Hey guys. Great to see the boards up in some incarnation. This is gonna sound like a wierd thread so bear with me here. I'm basically shooting for a particular audience, but anyone else who feels the same, feel free to give me a jingle.
For those of you that don't know who I am, I can say I have an odd "six steps to Kevin Bacon" kind of relationship with these forums... In 1999 this other guy named Tachy and I started a website called Scifi-Art.com, where we did lots of Star Trek artwork. A couple years later Darrel Lawrence (WarriorDL), another good friend and then member of SFA branched off and created 3DWarriors.com. This board was originally hosted there some time later, and eventually branched off on its own. So I guess you could say I have a particular kinship to it. Plus there are guys I know here. Which is why I feel very strongly about this places continued existance.
For the past ten years I've been a huge Star Trek fan, and while I saw BSG TOS on Scifi and liked it a great deal, it never interested me enough to actually direct any creative efforts to it. To that end, all of my artwork and such is Trek based. That and this past three years I got involved in a non-net organization called STARFLEET International, and actually ran a local club last year called the USS Crusader. Unfortunately Trek fandom here in Spokane just plain sucks, to the point that the city has actually been blacklisted by Creation Con. Not just that, I found a lot of unpleastent people in the SFI organization, and while I recognize that there were and still are a great many good people still in it, I'm having a hard time justifying paying $20 a year to stay in it. Plus, just look at Star Trek now. I mean I'll always love TNG and DS9, and some of Voyager, but how many can honestly claim Enterprise is worth watching. I *know* I'm not the only one who's a die hard Trek fan and is honestly tired of Trek.
Maybe thats what got me hooked on Galactica. I dunno. I watched the news, and everyones revival efforts. I remember Richard Hatch one offered Tachy and SFA the opportunity to work on Second Coming and Great War of Magellan, but it didn't look like something we wanted to commit what small resources we had at the time to. When I heard about the Desanto project, I didn't know much about it but I thought "Cool, they need to bring that show back." And was just as disapointed that it didn't happen as everyone else. (Which is also why I hate X-Men... Galactica is so much better) When I heard about the mini I was worried that they would screw it up. I didn't even have cable when it aired, I had my grandfather tape it for me.
I wasn't completely impressed with the mini, but it got me thinking. I think the night I watched it started a spark in me that hasn't died yet. That very same night, when I went to pick up my wife I bought the pilot episode they released and managed to watch some of it, and compared notes.
My biggest problem with the mini is the whole Starbuck issue. I don't agree with RDM and DE's explanations about military relationships changing between men and women and camradery and such. In that respect I agree with Richard and Dirk... The original series had plenty of strong female roles, ones that played out extremely well. I mean I understand their need for a new flavor of Galactica... They want it to be their own vision and what not, but to me and I think many fans, not so much the relationship between Starbuck and Apollo but the camraderie, the actual moments between them was a very big part of the appeal of the original. And that is missing in the mini. On the other hand I wonder if that isn't a way of respecting the original series... The fact that the new series doesn't have that element, it doesn't attempt to recreate something that shouldn't be recreated. That original element is sacred to Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict. So perhaps the fact that it *isn't there* is a nod to revival fans... New fans will look at the old series and see that missing piece, and crave the continuation, and demand it... And then with a successful Galactica market going on, the networks would be in a better position to market a contination. As I've said before, it happened with the Brady Bunch.
But anyway, trying to get back on track here...
Long story short, watching the new mini made my go out and buy the original series on DVD. I haven't watched it all yet because my wife thinks its stupid (but then thats why people have long engagements, which is something I should have thought about huh?
). And lately all I've wanted to do is make Galactica stuff.
So here is a shoutout to any "Alumni," fellow brethren from SFA, SFM, 3DG, M-CGI, basically guys who I used to hang with who post here.
I've got this idea... I want to do a website, a Galactica website, and I've got a couple ideas floating around in my head... This will have to be a long term project unfortunately though, considering I'm in school for the next year and a half and don't have enough time to commit to this... I can get some webspace cheap and pay for it myself as long as we don't exceed a gig bandwidth per month. (SFA pulled 9 gig, but i'd have to have a huge ego if I thought anything I ever did myself could rival SFA... Still, I have no idea if a gig is enough... Its all I can afford without my wife noticing... *lol*)
The site is basically something I want to be open and friendly to fans of both the mini and the original series. Something that graphically looks good, has lots of artwork (cause we SFA alumns would look bad if we didn't have artwork sitting around that made people soil themselves just looking at it) and generally just has a good atmosphere about it. I don't neccessarily think it should have forums, those take a huge amount of resources to maintain, and I don't have the time or patience to deal with them.
But there just aren't enough Galactica sites out there, you know? At least not any good looking ones. I mean CF looks awesome, and a couple other sites, but anyone get a load of G03? Its a great source of material, but damn, I've seen better sites come out of notepad.
But anyway, thats my idea. I want to do a website, as a sort of side project for the long term. And I'm curious, if any of the alumn, or hell, even non alumn would be interested in participating. God knows I'm not looking for money or anything, if the site takes a year and a half to take off I can afford it then, I'll be making way more money, and I can support a small site now. And I don't want to be a material leach, SFA maintained its quality by drawing in artists who participated because they seriously wanted to be involved in the site. Thats how I'd operate it, just like old times. Plus I love to chum it up with people. There's nothing like making new friends and then inflating their egos with talk of their godlike rendering powers.
But what would I call a site like this.... Hmm...
I better not name it. Last time I had this great, grandious website idea that everyone quickly threw their vocal support at, only to have it quickly die... It was too childish anyway. But I have done two websites since then... Maybe it will get made this time.
Calling all Alumni... You know who I'm talkin' 'bout. :)
