Battlestar Galactica

(c) Sci-fi.com

After waiting for a year and hoping that they would go through with a series, the new Battlestar Galactica premiered in the US on the Sci-Fi channel tonight. I watched the mini series, which was shown December 2003. It was better than I had expected. At the time, it was just going to be a mini-series and if it was successful, it would be a pilot to a series. It took them a little longer than expected, but they finally decided to go through with a series. They got the cast back together and began production.

Unfortunately for US viewers, we have to wait a few months before we could see it. For some reason the UK actually got the series first! Imagine that.

Sci-Fi chose to air two episodes together tonight. The first episode, “33” takes place about 5 days after escaping from the cylons. Since they made their escape, they were being followed. Every 33 minutes after a jump, the cylons would show up and attack. Imagine having to run around a track once every 33 minutes for 5 days straight. In the second episode, “Water,” a series of explosions causes Galactica to loose most of their water reserves.

I don’t know if this was done on purpose, but “33” seemed to have some kind of in-joke regarding the original BSG. Did anyone else notice that they used footage from the mini-series? Images of the cylon fighters launching from the base stars, the combat landings, and the missile trails were clearly lifted from the mini series. Was this an acknowledgement of the original BSG continually using the same fx shots?

The side story regarding Helo on Caprica is pretty interesting. I like it for now, although I’m not sure what they are going to do with it in the future. It at least shows that humanity on the twelve colonies is not completely wiped out. There, he with Boomer #2 and I am interested to see what plans the cylons have for him.