A brief review by Susan J. Paxton
Although it’s wonderful to have
something new about BG for the first time in so many years, the Sci-Fi Channel Sciography
special left me and, I suspect from reading fan comments, many others wanting a lot more.
The show, while it would make an adequate introduction for a new
fan, presented absolutely no new information and glossed over necessary facts. It is
impossible, in my view, to understand BG and the rushed appearance of many of the
episodes, without knowing that the show was originally to be a 3-hour TV movie followed by
two 2-hour movies, and that ABC decided to make it a series midway through filming of the
premiere. It is also impossible to understand the slide in BG’s ratings
without knowing that ABC was deliberately toying with BG’s schedule in an
obvious effort to kill it (well documented by William Adams in a scholarly study for the Journal
of Communications).
There were a number of excellent interviews, but the selection of
material from those interviews in some cases left a lot to be desired. Don Bellisario in
particular has never been interviewed at length on his involvement on BG, which
was major indeed, and they used one clip of him talking about the monkey in the Muffit
suit. Jean-Pierre Dorleac’s contribution was limited to a brief discussion of
the problems of filming the chrome Cylon uniforms. On the other hand, Glen Larson, John
Dykstra, Dirk Benedict, Laurette Spang-McCook, and Anne Lockhart all made excellent,
thoughtful contributions. Even Jerry Pournelle popped up, somewhat mysteriously! But I
would have loved to hear from Stu Phillips, Jim Carlson and Terry McDonnell, and perhaps
Michael Sloan.
Richard Hatch was also interviewed, and unfortunately he did not
come across very well. If the Sciography special was an indication of how the
Sci-Fi Channel is thinking about any potential BG revival, they’re obviously
in Glen’s camp. The slant was so obvious it had to be intentional.
A major flaw in the production was the almost complete neglect of
actors who were not interviewed, with the exception of the late Lorne Greene. At the end,
in the “where are they now” segment, they really needed to cover all the main
actors. It is particularly unjust that there was absolutely no mention anywhere of John
Colicos, whose loss is still fresh in our hearts.
One gripe I have is the title of “number one fan” given to
an individual named Scott Mantz. I for one have never heard of this guy, and I’ve
been in fandom since Day One. In fact, no one on the BG mailing list seems to
have heard of him either. Now Scott is obviously a fan, and his input was useful,
but he should have been listed, perhaps, as a representative fan. He’s not
the number one fan. I can think of several nominees, and he isn’t in the running
(January 2001: I’ve actually heard from Scott Mantz, who was less offended than
perhaps he should have been by my preceding comments. Scott’s a really nice guy, he
is a BG fan, and he was definitely startled when Sci-Fi pasted the title of
“number one fan” on him! Read Scott’s tale of his experience here).
Also, the presence of John Kenneth Muir was largely an irritant. He
bills himself as an expert on BG on the strength of his not-very-accurate book
and took up major airtime that could have been better used talking more to Bellisario,
Larson, or Dykstra.
Things I would have liked to have seen: more information on the
making of the SFX, more shots of the sets, some of Ralph McQuarrie’s lovely
preproduction art, and a lot fewer shots of the ILs on Gamoray going “Uh
oh!”
All in all, this was a merely OK effort, far more useful to the
beginner fan than to those of us who’ve been involved in this for over twenty years.
It’s great to see how good Dirk (who I am sure does indeed still fit into his
uniform!), Richard, Laurette, and Anne look, and a little sad that we’re all still
sitting here waiting for something to happen.