Stale Popcorn

Let me get something out the way before we even start. I grew up in the 1980’s, so I have very fond memories of the original Battlestar Galactica and when the remake was first announced I was really interested in seeing what they would make of it.

When the new series came to Sky1 in the UK I started to watch it. I watched the miniseries and a couple of the episodes from Season 1 – but at the time my wife and I had just had our first daughter and it wasn’t the easiest thing to do to follow a TV series week in, week out. So imagine my delight and surprise when I received the review copy of the entire series on Blu-Ray.

And I’ll tell you this for nothing, I have barely scratched the surface of what’s available in this set and it is all absolutely fantastic!

If you are a fan of the show then I’m preaching to the converted, but just in case you’re not the remake of Battlestar Galactica follows the crew of the titular Battlestar Galactica as they try and keep alive the remaining survivors of the 12 Colonies of Man after the return of the Cylons left all of their homeworlds devastated.

The Cylons were created by Man as slaves, but they rebelled and the first Cylon wars occurred, which ended in a bloody stalemate. A truce was declared and the Cylons retreated to a remote corner of space and hadn’t been heard of for 40 years when the series starts. But then they return and wipe out most the human race and the survivors only hope is the last surving Colonial warship, the Galactica.

So began the search for safety for the survivors, and a search that will lead them across the stars to try and find the mythical 13th Colony – Earth.

And in that it is similar to the original series from the 1970’s, but it is so much more different as well. There are many more layers and twists and turns to this new version than were even hinted at in the original, and it is a much better series because of that.

I don’t want to go into much detail, just in case you haven’t seen it, but it truly is a wonderfully written show and, even if you don’t like Science Fiction I would heartily recommend watching it. It features some of the best writing on TV, and the direction is also pretty flawless. But that would have meant nothing if you didn’t care about the characters – but you do! From the very first moment you are introduced to the crew of the Galactica and the other survivors of the Colonies you can’t help but care about these flawed individuals and that is testament not just to the writing but also the acting done by people like Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff and many, many more. The cast list is way too long to actually credit all the people who deserve a mention, as they all do from the lowest member of the crew who only gets moments of screentime to people like Edward James Olmos who is on screen for a lot of each episode.

So onto the Blu-Ray release. Is it a justifiable purchase for people who already own the DVD’s and newcomers alike?

That would have to be a YES! The picture quality is absolutely superb. I can remember watching the show on the TV and, while it always looked good, I did sometimes struggle to make out details and hear what people were saying when they were talking quietly (which they do a lot!) but on this release there is none of that.

The show was originally filmed on digital HD video with grain added over the top to make it look like a grim and gritty documentary (apart from the original miniseries which was shot on photochemical film) but even with the added grain (which is obviously something that people would normally expect to be removed from a Blu-Ray release) the detail on show is fantastic. Yes, the colours are muted by design, but they are still very accurate and the contrast is very solid with great shadow detail.

And most importantly it looks exactly as the creators always wanted it to, even surprising them sometimes as this is the first time Ronald Moore had seen it look like this!

As for the audio, it is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and it is absolutely phenomenal. The nuclear explosions, Viper to Cylon space battles, gunfights and every other type of space travel noise you can think of (and probably even some you can’t) are in evidence and completely immerse you in the experience. And in the quieter moments you can hear every word spoken by the crew and when an explosion rattles the command crew, for instance, it will rattle you as well – and then you will marvel at all the background noise as the crew springs to life to defend against the latest threat!

It truly is a stunning audio track, easily giving many big movie releases a run for their money.

Special Features

I haven’t really been able to dive far into the extras available in this set, as there is just so much included, but this is a list of all of the extras you will get:

U-control features

And They Have A Plan

Like I said, there’s a lot of extras! There is more than enough here to keep fans of the series entertained for hours upon hours, if not days.

I could probably write lots more about this release, especially if I watched and reviewed every last extra available, but I think I have seen and written enough to tell you just how good this release is.

Coupled with the outstanding audio and video presentation, as well as the excellent writing, direction and acting from all involved, this is an absolutely frakin’ amazing release and is definitely worthy of a place in your Blu-Ray collection.

Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Collection is release on DVD & Blu-Ray on the 21st of September.

Posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 10:33 am under Blu-Ray Reviews by Gareth.

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3 Responses to “[Blu Ray Review] BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION”

Grundy Said on September 18th, 2009 at 6:28 am 1

That shot of Galactica dropping into the atmosphere on New Caprica must look great in HD. If I had the money and a Blu-ray, I’d pick this ****er up right away.

Daniel Said on September 19th, 2009 at 8:35 pm 2

It says in the Bonus Features, that the Broadcast Edition of RAZOR is included. Does that mean, it’s included as a special feature, and the regular version is the unrated version?

I was not able to find any information on this. Is the unrated version of RAZOR included in this set?

Gareth Said on September 21st, 2009 at 9:14 am 3

Yes, Daniel, the Broadcast Edition is a special feature and the extended (which I assume is the unrated) version is there as well.

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