15-IX-2009.
The blogue today is not about software! It's SF.
Galactica vs Galactica
I watched the first Galactica on b/w TV. It really didn't look good at all, what with the gleam of centurions' bodies being dull gray. But the sound came through alright. The flat voices of Cylons were such a bad idea then, and the whole idea that they would speak among themselves, in ersatz human at that, was stupid then, and time hasn`t helped it any. Why would a robot army also be so slow in communication (and at drawing their guns - um, why draw at all?) and yet capable of generally wiping out the human worlds, and then again incapable of shooting a dozen fighter vessels?
Other voices came through as well, unfortunately. All the kids had the same disneyfied singing intonation that I never liked (still don't, now that we're here and I heard it so often - though mostly on TV, which we cancelled, so not as much recently), all the kid plots revolved around the same few ideas (kid needs a dog, kid loses a parent, kid gets starry eyed given a chance to be a hero/pilot/engineer when HE grows up - of course, such a chance is never presented to a girl , kid learns to be brave etc etc all the same as it ever was), the acting overall was no better than in commercials, which was pretty obvious immediately below the top five roles. I've seen amateurs acting better.
As a kid I was crazy about 'Lost in space', but cooled down the moment they introduced their first cowboy, in episode 6. Galactica One got there faster: as early as episode 8 there are cowboys, a saloon... but the first two episodes took five slots, so that's actual #5. The plot thinnens so rapidly, the cliches are introduced immediately after the first few pilot episodes...
Of course, the actors feel embarrassed. Dirk Benedict is the only one who seems to be having fun, the others look like they hope nobody is watching. Greene as Adama is stiff and unable to find his voice, still halfway across the galaxy between Bonanza and whatever he was supposed to do with this role. And there is The Kid (and actually worse than Wesley, this one is Kid With A Dog which Gets In Trouble Every Time The Same Way). Still annoys me. Why? Well, every series dies a little death as soon as the writers run out of fuel, and start recycling. Specially works bad on SF, because SF is all about original new stuff. If you don't have much of a budget, I don't care, seeing the same finger on the same trigger shooting the same animation for the 45th time doesn't bother me. Seeing the same plot, which requires only pen, paper and some thinking, for the 100th time, does. If you think your job is storytelling, then give me a story. SF? New story, then.
All in all, Galactica One is exactly the kind of stool which inspired T Sturgeon to make a law. It cares much more for the laws of TV than those of SF. It was innovative in a few things, but not enough. Specially coming after both Space Oddyssey and Star Wars, this attempt of revamping the "X against the Y from Z!" fifties-style zap-em-all level of SF served only two good causes: one, that nowadays a few people can feel nostalgic** about that (not me, still irked by the same stuff as then, just worse); two, it gave birth to the real series in 2003.
Which has only one downside so far: too much retelling of the first series (no, I will not say "original", because it was anything but!). Even the idea of the religiously half-sane commander is expanded into two - Olmos as Adama is halfway there, and prez Roslyn is all the way there, plus a few steps beyond. Not to mention that depiction of Cylons vs humans as a religious war (no matter that the humans are pretty secular at that time) is maybe only half as lame as the stated reason for the first war (which I can't even remember, and I watched that episode a week ago). This whole religion thing is maybe a simple way to weave a long plot, specially for an audience which will allow any suboptimal plot if only it "references biblical motives". Which makes it this case interesting - the audience is, at times, tempted to switch sides, with the religion of the Cylons being closer to theirs, while the humans are just as lax with their gods as the viewers are.
Sticking point #1, Cara Thrace as Starbucks. IMO, despite Dirk Benedict being the only actor who seemed comfortable with his role and did it as right as possible*, Cara is about ten times more alive (and the number is likewise between three and nine for the others. And the new Galactica not only respects the laws of SF (well mostly, with a serious nod to gentlemen like one Newton, Ciolkovsky), but doesn't give much for the laws of TV. They smoke. Girls beat guys and vice versa. Working class exists and fights for their rights. There's a very plausible explanation for how Baltar manages to escape suspicion so many times - the old one was surrounded by gullible morons. The Cylons (old and new) are much more real - and the old ones don't speak (they heard my rants!). The people are dirty, they complain about smells, the stuff stays unrepaired, or once repaired doesn't necessarily look like new. Things rigged do look rigged. Over the last 20+ years, SF has achieved some sort of realism.
In the end, kids don't get that much air time, and when they do, they speak normally, not like Beaver. And no dogs. SF on TV has grown up.
p.s. It's a bit late, though, TV is more or less dead, killed by its sales department. Maybe they'll make a new one some day. I'm not sorry about the old.
(*) "od govana se pita ne pravi" - one doesn't make pie out of shit
(**) I may be nostalgic of many things, but pretty much most of SF on TV before TNG (yes, including TOS!) is not anything to slash my veins for.
Of course, by the time the discs for the final episodes arrived from Netflix, I grew more and more disillusioned. Consistent styling, camera work etc still can't patch the gaping holes in the logic. Then I watched those final episodes with authors' comments (they sit and watch what they made, and comment things when they see them, so it's as if you're sitting with them while watching), it turned out they had no clue how to wrap it up. For the last Cylon among the crew, they actually pulled the name out of the hat and went with it, wrote the rest around that. And for the final one (what with chemtrails on Earth's sky 150000 years ago, so much for SF realism), with dr Baltar and Cara Thrace being actually angels (!) and all that using a god as a deus-ex-machina (both being a big no-no in SF), I just flushed the crapper and never looked back.
In Feds I added display of current version of the exe in the status line, so we'd know when we hook up somewhere, because asking the users about it was useless, they wouldn't know where to look. This way we see it right away, even on screenshots. On the squad meeting, plus the tech call, Laura bothers me about the insertion of the replies in the merged text of a questionnaire, which was a triper by itself already. Now how to make it simple for the users... Eventually, it looked as on the screenshot.
During the meeting I ran upFeds, made the 5.2.32.10, then ran out to the post [office]. Don't remember why, guess there were no more kvormers (v. house dictionary) to send by then. Daniel scheduled me for tuesday to talk about the Matcher (like Lab, just much simpler).
Even Geoff has a problem, and Das asked him „did you try putting the date into american standard format between apostrophes, e.g. '2009-12-31'? Should work.“ Well, didn't.
Mentions: blogue, Daniel Berton, Feds, Geoff Gearney, house dictionary, Lab Intro, Laura O'Hare, Mohandas Raj (Das), triper kombinacija, upFeds, in serbian
5-IV-2026 - 8-IV-2026