Lt. Starbuck … Lost In Castration.

Big Hollywood ^ | January 19, 2009 | Dirk Benedict

[EveningStar]

Once upon a time, in what used to be a far away land called Hollywood (but is now a state of mind and everywhere), a young actor was handed a script and asked to bring to life a character called Starbuck. I am that actor. The script was called “Battlestar Galactica.”

Fortunately, I was young, my imagination fertile and adrenal glands strong, because bringing Starbuck to life was over the dead imaginations of a lot of Network Executives...

Witness the “re-imagined” “Battlestar Galactica,” bleak, miserable, despairing, angry and confused. Which is to say, it reflects in microcosm the complete change in the politics and morality of today’s world, as opposed to the world of yesterday. The world of Lorne Greene (Adama), Fred Astaire (Starbuck’s Poppa) and Dirk Benedict (Starbuck). I would guess Lorne is glad he’s in that Big Bonanza in the sky and well out of it. Starbuck, alas, has not been so lucky. He’s not been left to pass quietly into that trivial world of cancelled TV characters...

[mountn man]

Mr T is recast as Mrs T?

It would be Ms.T. And the only one who could pull off the angry attitude is Rosie O'Donuts.

Her real life angry attitude makes Mr. T look like Aunt B.

[Sarajevo]

Or is she just glad to see you?

Aaaaaah! ...only in my dreams....;)

[Bender2]

Re: Indeed, let us not say who the good guys are... and who the bad are. That is being “judgmental,” taking sides, and that kind of (simplistic) thinking went out with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Kathryn Hepburn and John Wayne and, well, the original “Battlestar Galactica.”

Gadzooks, Starbuck! Sound like... you listened to a recent inauguration address.

BTW Starbuck, you know, for a human... you handle that cigar rather well!

Since the new "BG" BS came out, I've decided in it... those Cylons are the good guys!

Now, this: is engineering!

In case of red x above, go to http://www.coolscifi.com/gallery/files/1/tricia_helfer.jpg

[mountn man]

Jeri had nothing to do with the transcripts being exposed.

And Jack was the one who wanted to drag her to some sex club, and have her give him a hummer, for all to watch.

I'd say she had every right to divorce his a**.

[Republic of Texas]

Suck it Dirk. The original BG sucked. The latest incarnation is THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION.

[Tarantulas]

The original BSG was a kids' show. The new series is an adult (and by that I mean for grown-ups, not porn) sci-fi drama series that is well-written, well-produced, well-acted, and with incredible effects.

100% agreed. The idea behind the original series was great, but the writing was horrible (the characters were two dimensional) and the special effects were worse (the fighter ships banked and turned in space just like airplanes). In the new series, the personality of every major character is shown in detail, and the fighter ships turn using (gasp!) reaction thrusters, just like an actual spacecraft. Here are some other differences between the old and new series:

• In the old series, Commander Adama's first name was...Commander. In the new series, Commander Adama has an actual first name. It's "Bill."
• In the old series, Starbuck's name was "Starbuck." We didn't know if it was a first name or a last name. In the new series, "Starbuck" is the call sign of the fighter pilot whose real name is Kara Thrace. Adama's son, call sign "Apollo," is Lee Adama, "Boomer" is Sharon Valerii, and Colonel Tigh's first name is Saul. The old arch enemy, now a possible good guy, is Doctor Gaius Baltar.
• In the old series, the Cylons were actors in cheesy-looking costumes. In the new series, they are computer-generated special-effect robots with organic brains, but we don't see much of those. The Cylons we do see look human, just like us. The guy sitting next to you could be a Cylon but there is no way to tell for sure.

The new series is far superior to the original.

[FlipWilson]

Quote: “the series is excellent. if you’d rather look at some douche bag guy than than the actresses playing Starbuck and Boomer, well, that’s your problem”

I suppose if you are thinking with your member that makes sense. But the point Dirk Benedict makes is that the re-imaginers of BSG have basically used sex to sell a leftist agenda, namely, that their is no bad or good only shades of grey. Hmmmm, that seems like the moral equivalizing that the left engages in. Hey, I like a hottie as much as anyone. Still, if the hotest chick in the world showed up at my door and asked me to sign a petition halting our fight against terrorists (oh wait, that was halted today, but anyway) because they were no worse than we, the USA, were, I would throw here off of my porch in three seconds flat (while copping a cheap feel, of course).

[Bender2]

www.coolscifi.com is being persnickety!

So: Now, this: is engineering!

[GBA]

The original was a take off on Star Wars and the mania it produced. It was a not too serious show, not unlike other programs of the 70s. It was a product of its time.

The new Battlestar is also a product of its time and I personally find it too dark and depressing to enjoy it. Some aspects of the new show are interesting twists on the original, the characters certainly have greater depth and the program has more drama, but it's not enough to make me want to watch it. I tried. I know that others love the show, but I'm an easy target for scifi and they failed to hit me. It's dead, Jim.

[af_vet_rr]

Dirk still ticked about Starbuck being a girl? Or ticked because he wasn’t invited to the new party like Richard Hatch was?

The Lost in Castration article that started this thread was written several years ago:

original "Lost in Castration" FreeRepublic.com thread

Sounds like Dirk is trotting it back out in order to try and get a bit of the spotlight before the current series ends.

[MoreGovLess]

Actually, I find the moral ambiguity refreshingly realistic. Pakistan is our “ally” in the WOT, but they’ve been selling us out all along. Saddam was our “ally” once, we know how that turned out.

[GonzoGOP]

I'm not saying that there were not reasons for some of these given the plot line. Just that there seems to be an entire Suicide is Painless mantra going on with the writers of BSG 2.0. Your husband isn't who you thought he was, solution kill yourself. If you have a terminal illness, solution kill yourself. Romantic problem, kill your partner, then kill yourself. If you want to find out the face of god, solution kill yourself. If your CO doesn't agree with your suggested course of action, solution, crash into a planet and kill yourself. If you have had a hard life and been beaten up, Give a Nuke a big hug and kill yourself. Your dream guy is a metrosexual who doesn't love you the way he once did, and your dream home turns out to be a nuked out wasteland, solution kill yourself.

If they had done it once I wouldn't have a problem. It is just that they never seem to come up with any other solutions. If the character is female, they kill themselves. If the character is male, the crawl into a bottle and have a good cry. If they had

[FlipWilson]

Quote: “Its TV. Its not real. The stories are decent and the actors are pretty good. The effects are well done. But, its TV.”

No, its part of the leftist propaganda machine. Until we start realizing how they are playing the game, we are toast. They own the education system, they own the news media, they own enterntainment. I have watched every episode of this show and at first I loved it. But once I got hooked and started to try to figure out where the show was heading I understood the message that was trying to be put forth, namely, that the Cylons comitted genocide on the human race but it was somehow morally justified because the human race was itself imoral and corrupt. Afterall, it was the humans who made the cyclons, right?

Gee that sounds familiar. Al Queada destroys the WTC killing thousands and what did the left say? Why, they said “America’s chickens were coming home to roooostaaaaah.” Ok, they did not all put it that way but they certainly said that we needed to look inwards. They said that we, the U.S of A had made Bin Laden by supporting him during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and we had created Saddam by supporting him during the Iran Iraq war. So, somehow it was our own fault.

Perhaps I am being paranoid but given the REAL events of today, Hollywoods leftist tilt and their incessant pushing of an agenda on us in everything they produce, I refuse to believe it is a coincidence. I could care the less whether a dude or hottie is playing Starbuck, Boomer or whoever. That misses the point. I am sick of an agenda being pushed on me and just want to be freaking entertained.

[fr_freak]

Actually, I find the moral ambiguity refreshingly realistic. Pakistan is our “ally” in the WOT, but they’ve been selling us out all along. Saddam was our “ally” once, we know how that turned out.

Making odd allegiances may be a form of political ambiguity, but it is not the same as moral ambiguity. When you play politics, you partner up with people or groups who share your goals in a particular area, even if they don't share your goals in all areas.

Moral ambiguity is when you are not even sure what your goals (beliefs) are. In the case of this show, you would think that the humans, having been reduced from billions in population to just a few tens of thousands, would be clear in their goal to survive at all costs, but the show would have you believe that there is a whole lot of soul searching going on as to whether to kill any particular Cylon, and we're not even sure if the Cylons are bad. Maybe they were justified in surprise-nuking all of human civilization. Maybe we asked for it yada yada yada. See the difference?

[FlipWilson]

Quote: “Actually, I find the moral ambiguity refreshingly realistic. Pakistan is our “ally” in the WOT, but they’ve been selling us out all along. Saddam was our “ally” once, we know how that turned out.”

So then, by that logic, Bin Laden was our ally once. Why not forgive and forget and sit down with him for a talk? If he was our ally once and attacked us, that makes it ok? I find the moral ambiguity refreshingly naive. The bottom line is that in fighting a war things are never clear and you can’t always be choosy about who you side with. The Soviet Union was our ally. Should we not have allied with them and allowed Germany to win WWII?

[doc30]

I just don’t see the political correctness. I thought that when I first heard the news, and I really ralphed when I heard the Cyclons look like humans. But I gave it a chance and it came out remarkably well. And the re-imaged Starbuck is definitely a troubled character. And it goes into why she has the tough-guy thing going on. The original Starbuck was a cardboard cutout caricature of a man.

Give the pilot miniseries a chance. They do a good job of paying respect to the old show, too.

[doc30]

It was for about the first season, and then it crashed and burned for every reason that Benedict described. The moral ambiguity is the worst. The queers in Hollywood couldn't stand to have clearly defined good and evil, even when one of the sides tried to annihilate the other by way of a nuclear sneak attack. That's what makes that show now unwatchable. They even had an episode where the humans had the perfect opportunity to wipe out all the Cylons at once by use of some kind of virus, but one of the wussy male pilots decided that we just didn't "have the right to arbitrarily wipe out a whole species". Never mind the fact that the Cylons tried to do exactly that to humans and were almost successful and never mind that the Cylons are freaking machines. It's disgusting.

The whole point of the show was if humanity has the right to exist. What makes the humans better than the machines? It's not much different than humanity today. That example was a strong part of the plot line. The humans didn't wipe out the Cylons. And later in the show, the Cylons realized that the genocide of the humans made them just like the humans so they stopped. THat's why they occupied New Caprica. I believe one of the underlying ideas in the show is that humanity and the cyclons need to reconcile or neither will survive.

[EveningStar]

As I said, I haven’t watched the new BSG. However, I’m not easily overwhelmed. For instance, I found Babylon 5, Alien Nation, and Beauty and the Beast to be unimpressive.

[MoreGovLess]

“fighting a war is never clear”: hmmm, who said that? Wouldn’t a more realistic and therefore entertaining TV reflect that? Or do you want all straw men and propaganda in your shows?

[Question_Assumptions]

The new BSG has its moments, but it is boring as all feminine things are. I'm suprised that the show just doesn't end with everyone just giving up and taking a handful of tranquilizers.

And the problem is that if they did, I wouldn't care because none of the characters are worth caring about at this point. It's like they populated the show with the people who would have been put on Golgafrincham Ark Fleet, Ship B.