EVER NOTICE HOW THE SCIENCE FICTION WEEKLY
POSTS "OUR" KIND OF LETTERS?
New Galactica Isn't Family Fare
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue298/letters.html
I'm been very disappointed by the recent reviews of the proposed reimagining of Battlestar Galactica. I can understand wanting to update the show. I can even understand wanting to mess around with a few concepts of the show. But man, things have gone too far.
[Spoilers ahead.]
First of all, does a show like Galactica really have to have the amount of sexuality that this proposal pours into it? I mean, come on, does there really have to be a depiction of someone getting raped in the early scenes of the show? If they want that kind of stuff, why don't they just bring Lexx back? And some of the scenes with Baltar I won't even go into here for the sake of minors who are reading this. Sick. The original show was clean, and this reimagining should at least try to emulate something that was successful, and that still means a lot to many people.
Secondly, the characters. OK, so they want to make Starbuck a woman, fine. Let them have their "PC" version of the character, or whatever. The interaction between Adama and his son is apparently gone. Having Starbuck insult and strike a commanding officer? Ridiculous. Again, I'll avoid the Baltar subject.
Thirdly, the language. Any two-bit show can throw in curse words. There is such a broader audience to be gained by avoiding such things, which the original show tried to do. Do we want our children seeing these kinds of things (i.e., rape, insubordination, various other sex acts)? Make the show superior by leaving some of the junk out. For once, let's see a decent show that the whole family can watch. It can be done with the Galactica concept. It has been before.
Battlestar Galactica stood out because it was a superior show that also taught lessons that one could learn from. It involved characters that held moral beliefs. The new Galactica instead sends us a wrong message. It seems that this new mini-series will instead just rip off half of the junk that's on TV now. Some "reimagining." From what I hear, most of the fans aren't happy about this at all. Count me in with them. And when things really begin to heat up with this, watch out.
Matthew Hawes
BigFatRock@aol.com
READ Matthew Hawes letter in 'The Science Fiction Weekly'
