Battlestar Galactica (2003) Retrospective/Review - Battlestar Galactica Retrospective, Part 2

In the late 1970s, the epic space opera Battlestar Galactica debuted to strong ratings and box office success. However it was largely dismissed at the time as a shallow Star Wars ripoff and was cancelled after a single season. However a cult fan base continued to celebrate the series and over the years they wishes for a continuation. Battlestar Galactica would eventually return in 2003, but not in the form anyone expected.

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00:00 Squarespace Ad
01:06 Intro
02:09 Origins
06:14 Development
08:21 Casting
14:38 Production
16:56 Fan Backlash
19:12 The Mini-Series
29:45 Season 1
32:01 The Hand of God
33:54 Adama and Roslin
37:25 Kobol's Last Gleaming
39:29 Season 2
43:25 Pegasus/Resurrection Ship
47:27 Weaker Episodes
47:50 Downloaded/Lay Down Your Burdens
50:45 New Caprica
55:28 Season 3
57:25 The Son Also Rises/Crossroads
1:02:54 Season 4
1:06:12 Daybreak
1:10:43 Conclusion
1:12:31 Outro

#battlestargalactica #RowanJColeman

[Johnny_Cameron]

Tigh's "Not all of them" and Baltar's "I know about farming.." lines are delivered so perfectly.

[AlwayzFresh]

It was 2006 and I was leaving in 3 days for my first tour in Afghanistan. I wandered through the DVD section in Walmart desperately looking for a multi season sci fi series. Battlestar Galactica both intrigued me and made me laugh at the name.

By the end of the tour My family was sending me the remaining seasons in the mail.

Me and a few troops would get back from patrolling the streets of Kandahar and gather around a tiny potable DVD player in my bunk to watch a new episode. On my leave home, midway through the tour, I had a few shirts made that said "your mom's a Cylon" on the back. The boys loved them lol. Great memories in trying times.

[ghost-in-the-ciel]

I think James Callis might be the best actor on the planet and he doesn't get enough credit. The range of humanity that he perfectly played as Baltar is unmatched, from hysterical scenes like "I am not your plaything!" to gutwrenching ones like "I am not a murderer!". Fucking bravo dude

[kathyastrom]

Felix Gaeta’s character arc over the series’ run is one of my two favorite in all of the tv series I’ve watched in full. (My other favorite is in the Buffyverse.) They took a sweet, naïve young officer and utterly broke him over four seasons, and did so in a completely believable way. Alessandro Juliani was terrific in the part.

[Gengh]

Hiring Edward James Olmos was one of the best casting decisions ever made.

[Kujakuseki]

Apollo’s speech on the witness stand is probably my favorite scene of the entire series. It’s so sobering and we’ll written.

[HoldandModify]

Of all those shows I worked on at Zoic. BSG was the most special and fun. Firefly was endearing and a bit “closer to home” for us as we cut our teeth on it, essentially. BSG mini and then the series was just an amazing experience. Thanks for this series sir!

[EragoEntertainment]

I saw it late, around 2012-2013 when I was around 15-16. I loved it. It was such a great show.

At the time I was already a huge Stargate fan. I liked how Battlestar Galactica just felt different, more grounded, though from today's perspective the setting does seem weird, like if we somehow created AI and FTL drives in the 90s and didn't progress our technology anywhere else.

Though all of science fiction has this problem, the technology almost always ages badly and having a 90s aesthetic actually aged better than the sets of Star Trek NG.

[christheghostwriter]

Edward James Olmos demonstrating how he would faint on camera if he saw a "four eyed" alien was hilarious

[dhaucoin]

I was at a small SF con in Massachusetts, with Richard Hatch as one of the Big Guests, just as Season 1 of the reboot was gathering interest.
I was wandering around, and bumped into Apollo himself. We chatted a few moments, and I'd told him I just couldn't pull the trigger on the new show. I'd heard of his fight for Second Coming, and the reboot well, 'wrong'.
He sympathised, and agreed, to a point. But he explained that the reboot was as much a labor of love as his sequel. He'd just been cast as Zarek, and he really sold me on the new show.
I mean, hell. When Captain Apollo Adama tells you it's not only okay to like the show, but actively campaigns for well, fuck yeah, you're gonna give it a shot.
Never looked back, man.

[rickbase]

I just rewatched BSG all the way through since it ended in 2009. It has aged well. I also binged The Expanse recently and I really noticed how influential BSG was on Expanse WRT to space travel and the actual physics of traveling through the solar FTL of course.

[RafaelSantos-pipy]

To this day, that scene where starbuck starts playing the piano with the help of her father and "All along the watchtower" kicks in does not fail to raise the hairs on the back of my neck. The soundtrack was amazing.

[Hurbie_]

As per usual THE benchmark for proper review of a show/movie. Highly entertaining and yet highly informative and very detailed. Much kudos and a big thanks for another masterpiec for this late found but highly treasured gem of a SciFi show.

[nunayobiz]

Olmos not winning an Emmy was criminal, he was BRILLIANT!

[josephraffurty]

“All Along The Watch Tower” being a central plot device to the final five, Kera, and the 4th season is one of my absolute favorite plot devices. They could easily just shoe-horned in the original arrangement of the song like a lot of shows and movies do with their popular music selections. But having a re-arranged version that isn’t fully introduced as a completed work of music with motifs from the arrangements fragmentary placed within scenes, is perfect. I love how Keira sits at a piano in one episode trying to figure out what tune is stuck in her head and trying to bring it to life. I fully relate to her in that moment. And the arrangement by McCreary also makes the composition feel like it was written by an ancient human somewhere in this grounded world the show tried to create. It also helped reinvigorate my interest in the show. Don’t get me wrong, season 3 was great, but the darkness of that season was getting a bit heavy for me and wearing me down and made me want a break (I was binging it). The music plot thread of “All along the Watch Tower” helped me feel like rasch episode of season 4 was a mystery I wanted to try to solve, I.e it made me want to watch the next episode to see if we would learn more about the origin of the music in Kera and the final fives’ heads. Just loved, though being a musician probably makes me biased. LOL

[RapidCityJM]

The finale - Bill and Laura especially - never fails to make me weep like a child.

[kildogery]

It's ironic that this version of BSG ended up more mystical than the original.

[antoniograves]

I remember binge watching the entire 4 seasons over 2 weeks and having to get up for class in morning. Loved the show.

[craig.a.glesner]

Can’t lie, I was sold hard when Col. Tigh lays the truth on Chief “There’s no rookies after today.”, and the vents the damaged compartments as you do in battling ship fires in space combat.

[jimkirk]

Grace Park's Athena was the standout character for me. Truly noble and courageous. She was far and away the most compelling person of the series. Boomer and Athena were nothing alike showing the Cylons had the potential to grow beyond where they started making them fascinating. They weren't just 2D villains.