A question & then a proposal:

I've said it all before - and LOAF has done a much better job than I in the past.
 
I was initially impressed with the new BSG, until its facade fell away and unveilled the hipster soap-opera beneath.

But that's just me.

Coulda been worse, though. Coulda been Space 1999.
 
A couple of things:

(1) I don't think you can use a nuclear explosion to propel yourself in space. At least, not very well. I have to give it some more thought, but my understanding is that the force from any big explosion comes from the pressure waves that it gives off. Pressure waves kind of need a medium (e.g. an atmosphere) to propagate through. You'd get some kick from the initial vaporization of the bomb body, but not as much as in an atmosphere. My understanding is the "nuclear drives" use a nuclear reactor to generate electricity or thermal energy, and then use that energy to drive a thrust medium (plasma (i.e. ionized gas) or whatever) backwards. I guess you could also use the energy to electrolyze water, then burn it to get high pressure combustion products, and vent that as its drive system. But it's not clear to me how a pure nuclear drive system would work.

(2) I am in the very very small minority of people who actually liked the original '70's BSG (Bridges as Captain Cain of the Pegasus kicked ass! Easily as cool as Tolwyn!), and strongly disliked the new BSG (at least, the kickoff miniseries. I have never watched the actual show).

(3) I don't think the problem is proving that there is interest in network sci-fi. I think there is. I think the problem is convincing enough high-ups in the networks not to kill their good sci-fi while its still young. Look at what happened to Firefly. Great sci-fi--without any giant snakes, improbably natural disasters, or big-foreheaded aliens. Just starting to get some traction. And FOX did everything in it's power to make sure it failed. And so it did.

Fact is, ver few TV series are a success right away...or at least, the ones that are are rarely long-term successes. Look at any major TV series that has run for a long period of time and been a consistent winner--most of them took at least a full season or more to gain traction and be recognized as popular. So network execs need patience to let the show grow and build a following. I think there are some (all too many) execs that are simply unwilling to exercise that patience for any thing involving space travel or science fiction. If a network has a gritty crime or medical drama, and a sci-fi show, both of which are getting comparable ratings, and they need to cut costs, the sci-fi show will get the axe almost every time. Part of this is that sci-fi shows tend to have larger budgets, but part of it is that a lot of people have an irrational dislike of sci-fi (I know, my wife is one of them).
 
(1) I don't think you can use a nuclear explosion to propel yourself in space. At least, not very well. I have to give it some more thought, but my understanding is that the force from any big explosion comes from the pressure waves that it gives off. Pressure waves kind of need a medium (e.g. an atmosphere) to propagate through. You'd get some kick from the initial vaporization of the bomb body, but not as much as in an atmosphere. My understanding is the "nuclear drives" use a nuclear reactor to generate electricity or thermal energy, and then use that energy to drive a thrust medium (plasma (i.e. ionized gas) or whatever) backwards. I guess you could also use the energy to electrolyze water, then burn it to get high pressure combustion products, and vent that as its drive system. But it's not clear to me how a pure nuclear drive system would work.

This was a serious thing - Project Orion was a nuclear-pulse-powered spacecraft concept which resulted from a major study in the early 1960s. It's often regarded as a "should've been" in terms of space travel concepts.

(2) I am in the very very small minority of people who actually liked the original '70's BSG (Bridges as Captain Cain of the Pegasus kicked ass! Easily as cool as Tolwyn!), and strongly disliked the new BSG (at least, the kickoff miniseries. I have never watched the actual show).

The actual series started off significantly better than the miniseries... with various horrible problems. It got much, much worse over time. (That said, cool as Tolwyn? He ranged from a horrible jerk to *Space Hitler*.)
 
Anyway, abandoning a network TV rendition of Wing Commander and going for a web-distributed concept may be a more viable option. A lot of 'made for web' series have gotten pretty good in recent years.

Granted, the groups who produce them vary greatly in their quality of funding, but I'd say it's far more simple to produce a WC4-quality amateur film today.
 
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