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Review of Battlestar Galactica (Mini-Series) (Richard Gibbs)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you seek the stark origins of the challenging, multi-cultural, and arguably downbeat attitude that has defined the music of the re-imagining of the Battlestar Galactica concept in the 2000's.

Avoid it... if you desire either the smoother flow of the material evolving from Bear McCreary's efforts for the subsequent television series or if you expect to hear anything even remotely resembling the style of Stu Phillips' music for the original series.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Battlestar Galactica (2003 Television Mini-Series): (Richard Gibbs) When the original Battlestar Galactica show graced television screens for one doomed season in 1978-1979, it was a clear reaction to the biblical space opera concept that had so overwhelmingly impressed audiences in Star Wars the year before. The show was cancelled partly because of its own cheesiness, partly because of high production costs per episode, and partly for half a dozen other various reasons, and die-hard fans of that series hoped for years for a reintroduction of Battlestar Galactica in the same way that Star Trek was similarly resurrected on television. Countless producers, directors, and writers attempted to "re-imagine" the concept, extending to the lobbying of such a second chance by the original show's producers and cast members. Finally, in 2003, the Sci-Fi Channel, with a few impressive films under its belt (including resounding success of their Dune adaptations) took on the challenge of bringing Battlestar Galactica back to life in a three-hour mini-series. Encouraged by what they saw, a regular television series resulted, lasting for four official seasons and including special film events and spin-offs. The mini-series came at the 25th anniversary of the original show and its celebratory, complete release on DVD. When you're dealing with something as cultish as this, however, it's hard to satisfy everybody, and through the tinkering of the show's basic plot, characters, and style by director Michael Rymer and writer Ronald Moore, the re-imagining did unfortunately become a major annoyance for some older, die-hard Battlestar Galactica fans. The primary characters have been completely switched around in gender, ethnicity, and personality, with the male Starbuck character now, for instance, a rebellious female. The direction of the show completely tossed aside the swashbuckling space opera attitude and opted for more of a realistic, downbeat, documentary-style approach. Included in this change was the use of hand-held cameras that swoosh in upon and around characters from all sides and always wiggling about in the fashion that E.R. made so famous in the 1990's. The soundtrack for the 2003 mini-series would be a 180-degree turn from Stu Phillips' original brassy fanfares, with former Oingo Boingo member Richard Gibbs continuing a collaboration with the director that included Queen of the Damned. As with many such productions, Gibbs and his assistants had an insanely short period of time in which to complete the score for over two hours of spotted material in the film. His foremost help came from young composer Bear McCreary, who would eventually take over the subsequent series' scoring duties when Gibbs returned to film scoring.

Naturally, Gibbs did initially express his disappointment in not being able to write a huge, swashbuckling score for the Battlestar Galactica mini-series. His early attempts to adapt Phillips' original theme were unfruitful and eventually abandoned. He did, however, capture the essence of a documentary environment in many of the ways that the director had requested. The score is foreign and distant in sound and style, paying no attention to brass instruments whatsoever, and in the same sort of meandering fashion, Gibb's score will bring back memories of Grame Revell's Dune score for the Sci-Fi channel's first entry in that series. Like that Revell, music, however, Gibbs' Battlestar Galactica is so vastly different from the original show that dissatisfaction from entrenched viewers is likely to result. The Sci-fi Channel did a 180 degree turn with Children of Dune and rectified that series' musical approach with a wildly popular, hugely orchestral score, and the idea of using Middle Eastern-flavored female vocals in a fantasy film (a highlight of that score) certainly got attached to Battlestar Galactica as well. Ironically, though, it is the prominence of these vocals that makes Gibbs' score schizophrenic and difficult to understand. On one hand, the noble themes are gone and the action sequences are scored with violently tapping and beating percussion. Many of the larger, active shots are scored in the self-described "minimalist" style (in the words of the composer and director), and yet whenever the elements of humanity come into play, Gibbs falls right back into that conventional style of flowing strings, other-worldly electronics, and female vocals (complete with a duduk contribution) that are absolute stereotypes of 2000's science fiction music that rebels against the John Williams era. Thus, the two kinds of music you hear in this score have nothing in common. You either hear the soft and lyrical vocals with backing strings or the harsh, lonely percussion, with very little middle ground. One plays to the director's documentary style while the other tries to appease the expectations of audiences of the era. In the end, the hour-long album includes a few very enjoyable cues of these vocals and strings ("To Kiss or Not to Kiss," "The Lottery Ticket"), but the extended battle sequences are painful to tolerate because of their stark constructs. The listening experience on album is badly disjointed without some rearrangement, and no matter where you fall on the argument of whether or not this version of Battlestar Galactica is a travesty, the presentation of its music is hopelessly torn. The same challenge would arise on the album of McCreary's first season material for the resulting television series, though the "Season 2" and later albums rectified this problem as the composer was allowed to convey a more cohesive narrative flow.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 68:24

• 1. Are You Alive?/Battlestar Galactica Main Title (5:28) • 2. Goodbye, Baby (2:24) • 3. Starbuck Buck Buck (1:49) • 4. To Kiss or Not to Kiss (2:42) • 5. Six Sex (1:48) • 6. Deep Sixed (1:59) • 7. The Day Comes (1:08) • 8. Counterattack (2:40) • 9. Cylons Fire (1:34) • 10. A Call to Arms (1:03) • 11. Apollo to the Rescue (1:56) • 12. Launch Vipers (4:26) • 13. Seal the Bulkheads (2:10)

• 14. The Lottery Ticket (3:06) • 15. Eighty-Five Dead (1:23) • 16. Inbound (1:23) • 17. Apollo is Gone/Starbuck Returns (2:19) • 18. The Storm and the Dead (2:40) • 19. Thousands Left Behind (2:09) • 20. Silica Pathways (3:32) • 21. Reunited (1:56) • 22. The Sense of Six (3:01) • 23. Starbuck's Recon (1:11) • 24. Battle (7:40) • 25. Good Night (2:38) • 26. By Your Command (1:56)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes extensive information about the score and mini-series by the composer and director. When first opened, however, it unleashed an overwhelmingly bad smell for some unknown reason.

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