Favorites - 15 Favorite Black Characters in Sci-Fi

The science fiction genre has given us a crapton of characters to follow and root for. When it comes Black folk, it gets a little tough. You may see one or even two of us running around or being a side piece somewhere. Even when you see one of us playing a character, they’re sometimes playing an alien. Just guess why you won’t see someone like Guinan, Worf, and Tuvok from Star Trek or Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. I could make a case for Teal’C from Stargate: SG-1 since he is technically human, but I’ll leave him off this one. It gives me a chance to look for other characters outside of these big sci-fi franchises.

So, here are my favorite black characters in the genre. One limitation I gave myself was that I wouldn’t include any superheroes on this list, so no Storm or John Stewart. I actually made a list similar to this years ago, and I wanted to look in other places where there are some cool characters. I might break that rule for a couple, but I’ll only go so far. As usual, it’s a bit of a random list, but I’ll put my favorites up top. You only can guess who’ll be first.

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Overview and 13 Favorite Characters

Well, as some weird song states, “it’s been a long road, getting from there to here.” I think this should do it for my long look at Battlestar Galactica. Hands down, this is one of my favorite shows ever. So much was done right with the themes, acting, action, and effects. Since I’ve talked about my favorite episodes, I need to end this run of the BSG-verse with my ranked list of favorite characters. Before I get there, I want to quickly go through the pros and cons of the show. Yeah, you can go to my other posts for that, but here’s a quick summation of them all.

PROS

BSG came at the right time for me. It took the basics from the original show and did its own thing with it. We weren’t running into weird aliens or planets that also housed human life here. Ron Moore and David Eick tried to create a world that felt like our own current one. The show touched on a lot of themes like politics, religion, faith, survival, morality, and technology. It helped that the acting was well done and that the characters were pretty interesting. While they were our protagonists, they weren’t perfect. They would stumble and fall from time to time, but they would do their best to help one another.

The action was also pretty well done. If there’s one thing that actually didn’t change much from the original show, it was the Galactica’s look and the Viper’s look. The space battles felt like current-day dog fights. While the CG wasn’t as great with things like the robotic Cylons, it was good for its time. It even got better as time went on. Finally, I think we can all say that composer Bear McCreary brought a certain style to the show with his music.

TV/Movie Talk - Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

Well, it took me a while to re-watching this one again. I’ll get into why down later, though. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan was released on DVD during October of 2009. I didn’t end up seeing the movie until it aired on Syfy in early 2010. I haven’t done much research in this, but it was shot alongside the final episodes of the show. The idea for the movie was to show what the Cylons’ plan was for humanity. That shouldn’t have been too complex to know: they wanted to blow them up! Still, the creators wanted to add a little more to the mythos. They even got Edward James Olmos to direct the 112 minute feature.

The movie revolves around Cylon #1 or “Cavil” (Dean Stockwell) as he and the rest of the Cylons plan humanity’s destruction. Cavil also has plans for the Final Five Cylon models (the ones that helped the Caprican Cylons with resurrection) to see what they’ve done to humanity. The fall happens but plans change when it’s revealed that a group of humans (the BSG and the fleet) are still alive. We then see Cavil and the other Cylons scheme and plan to take down the fleet over the first two seasons. Meanwhile, on Caprica, a Cavil model tries to befriend Anders, one of the Final Five. It all ends pretty much where “Lay Down Your Burdens” ends with the two Cavils being shot out into space.

Favorites - 14 Favorite Battlestar Galactica Episodes

Yes, I’m still on a bit of BSG surge. Y’all know how it is! It’s something that’ll take a while to kick. Now that I remember, there is Caprica to look forward to…. (sigh)… and now I think my problem has cleared up by thinking about that show. I’ll touch upon “One Frak to Live” one day, but not today. I’ll probably get to something else like a certain movie crossover starring a knight and some amphibians next.

Before I get to Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, I wanted to touch upon my favorite episodes of the series. It’s been a while since I’ve done some favorite lists.  It took me a long while to get to this and this is going to be a tough list to do. I’m even including the mini-series and movies here as well. You gotta count them since they were pretty much glorified two-parters. Since ranking these will be too tough, I’m just sticking to chronological order for this one. I’m also including 14 episodes (as well as two-parters) since I couldn’t stop at 13. So, how do I not rank most of Season 2’s episodes on here?

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Season 4

Hmm... seems messianic with less emphasis on the "messi".

For my final post this month, I might as well go out with a bang. It’s back to Battlestar Galactica for this one. I had been wanting to finish off the show with Season 4, but I couldn’t find the dang DVD set for a while. Thankfully, I found them. It’s literally been 10 years since I’ve ever watched this season especially the final episodes. It felt like the end to something special especially since I was getting ready for my final semester of college. Season 4 of BSG was split between 2008 and 2009. While it kind of started with the movie, Razor, it officially didn’t start until April 2008. 10 episodes aired in 2008 while another 10 aired in 2009. I was pretty much glued to the set for the final season.

So… how do I talk about this without spoiling the fact that Kara Thrace came back from the dead in Season 3? Oh… well, Starbuck, who unfortunately left us in the middle of Season 3, suddenly shows up in a nebula where the fleet is surrounded by Cylons. Also, four of the final five Cylon models are revealed, and it is a shock to them and the audience. I’ll won’t spoil them, though. Let’s just say it’s all a a bit of a mess at the end of Season 3. The fleet was still in shock over Baltar’s trial, and it’s revealed that Roslin’s cancer is back.

Season 4 picks up with what happened and rolls with it. Kara isn’t trusted at first, but she’s then sent out with others since she may know where Earth is. Lee accepts a new role in the fleet’s government. The newly revealed Cylons do what they can with their new knowledge. Also, Gaius Baltar gets even weirder. We even get a Cylon civil war that causes some models to possibly help humanity. To keep from spoiling more, the fleet do reach their destination, but it’s far from over. Not only do they have to deal with internal matters, there’s still the threat of the Cylons.

Random Pictures of the Month - 12 Things Battlestar Galactica Has Taught Me

Well, I'm at the end of my journey of looking at the rebooted Battlestar Galactica. Since I haven't done this section in quite a while, I thought I'd just post some pics and some lessons that BSG taught me. These may or may not be real lessons, but you never know.

1. Sometimes, fan service is good. Seriously, Richard Hatch (RIP) knocked the role of Tom Zarek out of the park.

2. Don't tick off the really nice ones especially when they've gone through some stuff. That Mutiny arc was awesome.

3. If this show and some personal experience has taught me, blondes can sometimes be trouble.

TV/Movie Talk - Battlestar Galactica: Razor

Wow, and I thought I was done with Sci-fi Month. Yes, it’s a return to the revamped Battlestar Galactica. Since I finished reviewing Season 3 last month, I’m nearing the end of my retrospective. Before I get to Season 4, I did have one place to stop at.

While I liked Season 3, I gotta admit that it wasn’t the show at its best. Apparently, someone thought the same thing because it was a year before we got Season 4. If you think waiting for Game of Thrones was horrible, try this. Since Season 3 ended the way it did, it was decided to do a stand-alone, made-for-TV movie. It would air on Sci-Fi and then get released a few days later on DVD. Ron D. Moore, the show’s executive producer, was definitely for this because it’d mean that NBC Universal would help fund the production. I remember seeing most of this when it aired in 2007 and I just recently re-watched it.

Instead of taking place during Season 3, Razor goes back in time on us. We go back to Season 2 and see what happened when Lee Adama took command of the Pegasus. We never knew how his time as commander went since it was right before Season 2’s finale. Things are pretty much the same. Starbuck’s still around and not too annoying, Tigh hasn’t lost his eye yet, and Athena (Helo’s Number 8) is still a prisoner. It’s a fun time, ain’t it? So, what happens when most of the main cast is forgotten about and the rest of the time is saved for a new character, flashbacks, and a nod to the original show? Something kind of cool.

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Season 3

Next up for the month is a return to that ragtag fleet that’s being chased by really attractive robots. Yes, it’s Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. It aired between October of 2006 and March of 2007. Unlike the previous season, this one was more like a regular TV show since there wasn’t a big break between episodes. At this point, I was all in with BSG. With Season 2 ending the way it did, you know I had to come back for more. Luckily, little got in the way of my watching. I might had missed three or four episodes overall. I don’t know why but this season took a while for me to re-watch.

Hmm… so how do I describe this season without revealing what happened at the end of Season 2? That’s simple; I don’t. So, Season 2 ended with fleet finding a habitable world and colonizing it. A year later, the Cylon fleet finds them. What ships that were left airborne jumped out of there and whoever was left on New Caprica was in the hands of the Cylons. The Cylons end up being “benevolent rulers” over humanity. During that time, some of our regulars like Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders (who’s more or less a regular) start a resistance against the oppressors.

Season 3 begins as six months have passed and New Caprica is still under occupation. While things start to get worse on the planet, the fleet finally returns to save the people. Even though the fleet is reunited and gets back on the path to Earth, there was a heavy cost and a lot of damage was done. Throughout the season, the Galactica tries to look for more clues to the 13th Colony. The fleet also has to deal with what the Cylon Occupation did to them. We also learn even more things about the Cylons and find out that there are five more models that haven’t been revealed yet. As usual, the end of the season brings even more questions as well as the return of someone who was lost during the season.

Random Pics for the Month - Nine Things About Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck

Well, it's another May and another Sci-fi Month. It's time to dust off this old segment and return to the 12 Colonies of Kobol. So, what can I say about Starbuck? All of the Starbucks?

Starbuck was once a man... a cool but sometimes annoying man. Also, he looked good in white.

Starbuck saved the last episode of Galactica: 1980. Seriously, that show sucked!!!

Kara Thrace is one cocky woman.

Kara Thrace loves to get into trouble.

Kara Thrace loves to be the attention of all men. Seriously, whether you're old, lost one eye, egotistically smart, a daddy's boy, some sports star, or some random black dude who has a blog, Kara's got your heart by the strings.

As I said, Kara Thrace loves to get into trouble.

Kara Thrace loves to tick off the people she cares about. She even ticks off the audience at times.

Kara Thrace does actually resemble the old man a bit.

Finally, Kara Thrace's ending still confuses me. SERIOUSLY, WHAT WAS UP WITH THAT?

Overall, Starbuck was a character that could be anything: interesting, cool, sexy, annoying, and cocky.

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Season 2

Well, spring has finally decided to show its lovely face. Unfortunately, you weren’t able to tell that for a bit. I guess God was like “Well, I gave y’all 70 degree weather in Feburary, so winter’s gonna stay for a little longer!” Welcome to Tennessee, folks. During my week off from work, I thought it was time to check up on those 12 Colonies of Kobol. I pretty much knocked through Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. I even started on Season 3 before the break ended. My plan was to talk about this season next month, but since I’m pretty much done with it, it’s coming now.

Season 2 of BSG aired between 2005 and 2006 with a long break between the first 10 and last 10 episodes. That’s why this season is split up into two DVD sets in some regions. I was more or less watching the show at this time. While football games weren’t in the way anymore, there was still college life and work (I worked at Wal-Mart during the summer) to consider. I know I missed some episodes but I know I watched the last few episodes of the season as they aired. It’s hard to forget about the end of Season 2.

The season picks up with the events of what happened in Season 1’s finale. Let’s just say that a crapload of crap happens and it’s a while before things get back to the status quo. There was insurrection, someone got shot, and Ellen Tigh was being annoying as usual. They’re still on the way to Earth and the Cylons are still on their tail. We even find out that there are more survivors on a Battlestar called the Pegasus. As she show continues, we get into a lot of struggles within the fleet. We even get a few new Cylon human models played by some cool sci-fi alums. It all culminates with an ending that I’m still shocked by to this day.

Favorites - 10 Heroic Characters Gone Bad

“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.”

This quote from Batman: The Killing Joke says a lot about heroes or good people who go down a dark path. Sometimes, an event will happen in their lives that will irrevocably change them. Mostly, they can find the way to keep their wits and continue to fight the good fight. Heck, how has someone like Spider-Man not gone totally dark after what’s happened to him? Other times, they fall so far off the wagon, you wonder if they were even on the wagon to begin with. You’ll see this trope everywhere in movies, TV, books, and video games. So, here are some good characters that turned dark. They’re not necessarily in order either.

1. Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars)

That’s right, folks. One of the best villains in movie history was once one of the good guys. It always has to start like that, don’t it? Even though the prequels weren’t perfect, they and Star Wars: Clone Wars showed how a “mostly good” Jedi would go evil. Because of Palpatine’s influence and Anakin’s own fears, he became Darth Vader and helped tighten the Empire’s grip for years. I’ll touch on his ultimate end next time, though.

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Season 1

Well, this took a while to get to. A few years ago, I decided to revisit the original Battlestar Galactica show and its horrid sequel, Galactica: 1980.  If the original 70’s sci-fi show was a father, then G: 1980 was the child who decided to go down the dark path and become an arsonist. If the reboot is anything, it’s the franchise’s child who went to get his doctorates in Science, Liberal Arts, Theology, Philosophy, and Aerospace. What I’m trying to say is that Season 1 of 2003’s Battlestar Galactica might be pretty good.

Battlestar Galactica came out as a mini-series in December 2003 and eventually had their first season a year later on the Sci-Fi Channel. I don’t remember what I thought of the show when it first aired. I saw some of the original mini-series when it was aired on NBC of all places. I think my thoughts were “Hmm… this is a little racy. Nobody isn’t in the room, are they?”  Okay, it's not Game of Thrones, so it's not that racy. I actually didn’t get to see much of the first season when it was aired. I think I only saw a few episodes especially the season finale.  Talk about “Holy Crap!” Since it’s not on Netflix anymore, I’ve been finding the seasons for cheap in different places.

I know some were bothered by the changes to the reboot. Starbuck’s a woman? Tigh’s a white guy and a jackass? Boomer’s a pretty attractive Korean woman? I wasn’t as knowledgeable about the original series, so I wasn’t really bothered by the changes made. Heck, I’m still not bothered by them. Not a lot was changed though. If anything, stuff just got modernized and it looked less Star Wars-like. After all, BSG was a bit a riff on Star Wars. I didn’t recognize any of the actors at that time except for Edward James Olmos.

Battlestar Galactica takes place in another part of the galaxy. There, humanity lives in a group of planets known as the 12 Colonies. Beforehand, humanity was at war with the Cylons, a robotic species that they created. After the war, the Cylons went into deep space and stayed hidden for 40 years. In the present day, the come back much different and more powerful than ever. They strategically wipe out the 12 Colonies. About 50,000 humans remain from the attack and one Colonial fleet ship, the Battlestar Galactica, remains to keep them safe. Since their area of space is pretty much overrun by Cylons, humanity’s leaders decide to take the survivors and search for the mythical 13^th Colony known as Earth.

Favorites –16 TV Shows That Ended Too Soon

With everything that’s going on these days, we may have something pretty good to look forward too: another season of Young Justice. This was one show that I felt got cut down too soon. It ended with a crapload of stuff left to talk about. When you have the Lord of Apokalips show up in the last minute of your show, you better do something with it! I hate it when shows get cut off too soon. It definitely sucks when they’re just one season in. Even when it’s lasted for a few years, something happens and it’s gone like a fart in the wind or something.

So, here are a few shows that went away too soon. If you notice some popular underrated shows missing, that’s because I can only do so much. Besides, Pushing Daisies didn’t sound like my thing. There were a couple of shows that went away before I could get invested in them like Almost Human and a couple of others. Whether they were animated or live-action, there have been ones that I was pretty sad to see go. The list isn’t in complete order, but the first few are ones that I still feel jaded on.

Random Pics of the Month - Six Things about Admiral Will Adama

I haven't did one of these in a while. Yeah, I know it's Star Wars Day, but it's kind of relevant. So, here are seven things about Battlestar Galactica's Adama. Yeah, I'll throw the original in as well.

Old-School Adama had one nice cape.

Will Adama ain't afraid to get down and fight alongside his people.

Will Adama  probably wonders how the heck he and Tigh ever got so tight. I wonder that as well!

Will Adama is an okay father figure. He's not too bad though.

Will Adama's art career didn't take off like it could have.

Will Adama has fine taste in women and one slammin' mustache. Who knew Castillo would return?

Finally, Will Adama would make a fine President. So say we all!

Well, that's all I have for today. Peace, God Bless, and may the Fourth be with you.

Favorites - 15 Favorite Reboots/Rehashes/Reimaginings...You get the point.

Remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings… where do I begin? If you think I’m anti-remake, you’re somewhat right. Remakes of movies and TV rarely ever go so well. Don’t worry, I’m not that guy on the side of the street that’s yelling about Hollywood losing its way and being unoriginal. Remakes and re-tellings have been around at least since the 1930s. Did you know that Hollywood (Paramount and MGM) released two versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a decade apart? That’s not counting the other versions of that story Hollywood did in those days.

Don’t get me wrong. I do think Hollywood is a little too remake crazy these days. The problem that plagues a lot of them is that they aren’t really good. They don’t have what the original had, they go completely off base in a bad way, or they follow the original too much. Anyone remember The Omen from 2007? It wasn’t bad but I felt I should have just stuck with the original. If you thought movie reboots were bad, look at TV reboots… Man, there are rarely any good ones. I was going to do separate posts on this, but I might as well mix them together. Here are my 15 favorite rehashes from movies and television. I was going to go with 20, but I’m not that forgiving.

15. The Mummy (1999)

The Mummy was a reboot of the 1932 movie starring Boris Karloff. It sticks to the original pretty well. It’s just full of more action and funny moments. This is one of the Universal remakes that succeeded in actually being decent and even fun. I liked the characters, the villain, and the good special effects. What happened after the first movie with the third movie and the countless Scorpion King spinoffs is another thing entirely.

14. The Karate Kid (2010)

That’s right, folks. This movie is on the list. While it might seem like sacrilege to reboot the 1984 movie, that didn’t stop Hollywood. Luckily, it’s actually a pretty good one in my opinion. While the title actually needed to be something else (there’s no karate!) and it sticks to the movie a bit too much, it’s fine. I thought Jaden Smith (I know, I know) was fine in the lead role. The surprise of the movie was Jackie Chan as the mentor. The fight scenes were pretty good too. Even if you don’t like reboots, you do have to admit one thing: it’s much better than The Next Karate Kid.

13. Star Trek (2009)

I see you looking at me, Trekkies and Trekkers. I thought the Trek reboot was pretty good. While the story wasn’t the best, the cast made it work. Trying to recast the original crew sounds ludicrous but it works here. Bringing back Leonard Nimoy if only for a little bit was nice fan service even if how we got there didn’t make sense. I even thought Star Trek Into Darkness was a fine sequel when it wasn’t constantly reminding me of a better movie. Hopefully, the next movie can bring us good, NEW things. 

12. Dredd (2012)

Dredd is the reboot to the 1995 movie, Judge Dredd. While the 1995 movie might have some entertainment value, a lot of folk say that it wasn't good. I’m not a fan of the character, but I saw Dredd and thought it was pretty good for the most part.  I will say that The Raid: Redemption might be better, but that's a post for another time. I liked the dark atmosphere of the whole thing. Karl Urban was awesome as the Judge and Lena Headley was a nice villain. It brought enough stuff to the table to make me wish that a sequel gets made.

11. Godzilla (2014)

Just to reiterate, this is the 2014 version, not GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) from 1998. We finally got an American version of Godzilla and it was good. I thought the story, actors, and effects were pretty good. Gareth Edwards and the creative team did their best to stick to what made Godzilla work for 50 years. Even though the G-Man shows up for about 15 minutes, it’s still a good one. It may not the best Godzilla movie ever, but it did kick the 1998 version to the curb really fast.

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica and Galactica: 1980

This installment of TV Talk is brought to you by the awesome planet, Earth. Whether it’s Star Trek, Stargate: SG-1, the DC Universe, or Battlestar Galactica, you know that Earth is always going to be that shiny beacon of hope.

Today’s show is the original Battlestar Galactica and it’s spinoff show, Galactica: 1980. I’m actually not a big fan of these shows. Still, since its reboot has garnered a lot of praise from fans including me, I thought it would be nice to look at the original show and its sequel.

Background

My first look at anything related to BSG came from an old recorded VHS tape that had some old cartoons on it. There was an episode of Galactica: 1980 on there and it involved the Cylons (“The Night the Cylons Landed”). When we got the Sci-fi Channel (the station wasn’t part of our plan beforehand), I noticed that they would play the show on certain days. Back when the Sci-fi Channel was actually good, they would show a small marathon of shows every work day during the morning and noon times. When I was out of school, they would usually show BSG. After the channel got rid of that cool segment, I had not seen any of the original show since.

When I got Netflix, I noticed that both shows were on there but I didn’t really have any inclination to watch them. A while back, I heard some reviews about some comic book series that were based on this show and that piqued my interest in the show. I also wanted to see if the show was really any good because I really didn’t remember much from it. So, I took a break from watching Fringe (which is/was pretty awesome) and watched the 1 season of BSG. I then tried to watch G: 1980 and… well, I’ll get to that later. What did I think of the two shows? Find out below:

Top 36 Heroes - Part 4

Man, I'm running out of intros. After a little snafu where I noticed I accidentally deleted a couple of spots, welcome to part 4. Today, I start with a lawyer of all things.

18. Atticus Finch

Next up, we have a southern lawyer of all things. Luckily, he’s one of the good guys. Atticus Finch is the father of Jem and Scout Finch in the book To Kill A Mockingbird. In the book and movie, he’s a defense attorney who’s involved in a case that revolves around a bit of racism. He also serves as the moral center for Jem and Scout. So, why did I decide to include this character? One reason is that I really wanted to include some normal fictional heroes on here too.

Also, Atticus is a good character in general. Recently, I have been reading the book again for the first time in about a decade. His character is definitely one of the highlights. He’s a good single father who’s trying to raise two kids. As I said before, he’s also got good morals. He tries to stand up for people who can’t stand for themselves. The biggest example is the trial where he’s trying to help acquit a man from a crime. Another one comes at the end where… well, that would be spoiling. He was well acted in the movie by Gregory Peck.