Any conversation about the greatest remakes of all-time isn’t complete without the reimagined Battlestar Galactica being somewhere near the very top of the list. In fact, even if it wasn’t based on an existing property, it’s still good enough to be remembered as one of the finest TV shows ever made.
Once the show came to an official end in 2009, there was a clamor to continue telling more stories set in the universe without diluting the quality of a stone-cold small screen classic, so it was inevitable that the prequel route would be taken sooner rather than later. When it came, though, Blood & Chrome failed on two fronts.
Originating as a 10-episode webseries that followed a younger version of Edward James Olmos’ William Adama 10 years into the first Cylon War, Blood & Chrome was intended to act as a backdoor pilot to a potential recurring series that would flesh out the events in between the two conflicts opposite the formidable alien foes.
Instead, it wasn’t picked up for a full-season order, and fans had to wait even longer to see it re-edited and broadcast as a standalone feature film, which finally aired more than two years after shooting had concluded. In the end, it was more of a footnote to Battlestar Galactica than an essential piece of the puzzle, but it has at least captured imaginations on streaming more than a decade later.
Per FlixPatrol, Blood & Chrome in its 131-minute uninterrupted form has wound up as one of the most-watched movies on the iTunes charts this weekend, even if you’re better off revisiting the incredible episodic adventure instead.