Most people know there is a new Battlestar Galactica, its been out for two years now and was recently named by Time Magazine as the best TV show of the year. I’ve mentioned this to people who have not seen the show and they generally react with disbelief. A remake of Battlestar Galactica is the best show on TV? Yeah right. Of course, they usually then ask me, ‘Well is it?’
Before I answer that, I’d like to give a brief personal history.
I, like many who were kids back in the late 70’s, was a huge fan of the original series. I loved most sci-fi and would also watch Buck Rogers, Lost in Space reruns, and Space 1999 each week. Looking back, all these shows (though some more than others) seem simplistic now, nothing more than black and white pseudo-drama’s with a lot of action elements. They were plot driven and relied heavily on action sequences and cliche two-dimesional characters to carry them. As a kid I loved them, but as an adult I see little worth in them other than the warm fuzzy nostalgia they invoke.
When I first heard about the plan to remake the original Battlestar Galactica I was somewhat excited. The premise of the show always intrigued me, humanities’ last chance. So I started doing some research and my initial excitement soon turned to disbelief and cynicism. I had seen some really terrible clunkers from the Sci-Fi channel, ‘The Wizard of Earthsea’ being one that really stands out, and after reading the plans the writers had for the new Galactica, all interest and excitement in the new show left me.
Starbuck and Boomer as girls!? - Typical hollywood PC mucking.
The Cylons now look Human? - A sad transparent trick to deal with the low budget of a TV series.
The Cylons were created by man? - Needless change and also cliche. Terminator all over again.
In short I wrote it off and predicted it would turn out to be complete drivel. I was wrong. Astonishingly wrong. The new Battlestar is the best sci-fi series to come out in the last decade. While I don’t watch enough network TV to judge whether Battlestar is the best show on TV, I can say with complete honesty it is the best TV show I’ve watched the last year.
The new Battlestar is not so much a true sci-fi show as much as a human drama set in a science fiction setting. Instead of being driven by plot and action, the new series is very much character driven.
This show does not depict life or the choices one faces living it in neat little packages, where the right course of action is readily apparent, where the characters see things in black and white, and where choices do not have consequences. The characters have very real flaws. They make mistakes. Their choices have long running consequences and the show does not attempt to pull any punches.
The pilot mini-series, depicts the near destruction of the human race with a darkness and grittiness that is sobering. At no time do you feel anything but tension. You do not leave the mini-series with the feeling of hope. You leave it with fear, and a very tangible sense of tradegy.
The regular season episodes only continue this trend. To say it is darker than most sci-fi shows is an understatement. The show, unlike so many other sci-fi shows does not preach to you. It does not have an overall message or agenda, and does not try to favor one side or the other. Instead it presents questions. Real question that we face in the world today.
What is evil? Asking what is the definition and nature of evil, as well as how each side in a conflict perceives the other as being evil, and then dares to ask are they? It asks if there is a god, or gods? It asks if theocracy is good or bad, is it neither? Does spirituality matter? Does it make us human? Are we, and thereore our cultures, tied so tightly to our inherent traits, so closely to our DNA or biology that we are doomed to repeat violence, greed, war, and depravity forever…that we shall be forever a flawed species? What does it mean to be human? At which point does a machine truely become alive?
The fact that it doesn’t try to answer these issues itself is what makes it special. It doesn’t push an agenda…it simply shows us viewpoints and asks us to determine why, and find our own answers to what is right or wrong.
The cast is well chosen and the acting top notch through out.
It may seem that I feel it is a perfect show, without flaws. This is not true, Battlestar has flaws, but they are so minor in comparison to what it does right as to not matter. Most of the problems relate to pacing on certain episodes. This is due partly to story arcs that often span several episodes. This means some episodes may feel lacking resolution or certain character actions left hanging. Ultimately the series answers these problems and this is not so much a failure of the show as it is a limitation of the 1 hour weekly format.
Another problem I have is with the Cylons. The cylons have created new models which look and feel human..some believe they are human (i.e. like the Bladerunner replicants). In fact they are so human that DNA tests or any type of simple test cannot tell them apart from humans. Only by looking at their makeup at a molecular level and then only by observing how those molecules react to radiation, can one detect a cylon. This raises a logic problem in my mind. If they are so close to us as humans, that their DNA looks like ours, they have blood, and tissues and no metal or wires, how can they do some of the things they do? For instance, they have super-human (or at least enhanced) strength and endurace. They can download their memories and it is hinted at that they can communicate in some basic manner with other cylons in the local (galactic) area. In one episode a cylon cuts her wrist and slides a fiber optic cable up her arm and uses it to communicate with a computer system. This was really a problem for my suspension of disbelief. Thankfully, these types of ‘plausibility’ problems are few and far between.
There are several highlights in the first season and a half. In particular I loved the fourth episode where Starbuck confesses to Adama (who is like a father to her) that she was responsible for his son’s death. The scene is rivoting. This is TV acting and drama at its best. The first years finale episode also ends with an event that if looked at objectively is cliche for a cliffhanger and is something you’d expect to learn in writing 101, yet it happens so unexpectedly, so quickly and is presented so well it literally shocks you, and I challenge anyone to tell me they saw it coming. Another episode I really liked was in the second season when they find a rough map to earth. Here, the backstory and history which the writers have been slowly revealing for the last year and a half come together beautifully in an wonderful a-ha moment. It’s the type of writing and concluding story arc one expects in a good novel, but rarely if ever sees in a TV show.
For anyone out there that avoids sci-fi shows for being too shallow, cliche, or stupid, do yourself a favor and at least give this one a chance. It is NOT a typical sci-fi show full of stupid jargon and pretty boy protagonists. It is gritty, real, and as Time Magazine proclaimed, ‘The best show on TV’