By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Now the latest Battlestar Galactica After the reboot was thrown out of the Hollywood airlock, fans have been arguing fiercely about how to bring this franchise back. However, the reboot kept reminding us that everything that happened before will happen again. With this in mind, I have a simple suggestion: we need one Battlestar Galactica Spin-off that shows what happened aboard various Colony ships during the 2003 reboot, an idea that dates back to the very first season of that series.
The original Battlestar Galactica idea
We didn’t get too many episodes featuring civilian ships during the reboot, and most of the best episodes come from the first season of the series. The reason for this is that Ronald D. Moore originally wanted the show to regularly examine what was going on in the fleet, but SyFy was concerned about the cost of doing so. And after “Bastille Day” (an episode that largely took place aboard a prison ship) cost so much to produce, the network and Moore agreed to focus the action primarily aboard Galactica for future episodes.
In short, this idea would be perfect Battlestar Galactica spinoff show. It could act like a true anthology, with each episode focusing on different ships and crews at different points in the original series. From a creative perspective, this would be a real win-win situation, as audiences would always have new characters to fall in love with, and the network could potentially hire some big names for one-off appearances, which is far easier than hiring someone for several Squadrons to bind contract.
Setting a Battlestar Galactica The original series spin-off will also offer fans more adventures set in the series’ most exciting time period, after the Cylons attacked the colonies. While I was thinking Mood was okay, the series’ low ratings and subsequent cancellation are proof that fans don’t necessarily want prequels or other types of spin-offs that stray too far from what they know and love. This anthology-style spin-off could have a familiar setting (the colony ships) and premise (humanity trying to survive a Cylon-caused apocalypse) as well as compelling new characters.
Plus, with that Battlestar Galactica spin-off, there would be room to bring back the reboot cast in a variety of ways, including simply including the original audio to serve as a broadcast for the transmissions received from the colony ships. Alternatively, the new spin-off may recruit the reboot’s cast to provide new voices. By limiting their voices to audio broadcasts, producers don’t have to worry about the actors looking younger, and the actors are far more likely to return if they only have to record a few lines and get a damn paycheck for it.
At the risk of sounding as selfish as Gaius Baltar Battlestar Galactica Spinoff Idea has something for everyone: new stories, familiar ships and endless storytelling potential. It could work as a TV show or even a series of streaming films, and would be relatively cheap to produce (especially since there’s no real need for space battles or other action-packed scenes). But right now an overpaid manager is working on a restart Galactica from scratch, and unless the producers adopt an idea that has been around for a long time decadesthis franchise will never revive itself into a new body.