I have seen maybe fifteen minutes of the Lorne Green, '70s, version of Battlestar Galactica. Perhaps the worst 15 minutes of my life. Look up “Absolute Dreck” in the dictionary, and there it is.
So, the question is this: How/why did you early adherents of the latest version of BSG figure out that the current version would rank among the best on TV?
In case there is any doubt, I absolutely love the show now.
I read a review somewhere that said the show was taking a very different angle than the original, and that it looked very good. I was absolutely floored by the mini series-- I think it won me over in the first few minutes.
See, what I did was: I watched it. And then I knew.
Yeah, the mini-series pretty much had me hooked. Plus I’ve long been a fan of Mary McDonnell, so it had that going for it, too.
I was skeptical, but the commercials for the miniseries looked good, so I checked it out. I imagine most people could say the same.
Well, I was a fan of the original series.
Hey, c’mon, I was 8 years old when it came out.
I liked the original when I was a kid too, but even then I thought of it as a cheap Star Wars knockoff. When I first heard of the new series, I was skeptical until Dopers started raving about it. Now I’m a big fan, although lately the show seems to be a bit rudderless.
Your problem is, you watched a 70s show, thirty years later, didn’t you?
In 2047, nuBSG will be filed under “Absolute Dreck” in the fancy iDictionaries we’ll either have plugged into our heads or into our flying cars.
But until that utopian day, I’ve just been watching shows that might be of interest to me, and deciding if I like them that way.
I had never seen the original before watching the new show. I have since, and it makes me appreciate modern TV all the more.
The trailers for the mini-series looked great so I gave it a go. I fairness I’d pretty much give any sci-fi show a chance. The mini-series was great from the start and I’ve been following it ever since.
I’ll also admit to watching the original but i was very young at the time. I watched a bit of it when it was repeated recently and couldn’t believe it was soooo bad but then again I’ve noticed that about a lot of shows I loved as a kid in the 70/80’s.
Based on the mini and the first season I thought TNS would be right up there with Firefly, but never once did I think it would hold the same thrill and magic that TOS did. Back when TOS came out it was some damn good stuff and, more importantly, I was 10.
I did hope that TNS would be a little more kid friendly - all this “plot” and “character development” crap is distracting and boring. 
It was the miniseries for me, as well, but it almost didn’t happen, mostly because I didn’t have fond memories of the 70s series; I remembered it as rather silly and childish.
Background: when the miniseries premiered, it was shown first on some network (NBC?), in an abridged format. So, instead of a grand four-hour miniseries, it was trimmed to a network-acceptable three hours.
One fine evening, I noticed that the miniseries was coming on NBC or whatever. I decided to give it a try, even though the idea of cylons that looked like human women (I’d seen an prerelease photo of Six) seemed pretty lame. I taped it (this was before I had a DVR) and watched it the next day. And, frankly, I nearly gave up on it. The first half hour was really pretty boring, what with the long draggy bits with Baltar and the decommissioning of the Galactica and such.
Then, the bombs started falling. And Commander Adama grabbed that intercom and said, “As of this moment, we are at war.” And a new president was sworn in. And holy crap, did it get good. I was hooked. And the first episode of the series, “33”, was so amazing that I just couldn’t fight it, I had to see where the series went.
After seeing the network broadcast version of the miniseries, and seeing that the four-hour version was going to be on SciFi, I had to watch that, too. I think I watched both versions of the miniseries in the same week. That’s how eagerly I was gobbling it up.
Amazing.
I skated through the miniseries, never catching more than a scene or two. Meh. Then I saw “33” and was blown away. This was grit and pain and real. Hooked me in an instant.
I watch the original show as a kid first run. It was the only network SciFi at the time and not too bad for the time.
Perspective, no cable TV so only seven channels at the time. The only space adventure shows it had to be compared to were ‘Star Trek’ which was the pinnacle and then ‘Space 1999’ and ‘Lost in Space’ and some Saturday morning dreck. It looks much better from the perspective of a kid with limited choices. Besides, I had seen every episode of Star Trek many times by that point. It was good just to have new stuff.
I found the new BSG too angsty, this is the same problem I had with Next Generation. It might also be that I outgrew most TV Science Fiction as the only recent TV Sci-Fi show I did enjoy have been the new ‘Dr. Who’ and occasionally ‘Star Gate’.
Jim
I was seven. I remember that show being up for an Emmy or some other TV award and I cheered when it won!
The new version kicks ass, and did right from the moment it started.
I illegally downloaded the mini-series when it hadn’t shown in the USA after some reviews said it was really good.
It kicked ass and I could see the potential.
Originally, when I heard it was being produced my two thoughts were:
Why? The original series was cheesy crap.
Who cares if they’re making Starbuck a woman? The original series was cheesy crap.
-Joe
Ditto here. The miniseries was good, but, I thought, a little odd. Wasn’t quite sure what they were up to. But it was good enough, and I’d heard enough buzz about how they were applying the lessons of the miniseries to the show (keeping what was good, modifying what didn’t work so well), that I checked out “33.” And that did it. Frak, what an incredible opening episode for a series.
In retrospect, of course, the miniseries looks quite a bit better on re-viewing, because we get what the show’s supposed to be about and it’s clear that the core themes and ideas were there from the beginning. It just felt a little funky to me as an introduction to the show.
I loved the old series because as a 10 yr old I had huge crushes on “Starbuck” - Dirk Benedict, and “Apollo” - Richard Hatch.
So, I was intrigued by the whole ‘Starbuck and Boomer are chicks!’ buzz and decided to try it out. I was mesmerized by the mini series and just had to know more about these new characters and how they were going to draw out the story. I was so glad that the “re-imagining” was not cheesy like the classic BSG was.
And the fact that Richard Hatch is a secondary character that pops up now and again…BONUS!!!
As for me, I LIKED the fact that I could dismiss the entire concept of Battlestar Galactica as crap. If you want to reel me in, Hollywood, call it something else.
On second thought, silenus mentioned something about “grit and pain and real.” Well, the hell with that. I get enough grit and pain and real in real life. When I sit in front of the tube, I want stupid and funny and bizarre, like The Venture Bros. Keep BSG and call it whatever you want.
By the way, why isn’t it just “BG”, or maybe “B:G”, if they have to have three characters? It’s not like Battlestar is two words.
Holdover from the original series, wherein “Battlestar” was actually “BattleStar.”
And the Cylon Baseships were BaseStars.