I was actually just saying to Astro, that I wonder if the portrayal isn't the equivalent of aliens (or Russians) speaking English among themselves; that it's not literal, but they're trying to encode it as being as mundane and work-a-day as possible, and to make it minimally exotic, because they want the focus to be on realistic people in realistic situations without the audience being overly distracted by the aesthetics. In fact, trying to avoid being exotic was the exact terminology I used. :) If they made the culture more exotic, they'd instead have fans obsessing over all these little details like clothing and food and nomenclature, and they'd end up with their gritty SF show falling into Trek-style adoration of the futuristic lifestyle and romaticization of the exotic, or with, god forbid, BSG cookbooks of "intergalactic" food, instead of an audience getting the message that it's not glamorous, it's not special shiny technology to these people, but their boring, hard everyday lives.
As an example, the original had a robot dog, called a daggit. In one scene, there was a ship full of people starving to death, in which was a little kid and his giant pet daggit. What do you think sank in with the audience, the horror and deprivation, or the giant plush robot dog? It was the damn daggit. The bleak conditions were totally, and repeatedly, overshadowed by a kid and his furby. The exotic really gets in the way of some stories, because you'll always have a sizeable part of the audience going "whoa, that's cool, I wish I had that!" instead of recognizing that it's a terrible situation. They're refugees in a doomed war, that's a pretty rough situation. I think making it less familiar and more exotic would undermine the story they're telling.
(The original Adama wore a purple cape, not a toga, IIRC, but the high-class prostitute (for one episode, before she turned into something more acceptable) wore a toga. Capes were big in '70s BSG. And the 555 numbers may seem silly, but they do prevent the harassment of whoever has the number, which is the purpose...) :)
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As an example, the original had a robot dog, called a daggit. In one scene, there was a ship full of people starving to death, in which was a little kid and his giant pet daggit. What do you think sank in with the audience, the horror and deprivation, or the giant plush robot dog? It was the damn daggit. The bleak conditions were totally, and repeatedly, overshadowed by a kid and his furby. The exotic really gets in the way of some stories, because you'll always have a sizeable part of the audience going "whoa, that's cool, I wish I had that!" instead of recognizing that it's a terrible situation. They're refugees in a doomed war, that's a pretty rough situation. I think making it less familiar and more exotic would undermine the story they're telling.
(The original Adama wore a purple cape, not a toga, IIRC, but the high-class prostitute (for one episode, before she turned into something more acceptable) wore a toga. Capes were big in '70s BSG. And the 555 numbers may seem silly, but they do prevent the harassment of whoever has the number, which is the purpose...) :)