November 25, 2006
GWC Podcast #17
Since Sci-Fi stiffed us for a new episode this week, we invited guest Martha Harbison from the magazine Popular Science to sit in with us and share some of her ideas about biological machines and Cylon viruses. Highlights: We discuss why baby blood probably isn’t a realistic cure-all, argue about centurion batteries, bet quarters on the upcoming fight club episode, and debut Sean’s Cookie Monster song.
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
It was posted on the scifi site that galactica would be moving to sundays.
Battlestar Moves To Sundays
SCI FI Channel’s award-winning series Battlestar Galactica will move to a new timeslot starting Jan. 21, 2007: Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, following the premiere of the new original series The Dresden Files at 9 p.m.
Battlestar Galactica has been airing episodes of its current third season on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
The current season picks up the story of the ragtag fleet of human survivors as they flee the Cylon menace. Executive-produced by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the series stars Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff, James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Grace Park. —Patrick Lee, News Editor
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=38969
Hey guys,
Loved the pod cast, I thought the quest was a great idea and I loved what she added to your show. And I also loved the extra long time and wished they all were longer.
I don’t like the idea of them moving to Sundays, it just gives me a bad feeling especially since I have heard that there ratings are down. I don’t know how accurate that info is, but I wanted throw that out there.
When Audra mentioned the 80’s band the Thompson Twins I instantly thought of the song lyrics “Doctor, Doctor…can’t you see I’m burning, burning…†And heard Baltar in my head singing…D’anna, D’anna, can’t you see I love you, love you. OK, maybe it is not that funny.
And as much I would want my own personal centurion to guard my Corvette, I much rather have a Six or a Three or both.
I also wanted to comment about the DRADIS screen on the Valkyrie, now if I am correct Bulldog was supposed to be flying a stealth ship. If this is true then you should not have seen him on the DRADIS. I just wanted to point that out (I have been very sick the past week and have not read all of the post, so if someone has already pointed that out I am sorry; but between being in bed and going to work I have lost track of a few things).
My picks are, and I’ll bet a quarter.
Lee Adama over Starbuck
William Adama over the Chief
Tory over Billy
Thanks, Cavatar.
I’m listening to this right now and I’ve already noticed one “B.S.” that you forgot to censor. 😀 It’s somewhere around 12 minutes give or take.
I want Tigh vs. Athena.. and right when Athena will have him really down and ready for the kill, Tigh taps the floor and he gets replaced by the duel “The Admiral & The President”. Then they both punch her verbally with the “we- did-your-baby” routine, which would totally rubbish Athena. etc….
Or, lets have the proposed Athena vs. Dualla and they would fight equally ‘till the last round, where they will use their last breaths to transform to what they really are, centurions!!! and the battle will go on with the giant robots smashing each other..
As a side story, I would propose a jelly wrestling with g-strings and red suspenders between Gaeta Vs Helo .. Who wouldn’t enjoy that!!!!
Great podcast. I loved your guest. She was great. However, I do have nit to pick. She stated that it would be impossible for the Cylons to evolve to where they currently are within 40 years. What if the Cylons evolved faster than “humanly possible”? Kind of like what was hypothesized in Michael Critchton’s “Prey”, where the nano-particles made evolutionary leaps every two to four hours. Since the Cylons are machines and since they already have a target that they’re shooting towards, then it would make sense that their evolutionary journey would be much faster.
I’m sure these scientific inconsistencies drive her batty just like military inconsistencies drive me insane. I used to always think, “Now, these clowns have millions of dollars in their budget AND the Internet(s). Why can’t they look on The Google and figure out that a modern day sailor is not supposed to have a beard????” There are some shows I just can’t watch because the writers didn’t do their homework with research. As for BSG, they’re spot on. That’s one of the main reasons why I love the show.
Cavatar, as for Bulldog showing up on DRADIS, I was thinking that Bulldog showed up on some kind of transponder…. but then again, that would be breaking radio silence…. Good point….
I love it when science people get together to discuss science fiction. They hit the science part head on, but it’s that nasty fiction part that gives them problems every time. If they could only understand that fiction part, they’d make science so much less boring, and Japan would be running commercials about how the United States is number one in math and science, and they’re like 20th instead of vice versa. I’m not the most erect penis in the porn movie, but I do understand that Battlestar Galactia is only fiction. The Cylons evolved so much in forty years because it’s “written†that way. I mean, come on, how rational are cylons anyways? Aren’t they really in human form because the computer graphics it would take to have centurions on every episode would cost so much the show wouldn’t be worth doing (by the way I seem to remember cost being the reason the original show went off the air) … so as for the blood of Hera being able to cure cancer … well I love you guys, but you can believe that the cylons have living ships, and the ability to duplicate human form so accurately that no one can tell them apart, but you don’t buy that the baby’s blood can cure cancer? Well let me clue you in … the baby’s blood can cure cancer, because that’s the way it’s written. Human/Cylon Hybrids can cure cancer! I love that we can buy that a human and a machine can frack and have a child together, but we get hung up on the notion that her blood might be special?
After watching Hero last week or so ago I noticed that when they set the episode up they used a scene from the mini series … do you think that this scene (the one with Adama’s speech) just worked and they used it, or they wrote it with this story line in mind? Do you think they write this series vague so that they could go back and fit anything into it, or they have an entire back-story worked up for everyone?
And why is it so hard for people to believe that Athena is a double agent? When it comes right down to it, she’s a machine. She can put fiber optics in her arm and steer the galactia! The one thing that Cylons are good at is manipulation! They are masters at it! Six got into the defense mainframe; three used her skills to become a journalist … I could go on and on. I’m telling you ditch worrying about Hera’s blood, and Head Six, or Real Six in bed with Baltar (for the record, it was Head Six; her hair is different from real six), and start thinking who are the other five Cylons … who is in a position to manipulate and does? It isn’t Adama or Roslyn because both of them control … it will be those guys in the side-lines stirring up crap … that’s what Cylons do. Dee, Zarak … those are people who sit back and whisper things in people’s ears and work their way into relationships with powerful people.
Good points, Eric-Michael. I think you’re spot on (except for the Athena being a double-agent thing). I think for any worthwhile story, the writer(s) would have to develop back-stories for each major/minor character they bring into the story. This would give them excellent depth, unlike other certain big-screen prequel sci-fi trilogies where the only depth is the lead female character’s new hairstyle for each scene she’s in (I’m looking at you, Padme) or how whiny the proto-bad guy can be (“It’s all Obi-Wan’s fault!!!”). Anakin, you’re gonna be Darth Vader. Cowboy up, player!! I personally think they had a Hero-like episode in mind when Adama gave that mini-series speech.
As for the science of the show, I’m all about the fiction. Stretch the science as much as you like, but keep it “real”. As long as we don’t have daggets, Commander “If I only had a heart” Data, Ensign Wesley “Cabin Boy” Crusher, Ewoks, or Jar-Jar Binks, I’m good to go. And I’m with Sean regarding Boxey…. I’m so glad they wrote that character out of the series (or write him back in as a Black Market pimp–that would be sweet, especially if he had shoes with glass heels with goldfish in them).
you know browncoat, you might not be too far from the truth, that fracken cylon boomer (boomer who was a double agent, programmed to wreak havok on the fleet) set boxey loose in the fleet … alone, young, and scorned by the loss of two parents. Would it be any wonder if poor boxey was in some box on a ship waiting for some rich colonial gentleman to buy him? by the way, on a side note, I wasn’t reading back when the blackmarket episode was on, but did anyone stop and think how unworthy these humans are from being saved. There seemed to be a lot of little girls in that cage when there are only 50,000 some odd people in the fleet. Now we’ve got people blowing themselves up, genocide, biological warfare, etc, etc … it’s no wonder we got the frack way from these tribes.
There were comments from your guest on the pod cast about there being so many shows on the net works that are science based, I believe it was 10. I just wanted to add that all those CSI shows might shove that number up.
Hey Guyz, I love the podcasts! keep up the good work!
I agree with eric-michael
It seems to me that most fans tend to over analyze the show, like most other TV shows, books and movies that they enjoy. I went to the BSG convention here in LA last october and the one thing I got out of it (Ron Moore was there with the main writers) was that the show does not have a master plan of whats going to happen next. If you listen to the Ron Moore podcasts you get this very clearly that new ideas, story arcs, new characters are added without any long range planing. Don’t get me wrong about this being bad thing, I think that this what makes the show so good. The writers are free to come up with any ideas that flow from what has already happened on the show. But for alot of the diehard fans it would be very upseting to think that it is made up as they go along ( Like seeing how sausage is being made) . Sure Ron Moore has a general idea where the series is going, but only that. For example, he told the writers he needed to get to New Caprica by a certain episode, but gave no plan as to how they got there. Another example is when he was writing about the Cylonz god for the first time, he had no idea why he wrote about the Cylonz god at the time, he said it just felt right at the time.
I’m sure the reason that the number of Cylonz that they don’t talk about is five , because five models were left when they decided that that meant something in the show. Look at all the great ideas that have been posted on this blog about what it could mean, I sure the writers were just recently thinking about all the possibilites for the final five models in show. I say this because at the time of the convention they had finished with the first eleven episodes and they were taking their break from production , but the writers were going to get together to discuss ideas for the second part of the season. Ron Moore had already pitched what he had planned the season finale to the Network and they had approved it.
Jim
With only a couple modifications the original text works in some interesting ways…
Hello Head Six, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of Cylons.
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of Cylons.
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of Cylons.
Fools said I, you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whispered in the sounds of Cylons.
(For all of those out there who are LOST fans, please disregard this comment… I’m slamming the show pretty hard).
You’ve made a good point about the writing, Jim. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend about the writing for BSG versus the writing for LOST. I can honestly say that I’m starting to fall out of love with LOST. BSG is much tighter in its arc. LOST is… well, lost. I can tell that there is a specific direction that BSG is going, but I just have this feeling that the writers of LOST don’t have a clue about where they’re going. BSG introduces something and doesn’t drop anything (well, except Boxey… and I’m glad they dropped him). Yet, there are things that are dropped without any rhyme or reason with LOST (such as the numbers).
Needless to say, BSG is my favorite show. LOST had the title last year, but they dropped the ball this season. I think that RDM should hold classes on screenwriting and maintaining multiseasonal story arcs. I know a certain group of writers who could learn a thing or two.
Great podcast, (and I’m only a little dumber for having listened:)
Re the centurions’ walking: the effects team originally had them very realistic, but RDM thought it was TOO realistic. “Nice cocktail swagger” was his comment on one pass.
(Incidently, the way we walk is essentially a constantly-interupted fall forward. One researcher had invented a completely unmoving bipedal thingamabob that ‘walked’ down an incline because it was weighted to swing on leg ahead as it fell forward, then swing the other one ahead, and so forth.)
Moe, nice one. I was especially struck by:
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A neon light
That split the night
Browncoat, The reason that LOST started sucking is because the producers are forbidden from solving the central mystery in order to perpetuate the show indefinately. That’s the same problem Twin Peaks had. C.f. 24, where they wrap it up once a season.
Many thanks to all who have commented so far for not tearing me (or my crackpot theories) apart.
To answer a few points made by Eric-Michael, Browncoat Bryan and Jim: I fully concur that Big Science ideas, without the quality story-telling, makes for some stunningly crummy fiction. (The 2006 Hugo winner Spin being a good example of this phenomenon, IMHO). In the grand scheme, I’d rather have good fiction than plausible science, although to have both is certainly a refreshing break from the usual pseudoscientific arm-waving.
Secondly, the nitpicking and analyzing is just one (very large) faction of fandom. I understand that many fans just don’t want to sweat the details, and I would never claim that one stripe of fandom is less legit than another. In fact, I nitpick less in BSG than I do over certain books (like the A Song of Ice and Fire series or the Prince of Nothing trilogy), and way less than my peers at my usual BSG-hashin’ grounds. But I suppose that I’m a nitpicker and detail-kicker at heart, and so the tidbits, I’ll notice. I won’t hold some obvious creative license against the BSG writers and I still enjoy the show (although the magic cancer-killer baby cylon blood really did stink up the joint – I mean, if you’re going to come up with magic anti-cancer blood, please try to not use such an obviously BS gambit like “no antigens.” I mean, invent a special super-sneaky cylon RNAi enzyme or something! YMMV, etc).
Browncoat Bryan and Jim mentioned the open-ended writing of the show. This doesn’t bug me one whit, and I think actually keeps the show surprising. As long as there’s an arc to be fulfilled, instead of a meander through a season, why not play around for a bit?
Cavatar mentioned the zillion CSI spin-offs as contributing to the science-show phenomenon of the 2000s. I’ll have to check with the editor of that story (which will be in our January issue, I believe). I just remembered that little nugget of information from reading proofs, but no further details regarding which shows qualified for the tally.
Arktis: LOL. I am a notorious potty-mouth, but I tried really hard to keep it in check for the podcast. I apologize if we burned any eardrums. 🙂
whoops! Pike snuck in there while I was nattering away. I hadn’t heard that anecdote about RDM and the cocktail swagger, but that definitely makes me chuckle. It’s still gonna bug me, though, that they’re inefficient walkers. *grumble* 😛
(I think the downhill-walking robot was built at Cornell. The one I mentioned in the podcast is being developed by Gill Pratt, formerly of MIT, now at Olin College.)
hey martha, just so you know I should be thinking a heck of a lot more than I do generally … so keep it up. I really enjoy the podcasts, this last one was no exception (although I do admit Audra’s songs got a little un-cute to me after the fifth one.). I certainally didn’t want to imply that anyone’s opinions were not valid … just so you know what I think about … the last time i was watching Battlestar, I was thinking … hell, these are the best looking extras I’ve ever seen … and they totally are … I haven’t seen so many good looking actors since the last bryan singer movie … which begs the question … well nevermind … (E-M’s mind at work)
Martha, you may be right, I don’t remember where it was built. It’s a bit of a stretch to call it a robot, since it was essentially a piece of kinetic sculpture (albeit built by a robotics researcher.) It did do a great job of demonstrating the efficiency of walking, though.
That was the greatest episode yet. Anytime yours truly, the 13th Cylon, is mentioned, it’s greatness in a bottle. Actually they didn’t refer specifically to me, but they were talking about how Baltar might be the 13th Cylon. Perhaps I am Baltar. Of course, as he once said in “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down”, “I’ll never tell.”
Sorry to stray from the current discussion but about next episode:
Who would you place your quarter on for this fantasy match – Starbuck vs. Anders?
How about Isis/Hera vs. Nick?
Martha –
I’m not sure that I agree that a large portion of the fandom (percentage-wise) are nitpicking the science to death. To be honest, I don’t even notice it most of the time – until someone points it out to me. I think most fans are like me – as long as the science ideas aren’t particularly distracting and have a minimum amount of plausibility, they are firmly in the background where they belong. For instance, the downloading of the disease into the Cylon Resurrection Ship – doesn’t bother me at all. The notion that a mixed flesh-machine creature could have a disease move from its biological component into the software component is not hard for me to believe. Then again, I’m a musician and not working in the fields of science.
On a separate topic, I’m also a little worried about a move to Sunday night. What’s happening with the ratings? Are we doomed to the same fate as Arrested Development – a critically acclaimed show that just can’t attract viewers?
Chucksax: just to clarify, when I invoked “fandom” earlier in the comments, I was speaking of all of SF/F fandom (including books, movies, TV, etc), not merely the slice that belongs to BSG. The BSG fans may be less prone to beef about the details, but certainly on the other side are the readers of historical fantasy. It’s awe-inspiring and daunting (and, sometimes, deeply frustrating) to see a pack of detail nerds really dig into a debate over what percentage of carbon the steel of a magic sword could possibly contain, or if the writer put his best vineyards in the right area of his entirely imaginary continent. (Both of these debates came up regarding details in the same book series.)
In any case, I don’t begrudge anyone their disinclination to dive into the science details.
Regarding Sundays: Crapshoot, probably. In its favor, gridiron season is over and it’s not going to be aired on FOX (the touch of death to any decent series). What’s it going up against in that timeslot? Rome? Deadwood?
Regarding Cylons: I think consensus among my people is that the next Cylon will be Erik Estrada. 😉
Every once in a while I’ll think “is that even possible?”, but then I remind myself it’s a TV show, I should really just relax. The only think that sometimes bugs me is the sound in space thing after watching Firefly/Serenity, but it’s no biggie.
As for the Sunday move, Mrs Ron over at the Sci Fi boards isn’t worried, so I’m not worried either. The first people to get worried over cancellation is the crew and cast and she said they aren’t worried in the least bit. Plus, why would Sci Fi be working on a spin off series if they’re going to give it the axe.
Welcome to the board, Martha…. Thanks for your participation in the podcast. I’m sure you’re just as distressed over science details as I am over military details in military-based action flicks (to the point where people tell me to STHU sometimes).
I’m not too concerned about the Sunday move. IMHO, it will be the only show worth watching on Sunday anyway. Let’s give “Desparate Housewives” a run for its money!!!
As for the story arc, I love how RDM and Co. are doing it. Start up something near the end of the first third of the season, toy with it during the rest of the season, hype it up for the finale and then take the first few episodes of the new season to finish it off. To me, that shows tight writing. Pike, I’m with you concerning LOST. They need to solve SOMETHING. As far as I’m concerned BSG is the standard by which I judge others.
Okay, how about Cylon Deathmatch…. We can have Three fight Six (with the fight music from “Airplane!” playing in the background).
Martha: Bullshit. Shit shit shit shit shit. Frak. 🙂
I wonder if that’s gonna be filtered…
To the point: I don’t really care who says what; speech shouldn’t be censored except in extreme cases. I just pointed it out because at the beginning of the podcast, someone said they were required to censor stuff.
Anyways, I submitted a good theory (in my opinion anyways) about Baltar Six a few days before the podcast… and you guys touched on the subject but never brought it up. Boo hoo! Whine, complain! :p Oh well… maybe next time.
OH! Almost forgot: I hope you come back for more ‘casts in the future, Martha.
Artkis – I hope you know we were completely joking about censoring. We censored the actual abbreviation “B.S.” as a poke to SciFi for censoring Adama, ’cause we’d rather hear the real stuff. Yippee Kai-ay, Mr. Falcon!
Moe – Awesome!! I love it!
Martha – Thanks again for all your great input!
Eric-Michael – Sorry to disappoint. FWIW, I am NEVER trying to be “cute.” Just my dumb self and whatever comes out. And I got a lot of songs stuck in my head.
Audra — hahaha. Oh gods, you know I know someone whose TV Nanny changes “frak” to “smurf”? Talk about destroying a mood! Also, in my mind, song lyrics have replaced such noble items as the Nernst equation and the atomic weight of sulfur. Damn you, D. Boon! :-p
Arktis — thanks for the vote of confidence, and the swearing. 😉
oh you ARE cute Audra … you’re just gonna have to live with it (I do, but trust me it’s hard)
I just realized that I really need to take a class on oration. How many times did I say “um” and “like?” *dies, ded, of embarrassment*
it was halarious
Hi guys. I was a little late getting to this podcast but it was a good fix while we wait for Celebrity Death Match BSG style. There have been so many great comments already posted here for me to address so I’ll just say I really enjoy this board and all the people who contribute.
Martha it was good to have you aboard but it occurred to me I now know more about you than the regular hosts. Can’t claim to be a regular reader of PS but I’ve read my share over the years and it is a great publication. Anyway hearing about your background made me wonder what the demographic of this board is like. So without getting too personal I’d like to hear about the posters here. Me, I’m 36, male, live in Colorado and am an RF engineer. Please no complaints about dropped calls on your cell phone. I’m sure I don’t work for your carrier. 🙂
Now on to the podcast… I try not to get too caught up in science of the show even though that is my background. If I’m going to let FTL and artificial gravity slide, I can’t get too picky about Cylon origins. That being said, the magic baby blood has always irked me. Not because of the lack of antigens from the amalgam baby but more to the fact the writers on the show are generally better than that. They needed to come up with something to keep from taking Mary McDonnell off the show but that was just a little too easy. I honestly thought they would do something topical like stem cells but the cure all blood was lame. The only thing that would remove my feeling of dissatisfaction would be if this comes back to haunt her later. This could be personal issues or distrust by the masses if they discovered it but if it’s never mentioned again in the show this feeling will stick with me.
On the subject of the next episode I’m actually a bit skeptical of the subject matter. If you’ve listened to any of Ronald D Moore’s commentary they try to stay true to military themes and I’ll admit there is plenty of boxing in all our branches but I don’t really care for the idea of BSG Fight Club. Hopefully they can pull it off and there are plenty of grudges to go around. They never have explained the rift between Lee and Kara going back to her trying to get meds for Anders and I think there would be a line to beat Helo’s ass after he killed the infected prisoners. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the couple of weak eps there are out of every 20. Hopefully they’ll prove me wrong and I sincerely mean that. That being said my quarter is on Lee if he and Kara go at it.
Audra, Chuck, Sean and Martha thanks for another entertaining week.
Slingshot out
“um” and “like” are extremely common verbal twitches, especially in academic settings and despite valiant attempts at avoiding them. Another horribly unavoidable one is “uh”. It takes fantastic skill and effort to break oneself of these.
Martha, you aquitted yourself well. When transcribing RDM’s podcasts over at BSWiki, we drop those “discourse particles” for the sake of legibility (thus I’m well aquainted with them,) but you made FAR fewer of them than RDM does.
And, FWIW, I love Audra’s song-sequitors, but dammit girl, commit! If you bring it up, you have to finish singing it.
I’m still waiting for the “Audra Sings the Songs of the Cylons” podcast. I might be waiting a long time for that one, but I know I’m not the only one. The Cylon Bunch song HAS to be on there.
It kind of reminds me of a teacher I had last year who would sing the entire song of “My Obsession” but change the “my obsession” part to “let’s have a fitnah”. A fitnah is essentially a civil war or disagreement in Middle Eastern culture. He promotes having civil wars, to each his own. But the embarassing/ nerdily cool thing was I was the only one who knew the song he was singing. Sure I was born in ’88, but that still makes me an ’80’s child, right?
by the way Audra, I have no clue what FWIW means … I feel like the dad in sleepless in seattle … I’m guessing for what it’s worth? if that’s what it means, then it’s worth a lot that you even know the brady bunch theme …
Dude! Audra sing Galactica’s Greatest Hits? YES PLEASE!
The singing – The podcast needs a regular singing segment.
On the move to Sunday nights: this is great. It shows that SciFi has a lot of faith in the show, and it opens up the possibility that more casual TV viewers, those outside the scifi ghetto, might start to dig the show. Look at the networks. 10PM Sunday puts BSG after Family Guy/American Dad, which have big geek followings, and directly against Sunday Night Football (which I am guessing has very little overlap in viewers), Brothers and Sisters (which is dying a slow ratings death), Without A Trace, and 10 PM local news shows. BSG beats all of these.
The beautiful baby blood bullet – All the talk about the baby blood was too clever by half. Roslyn’s cure via the baby blood was ludicrous, but it served the story by a) saving her life and ending the Aeneid-like storyline that started BSG, and b) affirming that Hera is super-duper special and unique and will be really important in the future.
The Adama-stache – At least that was a real moustache.
The male Cylons – They are just not in the same league as Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, and Lucy Lawless. If I saw any one of these ladies sit down at the same bar as me, you’d have to knock me unconscious to stop me from trying to get her number. I can’t see any women fighting to meet Callum Rennie or Rick Worthy (no offense guys, if you’re reading this. Keep up the good work.)
Baltar as a Cylon – I sincerely hope not. If Baltar is a Cylon, a lot of the things the show says about human nature, and the great and terrible things that we are capable of, are really undermined.
Martha – I see what you’re talking about now. Thanks. Granted, I’m not in the business & I’m not one of those rabid detail-fans, so I can’t really say what’ll irritate or what won’t. I’m into the telling of a good story, and I don’t care if little details (like reality or continuity) get left out in order to tell the story. (Guess that’s what comes from being an X-Men fan for so many years – retroactive continuity was a phrase that describes X-Men to a “T”.)
Sundays: Man, I hope that the series doesn’t get “Firefly”-d… this is such a great show. What do you guys think the ratings floor is for it to continue?
Chucksax, I’d say the ratings floor is in the basement. SciFi is getting a lot of additional revenue from DVDs and iTunes sales. As long as they stay fairly strong, I’m guessing it could dip further than most.
To futher calm the fears of ratings trouble, I’ll put it this way, SciFi needs a critically acclaimed show and none of the Stargates, eUREKA (I think that’s how they write it), the CGI monster of the week original movie, or that raslin’ is getting them that. They’ve never had anything like this before and Bonnie Hammer and Co. would be crazy to let it go. Even if they were losing money off the show, it’s so important for them to have a show that’s in Rolling Stone magazine (I think there was a blurb of it on the cover of the Kanye post- Katrina issue) and TIME magazine. It’s always at the top of iTunes. I do wish they would put the soundtracks on iTunes though, as I still haven’t got around to ordering them off Amazon yet (clicking that “Buy” button is so easy on iTunes).