Thursday, March 15, 2012

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica

For any of you sci-fi TV fans out there :D. Especially if you watch the show :D

-American military sci-fi fiction series, part of the Battlestar Galactica series
-Developed by Ronald D. Moore as a revamped version of the 1978 series, which was created by Glen A. Larson
-The series first aired as a 3 hour miniseries in Dec. 2003 on the Sci-Fi Channel and ran for 4 seasons, ending on March 20, 2009







-The show features Mary McDonnell, Edward James Olmos.
-The basic story of the show is set in a distant star system, where humans live on a series of planets called the Twelve Colonies. In the past, they were at war with a cybernetic version of themselves called Cylons. With the help of a human named Gaius Baltar, the Cylons launch a sudden sneak attack on the Colonies, devastating the populations. The ones aboard civilian ships survived, the only military ship that survived is the Battlestar Galactica ship. That ship is under management by Commander William "Bill" Adama(Olmos), and President Laura Roslin(McDonnell). They take the small crew of the Galactica and lead it's fleet of survivors to a refuge known as Earth.












Did you Know?
-In his cabin, Commander Adama has a shaving mirror made by IKEA
-The original version had Viper weapons firing red lasers and the Cylons firing blue lasers. This one has both ships firing actual bullets
-The rank structure for the Battlestar Galactica goes like this:
  -Admiral
  -Commander
  -Colonel
  -Major
  -Captain
  -Lieutenant
  -Lt. Jr. grade
  -Ensign
  -Enlisted: Master Chief Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Petty Officer Galactica. This closely resembles the ranking system of the Marines. This also reflects the fact that there are Marines on board this ship.
-In the beginning of season 3, Jamie Bamber did actually gain the weight for the role. Instead a body double was used for some of the close up shots of his rounded stomach and Bamber wore a jowl forming brace in his mouth.
-To give her better understanding of a rape victim, Tricia Helfer watched the film Two Women to prepare for her role as Gina, the captive Cylon
-The name 'Adama', the last name of William, Lee and Zak, means "ground" or "Earth"
-In order to look like Lee Adama's father, Edward James Olmos, whose eye color is normally brown,  had to wear contact lenses with blue irises so he could look more like Bamber, who has blue eyes
-Kerry Norton, who plays the character Layne Ishay(Doc Cottle's medical assistant) is the real life wife of Jamie Bamber(Lee "Apollo" Adama). When Bamber had to put on an incredibly accurate American accent, Norton was able to use her own British accent for the character











History
-Unlike most sci-fi shows, this show has no aliens, the bad guys are man made robots. The survivors are led by President Laura Roslin and Commander William Adama.
-The stories deal with the apocalyptic fallout and the war with the humans robotic selves and also show the concept of hate, violence, and religion with the idea of a "God" whose angelic agents help out on behalf of the main characters.
-The final episodes show a character named Kara Thrace leading the surviving humans and Cylons to a new planet, which is said to be Earth, where the colonists land in Africa. Adama names the new planet Earth as a tribute to the "real" Earth of legend. The idea of Earth they had was a devastated wasteland that was uninhabitable by nuclear fallout.

Characters

Edward James Olmos: Commander William Adama
-Commanding officer of the Battlestar Galactica
If you look close at his eyes, they are blue. The reason for that is because William Adama is the father of the character Lee Adama. Since Jamie Bamber has blue eyes, Olmos had to wear special contacts with blue irises to match Bamber's blue eyes. Normally Olmos' eyes are a deep brown

Mary McDonnell: President Laura Roslin
-Senior survivor of the former colonial government, was the Secretary of Education before the colonies were destroyed

Katee Sackhoff: Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
- Galactica Viper pilot

Jamie Bamber: Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama
-Son of William Adama

James Callis: Dr. Gaius Baltar
-Intelligent Caprican scientist

Tricia Helfer: #6, a Cylon

Grace Park: #8, a Cylon, aka a Galactica Raptor pilot

References to modern society
-This show is considered to be a look at the war on terror, with religious fundamentalists(Cylons), sleeper cells, prison torture scandals, etc
-The show has also handled the issue of terrorist sleeper cells with stories involving the fear of Cylon suicide attacks

Episodes






1 comment:

  1. I never really watched this series, though it does look interesting.

    -James

    ReplyDelete