Taking liberties is one thing when the show changed Starbuck and Boomer to women. If the creators of this "miniseries" ever watched the show which I am really doubting they did, if they wanted female viper pilots, why not do the following:
1) Have Sheba on the Galactica from the start. A lot of the character of the female Starbuck could have gone to a revamped Sheba. Of course, the gambling, smoking, and drinking should stay with Starbuck but imagine how a womanizer Starbuck would interact with a tough as nails Sheba. Instead of having Apollo having issues with his father, Sheba could be the one who asked to be assigned away from the Pegasus to get out from under her father. This would allow her to make her own mark and not just be "Caine's daughter". Honestly, except for the gambling scene, everything they had Starbuck do would have been okay with it as Sheba and all the people complaining about the sex changes would probably have no problems with it.
To change the genders of two characters just to say they wanted the female presence is wrong. The old show had it. So if it becomes a series and they do bring in a Pegasus story, then Caine will have a son now instead of a daughter just for the sake of changing genders? Then I guess he'll be a homosexual so he can use the call name of Sheba.
2) They could have also revamped Athena and make her a rookie viper pilot just after Zack's death. It would make for interesting interactions with the overly protective big brother Apollo.
3) Boomer being a Cylon is just plain wrong no matter what gender you make the character. Bottom line.
4) The action scenes were totally boring compared to the last millenium's version of the show. They actually showed the streets being attacked with Cylon ships flying over it. This one you see nothing. So it didn't really have the same impact.
5) The whole idea of machines man created rising up and attacking sounds so familiar. Oh, wait! That's right! Maybe Arnold cost too much for this show so they couldn't call it Terminator 4: Battlestar Galactica. And didn't T3 even have a female terminator? So the Cylons that can only strike fear in those who look at Victoria Secret's catalogs was not the best change either for the show.
I have to admit that I liked the second half a lot more than the first of this. But overall, it was disturbing to say the least.
I posted the above on the BSG "moderated" message base. It will probably be invisible as well. I guess they do not want to hear the above comments.
Also, html is NOT allowed in comments because it seems people post spam in blog comments. If you want to post such things, it is a waste of time here.
Prepare for the future...
Derand