2023/12/08

It’s been 20 years, on December 8, 2003 the Sci-fi channel launched Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagined version in a miniseries version. It was to test the waters, if the public liked it, if they wanted more and yes, indeed it was a big success. The Sci-fi channel gave a go to a regular TV season, 20 episodes, same as the Stargate show had at that time on the Sci-Fi Channel. Season one started to air on October 18, 2004. Richard Hatch, Apollo from the original series tried it a bunch of times to get a reboot of the ground, he was close one or two times, but it never materialized. Richard Hatch did play a role in the re-imagined version, he played Zarek.

The show was very successful, till this day it belongs to the most popular SCI-FI TV Shows of all time. It ran 4 seasons and as you probably know, it was different from the original, which is okay in itself. I personally, however, wasn’t fond of changing the sexes of Starbuck and Boomer, rubbed me the wrong way and the Starbuck from the later show mostly annoyed me. Still, it was SCI-FI, especially the storylines in the first two seasons were epic and the CGI was phenomenal, it took 6 years after BSG’s end to see that same CGI quality again, in The Expanse.

So, Ronald D. Moore’s version was a giant success and it is still loved by many. For me this is a bit different. I rewatched the show back in 2021 and what I endured with all my earlier rewatches, I absolutely love the first two seasons, love the first 4, season 3 occupation episodes, I love the movie “Razor”, but I actually am not a fan of the rest of the 3^rd season and the whole 4^th season. It revolved more and more about those Cylons, whom actually didn’t interest me at all, the civil war of the Cylons wasn’t my cup of tea, none of these Cylons characters, with the exception of Cavil (Dean Stockwell) I found interesting. But Cavil, he was a disturbing character, but somehow, I found him interesting, much more interesting than all these other models. But Cavil appears in only 15 episodes.

I always really wanted to love the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica as I did/do Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Stargate shows and if Battlestar would have been cancelled after two seasons, I guarantee you it would have been very close, if not all the way in that group of TV shows I so love. Okay, the first two seasons aren’t perfect perhaps, but do come close, the Cylons are still the enemy, which is how I would have liked it to stay. And the Cain episodes in season two, well they are truly fantastic, 10+, so yeah, after two seasons I was so excited about this show, but when it was finished, I was a bit disappointed. Doesn’t mean seasons 3 and 4 are all bad, certainly not, I just didn’t like the way it was heading and of course I noticed that during the first watch of the last two seasons but with rewatches this becomes more clearer.

Battlestar Galactica is still so popular that already there is talk of a reboot of sorts. This was announced in 2019 I believe and still hasn’t materialized; I think in part due to covid. Although I am not all positive about the 2003 version, I still would give the reboot a chance. The creator of Mr. Robot would be the person to take on this job and told in an interview:

BSG fans, this will NOT be a remake of the amazing series @RonDMoore launched because… why mess with perfection? Instead, we’ll explore a new story within the mythology while staying true to the spirit of Battlestar. So say we all!

— Sam Esmail (@samesmail) – 2019/09/17

Final Word:

It always comes to the comparison of the Original series and the re-imagined version, well I am not going to go there…again. They’re totally different, one has only 1 season, the other one 4, created 25 years apart from each other, so there is little to compare. The Original also remains a fan favorite, certainly with me, but there no getting around it, the re-imagined version of Ronald D. Moore made history and it is still acclaimed by critics and the public and when so many people love this show, recognize it as a quality piece, they cannot be wrong, can they? Happy 20th Anniversary!

Screencaps taken from: Frak-that.com