Saturday, August 15, 2009

Breaking Radio Silence

T.V. shows are about to pick up again (Mad Men tomorrow - yay!) but right now, I have something to say about an article e-mailed to me by not one, not two, but FIVE people. A man by the name of Bryan Singer is going to helm yet another version of Battlestar Galactica.

My main argument was just going to go like this: No Mary McDonnell, no Edward James Olmos = NO DICE. But I suppose I have to be a bit more articulate than that, so here we go.

Battlestar Galactica (the re-imagined version) was by no means flawless, but it was epic. It was more than a sci-fi show, it was more than 'space drama', and certainly it was more than a campy show with special effects. Ron Moore and crew took this 80's (okay, late 70's) show and turned it into a show about the struggle of what it is to be human and why we deserve to survive as a species. The show didn't exactly end where I would have liked or where I think it could have gone creatively, but after 75 episodes with maybe…five or six out of those that just feeling like complete misses, there were too many that were poignant, meaningful, and carry a resonating message. I don't feel like the story needs to be told over again from anyone else's writing perspective yet. The dust hasn't even settled on my DVDs, and Bryan Singer wants to have a shot?


I'm all for people having their own ideas, hell, that's how BSG got done again. But in Singer's case it feels like he's more upset that instead of being the one to helm the re-imagined series, Ron Moore took over when Singer got busy with other things and was (probably) too nervous to start penning an idea for a show about the end of the world after September 11, 2001. So now that Ron Moore's show is over he can finally say: 'OKAY LOOK AT MINE NOW. LOOK WHAT I CAN DO'. It's like a case of sibling rivalry gone awry, only it's between two people who had the same idea about a sci-fi show.


Now, I know what most people are saying as far as having yet another re-imagined version of the 80's show. Ron Moore got a lot of flack from hard core fans of the original show and hated him for even attempting to do it. Even one of the original actors, Richard Hatch was against the idea. So yes, I know that people are looking at this the same way. However, there is one key difference between what Moore did, and what Singer is going to (attempt) to do:


There was a twenty-five year gap between re-toolings. Twenty five years is a long time for people to miss something. It takes about that long to think to yourself 'Hey, you know what would be kind of cool? If someone did that one show again'. However, FIVE MONTHS is pushing it more than just a little bit. That means this was being talked about as early as last year before the show was even done shooting its final episodes. It would be like someone now saying 'You know, I realize LOST isn't even done with its final season yet, but in January of 2012, we're doing it again!' WHY IS THAT NECESSARY? I mean, I realize there are absolutely zero new ideas in Hollywood, but this is ridiculous.


To wrap up: Bryan Singer is hoping to cash in on a show that was re-done extremely well. I think that fans loyal to Ron Moore's version won't be quick to embrace this idea after such a short period of time. I don't wish anyone to fail in Hollywood because God knows I'm trying to get a writing job in L.A. or New York, but I do wish Singer would take a step back and realize that he had his chance, and he didn't take it. Let it go, and talk to the fans again in twenty-five years or so.

EDIT: I'm editing to include a source for this article. Sorry about that; this is the link to the actual Variety article.

3 comments:

Brianna Bertrand said...

Amen to basically everything you said here. It' ridiculous, and I'm hoping it doesn't happen--that it was more of an offhanded, not-too-serious comment or something like that. It wasn't perfect, but I doubt anyone could really, truly do it any better, and doing it so soon is downright retarded.

Unknown said...

I agree Completely, Not only you have the original fans will Crab you re-imagined fans that will frakking really crab!!!
Its way to soon~ Years to soon to even begin to possibly see another.
I Think it is going to Bomb IMHO. We are too just ingrained and loyal to our characters and actors to even conceive of another version~ yet this is going off of the original
Not only will the characters themselves will have different personalities, we will be missing some and adding some and not to mention who is going to play what ~ some people I can't even imagine in the roles
I say do something else too. It eventually was not meant to be his success and if he didn't grab it, that is just the it goes sometimes.

Anonymous said...

Word. Just so much word, here. I had read that someone was thinking of re-doing BSG and it just blew my mind. When people started thinking about re-doing buffy (which ugh don't get me started), I (and a lot of other fans) thought that was too early. And Buffy's been done for...nearing its sixth year. BSG hasn't even been given ONE. It's just truly deranged and the series is WAY too fresh in everyone's minds. He definitely wants to cash in on the hype.