Woot! New BSG was on …
I tivo’d Flash… yes it was horribile even watching it at 3 times the normal speed.
I hope the action is going to pick up a little.
Did anyone else notice that he already has his scar on the face? I always assumed it was a viper accident, but since accordin to this minisode he has never flown combat, so maybe something during training…
Female pilot was HOT!! and reminded me a little of the picture of Adama’s wife in the original series.
“Redshirt”
I don’t understand why the Writers Guild would be opposed to making their creative product available worldwide, particularly if the rest of the world is willing to pay for it. Do you have any insight into their reasoning?
I’m no expert, but I’d guess the key part of that question is “pay for it.” I’d guess that SciFi ended up paying for US rights as opposed to worldwide rights, which obligates them to distribute solely in the US.
Maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong in my speculation.
Everybody involved except for the Network got not a penny from it. Such things are termed “advertising materials” which would involve very little to no compensation (normally no compensation) to everybody who produced the piece. The concession to get something to compensate the actors and crew for their time required that the distribution be limited.
Different “advertising material” is often prepared for different regions. This is why even in today’s Amazoogle world that is full of drives toward globalization Razor flashbacks remain restricted to the US. The closest there has been to any sort of global channel via satellite that would remove issues like this has been BBC World or VOA WORLDNET. The structures legally relative to production still require national borders to be respected which thereby brings about a whole slew of different legal playbooks to be followed.
J. Michael Straczynski mentioned on a certain USENET gateway list that the current settlement is not sufficiently wonderful for both sides and there may yet be a walkout of writers in the US this year over this and other issues.
The network did not want to “pay for it”. The Guild got out of the network a commitment to pay for it but the network got in exchange a restriction on distribution.
That’s what I was saying – that the key words in everyone’s mind are “pay for it.”
I totally understand why this is happening, and I’m on the writers’ side. Without some reasonable compensation for what they do, they can’t do it – which means concepts like the “webisode” are doomed from the start.
Maybe the final truth to be gleaned from this is that web distribution works better for Star Trek: The New Voyages and Lonelygirl15 than for raw corporate promotional purposes. Their mistake may have been to enlist real talent – like Michael Taylor – to offer something of original value when all they really wanted was a bunch of two minute adverts.
This is why I am earnestly waiting for the analog television “drop dead” date. If the FCC would ever stop fiddling with what would be required to stop broadcasting in analog (cable is being added although satellite like DISH is already transmitted in digital form) there would be some certainty. As far as things are playing out right now that switchover would damage the traditional paradigm of television due to the economics of it. Yes, an HDTV signal looks great…but you have to do a lot more on the consumer’s end to get a decent signal than you would with an analog signal. With as costly as HDTV signals are to generate I am aware of at least one television station that is in financial worries.
With what I fear may be the impending collapse of television as a communications paradigm then webisodes could work. Indeed, that would be the only game in town then. Things right now are just too murky to see which way things go. Sanctuary is a tentative step forward in this direction in terms of trying to figure out the boundaries of the TV over IP paradigm. I can only hope somebody can figure out a workable structure for this.
If memory serves the status of the clips is actually dubious. Although I believe it is being put forward as “advertising material” as it is not part of the actual episode in actuality these were deleted scenes that were strung together to try to make a story. I fully suspect somebody decided to put the deleted scenes to use to milk something out of them prior to broadcast and the subsequent release of the DVD.
It looks good. Hopefully they’ll be smart enough to add these into the DVD release of Razor.
… I still wouldn’t be as rich as Kara Thrace.
It probably has something to do with WHO gets the money when the rest of the world pays for it. I bet the writers see a tiny fraction of a fraction of it (I don’t really know how it works for writers, but for composers, for instance, we get 1/100th of every dollar made by any recording of our work, with performers, producers, publishers and the record label getting the bulk of the cash.)
I watched the clip this morning and was a bit underwhelmed. the female pilot was annoying. I’m hoping she’s not Cain.
I checked Battlestar Wiki. Apparently it is not Cain. Supposedly that pilot’s name is “Jaycie McGavin”. See http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Jaycie_McGavin.
aha, thanks. that’s good to know.
Galactica Sitrep blog has posted a couple of links that folks outside the U.S. might be able to check out the minisodes on. One of them is http://galacticabbs.com/index.php?showforum=59
but you didn’t hear it from me. 
Agreed, Snacktime. Let’s just hope it gets better. I was impressed, however, with how well the young actor resembles Edward James Olmos–or, at least, Bill Adama–and yet he has kind of an Apollo thing going for him too. Since I never thought EJO and Jamie Bamber came even close to looking like father and son, I think this is a nice touch of casting.
Also, am I mistaken, or did Ms. McGavin recount a story in which she blew up a Raider while flying in a Raptor? I thought the Raptors didn’t have weapons, aside from maybe some missile interceptors like Boomer had in the miniseries. I wonder why they don’t just make her a Viper pilot. We’ve only ever really known two female Viper pilots anyway, Starbuck and Kat; this would’ve been a good time to introduce another.
Oh well, here’s waiting for next week.
(Man, they really are stringing us along by the short ones, aren’t they?)
Weapon pods were first seen on Raptors in Exodus Part 2. I think there is another occasion around Eye of Jupiter where that is seen as well.
All this has happened before, all this will happen again.
they have guns, remember when the cheif was on the one planet and was shooting at the cylons and he thinks he destroyed them all, then they pan up and the raptor was machine gunning them too?
Yeah, from what I’ve heard from RDM, the Raptors are helicopter analogs. Now, IRL that can mean many different things, and I think that in-verse, it also means many different things. Essentially, Raptors are ECM/Ground Support platforms.
Yes, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny (ECM platforms are fixed wing for a reason), but it’s an easy shorthand. Deal.