Sleigh Ride

Part two of my Review of the Year.

*Album - Future Sex / Love Sounds. Justin Timberlake (aided and abetted by Timbaland) finally puts to rest any doubts as to the identity of the new King of Pop! Runners up: The Sound Of Girls Aloud: Greatest Hits (Girls Aloud) and Loose (Nelly Furtado).

*Single - Promiscuous. Nelly Furtado's stellar follow-up to Maneater needs no introduction! Runners up: Fergalicious (Fergie) and Rock Steady (All Saints).

*Movie - Adrift. An unrelenting study of fair-weather friendship set against the backdrop of the ocean. Runners up: Superman Returns and Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest.

*DVD - Dungeons & Dragons. Runners up: Doctor Who - The Complete Series 2 Box Set and Lost - The Complete Second Series.

*Television Drama - Battlestar Galactica. Last year's winner recaptures the number one spot with the coolness of a Cylon agent! Runners up: Bones and Lost.

*Television Sci-Fi - Doctor Who. No change. Runners up: Battlestar Galactica and Torchwood.

*Merchandise - Doctor Who - Tardis Electronic Playset. Character Options continues to produce products worthy of everyone's favourite Time Lord! Runners up: Marvel Legends and Star Wars Transformers.

SCI FI Signatures

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be sent a very cool gift (courtesy of TV Guide). 4 collector's covers signed by the stars of Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. This was part of a SCI FI Channel/TV Guide co-marketing sweepstake, which ran last Summer.

Here it is in all its professionally-framed glory.



This week TV Guide is offering readers iTunes download coupons. Fans of BSG should grab a copy.

Did you know that genre star Lucy Lawless plays a new Cylon threat, D'anna Biers, in Battlestar Galactica? Lucy's almost unrecognizable beyond the glare of Xena's sword and sorcery!

Scare Tactics

The Mac OS X security scare season is upon us again! However, there are some basic built-in measures, which every Mac User should have enabled, that should make life difficult for those Cylon computer viruses.

Built-in Firewall
The Firewall (accessed from the Sharing Pane in System Preferences) is disabled (by default). Switch it on and, whilst you're there, click on Advanced and select these boxes:

•Block UDP Traffic
•Enable Firewall Login
•Enable Stealth Mode

Security
Go to the Security Pane and select these boxes:

•Disable automatic login
•Require password to unlock each secure system preference
•Use secure virtual memory

Safari
Go to Prefences, General and deselect this box:

•Open "safe" files after downloading

There, that was easy wasn't it? Now, spend sometime reading Corsaire White Papers.

Please note that the above configuration (using Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger) is only a suggestion. I take every care in the preparation of this web site. However, it is for information purposes only. I accept no liability for any loss or damage incurred as a result of acting on or refraining to act on information or other material within this site. You should always seek professional advice on the facts of your particular matter.

May The "Frak" Be With You!

Tuesday heralded the feted return of Battlestar Galactica on sky one (UK commercial television channel ultimately owned by News International). Season Two's opening episode Scattered proffers a breathless and stomach-churning dramatic pace that lends verisimilitude to the story.

This is televisions equivalent of The Empire Strikes or The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Commander Adama is dying, Starbuck and Helo are trapped on Cylon-occupied Caprica and Baltar's shipwrecked on Kobol. The relentless Cylon force is in hot pursuit and engages the Galactica in an epic dogfight. A solitary Cylon centurion troop transport reaches the Galactica and its passengers disembark. To be continued...

I'd recorded the show on my Pace PVR and lamented the fact that sky has yet to add an optional audio commentary option. Come on sky, as a content author with a modicum of technological savvy, I know how easy this would be to add, especially given the increased bandwidth available in third generation hardware. For the moment I'll continue to subscribe to Ronald D. Moore's podcasts via iTunes.

Saga of a Star World

Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II was shown last night on sky one. Battlestar Galactica's S1 finale is of Buffy/24/Alias calibre. The audacious twists and turns, culminating in Adama's 'assassination' by a Boomer Cylon replica, were irresistible. The exploration of Cylon religion (ideology) provided the production with an opportunity to reprise the cinema of Stanley Kubrick and intellectual concepts penned by Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick. Whilst the biomechanical Basestar interior evoked the designs of fabled surrealist H.R. Giger.

Turning back to the original Battlestar Galactica TV series. In Europe three feature-length episodes were released theatrically (in alternate form):

*Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Abridged version of Saga of a Star World. Includes Baltar's execution, which was deemed too violent for TV audiences.

*Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1978)
The Living Legend Part I & Part II and Fire in Space.

*Galactica III: Conquest of the Earth (1980)
Galactica Discovers Earth, The Night the Cylons Landed Part I & Part II, The Young Lords and stock footage taken from the movie Earthquake (1974).

We didn't own cable (Rediffusion television was one of the earliest providers). So, I only viewed the first theatrically and the 'sequels' on video rental (Sony Betamax). Baltar's execution (in the theatrical version) is confusing and his return is never explained. It would be nearly a decade before I had an opportunity to see the entire Battlestar Galactica series including the risible Galactica 80.

I've ordered the 2003 mini-series (R1 DVD) from Play. Compare and contrast R1, R2 and R4 releases here.

On an unrelated note. Some iDisk users are experiencing service problems following scheduled maintenance (at the weekend). I'm very happy to report that none of the purported issues have afflicted my account. Again, this only serves to underscore the importance of archiving data on a regular basis.

By the Lords of Kobol!

The notion of Sky's re-imagined Battlestar Galactica was, initially, met with derision. Until I started watching S1 (currently airing in the UK ahead of its US debut) and was delighted to discover that the series owes more to the paranoia of the X-Files (Cylons replacing Colonials) and the Vietnam analogy Space: Above and Beyond than its namesake (not dismissing S1).

The Cylons are no longer a cyber-reptilian race (as described in the 1978 Grandreams annual), but are robotic slaves that rebelled and overthrew their human masters - now the Cylon war machine relentlessly pursues the embattled survivors across the galaxy (as in the original premise). The CGI is superlative for episodic television, and the dogfights ape the cinematography of Apocalypse Now (see also Star Wars: Attack of the Clones).

Not all is perfect in this brave new world. Human actors replacing the colourful Cylon variants of the original is too convenient and unimaginative. And the CGI Cylon Centurions are cumbersome a la the Sandtroopers in Star Wars: A New Hope (Special Edition and DVD release).

As I missed the mini-series* and opening episodes of S1, it remains to be seen if the Cylon Imperious Leader has transferred to the new format (albeit in a radically different guise, for example as a super computer along the lines of Skynet)!

*I may checkout the R1 DVD release and post a review in the future.