Space Swap

[skieswideopen]

space_swap is in search of creators for four pinch hits, here (#2) and here (#4-6).

The fandoms are:
#2 Captain America, The Avengers, MCU, Star Trek: AOS, Guardians of the Galaxy, Edge of Tomorrow
#4 MCU, Firefly, Guardians of the Galaxy, BSG
#5 Darkangel Trilogy - Meredith Ann Pierce, Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh, Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, The Uplift Saga - David Brin
#6 DCU, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Mass Effect, Surge Concerto, Young Wizards - Diane Duane

Request #2 is for art or vid as well as fic, and request #5 is open to art as well as fic.

If anyone's feeling creative, you can offer to pinch at at the linked posts.

Comments

[brightknightie]

For the record, I checked to see whether #4 was BSG78 or the new one, but by then it was already taken. :-) I presume it was the new one, anyway. :-)

[skieswideopen]

It was the new one, yes. But thank you for looking!

(I'm curious--I know your heart lies with the older version, but did you ever watch the new one?)

[brightknightie]

No, I've never seen the new one.

It's thoughtful of you to ask! I'm not sure that you'll want all the details of the answer. Maybe stop here? :-)

---
When it first premiered on SciFi, I didn't get the channel, and this was a bit before streaming. My best friend enjoyed the initial miniseries run and sent it to me on from-TV VHS. I intended to watch it... I really did... but I somehow bumped into some unpleasant fans of the new series, on LJ, thinking themselves quite clever for denigrating the original series, and, much worse, mocking Dirk Benedict's (the original Starbuck's) health troubles. I felt that I wanted to stay as far from these people as possible, and at the time, that included their show.

Time went on, and by then I'd learned that none of the women characters from the original series had made it into the new series, not in any incarnation. I told my best friend that as soon as one of the original women characters got a reincarnation of some sort, I'd consider watching the new series.

Time went on, and my friend stopped watching herself. It got rape-y, she said. That was the end.

[skieswideopen]

Thank you for answering!

I think it's hard to watch a much-loved show in a new form. The new BSG was excellent, in my opinion, but from what I've seen, it bore very little resemblance to the original apart from the very basic premise and a couple of character names.

If it makes a difference, BSG the second has some truly excellent female characters, and it does very well in gender parity--I think the main cast runs around 50/50 male/female. But you're right--I don't think any of the new women are even remote equivalents of the female characters in the original series. And if you watched the original for the women, I can certainly see how that would be frustrating.

[brightknightie]

I trust your opinion! And many other people I care about and respect (starting with my best friend, at least up to the point when she stopped watching; and my father, all the way to cancellation) agree with you about the new BSG.

It's on my mental someday-watchlist, with Babylon 5 and Orphan Black.

But, yes, this isn't quite the same as having scope in one's imagination for all the different incarnations of Sherlock Holmes or Superman or King Arthur. This is deliberately more... overriding.

>"I don't think any of the new women are even remote equivalents of the female characters in the original series"

I've heard that Siress Tinia, the sole woman member of the Council of Twelve in the original series, may be extremely loosely construed as a kind of forerunner of the president in the new series, insofar as they're both thorns in Adama's side about civilian oversight. ~shrug~ That's it, as far as I know.

(Or... did they ever name Adama's deceased wife? Because she has a name and a face in the original. I suppose that could be a connection! Feeble, but...)

It's not that I watched the original for the women characters, but that I've loved the original all around since I was arguably too young to be watching it at all. Reincarnating Adama, Apollo, Zac, Starbuck, Boomer, Baltar and goodness knows all which other male characters, while not including even the slightest passing nod to any of Serina, Cassiopeia, Athena, Sheba or even Rigel feels disrespectful to the wholeness of the original series.

(It is only fair to acknowledge that the original series had tremendous offscreen TPTB troubles with its women characters. ABC censors made them change the direction of the Cassiopeia character three episodes in; Jane Seymour had a contractual misunderstanding, so they had to kill off the Serina character five episodes in; and the Athena actress had personal problems to the point that they had to minimize her character down to barely recurring, when she had been intended as one of the leads. The new PTB may have felt it would be verging on "The Scottish Play" unlucky to go near any of that. But that's on the other side of the screen. On this side of the screen, the original story held those characters in its heart.)

[skieswideopen]

The new PTB may have felt it would be verging on "The Scottish Play" unlucky to go near any of that.

Ha! Perhaps that's why they decided to reincarnate Starbuck and Boomer as women instead...creating space for women while trying to escape the curse.

And of course, they do eventually have an Athena, but I don't know that she was terribly similar to the original. I suspect not, but I don't know what role the original played. Were there female military pilots in the original series?

Adama's wife--ex-wife in the new version--does get a name and a face, but she only appears in flashbacks and in one or perhaps two episodes, so it's hardly a major role.

ETA: I certainly understand the someday-watchlist. I think we all have one of those. So much television, so few hours in which to watch! (Plus the fact that it's probably better not to devote all of one's time to television.)

[brightknightie]

>"Were there female military pilots in the original series?"

Short Overall Answer: Yes, but. ;-)

Long Canon Answer: Yes.

• Sheba, daughter of the legendary Commander Cain, is an ace pilot. She was the premier pilot on the Battlestar Pegasus; on the Galactica, she can't compete with the matchless Starbuck.
• Many civilian women, including Serina (who was a reporter), become shuttle pilots as the Galactica flees after the annihilation of the Colonies and civilian survivors got sucked up into military roles by necessity.
• At one point, so many military fighter pilots are dead or injured that the former-civilian shuttle pilots have to get trained to fly fighters.
• Athena, Adama's daughter, is a bridge officer, the only member of her family (except her civilian mother) who has never been a fighter pilot, but she has past certification as a shuttle pilot. She jumps in with the shuttle pilot training group and becomes a fighter pilot... but she's not good at it and never flies again (on-screen, anyway) after the staffing crisis passes.
• Serina is shot by a Cylon on a mission as a fighter pilot. They get her back to the Galactica, but she dies.

Medium Meta Answer: It's 1978 OMG. They make SUCH A BIG DEAL about allowing women to be fighter pilots and it's SO SEXIST and there's even a SKIN-TIGHT SEE-THROUGH PRESSURE SUIT SCENE. (The male pilots are never, in the whole series, seen with these supposed pressure suits.) ~hysterical laughter~ ~deep breath~ We do have 3 named women pilots besides the regular opening-credits characters, and one of them is black.

[skieswideopen]

Hahahahahahaha...wow.

But I guess that is progressive for 1978. I'm actually a little impressed they did better than a single token female pilot. Although I do have to wonder how they thought a skin-tight see-through pressure suit would be a good idea for anyone.

(Female pilots are common and not worth mentioning in the 2003 version, of course. The nod to progressiveness comes in the form of unisex bathrooms and barracks, although only on military ships. And of course, we got the infamous towel scene, so the straight women--and gay men--got their fan service too.)