Sunday, October 4, 2009

Battlestar Galactica


I accidentally read about battlestar galactica while i'm reading through mental floss about an author's view of the difference between galactica and the star trek series. i've enjoyed reading this article and become intrigued to watch it.

but then, i was still lazy to search for the torrents myself, therefore i ordered my bro, who's always downloading torrents to search and download for me instead.


then, fate came upon me when i saw met the series' novel at a book sale. i felt very lucky and excited because i wanted to read it and because it's selling at RM5:P.

thus began my novel journey of galatica, the novel itself is the prelude to the tv series. i finish reading the novel in about 3 days time, which set a personel record for me! (usually i may take up months to finish reading one novel,haha i'm usually a lazy reader:P)


The is humanity's last battleship, battlestar galactica.

after finishing the novel, i got even excited to watch the series...i quickly get the copy from my bro and later i download it myself. I'm glad that i've read the novel because the series just went straight into the action and it's quite easy to recognize who's who as i identified them from the novel..and at first sight i notice why the command center is very old fashioned....not high tech at all, then i remember it's because the humans are afraid or can't use advance computing system as they are up against machines. As i watch more... wow..it's very addictive and i just keep wanting to watch more and more.

totally it has 4 seasons. this was actually an award winning and critically acclaimed sci-fi show, strange...but i rarely heard people mentioning here! and yes,after watching, you'll find this series is a sci-fi movies like no other. Like what the mental floss article says, star trek represents the people that we want to be, whereas battlestar galactica is what we really are.

battlestar story takes a darker approach,but then in the darkness,it also potrays humanity survival spirit and examine the fact that what makes us human, and what makes us worthy to survive as a species?


The triangular spacecraft is human's star fighter, -> Viper...sounds cool, but doesn't look cool enough compare to bad guys or starwar's X-Wing. (i remember as a kid, i got all "whoooaaa" when i see the moment X-wing open up their wing in "X" shape before battle:P)

The story's background is a war between humans and their robotic creation,the cyclons. the series starts off 20years after the peace treaty of humans-cylons, suddenly the cyclons appeared and nuked the 12 planets that is inhabitted by the human race...the remaining survival human race flee with what ever spacecraft they have and under the battlestar, they search for a new home, while constantly evading cyclons' pursue attack.

The scoreboard of human race population was 49,000 plus.(this figure keeps decreasing every episode as characters died) wow...imagine that. you don't really feel the impact of the total human loss in Terminator Salvation as it is not put on the board in numbers.


the director takes effort to develop the characters in battlestar, so in a way, every character is interesting, all of them need to make hard and dirty choices. everyone is flawed, like you and me, but they just have to live with it.


and of course, the basic requirement for sci-fi space series is that they must have alot of space battleship gun fights! Yes, and alot of explosions, and u got the commander barking orders around..the launching of star fighter to engage enemy...etc..etc.. and haha, they have plenty of all these juice:)


the cyclons have better fighting machines,as in appearance and performance. human's fighter craft seems like underbudget...haha. but i guess they did it like that as to potray the gaps in technologies.

What i like about the story is that it sort of review life and humanity in ways that i've never thought of before.... e.g.,Is it correct to say that in the law of nature, that parents will eventually need to die one day, so that the child could grow up and pass on the next generation. If parents stay with us forever, we'll never grow up...a simple fact, but i've never though of it that way before!

this statement was used as one of the reasons the cyclons justify by genociding human race is that they think human beings, as their parents must die to make way for them(the children) in order for the child to grow.


Humanity's president - Laura Roselyn, who step up her post from education minister because she was the only minister left....(Air force one did not make it)

It also question humanity right to exist...if compared to the mechanical cyclons. as there is constant strife between humans, even if there's no war to fight, we'll still look for something that differentiates us to fight for. E.g. let's say race A don't like race B. ok, fine, one day race A got annilated. Left race B. What would race B do? Race B find out something that further differentiate themself...and fight on...

our actions and what we do, not just potrays who we are, and as a group, as a civilization it actually determine whether we nutrue our own seed of destruction or a better future. Nevertheless, as long as we're alive, there's always hope. no matter how hard it is. It's sad that many people would only learn their lesson after they have a taste of the bitter truth.


the ladies of battlestar...guess who's a cyclon?:)

oh ya....another important lesson,(this is taken from the article link above which i like to share!)

This basic lesson is one we still haven’t learned: that exploitation leads to exploitation, that if you oppress someone you sow the seeds of your own oppression. “You can’t play God and then wash your hands of the things you’ve created,” says the Galactica’s commander, William Adama. “Sooner or later, the day comes when you can’t hide from the things that you’ve done anymore.”

hmmm...this series, i very very very strongly recommend. especially if you are a fan of sci-fi. you must watch this before you die!

"so say we all!"