Are Reboots/Remakes Ever Good?

[Judge]

The Battlestar Galactica reimagining of the 2000's was one of the best tv shows ever, despite a stupid ending.

I'd agree, although I'm curious to understand why you think the ending was "stupid". Yeah- I wish "Caprica" would have gone at least another season. Though I suspect it was just a bit too cerebral for most viewers.

 

[Jacks Brain]

So there were these 12 colonies who created a race of robot slaves and somehow (sorry, only watched parts of Caprica) ended up with their roombas becoming a hostile peer-level adversary with fleets of giant warships. There was a war that resulted in an armistice, not victory, and the robots disappeared for a while. Then the robots suddenly come back and wipe out all of humanity in a day, except for a quarter million who happen to escape on spaceships. The survivors spend the next few years fighting an adversary with superior technology, some of whom are indistinguishable from human and who have lived undetected among humans for decades. They're a treacherous and cunning adversary, they make intelligent plans that work. The human survivors know almost nothing about the new Cylons. They could be capable of anything, and apparently are (resurrection).

Along the way the survivors find Kobol, a nuclear wasteland where the humans also fought with the robots and got genocided - except for a few survivors who went on to found the 12 colonies.

With that as a background, when the humans get to Earth they - send all their technology into the sun* and go live with the cavemen, while a Basestar full of "good" Cylons goes off with all their superior technological knowledge to do whatever they feel like getting up to.

Those guys definitely won't ever change their minds about humans.

I mean, they did change their minds about humans and decided to form an alliance for a while. But they wouldn't change their minds again about the meatbags who created them to be slave labor and who just dropped most of their kind into a black hole.

Even if you put the remaining Cylons aside, is everyone really going to agree to give up technology? No more hot showers and clean clothes? My kid is going to die because there's no penicillin? Are the women going to say, "Hey, you know what, Lee's right!" We'll give up all the painkillers that make giving birth bearable, and dying in childbirth will become normal again."

I think they give Lee Adama a nice pat on his dumb head and say "O.K., you go play with the cavemen and we're going to build a nice city right here without you."



*other than Daddy Adama's Raptor. Keeping that makes getting rid of the big ships extra pointless, but maybe Adama made an FTL jump into the sun after the school teacher died.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

Some are pretty good like Sailor Moon Crystal or Animaniacs. It all depends on who is writing for the remake/reboot. If you have a group of talented and excellent writers then you will get amazing results that please both old fans of the original series and new fans of the reboot. But if you have someone who writes garbage then of course you’re going to get a terrible show in return. Fuller House is the perfect example of how not to do a reboot. It just rehashed old plot points from the original series, dated itself within fifteen minutes into the first episode, had a pointless love triangle, had some pretty bad character development for some of the new characters, and it just felt dull a lot of the time.

 

[tkcartoonist]

There are some very select times where the remake is so well-known and/or regarded that it ends up eclipsing the original. For example: how many people know that Cecil B. Demille's "The Ten Commandments" from the late 50s is actually a remake of an earlier silent picture the same director did in the 20s? See also: the 80s Scarface.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

David Cronenberg’s The Fly was better than the original.

John Carpenter’s The Thing was better than the original.

Great examples. This reminds me of DC's Vertigo line, with comics like Sandman and Sandman Mystery Theater. Reboots seem to work when people take a property no one really cares about and revamp it. Unfortunately, most companies want to use a popular property that already made money, which probably won't go well.

 

[Jacks Brain]

Anyone see Rob Zombie's Munsters?

 

[undertheradar]

Battlestar Galactica...

 

[Judge]

So there were these 12 colonies who created a race of robot slaves and somehow (sorry, only watched parts of Caprica) ended up with their roombas becoming a hostile peer-level adversary with fleets of giant warships. There was a war that resulted in an armistice, not victory, and the robots disappeared for a while. Then the robots suddenly come back and wipe out all of humanity in a day, except for a quarter million who happen to escape on spaceships. The survivors spend the next few years fighting an adversary with superior technology, some of whom are indistinguishable from human and who have lived undetected among humans for decades. They're a treacherous and cunning adversary, they make intelligent plans that work. The human survivors know almost nothing about the new Cylons. They could be capable of anything, and apparently are (resurrection).

Along the way the survivors find Kobol, a nuclear wasteland where the humans also fought with the robots and got genocided - except for a few survivors who went on to found the 12 colonies.

With that as a background, when the humans get to Earth they - send all their technology into the sun* and go live with the cavemen, while a Basestar full of "good" Cylons goes off with all their superior technological knowledge to do whatever they feel like getting up to.

Those guys definitely won't ever change their minds about humans.

I mean, they did change their minds about humans and decided to form an alliance for a while. But they wouldn't change their minds again about the meatbags who created them to be slave labor and who just dropped most of their kind into a black hole.

Even if you put the remaining Cylons aside, is everyone really going to agree to give up technology? No more hot showers and clean clothes? My kid is going to die because there's no penicillin? Are the women going to say, "Hey, you know what, Lee's right!" We'll give up all the painkillers that make giving birth bearable, and dying in childbirth will become normal again."

I think they give Lee Adama a nice pat on his dumb head and say "O.K., you go play with the cavemen and we're going to build a nice city right here without you."



*other than Daddy Adama's Raptor. Keeping that makes getting rid of the big ships extra pointless, but maybe Adama made an FTL jump into the sun after the school teacher died.

LOL...points taken. Though let's face it. In this instance the writers long before painted the entire production into a corner by the mere suggestion that a much higher civilization capable of interstellar travel integrated its mitochondrial DNA with primitive earthlings 150,000 years ago. A preposterous premise with nowhere to go from the outset. Yet they left no trace of their technology, just their bones.

No matter what they would have come up with (if allowed) wouldn't have seamlessly solved such an issue. Consequently the ending was woefully full of gaping holes. Then consider one sad reality about the production in it's forth and final year. That it had originally been slated to be cancelled at the end of season three. It wouldn't surprise me that this left the creative staff as more or less a "skeleton crew". Where I suspect any number of them would have brought up all those considerations you mentioned. And that the producers would have likely vetoed all of them given the very tight budget of a show that was already scheduled to end by network programming. Leaving all those loose-ends that drug one of the best television series through the mud at the very end. Sad, but not really surprising either.

Especially when you consider the precarious production of the original 1978 series that ran only a single season. Made worse by a terrible spinoff that also lasted only a single season. Yet the 2004 remake itself is considered one of the best in television, apart from such a tawdry ending. It's amazing that this remake was made at all, IMO. Especially given how poorly the original was in comparison. And that it got a stay of execution when it was supposed to be cancelled in its third year.

Let's just say under the circumstances I'm willing to overlook such discrepancies compared to say another series called "Lost". One which ended leaving so many viewers angry that they wasted years watching it given the way it all ended. In other words, it could have been worse.

Where I dare anyone in Hollywood to have the audacity to even consider remaking "Lost".

 

[Jacks Brain]

LOL...points taken. Though let's face it. In this instance the writers long before painted the entire production into a corner by the mere suggestion that a much higher civilization capable of interstellar travel integrated its mitochondrial DNA with primitive earthlings 150,000 years ago. A preposterous premise with nowhere to go from the outset. Yet they left no trace of their technology, just their bones.

If that came from the original show, I would have ignored it.

 

[Judge]

If that came from the original show, I would have ignored it.

I actually have trouble even watching the original series now. But back in 1978 it was still a big deal. Now all too primitive when directly compared to the remake.

Of course I have every episode of the remake on DVD. But even when upconverted, it's quite inferior to the Blu-Ray version at 1080p.

 

[Kavigant]

I actually have trouble even watching the original series now. But back in 1978 it was still a big deal. Now all too primitive when directly compared to the remake.

Of course I have every episode of the remake on DVD. But even when upconverted, it's quite inferior to the Blu-Ray version at 1080p.

The original Battlestar Galactica TV series was a fun mashup of Star Wars, Star Trek (BSG even had John Colicos, who had played the first Klingon (Commander Kor) ever seen on Star Trek, as the treacherous Baltar), Chariots of the Gods ("There are those who believe that life here began out there"), and Mormon theology (Glen Larson was Mormon and turned the LDS "Kolob" into "Kobol."). Those of us who had just seen Star Wars in the theater for the first time were hungry for more, and Battlestar Galactica gave us exactly what we wanted. It certainly wasn't Masterpiece Theater, but it was a godsend to us geeky kids.

 

[MROSS]

Remakes / reboots are rarely better than the originals - as it's all too natural to relate most to the originals while grappling with comparisons at the same time.

 

[Jacks Brain]

Well now I see why they had to set the BSG reimagining in the past - it's in the original opening.

If I had a chance to rewrite the ending, I'd like to see Galactica drag that last BaseStar into an FTL jump and Adama Manuever them both into a volcano. Like, you thought Cavil killed himself but he cobbled together a resurrection device after the hub was blown up, so naturally he ended up on the last BaseStar. It breaks some of the lore but I could work out the details if I had too.

That only leaves the civilian ships to deal with. They were all pretty beat up so I'd say they didn't work for much longer and were landed and scrapped.

 

[Kavigant]

On the topic of remakes, I just found out that Roger Waters (now 80 years of age) just released his own personal solo remake of one of the best prog rock albums of all time: Dark Side of the Moon.

Mr. Waters's remake of the album is borderline unlistenable and quite embarrassing. (In my opinion, of course)

 

[Judge]

Well now I see why they had to set the BSG reimagining in the past - it's in the original opening.

If I had a chance to rewrite the ending, I'd like to see Galactica drag that last BaseStar into an FTL jump and Adama Manuever them both into a volcano. Like, you thought Cavil killed himself but he cobbled together a resurrection device after the hub was blown up, so naturally he ended up on the last BaseStar. It breaks some of the lore but I could work out the details if I had too.

That only leaves the civilian ships to deal with. They were all pretty beat up so I'd say they didn't work for much longer and were landed and scrapped.

Pity that the writers themselves weren't given the resources or the time to not only write the launch of a television series, but also be able to craft it's conclusion, regardless of how short or how long the duration of a particular series might run. A classic example of where creativity is inevitably made subservient to harsh budgeting of network programming.

An issue that we see periodically where a television series gets a reprieve from immediate cancellation. When network programming inevitably wields an iron fist of control limiting the resources and time given the finite nature of a series in its last year. Usually resulting in anything between a less-than-sterling and piss-poor ending. Where the writers are offered little choice in maintaining their own level of creativity, and instead being forced to deal with limitations that inevitably spoil a good ending to most any tv series.

Of course BSG isn't the only series to end like this. I know y'all could cite others as well.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

On the topic of remakes, I just found out that Roger Waters (now 80 years of age) just released his own personal solo remake of one of the best prog rock albums of all time: Dark Side of the Moon.

Mr. Waters's remake of the album is borderline unlistenable and quite embarrassing. (In my opinion, of course)

You ever hear The Flaming Lips' version? I thought that was fun. Their Sgt. Pepper had some good tracks too.

 

[Kavigant]

You ever hear The Flaming Lips' version? I thought that was fun. Their Sgt. Pepper had some good tracks too.

I'm going to have to go listen both of those today. Thanks for letting me know about them!

 

[Tom]

Thought 'The Thing' (1982) was as good as the original 'The Thing from Another World' (1951). Many seem not to like the original very much, but it was actually a favorite of mine well before the remake came out. It was the first alien monster in the artic movie as far as I am aware and had a humorous continual 1940's-ish banter to it as comic relief.

The remake was great as the new elements it added worked really well and the now early 1980s character interactions were just as dynamic. It even had a few humorous moments.

I'm also a big fan of the 2011 prequel 'The Thing' which has aged well with me. I have liked it more with each watching.

Just hoping they do a follow up about what happens when the tracked snow vehicle reaches the Russian station.

Thought the Battlestar Galatica reboot was as good as original. More enjoyable as it lasted much longer. Trivia: When I was worked at the Training Range in Nevada in 1980 the main seach radar site that passed targets on to us SAM simulator sites had a call sign 'Battlestar'

 

[Metalhead]

I did not think the in-name-only remake of "House of Wax" was that bad of a film. It gave me the satisfaction of seeing Paris Hilton get the treatment she rightfully deserves.

OK, I gotta give her some props, she had to know the audience would cheer in the cinemas during that scene in particular, but she went through with it anyway.

 

[Jacks Brain]

I only watched the monster fights, but those were good.