Golden Oldies

When you look at the history of Science Fiction it is really quite incredible. It is a genre that has really been quite abused over the ages (mostly by the SciFi channel). When you look at where it started and what it has been through it is really amazing that it was able to develop into something capable of producing Star Wars (the original three), Firefly, Terminator 2, and many other cherished shows. I have been watching Battlestar Galactica lately. It is a SciFi channel remake of a 1978 series, it just started its second season and has become quite popular. In an effort to brush up on my scifi history I downloaded some of the original 1978 series. It really made me appreciate the advances that the movie industry and science fiction have made. One particular scene I thought was especially good.

I about died laughing when I saw that. On a more general note the older series isn’t that bad, it is just hard to take it seriously. The enemies (humanoid robots called Cylons), are just not menacing. The move slow and kind of waddle when the walk, it is just hard to keep a straight face. That has been fixed in the new series, where the Cylons are quick and efficient killing machines. They modeled them after the most deadly life form on earth.

On top you have the old sissy Cylons, and below the new kick ass Cylons. I guess they realized their fan base was largely male anyway so why not cater to them. Oh and they have the robots too, but they have a comparatively minor role.

I would say the biggest disappointment in the new series is they took away the cool electronic voice of the robots (they don’t talk at all).

So here is to the advances of science fiction and shameless producers that will do anything to boost ratings.