Battlestar Galactica- Miscellaneous

[Spaced Out Looney]

Place for stuff that doesn't fit in a particular episode thread.

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Bear McCreary, the composer for Battlestar Galactica, has a blog. Fascinating if you're a fan of the musical scoring.




The words for the main title (yes! those are words!) are as follows:

The Gayatri Mantra, sung in Sanscrit:

Aum bhoor bhuwah swaha,
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasaya dheemahi
Dhiyo yo naha prachodayat

Translation:

Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

[Shan]

By the way, Galactiheads: I have a part ready to be plopped into place for the new episide tonight.

Also, I finally registered over at Galacticabbs.com. There's some cool stuff to check out. Their site is quite extensive and is partnered up with some other fansites, BSG as well as other sci-fi related fandoms. It's pretty well organized and they have their spoiler/NO spoiler areas very clearly defined, so it's not scary like that.

Also, there are lots of images - screencaps from past (and in the spoiler area) future episodes as well as plenty of avatars, videos and "coming soon" audio clips. After I registered, I PMd one of the head techs and checked to see if they minded me/us using their future-caps for part starters, and got answered with basically "Hey, feel free! It's all for the fans!"

[Rachael]

From Salon.com's "I Like To Watch", this week (by Heather Havrilesky):


First things first: Why in the world did "Battlestar Galactica" (10 p.m. Sundays on SciFi) switch to Sunday nights, when it was the one show that I actually watched when it aired (instead of on TiVo) on Friday nights? "Battlestar" is the perfect Friday night show for deadbeats like me who want to rationalize their crusty, shut-in existence. What goes better with Thai delivery and weekend geekery than glowering robots and hot space pilots in love? And why oh why does everyone crowd onto the Sunday night schedule? Somebody hop on over to Monday or Friday already!

Onward. I love "Battlestar Galactica," I do. But Lordy me do I grow weary of Gaius Baltar! First there were those repetitive and increasingly grating scenes last season where Number Six circled Baltar seductively, endlessly whispering about what his next move should be, as the same staccato, suspense-building piano chords were pounded -- brutally, mercilessly -- over and over and over again. Each time another Gaius-and-Six scene aired, it elicited a jittery, violence-prone feeling in me, the kind that could only arise from watching a bad Farrah-seduces-the-criminal scene from "Charlie's Angels" while a caffeine-addled child plays Chopsticks on the piano in the next room.

And this season, Baltar's narrative arc has absolutely flat-lined. After a promising start as the self-serving president of the colonists on New Caprica, Baltar escaped certain death at the hands of his people by fleeing with the Cylons, a move that robbed the eerie machines of at least half of their imposing creepiness. After all, if Baltar can hang with them for a few weeks, they can't be all bad, right? Certainly nothing like the gun-wielding, Nazi-inspired toasters marching through the streets of New Caprica, the ones that sent chills down our spines at the end of last season. Yes, yes, I know that's the point: Who's worse, wishy-washy man or God-fearing machine? But there was still a certain thrill to having the colonists up against a shiny, merciless, mysterious enemy.

I knew things were getting a little sloppy when the writers ripped off that Seer-in-a-tub-of-goo thing from "Minority Report." Yes, having the skin jobs awaken in the goo made some sense, but when they threw the clairvoyant lady into the goo, and had her speaking in catchy, disturbing haikus? It was certainly visually stunning and poetic and memorable on the big screen when Spielberg did it -- a little bit too memorable, in fact, to swipe whole-hog.

But those bad Battlestarians couldn't leave well enough alone! They had to send poor Baltar, with his bloodshot eyes and his veins popping out of his forehead, into the thick of the goo-covered Cylon fantasy. Next comes the plinky, rambling piano music and the long, lighted tunnels; the glowing floors and the big beds in the middle of empty rooms; the dreamlike dialogue and the abrupt jump cuts; and before you know it, every episode of the show is interrupted by 10 or 15 minutes of this aimless French New Wave film fantasy, starring a buggy-eyed, panicked Baltar.

Speaking of which, are you as tired of that look on Baltar's face as I am? You know, his one look: The frantic, darting eyes, bulging out of his head? The scrunched, veiny forehead? How does the man survive, in a perpetual state of panic? And why in the world is he panicked, anyway, when all he seems to do is wander around lighted hallways and lounge about in bed with two hot women?

"Battlestar Galactica" has been fairly uneven this season -- the winter finale, with its never-gonna-happen nuclear standoff, was lackluster at best, and the soapy Apollo-and-Starbuck story line has "Who the hell cares?" written all over it -- but for the most part, it's still a compelling show. So why do we have to sit through this endless Cylon-ship wanking, particularly when it never seems to drive the story forward, and only lessens the sense of mystery and foreboding and fear surrounding the Cylons?

When Baltar almost died last week, I was more than ready to see him go. Kill the guy and let's restore those nasty Cylons to their imposing, fearsome robot selves. They can still have faith in God, and be purer and more deeply ethical than humans are, as long as they have one scary red eye and two gigantic shiny silver man-titties. They can even be skin jobs -- we've still got to meet the "final five" remaining human-look-alike Cylons, don't we? Just keep them away from avant-garde composers and big fluffy beds once and for all.

I agree on more than one point, here. I do tire of Gaius' one-notiness.

[Shan]

I've been looking forward to next week's episode (Dirty Hands)since I read about it. I've been seeing some good lead-ins to it the past few episodes.

*stifled squee*

[Sara]

And now that the season is over, it's safe to share the BSG season three gag reel:

Part 1
Part 2

WARNING! These are most definitely R-rated, and feature a little bit of commentary on our current administration to boot. Consider yourselves warned.

[Sara]

Having trouble keeping everything straight? Try this 8-minute recap of all three seasons:

[Spaced Out Looney]

I thought this was interesting. Someone started a blog about The Science of Battlestar Galactica.

[Spaced Out Looney]

FYI, Bear McCreary adapted his part of his score for Battlestar Galactica into a ballet, called Prelude to War. He talks about it in detail in his blog. It debuted in Germany (you lucky Eu'ropean S'cubies, you) and no word so far on whether it's going to be performed in the US or not.

[artemis]

battlestar galactica held an invite-only panel on tuesday in conjunction with the UN. the new york times had two pieces about it on monday. this is the longer of the two (it was in the weekly "media talk" column of the business section; the other was in the daily "arts briefly" column in the arts section):

March 16, 2009
Intergalactic Representatives at the U.N.
By SAM GROBART

A gathering at the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday will address topics familiar to the international body: child soldiers, terrorism, human rights and religious extremism. Attendees will represent several nations, and one abandoned planet: Caprica.

The Sci Fi Channel series “Battlestar Galactica” will be the subject of a panel discussion involving the creators of the show, two of its stars, Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos, and representatives from the United Nations’ offices of the secretary general and high commissioner for human rights.

How a television series about interstellar travel, ancient prophecies and genocidal robots came to join forces with a terrestrial intergovernmental body relates to the Sci Fi Channel’s philanthropic activities and the United Nations’ efforts to become more media savvy.

The channel, a division of NBC Universal, has worked with the educational nonprofit group ThinkQuestNYC to bring 100 New York City high school students to the event and have them participate in the discussion.

For the United Nations, the event represents the second effort of its Creative Community Outreach Initiative. Announced by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at last June’s Jackson Hole Film Festival, the initiative is the organization’s attempt to “establish partnerships with the entertainment industry to tell the U.N.’s story,” said Juan Carlos Brandt, a spokesman.

Its first undertaking was to allow a television crew to shoot at United Nations facilities this month for an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” about child soldiers.

Representatives from the Sci Fi Channel approached the United Nations early this year. “They came to us and explained that there were themes common to both the show and the U.N.,” Mr. Brandt said, “and that those themes could be discussed here in a serious manner.”

Whoopi Goldberg will moderate the discussions.

Since it began in 2003, “Battlestar Galactica,” based on a TV series from the 1970s, has gained attention for its frank treatment of issues that seem to mirror ones on Earth: resistance fighters who use terrorism to battle an occupying army; interrogation techniques and the rights of prisoners of war; genocide; and weapons of mass destruction. Its final episode will be shown on Friday.

“The show has been a sort of laboratory for the choices and issues real people in governments are making every day,” said Ms. McDonnell, who plays President Laura Roslin on the program. “I’ve had the chance to meet some of those people,” she added. “Many of them are big fans of the show.”

www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/media/16galactica.html