I took from it that Starbuck was Apollo's sister-in-law via a dead brother.

I took it only slightly differently. I never felt a marriage was implied. At first, I thought that Starbuck and Apollo were ex-lovers, then I thought perhaps that Starbuck and Apollo's dead brother had been lovers. Now I'm not sure of either and perhaps it could have been both.

Incidentally, repeating the names "Starbuck" and "Apollo" just now made me realize another good thing they did when writing the remake. They made it clear that the names were squadron callsigns, and that these people had much more normal-sounding names in civilian life. I seem to recall that in the original series, those were their real names, and of course that just sounds silly in conversation.

Whatever happened to ``felgarcarb'', anyway?

It just sounds silly in coversation. I think they used "frak" well.

It was jarring not because it was jerky but because it didn't fit with the cinematography of the live-action stuff.

Ah, very good point. In the old Japanese sci-fi movies, those camera techniques were used across the board. So these guys were paying homage only in the FX shots, not in all of the cinematography. I see how that could be jarring and dislikable.

And then I was rewarded with Doogie Howser and Uhura-lite.

LOL