ROUNDTABLE: Your Own Private Battlestar

Welcome to the Republibot Roundtable, the feature in which people you’ve never heard of (Like me!) discuss things you don’t care about! (Like Battlestar Galactica). Our guests today are MOATMAI, a German reporter and cartoonist; Neorandomizer, a frequent contributing writer to our site, and of course our old buddy Church, who occasionally contributes reviews. Thanks for being here, guys!

QUESTION # 1:

Let's say it's 2003, and you're the guy who gets the job of bringing back Galactica, rather than Ronald D. Moore. Which way would you go about it? Would it be a Reboot or a Continuation of the old show?

MOATMAI:

It surprises me a bit that I would say this, but: I probably would reboot the series. That was one of the few things Moore got right.

NEORANDOMIZER:

I would reboot the show, one of the things I really enjoyed about the new Battlestar was that the Galactica felt like a real warship and the crew was more like the people I served with when I was in the navy.

CHURCH:

I think neither, although Richard Hatch's concept intrigues me, and I would watch it. I suspect a decent approach at this point would be a comedy. An easy idea is "Joe's Bar" meets "Cheers." But that's just off the top of my head. I think I'd go with Sandeep(sp?) of "Legend of Neil" to direct. (And yeah, it'd probably have to be cable or web.)

REPUBLIBOT 3.0:

Continuation. It’s the only way to be fair.

QUESTION #2:

For those of you who said "Reboot," explain why.

MOATMAI:

The old show carries too much baggage; you'd have a hell of a time ret-conning stuff and trying to give meaningful explanations to things which are just bad (or rushed) writing. Also, you have to deal with the fact that all those youthful heroes from the old show now are...well, OLD. Yeah, Jane Seymour still looks fetching and everybody else is still in good shape for their age -- but again: for their age. Also, the gravitas of Lorne Greene was a crucial pivot point for the old show. You can't just recast him and leave the others be.

NEORANDOMIZER:

Well like I said before the feel of the new show was more realistic. The original had great ideas hampered by the light and sometimes campy style of TV in the 70’s and 80’s. The story of the survivors of the colonies needs to be a dark and gritty story. This allows the heroes to seem more heroic and the villains to be truly evil. It also allows the struggle to be a more shared experience with people being able to project themselves into the story of the fleet and their fight for survival. It recalls the spirit that must have been part of the shared experience of people that live through the Second World War, were the grunt on the front lines and the factory worker at home were of equal importance to the survival of the nation.

CHURCH:

It's a bit soon to do a reboot of a reboot. A different reboot is a different thing. We're getting to the limits of the english language here...

QUESTION #3:

For those of you who said "Continuation," explain why. And would Galactica 1980 figure into it at all?

MOATMAI:

If the old show were to be continued, one would have to continue it from the last episode of Galactica 1980. I think