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Battlestar Gallactica (1978)- It's not Star Wars
30 Plays1 month ago
Pals, this is not Star Wars ok? It's totally unique and (for legal reasons) any similarities to other events in a galaxy far, far away are purely coincidental. Besides, this movie has enough going on that you won't be sad. We've got a lot of alien attire to cover from terrifying robot dogs, multi-faced singers, polyester medieval costumes, and of course a lot of sweaty faces because this is the 70's.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077215/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_7_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_battlestar
Music: Cassette Deck by Basketcase
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Melinda. I'm Ariel. This is Hot Set, the movie podcast about costume design.
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody. Today we are talking about the 1978 slash 79 Battlestar Galactica movie.
00:00:33
Speaker
um mind
00:00:36
Speaker
I want to give a disclaimer at the beginning that you might hear my air conditioner running in the background. And to anyone that might have some feelings about that, I just want to say that we are in the middle of a historic heat wave on the West Coast. And I'm sorry, but I am not turning it off. but and And if it's really that much of a problem, I do apologize, but I cannot be, I can't be in this house without something, some air moving around. How are you doing today, Ariel? I'm doing good. I'm not melting as much as I was last week, but so that's a great positive. I have kind of like every episode, so many questions. How are you doing today?
00:01:23
Speaker
I'm good. um Yes, as as stated, we're talking about Battlestar Galactica today. And I think the big question amongst many for Battlestar Galactica that most people would have is, isn't that a TV show? Yes, and yes, it is.
00:01:42
Speaker
And I also was kind of confused by that when we decided that this is what we were going to do. um I didn't realize that it had ever been sort of cut and released in theaters as a movie, but in fact, it was. The pilot episode of the original show. Did you watch Battlestar Galactica when it was out? Not the 70s version.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, i I watched a couple seasons of it. um i I want to say it was on Netflix like maybe 10 years ago. I don't know if it's still I don't know where it's available now. I don't think it is anymore. But I remember because like I did watch it too. And not like on TV. I worked next to a blockbuster. So like remember blockbuster. I used to um take out DVDs from blockbuster. And that was yeah easily over 10 years ago.
00:02:34
Speaker
But I don't think I ever finished it. And if you had asked me, you know, before watching this movie, what the plot of the TV show was, I'm not sure I could have told you a whole lot other than like the most basic facts. What would you have said? I'm so curious. I think I would have said. It takes place in space and everyone has a lot of feelings. Check. And there's that blonde lady.
00:03:04
Speaker
And the though bad people are bad, and the good people are good. This is always how you should've shown up. That's also the plot summary for the movie, except the lady's not really blonde. I think she's brown hair.
00:03:21
Speaker
I mean, there is a blonde lady. There is a blonde lady who comes in for Starbucks love. And boy, don't I have so much to say about Starbucks. Oh, my God. yes Thank you for recapping the heart of our collection.
00:03:36
Speaker
ah
00:03:40
Speaker
There's a blonde lady. Boom. We've got everybody in. You know exactly what space show we're talking about. The one with the blonde lady in a red dress. yeah there is a Oh, God.
00:03:54
Speaker
If anybody can't tell this movie, I think that we we might have broken a little bit. magic I feel like the accumulation of all of the movies that we've watched so far has led us to this point. Yes. And I'm definitely not getting smarter as we watch all of these movies. Could you imagine if either one of us claimed that?
00:04:21
Speaker
I'm definitely getting more aware. I'm becoming more intelligent, for sure. ah With Barbarella at the crest of the sci-fi experience, I definitely am growing my IQ points. Nope.
00:04:39
Speaker
Nope. No. ah We started this podcast based on vibes and we are in it. I'm in it. They're strong. The vibes are they're coming at us from every direction. They are in the room.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah, I don't really know where to begin with this movie. um Other than to say that almost all of my notes that I wrote down are just this is Star Wars. This is Star Wars. Star Wars. This is Star Wars. Star Wars.
00:05:14
Speaker
Actually, honestly, I think we should talk about the fact that we did not choose Star Wars for the 1970s. Yeah. And I think we should talk about that for a second. So we absolutely had that on our list. And folks, Melinda is very organized. I will not claim to be so on this project. um Melinda has had a list, like a spreadsheet for um you you know the century of sci-fi, and there were for each decade a few options, some less well-known, some very known, kind of just based on the time and what's available. Also, one of my favorite parts of the spreadsheet is like the note that you have next to each of the biggest properties, which is like a done to death note.
00:05:57
Speaker
like Star Wars was one of them that was an option for the 1970s, and we both agreed that there's a lot to say about it, but there are so many people who have said a lot about Star Wars and have also had all the details about Star Wars and have had the things that you want to hear.
00:06:18
Speaker
um Have been said in interviews there are books out there's all this stuff so you know there are other opportunities for things that were kind of inspired by Star Wars or we're just coming out around like the same time and and all Inspired by the same things that were in the zeitgeist so yeah Battlestar Galactica baby. Choosing Battlestar Galactica is goingnna have a good way to be able to talk about Star Wars without having to talk about Star Wars specifically.
00:06:56
Speaker
and i will say i think i can speak for both of us when i say that we both love star wars i mean we're both millennials so obviously the original trilogy had come out before. We were born but i one hundred percent grew up loving star wars watching it i remember.
00:07:15
Speaker
buying the VHS copies when that box set of VHS came out. The Darth Vader shape, yeah, with the black and gold. Yes, me too. And I watched those on a loop. Over and over. And I remember going to the movie theater for the re-release, the 20-year theatrical re-release of the movies, and it was like a whole thing.
00:07:43
Speaker
But i yeah, there there's nothing that we can say about Star Wars that someone who hasn't researched that property to death hasn't already said in a more thorough way. And so it just seemed like what what is there that we can even add to that conversation? Yeah, I mean, the only thing that I would be able to add is more from like a costuming fan perspective because the Star Wars costume exhibit was going around a few years back. I'm assuming we'll find a home in the new like Lucas Museum that's being built in L.A. And it would be great if it does have like a permanent home and then some poor museum worker will have to clean up the like snail trail that I leave behind there but the same way that I'm assuming somebody had to follow me with like a mop
00:08:32
Speaker
when I was going to the Denver Museum when they had it up there. because it like By the way, the mop was on the glass protecting the costumes because like a lot of them were in cases and I was just like smearing my face and my eyeballs on the glass.
00:08:48
Speaker
Looking because the only thing that I can contribute to the conversation about Star Wars costumes is the detail is Astounding in the detail that exists in the actual physical costumes the amount of labor and knowledge and skill that's on display You don't quite get a read-on Through film like you really don't also just because of like framing of shots, you know, there are a lot of close-ups and People have bodies. like You don't see what's happening on the rest of their bodies, but there are people who've literally written books about those costumes where you do get information and stories and details. And so um and and I have one of them upstairs right now. yep I don't have it, but I can picture it and I can i can like even feel the weight of that book. So we definitely talked about it. We talked about a few other things that happened in the 70s, a few other films that came out. but
00:09:42
Speaker
We just really wanted to avoid it and so we had a lot of ah options like i mean but rogers exists seventies like ah silent green and logans run logans run was a high contender yeah um but we did decide on battle star galactic because.
00:09:58
Speaker
We felt like it was a logical step away from Barbarella and Logan's run felt visually pretty close. kind of similar yeah Yeah. So we went with- It's the movie.
00:10:15
Speaker
before we get too far into it because I feel like I always forget to say it. so this this movie um This movie was directed by Richard A. Kala. It was written by Galen A. Larson and the costumes were designed by Jean-Pierre Dourliak who is a French born costume designer who worked ah in the US. He has had an amazing career and has been um nominated for so many awards for his work, and it was just kind of amazing to just look through his IMDb. His last credited work was from 2004, but he was actually nominated for an Emmy for the TV show aspect of Battlestar Galactica, and he did win for costume design for this show.
00:11:08
Speaker
you And he also was the costume designer for the TV show Quantum Leap, if anyone isn't familiar, is a time travel based show. So he was constantly having to provide historically accurate costumes for different times and places, and he was nominated for an Emmy for every season of that show, even though he did not win. But he did he did win an Oscar for his costume design for the movie Somewhere in Time, which I have not seen, but can you have? Oh, my God. Well, that's going to have to go on your list. Apparently. And you're going to have to prepare yourself.
00:11:52
Speaker
Because I did notice one of the actors in this movie, in this ah pilot slash movie, was Jane Seymour of Somewhere in Time fame. And I was le shocked to see Jane Seymour on my screen in Battlestar Galactica. So young and just like glowing. Just lovely. Absolutely radiant. Yep. But also, what are you doing here?
00:12:22
Speaker
What are you doing here, Dr. Quinn, medicine woman? I also want to give a shout out to Mark Peterson. His name is not in the credits for this movie, but he is listed ah on IMDb as the costume supervisor for this movie. And he has also had an absolutely amazing career, mostly working as a costume supervisor or a key costumer on some huge projects. He's still working.
00:12:47
Speaker
some of the most recognizable stuff that he's worked on is the last two Hunger Games Mockingjay movies, part one and two. He was the the supervisor for that, as well as Jumanji Next Level, which is the sequel reboot. I don't know what you want to call it. He also was the supervisor for Moonrise Kingdom, which I love that movie.
00:13:10
Speaker
And he's also done quite a few projects with Jean-Pierre in the 80s. So it seems like they had a good working relationship or at least worked together quite a few times back then. But yeah, he's still working today and he is looks like he's doing absolutely incredible projects all the time. So congratulations to Mark Peterson.
00:13:33
Speaker
Congratulations. Congratulations. He needed the shout out from me just in case he wasn't sure. Well, I mean, this is the the creme de la creme of shout outs. That's right. That's right. In our hothouses. This movie. Yeah, why don't you why don't you get us started on what this movie is? Okay, so just like a, should I read like a little bit of the summary of the plot? Yeah. Okay, so. And this is just, this is pure Wikipedia. I just, for anyone out there, I did not, not neither of us wrote this Wikipedia-generated summary.
00:14:12
Speaker
So you have a note ah here, which is lovely, and I love how you wrote it, that this film was released in theaters after the first season aired on TV, as successful George Lucas sued saying it look it took ideas from Star Wars. um So, okay, successful George Lucas, protect your property. um But the story is different. It is.
00:14:35
Speaker
So Battlestar Galactica, if you're familiar with the TV show, it has the same origin, but it does deviate a little bit. So the 12 colonies of human civilization, essentially, have been engaged in a lengthy war with the Cylons, a cybernetic race whose goal is the destruction of the human species.
00:14:55
Speaker
The Cylons offer peace to the humans, which proves to be a ruse. With the aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons carry out a massive nuclear attack on the 12 colonies and the colonial fleet of starships that protect them, devastating the fleet, laying waste to the colonies and destroying all but a small remaining population. Survivors flee into outer space aboard a motley fleet of ships. The Battlestar Galactica spacecraft carrier survived the attack,
00:15:22
Speaker
And under the leadership of Commander Adama, the Galactica and the pilots of Viper fighters lead a fugitive fleet of survivors in search of the fabled 13th colony, which is known as... da da down right Let me tell you, I love the show. There's just like a little comment about the difference between the show and the original is that um the heart of it is very different. I noticed that like, I feel like Battlestar Galactica, the reboot is pure sci-fi.
00:15:58
Speaker
that later has some little magical el elements that are kind of curious towards the end of the show. It's pure sci-fi. It's spaceships. It is the human race trying to survive against the cybernetic race that they built that then turned against them. So it's like kind of that Skynet thing of like beware but the robots. But the original actually feels like a mix between sci-fi and fantasy. And I feel like there's a real visible connection in the costumes. ah Because when you think sci-fi, like, you know, we've talked about Barbarella, we've talked about Forbidden Planet, we've talked about all these movies ah this season. And when you're in space, a lot of the time, design-wise, in space, you're going to have space-inspired costumes that feel
00:16:52
Speaker
related to space ships. So you'll see a lot of like silver and black. You won't see like the more organic, earthy tones. ahha But in this movie, all almost all of the space uniforms are earthy colors that you would wear. Say if you were on a sand planet with two suns,
00:17:16
Speaker
in a galaxy far, far away. There's a lot of beige and a lot of browns. ahha yeah And that was like a very interesting thing, but that's not what what connects to the the fantasy of it all. What connects to the fantasy is is the fit and the capes. There's so many capes. yeah So many capes in space. And like it's very interesting because like we we've grown up with Star Trek. We've grown up with like all the iterations of Star Trek, also Star Wars. Han Solo in Star Wars was basically the only character, aside from Luke,
00:17:55
Speaker
before he becomes a Jedi, or you know some of the Jedi who are present on earthy planets, or at a certain level of Jedi-dom, who wear consistently sand-colored, textured, you know dirt-colored clothes. It brings to mind military uniforms where you are wearing clothes that relate to your environment. Right, where you're camouflaging. Yeah. And so it it it really struck me in this movie, like your uniforms do not camouflage in space. Like you stand out in space. And aside from that,
00:18:33
Speaker
capes are just like ah phenomenal. There's also like, you know, glittery trims on some of these space uniforms. And I feel like that might have been the designer going like, well, glittery means space. and Which it does, obviously. because stardust we are all a made of stardust um there's also because like I specifically bring up Star Trek and I will always bring up Star Trek because I can't help myself but this the design of Star Trek is is like so um iconic that it's kind of what we think of when we think of flight suits
00:19:08
Speaker
And if you go beyond flight suits into futuristic space naval uniforms. But also when you think of an astronaut or a pilot, you think of pretty close clothing because you don't want extra weight and you don't want certain issues. So you think of a flight suit. Yeah, you don't want to get stuck or you don't want, you want mobility without getting caught. Yeah, and you want like a certain form and function. It's not really about the fashion of it. And so we, in Battlestar Galactica, we do land on some of the colonies or a surviving area of a colony. And we see people who have survived the attack from the Cylons and they're like the last remaining part of the population that happened to come into contact with. Like refugees. Yeah. And Jane Seymour is one of them.
00:20:01
Speaker
And their fashion really did feel like 80s and like early 90s like sweat suit material clothes and like loose and a lot of drapey spandex stuff like oh a hundred percent and also hijab like.
00:20:19
Speaker
James Seymour is basically wearing a loose hijab for like a lot of the movie. I was getting a lot of medieval influence. A lot of medieval. There's a lot of like surcoats and tunics oh yeah that are made out of spandex. I said I die in a straight up tabard at one point. One hundred percent. And Speaking of medieval, what I did think was pretty cool about the uniforms of the Galactica crew is that there's a medieval influence there because they basically have fabric gorgettes around their neck, which is really- And they have all the- Yeah, they've got the trapunto quilting on their chest. There's texture going on there. They have these ribbons around the collar of the neck. The trim is very specifically applied, but it was really interesting to notice the kind of fantasy
00:21:06
Speaker
crossover happening in space. And I feel like that might have been like, oh well, this isn't Star Wars, because these are like, you know, space nights. What I seem to remember, and I could totally be wrong, do not take this as is gospel. What I feel like I remember from the show and what I feel like I remember from this movie and the conversation about like, we're going to find the fabled mythical 13 colony, which is Earth, yeah is that Earth is the planet of origin.
00:21:33
Speaker
But that happened so long ago, and maybe it is explained that there are so many there's reasons why that history has become mythical. And so it's like this human, so these human civilizations that we're seeing,
00:21:51
Speaker
have existed for so long that they have long histories. They have like all this development, all this stuff that is not influenced by Earth as we know it. Whereas like if you're watching you know Star Trek, that's happening in the future, but it's coming from the Earth we know. So they're constantly referring to the Earth we know, which makes it really especially interesting that the helmets of the fighter pilots, the Viper pilots,
00:22:17
Speaker
is they they are, I believe they're called Nemez, the Nemez headpiece. I couldn't remember what they were called, yeah. Yeah, which is ah when you think of a pharaoh, it's like a pharaonic headpiece. The straight up King Tut, the striped kind of- 100%, but like turned into a helmet that does not go down over your like chest on the sides. Instead it stops, you know, underneath your chin the way a helmet does, but it's so strong. I was wondering if it was supposed to be the reverse, like if they were supposed to be coming to Earth and becoming our ancient ancestors. Is that not it? I totally could be because, like I said, I could be remembering it wrong, but I also don't think so because I said anything either way. It's just sort of like, yeah, I think in this movie, they're only referring to the mythical Earth. Yeah, like it's some it's a place that no one none of the characters that we meet have ever been there. Yeah, and nobody knows that it exists. That's how that's how dire the situation is, that there is no place safe in space because the Cylons are absolutely there, like Dalek determined to exterminate. And literally one of the Cylons says exterminate, but not quite as hard as that. But they like I hear the word exterminate or extermination and I hear exterminate.
00:23:40
Speaker
and like they I was just like, oh my goodness. It was giving me really strong Dalek vibes. Yeah, you and Cybermen, you know, walking side by side with Doctor Who. Yeah, they are so dedicated to to just eradicating the human race, that there's nowhere, like the human race is limping and they are just a fleet in space, desperate for anywhere to go. So they're like, well, let's go to Avalon, I guess, you know? And so yeah I think in the show, they do expand on that a little bit. ok And I just, I can't remember details enough, but I yeah do think that it it is. It's supposed to be like they took people from earth
00:24:23
Speaker
that have these ancient things taking them and continuing with them, whereas we on Earth moved past. Yeah, or people on Earth no longer are on Earth because Earth was like destroyed or you know like yeah and has had enough time to regenerate, you know that kind of a thing, yeah because it's like it's been so long that they've colonized other worlds and populated other worlds that it's like had enough time to kind of be forgotten or be purposefully hidden, you know one of those kinds of things.
00:24:52
Speaker
I just can't remember. And the lore is, there's a lot, there's a lot of seasons, there's a lot of information. so Did I do any research to answer this question? No, I did not. It's all based on vibes, man, vibes. Anyone who's looking for an academically researched podcast, please, thank you so much. But this is not what we do. This is not the one.
00:25:11
Speaker
And so what I did think, I mean, I should just be focused on talking talking about this, this movie, but what I did appreciate about the future version is that they, they changed the design of the helmets. They changed, uh, the presence of capes and flowy, uh, garments for commanders and presidents and things like that to make it more grounded in what we would recognize as a more modern.
00:25:38
Speaker
ish looking society. um yeah They removed the the parallel fantasy kind of situations because they were like, no, this is just sci-fi. This is yeah regular societies that are not influenced by medieval or past things that are modern.
00:25:57
Speaker
but and like have modern militaries and modern you know people in government and those people in government would just be wearing what the populace is wearing, but maybe more expensive versions. and Then like the military is the military and what they're wearing is utilitarian. Everybody has the same kind of thing. um But in this one, one of the first notes I have is I love that the American accent has survived so strongly. Oh my goodness. She is going strong. Like such 1970s American accents. Oh my goodness. I have been watching a lot of K-dramas recently. Everybody I know knows it because I won't shut up about it. and There's a specific hairstyle that's really popular in Korea for the men. I felt like we were seeing that when we first get introduced to a lot of these pilots because they all have the same feathered hairstyle.
00:26:48
Speaker
They really did. Three men in a room and they all have the same hair. My next note is suede in Knee boots in space. Just the suede of the uniform jackets. Like you can feel it through the screen. You can see the texture of it.
00:27:10
Speaker
these suede jackets would probably keep them warm, though that applies. They're also uniform, like you see a suede brown jacket, you've seen a suede brown jacket. They have these massive, what kind of look like heavy, because I feel like they're pulling the lapels of the jackets. Oh yeah, these big metal closure. Yeah, they looked so heavy. That was a little bit of a That would be kind of a drag to actually have to wear. I feel like their costumes were top heavy for sure and warm. It seemed like they had like a kind of a cotton base, like shirt underneath. yeah So at least there was something that was breathing and they put, you know, like these trims on things. Trim, trim, trim.
00:27:58
Speaker
And I was just like loving it because the trims felt theatrical. They really did. They felt like they're meant to catch the stage lights while you're like driving frame your face. Yeah. There's a lot of, um, I think one of the things that's so different about designing for.
00:28:14
Speaker
theater and film is that in theater, like you're seeing the entire body the whole time someone's on stage, and you know, unless they're like literally ducked behind something or whatever, you know, you don't have close up. That's not an option. And you have to consider the balance of your design of the entire person's body at all times.
00:28:39
Speaker
Yeah, and in this they have the but the kind of, um we've all, I feel like we've all done it. Anybody who's been in theater specifically or short film, you know, like where you don't have a certain level of budget, yeah but you have to create a uniform.
00:28:52
Speaker
I feel like we've all gone the khaki route. yeah it just It makes sense. yeah makes it yes them as long as you're As long as your uniform is not, it's the same as getting like Navy trousers for like an actual, like like a police uniform or military uniform, yeah like an airman's uniform, because it just kind of disappears.
00:29:13
Speaker
It's just like, just the eye just accepts it. And it's like, I'm just not going to get pleated front khakis. I'm going to get straight front khakis that are just, you know, maybe high waisted and have like belt loops and a specific type of pocket, right? Because then the the viewer just assumes, ah, uniform pant, and won't necessarily look at details. But the way that I, in my note, I'm such a monster in my notes, but I'm just like, look at all these grandpas in space, just waiting khakis.
00:29:43
Speaker
It was so funny to me because their uniforms, I just kept thinking about Han Solo. yeah And I think part of it was like the specific holster of the sort of blaster gun with that strap around like the sort of lower thigh to like hold the holster in place. And I know that it's the Western theme of it all. It's the Western earthy theming. I know Han Solo did not invent that style, like it existed. it's ah It's a reference that we have. There's a reason that the style was chosen for anyone in any film. It's a reference to other things, but it's so hard. There's so many things that just, you know, Star Wars has just dominated culture.
00:30:33
Speaker
for so long, especially science fiction culture, that there are so many things that were not specifically unique ideas that they utilized in ah in a great way in that movie, but they just get stuck in my mind as things from Star Wars. And especially because this was filmed at the time it was filmed, it's in the same era as Star Wars like these actors are the same age as Harrison Ford and you know all the other actors in Star Wars so they are and contemporaries. I was like try so hard I'm glad that we both got it contemporaries so
00:31:12
Speaker
It's like, even if they were two isolated things that were just influenced by the same things and like the directors and all of the designers were just influenced, you know, colloquially by the same stuff, right even that would create a connection. and yeah an overlap But like, this is so directly like, not quite one for one, but it's it's so like every, this is not costume related, but every time we see any of the spaceships,
00:31:40
Speaker
um the fact that like we have the inside the fighter fighter planes and you see the black lines ah of the the windscreen and like all that stuff. It's the same thing from the original Star Wars trilogy when you're inside the X-Wings and you're seeing out and the thing, I don't know if all the youngins will know this one, but you used to be able to see through the black lines because they were just like,
00:32:08
Speaker
put on Yeah, and like an overlay or something. Yeah, and so you could see the Star Destroyers through what's supposed to be part of the fuselage of the And the Vipers look like X-Wings in this. like They have the same orange like orange paint on the X-Wings. same shape, which is like obviously based on fighter planes. Yeah. We know that. And it's like it's really close, not exactly the same because like X-Wings are so iconic and like, you know, all of those those fighting details the way that yeah ships are so iconic in Star Wars, but like it's it's just close enough.
00:32:50
Speaker
to be like your your design younger brother wanted to do what you did. And like all of the major destroyers and like spaceships, like the bat like all the battle stars, you look at them and the way that they're filmed immediately takes you into Star Wars because it's kind of the same technology and the same stuff that's being implemented. So it it really does like the texture of it looks very similar anyway. And so it just, it does feel like a Star Wars made in your in your backyard. It's a little bit like Bizarro World Star Wars. It's like this is a long-lost Star Wars film from the era that we've never seen. Or it's like you know a completely different part of a galaxy that hasn't been touched by Star Wars or like has been, but like just by magazines and like all the the Viper pilots are like influenced by Han Solo because they're like, look at that guy's hair. So cool.
00:33:38
Speaker
And like, you know, it's just like, if they had stripes on the outer seam of their khaki pants, they would be even closer to Han Solo. But instead, they have gold trim, gold, trade gold pins and brown capes.
00:33:57
Speaker
And I think this is the the best time to mention one of the producers of this movie named John. I don't know if it's pronounced Dijkstra or Dijkstra. I always think Dijkstra in my head. I'm not sure. I'm not sure either. So John, our friend John, he's one of the producers of this movie Battlestar Galactica, Battlestar Galactica.
00:34:19
Speaker
He was one of the original employees of Industrial Light and Magic. He worked with George Lucas. He was, I think, the leader of the team that developed some of the special effects that were used in A New Hope, previously known as just Star Wars for all the people out there that ah just I know. i just read you For the listener, I just need you to know that Melinda put her hand right on her collarbone. I know. And I need you to know that I know.
00:34:52
Speaker
I don't want people to come for me in my Star Wars knowledge. It's not perfect. That's another reason why we didn't come for Star Wars, even though all we're talking about is Star Wars. I know. Okay, but this is what I want to say about John. Okay, he's one of the founding employees of Industrial Light and Magic, which was founded originally in Los Angeles, where Hollywood is located.
00:35:18
Speaker
After a few years, George Lucas moved Industrial Light and Magic to the Bay Area, San Rafael, Marin County, my hometown and continued there. Not every employee continued with him moved up there. John is one of the people who stayed in Los Angeles and he founded his own company. in That company is what worked on Battlestar Galactica and that is where the sort of design crossover kind of the main influence comes into play and that is
00:35:53
Speaker
you know I think one of the reasons why Mr. Lucas had got all in his feelings about the similarities. Why he got so heated, yeah. Did what he did. But I believe that is the origin of the crossover. It it would be foolish to think that that wouldn't happen otherwise because Star Wars was so successful and so dominant that it changed sci-fi forever.
00:36:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah, and I think that we can totally point to that even just through like what we're covering, because there was like a very, there was I feel like in the um the sci fi things that we've been covering so far, there was such a a wildness to the way that science fiction was being designed. It was either horror adjacent or like we're seeing here some fantasy and medieval inspiration. um But it was also like hypersexualized and like very um psychedelic for a certain period. And like it had gone from like metropolis and being like so stripped down and like almost like like like Brechtian like
00:37:09
Speaker
Totally. you know just like Yeah, this form of vision. yeah Yeah, just like nightmare vision. And then with Star Wars, because of the design of the Empire, and here with Battlestar Galactica, because we're also talking about military units, we start seeing military units. And like Forbidden Planet, we had that. So the inspirations were there. The the examples were there.
00:37:36
Speaker
But we have now taken, in the 70s, this like hard turn away from uniforms that are basically just uniforms that you'd see on somebody.
00:37:48
Speaker
on planet earth right now they are utilitarian for space for a place that requires less things so there's more thought put into that on solos like a throwback to like you know being in the desert or being in the west like there's like so much going there like being on a horse, you know, even like yeah Pony Express Rider. There's like a very specific swerve that Star Wars like really cemented. And yeah well, I mean, start Star Trek had already existed since the 60s, so Star Trek was like very in that. yeah But like Star Trek is more scientific and yeah I think of it as a little bit more philosophical It's philosophical, but there is like the the military inspiration of like evil. every yeah Everything is inspired by militaristic uniforms that are then put into science officers. you know It is interesting to see where like the tightness of the design of things like Star Trek and Star Wars
00:38:52
Speaker
The design in Battlestar Galactica is there. You can look at it and go, ah, Battlestar Galactica, there's iconic stuff in here. The Cylons are totally iconic looking at them. It's like when you see a Dalek for Doctor Who, or a Cyberman for Doctor Who, or if you see C-3PO for Star Wars, you see a Cylon and you're like, I know where that's from. And maybe if you're not a certain type of nerd, you don't know where it's from, but you know it's from space.
00:39:18
Speaker
can tell you that Yeah, exactly. I don't know if I would have known exactly what a Cylon looked like ah from this series before, but it is unmistakably a science fiction character. And like for me, I i knew what Cylons were before i knew what ah before I had seen Battlestar Galactica because their design is so specific and it's like so I'm going to say geometric and that might not be the the right word to describe what I'm talking about, but like they have these like square jaws and they have these like very, you know, like they almost, the the face of the Cylon almost looks like if you were to make a very reduced drawing of someone like gowling or frowning or like focusing very hard. And we have like basically mohawk crests.
00:40:06
Speaker
So like the the shape of the head alone is so very iconic. And like I was shocked, I'm going to shocked to discover the the original Balancer Galactica.
00:40:24
Speaker
carry, carry swords. Like this is another fantastical medieval influence here. Like it's a very night hell. Yeah, it's her very Scott the Knights of Skynet. And they're, they're like a leader who I think they refer to as like the imperial leader.
00:40:44
Speaker
whose face I don't think we see in this movie. We don't because I kept trying to see. I was trying to look at his costume the whole movie and you just get like these tiny glimpses. Like beguiling glimpses. But what I had to think about, we're just going to bounce around this movie and that's just how it's going to be. it yeah um Because the plot, it the lay the layout the layout we gave you is kind of good enough because the pacing of the storytelling is is a little bit tough and there's there's Basically, when you think of um which Star Wars ah sequel movie is it that um Rose and Finn go to the casino planet? It's basically- Yeah, I believe that's Last Jedi. Yeah, so that entire section of Last Jedi know was essentially like ripped from this. So if George Lucas is pissed that Battlestar Galactica ripped anything from Star Wars, well, he got his back. ILM, they came for it because that was just wild.
00:41:40
Speaker
i will know so like I'm so excited to talk about that. like So excited to get there. I was so excited when we went to that planet. I was just so happy. I was like, this feels very familiar. but like ah We've been here before. I want to go there. I want to go The imperial leader of the Cylons,
00:42:04
Speaker
Reminded me because essentially what we're seeing is like a silhouette with some over the right shoulder shots so we do get some of like the color and the texture of the costume but like I and I I'm not gonna lie while the movie was playing I did get up and walk into another room at some times and so there were certain developments in the story that took me by surprise. Because when I had left 60 seconds before, people were not in the relationship that they were in 60 seconds later. And I was like, how did we get here? Because i I'm pretty sure I was hearing the words that were being spoken. But the imperial leader
00:42:44
Speaker
Uh, was it imperial leader? Did I just like completely? Yeah, whatever the leader was of the silo. I'm not gonna be any help on that. Yeah, imperious, imperious leader. Uh, looks like if anybody has seen Brotherhood of the Wolf, which is definitely a movie I would love to talk about.
00:43:00
Speaker
I don't really know what that is. Okay, so real real quick, there's like a um um a myth, if you will, like a folklore about this like Beast of Gevaudan in France um during the time of the revolution. And the the story basically explains what happened, air quotes, um okay like the true story of the Beast of Gevaudan. There's a spoiler alert for a movie that came out.
00:43:26
Speaker
20 years ago. um There's a beast master who's like running this beast. The costume of that character fits the silhouette of the imperious leader of the Cylons. And also I'm reminded of the Skeksis from the Dark Crystal.
00:43:44
Speaker
Wow. Okay. Because we don't see a face. And so like it kind of lets you think of also like the aliens and like the good aliens that are like the wise aliens in um the fifth element, where their heads are really low set, like and they have this like shape, this like carapace that goes like way beyond.
00:44:05
Speaker
That's kind of what I kept thinking of whenever I saw the silhouette of the Imperius leader. And I was like, this is really good at making me want to see what this looks like. I want to know. I was so intrigued. So intrigued. I have like a little screenshot in my notes because I didn't want to forget and that he has like a little, like a little lizard friend on his shoulder.
00:44:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a little green like winged lizard friend. I don't know if it's supposed to be sort of dragon adjacent or not. but i was Well, I mean, we are in a different dimension where sci-fi and fantasy are exactly side by side. But I was like, i I want to know everything about your little lizard friend. And it was just completely, it was just not ever a point of focus or no.
00:44:49
Speaker
And like I kind of respect that where I'm just like, yeah, it's not for me to know right now. Like it's just not for me to know. I'm supposed to focus on this like massive throne that you're sitting on for no reason and these like night robot question marks because the The design of the Cylons is so much spandex. you know like When we think of like Forbidden Planet and that robot, it was very humanoid shape, arms, legs, head, unit with like a torso, so it's humanoid. But the way that the costume was built and jointed together
00:45:25
Speaker
felt like a series of tubes, a series of machinery, you know, if and the way that it moved did not, it was not as smooth as when you're able to kind of, you know, you don't have any joints. There's an organic body in there. yeah there wasn't It wasn't clear. Here.
00:45:41
Speaker
the psilons felt like they were organic bodies that had muscles because of the way that they moved and because they had like, you know, knee guards that were um the vacuum form plastic that was supposed to look like steel, but it was just a knee guard. It didn't continue up to cover the thigh or to cover the shin. And so that was like a specific color of like spandex. So it looked like something that was flexible and that gave the movement of the Cylons more freedom than I was anticipating, because also in the reboot, you know, there's more CG and stuff. So they actually are like, and they have the sound effects of, you know, mechanical robotic movement. movie Yeah. Yeah. So they are not like they are just not moving that way. And the the actors who were in these suits were not choreographed to move mechanically as much. like a little bit jerky, but when it came to like our freedom of yeah way more freedom. Cause like also thinking about like a robot taking a sword out of a scabbard and then trying to kill somebody with it.
00:46:46
Speaker
I would not, in my imagination, immediately go towards like you know Robin Hood or like a swordsman like whipping a sword out of Aragorn, whipping the sword out and just like, you have my sword. That's what- Going down orcs. Right, and that's what these Cylons felt like. so It was pretty interesting to see this like iconic shape that I'm familiar with in action because from the shoulders up, robot, shoulders down, not so much. Person person in costume. Person in costume. I just had like some some random notes. so like god My notes are a mess. I don't know what any of them are. They're all over the place. But um ah going back to about like the Battlestar named Galactica, Boomer I think is one of the pilots who consistently has this piece of technology.
00:47:36
Speaker
I was desperate for someone to say, okay, boomer. At some point, they just never did. I thought that was rude. um Give me the bit. um Tell the future. um But they have this like, over ear mic.
00:47:52
Speaker
that definitely felt, and I am not, i did again, I did not do research on this. This is based on vibes and memories. um When I think of like over-ear Mike, I think Broadway, I think Madonna, I think madonna Britney Spears, but like Madonna first, right?
00:48:10
Speaker
So like that that coil that goes over your ear and then has the little played and extended wire with like a little, it could either just end in the wire with the the mic there or it could have like a cover. um yeah I was so intrigued to see this Madonna mic on a person on this Battlestar.
00:48:33
Speaker
And then it was like, so for me, it told the future in two ways. One, the Madonna mic shape, and then also the silver piece felt like future Bluetooth. Oh, right. Like it felt like, and you know, communicator, like, communicator, to communic communicate to a ah technology that didn't exist but will. Exactly. And so that I was like, oh, that's just tiny little detail the same way of those like gorgets like around the neck and like these little medieval influences to the space uniforms.
00:49:08
Speaker
And then I have just like random notes about um like for makeup, Baltar, the human that betrays other humans to work with the Cylons. I was like, oh, he was done so wrong. He's so sweaty. Where's makeup? Where's somebody with some powder? Because the camera just caught this like unforgiving, sweaty upper lip and he is dressed as Luke Skywalker in A New Hope, essentially. Like, he really is just like this white set of robes. And I was just like, oh, come on. Like, all right, Georgie, Lucas-y, I can see. And I too would have been like, um, yes, excuse me. That's mine. Because I was just like, that's... That's the silhouette that is very Star Wars, but it was obviously very hot because this actor was just so sweaty. I really think of the 70s, especially movies from the 70s as a very sweaty, dewy decade. like i A lot of movies from that era,
00:50:09
Speaker
You see a lot of sweaty faces, a lot of shiny. I feel like they just shiny they did not worry about it. like No, and like you saw a lot of like, you know, when you shave your face, you know, when you shave your mustache. Does anyone shave my mustache or my beard? yeah where you have this stubble and like the roughness. I feel like that was super present in a lot of 70s movies. Absolutely. and so It just feels like makeup crews were not necessarily being leaned on the same way as we're familiar with now, where you kind of assume that nobody has pores now.
00:50:43
Speaker
because our cameras are able to pick up so much. So there's like texture and like the wear and tear of like filming something over and over and over again, you definitely see. Okay, I've got some random notes. like Why is this woman? ah There's like a fighting scene towards the beginning of the movie where Apollo and like some other pilots are like,
00:51:05
Speaker
Oh no, Cylons. And like somebody says, one of the pilots says, oh, there's nothing but harmless mist. And I just write LMAO because um nothing but harmless mist. And then it just like dissipates immediately. And it's just fleets on fleets on fleets of Cylon ships. And he's like, no, the pilots.
00:51:31
Speaker
gets hit and like can't control his ship and so kind of has to land hot, like come into the landing bay. By the way, that was so anticlimactic because everybody was like, oh no. And like Athena, this like lady pilot is like trying to run into the bay to like get to the ship. And somebody's like, you got to hold your jets. This is coming in real hot. And she's like, let me Yeah. And I was just like like, why? Why is this woman running towards an out of control ship that is he trying to land? And then yeah the pilot gets out and says, get out of here fast. The ship might blow any minute and then slowly walks out.
00:52:13
Speaker
Like he stops as soon as he jumps out of the cockpit, takes off his helmet, and he's like engaging in a conversation. I think it's Starbuck who lands. And then immediately after that, I'm just like, Starbuck is a dick. Because Athena's trying to tell him that all the human planets have been blown up, and they're the only battle star that's left. Like all this stuff has happened while he was trying to survive. And he's like, oh, I've had it really hard, Athena. Could you mind your own business?
00:52:40
Speaker
Can you leave me alone? I'm going to go talk to all the other planets. She's like, actually, you won't. You won't because that's going to be tough. They don't exist, boo-boo. That is the direct quote. That is the dialogue from the film. Direct quote. Starbucks mustache, I felt like I went on a journey with that mustache because there were times when I couldn't see it because that's how baby fine it was. It was. It was such a baby fine.
00:53:06
Speaker
little porn stash that was just just the imagined image of a mustache. And sometimes it seemed like it wasn't there. I just wasn't sure. So I was watching this movie trying to track a man's baby mustache, and I couldn't control it.
00:53:24
Speaker
I'd really love to see a chart, like a mustache. Yeah, present not yet a French scene breakdown for the mustache. ah Also, the shininess of the Cylons was interesting because they felt like they even put like, like shine.
00:53:41
Speaker
on it later or maybe like the lamps were like twinkle so, yeah, they were like little twinkle twinkles because they were so shiny that somehow I wasn't as scared of the silons as I think I should have been, you know, yeah like in the story. They were pretty because they were so clean. And that also felt kind of crazy. Like every, all the costumes felt really clean. Like um yeah the human refugees who've been blown up by Cylon ships and like have had dust and all this stuff, exploding flames, smoke, ah sweat. I don't think that we really felt it, which would also really highlight for me like the the oddness, the uniqueness, I should say, of the medieval choices and the like
00:54:27
Speaker
the things that felt like workout gear from 1989. Yeah, there was a lot of like polyester knit feeling fabrics going on. but But just felt so... And everything was these solid colors yeah that were fair at least for the the sort of so civilians, I guess.
00:54:49
Speaker
There were a lot of black colors, like there wasn't a lot of, well, there really wasn't any like pattern. Yeah, there wasn't like texture for the eyes to like go in. It's like they had layers of clothing, but it was like layers of the sort of solid color, like kind of flat, basic fabrics that just yeah kind of, I mean, obviously we've seen Star Wars costumes up close because both of us have seen like exhibits and there's a lot of texture.
00:55:14
Speaker
in those costumes, a lot of, I think, rougher, uneven weaves and lots of these like wool fabrics. There are weaves that look like human beings wove them or crocheted them. It looks like human hands made the textile. Yeah.
00:55:34
Speaker
And these look like factory made, which is very interesting when you're looking like machine loom made knit fabrics um that is super interesting when you're juxtaposing that with medieval inspiration and like fantasy inspiration, which usually pulls from some sort of medieval or like throwback, you know.
00:55:54
Speaker
yeah design where the textiles would have been made by hand because it would be pre-industrial and so to have that felt interesting and I'm sure that that happens in other sci-fi stuff like with like Star Trek and things like that but it just like it because there were so many extras and so many people that we saw this you know recurring the silhouettes of medieval shapes but in knit fabric, um, that was like primary color or, you know, just like very solid, like yeah saturated color and it earth tones or whatever. Yeah. And so it was just like kind of that little dissonance in your head when you're looking at something through the lens of like, what are you wearing?
00:56:40
Speaker
where you're just like, wait, that I'm not used to seeing that because when we see things, we and this applies to anything, right when we see something, we apply to it what we know, the context that we know. and Our context is pre-industrial, you made it by hand. and It usually took a lot of hands, so there would be like rough weaves or if it was like a wealthier person, they would be way more precise weaves with maybe teeny tiny little errors.
00:57:08
Speaker
but they would have more detail on those things because more detail and better done meant wealthier. And there would be like shiny things on wealthier bodies. And so like there's just like a lot of mixing that tells a very different story. Yeah, it's sort of a big pot. And just to kind of get a little bit nerdy for a second on clothing history. Thank you for just doing that now. from one side. We've never done it before, so um ah because I know that we both have studied clothing history, that in Western cultures coming into the sort of medieval period is when we first
00:57:49
Speaker
Really see people using shaping of clothing through learning how to use curved seams of fabric and before that there's much more reliance on shaping.
00:58:04
Speaker
through using only geometric you know rectangular or triangular shapes because people were hand weaving textiles on like a ah rectangle base loom. and As such, it took so much labor to produce textiles that you used every possible bit of it and the idea of cutting part of it off to make a curved shape. And then having this piece that you couldn't do anything else with and would not be useful was too wasteful and people just didn't really do that.
00:58:42
Speaker
him But in the medieval period is when you start seeing clothing that starts creating shaping to the body with some use of curved seams, you're starting to see that. I don't know exactly why, what changed, maybe just advancements in a little bit more ease of creating textiles. Obviously it was still very hard. It took a long time, a lot of labor. to do but it's it's kind of the first time that we see that but then to see it those shapes that were still generally based on very geometric things done out of these soft drapey fabrics that cling to the body that create
00:59:25
Speaker
these more organic lines and shapes, like all of it, it's just it just kind of all swirls and makes it kind of a unique look to this movie that's taking different things and kind of creating this hodgepodge look that's pretty unique to this It's very unique to this and it it totally made my brain go down this rabbit hole of like, well, let's say that the mythos is that Earth was the planet of origin and that it was so long ago that it became mythical. Then they did not go through the medieval periods that we did on Earth.
01:00:03
Speaker
and they did not influence their histories the way that it influenced ours. I mean, it did because it happened if they started on Earth and then moved out to other planets. sure But it was so long ago that that was completely forgotten and lost. So it's like it's there but not not consciously. And so it would be interesting for that to be true and for that to come organically.
01:00:28
Speaker
way past the time that they've created sentient robots and they've had such technological advances that they've created starships and that they have multiple planets that they live on and can communicate with and travel to and from and yet to even with all of that still discover and make lazy way to say it, layman's way to say it, fashion choices yeah that are influenced by something that here in our timeline, in our world was influenced by necessity and by what existed, like innovation that came out of what existed. And like, I don't know. I don't know if I'm saying that in a clear enough way, but it's just like interesting to apply something that we can go one, to
01:01:18
Speaker
equals three, but there it's like 82 plus 95 equals one, you know like yeah to go backwards. like it's It's very interesting. and so like In one way, it felt like, come on. And then another one, it's like, oh, but it does kind of create a visual history for this planet and this society and these people that does not jive with what we would know. So that makes it feel more outlandish. So it was like totally successful in that sense of making it feel like something like, well, I'm not from the planet. And it feels like I'm not from that planet because everything I know about what they're wearing isn't true for them. It's not their history. And that was pretty cool. ah Yeah.
01:02:00
Speaker
Now I think we have to get to the casino planet. because Right before we do, one last thing. yep I have in all caps in my notes yeah three lines of multiple words. Nope. To the robo-daggit. Nope. Nope. Nope. And fuck that thing. That was horrendous. And I said here, I look away for two seconds, then Jane Seymour and Apollo are about to make out over this horrific sight of this is robot Daggett playing with this child. okay Why did this movie so swerve into? No.
01:02:37
Speaker
yeah i i amm I'm holding my head in my hands because I have no answers. i I don't know what to say about that thing. Everything about it just... No. Just no. And also, ah apparently, did you have this in your notes? Is this where I saw it? That the actor who was in the Daggett costume was a... Chimpanzee named Evie. Chimpanzee.
01:03:10
Speaker
I hate everything about it. So sorry to Evie. I think that was on INDB and it said obviously a chimpanzee and I was like, it wasn't obvious to me. From one angle that they shot, I was like, this could be a small, like a smaller person. It could even be a child. A child or a small person. But like, I, I did not know. And then there was like an overhead shot where I was like, okay. Okay.
01:03:39
Speaker
the the arms are it was the arms but you know The arms are longer. it's It's not hard for me to believe that a person could have been in there with like um ah some kind of artificial extension of the arm, like down in the pot. That's immediately where I went.
01:03:54
Speaker
that That made more sense to me and I think perhaps they should have explored that option more before settling on chimpanzee performer. And also, like why would you do that to a poor innocent chimp? Like if you um if you have not seen Battlestar Galactica, I recommend even googling.
01:04:13
Speaker
Robo Daggett. D-A-G-G-E-T, I believe, is how it's spelled, which is kind of like their version of a dog, but they couldn't replace this child's lost actual dog, so they created a nightmare vision.
01:04:30
Speaker
It's like those robot dogs from the early 2000s that they tried to make a thing for our generation. Except that this one has like weird steampunk lenses and it has a muzzle. It has fur, but the fur is broken up by weird like metallic bits that are like soup cans. It's crazy. it was
01:04:51
Speaker
thattic But it does lay the ground for where you have been trying to get us to and we shall now go, which is the casino resort. it The last part of this movie takes place.
01:05:06
Speaker
line is said there, this is kind of a bit of a digression, but I think it was said so- We only talk about this in a straight line, so fix yourself. I know. I'm sorry to disrupt the very logical A to Z progression of this episode. Any Star Wars dork out there knows that at some point in a Star Wars movie, someone is going to say, I've got a bad feeling about this, right? That's going to be said at some point. In this movie, I wrote this quote down,
01:05:37
Speaker
someone says, I'm starting to feel uneasy. yeah And I was like, that's like if chat GBT tried to write the script for Star Wars. That's the one where like, what was it in Euphoria? A meme was made about this like scene. I didn't watch Euphoria, but there's like a a school play that's like being put on about actual people. And somebody goes, is this play about us? Is this play about us? I feel like George Lucas watching this.
01:06:04
Speaker
or reading the script or seeing any of the dailies or whatever it Is this about us? And it is. It is, 100%. All right, this is Fino Resort. OK.
01:06:18
Speaker
So our our characters, you know, at this point, all of their planets have been destroyed. They have one battle star left called Galactica in case anyone wasn't sure. They are trying to travel to this mythical planet Earth. They realize that they don't like they don't have enough food and water to get there. They're starting to get kind of desperate. I think there's been some kind of like contamination of their food. I think they i think the contamination was like You got a chemical or something? I think it was ah exposure to, I think it was like through um the firefight between them and the cylons that there was something about like the, this is going to sound terrible. I'm a science officer myself. um Something about like the lasers and like exposure. There was like a, like a, almost like a chemical mixture that like affected the food. Yeah, it's like bad. Yeah, like deteriorated it and stuff and they can't, they can't eat it. So they are SOL. They are SOL in the middle of space. One of our heroes is like, oh, here's this planet over here that we can like take a little detour to. And so ah just a few, I think it's just the two guys that go there initially. I think so. And they
01:07:37
Speaker
They're on the recon mission. They fly down and they're scoping it out. Is this a safe place to stop? Is this going to be useful to us? They land their spaceship in a very rocky terrain. I think maybe that's when he says, I'm starting to feel uneasy. They can sense that something is happening and this figure runs at them from the dark and they pull their guns out. Which is horrifying no matter what. Oh, yeah. have a figure run at you. And then all of a sudden she's like silhouetted by lights and you see it's this beautiful like woman in this sort of like great Gatsby. Yeah, to talk about silhouettes, it's like an Erte silhouette because she has this like crest of feathers.
01:08:28
Speaker
that's in her headpiece, which is like it's attached to a hat that is sort of like a cloche, but with long flaps. Yeah, fitted. And then it's got a big fake ponytail down the back. Massive ponytail down the back. And she just like she feels like yeah like a 1920s Gatsby like massive party girl, and she talks like one too.
01:08:51
Speaker
but like the the shape of her and like the flowiness of her costume is just like not like what we've seen. We have seen flowy, we have seen all that stuff, but this is very 1920s grounded. And she's in black and white, which is different than the people that we've seen before. It's very It's very like jarring to be like, okay, this is definitely something different. Yeah, it's like an evening wear too. like We're seeing like this is fancy evening activity thing on a rocky planet that we don't know. Guys were like what are who are you and what are you doing here? And she like holds out this like handful of gold coins and she's like, I just what? At the gambling tables and blah, blah, blah. Then she just kind of wanders off into the darkness. just runs off, and she's not the only person who just runs around on this unknown planet because the child who was given that horror show of a robot dog also is like, okay, bye, and just goes and runs off on this planet and then gets lost. Shocker. And not lost. Taken.
01:09:52
Speaker
get it taken by some folks that we will be talking about. Yeah. It's so like the guys kind of are like, Oh, what? And they sort of like wander into this sort of, I think she comes out of like a cave looking thing. I mean, it's a cave that has like, it's almost like a close encounters of the third kind set up where it's like this.
01:10:12
Speaker
I want to say arch, but it's like a shaped doorway with like these globes of light. And the light is backlighting her, which is why you can't see her when she's running at them. And you can't really see anything else that's happening because the quality of light isn't really illuminating anything. It's just, I mean, it's not illuminating anything specific. It's just like yeah buy lighting glow yeah Yeah, and so it feels like, is that a ship? Like, what is it? And it's very mysterious. hu And then our guys, they walk inside and we are immediately in
01:10:50
Speaker
a 1920s meets, 1970s meets, circus meets cocaine fueled disco, casino, nightclub, bar. With like fabric swaffing walls kind of thing. And weird weird shaped furniture and a lot of people have feather headdresses. So that seems to be a lot of feathers. That's like the the dress code said like formal feathers. feathers Basically space Vegas because there's someone else that we see in like a lift and elevator.
01:11:31
Speaker
who looks like she's wearing something that Cher would have worn on her show in the 70s. And it's like this red get up with like a headpiece like it's like Radio City Music Hall meets Cher is like some of the influence of this design for this portion of the movie, except for the disco showgirls who are performing, they are not as influenced by the 20s. It's very 70s. I was getting some like the Supremes vibes off of them. If the Supremes had maybe three faces on each of their heads.
01:12:09
Speaker
I don't quite know how that that prosthetic broke out. Cause like, I just like made an assumption with my eyes. It could have been almost as if like a face was cracked open and there was another face poking out from the two halves you yeah or it was three faces like on one head, but the prosthetics were pretty cool. And they were good and scary. They were good and scary and just like unsettling, like unsettling their voices were like,
01:12:38
Speaker
two or three voices overlaying each other. had They each had two mouths. Yes. They could they had two distinct different tone of voice depending on which mouth was. Deep and yeah like more masculine and more feminine, so it was like very rounded voices. and They had these like beautiful dresses on that are like these strappy, very close-fitting tank numbers with like high slits.
01:13:07
Speaker
that feel like they're made out of, like, abalone squares. Oh, totally. They were very, like, they they were, like, these iridescent, like, beaded, like, the bodice just sort of turns into sort of, like, streamer, like, yeah the skirts, end but they're long, you know? It's not, like, a short 20s, like, a flapper, where it's, like... Yeah, and it doesn't feel like like a fringe, yeah, strip thing. It feels like a unit, but that is made out of these strips but that seem to have really great movement.
01:13:37
Speaker
Oh, they were so cool. They were so cool and so different from some of the other costumes that were present and also other costumes that we've seen because these are some of the only costumes that we have seen that aside from also like the imperious leader of the Cylons that have texture because the imperious leader.
01:13:54
Speaker
has this red get up that like you want to touch the fabric to see what it feels like because it almost seems like it has like scales. yeah yeah like At least on the shoulders there are scales and then like the headpiece seems to have some sort of And like the there's like something over the shoulders. It's really hard to tell because yeahs the lighting is so specifically making it so you can't see it. But there's a lot of texture going on with that. And that's what they felt like. They felt like, oh, it would be so cool to touch whatever these dresses are made out of. Here, you know we see them and we see a couple other, ah I think,
01:14:29
Speaker
women only that are performing. They are not just people living in the world. They are specifically in a capacity of performing. Like we see them, we see a belly dancer, we see a couple contortionists. I don't remember. Did we see someone like on silks at one point? Am I making that up?
01:14:47
Speaker
We could. I mean, there was a lot of like overwhelming movement. It was a lot. It was a lot very overloaded. and It was like walking into a big top that's actually a casino and it's not that big. It's almost like it feels like kind of close. It's also like I made this note that I'm genuinely not used to in a lot of sci-fi stuff seeing this much skin and flowy not skin tight items except for like Barbarella or like the fifth element like there's specific sci-fi stuff where we have
01:15:19
Speaker
A lot of because you think space space is cold and so like if you're in a utilitarian space. You're going to be just like working and potentially exposed to colder temp temperatures or whatever right and so there's like yeah and so this feels more like.
01:15:36
Speaker
We're planet bound. We're on a planet. right And like there are people who are experiencing different temperatures and maybe different cultural contexts because there's all these different things coming together in this one space. And there's also so so many capes because that's part of the fancy ware for our Viper pilots. And they're they're like,
01:15:57
Speaker
i I mean, there's so much information in this movie that I had to like immediately dump out of my brain, so like some of the plot doesn't- Yeah, didn't i I wanted to remember all these costumes. I couldn't really pay attention to the thought as well. So I had to just use my eyes for like one purpose and that was looking at the pretty pictures. And so I believe that the Viper pilots from the Galactica are receiving a medal for stuff that's happened in the movie. And so they're there in their like nice uniforms. And the nice uniforms basically just means throwing a cape on top of the suite. They also have these gold like necklace pieces. kind of like when you think of like a chancellor or like a chamberlain or something like just like it. The casino planet is like it's it's very intentionally mesmerizing and overwhelming and that's like the point of it and then on the fringes you see these aliens that kind of look like fly men
01:17:02
Speaker
Oh, I love them. i' kind of scurrying They also kind of feel like birds. Like, you know, there was like kind of like this crow slash fly, like half and half kind of feeling because they have these What would you call this? like I called it like a collar kind of situation. Yeah, like a big wide piece that's like it over their shoulders and it obscures under the chin to like the top of the chest. Yeah, there's a name for it, but i just like I'm totally blanking on it right now. um But no, no, but like that piece
01:17:39
Speaker
is what I think of when I think of somebody making a bird costume. Cause like if you make a giant bird mask, you would have howl, but not quite a cowl. Cause like you have those feathers on a bird that like are very fluffy on their neck. Like a chest. yeah Yeah. And also like, you know, a bird net can like extend up. So when it's like in a resting position where the wings are down, it like is a little bit more compacted, but wide cause the fluffy feathers fluff out. which is down Yeah. So that's what this,
01:18:09
Speaker
collary thing felt like but it's all purple sequins that are like different shapes with like textured fabric to it. They were great. They were great and they have like a very specific color palette that totally does not jive with all these bright feathery things that everybody's wearing in this casino situation. They're like a darker, more muted kind of thing, and but they have these purple pieces that are so bright and I loved it in the giant eyes. and called them budhead bughead spangle vote I head I was in it and I just like loved seeing them so much. And they are like
01:18:54
Speaker
whatever this like conspiracy is happening, they are central figures. It's like they're creating like this inescapable trap for these people. And we get a couple good like kind of horror movie moments where People accidentally like go down to like the basement and like as soon as the elevator doors open it's like the close-up of the Horrified scream of the person who's seeing what's happening, but we don't get to see what's happening right away So it's sort of like the oh god something very bad is happening here, but we don't really know exactly what it is for a long time and
01:19:36
Speaker
And it's like a a mystery. And then we kind of put together that these bug head spangle folk are working with the Cylons. So they're they're like aligned somehow with the Cylons in working against the humans. But it feels like that might have been against their own self-interest because what they were doing to the humans when they would like open the the elevator doors was take them and then like kind of cocoon them and then suck out all their energy. So it's like the Cylons were like, we just want to blow them up.
01:20:04
Speaker
so bug head spangle folk you're kind of working against your own interests because you want like long term abuses of the humans and the silons are like no set them all on fire and make them go boom and so it's like uh i feel like again a dr who thing feels like when the dollax and the cybermen work together where it's like both of you have similar goals but not quite Not quite the same because in order to perpetuate the Cybermen you have to harvest the human parts and the Daleks just want to make them go boom goodbye.
01:20:35
Speaker
And it was like, obviously, this operation has been going on for a while, like a very well established and all of the people that are in this casino thing have no idea that like 90% of the population of humans has been destroyed because they're stuck in the like windowless Vegas casino. It feels like the um the island uh in Pinocchio where all the boys go and then they're just like having a blast and then they don't know what's coming for them at all and just keep having a party and a blast until that thing comes for them so that's and what's crazy is that that's basically where we end the movie
01:21:14
Speaker
I mean, we get like one military victory. Yeah. It's like the fighting happens there and then it like you know expands out into the ships again and it's like, okay, well, let's continue on our way to finding Earth. but i'm fine Yeah. it's definitely It definitely has the like vibe of where we're setting up a self-contained story, but the story is not over because this is a TV show and we have to keep going. Yeah. and so it's just like it's it's a It's a bit of a wild ride, this movie, because it feels like If you remember when you were a kid, if you did this, looking at a grassy hill that's not that big and going, you know what? I want to roll down that. Except when you roll down it and you lose control and you're just flopping all over the place and just getting a concussion, that's a little bit what this movie felt like. Where there was a trajectory, start at the top, go to the bottom, start at the beginning, go to the end. But when you do that, you're going to um hit a bunch of rocks and just like lose sight of like a few things as you go down.
01:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, like I watched this movie quite a few days ago now. And when I was getting ready to think about the fact that we were going to record, I was like, wait, how did this movie end? And friend I watched it five hours ago and I can't remember. Again, I was more interested in understanding the intricacies of these feather headdresses than worrying too much about the plot.
01:22:41
Speaker
I wanted to look at the sparkly things and the non sparkly things. And you know what? We came out with that promise. And so we did not fail ourselves. That's right. We did what we set out to do.
01:22:53
Speaker
Do we have any final thoughts about this movie before we start to wrap things up? Anything else that we really didn't talk about that we need to talk about? I don't think so. I think that we hit all the points that were super pertinent. I think that if you have an interest in watching this, go ahead. But I would supply the usual thing that I say with some of these older movies, which is You could even put something else on over it while you're while you're watching it. You could listen to us talk about it while you're watching it, um if you really felt like it. It's much more watchable, plot-wise and acting-wise, than where we started in the century. It is a two-hour
01:23:35
Speaker
and like 12 or 14 minute movie. So it is very long. So that's another reason why we kind of like lost sight of sanity at one point is because they're trying to put so much in it. And get people excited to watch more so you right can't they can't like explain everything and wrap everything up because then you would never watch the show. Yeah and they're trying to give you character like entry points for you to care about people but they're also going in a very fast clip so it's like when you lose somebody you don't really care because you only saw them for about two minutes and you don't have like
01:24:13
Speaker
an emotional ah place to like land. So I would recommend that if you are interested in Battlestar Galactica as a whole in that universe, then I would recommend watching and potentially skipping through this or even watching a shorter episode of the show. yeah Because like we said at the beginning, this the first season aired before this came out, or at least before they released this. So if you want to see the costumes and get a flavor for that,
01:24:42
Speaker
I'm sure you will get that from the show. ah But then I do absolutely recommend that people i recommend that real big. Yeah, I'm gonna have to like, give it another try. I feel like I was probably watching it at a time where I just didn't really have a lot of emotional energy to like get super invested. And yeah,
01:25:01
Speaker
it's kind of amazing how you can watch something at the wrong time and just not really get into it and then you try it again and you're like oh no i actually really like this yeah this was made for me like it said to you love us Yeah, so I might have to give the reboot show another try. I think I would enjoy it more. I probably was like working 12 hour days and then like putting it on at the end when my brain is already fried to begin with. but I wasn't able to absorb as much. No, no, no, no, no.
01:25:33
Speaker
But it was fun because it's it's fun to see the progression of how people are thinking about um costume and sci-fi and seeing this like overlap between fantasy and what we think of traditionally as sci-fi. This is kind of the first time i I can think of where I've seen it and been like, wait a minute, sweatsuit nights in space. This is crazy. and so um yeah That was an interesting overlap that I was not expecting. We're we're getting to a point where the idea of what sci-fi is is so is kind of branching out in different directions and then people can kind of go with what they're more interested in and it's not just one thing so it's sort of like if you
01:26:17
Speaker
If you want to go more down like the horror route, you can, but you don't have to. You can like go down this other place and you can like go over here and do any and all of them if you want to do all of them. and like There's just more interest and more opportunities for these stories to be made and people are just doing more things and there's more choices. Yeah. and so That was it was an adventure.
01:26:43
Speaker
and That was us talking about Battlestar Galactica. Thank you so much for joining us for this wild ride of the movie. Join us next week. We're going to be talking about Back to the Future 2 specifically, so that we can talk about past, present, and future of Marty McFly. Bye. Bye.