Starring Luke Pasqualino, Ben Cotton and Lili Bordán
Directed by Jonas Pate
Composed by Bear McCreary
Produced by David Eick, Jonas Pate and Michael Taylor
Hurtling through space comes the prequel to Battlestar Galactica in numerous incarnations. Settling as a weekly web series on the Machinima Prime YouTube channel, the series resulted in around 8 million views.
And now the SyFy network are following through on its original promise to air the episode the world premiere of BSG Blood and Chrome taking place on the 10th of February in a two-hour length movie. So with that in mind let’s have a quick review shall we?
I already class myself as a BSG enthusiast so I went into this prequel with full awareness of any potential bias that I might have. However once I got into the first episode I knew that this pre-judgment was well justified.
Set in the 10th year of the First Cylon war the series follows a young William “Husker” Adama as he undertakes his first mission that takes a dangerous turn.
The acting is run-of-the-mill, stereotypical even at parts. The shortness of the series means that characters that symbolically fill the voids left by Tyrol, Tigh and Starbuck are painted with broad strokes. There is little to no development of the characters, something that really could have pushed this series over the bar. The addition of Luke Pasqualino is a good choice yet in a small note of criticism it is appears at times to be a basic story of a coming of age of a young cocky pilot.
Unlike BSG there is no tension, no philosophical or political debates entwined with the drama that contributed to its original success. What we are presented with is a go go go, fight fight fight, boom boom boom and let’s get the toasters approach.
However all this being said, for something made to air over the internet BSG Blood and Chrome delivers. Besides the great music composed by the original composer of BSG, the intense action sequences, astounding visuals and CGI, this show makes for a stunning visual display and amazing backdrops. The mini-series keeps the franchise alive in all its glory for fans while at the same time the level of writing and development allows BSG Blood and Chrome stand alone in its own right as a Sci-Fi drama. With a bit more development, this show could have the potential to become so much more.
As a quick aside it is this author’s opinion that movies or mini-series created for an online audience is something that has been developing and is growing every day. It begs the question why producers, directors, writers and such are not using the online to its full potential.
Pros
- The soundtrack…Let’s face it Bear McCreary is a genius!
- The platform – YouTube is the way to go.
- The CGI – blended in nicely with the scenery
- The scenery – classical BSG epic
- The drama – nothing like killing toasters!
Cons
- Characters – while overall quite good they could have been developed further
- Themes – without the philosophical and political there’s just not the same tension as BSG
- Storyline – there is untapped potential here.
Rating: 3 out of 5 toasters
You can check the whole series out here!
Comment(1)
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A nice write up on one of my favorite web series to date.
There are a few points i’d disagree with the author on however.
Firstly to me it felt that while series did feel very “go go go, fight fight fight, boom boom boom and let’s get the toasters”, it was the perfect approach to take to draw fans, old and new back in to the BSG world.
While some of the acting wouldn’t be up to the standard of say, James Edward Olmos, i still feel that Luke Pasqualino did justice to the role of a young Husker.
Take Starbuck and Apollo, blend them up and BOOM you have a young William Adama.
On the flip side i did feel that Ben Cotton was a bit tiring at times. Whether that is a result of bad acting or the person not fitting the role correctly, i’m not sure.
While the series was indeed short, i felt it gave a good insight into a young Bill Adama, which i believe is what the series hopes to center itself around. Seeing him go from the cocky young pilot that he is now to a Battlestar Commander has the potential to be a great and even long story. I felt that we were just given a taster for things yet to come, and i really want some more!
As for the story line and themes, i can understand the authors point of view but i don’t feel it’s entirely appropriate to a mini series aired on youtube. BSG aired for four seasons with each episode running for around one hour which gave great time to build up the tension that BSG was renowned for as well as examining the deep philosophical issues brought up in the show. I think its asking far too much of a web series to try and even touch on what the prime time show did, but it would be my hope that if Blood and Chrome makes it to a TV series that they will give all aspects as much detailed attention as they did with BSG.
Finally i was happy to see new designs on the show, both in terms of ships and creatures. Being able to see ‘Toasters’ creating their bio versions was a particular treat for me.
I do hope to see it become a full time TV show and continue the success of BSG!