April 4, 2008
Battlestar Galactica! 0
I’ve never been a fan of the sci-fi shows. I will admit it, I’m probably the only geek I know that have not finished a season of Star Trek, okay, scratch that, I don’t think I have watched more than 3 episodes of Star Trek in a given season, and no, I do not know what the heck happened to all those space-ships. Hmmz, maybe I should brush up on my Star Trek pop culture before the end of the year so I can sit through the new movie without asking questions every 10 seconds.
Anyways, thanks to my friend Dan Hadi, I’m now addicted to Battlestar Galactica. We were in a conversation about soundtracks, actually, and he told me that BSG had a pretty good soundtrack. At first I was all “Are you serious?”, but I decided to watch the show one night anyways because the mini-series was up on Space, and now I’m totally hooked, and not just cuz Grace Park makes my motor rev.
The space battles are pretty fun to watch. Firstly, they’re realistic, because the sounds are muffled, as they would be in airless space, which adds a tension to what’s going on. ‘Realistic’ because the dogfights are tactical in nature, resulting in some spine-tingling aerial maneuvers by Captains Apollo and Starbuck, like Apollo’s last-minute saving of the day in the original mini-series, when he took two Cylon missiles off the civilian passenger ship he was escorting. When the soon-to-be-president asks “Where the hell is our escort,” and the camera switches to a first-person view behind the missiles, and Apollo comes in fishtailing with his thrusters’ heat signature attracting the attention of the missiles that were heading for the passenger ship, it makes for thrilling viewing.
The panic and tension that occurs every time yet another cold, calculating, roving-red-eyed cylon ship appears is only part of the fun. There’s the complex relationships between Captain Lee Adama and his father, Admiral William Adama; the silent agony of President-by-default Laura Roslin — who it is established early on in the first few minutes has cancer; Gaius Baltar, who may or may be mankind’s worst nightmare, or ultimately the key to their liberation; Kara Thrace, the woman whose nickname is ‘Starbuck,’ flipping the script since the original series’ Starbuck was a man; likewise, the new ‘Boomer’ is Sharon Valerii, another woman taking the place of the original series’ male counterpart. Each one of these characters is complex and deep, and each has secrets that are slowly revealed throughout the course of the series, making for great drama in addition to the great action.
The show also deals with some controversial politics. An episode featured humans as suicide bombers against the cylons, who’s the bad guy now!? What does it mean when your friend you’ve known all your life realized that he/she was a Cylon? The depth of exploration in social issues and implications on BGS is really what makes this show worth watching (And I haven’t even delve into the religion aspect of things yet).
As for the soundtrack, yes, I agree with Dan, it is quite fantastic. I especially like the mini-series, instead of opting for bombastic scores in the style of John Williams, it follows the style of Tan Dun (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and uses a percussion driven score that creates quite a contrast and ample of tension with the action on screen.
I’m in the process of finishing up season 3 and Razor at the moment, obviously not going too well with the whole crazy week and exam thing, but I will definitly catch up this summer. Seasons 4 premiers tonight for those of you that follow, if not, start watching! It’s one of the smartest show on TV in the midst of all these reality shows.
