Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series

I was 15 years old when the original "Battlestar Galactica" had its one-season run in 1978. Even at that tender age, an age when my present criteria for what comprised good science fiction was not yet fully formed, I detested that show. I thought it was ludicrous, forced and cheesy. I think if I had been 8 years old at the time, I would have loved it, because it really was that simplistic.So, when the remake started airing on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2003, I totally ignored it. I thought "Why would anybody remake such cheesy 70's dreck? Does nobody have any original ideas anymore?" and then totally forgot about the existence of the new show for years.Fast forward to 2010, when I bought a Wi-Fi streaming Blu-ray player and started a Netflix account to go with it. In these days of lowest common denominator television replete with horrid reality shows, Netflix has been a great refuge. When I noticed that the entire BSG remake was available for streaming, I thought, "OK, I'll watch the pilot miniseries, what's the harm?" And three hours later, I realized that I had been missing out on some fabulous sci-fi. I subsequently watched every episode on Netflix, and caught the "webisodes" on Youtube. I've had this box set in my wish list for a while now, hoping the price would drop to a point where I could justify purchasing it. Then one day a week ago or so, Amazon listed it as their "Deal of the Day" at a hugely discounted price. I snapped it right up, and now have it as a centerpiece of my video collection.The show itself is a masterpiece of televised science fiction. As a small child, my idea of good sci-fi was pretty much "the more spaceships and aliens, the better." As an adult, my preference is that science fiction concentrate on strong character development and good storylines. BSG is the first sci-fi series I have seen in a long time that passes my litmus test of "Take the sci-fi elements out of the story and replace them with equivalent non sci-fi counterparts. Does the series/movie still succeed on its own merits"? If you don't get what I mean here, think of the movie "Avatar". Take out all the wild effects and sci-fi elements, replace the Na'vi with regular Native Americans, but keep the plot and script as much the same as possible otherwise. What you end up with is a standard-issue, mediocre cowboys vs. Indians flick. Strip away the sci-fi glittering prettiness, and "Avatar" is absolutely nothing special. As I applied that litmus test to BSG, I realized that this show easily stood on its own as quality television. That's because the show is all about people.Character development was very important to Ronald Moore and the other people behind this series. There's a large cast here, and care is taken to flesh out all the various characters. The main characters - the Adamas, Col. Tigh, Starbuck, et. al. - were perfectly realized as deeply complex, deeply conflicted people who were portrayed as flawed human beings under the hottest of fires. It was a brilliant decision to make the main Cylon antagonists biological machines - it was a great way to force the viewer to look at the universe from their perspective and gave the Cylons some much-needed multi-dimensionality that was sorely missing from the original series.In this remake, you'll see all that makes humans human - nobility and bravery mixed with pettiness and cowardice, politics, many parallels with our current "war on terror" (complete with suicide bombings from unexpected sources), political strife, religious conflict, the abortion debate, the often uneasy alliance between civilian governments and the military, and on and on. The people behind the show do not take the easy way out and blindly portray the humans solely as the good guys and the Cylons as the one-dimensional bad guys. As in real life, the good guys are not all good and the bad guys are not all bad. BSG does a great job at providing a frank and honest perspective of both sides. The series has a dark, technologically primitive (for sc-fi) and grungy look to it that is a refreshing change from the hi-tech sterile, bright and shiny feel that most sci-fi has these days. The cinematography nicely enhances the mood of desperation and despair that goes along with trying to save the human race from total extinction.About the only thing I was mildly disappointed with was the grand finale to the series. It wrapped the show up more or less neatly, and the ending made sense, but it was uninvolving to me. Apparently, it is very difficult to make finales that are on par with the overall series, as my experiences with the finales of other shows such as "Cheers", "Seinfeld", "Star Trek: Voyager", and others have shown me. However, overall, my tepid reaction to the finale is a relatively minor nitpick compared to the overall brilliance of the series.As I got deeper into the series I found myself scouring the internet for reviews by reputable sources. I found plenty. Even publications like the New York Times, Time magazine and Newsday raved about it. Time magazine even called BSG the best show on television in 2005, and I can see why.As far as the physical box set itself goes, it is packaged well. In the main box are sub-boxes for the individual seasons. Each disc comes in a slimline plastic case for adequate protection. The set includes the made-for-TV BSG movies "Razor" and "The Plan" in appropriate chronological order, and indeed contains everything but the "Face of the Enemy" webisodes (Maybe I missed seeing them, let me know if I did and I will update my review). One thing I recommend to anyone who buys this set: when you get it, immediately check to see that the correct discs are in the set. I have seen reviews here where people have received sets that include two Season 3's and no Season 4, and also some who have noticed individual discs missing and/or duplicated within seasons. I was lucky enough to have everything correct in my box set, but I'm glad I checked.This is the rare science fiction series that you don't have to be a fan of sci-fi to enjoy. No television series is perfect, and BSG has its share of uneven and inconsistent moments, but I really can't recommend this brilliant show enough.

This is one of the best shows ever made!This is a review of the refreshed silver Region 1 Blu-Ray "The Complete Series" set (current as of 2015). This is a nearly perfect set. The box is nice, the discs are not mounted in the most easily accessible way... but they are secure and are not going to fall out any time soon. My only real complaint is that it is missing "The Face of the Enemy" web miniseries, which are 10 episodes that have yet to be published/released. My understanding is that they can only legally be watched via Hulu in the US, but I am sure that will not stop most people interested in watching them. It is just annoying when publishers don't include everything.This series Includes 5 cases in the set:Case 1: Labeled "Season One", it includes the Mini-Series Parts 1 and 2 on one disc, and Season 1 Episodes 1-13 over the next 3 discs.Case 2: Labeled "Season Two" is just Season Two Episodes 1-20 over 5 discs. Do note that Disc Two ends with the originally aired version of Episode 10 "Pegasus", while Disc 3 starts with an extended version of that same episode.Case 3: Labeled "Season Three", it includes Season Three Episodes 1-20 over 5 discs, and "The Resistance" webisodes as an extra on disc 2. Similar to season two, disc 2 ends with the originally aired version of Episode 9 "Unfinished Business", while disc 3 opens with an extended version of the same episode.A word of caution; the webisodes of "The Resistance" are extremely poor quality, not even proper SD quality. It literally looks as if they lost the original footage, re-downloaded a 360p stream from youtube, interlaced it, and slapped it on the disc. Still, some interesting story points and world building, so it is worth seeing at least once, but if you can't stand the quality then you are not missing much. All 10 webisodes are set as a single title on the disc separated by chapter breaks and title cards.Case 4: Labeled "Season Four" Includes the Razor movie, the "Razor Flashbacks" minisodes (because calling them 'webisodes' would be too consistent) on one disc, with Season 4.0 across 2 discs, and Season 4.5 across 3 discs. Episodes 12 "A Disquiet Follows My Soul", and 18 "Islanded in a Stream of Stars", have the original episodes followed by their extended versions; but this time they are each on the same disc rather than being split across discs which is much less confusing. Also, the last 3 episodes (Daybreak parts 1, 2 & 3) are all cut together as a single 150 minute episode with extended content at the very end.Lastly, the minisodes, while still interlaced SD footage, are of much MUCH better quality than "The Resistance" webisodes. They are all strung together as a single title with fades and chapter breaks between each minisode. Certainly worth watching as part of the series.Case 5: Labeled "Battlestar Galactica, The Plan" is merely the retail box version of "The Plan" made for TV movie included in the set.As stated before, the only thing missing are "The Face of the Enemy" webisodes/minisodes/web miniseries that takes place between Seasons 4.0 and 4.5.Viewing Order for the BSG universe:Outside of this BSG collection there is also the 2 season show Caprica, and the web series turned movie Blood and Chrome. With that said, this is the order that I would suggest watching things:1) Caprica, Seasons 1 & 2. To be honest, the show is not great, and it is completely understandable why it was canceled, but it does fill in some back story and is not entirely awful. It is unfortunate that it is only available on DVD as (for all it's faults) it is a pretty show that would have looked good in 1080p. While made after BSG it is simply not as good, so watching it after BSG just makes it seem even worse than it really is, and it is chronologically first. It just makes the most sense to start here if you are going to watch it.2) Blood and Chrome movie or web mini series. This takes place between Caprica and BSG during the first war. Fun show, and it is unfortunate that they did not turn it into a full series as they intended.3) Battlestar Galactica Season 1, and Season 2 Episodes 1-17. Nice simple chronological viewing order.4) Razor movie and Razor Flashbacks. Razor Flashbacks were released first, but a lot of the content is in the Razor movie, so it is optional viewing. There is a bit at the beginning and ending of Flashbacks that are not in the movie that make it worth watching once, but otherwise I would just watch the movie and be done with it.Also, the Razor movie is technically the first 2 aired episodes of Season 4, and there are some minor spoilers for Season 4 at the end, but at the same time it makes more sense to view this as history from Season 4's perspective, so it makes a good deal more sense seeing it here so it feels older when it is finally referenced.5) Season 2 Episodes 18-20. Finishes up the Season 2 story arc.6) The Resistance webisodes. As mentioned earlier, these are horrible quality, but it is a good little story arc that sets up Season 3 so it is worth watching at least once.7) Season 3. Nice and simple, nothing to break up here.8) Season 4 Episodes 1-11. To be clear, this is "He That Believeth In Me" through "Sometimes a Great Notion". Note that if you are looking at an 'aired' order then these would be episodes 3-13 as the Razor movie is technically Season 4 episodes 1-2. Also, if you are going to watch the Razor movie 'in order' then it would be right before Season 4.9) The Face of the Enemy webisodes. While difficult to find (only legally available in the US on Hulu) they are great and set up Episode 12 very nicely. Certainly worth finding and I wish it was available on DVD or BluRay (though I would not repurchase the entire series just to have this as an extra).10) Season 4 Episodes 12-15. This would be "A Disquiet Follows My Soul" through "No Exit".11) The Plan movie. This is essentially a recap of the first few seasons from the Cylon's perspective. Rather than watching it after Season 2 where it is placed chronologically, it acts better as a recap of the series and a reveal of what the Cylons have been up to just before the series climax and finally.12) Season 4 Episodes 16-19.This is the end, no more to tell. Sucks for the next show or few movies you watch after this as they probably won't measure up!

Only giving 4 stars because the original opening music, the “Gayatri Mantra”, was replaced on the Blu-Ray release. Presumably due to rights expiring or legal issues, but disappointing nonetheless.Otherwise, perfect.

I was pleased that the series is in order as they originally shown, however, I am disappointed with the DVD case itself. Very difficult to remove discs.

The packaging is a bit clunky fitting twenty discs into one case.

La serie es muy buena, con una historia muy bien llevada aunque algo lenta. Diría que es como la recordaba cuando vi varias temporadas hace algunos años en un servicio de streaming, pero en este momento apenas llegando a la mitad de la segunda temporada, hay muchos detalles que enriquecen la historia que había olvidado.Como paquete, es muy completo, ya que incluye la miniserie lanzada en 2003 que propicio la serie como tal, las cuatro temporadas y media de la misma, así como la miniserie "el plan". De no ser, por alguno que otro subtítulo en español que es una mala traducción, no hay queja alguna. Desde el punto de vista de las cajas donde viene la serie, están bien, aunque como que se descascarillan con el roce algunos partes de la caja, en especial los bordes brillosos.

日本で発売されているのは、英語の字幕がなかったのです。探していました。海外盤を。ありがとうございました❗

Me encanta esta serie y la presentación de la misma es muy buena, en cuanto a la calidad de la grabación, los primeros episodios dejan algo que desear porque en ese entonces el HD no era el estándar y se ve algo granulada la imagen en momentos, al menos en los episodio piloto se nota este defecto, pero conforme avanza la serie desaparece. Salvo lo anterior en general valió la pena haber adquirido esta fantástica serie.

最初にオリジナル版を見たこともあって、現代的なSF表現やキスシーンの多さ、キャスティングの違和感に辟易したのも束の間、美しい映像とストーリーに惚れ込んでしまいました。実はblu-rayプレーヤーを持ってなかったのですが、日本語版を買うより圧倒的に安いのでプレーヤーも買って鑑賞してます。このストーリー、ぜひエグゼクティブな方々に見ていただきたいです。人生観が変わると思います。

Llego en buenas condiciones muchas gracias