BSG: Blood & Chrome off to a superb start – VIDEO

After years — yes, years — of waiting, Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome is finally here. It may not be making a traditional debut on television, but that’s certainly not saying the quality of the videos are lacking in any way.

The gist of the story of Blood & Chrome is that this is essentially a prequel for Battlestar Galactica … and I guess you could call it a sequel to Caprica. It follows the first days of a young Bill “Husker” Adama out of the academy, embarking on his first official mission. Luke Pasqualino as Bill Adama works quite well, displaying a great mix of cockiness and humbleness when it matters. I especially like Ben Cotton‘s Coker Fasjovik, the second-tour co-pilot for Adama, though right now I can’t help but feel like he’s got a touch of red-shirt-itis coming his way before the series is through.

I was a big critic of the Battlestar Galactica series finale. In short, I pretty much thought the ending stunk. As I was reeling from that disappointment, along came Caprica, and I had a hard time caring enough about it when I knew it all just ended up with that crappy BSG finale. So, Caprica lost my interest before it was through. When I heard of Blood & Chrome a couple years ago, I was very “meh” about it — I wasn’t sure I was ready for more punishment. Being away from the BSG universe for years seems to have allowed me to let my disappointment go and simply enjoy Blood & Chrome on its own, not letting the knowledge of what was or what’s to come get in the way.

I loved the opening. I loved the dog fight scenes. I loved that familiar Bear McCreary sountrack. I really only have one gripe to make about the series so far, and that’s the profanity masking. Rather than bleep or silence profanities like “asshole,” they use the trick of inserting what sounds like a natural, louder background noise to cover it up. So you’ll get something like, “He’s an assh*WRENCH CLANG*.” This was clever at first, then noticeable the second time, then distracting the third time. Again, a very minor gripe, though silence or a loud bleep would be a lot worse.

After watching the first two webisodes, I have hope that the writers can continue to concentrate on the “now” and not dwell on what was and what’s to come. We all — or, at least, most of us — know what the future holds for Adama and what came before him; no need to make a big deal about that anymore. So let’s stick with the great visuals and the amazing dogfights and we’ll have a good time while we forget about the past … and the future.

The ten webisodes will continue to debut on the Machinima Prime YouTube channel through next February. The entire two hours will air on Syfy at a later date — likely some time in January. The DVD and Blu-ray copies (linked below) will go on sale on February 19th.