5/5 A series that was meant for Blu-Ray
  by E. Smith (Glen Burnie, md United States)
Ok, I am going to gush about Battlestar Galactica because I believe that is was the best show written for television, hands down. I can't believe that we got the priviledge of watching this on free tv (sci-fi network or now know as syfy). Well, not so much free as nothing is cheap about cable companies these days. Anyway.. the packaging, as people say, could have been much much better. They should have given us options on the packaging because most people, like myself, just really only care about the DVD and I would have like to have seen it in traditional dvd packagaing. But the DVDs were hard to get to and you can't see what disc is what unless you physically remove it from it's package. Enough about the package, on to the show.

Ok, the mini-series, first 4 episodes looks grainy and people say it is on purpose. I own the first season on HD-DVD as well as Standard Def and I don't see anything that makes it look any better in blu-ray. I figure that because it was release so long ago maybe they use inferior cameras to film it and the whole HD and Blu ray craze hadn't kicked into full gear until after the miniseries. But starting with the episodes 33 1/3 until season ending, everything looks and sounds great. The clarity is great and the sound is fantastic. Plus on blu-ray you have U-Control and for a fan, its cool to watch the series with that on and you get to see interviews with the cast, crew and writers. So the blu ray is packed with TONS of bonus features.

What is missing in the description of this box set is that fact that RAZOR IS INCLUDED! It's in the fourth box set i think, also the WEBISODES are included also. So you get the complete package and you don't have to purchase anything further (except the Plan with came out much later). Not included in this is Caprica but that is a completely different series-to-be.

As far as the series, it is the best writing, with wonderful acting by all. Edward James Olmos is great as Adama and gives the series validity because of his past work as an actor and you have 2x Oscar nominated Mary McDonnell as the president. But it is the newcombers that makes the series work. (I am only going to name characters here), Starbuck, Apollo, Dee, Chief, Gauis, Gaeta, Six, Boomer, etc... where did these people come from. They are amazing and I was initially upset that the previous show was changed so much. But what they did is what convinced me that I was watching something special. One thing I must say for sure. You must watch this series from episode one through the end. Its not an independent episode type of show. It is one long engrossing story that is unfolds like a great book. Be forewarned also, once you start to watch you may have a tendency to watch the show back to back to back. This is story first, sci-fi second.

For me, BSG (Battlestar Galactica) Blu-ray DVD is a multi-viewable, meaning you will find yourself watching the series over again on blu-ray and still be fascinated about it all. Unfortunately I bought it during the pre-sale and it was more for me than the current $200.00 and change price tag. This would make a fantastic gift for people you know who were fans of the show and who has a blu-ray player. And it is so complete, I can't stress that enough. Not even the standard def DVDs have the webisodes. Plus you have somewhere in the neiborhood of Season 1, Season 2.0, Season 2.5, Season 3, Season 4.0 and Season 4.5 to purchase, plus you have to purchase Razor. You get it all in one package with this set. Buy it if you are a fan and buy it for fans or for someone who you think will really like this show.

5/5 Great content, TERRIBLE packaging!!!
  by A. M. Ballantyne (Chicago, IL)
Just started to re-watch the series, its still flippin amazing. I love watching it in HD.

My only beef is the packaging. They tried to make something cool and different. It didn't work. It baffles me. I dropped $200 on Blu Ray disc set that I have to claw out of the box? I'm afraid I might scratch a disc.

2/5 Serious packaging issues.
  by Brent Fontes (Monterey, CA)
This set contains all the seasons of BSG and including the movie Razor, but not Caprica or The Plan. I thought that the inclusion of Razor was a nice bonus, since I only thought the regular episodes were included. The box is quite large and overly done. The top of the box lifts up exposing the central core of character photos, kinda like your opening a futuristic computer core. There is the plastic Centurion action figure on top, it's average quality and can barely stand up on its own. The bottom part of the box is quite drab as the colorful cardstock piece falls off once the plastic wrap is removed. The blue blu-ray band and red dress of Caprica actually gives a nice contrast. The episodes are contained in four containers one on each side of the box's perimeter.

My main problem was with the containers for the episodes. The blu-ray discs are are staggered in a flip top like holder. I could barely get them out, at first I thought that the packaging was damaged as the cheap cardstock that holds them in place seemed smashed, but realized that they were all that way. The flip top lid is also held in place by an odd "rubber velcro" with is hard to secure in place. It all felt very cheap and unfortunately I didn't feel that I could store them safely on a shelf without the elaborate box. I ended up returning it for the reason of being unable to easily access the discs and the fear of scratching them since you almost need some needle nose pliers to remove them. I plan to either buy the european region free tin or await another and hopefully cheaper box set.

3/5 BSG The Complete series Bluray
  by C. Stockton (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Luckily I caught the series on sale much cheaper than the Amazon price. I would not have paid the higher price knowing I would have to repackage the set into proper DVD cases and throw away the junk packaging. It was easy to search out the BD contents on the web and piece together my own booklet containing the contents of each disc. It just took a bit of time.

The gritty grain however is just plain annoying. Very dissapointing to "dumb down" my HDTV settings so the grain isn't overwhelming. Many scenes I was looking forward to viewing in spectactular HD were so grainy and pixelated that it detracted from the viewing experience. Ron Moore in his comments actually states that he didn't get the chance to watch much of the HD version and his statement about how now we get to watch the show as it was actually meant to be seen doesn't sound convincing.

On a positive note the space battles were some of the best I've ever seen in Sci-fi tv unlike many shows and movies that cram so much action and confusion into the scenes that you can't figure out what is going on.

4/5 Taken as a whole, it's quite a series.
  by dsrussell (Corona, CA. United States)
I remembered how awful the original Battlestar Galactica series was and really had no interest in viewing the new series when it aired. Oh, the original series had a great concept, but atrocious acting, horrible scripts, completely inane and laughable dialogue, along with amateurish special effects (or should I say one cheap special effect repeated ad nauseum) sunk it for me very early on. And the only reason I tried out this new series (via Netflix) was because of all the positive reviews. Then again, the original series also got plenty of positive reviews ... which I find impossible to even comprehend.

Let's start off with the good. The acting ranges from decent to excellent (mostly excellent, especially James Olmos). The special effects are indeed movie-worthy, the concept (obviously taken from the original, which I thought very highly of) has been refined and improved, while the scripts and dialogue are generally quite good, even thought provoking. I guess the most important thing is, this series throws many curves and sometimes shocks (at least I was shocked more than once ... and I do mean shocked!). It's certainly a far cry from the silly, cliche-ridden original, thank God. I also liked how the new series paid homage to the original by showing the older cylon robots in a few episodes. It cracked me up when I heard them say, "By your command".

Now the bad. Normally, I feel a series can sustain high quality for about 2 or 3 seasons before it begins to melt into milk toast, so I wasn't surprised that this 4-year run had several episodes that were fairly mundane ... and a few that were simply weak throw-ins. There were several times I thought I was viewing a soap opera, so it began grating on me. I'm far from being a prude, but I began to tire of all the sex, and to the point that it simply bored me. But the worst part of this series ended up being the Lee Adama character. I felt it was the weakest writing in the series ... here we have a "hero?" that is an insufferable whiner that probably should have been thrown out the airlock before the second season.

While all that does sound pretty bad, the quality episodes (and that is most of the episodes) far outweigh these negatives. This is an impressive series with some rich characters and brilliant ideas. For science-fiction (usually considered non-science, just dumb fiction), Battlestar Galactica breaks new ground, especially for television. And while I think the short-lived series, FIREFLY, was one of the best that this genre has to offer, in many ways I feel that Battlestar surpasses it (although FIREFLY was a heck of a lot more fun ... it had some really excellent and witty writing, and is still my favorite).

I bought the blu-ray version, so I feel I also need to rate the video and audio quality as well. I watched this on a Samsung 40-inch LCD with an Oppo blu-ray player. My sound system is only a 2.1 system, but high quality (a Zvox 550). That said, here are my impressions:

Video: Between 1 and 10, I give it a marginal 7 (barely 3-1/2 stars). Generally, I thought the video was very good, but it does get far too grainy at times. I understand the feeling the director wanted to convey, but this is not a series to show off stunning blu-ray quality (although there are certainly scenes that are pristine).

Audio: Between 1 and 10, I give it a marginal 9 (or 5 stars). Mostly excellent, especially the powerful drum work (while I certainly liked the entire score, I felt the drum beat was supremely effective in the scenes that used it, and added greatly to the suspense of the moment). The music and sound effects resonated and helped immerse me into each scene, and some scenes, like the creaking of the ship as well as the "back-breaking" moment, totally captivated me.

The Series: Between 1 and 10, I give this series a very solid 8 (or a high 4-star rating). The difference between this new series and the original is like a clear, sparkling stream versus a mud puddle littered with trash. Had the series not meandered around in several episodes, I would have gladly given it a 9 or higher (or a 5-star rating). As it stands, I still consider this a must-see series for sci-fi fans. I have to say that this series surprised me so much that I stopped renting after the first season and purchased the entire series.

One more note. About the packaging. If one thing is consistent in all these reviews, it is the complaints about the packaging. For me, it didn't bother me. I simply threw away the big cardboard construct and have the individual season packages on my shelf. And while it is a bit difficult getting some of the dvds to slide out, and I would have preferred protective sleeves, it really is a non-issue for me. What is an issue is not having a booklet that describes what is on each dvd. It's hard to understand why this was MIA.