Monthly Archives: November 2012

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome Webisodes Live

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After what seems like an eternity of delays, Syfy (AKA Syphilis Channel) has, with almost no warning or fanfare, begun releasing the pilot for the latest Battlestar Galactica spin-off, Blood and Chrome, as a series of webisodes. The first two are already live.

It hasn’t come up much on this blog before, but I am a fan of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, even if I wouldn’t touch the original with a ten foot pole. Well, sort of a fan, anyway. The first three seasons were brilliant, but as an acquaintance of mine aptly put it, “the show collapsed under its own weight in the last season.”

I also watched the short-lived Caprica spin-off. I had mixed feelings on it to say the least, but I’d say I still hold a higher opinion of it than most Galactica fans, and I still believe the pilot was one of the most brilliant pieces of television you’ll ever have the privilege to witness.

As for Blood and Chrome — not a fan of the name, by the way — my feelings are lukewarm at best. The fact is that we already know everything there is to know about the first Cylon War, and I don’t see the need to learn more about it. Plus, the entire cycle of development hell has left little room for hope.

Still, I have far too much franchise loyalty for my own good, so I dutifully sat down to watch the first two ten minute webisodes.

It’s too early to make any firm judgments, but it’s more or less living up to my expectations. And that’s not a good thing.

Nico Cortez as a young William Adama in the Razor flashbacks.Every Galactica fan worth their salt is pissed off that they didn’t bring back Nico Cortez of the Razor flashbacks to play the young William Adama, and this first taste of Blood and Chrome proves why. Whereas Cortez brought a hint of Edward James Olmos’ gravitas with a nice twist of youthful vigor, Luke Pasqualino is just… a scrawny pretty boy.

Make no mistake: the character in Blood and Chrome is not Bill Adama. He is, at best, a half-assed Kara Thrace with a penis.

I particularly dislike how they’re going with the cliche of setting him up as some natural-born super pilot. I had the same complaint about Kirk’s portrayal in the JJ Abrams Star Trek parody movie. He’s a starship captain, not the Chosen One. He’s not Luke Skywalker or Harry fracking Potter.

In general, too, I just think focusing on Adama is a mistake. I love the Old Man as much as anyone, but we already know all we need to know about him. Let some new characters shine. They made the same mistake with Caprica. They had a fantastic story about the rise of the Cylons, and then they torpedoed it by wasting half their time trying to justify the presence of the Adama family.

Still, there are some brief glimmers of hope. The virtual sets turned out a lot better than I expected, and the show as a whole looks great. The space dogfights are as amazing as ever. Bear McReary continues to prove why he’s one of the best soundtrack composers in the business.

I also liked Adama’s co-pilot. Coker, was it? He’s the only character so far who feels like he came out of the BSG universe, as opposed to a book of military fiction cliches. The alcoholism is perhaps laying it on a bit thick, but he feels believable as a grizzled veteran, and he’s a great counterpoint to Adama Lite’s “eager beaver” attitude.

All in all, it’s too early to make any firm judgments about Blood and Chrome. I’m not impressed, but I’ll give it a chance to improve.

New article:

My latest article for WhatMMO is Honest MMO Previews. Here’s an excerpt:

“So come play Mists of Pandaria! It’s the most fun, quick, slow, brutal, grindy, casual friendly, hardcore, easy, exclusive, inclusive, open ended, railroaded World of Warcraft expansion ever!”

Starcraft Lore: Blizzard Answers My Questions

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Starcraft II Ask CDev:

Art of some Terran battlecruisers from Starcraft IIIn my last post, I talked about Brian Kindregan slowly trickling out answers to the Starcraft II Ask CDev. I’ve enjoyed his answers, but I think he hasn’t necessarily picked the best questions. Most of them are common sense things you could have inferred just by playing the game.

However — at the risk of exposing just what a narcissist I am — my opinion of his choice of questions changed the other day when he answered not one but two of my questions.

Needless to say, much nerdgasming was had on my part.

The first question dealt with Kerrigan, and specifically her fatalistic attitude in the cinematic in which she battles Zeratul. It struck me as very out of character that the self-described Queen Bitch of the Universe would “embrace” the end when it came.

His explanation — that thinking yourself all-powerful and then discovering something more powerful and evil than yourself would be crushing — makes perfect sense, and I find it very satisfactory.

Still, there was no hint of this in-game. I don’t share most of the complaints about Starcraft II’s story — I find Raynor’s attitude towards Kerrigan in perfect keeping with his character — but this was one area they did drop the ball, if you ask me.

The second question was more nit-picky, but filling in the little blank spots in lore has always been one of my favourite parts of Ask CDev.

My question was based on the blurb for the Umojan Protectorate in the manual for the original Starcraft, which said that Umojans sought a cultural exchange with the Protoss because they believed that humanity had a lot to learn from the more advanced species. My question was whether this is still their goal, and if they’ve had any success.

The planet Umoja from the Starcraft franchiseThe answers were, respectively, yes and no. The Protoss simply don’t care about Terrans — excepting a few special individuals like Raynor.

Still, I’d like to see this plot developed in the future.

Actually, I just want more Umojans in general. I find them fascinating. For one thing, they’re the Terran culture we know the least about. They also seem to be the only Terran culture that isn’t nightmarishly corrupt.

True, we don’t know much about them, and they might be just as bad as the Dominion or the Kel-Morian Combine, but there is the Shadowguard to consider. Like the ghosts, they are telepathic assassins, but unlike the ghosts, they’re not enslaved or mind-controlled.

The official symbol of the Umojan Protectorate from the Starcraft franchiseIsn’t there some quote about the best way to judge a society being how it treats its minorities? Based on their treatment of telepaths, the Umojans seem much nicer than their neighbours.

But now I’m off-topic. The point is, Blizzard answered my questions, and that makes me happy.

In case anyone doubts my word, here’s a link to my original questions. They didn’t answer them all, but two out of four isn’t bad, and there’s still time for them to tackle the others.