Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming

I have been a devoted follower of the BSG franchise since the day I bought, on a whim, a vintage 70s annual at a car boot sale. I was fascinated with the notion of a rag-tag fleet going up against ruthless (and cool looking) death machines. I saw the series proper on BBC TWO in the late 90s and was completly roped in. Original BSG took me on a wild ride and helped me cope with a number of depressions I underwent in 1999. When the new series came on in 2004, it also helped me cope with a tough time as I had to get dential work done on my teeth (don't drink gallons of coca cola to cope with college folks), and I enjoyed it all the same, the final season in particular got me through a tough emotional time for me.

So fast forward to now. As of this writing, there are some things that are presently troubling me, a combination of the exact same things that troubled me the last two times, so what better solution for this latest set of blues than to watch what has always helped me cope the best through tough times...BSG. In this case, it's a marraige of the tried and true methods with the up-to-date riveting thrills of what the modern series can accomplish. Blending material from Razor, The Plan, and other things and encircling them around the mini-series, cutting away all of the heavy soul-searching storylines and soapy melodrama to provide a more intense action-oriented peice that enhances the themes of both versions of the series and keeps the spirit of the vintage original alive. The material lends itself well to reinvention and Bob always delivers something original and unique in each of his presentations. A great treat for anyone who wants a tight, well-paced accerlerated space adventure with none of the space opera

To be honest, I was unsure about this type of edit. However, with the editor being Bionic Bob, the idea had merit. Sure, it cuts out a lot of dramatization, but there is a lot to be said for the credo ‘less is more’.

This is a fantastic merger of old and new. Bob has taken a lot of scenes from the entirety of the series and ‘movies’ to make this a unique approach. All of it is very well done.

Video: 10/10 No hard cuts that I could discern.
Audio: 9/10 with that final point being due to music mix. There are points where the old music is a bit too loud in comparison to the background noise and chatter, and drowned it out some. Other than that, the mix of the old music with the new drum beats really did work out well. The addition of the old launch tube sound effects surprised me, and hit that little boy in my head, who bounced around like a little maniac.

Overall, I’d give this a 10/10, or an ‘A’ without the plus for that music bit I mentioned.

Outstanding! I even got some pins and needles going with some of the music queues. Two Thumbs Up!

I rated this a 10/10 as I was simply blown away. The source material is fantastic, but with this edit it shines even brighter IMHO. I frakkin’ loved it and feel I need to check out the original show as well.

First off, I want to say that the original 2004 pilot bothered me for no other reason than the Baltar sex-scene garbage. This almost destroyed the whole thing for me right off the hop, as it was SO far removed from the 1978 series.

This has been fixed without a hitch in this fanedit.

Audio:

I noticed no issues. It was crisp on my 2.0 computer speakers, so I have no complaints :) I loved the 1978 score added into this edit and it never seemed overpowering or intrusive. I LOVED the old Viper launch sounds added in there! Nary a complaint!

Score: 10/10

Video:

Crisp as any DVD I have watched on this computer. The only issue I noticed was in the added deleted scenes, and the post-production isn’t put into these by the studios, so this is no fault of the editor’s whatsoever. This deleted scene added a lot of emotion to the story for me, so I am glad it was added into this edit.

If I didn’t know this was a fanedit, I would never have even thought to look for editing flaws…but I found none anyways. Just great editing!

Score: 10/10

The Edit:

I found this edit to be a modern version of the original series, which I loved, but it’s just WAY too cheezy to watch (and I even tried on Netflix…I barely got through it lol). I am incredibly happy the whole Baltar sex scene is gone, and I am glad the Cylons are just a bunch of *ssh*les just bent on the destruction of the Human race for no real reason other than to wipe them out…much like the original.

The only things I felt were really out of place was why Baltar even HAD any sort of screen time at all, and why the presidential aide and the Galactica officer (whose name escapes me at the moment lol) were so close…but it’s a small price to pay for what BionicBob has given us.

Score: 9/10

Overall, it was just a great edit, and it was everything I had hoped for. This is how the series should have started out…too bad edits of the entire series are impossible to do, as the HumanCylons don’t exist in this edit and they’re such a huge part of the series.

Oh, well lol!!! I FREAKING LOVED THIS EDIT!!!!!!!!

Final score: the only thing I can take anything away for is what I mentioned, and I can’t take a full star away from the final score for that, so:

9.5/10, rounded…10/10 (enthusiastically)

Great job and thank you!!!!

The editing is great, and it was a nice idea to include the scenes from outside the series to achieve a continuous flow of the events. And Gaius Baltar is absent, that’s a relief.

The story works like this, although a lot had to be cut for the 106min runtime.
The absence of an HD version is the main issue for me.