Keep Cylons Evil!

[Dr_Baltar]

In a companion piece to my Half-breed thread,

I really, really, really don't want to understand the Cylons too much.

I didn't like reading RDM's view about season 3 whereby we are going to learn more about the Cylons in that they have differing views.

That makes them too human and somehow takes away the threat.

The Terminator-esque ideal of a killing machine that does not stop is far more scary than a group of mixed up Replicants who want to have babies with Colonials.

It's like the difference between the old Soviet threat and the current Al Quaeda threat. The Soviets were deemed to be rational and had as much to lose as us.

Bin Laden's people are portrayed (rightly or wrongly is left up to your interpretation) as fanatical zealots.

People who can't be bargained with or show little sign of emotion are far more scary than people who do show emotion.

[concept]

I like the Cylons with emotions and humanity. It gives us the perspectives of the enemy and not like many other shows where we are the good guys and they are the bad guys.

[NumberSix.CF]

I like the Cylons with emotions and humanity. It gives us the perspectives of the enemy and not like many other shows where we are the good guys and they are the bad guys.

Me to,

In every movie it's mostly the same a heartless brutal killer without compassion or regret... In BSG they are evil but not all of them.

Six has regrets for what she has done, mostly because she misses Baltar.

Still there is an imperious leader(?) out there who most likely is not supporting the occupation of New Caprica.

[Dr_Baltar]

But why use robots/androids then as the bad guys?

It is fair enough for them to develop emotions but not to let it interfere with the main job of doing in the humans.

Look at the Daleks and Cybermen from Doctor Who. They still have repressed emotions and whenever they surface it makes great TV, but let's be honest we love it when they want to blow us all up.

I love this new BSG series but I am concerned at both the use of mythology/religion in the show and the whole Cylon breeding with humans plan.

It just seems as if it belongs in another series.

BSG started off as a hard bitten series about the fight for mankind's survival and the individual stories of the people of the exodus.

I don't want it to start being about a colony or inter-species breeding.

The idea of a soap in space (basically on the Fleet) was more entertaining, more original and more claustrophobic.

As I said before the whole Cylon Occupied Caprica scenes from season 1 sent me to sleep and I ma not liking the news that they're going to be spending almost a whole season fighting for freedom on New Caprica. Just seems like episode filling to me.

The series objective is to find Earth. Lets see our heroes more on the journey and learning about the difficulties of living life in space.

Has anyone went space crazy?
We could have more fleet rebellions etc...

[NumberSix.CF]

4 episodes on new caprica and then they are back in there ships.

Consider it a pit stop .
The fact that Moore skipped a year shows he has little interest filming episode after episode on some planet .

[Mika]

I'd taken the message of the series to be that (from a humans point of view) the Cylons as a collective were completly evil but that good/evil is just something more complicated when you are dealing with the individual human form cylons.

[Dr_Baltar]

I am glad that it is a pitstop!

See the thing I like about BSG is that is makes things really hard for the Colonials and I like the space setting.

It has elements of Space: Above and Beyond and other space military sagas but also the added bonus of the ragtag human Fleet with which they can have guest stars and stand alone episodes if they wish.

The thing I don't want to see is it to descend into Babylon 5 style boring stories that seemed to occur after about season 3. It all became too easy for the Humans/Minbari etc... and indeed when they actually got rid of the Shadows and the Vorlons it was like a big joke had been played on the audience. We'd been built up about how badass these Shadows were gonna be and they turned out to be wimps.

Babylon 5 padded out its 5 year storyline, but BSG does not need to. It can do so many different type of stories that makes it unique.

I am just concerned about the mythology/religion/Cylon half breed carry on.

Stick to space drama and give us human problems and we'll be fine. Throw in a few battles with the Cylons now and again and we'll be all so glad.

The acid test is that for many BSG episodes they don't need the Cylons involved to have great episodes.

[Captain Reynolds]

I'm like the way they are going with the Cylons, its something different and opens up many more avenues for the show to explor and for characters to grow. Do we really need an evil menacing badguy its far more interesting to see the different faces of evil and even dissensions in the ranks on boths sides. Galactica is about the shades of grey in everyone which is what makes it awesome. This also includes the Cylons

[Toll Verliebt]

In a companion piece to my Half-breed thread,

I really, really, really don't want to understand the Cylons too much.

I didn't like reading RDM's view about season 3 whereby we are going to learn more about the Cylons in that they have differing views.

That makes them too human and somehow takes away the threat.

The Terminator-esque ideal of a killing machine that does not stop is far more scary than a group of mixed up Replicants who want to have babies with Colonials.

I completely agree with you. I want the cylons to be the bad guys. I don't want them to be misunderstood. They had a good thing going for them in the first season, Six killed babies, the cylons blew up the planets, commited genocide. Now I have to sift through all this crap with the cylons changing their minds or falling in love or heck having babies with the colonists. Now they kind of make it like the cylons are trying to become human. I don't like that. I don't want a cardboard cut-out bad guy. I just don't want a bad guy that I can feel sorry for or that I can support. COME ON MAKE 'EM MORE EVIL!! Let's see the full-blown force of the baby-killer Six!!

[Blitz]

I like the cylons being 3-dimensional.
If I wanted 2 dimensional MWAHAHAHA villains Id watch childrens tv.

A villain who regrets, second thoughts and so on - it shows humanity in evolution of machinery which is a NEW outlook into it.

[Dr_Baltar]

It is most definently NOT a new outlook on villainy!

How many TV shows or movies over the past 30 years have given us sympathetic or misunderstood villains? Quite a few.

It started with the 1970s auteurs and their American New wave of filming. They had characters like Travis Bickle etc.. people who were mixed up but we understood. Not monsters like Norman Bates.

But my point is we've seen machines with feelings before, and we've seen the Bodysnatcher premise before too.

But personally I like the primeval monsters like the Shark in Jaws and the Terminator because they defy logic. They exist merely to destroy. They can't be reasoned with; nor bargained with. And they never, ever stop. That is a far more frightening adversary than one who wants to frack with you to have kids.

[userfriendly]

if BSG were that black/white i would not watch it. come on, jaws and terminator might have been cool when we were 12. it's an adult show. and you wrong the show if you reduce the cylons to their wish to reproduce biologically. there is far more to it than you care to admit, far deeper levels of psychology, drama and philosophy.

I like the cylons being 3-dimensional.
If I wanted 2 dimensional MWAHAHAHA villains Id watch childrens tv.

couldn't have said it better.

[Dr_Baltar]

No I think the shades of gray should be between the humans in the Fleet (which we do see).

The Cylons should only be in the series every now and again, that makes for better drama and increases the excitement when they turn up.

The drama of this series is the relationships between the human characters and by extension the rest of the Colonial Fleet.

BTW I do not think that Jaws could be classed as a kids movie, nor Terminator! Those films were made for adult audiences and are gripping.

[Cronium]

I like the fact that the Cylons are seen as more then mere robots bent on genocide. And remember that the writer and producers may be trying to make a point as well as make a interesting storyline. Many wars have been fought in history, because people saw others as little more then brutal savages who would kill them without a thought.

Also Battlestar Galactica is a Space Opera as opposed to an Action/Horror flick like Jaws and Terminator.

[Dr_Baltar]

Space Opera is one of those made up genres!

BSG is a sci-fi show end of. In fact I think it is actually a drama that just happens to be set in space.

Again, I believe it is a great show but I think the relationship drama/conflict should come from the humans in the Fleet. We have seen different factions: the civilian government, the military, Zarek's 'terrorists', the Cylon sympathisers etc.

That's where the human drama should come from.

I just feel the whole half breed baby idea is pushing it into the realm of sci-fi farce rather than what RDM had said would be naturalistic science fiction.