#2: Lost Planet of the Gods, Parts 1-2

[Croft2014]

This second storyline was a big deal back in ‘78 and was by turns terribly exciting, funny, intriguing and moving.

Seeing it these days it has a part one which if I was rating it seperately would get GOOD, part two would get EXCELLENT and collectively I’d give it VERY GOOD. This is because the story improves as it goes along and has a crackerjack ending, and therefore warrents a higher rating overall.

The first half is rather silly and sexist in it’s treatment of the female shuttle pilots. It might have been much better to have a mixture of men and women as shuttle pilots (ditto fighter pilots) from the start because it was obviously planned that way at some point during the series' development. The scenes where the glamourous, made up (with big hair) females flirting and teasing Starbuck and Apollo are embarrassing. Luckily other aspects of part 1 are very good. Part 2 puts no foot wrong and is as good an episode of BG as we’ve ever had. Hatch and Seymour make her last moments moving.

Come on guys, lets get more members of the forum logging on a voting in these polls. At the moment only three have voted in the Saga of a Star World poll.

[Cylon-Knight]

I've voted! Woooooooo
And now to poke some Centurions to get in on the fun...

[johnnybear]

I remember dropping a lead out of my bedroom window and then connecting it to the cable socket downstairs! That way I could receive Thames TV on my small portable television where I used to tape the soundtracks of the show! It was pretty cold back in the winter of 1980 as I recall and I loved the scenes with the pyramids!
JB

[Croft2014]

I just watched this again and feel it does hold up well; the scene between Boxey and Apollo where he explains about Serena's death is well done. The freeze frame ending leaving on a downer was special back in '78; I can't recall any other US series at that time that had such a serial like flow from episode to episode and one that required episodes to be seen in a specific order.

I also watched the 14:26 of deleted scenes and there's lots of good stuff there that should not have been cut; discussions between Tigh and Adama, Serena getting technical flying advice from Apollo and some nice bits for Dietra. I wish that Universal would scan all existing OCN material in 8K and do complete rebuilds of the episodes. Also, recomposite all of the SPFX in the digital domain and remove all the flaws like garbage mattes etc. Get John Dykstra and Lorne Peterson to supervise it.

Restore the as-broadcast episodes obviously, but also produce extended special editions using the deleted material and perhaps use sparing and judicious CGI here and there to augment the extended versions like add two-seater Vipers to the lineup (especially in Saga of a Star World where Apollo takes Adama down to Caprica), add pilots into some of the cockpits and go through the SPFX outtakes looking for additional shots to break up the repetition that could be brought up to standard via CGI. Also, redo matte paintings

[bishopdonmiguel]

I’m all for choice as long as anything done other than “restore what’s there” is an option added with the original material, not a replacement. I don’t want anything added, “improved,” changed, etc. It’s perfect the way it is, except flaws in transfer and imperfect source material.

They tried this with Star Trek. While I appreciate the artistic achievement of the new effects, it adds nothing. The original cuts are still what I watch, not the gimmicky new versions. BUT the viewer has a choice and that was a great decision by the producers to provide both.

Perhaps someday we can get an original version of Star Wars without all the unnecessary changes. I like the imperfect effects, matte lines, all that jazz. That’s what I saw in theatres and that’s what I’d prefer to watch.

[Croft2014]

Obviously if such an undertaking were to happen the baseline would be to rebuild the the as-transmitted episodes precisely, only in the digital domain to remove loss of resolution during opticals and to remove any baked in flaws in the SPFX. Also, as with the classic Doctor Who DVDs rebuild the opening and closing credits in HD. In addition to a restoration of the orignal 1.0 mono sound, I'd also like the soundtracks rebuilt using the original sound stems to a modern standard in lossless 5.1 but - again - without any new ADR.

The special extended versions would be alternate, of course. In any case, this is pie eye thinking; it's ain't ever gonna happen in a month of Sundays.

[johnnybear]

By the time we got to see this episode here in the UK I was already aware that Serena was going to die! So it didn't seem as sad as it would have been had it been a surprise, more of a let's get this bit out of the way so we can continue with the series!
JB

[Croft2014]

I was born in July 1967 and lived in the USA from birth till 1968 and again from 1972-1983 so my first experiences were the original US broadcasts. When I moved to the UK I didn't see the series again until January 2004 when I imported the US R1 Cylon Head DVD set.

[johnnybear]

Thames had BSG first in the UK in 1980 and showed them on Thursday nights at 635pm, breaking with Take The Celestra after Fire in Space in late November and starting again in February 1981 with War of The Gods until they completed their run with a two part version of Mission Galactica:The Cylon Attack! I don't think they showed Galactica 80!
ATV showed the series in summer 1983 and screened Mission Galactica as a movie between Greetings From Earth and Baltar's Escape! They played G80 the following summer!
Anglia ITV just screened G80 at the same time as ATV, didn't bother with the older parent of BSG!
These were the three ITV channels that I could pick up don't know about the others! Is there any information on line anywhere does anyone know?
JB