Starbuck-related stories
Posted Sep 11th 2009 8:01PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
I'll be honest, I don't remember hearing about this big budget mini-series of Herman Melville's
Moby-Dick before. But If they do it authentically enough, they'll be guaranteed millions of DVD sales and rentals by high school and college kids who damned sure aren't going to read the book for English class.
It's being put together by Germany's RTL, Austria's ORF and Robert Halmi's RHI. That means it's an RTLORFRHI production, which makes me ROFLMAO. Unfortunately, viewers in the USA are SOL as it currently has no network deal here.
That could change with this big casting news. The $25 million
Moby-Dick mini-series has brought William Hurt and Ethan Hawke aboard. They'll be playing the obsessed Captain Ahab and defiant first mate Starbuck, respectively. It looks like there'll be a lot of CGI and effects representing the whale, which is a shame because we could have had a lot of politically incorrect fun casting that role. Maybe
SYTYCD's Mary Murphy could be the voice of the whale, which would explain Ahab's obsession to shut it up permanently.
Posted Jul 19th 2009 11:04AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, Reality-Free
One of the best parts of this job is the advance copies we get of television DVD sets. In short: Holy frak! The
final set of Battlestar Galactica episodes is awesome.
Minor spoilers follow...
There are those who liked the ending and those that didn't. I didn't like the lack of explanation of Kara's return from the dead and found the finale generally anti-climactic. But the series set a high standard and, overall, it's a minor complaint. In most ways, the series is perfect and far better than most of us deserve.
I'll give them this: the people who make the show know their audience ... that audience being nerds. Nerds like information. Hence, the DVD set is full of extras and special features. These include deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and extended versions of episodes, including the three-part finale, "Daybreak." And every episode (let me repeat that::
every episode) has podcast commentary by Ronald Moore.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 - DVD review
Posted Mar 6th 2009 11:54PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E18) I know it's a little late in the game to make this sort of observation, what with the show having only two episodes left, but if I were to compare characters in this show to characters in
Gilligan's Island, I would say that Six is Ginger, Eight is Mary Ann and President Roslin is Mrs. Howell. Adama would naturally be the Skipper and Tigh would be Gilligan. I'm still working on Mr. Howell and the Professor.
In the beginning of the episode, either in someone's fantasy or projection or reality, Hera is moving the Galactica in a position next to the enemy Cylon fleet. Foreshadowing?
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Islanded in a Stream of Stars
Posted Feb 28th 2009 4:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E17) Before I go all spoilery on tonight's episode, what was the tattoo on Starbuck's back? It looked like a temple of some sort. Was it the Temple of Five?
Tonight's episode had its share of "what the frak" moments. It had some revelations, but it created more mystery than it solved. I was a little annoyed at the tease of learning the secret behind Starbuck's resurrection that ultimately didn't happen.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Someone to Watch Over Me
Posted Feb 21st 2009 3:03AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E16) We've reached "The Final Five" on a few levels. Ellen Tigh is back, and it's good to know that despite being part of a species with a potentially infinite lifespan, she still gets jealous when her husband has a baby with someone else.
The minute Ellen came back, I knew the baby would miscarry. I believe it was Tigh, as one of the Cylon progenitors, that was keeping the unborn Liam alive (if the Cylons do in fact need love to survive). Once Ellen came back, it caused conflicting feelings and the baby was done for. I wonder if Caprica Six will try to exact revenge as a result and we'll see a Cylon catfight.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock
Posted Feb 14th 2009 1:46AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) Like so many TV shows before it (such as
24),
Battlestar Galactica is built on those "what the frak" moments in which the revelations continue to astound us. Between those WTF moments, there has to be some sort of explanation as to why the moment happened and the events leading to those moments. They're not as much fun, and rabid fanboys have a tendency to nitpick the frak out of them, but they're necessary to the narrative. Tonight's episode was heavy on exposition and light on WTF.
Obviously, we learned that Ellen Tigh resurrected (no surprise there) and she was apparently in charge of the project from 2000 years ago which created the human-style Cylon race. I didn't even catch all of the explanation. The following is what I did understand:
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: No Exit
Posted Feb 7th 2009 12:52AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E14) It is impossible to have a bad episode of
Battlestar Galactica. Even a bad episode is better than most of the other crap on TV. Fortunately, this was the opposite of a bad episode.
Obviously, there was no question about how this entire coup was going to end. Our heroes have way too much spunk to let little worms like Gaeta and Zarek control their ship for long. This is actually a rare case on the show of a neat wrap-up of a plot-line (and since we only have six episodes left, we'll probably see more wrap-ups, some of which might be neat).
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Blood on the Scales
Posted Jan 24th 2009 10:00AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E12) "There are days when I really hate this job." - Admiral AdamaRon Moore's directorial debut! It was a good one (although not as good as last week). It probably helped that he also wrote the episode.
A long-nagging question of mine was answered in tonight's episode: if Cylons can't procreate and Tyrol was a Cylon, then how could he have a kid with Cally? The answer was that the kid wasn't his. It does leave the question of Tigh and Six's baby. Can the Final Five procreate with other Cylons? And who is that guy that is the father of Cally's son? I didn't recognize him. Has he appeared previously? This plot point seemed out of the blue. Also, they seem certain that Tigh is the father, but could it possibly be Baltar instead?
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: A Disquiet Follows My Soul
Posted Jan 17th 2009 3:16AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E11) Note: technically the
Razor television movie counts as the first two episodes of the season, so this is actually episode 13. And what an episode it was! It answered the biggest question from the viewers and in the process created a few more.
FYI, the episode title is taken from the folk song
"Goodnight, Irene", which pretty much fits the theme of the episode.
I really liked Mary McDonnell's acting in this episode. I felt heartbroken at her breakdown upon discovering the remains of Earth and her inability to share the information with the fleet. Whenever things get bad, at least we're not on the run from homicidal machines with our last great hope for sanctuary a radioactive wasteland.
On to the spoilery bits!
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Sometimes a Great Notion
Posted Dec 12th 2008 5:27PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Reality-Free, Webisodes
Pity Felix Gaeta. First, he was almost shot out of an airlock. Then he lost a leg. Now, it looks like he's in for one long, terrible day in "The Face of the Enemy," the 10-part
Battlestar Galactia webisode series that premiered today on
SciFi.com.
Click through for more,
somewhat spoilery, info about the first chapter of "Enemy," written by Jane Espenson and
Seamus Kevin Fahey. You'll also find the full webisode schedule and a larger version of the new Season 4.5 poster featuring Starbuck's, er, chest after the jump.
Continue reading New Battlestar Galactica webisode, poster now online
Posted May 16th 2008 11:55PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E07) I'm going to go out on a limb (no pun ... oh hell, pun intended) and assume it's not a huge spoiler to mention the fate of Gaeta's leg here, before the jump. Most people in last week's poll thought it was "as good as gone," and they were right. The songs Gaeta sang in the infirmary, along with the haunting music of
Bear McCreary, were very well done. While we have some minor (and sometimes major) characters dying episode-to-episode, not so much feeling has been put into them as has been with Gaeta's amputation. Sad, yet beautiful.
OK, that was a bit creepy, but you get where I'm coming from.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Guess What's Coming To Dinner - VIDEO
Posted May 9th 2008 1:02PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
I was in the shower thinking about
Battlestar Galactica the other day. The thought occupying my mind was: Who is the final Cylon? That is the big mystery this season, after all.
The writers of
BSG have a huge challenge in choosing the final Cylon. They already shocked us with the season finale last year when we learned that Tigh, Chief, Torre and Sam are Cylons. Who could possibly be more shocking than that? The final Cylon can't be some character who suddenly appears this season and has a major role, just so he/she can be the final Cylon. I truly doubt it's either Pres. Roslin or Adm. Adama because that might be too over-the-top and therefore unbelievable. Of course, the writers could easily take us there over the season and make it shocking, yet believable. (These
BSG writers really do rock, don't they?)
So, I thought about it. And here are the five characters who would make a shocking final Cylon:
Continue reading Five possibilities for the final Cylon
Posted May 2nd 2008 11:54PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) It looks like Sci Fi took to heart some of the complaints over last week's online preview. This week they weren't so vague, making it crystal clear how much of a preview we were going to get. If nothing else, I could skip over the first ten minutes of the episode when it aired on TV.
As we heard tonight, the mission of the Demitrius is nearing the end of its 60-day mission, and there's noticeable tension on-board. Two months doesn't really seem all that long, but then I got to thinking -- what is a "day" to the humans as related to Earth time? Are we to assume Caprica has the same cycles as Earth? I know, I'm digressing here, but I do wonder how they differentiate a day amongst all of the different colonies, then simply say "a day" on Galactica. Most likely they have a military-set definition for it.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: The Road Less Traveled - VIDEO
Posted Apr 18th 2008 11:01PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E03) At the conclusion of
last week's episode, I made mention of how quickly things were moving along, specifically with the Cylon Centurions' evolution. I thought for sure things would settle down this week, but they gave me a surprise. Hell, I think they gave everyone a surprise. Sorta.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: The Ties That Bind - VIDEO
Posted Apr 11th 2008 11:06PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E02) Let me start out by saying that
Sci Fi airing these episodes online at noon is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing that we all get to see our favorite show well ahead of time. It's a curse because it's smack in the middle of a workday for some (though at lunchtime) and at the start of a workday for others. There's no pausing or rewinding, so if you get a bad connection or miss something, you still need to tune in that night to keep up. Not that that's such a bad thing, really, but man it's frustrating.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Six of One - VIDEO
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