It's going to be legendary!

The Best Show I've Never Seen

Well, over the past few days I've been totally hooked the show BattleStar Galactica. This is a remake of the sci-fi show done in the late 70's. The original was basically after the Star Wars craze and ABC wanted a piece of the action. I've never seen the original series, but from what I've seen and heard so far, it was a campy, bad special effects, and cheezy dialogue. I also saw a behind the scenes special on the new series and it was awesome as well. The one thing that I found the most intersting about the original show was that almost everyone knows the name Battlestar Galactica. I've never seen the show, but I knew the name, recognized the bad guys and basically knew what type of show it was. One thing I found interesting was that the orignal show was only one for one season. I think it's amazing that a show can make that kind of a cultrual impact for only being on for such a short time.

So I don't know the storyline from the original show, but for this one, Humans created this race of machines called the Cylons. These were created as a slave race, which eventually gained sentience and rebelled against the Humans. They were at war for many years and suddenly they left. The Cylons were gone for a ton of years, and then they returned. They came back and exterminaed all of the humans on all of the planets that they colonized. All of the Humans were killed except for approximately 50,000 people in ships on the run.

I think that the show is extremely well writen and done in that it's not just another action show or a sci-fi show. What I find the most intersting about the show is how the characters act and do when faced with total extinction. Right off from the first episode, these people are in the race for not only their lives, but they have the responsibliby of the rest of our species. The way they deal with crisis that come their way and the decisions the leaders make to ensure the saftey of the rest of the people running. Out of the 50,000 people still alive there is only one Military ship, the Galactica with it's fighters to defend everyone. There are about 40 different ships that just carry the rest of the people around as they run away. So to me it's intersting to see how the military commanders not only have to worry about their own ship, but the the other defenseless ships in the fleet. Because one thing was abundantly clear from the beginning, the Cylons are after the extermination of the human Race.

Since I've never seen the original, I don't know what the oringial Cylons were and what they're plan was, but this show has impressed me with what they are now. Basiclly in the original show, the Cylons were big StormTroopers with reflective armor and a red glowing eye that moved back and forth like K.I.T from Knight Rider. One of the most major changes for this show was that now, the Cylons have evolved to make themselves look, feel, and act like humans. There are about 5 different models shown so far, and each has copies of themselves. They are even programmed to not even know they are Cylons. This brings up very interesting issues with Sabotage and paranoia within the rest of humanity fleeing for their lives.

What I find the most intetsting about the Humanoid Cylons in this series is that they seem to be experimenting. The focus of one experiement is Love. It's interesting that they would pick that particular subject but it does make sense to me. As everyone knows, Love is the one force that drives humans to disreguard their natural instincts as well as logical thought. To me it would make sense that Machines would not be able to understand this concept and try to experiment to find the true nature of it. The other phenonmenon that they bring up is God. The Cylons seem to be convinced that they are God's children and that they are doing his work. I also find this interesting in that God is the other driving force in human existance that has not been rationalized, or categorized, or even proven in the last 2000 years. I think that's why the Machines are also totally engrossed with the idea of God as well. So in the end, I think that this show is another example of why Humans are screwed as soon as we make the machines our slaves and then make them self-aware. It will always lead to disaster, but that is another discussion in iteslf. (Let me know and I'll try to find the paper I wrote on this particular topic).

So I really suggest that everyone watches the show, in that it's not what appears on the surface when you see previews or hear the name BattleStar Galactica. I think the show is a very intesting supirse. And hell, you just might like it too.

posted by Adam @ 11:58 PM 2 comments

Fun with Commercials

WELL! It's been a while hasn't it kiddies? So to kick off this random assortment of thoughts, I was watching T.v. one day as I normally do and I saw this commercial for Blockbuster, which had this woman talking to the camera kinda like this,

"Ya know my friends and I have been going to the same video store for years and alway's being charged these crazy late fees. So when I heard Blockbuster was giving me more time, I was like "Seeee Yaahh"

And they go into the whole deal on how Blockbuster doesn't charge late fees anymore. So I was thinking about what she was saying and I was thinking, "Hey here's a crazy idea, instead of complaining about the crazy late fees, how about taking some responsibility and returning the damn videos when they are due? I don't think it's that hard of a concept.

So the next commercial I was thinking about was the Pepsi commercial where it's in a cooler at a 7-11ish type place. The guy turns off the lights and closes the door, but he leavs the stereo playing that "Hey ho Let's GO!" song. And then all of the drinks in the cooler start talking and the juices and stuff start complaining about the loud music. The Sports drinks are saying that they have a workout at 7 the next morning. The camera then pans up to the top shelf and we see that it's full of Diet Pepsi's that are dancing around to the music.

The there's the outside shot of the cooler and we see the glass shatter and one can of Diet Pepsi comes sailing out and lands on the ground. Then every looks in shock and then the can on the ground spins around, jumps up and starts dancing around again. The music keeps playing and one can says to another, "he's always doing that"

Now the first time I saw that commercial, I thought it should go another way. everything goes the same until the guy goes out of the cooler. Then as everyone is looking down at him, a slow, steady puddle of soda starts seeping out of the top of the can as he lays there silently. Then cuts to two drinks on the ground next to a chalk, outline of the can, questioning the other cans, seeing if he has any enemies etc. Basically the rest goes into the standard Law and Order thingy with the Bing Bong sounds.

I also wanted to tell ya about something that Norman brought to my attention today. We were talking about going to see the new Fantastic 4 Movie and he said how their powers were the same as the Incredibles. I thought about it for a second and he was right. Violet can turn herself invisible and create force fields, Helen can strech every part of her body, Bob has super strength and almost invulnerability. Exactly the same powers as The Invisible Woman, Susan Richards, Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, and The Thing, Ben Grimm. The only thing I saw different was that the son Dax had super speed and Johhny Storm was the human torch, but Jen then told me that the baby Jak-Jak also burst into flames. SO it's offical that Pixar totally copied Marvel's Fantastic 4 for their latest picture.

I was going to talk more about this but I'm getting pretty tired so instead I'm gonna get some sleep.

posted by Adam @ 10:28 PM 0 comments