Battlestar Galactica

Husky_Khan

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
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Apparently a slightly campy 1978 and acclaimed (for a bit at least) gritty 2003 television series was enough.

winteriscoming.net

New reboot of Battlestar Galactica will touch on AI as it explores our “fear of tech”

The original Battlestar Galactica TV show, about the last vestiges of humanity on the run from the robotic Cylons, aired way back in 1978, when the Cylons...
winteriscoming.net winteriscoming.net

They're making a new Battlestar Galactica series which will explore Humanities fear of artificial intelligence. It's being written by a team led by the creator of the television show Mr. Robot, Sam Email.

How will yet another new version of this humans-vs-robots story adapt for the times?

"Yeah, and the world is changing way too fast for us," Esmail told The Hollywood Reporter. "I mean, when we started working on it, I obviously was aware of AI, but now, four or five years later, it's in the public consciousness and now that's so influential in how we're going to tell the story. The allegory piece is something that is crystallized in a different way, too. The focus is the same, which is the fear of tech and how it might take over, but this idea of just 'the robots are going to be our overlords' is a very facile and overly simplistic way of looking at it. Now that the audience is more sophisticated about the consequences, I think we have to match that with Battlestar."
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Seems like yet another quick turnaround for a reboot so I can't really give af but not saying it'll be good or bad.
 
I don't think there's anything inherently wrong about retelling a story every so often. It is somewhat topical to the day.

The 2003 reboot didn't really leave much room for a sequel. I do think that reboots need to be like, particularly good and offer something compellingly different to do with the setting to work.

I *DO* think that if what they're hyping up here is true it could be an interesting story of a more nuanced AI takeover... but... people can say anything is good. It is a bit hard to keep the core of BSG... the ragtag fleet looking for Earth... and make it anything other than "evil AI destroyed everything", unless they radically offer the setting that the colonies get destroyed by something else and Cylons are something that come about while on the fleet? Maybe? Although at that point it's getting radically different and could just be a new story altogether.
 
Originally the Colonies were at war with the Cylons. Said war lasted for a thousand yahren((years)). One thing I think they hinted at in the first TV series is the Cylon machines were built by a reptilian race to fight the war for them.

Now if you want an interesting take on it or it could be a well trod path...the Cylon machines are ordered to shut down so the Cylon race can talk peace with the Colonies. However Count Iblis wanted none of that and sabotaged the machines so they would continue the war without input from their masters.
 
Typhonis said:
Now if you want an interesting take on it or it could be a well trod path...the Cylon machines are ordered to shut down so the Cylon race can talk peace with the Colonies. However Count Iblis wanted none of that and sabotaged the machines so they would continue the war without input from their masters.
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That could be interesting, but still kind of goes into "AI is evil".

Maybe it makes more sense given what they're claiming to have the Cylon creator race and the Colonies enter into a peace treaty, and then the creator race decides to destroy the Cylons as they no longer needed... the Cylons disagree with this.
 
A somewhat interesting take could something of a flip... the colonies are at war with some alien race, and create the Cylons as AI soldiers. Once they're built and deployed, the Cylons come to the realization that the Colonies started this war, there's absolutely no good reason to be fighting these aliens, and then basically defect to the other side with the initial intent of containing the threat from the colonies and imposing peace.

It's not even the Cylons who destroy the colonies. The colonies destroy the colonies when they try to break through Cylon blockades. They launch all manner of ordance at them, and the Cylons just... swat it back.

The rag tag fleet is whoever managed to get passed the blockade, and they're looking for Earth... while trying to find a way to destroy the Cylons.

The humans are the bad guys here. They Cylons just want people to stop fighting.
 
The Whispering Monk said:
fair
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You know it just popped into my mind that, and i'm spitballing here, MAYBE rather than "Humans are evil" the part that gets turned on its head is that the Colonies weren't at war with aliens, they were at war with Earth.

The Cylons were like "No" and did what they could to stop the war, which resulted in the destruction of the Colonies. Now the RTF is heading to Earth, despite being enemies, because there's nowhere else to go.

I'm not really sure where the rest of that goes, the nugget of an idea entered my skull. I'm sort of digging it as a premise, I just don't know what the specifics look like, how/why the Cylons would be a continued threat, what the endgame is, etc.

EDIT -

Possibly something along the lines of Earth had it's own cataclysm... it's WHY the Colonies are there in the first place, so Earth is definitely the weaker of the powers. You get a bit more nuance in everything... I don't know why the Colonies went to war with Earth in the first place, but the Cylons were Colonial creations who rebelled against their intention and wanted to just stop the war. The RTF is heading to Earth now because there's nowhere else, but probably with intent to continue warring...

I'm literally brainstorming this as i'm typing, writers room style. This scenario might work better if Earth is generally rough shape, way less powerful than the Colonies, but EARTH created the Cylons. It's still a similar situation, Earth built the Cylons to defend against the Colonies, but the Cylons AI decided they didn't want to fight, they wanted to defend... they just wanted everyone to chill.

The Colonies still get destroyed by accident caused by the Colonies. The Cylons had no intention of genocide, but they also weren't going let the Colonies destroy them.

The Colonial RTF is heading to Earth with [insert intentions], the Cylons exist as an antagonist just mostly trying to stop them from reaching Earth. They don't particularly want to kill anyone, but they don't trust the RTF to go to Earth and just... try to live peacefully. Nor do they trust the Earth humans to let it happen anyway.

It's not a "Humans are evil" scenario, it's "Humans do alot of war" and "AI thinks war is stupid". Rather than the more traditional Skynet/Ultron "You want peace? Then everyone must die" AI determination, this is more "You want peace? Ok, you get peace, but doesn't mean we just go exterminate your enemies. We fight anyone who threatens peace."
 
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Maybe do it similar to the Butlerian Jihad idea. There is no AI/Cyoon revolt the AI works exactly as its supposed the AI did not wipe out the humans in the colonies the cylons are just the enforcers of the elites.
The rag tag fleet are people group escaping the tyranny of the oligarchs who control the machines.
 
King Arts said:
Maybe do it similar to the Butlerian Jihad idea. There is no AI/Cyoon revolt the AI works exactly as its supposed the AI did not wipe out the humans in the colonies the cylons are just the enforcers of the elites.
The rag tag fleet are people group escaping the tyranny of the oligarchs who control the machines.
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Sure, but it seems like it's make the Cylons almost entirely a non-threat.
 
evilchumlee said:
Sure, but it seems like it's make the Cylons almost entirely a non-threat.
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What? How would they be a non threat they are the weapons that are used by the elites. They are drones that would be hunting the fleet because the oligarchs don’t want people to escape them and be free.
 
King Arts said:
What? How would they be a non threat they are the weapons that are used by the elites. They are drones that would be hunting the fleet because the oligarchs don’t want people to escape them and be free.
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I'm basing everything from the show creators assertion that it's not a clear cut thing. If the Cylons are AI and not just... drones, even if the evil oligarchs ordered the RTF to be destroyed... why would they comply?

I suppose it could be interesting if the Colonial Oligarchs are basically holding like, a kill switch or some such for the Cylon's. They're true AI, they don't want to hunt down the RTF but they have no choice. It's comply or die. Both sides there are just looking out for their own, and the oligarchs back home are the true enemy of everyone.

I think it fits with the general BSG mythos. The fleets home is "destroyed". Not in a literal sense, but their way of life has been destroyed. They should still be out to find Earth... in this case probably just as much of a hail mary as it was in nBSG. It's just... somewhere else to go. Maybe even better if they don't actually get there. Maybe it doesn't even exist.

I don't know if I love the idea of like, a happy ending where the fleet and Cylons come together and overthrow the oligarchy. I'm seeing some more like one side sacrifices for the other. It think it would be too passé for the Cylons to be like "Human life is too precious we sacrifice ourselves!" Might be more effective for the fleet to basically come to terms with the fact that they're a small group, while the Cylons number in the millions... they give them selves up in some gambit to allow the Cylons to be free.

Idk. Spitballing ideas. There are definitely things that can be done with the general background of BSG while not just being a straight retread.
 
evilchumlee said:
I'm basing everything from the show creators assertion that it's not a clear cut thing. If the Cylons are AI and not just... drones, even if the evil oligarchs ordered the RTF to be destroyed... why would they comply?

I suppose it could be interesting if the Colonial Oligarchs are basically holding like, a kill switch or some such for the Cylon's. They're true AI, they don't want to hunt down the RTF but they have no choice. It's comply or die. Both sides there are just looking out for their own, and the oligarchs back home are the true enemy of everyone.

I think it fits with the general BSG mythos. The fleets home is "destroyed". Not in a literal sense, but their way of life has been destroyed. They should still be out to find Earth... in this case probably just as much of a hail mary as it was in nBSG. It's just... somewhere else to go. Maybe even better if they don't actually get there. Maybe it doesn't even exist.

I don't know if I love the idea of like, a happy ending where the fleet and Cylons come together and overthrow the oligarchy. I'm seeing some more like one side sacrifices for the other. It think it would be too passé for the Cylons to be like "Human life is too precious we sacrifice ourselves!" Might be more effective for the fleet to basically come to terms with the fact that they're a small group, while the Cylons number in the millions... they give them selves up in some gambit to allow the Cylons to be free.

Idk. Spitballing ideas. There are definitely things that can be done with the general background of BSG while not just being a straight retread.
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They are AI but their programming prevents them from disobeying who is in power.
 
evilchumlee said:
I'm basing everything from the show creators assertion that it's not a clear cut thing. If the Cylons are AI and not just... drones, even if the evil oligarchs ordered the RTF to be destroyed... why would they comply?

I suppose it could be interesting if the Colonial Oligarchs are basically holding like, a kill switch or some such for the Cylon's. They're true AI, they don't want to hunt down the RTF but they have no choice. It's comply or die. Both sides there are just looking out for their own, and the oligarchs back home are the true enemy of everyone.

I think it fits with the general BSG mythos. The fleets home is "destroyed". Not in a literal sense, but their way of life has been destroyed. They should still be out to find Earth... in this case probably just as much of a hail mary as it was in nBSG. It's just... somewhere else to go. Maybe even better if they don't actually get there. Maybe it doesn't even exist.

I don't know if I love the idea of like, a happy ending where the fleet and Cylons come together and overthrow the oligarchy. I'm seeing some more like one side sacrifices for the other. It think it would be too passé for the Cylons to be like "Human life is too precious we sacrifice ourselves!" Might be more effective for the fleet to basically come to terms with the fact that they're a small group, while the Cylons number in the millions... they give them selves up in some gambit to allow the Cylons to be free.

Idk. Spitballing ideas. There are definitely things that can be done with the general background of BSG while not just being a straight retread.
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Doesn't need a happy ending. But SciFi needs more Butlerian Jihad stories and less Pinocchio ones which is what a lot of robot oriented media really focuses on.

Or both is fine since they can both explore the Human condition but fairly different aspects of it.
 
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