Wired: Fans Battle TV Over Galactica

Wired News ran a piece I wrote on the fan-versus-network flamewar over the 25th anniversary of science fiction TV classic Battlestar Galactica. Lots of stuff launches around the anniversary: DVD box sets of the original series and of the feature film in October, a new prequel game for PS2 and Xbox in November, an interactive TV prototype, and an all-new "reimagined" miniseries on SciFi channel that debuts in December (a teaser preview runs on SciFi channel during the August 8 Tremors season finale).


[co-Executive Producer David] Eick said it won't feel like conventional science-fiction television, and cites inspirations as diverse as the film Black Hawk Down and the vintage Atari arcade game Asteroids. "We considered seriously how space travel might happen. In outer space, objects in motion remain in motion. You can't bank against a gravitational pull. There's a sense of organized chaos, you have to turn your craft around and fire jets in the opposite direction to slow down — just like the old games. When we were developing the show, I ran around telling everyone, 'Remember Asteroids! Remember Asteroids!'"

An introduction by
Moore on the new series' website indicates they're
shooting to transform more than a miniseries. The statement reads like
Dogme 95 for the
entire sci-fi television genre.

"Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science-fiction television series," Moore's statement reads. "We believe you can explore adult themes with adult characters and still tell a ripping good yarn. We believe that to portray human beings as flawed creations does not weaken them, it strengthens them … We believe that science fiction provides an opportunity to explore our own society, to provoke debate and to challenge our perceptions of ourselves and our fellow Man. If you agree with us, then this is the show for you. If not, then thanks for coming, but the popcorn is in a different aisle."

Update: This very cool e-mail just came in from Jay Woelfel, the man who co-created the BSG "revival" trailer which ultimately led to this new miniseries being produced, though in a completely different fashion, and by another team:

Thank you Xeni Jardin for mentioning that filmmakers helped Richard Hatch
make the trailer that started the Battlestar revival effort in a major way.
I Co-Directed the trailer with Richard Hatch and worked long and hard
on
it along with many other filmmakers with whom I'd had a long standing
relationships with to get it done. Regardless of this, the trailer has too
long been written about as being Richard's Fan trailer and it's great to finally have someone give a more balanced view of how it was made. I hope someday the trailer all of us made is available outside of the convention circuit so potential viewers can really see what we all were trying to do with a new Battletar Galactica.

I wish the mini series well and am glad that the revival effort lead to at
least one new long-form Battlestar for audiences to watch. Thanks again, Jay Woelfel (Co-Director)

Link, Discuss