# Okay, I watched the first episode of Battlestar Galactica

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-i-watched-the-first-episode-of-battlestar-galactica/482807>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 24, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-i-watched-the-first-episode-of-battlestar-galactica/482807 "2009-01-24T17:54:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-i-watched-the-first-episode-of-battlestar-galactica/482807/1 "2009-01-24T17:54:45Z")

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I sat down last night to watch the whole first episode (disc) of “Battlestar Galactica.” Here are my impressions — warning, this post contains spoilers.

It was very good, though not excellent, for a pilot episode. In my opinion the running time was a bit too long, and I found myself getting ahead of the plot points during a few moments when the scenes just drag on a tiny bit much.

Examples in spoiler boxes:

[spoiler]The little girl in the arboretum was a nice chilling scene, where the newly sworn-in President smiles and has nothing to say to the girl, but later it just takes _too long_ waiting for the girl to get shot down. Yes, yes, we know what’s going to happen.

There are too many scenes with #6 appearing beside Baltar. Every time there’s a long, turning, sweeping camera move you can expect her to show up. I get it. She’s his personal demon. Get on with the scene.[/spoiler]  
I really do like most of the departures that the pilot has taken from the original (which, honestly, I don’t remember all that well.) That the Cylons look like humans, and were

made by humansis a nice touch. That gives so much more potential for soul-searching storylines than the original generic robot aliens.

That Starbuck and Boomer are female: yeah, I can dig it. Adama Hispanic, that’s very cool. Tigh is now a white male with an alcohol problem, that’s a good angle. In fact, I’m rather pleased that they didn’t feel the need to wedge in a Token Black Male simply for the sake of diversity.

It seems very dark, though. There weren’t very many uplifting moments in the pilot at all — I still have to say, I prefer _Firefly_’s pilot. I don’t want to be down on the series, but it seems like if the entire series is going to be this bleak and hopeless, it’s going to be somewhat of a slog. I hope it isn’t all like this.

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-i-watched-the-first-episode-of-battlestar-galactica/482807/2 "2009-01-24T18:19:12Z")

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It takes some turns and does get more interesting - but yeah, it gets even darker at times. Be prepared for a slog.

Best part about the early episodes for me (as someone who liked _Battlestar Galactica_ enough in the '70s to try to rewatch it as an adult and thereby realize what unwatchable crap it was) was this:

> [@](#):
>
> “This is Boxey.”
> 
> “Oh.”
> 
> \*\*Boxey vanishes completely, as if quietly taken by Nicaraguan Death Squads \*\*

Good call, that.