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Battlestar Galactica Season One DVD [Originally published on N:Zone in 2005] This is not your parents' Battlestar Galactica. I can't say enough good things about this show. It's dark and adult, and it keeps me guessing. It ties with Lost as my current favorite. Sometimes I think I like Galactica even more than Lost, and that's saying a lot. Long time Star Trek alumni Ronald D. Moore is the creative juice behind Galactica. He specifically wanted to create a series that was different than Trek, that emphasized human drama, and he most certainly succeeded. There's a gritty, documentary-style look to Galactica. The universe we see is real and believable; the visual effects exist to frame the drama, not overwhelm it. Galactica is accessible to anyone who likes a good story, not just fans of science fiction. Actor Jamie Bamber (Apollo) says in one of the DVD features that, when he first became aware of the project, he wondered why they hadn't tried something new instead. "But then I read it," he says, "And it is new." He's right. This series is so different from the original 1978 version that it caused a massive backlash among some original series fans; the casting of women as Starbuck and Boomer was particularly controversial. But frankly, I wouldn't be watching this show if it was anything like the 1978 version. I think they made all the right decisions. And wow, did they get some damned fine actors. The stories on "Galactica" are character driven, and the cast is simply excellent. I love them all, but of course, I have a favorite: the talented and charismatic Katee Sackhoff, who plays Starbuck. The DVD The season one DVD is a five disk set that contains the original four-hour miniseries pilot and all thirteen episodes from season one. The first episode of season one, "33", won a Hugo for best dramatic presentation, by the way. Ron Moore's "podcasts" from the Sci-Fi Channel's web site are included as commentaries on nearly every episode, and they're all interesting and well-done. It would have been nice to have actors and more than one director involved in the commentaries, but they all contribute to the special features, and I'm seriously not complaining here. There are several features on disk five. The biggest is a one-hour "Behind the Scenes" feature that covers the creation of the series, executive decisions made about the storylines, the changes they made in the Cylons, and how the Galactica universe would look. (Like all really good television shows, nothing on Galactica happens by accident.) A second twenty-minute feature, the "Battlestar Galactica Series Lowdown," was my favorite feature; it shows all the actors, including guest star Richard Hatch (who played the original series Apollo), talking about their roles and about the show. There are also deleted scenes and a section on the artwork. I have one complaint, though. The miniseries was released alone on DVD awhile back, and had a couple of interesting features of its own. My favorite was an interview with original series star Dirk Benedict and new series star Katee Sackhoff in a coffee shop. Yes, that's Starbuck and Starbuck, at Starbuck's. Unfortunately, the new release doesn't include it, even though it does include the miniseries. C'est la DVD, I guess. If you're a fan of the series, there's a lot on this DVD set to love. If you haven't seen "Galactica" yet and you love good sci-fi, I strongly recommend that you buy or rent it, and do your best to catch up with the season two episode (running now on the Sci-Fi channel) before the series starts up again in January. I'm convinced that Galactica is a new science fiction classic. Do yourself a favor: don't miss it. |
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