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fandomhigh_ooc2007-02-04 06:30 pm
cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2007-02-04 06:30 pm
Entry tags:
Spotlight on Fandoms: Battlestar Galactica (New Series)
Er. Just to clarify right off. It is a "reimagination" of the original, you see.
So anyway, myself,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dbiers, hera_rises, and sogothcally make up Fandom's current contingent from BSG, all of the above characters being from the new series, as adapted from Glen A. Larson's original concept by Ronald D. Moore, formerly of Star Trek TNG, DS9, and Voyager, as well as Roswell and Carnivale. The funky bit? Out of all the above characters, Laura Roslin is the only regular. We loves us our minor and recurring characters here. Not being familiar enough with the original series, which isn't represented here at the moment anyhow, I'm only focusing on the new one.
The Premise
BSG, the RDM version, began with a two-hour miniseries that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2003. It chronicles the apocalyptic nuclear strike against the humans of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the mechanical Cylon race. As the story goes, the Cylons were created as robotic servants, but eventually developed sentience and rebelled, triggering the long conflict known as the Cylon War. After armistice was reached, the Cylons left the Colonies to form their own civilization.
Twenty years later is where our story picks up.
The Galactica is the oldest of the Colonial Defense Fleet's battlestars -- gigantic, heavily-armored space carriers -- and is about to be decommissioned. Serving aboard Galactica is not prestigious save for the honor of serving under Commander William Adama, a veteran of the Cylon War, who is himself about to retire. The ship's crew are far from being the cream of the Fleet's crop.
That all changes when the Cylons appear out of nowhere on the day of the decommissioning ceremony and nuke the Colonies. Out of a population of millions, only about 50,000 survive, and only by the dubious luck of having been somewhere out in space when the attack happened. The Fleet is wiped out, leaving only an outdated battlestar and its less-than-stellar crew to protect the survivors.
Grim, yes? Yes. BSG is unrelentingly bleak. And politically loaded.
Colonial history and religion say that when humans first were exiled from the planet Kobol, thirteen tribes set out. Twelve formed the Colonies, named after the signs of the zodiac, and the thirteenth was lost and supposedly ended up on Earth. The miniseries ends with the "ragtag fleet" setting off in search of Earth, and the series picks up where that left off. (By the way, if you're thinking that this sounds kind of like something out of the Book of Mormon you'd be right; Glen A. Larson was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and his faith heavily influenced many themes in the original series.)
There's just one thing that complicates matters: not only are the Cylons pursuing them all the way, but they've developed twelve human-form models who have infiltrated the Fleet. There are multiple copies, and while seven models' identity has been disclosed to the fleet, the final five are still an unknown quantity.
So anyway, without going into the storylines, what you have here (at least in theory) is an ongoing tale of the survivors' quest for Earth, and all the crap they run into along the way.
The Characters - And There's a Ton
Links go to Battlestar Wiki entries, which will contain spoilers through the most recent episodes.
William Adama (Edward James Olmos) -- The commander of the Galactica and, by default the Fleet. He's stubborn, loyal to a fault, and has the gift of being able to command the respect of his crew without effort.
Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) -- Once the Secretary of Education, she became President of the Twelve Colonies when the 42 people ahead of her in the line of succession were all killed in the Cylon attack. At the beginning of the miniseries she has just been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and is a very hesitant leader, though her leadership qualities get stronger as the series goes on.
Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) -- Adama's XO, a crusty alcoholic who most of the crew kinda hates. He's honest, often painfully so, and very loyal, although he's extremely hard on people, most of all himself. Despite his drinking problem, he's a good officer and tactician, unafraid to make tough decisions. A little too tough, sometimes.
Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber) -- Bill Adama's son, who always blamed his father for the death of his younger brother Zak, who wasn't fit to be a Viper fighter pilot but tried to be one anyway for his father's sake -- only to die in a routine maneuver shortly after flight school. Lee is uptight, by-the-book, prone to extended fits of overwhelming emo, and quite frankly a schmuck. Oh, and he's the CAG -- Commander of the Air Group, and an excellent Viper pilot.
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) -- Kara is also an ace Viper pilot, but in counterpoint to Lee she's reckless, brash, and occasionally insubordinate, having ended up in the brig a few times. She drinks, smokes, gambles, punched out Tigh once . . . Kara was engaged to Zak Adama, and bears the guilt of having been the flight instructor who passed him even though she wasn't fit, because of personal feelings. She's also severely emotionally dysfunctional and can be a massive bitch.
Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) -- A brilliant scientist who designed the Colonial defense system and is responsible for the nuclear attack because he thinks with the wrong head and let the blonde (Cylon) bombshell he was screwing get access to the defense mainframe. He has extremely shaky morals and ultimately only looks out for himself, no matter whose side he's currently on. For a brief time, he won the Presidency from Laura Roslin.
Number Six (Tricia Helfer) -- The aforementioned blonde bombshell, different models of whom play various roles in the series. A version of her frequently appears to Baltar, and although it's unclear whether she's actually a chip in his head or a product of his own damaged psyche, she does seem to be guiding or driving him toward a goal. Other versions of her have gone by the names Shelley Godfrey and Gina. She's a bit complex to explain, so I'll refer you to the linked BSG Wiki article.
Sharon "Boomer/Athena" Valerii (Grace Park) -- A rookie Raptor (sort of like a Blackhawk helicopter) pilot at the beginning of the miniseries and unaware that she's a Cylon, she constantly fought against her sabotage programming but ultimately succumbed to it and was dismissed from the Fleet for her actions. A different copy of her was assigned to seduce Karl Agathon, became pregnant with his child as a Cylon cross-breeding experiment, and eventually returned to the Galactica with him. Like Number Six, Number Eight is complicated to explain, so again, see the linked article.
Karl "Helo" Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett) -- A Raptor ops officer who gives up his seat to Baltar when he and Boomer rescue a small group of survivors from Caprica shortly after the attack. He falls in love with the Number Eight model assigned to seduce him, and after they're both rescued from the planet by Kara, ends up marrying her. He seems a little slow, but he's competent, loyal, and very sweet. But like with most characters on this show, his loyalty can be a fault.
Aaaaaaaand that's all the major characters. *whew* What, you think I'm covering all the recurring characters? No, just the three we have here at Fandom.
D'anna Biers (Lucy Lawless) -- Cylon model Number Three, who makes her first appearance as a somewhat tabloidy investigative reporter doing an exposé on the Galactica. She's very strictly devoted to the Cylon religion. In Lucy Lawless's words: "She's like the ultimate narcissist. She believes that she is the pure form, so she is constantly trying to bring everyone else in line with her worldview." Again, the multiple copies play multiple roles and are hard to explain, so . . . clicky Wiki link!
Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) -- Former captain of the Caprica Buccaneers pro Pyramid team, he manages to survive the nuclear holocaust and ends up leading a guerilla resistance force. He falls in love with Kara Thrace while she's on Caprica on a mission to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo, and when she comes back to rescue the survivors they end up getting married. (This? This is my OTP, people. SERIOUSLY. OMG. *points to icon*) He and his resistance fighters now act as a sort of complement to the Fleet military. He looks insanely hot in sleeveless shirts and for some reason goes running around in tank tops when everybody else on screen is bundled up in jackets.
Cally Henderson (later Tyrol) (Nicki Clyne) -- Yeah, I know, you're probably looking at that name and going BUH? Nobody had any idea for about the first two seasons whether Cally was her first or last name. So finallysogothcally, FH's former Kara-mun, and I were at a BSG con, asked the writers at a panel, and then went, "Aw crap, jossed." She's a Viper and Raptor mechanic on Galactica's deck crew, and only joined up to pay for dental school. In fact, she was just about to finish her term of service and get honorably discharged when the Cylons attacked. Now? Well, not so much. From the beginning of the series it's pretty obvious she's got a thing for Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol, her boss, who's involved with Sharon Valerii at the time, but . . . well, it would be spoilery to give all that away.
BSG? Gimme gimme!
The second half of season 3 is currently running on the Sci-Fi Channel, in the WTFWHYDIDYOUMOVEITHERE time slot of Sunday night at 10 PM. It used to be on Fridays at 10. We liked it much better then. *grumps*
Aaaaaaaaand that's all from me. We, uh, sort of didn't get around to coordinating a group-written post in time, so I am actually putting up OCD in this post so that my fellow BSG players can chime in when they can.
So anyway, myself,
dbiers, hera_rises, and sogothcally make up Fandom's current contingent from BSG, all of the above characters being from the new series, as adapted from Glen A. Larson's original concept by Ronald D. Moore, formerly of Star Trek TNG, DS9, and Voyager, as well as Roswell and Carnivale. The funky bit? Out of all the above characters, Laura Roslin is the only regular. We loves us our minor and recurring characters here. Not being familiar enough with the original series, which isn't represented here at the moment anyhow, I'm only focusing on the new one.The Premise
BSG, the RDM version, began with a two-hour miniseries that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2003. It chronicles the apocalyptic nuclear strike against the humans of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and the mechanical Cylon race. As the story goes, the Cylons were created as robotic servants, but eventually developed sentience and rebelled, triggering the long conflict known as the Cylon War. After armistice was reached, the Cylons left the Colonies to form their own civilization.
Twenty years later is where our story picks up.
The Galactica is the oldest of the Colonial Defense Fleet's battlestars -- gigantic, heavily-armored space carriers -- and is about to be decommissioned. Serving aboard Galactica is not prestigious save for the honor of serving under Commander William Adama, a veteran of the Cylon War, who is himself about to retire. The ship's crew are far from being the cream of the Fleet's crop.
That all changes when the Cylons appear out of nowhere on the day of the decommissioning ceremony and nuke the Colonies. Out of a population of millions, only about 50,000 survive, and only by the dubious luck of having been somewhere out in space when the attack happened. The Fleet is wiped out, leaving only an outdated battlestar and its less-than-stellar crew to protect the survivors.
Grim, yes? Yes. BSG is unrelentingly bleak. And politically loaded.
Colonial history and religion say that when humans first were exiled from the planet Kobol, thirteen tribes set out. Twelve formed the Colonies, named after the signs of the zodiac, and the thirteenth was lost and supposedly ended up on Earth. The miniseries ends with the "ragtag fleet" setting off in search of Earth, and the series picks up where that left off. (By the way, if you're thinking that this sounds kind of like something out of the Book of Mormon you'd be right; Glen A. Larson was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and his faith heavily influenced many themes in the original series.)
There's just one thing that complicates matters: not only are the Cylons pursuing them all the way, but they've developed twelve human-form models who have infiltrated the Fleet. There are multiple copies, and while seven models' identity has been disclosed to the fleet, the final five are still an unknown quantity.
So anyway, without going into the storylines, what you have here (at least in theory) is an ongoing tale of the survivors' quest for Earth, and all the crap they run into along the way.
The Characters - And There's a Ton
Links go to Battlestar Wiki entries, which will contain spoilers through the most recent episodes.
William Adama (Edward James Olmos) -- The commander of the Galactica and, by default the Fleet. He's stubborn, loyal to a fault, and has the gift of being able to command the respect of his crew without effort.
Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) -- Once the Secretary of Education, she became President of the Twelve Colonies when the 42 people ahead of her in the line of succession were all killed in the Cylon attack. At the beginning of the miniseries she has just been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and is a very hesitant leader, though her leadership qualities get stronger as the series goes on.
Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) -- Adama's XO, a crusty alcoholic who most of the crew kinda hates. He's honest, often painfully so, and very loyal, although he's extremely hard on people, most of all himself. Despite his drinking problem, he's a good officer and tactician, unafraid to make tough decisions. A little too tough, sometimes.
Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber) -- Bill Adama's son, who always blamed his father for the death of his younger brother Zak, who wasn't fit to be a Viper fighter pilot but tried to be one anyway for his father's sake -- only to die in a routine maneuver shortly after flight school. Lee is uptight, by-the-book, prone to extended fits of overwhelming emo, and quite frankly a schmuck. Oh, and he's the CAG -- Commander of the Air Group, and an excellent Viper pilot.
Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) -- Kara is also an ace Viper pilot, but in counterpoint to Lee she's reckless, brash, and occasionally insubordinate, having ended up in the brig a few times. She drinks, smokes, gambles, punched out Tigh once . . . Kara was engaged to Zak Adama, and bears the guilt of having been the flight instructor who passed him even though she wasn't fit, because of personal feelings. She's also severely emotionally dysfunctional and can be a massive bitch.
Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) -- A brilliant scientist who designed the Colonial defense system and is responsible for the nuclear attack because he thinks with the wrong head and let the blonde (Cylon) bombshell he was screwing get access to the defense mainframe. He has extremely shaky morals and ultimately only looks out for himself, no matter whose side he's currently on. For a brief time, he won the Presidency from Laura Roslin.
Number Six (Tricia Helfer) -- The aforementioned blonde bombshell, different models of whom play various roles in the series. A version of her frequently appears to Baltar, and although it's unclear whether she's actually a chip in his head or a product of his own damaged psyche, she does seem to be guiding or driving him toward a goal. Other versions of her have gone by the names Shelley Godfrey and Gina. She's a bit complex to explain, so I'll refer you to the linked BSG Wiki article.
Sharon "Boomer/Athena" Valerii (Grace Park) -- A rookie Raptor (sort of like a Blackhawk helicopter) pilot at the beginning of the miniseries and unaware that she's a Cylon, she constantly fought against her sabotage programming but ultimately succumbed to it and was dismissed from the Fleet for her actions. A different copy of her was assigned to seduce Karl Agathon, became pregnant with his child as a Cylon cross-breeding experiment, and eventually returned to the Galactica with him. Like Number Six, Number Eight is complicated to explain, so again, see the linked article.
Karl "Helo" Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett) -- A Raptor ops officer who gives up his seat to Baltar when he and Boomer rescue a small group of survivors from Caprica shortly after the attack. He falls in love with the Number Eight model assigned to seduce him, and after they're both rescued from the planet by Kara, ends up marrying her. He seems a little slow, but he's competent, loyal, and very sweet. But like with most characters on this show, his loyalty can be a fault.
Aaaaaaaand that's all the major characters. *whew* What, you think I'm covering all the recurring characters? No, just the three we have here at Fandom.
D'anna Biers (Lucy Lawless) -- Cylon model Number Three, who makes her first appearance as a somewhat tabloidy investigative reporter doing an exposé on the Galactica. She's very strictly devoted to the Cylon religion. In Lucy Lawless's words: "She's like the ultimate narcissist. She believes that she is the pure form, so she is constantly trying to bring everyone else in line with her worldview." Again, the multiple copies play multiple roles and are hard to explain, so . . . clicky Wiki link!
Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) -- Former captain of the Caprica Buccaneers pro Pyramid team, he manages to survive the nuclear holocaust and ends up leading a guerilla resistance force. He falls in love with Kara Thrace while she's on Caprica on a mission to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo, and when she comes back to rescue the survivors they end up getting married. (This? This is my OTP, people. SERIOUSLY. OMG. *points to icon*) He and his resistance fighters now act as a sort of complement to the Fleet military. He looks insanely hot in sleeveless shirts and for some reason goes running around in tank tops when everybody else on screen is bundled up in jackets.
Cally Henderson (later Tyrol) (Nicki Clyne) -- Yeah, I know, you're probably looking at that name and going BUH? Nobody had any idea for about the first two seasons whether Cally was her first or last name. So finally
sogothcally, FH's former Kara-mun, and I were at a BSG con, asked the writers at a panel, and then went, "Aw crap, jossed." She's a Viper and Raptor mechanic on Galactica's deck crew, and only joined up to pay for dental school. In fact, she was just about to finish her term of service and get honorably discharged when the Cylons attacked. Now? Well, not so much. From the beginning of the series it's pretty obvious she's got a thing for Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol, her boss, who's involved with Sharon Valerii at the time, but . . . well, it would be spoilery to give all that away.BSG? Gimme gimme!
The second half of season 3 is currently running on the Sci-Fi Channel, in the WTFWHYDIDYOUMOVEITHERE time slot of Sunday night at 10 PM. It used to be on Fridays at 10. We liked it much better then. *grumps*
Aaaaaaaaand that's all from me. We, uh, sort of didn't get around to coordinating a group-written post in time, so I am actually putting up OCD in this post so that my fellow BSG players can chime in when they can.
Additional Stuff
Re: Additional Stuff
It seriously wins for its intelligent parallels to real life history and even modern day issues, but it sometimes gets drowned in character emo.
And now, a series of random silly comments.
Lee is cooler when he's fat.
Cally is the BSG whipping girl.
The orange jumpsuit is akin to the Star Trek red shirt.
More doctors need to smoke in the infirmary.
Ellen Tigh is made of win.
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Re: Additional Stuff
Re: Additional Stuff
Everything Else
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Wanna come to hell with me?
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Oh hell yes.
Pun intended.
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Fighting Agathons OTP!
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(The Fighting Agathons would be an awesome band name.)
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And now I have bizarre mental images of, like . . . "He's leeeeeeeeaviiiiiiiiing on the midnight plane to Picon!"
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*knows the most random crap*