BSG: What!! 2008!!!

[Engine]

Space: Above and Beyond

or

Spend millions on highly-trained space fighter pilots, and then give them a pistol and tell them to fight a ground war against alien supersoldiers

[Charon]

Space: Above and Beyond

or

Spend millions on highly-trained space fighter pilots, and then give them a pistol and tell them to fight a ground war against alien supersoldiers

LOL. Yes, and of course, BSG has also gone this route with Lee and Starbuck.

Charon

[Engine]

Really ruins the immersion, huh.

For "the best show on television", you'd think they'd spend a little extra money and have all those Marines you see everywhere on Galactica actually do something besides guarding doorways.

[Chairboy]

Do something?  Like what, picking up trash?  I think Jerry Seinfeld did a bit on that about New York police.  In the environment they have there, they're limited to training and guarding, and presumably the guarding is the more visible activity because the president isn't chatting at whatever part of the ship is Cramped Pendleton.

[rpm]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Get to the running battle!!! That was the core of the original BSG and now it seems to be a way to end an episode they are having trouble wrapping up.

[Chairboy]

The original series lasted 17 episodes.  There's a limit to how long you can keep the running battle going without it getting stale.

[rpm]

Versus how long you can keep you male core audience tuned to a soap.

[Charon]

The best regular episode for me, and the one that I found a really good Science Fiction vs. Sci Fi concept was where they had to jump every 30 minutes because they were being tracked. The basic Science Fiction element was exploring the reality of the unlimited endurance of the machine vs. human biology in the military environment. Plus there was tension and excitment.

I don't mind the soap elements and exploring the "new society" (also a core in real science fiction) as long as it is executed in a believable manner.

Btw, I actually wrote for a "soap" at college as one of 8 writers for two semesters that was acted and filmed for local cable. I went to Columbia College in Chicago, which has a strong television and communications program and this course offering integrated multiple disciplines in a real world environment. It was amazing how "Hollywood" the directors and some of the actors became in their attitudes But, as a writer it was a lot of fun and somewhat less formula driven than the real thing.

I also went though a Science Fiction writing class under Phyllis Eisenstein, a well published but not “big name” science fiction and fantasy writer. She imparted the difference between “sci fi” (Battle of Midway in space) and pure intellectual science fiction (exploring the dynamics of future cultures and technology). I’m a fan of both, liking Star Wars as much as (but in a far different way) the works of Clarke or Heinlein. However, the sci fi has to at least have basic believability and logical actions/interactions.

Charon

[Xargos]

I was always fond of Babylon5.  Kosh was the so cool.

[Engine]

Originally posted by Chairboy
Do something?  Like what, picking up trash?  I think Jerry Seinfeld did a bit on that about New York police.  In the environment they have there, they're limited to training and guarding, and presumably the guarding is the more visible activity because the president isn't chatting at whatever part of the ship is Cramped Pendleton.

I don't mean on the ship, Chairboy. I was referring to the ground-action combat scenes, where you have your most important characters unrealistically fighting a ground battle against trained enemy soldiers. The captain of a ship (Picard), or highly-trained space fighter pilots (Lee Adama), should not be involved in storming an enemy base to rescue hostages.

My point was that this kind of thing was prevalent in "Space: Above and Beyond", and really ruined the immersion because it was so nonsensical. For a show as well-made as BSG, they should really use those marines for the ground battle-type scenes, instead of inserting main characters with rifles into those scenes just for budgetary reasons.

Hell, make a new main character who's the Marine SpecOps Tactical Ultra Hostage Rescue guy, and just use him if you have to.

[Slash27]

Originally posted by Charon

Although ST-TNG was too politically correct 1990s new age for me,
 

That coupled with the Enterprise being low bid piece of crap. Its seemed 90% of the time the "NCC-1701-D" was put in some kind of altercation or stand off, weapons were "offline" or knocked out by a single hit from the enemy. That got a little old. Seems the E is a far better ship.

[Viking]

Originally posted by Xargos
I was always fond of Babylon5.  Kosh was the so cool.

"And so it begins"

[Charon]

That coupled with the Enterprise being low bid piece of crap. Its seemed 90% of the time the "NCC-1701-D" was put in some kind of altercation or stand off, weapons were "offline" or knocked out by a single hit from the enemy. That got a little old. Seems the E is a far better ship.

And the ability of Jordi to "McGuiver" a new warp drive or trans flux stasis combublator in 30 minutes about every episode only using a toothpick and rubberband.

Jordi: It's going to take three weeks Captain to get it back online...

Picard: I need that up in 30 minutes!

Jordi: That's going to be tight, but will do!

Charon

[Slash27]

[FiLtH]

Like sands through the hourglass...so are the days of our lives
(cue music)