In other news a friend sent me the link to THE LORD'S GYM. I assure you it is no hoax. I am assailed by a torrent of feelings here. Granted it should no longer surprise me the lengths that fundamentalists will go to avoid contact with anyone holding a differing view on cosmology...but classes on Yo-God? Christ doing pushups under a cross? I'm not exactly a regular church goer but even I'd be afraid of working out there for fear of being struck by lightning! This has to be the closest thing to a brick-and-morter self-contradiction I have ever seen. On the other hand, man that Jesus is ripped!

I want to make clear that I *love* the new Battlestar Galactica. I am even coming to terms with Katee Sackhoff in the roll of Kara Thrace (Starbuck). I at first felt her miscast in the roll - not because of her gender - but because she just didn't seem to fit the writing. Now that the series is underway, I think both writers and actor have found the center of Trace. Anyway, I'm liking what I see now. I like the fact that she may be the only character who can make Lee Adam (Apollo) laugh.

Anyway, I am having a blast pulling the UK aired series off bittorrent and watching them again (that's right Mr. Ronald D. Moore) as they air here in the US. I just hated Universal deciding to take the old Galactica premise and just start again. My opinion is that Mr. Moore - as fine a job as he and the creative team has done with the current Galactica - would have done far better taking his story and just telling it as it obviously wants to be told without the fetters of the rusting hulk of the old Galactica. And it is obvious that fans of the old Galactica (which I enjoy for its camp charm) have no reason whatsoever to watch the new one. If old fans do enjoy the new Galactica they do so based on the quality of the series and the merit of the writing NOT because of any carryover from old to new - cause believe me, there isn't any carryover of substance.

Every carryover that does come to mind takes the form of an inside joke. Well, except for the use of the original alpha shuttle in the opening sequence of the new miniseries. For those of you who caught it - that was not a CG shuttle.

So again, I'm opposed to the process of re-imagining. I'm surprised and delighted that this new series is some really good science fiction. And I'm man enough to admit when I was wrong (I predicted disaster). But I still insist that Mr. Moore would have done better if left entirely to his own imagination.

By the way, as one who saw the trailer that Richard Hatch co directed with Jay Woelfel, I can tell you it was good -damn good. It would have made an incredible series as well.