Miniseries, Part 1

Welcome to Galactica Watch!

Each week I'm will be watching 2 episodes of the 2004, reimagined BSG and writing my thoughts about them here. For the first two weeks, I'll just be talking about the first and second parts of the Miniseries that proceeded the television show. Please join in the conversation in the comments below!

Highlights/Moments of Revelation

• I was impressed with the first scene after the opening once on board the Galactica. Immediately after watching it, I went back and watched it again, and checked that it was in fact a 3 minute continuous shot. I find these kind of opening shots both effective and impressive, in this instance because of all the characters and story aspects that are introduced in a relatively short space of time and at the same time give us a sense of orientation onboard the ship which I guess is going to be the setting of much of the series.
• In this future, there’s a lot of (literal) paperwork. We are told by the guy giving the tour around the ship that “you’ll see things here that look odd or even antiquated to modern eyes” because the ship is designed to be resistant to infiltration from ‘the enemy’. Is this why people still wear glasses too? I can’t think of any other science fiction future in which people still wear glasses, but I like this one for doing that.*
• Helo: it’s Paul Ballard (from Joss Whedon's Dollhouse), but with a completely different voice!
• What’s a gimble? Stop saying gimble!
• The moment when the Minister of Education went to ask the Captain whether the rumors that Caprica had been nuked were true and held on to his shaking hand as he passed her the paper really touched me. I think it was perhaps at this point that I suddenly became invested in what would happen to these characters.
• The Minister needs a Priest to accept the presidency? Really? No utopian secular future is this.*
• Loved the visuals for the FTL jump right at the end, and also the idea that doing it could be dangerous and is used only as a last resort surprised me nicely.*
  

Thoughts

Overall, I loved the set up of this first part and am eager to know what happens next. The idea of beginning the story on the day that one of the flagships is being commissioned and then it ends up being one of the only surviving ships left to the Human race was just great. This could go in so many directions, and that scope is what I find really exciting; I have no idea what’s coming! 

The whole thing also went against some of the preconceptions I’ve developed about science fiction futures, most of which are shown with an asterisk (*) above. There were a few tidbits, however, that made me think of other science fiction, notably the use of sir to address both men and women (in Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Janeway is routinely referred to as such), and this substitute swearword frak that we hear a couple of times, which was very Farscape - it made me smile! 

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I’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts on this first part of the miniseries (remember to keep them spoiler-free, please) when you first saw it and if you think I missed anything really important, so please leave a comment below. Thanks!