person? Something else? That’s a remake only, the OG never got that far and I assume they didn’t have THAT planned. (Plz do not let that detract form my last statement. Her character was still amazing tho. S/x the writers just did her dirty. And the end… it was a choice. I don’t hate it personally. But, big choices.)

Bonus fact: Sam Esmail is currently working on yet another work in the BSG franchise but I’m unclear which one or anything much else. I do know he is the son in law of Adama’s OG actor.

*yes I was a tween when the remake aired surprise. And also yes my dad/parents let me watch BSG. No it was not because the og was family friendly so this must be too. It was… well I won’t get into it but yeah. I was so sad no other kids were watching it. Lmao.

#battlestar galactica #Bsg #long post #no shade to og watchers it seemed fun #Like they really just took the bones for the remake I asmit #Even if I love it #I even watched the prequel and it was uh. Well it was interesting #I did really love starbuck in the remake. She was great #also take this with a pinch of salt this is the equivalent of stage 1 frantic hour long adhd research and my memories

[tanadrin]

regardless of whether you ended up dis/liking it in the end, which Star Trek series/episode/whatever do you think possesses the most unrealized potential in terms of "it could have gone so far and done so much, and instead (whatever it actually did)"

Or is that really kind of an unanswerable mu-question because every element of a show is already in a process of limitation-and-realization even at the point that you're just pitching something to the studio, so everything has (had) limitless potential once?

it may be an unanswerable question, but it's a fun one, so i'm gonna try anyway.

i mean Voyager is one obvious possibility; Ron Moore was so annoyed with what Voyager could have been that, IIRC, he created the rebooted Battlestar Galactica in response (not that that show didn't have other very glaring flaws!). I think you see a glimpse of this potential in the Year of Hell two-parter--it all gets reset in the end, but imagine if that had been a whole season, without a reset button, and thus real stakes!

though i think voyager was actually pretty fun and i like what we got instead--sure, it could have been Darker and Edgier, like BSG, but now that we've had nothing but 15 years of Darker and Edgier prestige TV, i'm kind of soured on that whole shtick. and the slightly fluffier stuff is a refreshing contrast.

i think Discovery was originally pitched as like a per-season anthology show, with different seasons occurring in different eras. I would have liked that better than what we got; I think prequel series are kind of dumb, and i think going 900 years into the future in the third season is kind of a drastic overcorrection. Discovery is fine, like i don't hate it, but Bryan Fuller was originally attached to the show, and I think he would have produced a higher-quality product than what we got in the end.

the existence of Picard (which is deeply silly, and not entirely in a good way) suggests the possibility of a series following Seven of Nine instead, where Picard would have been an occasional bit character. i would have much preferred that to what we actually got, which i don't hate, but which i am definitely conscious has way too much cheap fanservice in it.

i don't like prequel series and so on principle i would not have greenlit Enterprise, but if we were going to have Enterprise, 1) we needed a better actor than Scott Bakula to anchor it, and 2) more interesting stories than we got in the first two seasons. season 4 was great, with lots of very interesting little mini-arcs--if the stories of season 4 had been done in season 1 instead, and we'd had more of that, i think Enterprise would be much more fondly remembered. as it stands its best feature was Jeffrey Coombs, which suggests the obvious possibility of just putting him in the main cast. which would have been great.

#enterprise has some pretty great character actors in recurring roles #and the delightful john billingsley in the main cast #and then this just block of wood as the captain #and it's so jarring

[homely-lunatic]

my toxic trait is that I always try to look objectively at the writing for various shows and judge it based on whether or not its well-executed, in character, thematically relevent etc. UNLESS it involves a ship that I am genuinely, genuinely emotionally invested in. if GOT had kept every single terrible element of its ending but given me happy canon braime you'd find me in the trenches with the self righteous reddit bros defending every godawful decision D&D ever made with my entire chest. if bates motel had thrown out the entire prequel element that made up the fundamental core of the show at the last minute in favor of alex and norma survivng you'd best believe I'd be acting like I never even HEARD of psycho. was laura roslin's death bittersweet and tragically beautiful in the context of BSG's circular narrative? yes and I also would've turned a blind eye and a HALF to all of that if it meant she and bill got their cabin. Like 98% of the time I could literally not care less about how the narrative treats a certain pairing as long as its like. objectively good writing whatever the outcome may be but give me One Of Those Ships that strikes all the right chords and I'll be all but begging to have my media literacy card revoked.

#game of thrones #braime #bates motel #normero #battlestar galactica

[beatrice-otter]

💙

An AU I've thought of but never written.

Here's one of my Battlestar Galactica ones.

So, if you are one of the few people who watched the BSG prequel Caprica, you know that Bill Adama's older half-sister Tamara, who died before he was born, was mentally uploaded to a computer inside a sort of computer game/simulation with another girl, and the other girl was then downloaded into a Cylon (first a metal Cylon, and then a skinjob) by her father to bring her back from the dead. (This was in the course of a lot of shenanigans with terrorism and crime and espionage and the development of Cylons, in which Bill's family had a starring role.)

But Tamara stayed in the computer.

What if, in the last season of BSG when they're learning all these crazy facts about Cylons and making alliances with them and whatever, they find out the Cylons still have that computer, with Tamara still inside it, and/or find she's now in a Cylon body. Not with the main Cylons--she was not on good terms with them for a variety of reasons, including having been killed by the monotheistic terrorists the Cylons got their religion from--but still a cyborg being in their hands.

And now Tamara gets to meet the baby half-brother who was born after she and her mother were killed and her Dad went crazy with grief for a while and then remarried. And Bill gets to deal with learning about his family's fucked-up connection with the creation of the Cylons. And the Colonial Fleet gets an ally who a) has all the computer powers the Cylons have, but b) has never been on the side of the Cylons and is a lot more trustworthy. (But mostly I'm in this one for the family drama, and also Unfridge The Brown Girl.)

#fanfic #fanfiction #plot bunny #battlestar galactica

[ety3rd]

#BattlestarGalactica and #Caprica fans: the #BSG prequel ebooks are now complete.  Get the acclaimed #LordsOfKobol series and #ColoniesOfKobol series for FREE right here: https://ety3rd.com

#bsg #caprica #battlestar galactica #lords of kobol #colonies of kobol

[necrofuturism]

[sitting on my television media critic's throne] i hate every unnecessary prequel series ever who the fuck is wasting time watching that rings of power targaryen shit anyway

[caprica, the unnecessary bsg prequel series] *starts crying*

[still sitting on my television media critic's throne] oh honey nooo...

#as if i don't have a literal tattoo from caprica stick and poked into my actual skin #film tag

[ajoytobeheld]

New Caprica trailer

December 13th, 2009

This is the new trailer for the upcoming BSG cash cow prequel  ”Caprica,” which will be showing on the newly named “SyFy” channel ( did this channel really need the sexy phonetic makeover?)

Analysis of the trailer informs me its a mix between Gossip Girl and Frankenstein BUT WITH ROBOTS…. and James Marsters (1.01 for those who want to skip straight to the good part)

This trailer does not exactly fill me with a sense of awe or arousal, in fact it looks rather preditable, boring and the use of the term “frak” didnt even give me that sense of homeliness it once did. Plus I am not the first to comment on the lack of big arse spaceships. I assume the guys decide to bring their daughters back from the dead as cylons but one is the “evil” one and one is the “good” one and there is some kind of unease and misunderstanding and a shady government official gets involved and someone dies.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Ellen x

#2009 #ellen!blog #lc!blog

[spookynstarbuck]

As somebody who uses media to escape from the pain of real life I’m gettin rEAL tired of all the pain media is causing me

#can’t I just have one nice thing? #one happy ending? #I can’t experience vicarious happiness through deeply tragic stories #txf #mulder and scully #star wars #star wars prequels #star trek voyager #battlestar galactica #loki #loki season finale #loki and sylvie #obi wan kenobi #marvel #black widow #natasha romanoff #yelena belova #bsg

[vega-licious]

Gaius Baltar: absolute human D I S A S T E R

#bsg #Battlestar galactica #NO MORE MR NICE GAIUS #ARE U FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?! #I AM HOWLING #apparently there's a mini series prequel #which I haven't watched #but does it confirm that gaius has legit lost his marbles??????

[nottonyharrison]

Is your dark angel 2031 fic about the jessica alba show? I haven't thought about that show in like 15 years but I remember being obsessed with it)

Even if it's not about that, what's going on with it/maybe a sneak peak if you're up for it?

Yes it is!

Dark Angel is my all time favourite TV show and I've had a full outline for a 10 years later S3 in my WIPs folder for a year now. So there's nothing written of the prose, but there is a 12k word story bible with the full plot outline, story beats, character list, thematic goals, and a massive list of technical details about the setting as it's set in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.

So basically I've done a boatload of research and conceptualizing, and TBH I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to writing it. Maybe after my next rewatch, I'm due for one of those.

When I scrapped all my fic on FFN I saved my big multi-chap and am planning on reworking it as a BSG style prequel miniseries.

To anyone reading this who hasn't seen DA, or hasn't seen it in years, watch it! It's hard to find (i may be able to help with that... maybe), but it stands up so well. It's far more progressive than 98% of media out there (albeit in an early 00s way... but even when you consider that it's still better), and watching it now, through a contemporary lens is just so, so good.

And slightly unsettling.

#dark angel #fic stuff #writing stuff #it was also my bi awakening #16 year old me could not handle having jalba jackles and valarie rae miller on my tv every week ok

[levysoft]

Battlestar Galactica fu un piccolo fenomeno della sua epoca: tra il 2004 e il 2009, nel periodo in cui la forma delle serie tv stava assumendo un peso sempre maggiore nel settore dell’intrattenimento, era un prodotto che si presentava ambizioso ma coi piedi per terra, senza la pretesa di rivoluzionare niente. Eppure, ancora oggi si può affermare che Battlestar Galactica (in breve: BSG) abbia lasciato un segno e continui a essere una delle migliori serie tv di fantascienza che siano mai state realizzate. Quindi mentre Sam Esmail (il creatore di Mr Robot) sta lavorando alla produzione di una nuova serie basata su BSG, è l’occasione giusta per ripercorrerne in prospettiva la storia e l’impatto sul pubblico.

La storia di Battlestar Galactica

Correntemente quando si parla di Battlestar Galactica ci si riferisce alla serie iniziata nel 2004 e proseguita per quattro stagioni fino al 2009, ideata e scritta da Ronald D. Moore. In realtà però questa serie era già il remake di una serie omonima del 1978 creata da Glen Larson. La premessa di fondo è la stessa: l’umanità occupa dodici pianeti, ma a causa dell’attacco improvviso dei cylon (in pratica robot ribelli) la popolazione viene sterminata e gli unici superstiti sono a bordo dell’astronave da guerra Galactica. Per assicurare un futuro alla specie, la Galactica si mette in cerca del leggendario pianeta Terra, ma i cyloni sono ancora sulle loro tracce per sterminarli del tutto.

La serie del 78-79 (arrivata in Italia nel 1982) ebbe inizialmente un discreto successo, ma l’interesse non durò molto anche per le accuse di plagio ad altri franchise (Star Wars su tutti) e in seguito a diverse irregolarità nella programmazione fu cancellata dopo 24 episodi. La serie venne ripresa per un sequel, Galactica 1980, che invece di concludere la storia principale sposta l’azione trent’anni nel futuro sulla Terra, con risultati piuttosto scarsi che infatti ne provocarono una cancellazione ancora più rapida, dopo solo 10 episodi.

Sembrava quindi che Battlestar Galactica fosse destinata a rimanere un progetto incompiuto, ma negli anni seguenti grazie soprattutto alla determinazione di Richard Hatch (uno degli attori protagonisti della serie originale, che compare anche come personaggio secondario nella serie del 2004), che aveva fatto diversi tentativi di riportare in produzione la serie, nel 2002 la Universal commissionò una miniserie di due episodi a Ronald D. Moore. La miniserie andata in onda a fine del 2003 costituiva una sorta di pilot dell’intero progetto, in cui si racconta appunto dell’attacco dei cylon che eradica l’umanità dalle dodici colonie, dalle quali rimangono in vita circa cinquantamila persone, una piccola flotta civile riunita intorno alla Galactica, guidata dal comandante che stava per ritirarsi dal servizio.

L’ottima riuscita della miniserie convinse a mettere in produzione la prima stagione, che iniziò su Sky nell’autunno del 2004 e passò successivamente su SyFy channel, mentre in Italia arrivò nel 2006 sempre su SyFy. BSG ebbe da subito un successo notevole, con un pubblico piuttosto costante, tanto da giustificare il proseguimento della serie, che venne rinnovata di anno in anno fino a quando Moore non dichiarò che la quarta stagione sarebbe stata l’ultima. Parallelamente però vennero portati avanti altri progetti collaterali, come alcuni brevi webisodes e spinoff: il film Razor che racconta dell’astronave gemella Pegasus, il prequel Caprica che racconta dell’invenzione e diffusione dei cylon (che però venne sospesa dopo la prima stagione) e Blood and Chrome, una web serie anch’essa ambientata prima dell’inizio della prima stagione di BSG. Nonostante questi spin-off non abbiano mai incontrato grossa fortuna, l’interesse del pubblico per l’universo della Galactica si è sempre dimostrato elevato.

La lore di Battlestar Galactica

Ma di cosa parla Battlestar Galactica? Di base lo potremmo classificare come una space opera abbastanza tipica, o scivolare anche nella military sci-fi: abbiamo le colonie sui pianeti, astronavi, robot cattivi e battaglie spaziali… quasi la checklist completa dei cliché della fantascienza. Ma BSG (almeno la versione del 2004) non si ferma a questo livello più superficiale e scontato, e anzi si addentra in tematiche molto più profonde e universali, capaci di risuonare anche il pubblico non particolarmente interessato alle avventure spaziali. Per capire di cosa stiamo parlando facciamo allora un veloce riassunto della lore dell’universo narrativo di BSG.

L’umanità vive su dodici pianeti, che hanno nomi che ricordano quelli dei segni zodiacali, e sono chiamati dodici colonie di Kobol. Kobol è il pianeta originario dal quale l’umanità si è diffusa a colonizzare lo Spazio, ormai abbandonato da millenni. Vivono in una società tecnologica ma non avveniristica, e seguono in buona parte una religione politeista che riprende le divinità della mitologia greca. Molti anni prima dell’inizio della serie, l’umanità ha creato i cylon, servitori robotici senzienti, che si sono però ribellati ai loro padroni e hanno scatenato una guerra contro di loro. L’umanità ha siglato un armistizio con i cylon, che si sono allontanati dalle colonie e interrotto ogni contatto. Fino a quando (come viene mostrato nella miniserie pilot), i cylon non tornano in massa con un attacco nucleare coordinato su tutte le dodici colonie, che riesce ad annichilire quasi completamente la popolazione.

Gli unici sopravvissuti sono quelli che si trovavano in orbita o sono riustici a fuggire su un’astronave prima della distruzione totale dei loro pianeta. La nave da guerra, o appunto “Battlestar” Galactica del comandante Adama (Edward James Olmos) è l’unico mezzo militare a sopravvivere, perché è il più vecchio della flotta e si basa su una tecnologia obsoleta che i cylon non riescono a penetrare. Adama si trova quindi a essere il capitano dell’unica astronave capace di difendere i meno di cinquantamila esseri umani superstiti, con i cylon pronti a seguirli per annientarli del tutto. Ma uno degli aspetti più inquietanti di questa nuova guerra è che i cylon non sono più soltanto robot umanoidi metallici (i “centurioni”), ma si sono evoluti in forme indistinguibili dagli umani, vere e proprie creature di carne e sangue capaci di infiltrarsi tra i nemici, e infatti è proprio grazie a questa loro capacità di mimetizzazione che sono riusciti a condurre il loro attacco su tutte le colonie.

Mentre da una parte quindi la flotta superstite deve fuggire dalle navi da guerra cylon, dall’altra deve anche vigilare sul suo stesso equipaggio, tra i quali si potrebbe nascondere qualche spia cylon in forma umana… come inevitabilmente si scoprirà. Tra i superstiti a bordo della Galactica troviamo Lee Adama (Jamie Bamber), figlio del comandante e ufficiale a sua volta; Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), ministra dell’istruzione che in quanto unico membro del governo in vita viene nominata Presidente; Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) pilota eccellente ma imprevedibile; Gaius Baltar (James Callis), scienziato che nasconde un terribile segreto ed è perseguitato dalle apparizioni di Numero Sei(Tricia Helfer), una cylon umana che ha conosciuto su Caprica. Il cast ampio e la verità di personaggi permette di seguire la storia da più punti di vista, non soltanto narrativi ma anche tematici, e di sviluppare i conflitti si più livelli, dall’epica lotta con le macchine alle pressioni familiari.

Tutta la serie è girata con un taglio documentaristico, come se si trattasse di un reportage dal fronte, aumentando la sensazione di trovarsi davvero a bordo della Galactica e di seguire da vicino gli sforzi estremi e le decisioni pesanti ai quali i personaggi sono costretti. Ben presto ci si accorge che l’unica prospettiva di sopravvivenza per l’umanità è raggiungere un pianeta sicuro, e ci si affida così alle storie sulla Terra, la leggendaria tredicesima colonia perduta, di cui nessuno conosce l’ubicazione. La ricerca della Terra occupa la parte principale delle quattro stagioni, ma su questo obiettivo a lungo termine si instaurano una serie di subquest e plot twist, con alcune tappe intermedie ed efficaci cliffhanger a ogni fine di stagione. Ma non è solo la storia di BSG ad aver cementato il suo valore presso il pubblico, semmai i temi sotto la superficie.

L’impatto di Battlestar Galactica

Per una serie che parte dalle battaglie nello spazio, Battlestar Galactica si è sempre distinta come un prodotto tutt’altro che leggero. Se naturalmente non mancano le scene d’azione e combattimento, sia aereo/spaziale che terrestre, la storia si preoccupa di toccare però anche argomenti diversi che arricchiscono quella che avrebbe potuto facilmente scivolare in una semplice apologia militarista della forza dell’umanità. Come si capisce, la sopravvivenza è uno dei valori principali su cui si fonda tuta la premessa della storia, ma anche questo è un concetto che trova declinazioni diverse nel corso della serie, perché se è vero che è necessario garantire un futuro all’umanità viene però da chiedersi cosa siamo disposti a fare (e perdere) per ottenerla. Quando infatti tutte le speranze sono riposte nella forza militare capace di proteggere i civili, il pericolo di una dittatura marziale si fa molto rilevante, e anzi emergerà in diverse occasioni nel corso di BSG, con la Presidente Roslin a fare da controparte democratica alla possibilità di un controllo militare.

Un altro tema centrale è quello dell’identità, la cui porta viene spalancata nel momento in cui si introduce non solo l’idea di cylon umani, ma di cylon umani inconsapevoli di esserlo. Ci sono infatti alcuni agenti dormienti che vivono tra gli umani e non sanno di essere robotici… per quanto in realtà anche la “roboticità” di questi cylon avanzati è molto relativa, in quanto sono entità biologiche a tutti gli effetti. Ma nel momento in cui uno di questi cylon apprende la sua vera natura, quale sarà la sua scelta? Obbedirà alla sua programmazione primaria oppure, ormai cresciuto come umano, si schiererà dalla parte opposta? Il problema si pone anche per gli umani che devono decidere come rapportarsi a questi cylon inconsapevoli: sono tutti traditori da eliminare, oppure ci si può fidare di loro? In questo senso Battlestar Galactica anticipa molte delle tematiche che sono state poi affrontate anche da Westworld, e si possono notare numerosi parallelismi tra i cylon e gli host del parco.

Una di queste affinità è il concetto di morte per i cylon: a differenza degli umani, i cylon possono reincarnarsi in nuovi corpi nel caso vengano eliminati, ed esistono infatti alcune grandi “navi resurrezionali” che conservano i corpi e le memorie dei cylon. Per loro quindi la morte non è definitiva… oppure sì? Sono davvero sicuri di rinascere come gli stessi individui che erano prima? E com’è possibile allora che diversi cylon basati sullo stesso modello si comportino in modo diverso? Tutte queste domande aggiungono un livello di ambiguità nello scontro tra umani e non-umani, perché la definizione stessa di “umano” inizia a vacillare, e lo spettatore non è più così sicuro da quale parte stare.

Infine, la tematica religiosa è un’altra ampiamente affrontata dalla serie, e anzi secondo alcuni lo spunto originale per l’ambientazione deriva dal Libro di Mormon. Lo scontro tra umani e cylon ha anche radici religiose, perché se da una parte l’umanità venera un pantheon politeista, i cylon seguono invece un culto monoteista e considerano gli umani arretrati e blasfemi. Inoltre entrambe le fazioni hanno varie profezie e figure messianiche che sperano potranno condurle alla salvezza. Molti personaggi nel corso della serie attraversano un percorso spirituale che li porta dall’agnosticismo alla fede e viceversa, e man mano che ci si avvicina alla fine questa componente mistica si fa sempre più rilevante, al punto che il finale sembra virare decisamente dagli aspetti fantascientifici a quelli più sovrannaturali.

In effetti una delle critiche mosse più di frequente a Battlestar Galactica, e in particolare all’ultima stagione, è il modo in cui alcune situazioni sembrano risolversi quasi per volere divino, con interventi al limite del miracolo, senza la preoccupazione di spiegare in modo “scientifico” quello che è successo. Eppure, se da una parte questo può essere un limite, si tratta al tempo stesso di uno dei maggiori punti di forza della serie, che vista in retrospettiva si mantiene comunque coerente e ha dimostrato l’ambizione di portare avanti un percorso difficile e potenzialmente controverso. Avercene, di serie fantascientifiche capaci di smuovere così in profondità le nostre convinzioni sui confini stessi del genere…

Ancora si sa molto poco sul nuovo progetto di Sam Esmail che andrà in onda sulla nuova piattaforma Peacock, ma è stato già dichiarato che non si tratterà di un reboot quanto invece di un approccio parallelo alla serie già conclusa, che integrerà piuttosto che riscrivere quello che abbiamo già visto. E forse questo ha in effetti un suo senso poetico, perché sappiamo bene che tutto questo è già successo, e succederà ancora. So say we all.

#battlestar galactica

[whifferdills]

*BSG reboot theme* a thin line between ‘storytelling has always recycled, commercial storytelling especially so’ and ‘please stop i am tired i do not want a Willy Wonka prequel’

#all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again

[wild-west-wind]

Canadian scifi tv shows is so specific pls elaborate I need new things to watch

Okay some of these are fantasy shows, and some I watched years ago and cannot attest to whether they are good now. I’m going to bold the really good ones, and I left out some like X Files that moved to LA after a while. Without further ado, all the Canadian sci fi and fantasy shows I ever loved:

Continuum: Future cop learns that socialism is actually not as bad as her uber-capitalist society said

Sliders: It’s the 90s and Gimli from LotR plays a man who travels to different parallel universes with all his grad students (I think that’s the conceit, I watched this one like 13 years ago so I’m fuzzy)

Stargate SG-1: There’s some military bullshit, but basically 3 very attractive people and McGyver use a space portal to fight evil parasitic ancient Egyptian worm fascists, and later they fight gods. I absolutely love this show, but season one is...rough.

The 4400: Okay this one probably didn’t age well (LOT of Homeland Security bullshit) but 4400 people who disappeared over the course of the last century suddenly reappear all in one place, and the government has to figure out how to deal with that, and also figure out what happened.

Battlestar Gallactica: Great reboot, very post-9/11 military ra-ra, but it also does a really good job of saying “look but for real this shit only causes more problems later.” Great show, I named my old pickup truck “Battle-car Gallactica,” and I kept repeating quotes from the show when I crashed it. I wrote a 7 page essay about it and the concept of the self in 12th grade English and got a flat 100% on it. Turn it off 2 minutes before the end of the last episode.

Eureka: Cheesy fun sci-fi procedural in a secret town where everyone in town is a mad scientist. The main dude’s kid was in my Zoo Camp class and he’s a handful, but dude is a good dad. Gets weirder and less good later on.

Reaper: A slacker twenty something learns that his parents sold his soul to the devil, but also the devil might be his dad? The closest place to hell in the world is the DMV. Very silly procedural nonsense. Probably not as good as I remember. Does not have a good ending.

Caprica: BSG prequel that is SO INTERESTING but not great. Everyone lounges and smokes cigarettes and does terrible things.

Sanctuary: I think was about like a home for supernatural beings, and they also fight bad supernatural beings? I  watched every episode of this and I loved it but tbh I don’t think it made any sense.

Warehouse 13: Disgraced secret agents hunt down magical artifacts imbued with power by their proximity to famous intellectuals throughout history. Very silly.

Lost Girl: The worst show I’ve ever rewatched three times. Just, wretchedly bad. the worst. It’s just. It’s wild.

Orphan Black: You know it.

Dark Matter: A bunch of people wake up on a space ship with the cheesiest pun name with complete amnesia (or do they?) and have to figure out what happened, why, and how to function in the world while making peace with the people they were, and are now. Good show, MASSIVE cliffhanger ending.

Travelers: Agents of change from the future have their consciousnesses sent into the bodies of people who are about to die, so they can then change the course of history and stop the apocalypse. This has all the great Canadian Sci Fi staples like slow burn ambiguous worldbuilding, warring factions with the same overall goal but different ideas about how to do it, treachery, a perfect lovable character who you know will get hurt physically and emotionally by this all and you just hate to see it.

Wynonna Earp: The descendants of Wyatt Earp are cursed to kill the reincarnated spirits of every man he killed with a giant gun. Every time an heir dies, the revenants all come back to life, and hunt the heir in the hopes of stopping the cycle. Things get more and more wild the longer you go and Wynonna has a cool sister and one of them ends up being queer but it’s not the one you expect. Coming back for a fourth and final season soon-ish.

Honorable mention, a show that fits this vibe but it’s australian:

Farscape: An American Astronaut gets lost in space and has to live with a bunch of Australian aliens including: A giant Spider, very dusty lady, tiny Jabba the Hut who is also a deposed dictator, blue lady, grandma from the Addams family, what if orcs were dogs?, and just a human lady. Many of the aliens are amazingly advanced puppets made by the Jim Hensen company.  Bonus for two of these actors later joining Stargate SG-1.

#this is a lot #meraxes-of-new-albion

[tarhalindur]

One of my favorite pieces of Higurashi meta-tinfoil, from the OVAs: the magical girl episode of Kira is a friendly? jab aimed directly at Gen Urobutchi.

Allow me to explain under the cut:

1) There are quite a few similarities between Homura and Rika, especially involving but not limited to their respective situations.  (Also the character designs; I got badly spoiled on Madoka in no small part because of that.)

2) There is a roughly 100% chance the Urobutcher was familiar with Higurashi in the mid-2000s, considering that the work that originally drew him attention was Saya no Uta (a VN, and while I’d need to check whether it’s generally held as a denpa VN it’s at least adjacent) and his other well-known work before Madoka is a straight-up official doujin prequel of another VN (Fate/Zero in its original form) - so he’s definitely familiar with VNs during the mid-2000s, enough so to be actually writing them, and When They Cry was already up there with To Heart/the Nasuverse/Key Visual Arts in being a titan of the medium by that time.

2a) Urobutchi may be the kind of creator who does best riffing on and improving other people’s work in general.  (No shame in that!)  Most obviously there’s the part where one of his two best works is the aforementioned official doujin prequel, but there’s also my occasional description of Madoka as having Higurashi’s twist and Lain’s finale, or the little hints that suggest that, as an r/anime rewatch of Mai-HiME[1][2] put it back in the day, Madoka knew who it was riffing off of (including one really fun one I’d either forgotten or never noticed on account of it only being revealed in the peripherals - the family name of Nagi (resident Mai-HiME Kaworu expy) is... Homura).

3) PMMM with its very Rika-esque secondary protagonist comes out and novas.

3a) If I can work through this chain of speculation, presumably Ryukishi07 or somebody else at 07th Expansion can as well.

4) Kira OVA comes out with an episode where Rika is a magical girl.

Hmm.

[1] -  Or, as I like to call it, the Protodoka, up to and including an excellent Yuki Kajiura soundtrack.  Unfortunately for it, Mai-HiME badly whiffed its landing; worst (second half of a) series finale I’ve ever seen in anime, up there with the last five minutes of James Cameron Avatar and the distant finale of the BSG reboot

[2] - I finished watching that show after OG Higurashi.  Fun fact: Mai Nakahara also voices Mai Tokiha, the Mai-HiME lead.  That was a fucking trip, I tell ya.  Right up there with watching Higurashi after Full Metal Panic! (Satsuki Yukino voiced Kaname Chidori as well as Shmion, and I rather suspect it’s not a coincidence that at least one DEEN shot of the Games Club locker shows a paper fan in there.)

[jeanvaljean24601]

How to Watch Mad Men and More Great Shows for Free Right Now

Another day, another brand new streaming platform out there begging you to subscribe to its service so you can ignore your family members and binge-watch a bunch of TV shows and movies in the name of entertainment. This time, it's NBCUniversal's Peacock, which offers a free tier as well as  two premium options (one with ads and one without). The service  features a number of programs for free, including Friday Night Lights and even Parks and Recreation, but Peacock isn't the only place you can stream great shows without breaking the bank.

Below, we've gathered up a number of shows that don't require you to shell out money for Netflix,  Hulu,  Amazon Prime,  Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Peacock, and/or  whatever other streaming service subscriptions are out there. Sometimes you just need a simple freebie. And you know what? You deserve it. So check out the list below and take comfort in knowing it won't cost you a thing.

Watch it on: IMDb TV

Until recently you had to have a Netflix subscription to watch Mad Men, AMC's Emmy-award winning period drama from Matthew Weiner that was dedicated as much to style as it was to substance. The 1960s-set series, which traced the rise and fall of flawed Madison Avenue advertising executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm) through his own complicated relationship with identity, was a pointed commentary on the toxic masculinity, sexism, and racism of the era. It also changed the way we watch and talk about TV. If you haven't seen it yet, now's the perfect time to do so.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Watch it on: Tubi (complete series), Pluto TV (complete series)

Realizing  The Dick Van Dyke Show is streaming for free feels a bit like winning a secret lottery or viewing an exceptional piece of art without paying the museum admission fee. The popular comedy, which ran for five seasons, was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke as the head writer of a TV show, while  Mary Tyler Moore portrayed his wife. It's a timeless classic — one that took home 15 Emmys during its run, and if you've yet to experience it, you literally have no excuse at this point.

The Dick Van Dyke Show Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Felicity is best known as the show in which Keri Russell cut her hair (not to be confused with the show in which Keri Russell wore a lot of great wigs, aka The Americans). Depicting Felicity Porter's (Russell) college years and the struggles that accompany trying to figure out who you're supposed to be, the show is also famous for Scott Speedman's whisper-talking and the ongoing battle of Ben (Speedman) vs. Noel (Scott Foley). Although the WB series was previously streaming on Hulu, you can now watch it for free on the ABC app.

A reimagining of the kitschy original series, Syfy's Battlestar Galacticastarred Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, James Callis, and Jamie Bamber and explored the aftermath of a nuclear attack by the Cylons, cybernetic creatures invented by man who evolved and rebelled against their creators. The show was critically acclaimed for the way it tackled the subjects of science, religion, and politics, and for the way it explored the deeply complicated notion of what makes us human. Everything from the miniseries to the two BSG films (Razor and The Plan) is currently available to stream for free on Syfy's website, so there's no better time to watch it. So say we all!

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series), Tubi (complete series), Pluto TV (first 13 seasons), YouTube (first 13 seasons)

For many millennials, the fourth series in the Degrassi franchise, Degrassi: The Next Generation, is the defining iteration of the long-running Canadian series. The drama series, which was sometimes so overly dramatic it was actually funny, tackled everything from date rape and suicide to sexual orientation and teen pregnancy. The series, which launched the careers of Drake (then known as Aubrey Graham) and Nina Dobrev, is streaming on multiple free platforms.

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Eli Stone really had it all, which is to say it had Victor Garber singing George Michael songs, Loretta Devine singing George Michael songs, and George Michael singing George Michael songs. What else is there? ABC's offbeat two-season comedy-drama starred a pre-Elementary Jonny Lee Miller as Eli Stone, a high-powered San Francisco lawyer whose brain aneurysm gave him prophetic visions — which usually involved his friends, family, and colleagues breaking into song. Aside from a couple of ill-advised plotlines (the pilot, which suggests vaccines cause autism, is best forgotten), the show was a blast: a weird but memorable cocktail that should have stuck around for more seasons because, as I mentioned, Victor Garber sang George Michael songs. Also, Sigourney Weaver played God?! -Kelly Connolly

Watch it on: YouTube (nearly every episode)

A true Canadian treasure,  The Red Green Show was a long-running comedy starring Steve Smith as Red Green, a handyman who constantly tried to cut corners using duct tape and who had his own cable TV show. It was a parody of home improvement shows and outdoor programs and featured segments like Handyman Corner, Adventures with Bill, and The Possum Lodge Word Game. The show ran for 15 seasons, airing on PBS in the States. 

TV Premiere Date Calendar: Find Out When Your Favorite Shows Are Back

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series), ABC app (complete series)

Critically beloved but struck down before its time,  My So-Called Life has been praised for its realistic and honest portrayal of teenage life, not just via Angela Chase (Claire Danes), but through the show's young supporting cast as well. Now considered to be one of the best shows of all time, it tackled topics like homophobia, homelessness, drug use, and more without ever feeling preachy or like an after-school special. Also, Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) could lean.

Watch it on: CW Seed (first five seasons), IMDb TV (first five seasons)

If you don't have Netflix but still want to watch  Schitt's Creek, you'll be happy to know you can watch the first five seasons of the heartwarming, Emmy-nominated comedy series, about a wealthy family who loses everything they own except the town of the show's title, for free on CW Seed and IMDb TV.

Dan Levy and Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek Photo: Pop TV

Watch it on: Peacock (complete series); IMDb TV (complete series)

You may never know what it feels like to have Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) be proud of you, but you can pretend by watching all five seasons of  Friday Night Lights, a series that was as much about a Texas community as it was about the sport that united it. By the end of the show, you'll be asking yourself "What Would Riggins Do?" and tattooing "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose" on your body, all while chanting "Texas forever!" Trust me, it happens to everybody.

Watch it on: CW Seed (complete series)

It is relatively easy to forget that The CW series The Carrie Diaries was a prequel to  Sex and the City, because the charming show, which lasted just two seasons, was able to stand on its own. The coming-of-age series that followed a teenaged Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb) was relatively innocent compared to the original series. The show's 1980s setting made it easier for the writers to focus on more harmless family storylines and teenage heartbreaks, but the show never shied away from the heartstring-tugging drama of young adulthood either. It's a shame the show never got the kind of ratings it deserved and wasn't able to exist beyond Carrie's high school years, but the Season 2 finale works well as a series finale, so viewers won't feel as if the story was left incomplete. android tv box

Watch it on: CW Seed (complete series)

It's a shame Bryan Fuller's saturated dramedy  Pushing Daisies, about a pie-maker (Lee Pace) with the ability to bring the dead back to life, couldn't bring itself back to life after becoming a casualty of the 2007-08 writers' strike. A whimsical delight, the show featured the pie-maker teaming up with a local private eye (Chi McBride) to solve murders by reviving the victims for a brief time. Known for its quirky characters, eccentric visual style, and Jim Dale's pitch-perfect narration, it remains must-see TV.

Watch it on: IMDb TV (first seven seasons); Peacock

Columbo kicked off nearly every episode by revealing the crime and its perpetrator to the audience, which means unlike most crime dramas, the show was less about whodunnit and more about Peter Falk's iconic raincoat-wearing homicide detective catching them and getting them to confess. Oh, and just one more thing: it's great.

Watch it on: CW Seed (complete series)

The charming and playful Forever, which starred Ioan Gruffudd as an immortal medical examiner, was the one show that could have saved ABC's Tuesday at 10 p.m. death slot. But the network still canceled the series anyway, enraging the show's fans, who have never let the sting of its death go. Luckily, it now lives on, ahem, forever (aka until the content license expires) on CW Seed.

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series)

It sounds odd to say The Middle, which ran for nine seasons on ABC, was unfairly overlooked, but it always felt like the series, which followed the middle class Midwestern Heck family, was a bit of a hidden gem. It wasn't as popular with Emmy voters as, say, Modern Family, and critics also failed to give it its due, but it was a real, heartfelt, reliable family comedy with mass appeal, and you can stream it on IMDb TV for free. h96 tv box

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Trophy Wife's short life — it was canceled after just one season — can probably be chalked up to its unfortunate title, which was meant to be ironic but ultimately kept viewers from tuning in and experiencing the warmth of the show and the relationships at its center. Malin Akerman starred as the young wife of  Bradley Whitford's middle-aged lawyer, and the comedy explored the dynamics between the two, his children, and his two ex-wives, who were played by  Marcia Gay Harden and  Michaela Watkins. h96 max x3

Watch it on: NBC app (complete series)

Loosely based on the Biblical story of King David, Kings was a compelling drama before its time. Rudely cut down after just one season by NBC, the show starred Ian McShane as the king of the fictional kingdom of Gilboa, while  Christopher Egan portrayed an idealistic young soldier whose counterpart is David. The show also starred Sebastian Stan, which is reason enough to want to check it out.

Watch it on: ABC app (complete series)

Ray Wise portrays Satan in Reaper, a supernatural dramedy about a slacker (Bret Harrison) who reluctantly becomes a reaper tasked with capturing escaped souls from hell after it's revealed his parents made a deal with the devil many, many years before. The fact the show only lasted two seasons is a crime against humanity. Luckily, you can watch it in its entirety for free on the ABC app. h96 max x3

Watch it on: IMDb TV (complete series)

A team of experts led by a kooky old scientist (John Noble), his son (Joshua Jackson), and an FBI agent (Anna Torv) investigate strange occurrences around the country, X-Files style, in the J.J. Abrams-produced Fringe. The series is one of the best broadcast science-fiction shows of all time, particularly in its first three seasons, and perfected the art of the serialized procedural by weaving the show's deep mythology and excellent character work into weekly standalone stories, making it easy to binge or watch in spurts. And by the time the end of Season 1 starts, you'll have a hard time stopping. -Tim Surette

Watch it on: Tubi (complete series), Vudu (complete series)

Although American TV producers would eventually adapt  Being Human, the original British version, which followed three supernatural beings trying to live amongst humans, is far superior. The show, which ran for five seasons, starred Aidan Turner, Russell Tovey, and  Lenora Crichlow as a vampire, werewolf, and ghost, respectively. So skip the U.S. version entirely and watch the U.K. series for free.

Watch it on: Pluto TV (complete series),  Vudu (complete series), Tubi (complete series)

The Australian young adult-oriented series Dance Academy is not exactly what you'd call "great television," but it is great fun. Brimming with teen angst and melodrama, the series, which ran for three seasons and even had a follow-up movie, followed a handful of dancers at Sydney's National Academy of Dance as they trained in the sport they loved while also falling in and out of love with each other. The acting was sometimes questionable, but the series itself was addictive, not to mention one of the easiest binges you'll ever encounter. h96 max tv box

3rd Rock From the Sun

Watch it on: Tubi (complete series), Pluto TV (complete series), Crackle (all six seasons),  Vudu (all six seasons)

You might think a show about a group of socially awkward, 1,000-year-old aliens in human skin suits who are trying (badly) to pose as a human family and blend into an ordinary Midwest town might sound ridiculous, and, well, that's fair. But  3rd Rock From the Sun was still charming in even its most bizarre moments and gave its cast a lot of room to play up their roles and create an ensemble of weirdos that, at some point or another, start to tap into their newfound humanity and relish their new home here on Earth. -Amanda Bell.