BSG's Moore Has New Sci-Fi Trilogy

i thought that mi:2 wasn't as good as mi:1(haven't seen mi: 3 yet) but i love everything star trek(lone exception being st: enterprise, altougth i love me some bakula), so this is hit or miss for me at least at this stage.

Oh, hell no. Joss Whedon is that man!!! Now, I know Whedon has given Ron Moore props for the New Galactica--the problem??? Much of the production style of the New Galactica was based on Joss' work on Firefly...from the rack focusing to toilets in space, no aliens, no sounds in space, etc. This was all Joss vision first, and let's admit it, Ron Moore according to Joss' Firefly special effects crew, the same company, BTW, that does effects for the New Galactica, claim that Ron sat around with his production crew and writers...proactively studying Firefly...even going as far as Moore demanding that they, the FX Crew, copy the style of rack focusing shots during space battles, so on...and so forth. This is a fact, and it's on record for all to see!!! Joss maybe playing a good team player, and I can't blame him...in Hollywood you have to sometimes, but I don't have to be a team since I'm on the side of truth.

Sooooo… about this show – Moore won me over big time w/BSG. I was a hater that called “sacrilege” when his re-Imagineering of that show was announced but BSG is one of the absolute best shows on right now and in quite a while. I hear ya on the FX metal but let’s face facts. The FX are secondary to the writing & characters. While I’m psyched for all the space action we get I tune in for the drama. It’s a finely crafted show uniquely relevant to our times. Love Whedon. Looking forward to Dollhouse. Would bust a nut over the return of Firefly (Which I will readily admit to enjoying more than BSG – but again – not because of FX work). But I’m definitely intrigued by this announcement. Looking forward to hearing more about what the hell it actually is though. Now... I wonder if this sentence will form a new paragraph.

I'm all for this, with one exception. As long as Cruise doesn't put himself as the main character in it. Hate that guy.

I'm fine with Cruise as long as he sticks to movies and keeps his trap shut about his "religion." AzuLTaLoN, definitely check out M:I3. I didn't care for the 2nd one (but I'm not a big Woo fan), but liked the 1st one. I thought the 3rd was the best.

If the storyline and writing is as good or at least comparable to the work on BSG it should turn out great. We're due for the heir apparent to StarWars. Looking forward to hearing more about this.

Sorry, metalwater; I strongly disagree. You might be right about visuual elements, but I doubt Ron watched Firefly. Whedon doesn't have a fraction of Ron Moore's talent -- well maybe only a fraction. I enjoyed Buffy and Angel and the Firefly movie, but all the drama is very contrived and formulaic. The humor was what I really watched Buffy and Angel for, but it always felt unrealistically placed and the drama was often better written by writers other than Whedon like Tim Minear or Mere Smith, who really made Angel quite great in Season 3. Whedon is too obsessed with the metaphor that guides his work and often the drama feels forced to fit that; for example, Angel turning into his old self Angelus was improperly used to exploit teen drama of a boyfriend not caring about his girl once they had sex; it felt disjointed and silly. Also, there are way too many instances of Joss just changing the rules with Willow all of a sudden far too powerful. Many characters become archetypes instead of subtle depictions of realistic people; Xander (God bless him) was just the goofy, funny guy, Willow was the nerd and then became the badass (Wesley went through the exact same arc on Angel), etc.

I very much enjoyed his shows and actually think he became a better writer. Nothing excuses the last season of Buffy, but Angel Season 5 was incredible and I mourned the lack of a 6th season. He is a talented guy. I thought his baddie for Serenity was quite innovative in having him actually fanatically fighting for a perfect world in which he believed he wouldn't be worthy; that actually felt interesting and real.

However, Ron Moore is at another level of writing politically-insightful drama questioning the most pivotal issues of our time. He goes beyond the good versus evil dialectic to show a set of characters portraying the dehumanization and homogenization of "the other" and to explore the fact that terrorism and war are equally morally ambiguous. The cylons are human, and we, the audience, should never assume we are perfect or that our leaders are incapable of wrongs or cruelty and that out "enemies" are incapable of kindness. That's the real message we should take to heart from this amazing drama he's created, and it's something I've never seen so persuasively demonstrated in any show or film. He's a true artist.

I just hope he gets his act together and polishes up more episodes if he's not going to write them from scratch. This is the last season and he needs to give it the respect he did Season 1 and the best of Seasons 2 and 3, and not focus on other things.

Please Ron! Also, help Ira Steven Behr -- who helped innovate Star Trek in making it politically-insightful and in effect starting the revolution in sci fi Ron is just continuing with BSG -- get The 4400 back on air!

Muldfeld...I appreciate your comments but I didn't make this up, I was refering directly to comments made by New Galactica staffers. They said it, I only pointed out what they said...and Ron Moore has yet to deny any of it. I will admit that the New Galactica is a good show...in fact better than good and the writing, dialogue, direction and acting is exceptional...but, we must also admit where the inspiration came from, just as we must admit that Joss Whedon's inspiration for Firefly came from Star Wars--and may I point out that Joss openly admits it, giving George Lucas his due...but Ron Moore has still to this date failed to give props to Joss even though those who work for Moore have outed him for his obsessive research Firefly and its look!!! And as far as serious story elements ans writing, I will point you to the Firefly episode Objects In Space where a sociopathic Bounty Hunter takes the crew of Serenity hostage and asks their female engineer if she has ever been raped?...while strongly implying that if she does not cooperate, he'll do just that...and rape her. Talk about scary stuff??? And there were other moments of realistic drama and violence on the show, both direct and implied, that was just as dark and gloomy...moments which clearly inspired much of the dramic direction of the New Galactica. Let's look at the episode where Mal was continually tortured to death and shocked back to life with a defibrillator...so his captors could torture him some more, just for the sake of doing it. That kind of stuff was never on Ron Moore's Star Trek...and it wasn't in Star Wars or any science fiction television series before Firefly...but within just a few years of Firefly going off the air...these kinds of themes popped up repeatedly on the New Galactica...a show Ron Moore, according to his own workers, was known to be closely studying along with other show staffers...to the exclusion of all other programs and movies??? Again, I didn't make this stuff up, I am simply paraphrasing comments made by Ron Moore's own hired employees--once again...statements that Moore has never denied to this date!!!

I think it is odd that there is arguments about who is better, Joss Whedon or Ron Moore. The fact is they are both brilliant. And everyone borrows from everyone else. We are all, in part, the sum of our experiences and our inspiration is often driven by things we've seen from others. Even George Lucas with Star Wars, which at the time was concidered revolutionary on many levels, drew inspiration and borrowed from things as diverse as Akira Kurosawa films to cliff hanger style serial flicks like Flash Gordan. And name an action film in the past decade that hasn't had some of it's effects or fight scenes use "bullet time" and the camera techniques from The Matrix films. Ok, you can name a few, but you know what I'm talking about. Of course Ron Moore was inspired in some parts by Joss Whedon and Firefly, just as Joss Whedon, I'm sure, had inspiration from other sources when he developed Firefly and Buffy. There is little new under the sun. But I agree that Battlestar Galactica, whether you credit it as creating a new type of science fiction or you simply say it evolved the genre to a new level- it is possibly the most critically acclaimed science fiction series in some time, and has managed to attract many fans who aren't generally sci fi fans thanks to the shows heavy focus on drama and character development. To have a sci fi show compared by critics with dramas like ER, House, 24 and The Wire is a rare thing.

So my point is we each have our personal feelings and individual tastes. To me, BSG is the best show I've ever seen. Ever. I love it to death. I liked Firefly. It was great. But it was no where near my favorite show of all time. BUT that is simply a matter of my tastes. And I respect anyone else who likes something else better than what I love. That is how it works. Joss Whedon and Ron Moore are brilliant. I'm not going to say one is better than the other because that would have to be based on the sum and quality of their works, and that is judged using personal taste- so there is no way to objectively claim one is better than the other.

lol. All that jazz aside, I'm excited to see what the trilogy turns out like. I know he was good with Star Trek and amazing with the reimagined BSG, and I personally enjoyed MI: II, though I thought the third one was the best. So it will be interesting if this trilogy is an original property instead of being based on existing franchises.

All I'm saying is, Ron should openly give credit, where credit is due...as Joss openly gave credit to Lucas.