Wow, I really liked this. My memory of the original series is rather vague, but the remake is better than I remember the original being. I realized, after watching about half an hour of it, that I've been programmed by decades of Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon Five and other TV space operas to expect things like transporter beams, energy shields, telepathy, and so forth. So it was refreshing to see a space drama that was almost %100 science based. The only concession made was a faster-than-light travel system, and as sf writers we kinda understand why they had to do this. It was also, in my opinion, really well written. There were lots of surprises, unexpected reversals and so forth. The acting and general production values were very good. I would not have been disappointed seeing this in the theater.
My only minor quibble is with Starbuck. I love that she's a woman this time. It's a great way to update the series. But I felt they tried to hard to make her masculine, as if afraid that people wouldn't believe a more natural-acting woman could be a successful pilot. Sort of like when a black woman wins a big beauty pageant, but she's got really light skin and caucasian features. (Oh, boy, I'm going to get in all sorts of trouble now.) Starbuck was a frat boy in a skirt. If she went to my high school, the girls would have eaten her alive. I've known athletic women before, strong women, successful women. In our society, most women of this sort that I've known have been extremely, overwhelming *competent*. They can't afford to screw up, get drunk, get thrown in the brig, etc. But this is the far future, so maybe it's all different. In the end, I think I'd have been happy if they got rid of the cigar. Who smokes cigars anymore? Certainly not young, health-conscious pilots. Well, anyway, liked Starbuck, but she didn't come together for me as well as I would have hoped. I wish, instead of transplanting the original male starbuck into a female body, that they'd reinvented the character more, made Starbuck more organically female rather than...gee, I have a word or two in mind here, but I think I'll keep it to myself. I don't want any bricks through my window.
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