Well, this is it, kiddies… unless SyFy has a change of heart, this is the last we’ll see of Young Adama and a shiny new Battlestar named Galactica. We enjoyed Blood & Chrome, warts and all, and as much as we’d love to see the continuing adventures of Husker, we can see how SyFy didn’t have the kind of faith in this pilot as they did in the original BSG mini-series. What did you think? Let us know!
Be sure you’ve seen the FINAL instalment of Blood & Chrome before you hit play on this SPOILER-ridden BSGcast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH8EDRptVAQ
I hope this becomes a TV series.
I thought that the ‘Dr. Kelly giving information’ plot twist was fairly predictable. They did lead up to it (Dr. Kelly saying Adama would “regret this”, the cylon scanning her data chip, etc.), but the ‘Admiralty let her do that so they could kill more cylons’ twist was unexpected. I really liked that bit.
I have to say, I wish they had left Coker as dead. He showed that he did care about something other than himself. He had greatly influenced Adama. I think if Coker had died, the name “Husker” would have been more meaningful, because it would be a tribute to this man who, while he may not have cared for the war effort, did care immensely about the people behind it, and understood the cost of the war.
I thought they should have left out the female cylon. It seemed to non-canon. Also, it put a definite good guy/bad guy atmosphere in, which takes away depth from the story. Now we know that this war is not a misunderstanding, but is truly something that needs to be fought and won. A little moral ambiguity is good (Roslin rigging the vote, Gaeta’s part in the revolution). The female cylon took that away.
I’m just complaining about some parts. I can’t begin to complement everything or this post would go on far too long. Overall, I’d really like to see this in a TV series.
One has to think that the whole “Adama learns the importance of lies for morale” adds depth to his decision later in life to lie about earth. I honestly really liked the depth this whole shabang has added to his charcter (much morso than razor ever did).
I was really really disappointed we didn’t get to hear the Adama family theme anywhere in this, it’s my favorite galactica motif, and hearing it was honestly one of the things I was looking forward to in this (It’s the “Bill ADAMA story” for frak’s sake). I cried hearing it play in the Caprica pilot.
@Underscore
I’ll have to agree with you about the female Cylon. They could always elaborate, explain, who knows, but without that, the moment is misleading and annoying, and among tons of actually awesome continuity porn, felt like a forced homage.
I also agree with your sentiment about Coker, him dying would defiantly explain away why Adama became so instantly attached to Tigh.
I thought that the final two episodes were brilliant. Like every other BSG fan, I really hope that this becomes a series as it has so much potential.
I agree that Husker’s name would have more meaning had Coker died, but maybe the writers wanted him to stay in for future storyline ideas.
As for Tricia Helfer (Six) voicing the cylon female, I thought that was a great touch. Her uttering the same question “Are you alive” as she did in the Miniseries, linking the two shows was excellent. She also dispatched Dr Kelly in the same way Six killed the baby in the Caprica market early in the miniseries, which was no coincidence.
I absolutely loved these two episodes! I was waiting for Coker to force Becka to spill what the mission actually was. I have no doubt that Coker would have shot her if she was hesitant. And he still didn’t trust her. Why else would he have stayed back and watched what she was uploading?
The look of pure hatred on Husker’s face as he was helping Coker escape was priceless! Dare I say – it was an echo of his Tauran roots. You don’t frak with Family, and Coker was family. Not through blood, but by the uniform – as two soldiers fighting for their life. That was the moment Husker became a true Soldier and not just a hotshot pilot.
Yes, I most certainly did the Happy Dance when I saw that Coker made it! I hear what you are saying Sam & Underscore. Still, as a pilot you always want to bring your crew home. Especially true when Coker shared the pix of his wife. And I’ll give props to Coker for not playing the “spouse card” during the mission. Had Husker known, I don’t think they would have set out on this mission.
And the Galactica’s commander (did they ever say his name?) hit the nail on the head. It was a cold, slap in the face for Husker who got his first taste of the realities of war. You feed positive spin to the populace while you get the real job done. It’s not necessarily honest, but it keeps the money coming.
Was it just me, or was that the voice of Six saying, “Are you alive?” OMGs! That was all I could think when the Cylon showed up. Snapping Becka’s neck harkened back to Six snapping the neck of the baby in the original miniseries. And Becka had every reason to be afraid. I would like to think that she realized her mistake when she saw the cyborg Cylon kneeling next to her.
And, last, props to letting us see carrier ops on The Gray Lady while still in her youth. I have seen that smile before on other pilots while flying SAR missions. Hell, I’ve probably smiled like that myself as I pushed the throttle to the firewall. You’re home. You’ve got a job to do. And, you’re gonna kick ass doing it!
I want more!
What a very satisfying finale- I want more of this series now.
I was actually very pleased that Coker made it- not because I particularly liked his character (actually he was a bit of a knob) but because they did not do the Big Dramatic Cliche, which would have been the easy way out. I liked the complexity and depth it gave to their relationship. It’s one thing to take your call sign as a tribute to the Big Dramatic Sacrifice- its quite another to show the maturity and confidence to honour someone who didn’t have to die for you to learn from them. That is the seed of the Old Man in Husker, and it’s not lazy writing.
I was waiting for Coker to confront Beka as well- something was very clearly fishy, and nice twist. Even nicer twist that the Admiralty knew what was planning to betray them. I was glad that although they only had very limited time, the writers kept the complexity and ambiguity when it would have been so easy to dumb it down.
The female Cylon was unnecessary and forced? You people are crazy. When I heard that question ‘Are you alive?’ I got chills- brilliant continuity using Tricia Helfer’s voice and calling back to breaking the baby’s neck in the miniseries. The construction also fit perfectly with the continuity we already know, the centurions attempting to create organic bodies by grafting flesh onto robotics which, like the hybrids, we know was a dead end for that experiment until the final five showed up with a different approach. Far from upsetting continuity it laid a very nice piece of the puzzle into the picture.
And have to agree with Shauna Marie- great to the see the entire launch sequence and ops on the old girl when she was a cracking young lady.
More please!
Actually, – and that’s my main problem with the way they handled Coker in the end – they did go for the big ol’ cliche, they just refused to pay the price for it. With the last moments with Adama and Coker on the ice planet, I felt that they certainly gave us a death scene in order to pitch in some extra drama, only to turn it into completely cheap drama by not having him stay dead. Had they not made it look like he died and simply have him survive with a minor gunshot wound – fine. Had they killed him off in a nice and personal death scene – fine. But the way they handled it now, was just totally cheap.
Same thing goes for the resolution of the Colonial Double Bluff. Telling us in the last two minutes of the show “Oh yeah, we totally knew about that and there was totally completely awesome stuff happening off-camera because of it – trust me, you should have seen it!” is very bad writing. I appreciate that their time and budget was limited, but then it might have been a better idea to put at least one less twist in it. This was just twisty for the twist’s sake, like the later Shyamalan movies, without giving us the OMG moment (like letting us watch the Cylon Fleet arriving to find the Hidden Fleet gone, and then show us one or two Colonial hits against Cylon targets) necessary to make this a worthy payoff. Horrible execution making it a horrible twist.
The Proto-Six was nice, however.
If they do turn this into a series – either television or web – I hope they bring back Coker every once in a while. Letters from home. Maybe shore leave. Maybe even a little action.
I swear that I thought we were about to see six at the end…even thought it’s not possible according to what we know; still. They are fools not to make this into a series!
Now that we have seen it all, it’s a shame that we only get to see so little. But it’s great. Action-paced, full of character and some interesting plot lines. It’s hard to be original with plot twists but that little thing with Commander at the end was really not expected.
I like that Coker did not die; that would actually be a cliché. If BSG: B&C is continued in full-on series or another web-series their relationship could be something worth watching. Until Ty comes in.
The connection between the original series and B&C with 8′s appearance (even as a voice) is a nice touch. It also should indicate that the models (at least some) were also conceived by the Cylons and not by the the Final-5 (except for the John and maybe some other models, but 8 is clearly one of the first).
I have to agree with what you guys said that there’s really not much potential in this series. BSG has the story and action, the complete package. B&C don’t. It’s great to see Galactica and stuff that reminds you of the show, but there’s no potential in the story line. I can’t see them going to a new planet each day and fighting Cylons. Plus, the Cylons don’t look like humans yet, so we’re not going to have a great villain like Cavil or Six. Not to mention everything will be heavy CG and that would just cost a lot. I think the only way for B&C to go forward is with these web series. A full TV series would not work. Ron Moore agrees.
I think that BSG peaked with battlestar galactica. It was such an amazing show that nothing can really compete. I totally miss BSG and I really liked the web series but I don’t think I could stomach an “adventures of Husker” series like Stargate or Startrek. The bar was raised by BSG we can’t accept it being lowered with bad writing, bad CGI and episodes that don’t impact other episodes.
I think they can pull this off if they treat it like a “Mysteries of WW2″ type of show where you find out hitler was a shape shifting reptile alien and they were building time machines and interdimensional portals etc… Spies and conspiracies. Where no one is really sure about what really happened. If they do that with B&G, by erasing our preconceived ideas about what we thought happened without ruining key elements of the original (like Terminator the TV show) I think this will work. But nooo reset episodes! Keep the bar high!
@Matt & Nat:
I like the webisodes a lot – primarily because it fit my work schedule and I could watch it multiple times. This would be a great web series.
I will admit that I do not have a trained eye for CGI. I hear the criticisms, but the CGI didn’t bother me.
What did bother me – of all things – were the controls in the Raptor. Specifically, the throttle! To go fast, the throttle goes FORWARD! Not back! You are not downshifting. The controls as used are counter-intuitive. By the way, the pilot in command sits in the Left-hand seat so the throttles, landing gear and other systems can be used with the right hand. This assumes that these humans are predominantly right handed like those of us on this planet. (Had the same problem with Ron Moore’s BSG. I cringed every time.)
I see a lot of potential story lies here. For example:
* Was Becka Kelly acting alone, or is there an entire dissident movement?
* What about this captain that Husker hero worships, but has his own issues?
* What are some of these special / black ops that they are going to run?
* The arrival of the Final Five.
* Husker has to meet his wife somewhere along the line.
* What about these other pilots? If they are sitting in the hangar bay drinking, they have got to have a story. (No 8 hours “bottle to throttle” for these rocket jocks! Is alcoholism / substance abuse a problem for the Colonials?)
* Coker’s planet is invaded – causing a him and Husker to reunite. Or Coker helping fight off the Cylon invasion.
* Then, there is Cain. Do they meet? How? When?
* This newer, more humanoid version of the Cylons – What is happening with them & the colonies? What about with the more mechanical Cylons? Were we seeing the beginnings of the cast system as found in both the original and reimagined Battlestar?
Coker looking at the display screen and watching data being uploaded about the Valkyrie and other ships would have been enough for him to shoot Becka. Who wouldn’t have done the same thing?
The commander sending a rookie and a short-timer RIO with a drinking problem out with the good Dr. Kelly was a good choice for this bit of double deception. If they died, it was a minimal loss of crew and a worn out Raptor that was in need of being scrapped.
Star Trek had 2 pilot episodes, and look at the franchise that became. B&C has a lot of potential and really deserves a second shot.
I must say I really enjoyed the last 2 eps, These guys, Mat and Nat are just idiots. Everything they say is just complete rubbish. I hope they keep making these, maybe bigger episodes, They are all great .
well I have watched BSG since the original, and sorry you are so wrong, they did an awesome job, and yes Blood and Chrome would make an awesome addition to the BSG franchise, you are way to nit picky and you are the type of people that ruin it for the rest of us, don’t think I will be watching anymore of your petty bullshit!! that is all
Just thought I would share my letter to SyFy:
Greetings and Happy Holidays!
I have just watched Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome of the umpteenth time. I absolutely love this series! It was filled with action. Personal conflicts. And keeps the franchise alive. Right off the bat, I came up with 9 potential story arcs from these webisodes. I won’t share them here unless asked because I respect that, if used, there may be problems with who gets credit for what.
This is a series that has a lot of potential and can keep the BSG franchise going.
I would watch this series on a regular basis, be it as webisodes or on television. Especially as webisodes! I waited eagerly each week for the next installment.
I respectfully ask that you to reconsider and give Blood & Chrome a chance.
Star Trek had two pilot episodes and look what happened with that franchise!
BSG: Blood & Chrome has the potential to go the distance. All it needs is a chance.
Thank you.
Shauna Marie O’Toole
@Matt
I agree with your problem of no set up. Every pilot needs to set up questions to keep the view wondering what the writers are doing next and put some balls in the air. In the original we had so many set ups that you could see a season of shows based on them. Why are there 12 modes. Will Baltar get caught. Who or what is six. Who are the cylons in the fleet. What is boomer’s role? Will Laura die of cancer. Will they find earth. There was none of that on blood and chrome. The past series have also had a great ensemble but the only people we know in B&C are Adama, coker, and the doctor that died. (we did see the hot shot pilot and the commander a little but not enough to care). They pretty much wrapped up every loose end that you could find.
They could have left some questions unanswered or shown that there is some great event yet to come. Maybe a shot of a ship flying through space and inside you see it’s the final five’s ship on its way to eventually hook up with the cylons. Or a fleet of cylon ships about to launch a secret attack. Something to keep me wanting more. And not showing the cylon hybrid would have been better than showing it. Hearing six’s voice and hand but not seeing what it was would have had us going crazy over what she was instead of noticing the bad cgi.
The other thing that was missing was the morally ambiguous characters we usually see on BSG shows. The show still has potential. Overall I enjoyed being back in the BSG world. I hope they make more episodes. I don’t expect a full 22 episode series to come out of this but maybe have them as specials a couple of times a year like The Guild and other web based series.
I’ll watch it in its entirety now…can’t wait.
I will also be emailed SyFy with my hopes for this to be a series. Of course. Any BSG is good BSG.
So say…
Tootie