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Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse

kpopSuperstar

kpopSuperstar

Member
For years I have considered these series, but I have never taken the leap. But now I am ready.

These shows are the first ones mentioned if you are looking for serious and good sci-fi shows. Some also mentions Stargate, but that looks more fantasy oriented to me.

I assume someone here watched both. If so, do you know if it's worth diving into all the older Battlestar Galatica series or can I just start on the miniseries and move unto the four seasons of the rebooted show?

Does The Expanse fall off during the later seasons? I have no idea what it's even about, but people keep mentioning it and the new game coming looks great, so I wanna be ready.
 
Battlestar Galactica is awesome for most of its run, and even at its worst is still good, but the narrative does fall apart at the end.
The Expanse is also really good, less grand in its scope and narrative, but solid sci-fi. Sadly it lost a main character due to the actor being cancelled and kinda struggled after that.
 
I found BG 1980 to be a bit silly and the Muffit dog thing got on my nerves in the mainline series.

82YKkgMT.jpg

fuckin frack'n Muffit :mad:
 
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The Battlestar Galactica reboot is legit. The Expanse is also solid viewing, I genuinely wish it'd get more seasons. Both struggle a bit in their final seasons, but they're still solid all the same and don't sour what came before, unlike the Game of Thrones trainwreck. The episode "33" in the BG reboot is right up there with Star Trek TNG episodes like "The Inner Light" or DS9's "The Visitor", just so well written and directed. You won't have the context until you watch it, but you have scenes involving a dry erase marker, a white board, and number updates that ends up being emotionally compelling TV, simply due to the stakes.

I should rewatch both.
 
BSG is a very solid show, but I'm not sure how bingeable it is. Its a very emotional rollercoaster show with episodic content that might be fatiguing.

The Expanse on the other hand is a very serialized show and benefits from binging to keep all the storylines straight. It follows the books quite well. Its a great show but there is a lot to keep track of and it doesn't hold your hand a lot.
 
Haven watched BSG.

I did enjoy The Expanse though, but it's true that it falls off considerably in the later seasons. The last season in particular kinda sucked IMO, as it focuses on the worst character and her annoying family.
 
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kpopSuperstar said:
For years I have considered these series, but I have never taken the leap. But now I am ready.

These shows are the first ones mentioned if you are looking for serious and good sci-fi shows. Some also mentions Stargate, but that looks more fantasy oriented to me.

I assume someone here watched both. If so, do you know if it's worth diving into all the older Battlestar Galatica series or can I just start on the miniseries and move unto the four seasons of the rebooted show?

Does The Expanse fall off during the later seasons? I have no idea what it's even about, but people keep mentioning it and the new game coming looks great, so I wanna be ready.
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I got bored with The Expanse. I don't really care about solar politics and the characters were all boring except for Amos. If it would have been focused on the aliens then it could have become my favourite show.
 
I watched most of new BSG and about half of The Expanse.

BSG is good for a long time. The Expanse was hit and miss.
 
BSG reboot is an all around great show, sure it dips a bit here and there. But overall I enjoyed very much.

The Expanse has an amazing first season, but for me it got less and less interesting as it went on. Had to force myself to watch it to it's conclusion. Haven't read the book though, might've been more enjoyable if I had.
 
Watch the Battlestar galactica movie and than the new series it is pretty good. Expanse is only good for 1 season. I can't even remember how it ended. It just completely fell apart.

 
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BG has a good premise but becomes trash. By the end totally unwatchable. It's like Lost I suppose, in era and arc, it has its fans, but you gotta understand they are in denial after having invested so heavily in a pile of shit that looked like gold at the start. Expanse starts out okay but hits highs afterwards. I suppose you have to read the books to see how it ends because Amazon dropped it.
 
kpopSuperstar said:
For years I have considered these series, but I have never taken the leap. But now I am ready.

These shows are the first ones mentioned if you are looking for serious and good sci-fi shows. Some also mentions Stargate, but that looks more fantasy oriented to me.
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I don't think of SG-1 as particularly fantasy. It's pretty grounded. It's far less serious though. BSG and Expanse are both pretty grimdark. SG-1 is Ancient Aliens Adventure of the Week more or less. It also starts off taking itself fairly seriously and later... less so.
kpopSuperstar said:
I assume someone here watched both. If so, do you know if it's worth diving into all the older Battlestar Galatica series or can I just start on the miniseries and move unto the four seasons of the rebooted show?

Does The Expanse fall off during the later seasons? I have no idea what it's even about, but people keep mentioning it and the new game coming looks great, so I wanna be ready.
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Skip old BSG IMO. Miniseries, the show proper... and if you really want you can do the Caprica spinoff (but that is quickly canceled). I think there was a Young Adama backdoor pilot type movie that was okay but nothing special. And "The Plan" also just kinda emphasizes how the narrative doesn't hold up logically, I'd rather have not watched that.

Expanse is definitely harder sci-fi than BSG. BSG is the GOAT, if like me, every time you watch the Yavin Death Star battle you get that 4-hour boner you need to see the doctor about.
 
I will say, BSG has some AWESOMELY epic scenes, and if you were a childhood fan of the OG series, then the return of The Pegasus and Admiral Caine was SO FUCKING INCREDIBLE, and having it be Ensign Roe just turned it into an orgasmic experience. I'm not sire how much BSG enjoyment I would have without the bedrock of the OG series informing so many little parts of it.

Expanse and the books are stellar, but the narrative structure of the book is a bit overly convoluted because of the strict adherence to a few POV characters leading to a lot of events happening off screen and then just being alluded to. The show compounds this a bit, making it hard to follow at times. But binging it accelerates a lot of plot and makes it much better, IMHO.
 
Wildebeest said:
BG has a good premise but becomes trash. By the end totally unwatchable. It's like Lost I suppose, in era and arc, it has its fans, but you gotta understand they are in denial after having invested so heavily in a pile of shit that looked like gold at the start. Expanse starts out okay but hits highs afterwards. I suppose you have to read the books to see how it ends because Amazon dropped it.
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I watched BSG long after any hype and enjoyed it to the end. The plot does fall apart towards the end, and the actual ending was unsatisfying but it was still watchable.
 
I watched The Expanse and liked it a lot. I just really liked the plot. I think it's really fucking interesting.

I was never an OG BSG watcher, so about 7ish years ago I bought the collection and started it and watched maybe like 10ish episodes. I didn't dislike it, I wasn't loving it either. I thought it was decent. But I eventually got sidetracked because a bunch of stuff came out that I wanted to watch instead and then a period of a couple months went by and then I forgot where I left off and I was like fuck it I'm gonna have to restart it, and I just haven't gotten around to it because I consider that lost time and I just hate taking the L on that kinda stuff. Also, the outdated special effects did affect my enjoyment of it somewhat. It's not their fault it came out when it did, but I really value special effects in Sci fi. Also it has a bit of a "Network TV" feel to it which always gives me the ick in any TV show.

But I know so many people absolutely adore it though. Eventually I'll go back. I liked Starbuck a lot and I like Katee Sackhoff.
 
BSG all the way. Great eye for the details.

I know you didn't asked for it but don't watch Apple's Foundation sci-fi series.
 
I'm about to finish the expanse books this week (have 8 and 9 left). I was going to watch the series after I finished up the books so this information may be incorrect: I have read that the tv show isn't finished or didn't finish out the same story arcs as the books.

Again cannot confirm that (yet) but I am going to give it a watch.

I liked BSG until the split season which became way too political for me and I bounced off the show.

The alien stuff in the expanse drew me into the series but I will say I think it's much more about political intrigue as I worked through the books, which isn't a huge draw for me personally. I've invested so much time reading them I feel like I need to finish.
 
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Expanse is great because the source material is great.

As is often the case with book-to-show, they either follow the books very closely if not religiously to please the fans of the books, or they go off the rails adding race-swapped characters and all the modern sloppery and fortunately they chose the former in this case.
 
Both are great but both has issues relative to their viewing format.

Bsg obviously has dated visuals but the ship battles are still great, it had to fill full prime time viewing seasons so expect some filler, it also has that classic sci fi for tv issue where the first episode was actually the mini series and you dont start at episode one of the show etc

The expanse suffers the streaming woes, storyline compacted, designed for binge viewing not weekly. Later seasons start pumping modern elements.

Overall bsg is more classic but a longer burn, expanse is short lived but can get a bit annoying at times
 
poppabk said:
Battlestar Galactica is awesome for most of its run, and even at its worst is still good, but the narrative does fall apart at the end.
The Expanse is also really good, less grand in its scope and narrative, but solid sci-fi. Sadly it lost a main character due to the actor being cancelled and kinda struggled after that.
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It lost a main character because the actor was a creep who was abusing his position.

The show didn't go down hill because a character was cut out. It ended up getting rushed. Series 5 is awesome which is after said incident. 6 was short and rushed due to budget .
 
Donald mac Ronald said:
It lost a main character because the actor was a creep who was abusing his position.

The show didn't go down hill because a character was cut out. It ended up getting rushed. Series 5 is awesome which is after said incident. 6 was short and rushed due to budget .
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They should have just recast the character. Alex was a critical part of the crew and even if the actor got #metooed for macking on girls at cons or whatever that doesn't mean the show had to suffer.
 
I'm in season 4 of a BSG rewatch and it's fantastic. I remember not loving the ending when I watched it before but it's a genuinely great show. I only watched 1 season of the Expanse and found it to be OK. It didn't hook me enough to keep going.

Season 1 of BSG is genuinely some of the best TV I've ever seen. Also, the reference to the episode titled 33 in BSG is true. So many great episodes like that.
 
jason10mm said:
They should have just recast the character. Alex was a critical part of the crew and even if the actor got #metooed for macking on girls at cons or whatever that doesn't mean the show had to suffer.
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The only series he's not in is 6 and whatever it's troubles are, it's not because it's missing a character. Yeah if could have been recast.

And no he wasn't just macking on. Guy straight up assaulted women in hotel rooms multiple times.
 
Donald mac Ronald said:
The only series he's not in is 6 and whatever it's troubles are, it's not because it's missing a character. Yeah if could have been recast.

And no he wasn't just macking on. Guy straight up assaulted women in hotel rooms multiple times.
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According to which legal authority?



running through the stuff here, it's all creepy douchebag stuff, sure, but every "I went up to his hotel room and he asked for sex and we kissed OMG I was too scared to leave" stuff is the kind of retrospective horseshit women throw at men all the time. Not saying it didn't go down that way but it aint like the guy has been arrested or charged with ANYTHING (AFAICT). So given the charges, there needs to be something proven for me to bite. But the text harassment alone is certainly grounds for employment termination, no doubt. I just feel like they could have recast with any number of indian actors and quite frankly, they probably could have found a guy that could do a good enough texan impression that no one would have noticed.
 
BSG (the remake) was fun, although it did suffer in the late seasons (around the 4rth one). It also had a few extra TV movies that enhanced the story (I think only one of the very last ones was a miss and quite boring to get through).

And yeah, the trouble was, like LOST, they did not have a fully thought out plan for the random mysteries and "hooks" they threw into it. Unlike LOST, what they ended up doing here made more sense to me and I liked the conclusion, even though something more coherent and better planned would have been much better.

I never got into The expanse (the TV series). I think I have one or two of the early books that I'd like to read at some point.

I very much disliked Apple's "Foundation".
 
I did drop Battlestar Galactica in season three. I think the first episode is still the best. (Not the pilot.)
 
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The Expanse universe wins for canonically enshrining Baltimore as the roughest shithole in the solar system. The wire needed a break.
 
Never watched the Expanse, but BSG is one of those shows I still think about and revisit.

It does get very muddled story-wise in season 4, but by that time you will likely be hooked enough to see it through just to watch the character side of it. The overall story becomes kind of silly as it tries to tie up so many forgotten loose ends and mystery boxes. If you find yourself falling apart, just focus on Admiral Adama. He will see you through. lol

I recommend watching the Razor TV movie if you liked the pre-show backstory and Pegasus storylines.
 
PhineasC said:
Never watched the Expanse, but BSG is one of those shows I still think about and revisit.

It does get very muddled story-wise in season 4, but by that time you will likely be hooked enough to see it through just to watch the character side of it. The overall story becomes kind of silly as it tries to tie up so many forgotten loose ends and mystery boxes. If you find yourself falling apart, just focus on Admiral Adama. He will see you through. lol

I recommend watching the Razor TV movie if you liked the pre-show backstory and Pegasus storylines.
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So what exactly was star bug
 
The Expanse changes the status quo significantly and frequently. And for the first couple seasons, the twists were fascinating, so I was on board. But then they start going in directions I didn't care much about. So without even taking into account the moment-to-moment writing and execution, I felt like The Expanse's later seasons weren't very interesting.
 
Grildon Tundy said:
The Expanse changes the status quo significantly and frequently. And for the first couple seasons, the twists were fascinating, so I was on board. But then they start going in directions I didn't care much about. So without even taking into account the moment-to-moment writing and execution, I felt like The Expanse's later seasons weren't very interesting.
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Sadly, the show ended in the transitory period of the story, leading to a lot of heartache about "where is it all going?". And even in the books the alien stuff was always in the background, and when it was presented directly, usually through James' "head Miller", it's in a confusing way that tries to convey the gulf of intellect between the races.
 
Donald mac Ronald said:
So what exactly was star bug
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Uh, no one really knows I think. An angel from the monotheistic god of the cylons I guess? Yeah that whole thing was a mess. I tried to tune out the religious stuff and just focus on the military and political aspects which remained pretty decent throughout the run.
 
PhineasC said:
Uh, no one really knows I think. An angel from the monotheistic god of the cylons I guess? Yeah that whole thing was a mess. I tried to tune out the religious stuff and just focus on the military and political aspects which remained pretty decent throughout the run.
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It looked like it was going somewhere with it where she pops up declares she knows and even finds her own body. Then she's gone.


On topic I much prefer the expanse it's hard sci-fi. BSG isn't that much scifi but it's good
 
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