Customer Reviews

Battlestar Galactica: Season 1

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Season 1 box set INCLUDES the Mini-series. Do not select Amazon's 'Great Buy' option to get them both or you'll end up with two copies of the mini-series.

There was a UK release of Season 1 without the Miniseries (also sold in North America by Best Buy only) which is why a separate mini-series only disk exists. You do not need to buy it though with the North American Season 1 Box set.

After reading all the positive reviews about this series I decided to take a gamble and buy this set. Boy am I glad I didn't miss this series!

The series is really a space drama revolving around the relationships between characters. It does not get dull at any point, and manages to strike a great balance between action and dialogues. You'll see a bit more character interaction than full-out action sequences but trust me...this series is not dry at all. It's also not cliche like I find many sci-fi series are. Plot twists and complications galore, including a major surprise at the end which actually startled me. You'll also see that many characters are not entirely good or bad, but rather struggling to survive. It's interesting to see a sci-fi that's not afraid to have many shades of grey characters instead of the forumulaic "good guys vs. bad guys" war story.

The series also avoids the many trappings of a sci-fi series ie: it does not rely too much on unknown technology and plot devices to further itself. Sure there are space fighters and such, but the weapons used are a little more believable. Nukes are still around and in use, rather than theoretical weapons that many other series use. The rifles and handguns are also not entirely the stuff of fairy tales, they represent what could believably be in use decades from now. Battlestar Galactica offers a vision of the future which still manages to echo current technology. The realistic touch to the sci-fi genre is much appreciated.

Speaking of realism the special effects in this series are top notch. You'll see recycled sequences such as fighters being launched and landing, but the computer effects are extremely good. The Cylons look good and the actors react well to their presence, the result of great directing.

I really felt I got my money's worth with this set. You get the 3 hour pilot episode aka "Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries" plus all the episodes from the regular season. There are also some great featurettes on how they came up with the look of the show and character changes from the original series from the 70's. All in all you get about 8 hours of special features.

The only downside I've experienced is introducing friends to the series. All your ranting about how good it is gets stalled when you have to explain that your friend must take a chance on a 3 hour episode to get into the story!

Since I seriously had no interest in the original series, I watched the first movie with some trepidation. Although it was a bit bumpy with the actors only beginning to flesh out their characters and environment, I found the whole story very well rounded and pulled together for us in a very appealing and addictive way. Rewatching the initial movie I find I do skip over parts that dragged on a bit but I do rewatch it; something I do very little of.
By the end of the first episode, I was hooked. Wow. The pace and content in the episodes continues to grow and twist you and pull you in unexpected ways and down paths I find compelling and intriguing. The Season 1 cliff hanger has to be one of the most incredible cliff hangers I have ever seen. Definitely in the top five I have every watched. ***SPOILER WARNING*** The fact that it is left to the last five minutes was stunningly well done. I was sitting jaw on the floor repeating a familiar phrase of two words.
Even if you are not a sci-fi fan, I would suggest watching this. The sci-fi is merely a fancy wrapping. The real show is the people, the interpersonal relationships, the hardships and the human nature. The characters are developing nicely and I would be greatly disappointed if they ended the series.

This is said elsewhere, but cannot be said often enough. Amazon is encouraging buyers to separately purchase both the season one set and the miniseries. The season one set includes the miniseries. You do NOT need to buy both -- unless you want TWO copies of the miniseries!

When I heard there would be a new Battlestar Galactica, I was not sure this would be a great idea.

But Ron Moore was to be at the helm and that convinced me to give the series a chance. Who's Moore? He started out writing the best Star Trek "The Next Generation" episodes of the early years before getting on board the "Deep Space Nine" team. He left the Star Trek family during "Voyager" where he worked as a creative consultant getting frustrated by the direction Paramount adopted for that series. So I knew this series would be well written and intelligent... And it is.

It's not the BG of your childhood. The new series' Adama is not the wise and charismatic patriarch Lorne Green was. Adama is now a troubled commanding officer, a true soldier that believes he must fight. His relationship with Lee Adama, his son (Codename "Apollo") is very strained. "Starbuck" and "Boomer" are both played by women in the new series. Colonel Tai, a forgettable character in the original series, is now more believeable as Adama's executive officer... He is not appreciated by junior officers and has a drinking problem... He is an angry man who can get the job done... The government, almost absent from the original series, is very much present in the new series and the President - an idealistic woman who did not choose this position - is at odds with Adama... Their conflicting views make good drama...

I'm quite certain Moore wanted the characters to be complex. No character is more complex than Baltar... Ridiculous in the original series, Baltar has become a facinating character in the new series. Manipulated by a Cylon to whom he is sexually addicted, or maybe even in love with, the guy is not evil... No good guys and bad guys here... Shades of gray and nuances everywhere. Not your childhood's Battlestar Galactica... Life, sex, problems... Even sprituality - which was ever present in the original series that was piloted by Mormons...

The music is interesting. Powerful and subdued at the same time...

The SFX are excellent once you accept that the tactics they use are close to dogfighting in WW2! Then again, in BG technology is not trusted for obvious reasons... The military look and feel of the series is not that different from that of «Space Above and Beyond», a sc-fi series of the early 90s created by people who would later join Chris Carter's «X-Files»...

Again, this is not your childhood's BG: if the main story remains the same, in its execution, the new series is more compelling and intelligent. This is no longer a "shoot'em up" space opera series... This time, survival is important. Logistics are important. Morale is important... There is the fear of sabotage, fear of dying, fear of losing a loved one... Apparently it took robots to create characters that would really be Human...

You missed it on TV? At this price, the 4 hour pilot and 13 episodes are a steal... And since the original series lasted only a year or so, there is a lot of room to create something entirely new in the coming seasons... Bring them on!

The Season 1 box set INCLUDES the Mini-series. Do not select Amazon's 'Great Buy' option to get them both or you'll end up with two copies of the mini-series.

There was a UK release of Season 1 without the Miniseries (also sold in North America by Best Buy only) which is why a separate mini-series only disk exists. You do not need to buy it though with the North American Season 1 Box set.

Save youself and dont buy it.

Fantastic series - challenging and very well written. I watched the whole thing in DVD box sets and couldn't stop!
Only annoyances for me were lengthy introductions to each episode and 1 minute speeded-up summary of what you're about to watch just before episode starts. Why on earth would I want to have a summary of what I'm about to see? It's ridiculous. Aside from that, buy it and buy them all in order - you won't regret it.

This is a sci-fi drama that has not been equalled in my experience; other series do come close, but for different reasons. Most sci-fi isn't made to appeal to a mass audience and compete head on with prime-time television; if it is, it often fails to do so and ends up being relegated to time slot where it dies a slow death, if it's lucky. I watched a little of the old Galactica as a kid and the old series does not compare to the re-imagined one. The new series combines drama, impressive special effects, superb writing and complex characters to deliver an addictive product that leaves people craving more. I struggled to watch the show in the beginning since I just can't commit to a regularly scheduled show due to other responsibilities. One day I rented the mini-series, season one and season 2.0, then ended up doing nothing but watch Battlestar Galactica for an entire weekend. The only reason I've held off on picking up 2.5 is because I know I will do nothing but watch the show until I've worked through each episode. It's that addictive - so addictive that I almost neglect my beautiful wife and children just to see what happens next.

If you like sci-fi, don't hesitate just get your hands on this show somehow; please don't pirate it, because I want them to keep making the series, or at least spin-off movies for as long as possible!! You won't regret watching this show - it has something for everyone; love stories, the triumph of the human spirit, sci-fi, battles (yes - space battles!), high tech stuff, great characters, politics, intrigue, etc. What more can we ask for in our world of "reality" television?

Having grown up on the old Battlestar Galactica and similar science fiction, I wasn't sure how I would react to this new series.

In this series, with a few nods to the original ideas, there are still humans on twelve planets who have an advanced civilisation, but an aging military fleet. They've been at peace for twenty years, since the Cylons (here the humans' own creation) departed, having never signed a formal peace treaty. There is no peace conference here - rather, the aging battlestar Galactica is about to be decommissioned, when an unexpected attack by dramatically more advanced Cylons takes place, incorporating not only direct military strikes but also computer internet/network hijacking, facilitated by the mentally unbalanced but ingenious Dr. Baltar. Adama takes the Galactica to a safe location while the rest of the colonies fall quickly to the Cylons; various ships in the interstellar routes survive, including one with a cabinet minister elevated to the presidency due to the emergency, Laura Roslin. The ragtag fleet assembles at a forgotten supply depot, and does a sort of light-speed jump to safety after fighting (and essentially losing) against a new Cylon death star.

There are small nods to the old series - on the Galactica preparing for decommissioning, a museum has been set up, which has models of old Cylon death stars (these are models from the original series). The specifications for Cylons show the old metallic storm-trooper, but we are also informed that no one has seen a Cylon in twenty years (they've outgrown their shiny metal armour). In one scene, the museum chatter about the history of the Galactica mentions a Commander Hatch as its first commander, an obvious nod to Richard Hatch, the star of the original series.

The character of Laura Roslin is new, and the figure of Adama is a very different one from the original. Perhaps the most shocking change is that Starbuck here, while still a cigar-chomping, swaggering, swearing, card-playing rogue of an ace pilot, is also a woman.

The pilot shows people to be very human - whereas in the original series, they were almost playing archetypes of hero, villain, father-figure, etc., in this new show the roles are nowhere as distinct. The characters have flaws, and not Persian-carpet flaws, but real, honest-to-goodness problems and personality quirks. Adama is adamant about keeping the Galactica safe but also in engaging the enemy; his clashes with the authority of Laura Roslin, a president essentially without a nation, promises to be an interesting one. Apollo is still the solid captain of the fighter squad, and Starbuck and Boomer his able lieutenants, but there are secrets lurking here, too. And then there is Dr. Baltar, in whom the line between genius and insanity is constantly being redrawn.

The fleet is assembled, and heading off toward Earth. Here, however, Earth is not the ancient migratory memory of Adama as in the original series as much as it a mythical invention to give people hope in the fleet - this could set up a very different character to their run from the Cylons. Also, the fact that the Cylons are ultimately the creation of the humans, and now look like the humans, will factor heavily into a revised story line.

The storylines across the different episodes lead from a desperate attempt to outrun the Cylons into a growing community with its own culture similar to but distinct from that they left behind. The deepening mystery about the Cylons continues enigmatically, and the quest for Earth eventually takes a dramatic turn as the fleet discovers the ancient home world of Kobol. This was the perfect set-up for a new season; the 1970s series never really had the chance, but the characters here will continue to develop across several more seasons.

This is one of the best shows on TV right now, according to many media outlets. "A Breakaway Hit!" -TV Guide and "The Best Show on Television." -Newsday are but two examples of the rave reviews it has received. If you are a sci-fi fan, this is a must-see show. If you aren't a sci-fi fan, you should still consider checking this out. Even though it's in space and has killer robots, it is more human than most other drama shows on TV today. So say we all.

This box set includes the miniseries that re-launched this show and returned it to TV for the first time since the 1970's. It has the 4-hour miniseries and the 13 episodes from the first season. It stars Edward James Olmos as Commander Adama Captain of the Battlestar Galactica, and Mary McDonnell as the newly invested president of the 12 colonies of man. She was formerly the secretary of education.

The Cylon's had not been heard from in years. Then in one day they attack and destroy nearly all human life in attacks on all planets and most military assets. Now with the war against the Cylon robots lost, the Battlestar Galactica crew speed toward the fabled 13th colony on a long lost planet, called Earth. Galactica Commander Adama and President Laura Roslin face waning supplies, crushed morale, ... and the credible threat Cylons aboard the ship. Cylons that look like humans now not just shiny machines.

Humanity's children have come home and they are trying to destroy their creators.

Some of the amazing cast are:
Edward James Olmos as Commander William Adama
Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin
Katee Sackhoff as Lt. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Jamie Bamber as Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama
James Callis as Dr. Gaius Baltar Vice President
Tricia Helfer as Number Six
Grace Park as Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek (The original Apollo)
Tahmoh Penikett as Lt. Karl C. "Helo" Agathon
Michael Hogan as Col. Saul Tigh
Aaron Douglas as CPO Galen "Chief" Tyrol
Alessandro Juliani as Lt. Felix Gaeta
Kandyse McClure as P02 Anastasia Dualla
Paul Campbell as Billy Keikeya

This cast works so well together, that after the miniseries they rewrote parts of the series to give the "Chief" a much larger role.

This series will draw you in and capture your imagination. It is full of religious symbols and images. There are visions, prophecies, and sacred scrolls. It is a drama of the most intense nature. Check it out, you will watch the DVD's over and over again.

The best Sci-fi series since Babylon 5.

So Say We All!