Tag Archives: Battlestar Galactica

Review: Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome

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Review: Blood and Chrome

The webisodes have finished. We have now seen the fullness of the backdoor pilot to the new Battlestar Galactica spin-off, Blood and Chrome.

I don’t even know where to begin. Words like “appalling,” “train wreck,” and “unnecessary” come to mind, but none of them seem to do justice.

I have only two good things to say about this show, so I guess I’ll just get them out of the way first.

The first is that I feel Battlestar Galactica already jumped the shark pretty thoroughly in the fourth season, so Blood and Chrome can’t really ruin my fond memories of the show. That’s already been done.

The second is that Bear McCreary is still one of the best soundtrack composers around. Blood and Chrome is almost worth watching for the music alone. Almost.

The rest of the show is utter dreck.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Luke Pasqualino is horrifically miscast as William Adama. This pretty boy is not even remotely reminiscent of the gravitas of the Old Man. That kid from Caprica was more of a badass than this guy.

The rest of the cast is little better. Coker actually feels like he belongs in the Battlestar Galactica universe, but his writing near the end got increasingly erratic until it was almost impossible to take him seriously as a character.

Dr. Obligatory Eye-Candy never seemed to display a lot of personality, and her character was overall badly underdeveloped. I’ve heard some people say the actress isn’t very good, but I’m more inclined to blame the writers. I don’t see how she could have made her lines interesting.

The plot is nonexistent. It’s just a spree of explosions and gunfights and people randomly acting crazy just for the sake of drama. It’s everything that was wrong about Battlestar Galactica and none of what was right.

They seem to have simply tried to dump a lot of pew pew on the viewer in the hopes it would distract us from the fact that nothing is actually happening most of the time.

We learn nothing of relevance about the Cylon War or Adama’s character. I’ve got nothing against prequels when they actually add to the universe they take place in, but this was just a blatant attempt to milk a dry teat.

Say what you will about Caprica, but at least it expanded the mythos. For all its mistakes, we learned a lot about the origins of the Cylons and the society of the Twelve Colonies, and it had the potential to do much more if it had continued.

Moving on…

The virtual sets are inconsistent. Some look okay, but the ice planet looked so fake I could have seen more realistic snow effects by logging into World of Warcraft and flying to Dragonblight.

Cylon snow snakes. Cylon snow snakes. I just… I don’t even… Why?

At best, the show feels like an ill-planned fan film. Only the flashy special effects give any indication that this is a professional production.

I could go on and on. It’s not worth my time or effort. Not since JJ Abrams got his hands on Star Trek has a franchise been so thoroughly abused.

Overall rating: 2/10 Please, Syfy. Let it die.

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.

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