Sci-Fi Channel’s new Battlestar Galactica

I was a big fan of Battlestar Galactica when I was growing up. As a girl, I had a huge crush on Starbuck, and an only slightly smaller crush on Apollo. I would imagine myself getting caught up in some mess with the Cylons, and subsequently getting saved by Starbuck.

About two years ago, I heard about Richard Hatch‘s (Apollo) vision for a new BG series where we completely ignore the existence of Galactica 1980 (if only that could be scrubbed from the brains of all who saw…). Instead, the series would pick up with the Galactica 25 years later, still searching for Earth with its rag-tag fugitive fleet. There is now a new generation who have grown up in space, and an old generation that is perhaps wearying of the journey. The idea sounded compelling.

Unfortunately, SciFi is not doing this version of BG. Instead, they are doing a complete remake of the original series. They’ll be pulling some of the story lines from the original series and updating the show for a new generation of audience.

Now, I will watch the new show. I’m trying not to predispose myself to hating it, but I have several concerns. Perhaps the biggest concern is that when David Eick (executive producer of the new series) was asked why they decided to make Starbuck a woman, he responded with, “In truth, there was less agonizing over this decision than you might imagine.” That answer tells me that the new producers are not in touch with fans of the original show. Starbuck was a womanizing scoundrel and every girl I knew had a huge crush on him. He was probably the favorite character among my friends (and brothers). To make such a huge change in a favorite character should take a bit of thought (and perhaps shouldn’t have even occurred to them in the first place). It would be like someone re-making the original Star Trek series and turning the Dr. McCoy or Spock characters into women. You just can’t do that.

There were other answers that Eick gave on the SciFi BG “Ask David” page that put me off because it clearly showed that most of the people involved in this remake were not just not fans of the original series, but indeed had not even watched the series. While I realize that their goal is to make a new, updated version of the show, one might think they would be a bit more sensitive to the existing fans.