OFF Topic Sci Fi

For the Generation X among us, who remember the flood of cheap sci fi in the early 80's in the wake of SW, the sci fi that we watched every second of, the Sci Fi Channel is showing 5 episodes of Buck Rogers on April 16.
FYI

I miss those days... I loved watching Battlestar Gallactica and Buck Rogers back then. (And I don't care that Battlestar Gallactica was a rip off of Star Wars... I still liked the show)

Battlestar never would have got on the air without SW, but it had its own idea and tried to mow its own ground. Its acknowledgement of angels and demons being aliens was remarkably progressive considering it was the 70's.

It gets a lot of flak for having the same style of FX as SW, which is becuase John Dykstra did the FX for both more than any insiduous ripoff plot. In 1978, if you didnt have Dykstra, then you didnt have FX.

Yup, loved those days.

I dunno about the new Galactica though...Starbuck, a girl?

Hmmmm.....

No... Starbuck will NEVER be a girl in my eyes. I don't think I am going to watch the new Battlestar Gallactica for that reason alone.

yeah, Starbuck was the Han of Galactica. You couldn't make Han a girl, and you can't make Starbuck a girl either (in my humble, testosterone-controlled opinion).

Doug

I agree very very much,
The way Dirk Benedict played Starbuck (which is admittedly very similar to the way he played most every role he ever had - Face for instance) was a large part of watching the show, the guy was just so cool. If they want to do a cool female character, why don't they just use one of the existing female characters, personally I always thought Sheba was pretty cool because she was a female Colonial Warrior, they could use her for that sort of character, and still have Starbuck. But then again, I don't think you could ever recast any of those roles.
I always thought that a sequel series would've been the best idea for Galactica. When they made new Star Trek series they didn't try to remake the original, and they certainly didn't cast a female Spock or McCoy.
And about the look of Galactica resembling SW, I think I heard somewhere that along with Dykstra doing the effects, I think I heard that McQuarrie did some design work, but don't quote me on that.
Anyhow, I'll talk to you all later, I've got to go lead a rag-tag fleet,
Ryan A.

Ryan's correct. McQuarrie did do concept artwork for Galactica, and a lot of it can be seen on his website here:

http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/galart/index.html

In addition, not only did Dykstra do effects work for Galactica, he was producer (see imdb.com)

Doug