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Battlestar Galactica Volume 1 – Dynamite

This more fucking like it, after the big let done and laborious effort that was the BSG manga this first of three in the official comic tie in to the TV series redeems the reputation of BSG comics fully. The action here takes place during the second season whilst Boomer is still in the holding cell. The Galactica encounters a distress call from a long since thought lost in action medical frigate but even stranger is the crew on board they are all people that died in air-borne incidents back on the colonies years ago then add into the mix a group of terrorists and a virus that stricken s nearly the whole fleet and it feels like getting into that warm pair of slippers on a winters day, this is familiar ground.

The writing here is inch perfect and truly feels like part of the BSG universe with all the story elements and plot lines that come about never feeling forced. The Identity of several of the “returners” as they are dubbed by the colonists will come as a big shock and that is where this novel will lose marks as the events in this book seem so large its impossible to believe that they will never be referred to in the TV show. But that aside the characters are also well written with Admiral Adama’s reaction to the identity of one of the returners being on the money.

The big plus here is the artwork and let’s face it the Japanese style does not suit a subject matter as dark and with such a heavy narrative as BSG. Character drawings are all spot on with my only gripe being that President Roslin looks a tad on the young side which we know will dissapoint McFlee given his lusty feelings towards the mature Roslin.

A lot of high points in this story the main revelation is a true shocker and provides the main meat of the story (will try and keep this spoiler free) and also the discovery of a fleet of old school Cylons that are still programmed to respond to human commands, and after the discovery upon being told to go frak themselves proceed to blow seven shades of shit out of each other.

In summary is best to look upon this as an alternative timeline entry, but is still damned entertaining and given that the TV series has just wrapped this will ease those BSG DT’s a little.

Rating : 8/10

Not just a good BSG but a great comic worth checking out.

Battlestar Galactica – Echoes of New Caprica (Tokyopop)

Now that BSG has quite literally gone of our our screens and into the sunset we need something to battle the withdrawals that we will all be feeling looking at that gap in the TV schedule. Thankfully the comic book world has stepped up to the plate on both sides of the globe and here BSG goes east – Manga Style. In the first ever BSG manga title what we have are three different stories set around season three , in fact these were plots that had to be cut from what we saw on TV due to running time.

The first is I think the weakest, not to say that its terrible but merely average. It focuses on President Roslin’s school that she taught on New Caprica under the menacing glare of the Cylons. The main thrust is that some one in the school is giving intel to the toasters and the path leads to one of the children in the class being a Cylon collaborator. Like I say this is an average story and it feels like the bog standard comic book tie in filler in between what we saw up on the screen. The plot is very basic and to be honest unimaginative but the artwork is of good standard and manages to make it look like BSG and traditional manga at the same time. But my mine gripe is there isn’t that much new in this tale it feels like going over old ground and if you wanted so interesting background info into the whole New Caprica affair then give this a miss otherwise it will pass away an hour or so.

Much like a good three course meal we started with a light entry and now we get to the meat and potatoes. The second volume is a Zarek centric story about the early days of the Cylon conspirator trials held on Galactica immediately following events on New Caprica. This story more than the other two does give us something new and that will enhance your viewing of the TV show. Zarek has always been one of the most intriguing players in the BSG mythos. There is a neat twist to this story when Zarek has to face one of his best friends and hand him over to the mob rule and this does have genuine impact. In the time line this follows immediately on from the liberation of New Caprica during Zarek’s very brief stint as president. Overall this is great little story whilst you could see why it would be dropped from the TV it does add something to the BSG story as a whole.

Like the three course meal we get to the sweet which is probably the best way to describe the third and final story of the book. This time the focus is on Starbuck and the child she accepted as her own on New Caprica. There is nothing much ti write home about here storywise and you won’t learn very much about Starbuck or anything else. Simply put Starbuck is haunted by visions of the child and tracks her down where she sees her on her own, abducts her then child returns to her mother and thats about it. Scrub what I said earlier this is in fact the weakest story of the book as nothing new or exciting happens.

Overall the book is a patchy affair but a decent start as there will be more on the way. I feel though that given the Japanese style of fleshing out characters to the maximum, maybe if the writers stick to the supporting cast of BSG for story lines then we will have something to look forward to in the future. The manga fails when the stories focus on the principal charcters as they seem unable to add anything new to what we know already. Overall I would say this book is for the seasoned BSG fan as the casual fan won’t gain that much from it.

Rating – 5/10

Caprica Season 1 Episode 0 – Pilot

You have to hand it to the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica Ronald D Moore he knows how to get hard core fan boys in a tizzy and then silence them in style. Remember when it was announced that BSG was going to be re-imagined ? those fans boys where up in arms about the new elements Starbuck and Boomer re-cast as women ! Cylons that look human! it was going to be disaster they wailed but then when we actually saw that he had crafted the best Sci-Fi no scrub that the best TV show of recent years they went silent. And now The new BSG has a rabid legion of fan boys and as the curtain drew on BSG Ron Moore announced he was going to give BSG the spin off treatment by going back 50 years and fleshing out the back story of how the Cylons came to be. Then he announced it would be like a family drama , sort of like Dallas so light fuse and ignite the message boards were swamped with the fan boys enraged again and yet again, but one crucial thing they haven’t seen a frame of Caprica and yet again it looks like Ron Moore is on the money.

Like i said the pilot and the series is set some 50 years before the fall on Caprica and focuses on two families the rich Graystones and the brilliant scientist/robotics  genius man of the house  Dr Daniel Graystone and the civil liberties lawyer Joseph Adams (no prizes for what his real surname is). The two fathers are brought together when an act of religious fanaticism on a train takes their daughters away from them. Dr Graystone then finds out that unknown to him his daughter had been a genius at Artificial Intelligence and had created a digital copy of herself inside a sort of virtual reality chat room. Now obsessed with the idea of having his daughter back he enlists the help of Joseph Adams to commit industrial espionage and steal from a rival robotics firm an AI circuit to allow him to download his daughters personality into a robot. You see where this is all leading to, but like BSG you knew where it was going but they packed in enough subplots and story arcs to keep you glued to the set.

Here a good deal of plot threads are introduced : the genesis of AI, the religious element (polytheism v monotheism), The family tensions between Joseph and William Adams, How far would you to have a departed loved one back?, Anti-immigration attitudes of Capricans (The Taurans are looked down upon and hence why the Adams use the adopted surname). And in that way they similarities to BSG are evident. The main difference will be the focus on the family feud that is to ensue and also making this planet-bound (no shaky camera POVs of hyper-kinetic space dogfights here folks!).

The acting and casting is likewise on the mark with leading man Eric Stoltz playing Dr Graystone to perfection as a brilliant man wounded by the tragic death of his daughter and now pushed to do anything no matter what to bring her back from the dead. Likewise we see with Joseph Adams a hard working man also struggling after the death of his wife and daughter who oversteps the mark in a bid to get them back only to regret his decision  and then decide to re-connect with his estranged son. And so far those are the major players introduced in this feature length pilot the first series will air next year. Also there is something for BSG fans as we get to see the very first Cylon in action and here the immortal line “by your command” which will send a tingle up your spine. Overall this is a great pilot and does what a pilot should do introduce the protagonists, open up the plot threads and leaving you just chomping at the bit for more. This will be the series to watch next year and also you don’t have to be BSG mad to understand it ohhhh and do not not worry the young Bill Adama is handled much better than young Anakin Skywalker in Phantom Menace!.

In short if your a BSG fan and even if your not this is well worth checking out – bring it on!.

Rating 8/10 – A great pilot for what looks to be a very promising show

Frakkin great SO SAY WE ALL !