There's entertainment, and then there's epic entertainment. What's the difference? Regular ole' television series, films and games give us, at best, a night's worth of amusement, heck maybe even a weekend. But the kind of series and franchises we're talking about here have provided decades worth of nerdy indulgence! Your kids' kids will be playing these games, watching these movies and television series for years to come. One could spend a lifetime devoted to devouring the hours upon hours of sci-fi action, fantasy adventure and the quirky other-worldly antics of the awesome series highlighted here. Lucky for you, we've distilled them down to a brief yet lively discourse coupled with high points you should seek out, low lights to avoid and the next big releases coming down the pipe. So clear your schedule, take the phone off the hook, warm up your consoles, flat screens and DVD players and prepare to immerse yourself in some of the greatest and longest running epics in entertainment history!
Battlestar Galactica
It's hard to imagine the show we watched as kids with that creature that resembled Alf wound in silver duct tape, known as Muffit II, the robot Daggit, would ever be ressurected or "re-imagined" as industry folks like to call it, to become one of the most epic science fiction series in television history. All it took were a few sexed up cylons, a gender re-assignment for Starbuck and of course, the great Edward James Olmos. But it wasn't easy getting a Galactica re-boot off the ground. Fans of the original series and Captain Apollo himself, Richard Hatch, objected at first. Hatch had plans of his own for a sequel to the original series and even produced a trailer and a thirty-minute pilot to pitch the project. While nerds drooled over the trailer which Hatch bought on tour to various sci-fi conventions, it wasn't to be, as studio heads opted to go with Ron D. Moore's sexy sounding "re-imagining" rather than Hatch's nerd-approved sequel.
While we'd love to see the pilot Hatch crafted, as not just an orginal cast member but obviously someone who has a deep love for the series, in hindsight, we're pretty frakkin happy with Moore's contribution to the Battlestar franchise. Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck maintained the spirit and spunk of the Dirk Benedict original, she even kept the stogies! The re-imaginging also took a decidedly darker tone than the original, digging deep into several characters' complex inner struggles, especially the ones who found out they were Cylons. That can frak with your head, for sure. It also made for four fantastic seasons of television, which many fans are still reeling from the mind blowing conclusion of.
The high point: The first episode of the re-imagined series "33" is a favorite of ours, highly praised by fans and also winner of the Hugo award for best dramatic presentation, short form in 2005.
The low point: The second season's sixteenth episode, entitled "Sacrifice" was definintely not Battlestar's finest hour. Sesha Abinell creates a hostage situation aboard the Cloud 9 in a play for Cylon prisoner, Sharon Valeri. The end result is we lost poor Billy and gained one mediocre episode of BSG.
Next big release: Now that we've reached the conclusion of the series, fans may be going through a bit of post-finale depression but we're excited to spool up the ole' FTL drive again and head back to Caprica, in the new emponymous Ron Moore produced prequel to Battlestar. Coming from the same minds that rendered the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica so beautifully, if Moore and co. bring the same level of intricacy in character development and storyline, fans will flock to Caprica. While the series is set to premiere in 2010, we won't have to wait much longer to get a look at what's being described as "television's first science fiction family saga." An extended cut of the pilot will be exclusively available on DVD and via digital download on April 21st.
