Did the New Galactica jump the shark?

I just finished watching the Season 2 finale and...

BadBender...

Maybe. I wonder if a show can jump the shark by going so long between
seasons.

videonovels...

.

(puzzled look) It's only been ONE DAY since I watched it. Try a
different theory. ;-) My REAL complaint is about the sudden
multi-year fast-forward in the plot. It just feels odd.

Mauro...

As has been mentioned by both me and others, it was only a one-year
fast-forward, just for the record.

SPOILERS

Ken from Chicago...

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videonovels...

.

So that would mean it took the New galactica 2+ years to accomplish
what the Old galactica did in only 5 episodes. Is this supposed to be
an improvement? (laughs)

What's with this sudden fast-forward several years through time? They

jayembee...

Why not? Do you believe that this isn't a legitimate narrative
device? If so, why?

DaffyDuck...

You might want to pay more attention, especially when there's text on
the screen that says 'One Year Later'

Quiet Desperation...

It's called "surprising the viewer". It's a good thing.

Dunno... I still enjoy the whole 3 hour Friday block. Not sure what all
the moaning is about.

jayembee...

Except that they are *not* "restarting the series".

copeab...

That's how it feels.

DaffyDuck...

Tough.

Weren't you leaving?

Kweeg...

Haven't you left yet?

copeab...

Why should I leave rec.arts.tv?

videonovels...

2 hours. SG1/SGA. Then they repeat.

Quiet Desperation...

I count BG in the "3 hour block"

videonovels...

.

The 3-hour block no longer exists. Where Sci-Fi Friday used to be:
8 - SG1
9 - SGA
10 - BSG

Nwo it is:

Mark Nobles...

7 - Night Stalker

8 - SG1
9 - SGA
10- SG1 (repeat)
11 - SGA (repeat)

Mark Nobles...

12 - old SG1 repeat
1 - Battlestar Galactica

It's now a TWO-hour block. If you can not acknowledge this obvious
change, then you're a.... to borrow a phrase from Fred Foreman...
"dumbass".

Mark Nobles...

Do you, perchance, mean Red Forman?

videonovels...

.

Doubtful. SG1/SGA will be in reruns, and probably shoved to some
late-night slot, or even a completely different day, while BSG airs at
8 or 9 p.m.

The old "3-hour friday block" from last year no longer exists.

basically took the whole premise of the show (living on board a ship &
fleeing the enemy), and threw it out the window. Is the New Galactica

kitekrazy...

If they didn't it could get quite boring. I remember how DS9 started
getting boring because they stayed at one place and the trouble came to
them.

jayembee...

That's a basic (very basic) description of the overall plot, but
as the series wore on, it became obvious that the show was about
much more than just "living on board a ship & fleeing the enemy".

going to turn into some kind of "POW's trapped on a planet"-type
story-telling?

erilar...

If that's the case I won't be watching it at all. It was bad enough
before.

Impmon...

[snip]

They did the same thing with Galactica 1980, skipped a lot from the
original series and left children and some people behind on Earth.
The show sucked royally.

Mauro...

If the show had not skipped forward a year, then we would have been
subjected to a year worth of them establishing themselves on the planet with
things slowly going downhill under Baltar's mismanagement.

By skipping ahead a year, we get to miss all that, get right into the Cylons
showing up, and probably get back into the original premise of "living on
board a ship & fleeing the enemy" within three or four episodes.

In other words, skipping ahead a year actually keeps the show from changing
into the "trapped on a planet" show.

I hope not.

Grimm-RHD...

When I saw the ending, I immediately thought they could have just ended
the season with the Nuke destroying half the fleet. They didn't need
the fast-forward. They could have come back and began Season 3 on
planet...months down the road.

While I disagree with the ending, I do think it has a purpose. And
that purpose is to finally break Baltar away from Galactica, and align
him with the Cylons...litterally...like the original.

To some extent I also hope they bring the "Beings of Light" into the
3rd Season.

DaffyDuck...

Ugh... Might as well bring on COunt Iblis.

I'd hope, not!

David B...

spoiler for season 3

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The New Caprica arc is only going to last a handful of episodes. Eventually
the Galactica and the fleet will resume it's search for Earth.

David Barnett...

A handful is too much for me.
A thumb and finger -ful wouldbe enough.

Clell Harmon...

It could work... Maybe they'll have tunnels, and maybe an over weight
Cylon will go about saying that he scans nothing.

Wouldn't it be worth the price of admission to see Dean Stanton with a
Swagger Stick under his arm peering through a monocle going
'ADAMMMAAAA!' just once?

Michael Bowker...

could dress in tight black leather and threaten the Commandant with the
the spican front.

Maybe that can work, but the sudden change in direction feels as
jarring as when Earth Final Conflict fired its lead actor, fired most
of the writers, and switched from Ongoing Serial to "a different short
story every week". And that was not a good thing. It sucked.

jayembee...

Perhaps, but the show wasn't all that good to begin with. And

videonovels...

(spews out of mouth) WHAT??? EFC's first season was the strongest
first season ever produced for a sftv show.

jayembee...

Not even close.

Bart Van Hemelen...

Yeah, if you ignore the bad acting, the terrible scripts, the boring
stories, etc.

take note of what you said: "fired most of the writers". That's
not the case with BSG. I see no reason to believe that the same

videonovels...

Well, BSG's first season was nothing to brag about..... they might
revert to that terrible quality.

jayembee...

Well, I disagree. With the exception of a couple of episodes ("Tigh
Me Up, Tigh Me Down", for one), I thought the first season was
terrific. "33", "Bastille Day", "Flesh and Blood", and the 2-part
"Kobol's Last Gleaming" were all extraordinary pieces of work.

Now the intial mini-series wasn't all that great, but I was
astonished at the improvement between that and the series proper.

Stephen Fairchild...

Total agreement there, the miniseries was surprisingly not a
dissappointment. 33 had me hooked and Resistance had me obsessed.

writers will do just as well with this new direction as they
did with the old one.

As I said back when this finale originally aired: I liked it.
We now have an inkling of what it's been like for the Colonials.
Their lives were going along their merry way, when WHAM! -- all
of a sudden, their lives turned upside down. Everything they knew

videonovels...

Good point.

Maybe it was a mistake to watch the new galactica.

Maybe like the 4400, it has derailed.

videonovels...

.

Not really; I can keep myself busy watching older, never-seen shows
like Farscape or Hercules (other shows I boycotted until I heard people
say "worth seeing").

jayembee...

The concept of HERCULES being "worth seeing" is mind-boggling.
Another wretched, and inexplicibly popular, show.

Maybe like Lost I should have boycotted it, until after I heard someone
say "those five years were well spent" or "those five years really
sucked". I've received enough disappointment from prematurely-canceled
Earth 2 & Space A&B..... plus the ruined concepts of EFC and Andromeda.
----- I hope BSG is not about to become yet another "wow that was a
waste of time" disappointment, now that it's suddenly jumped the shark.

Yeah I'm pessimistic.

But I can't help it. It FEELS as though the show suddenly derailed.

Ken from Chicago...

Or you could trust the writers and TPTB behind the show for the past several
years that they have some clue as to what they're doing, maybe at least
enough to wait until AFTER seeing the new episodes before condemning it.

Or, if merely the concept of it is so distressing, in the words of Edward
James Olmos, don't watch.