Two Adamas, a Cylon, and a Mythical Planet Called Earth

Battlestar Galactica. For years, it was just a vague reference in my mind through mentions on television shows such as Doug and Eek the Cat. Eventually I saw a copy of the "movie" in the library, but not being thoroughly enticed I didn't bother to check it out. Towards the end of high school, after I'd decided to be a film student, it was announced that it was being remade for the Sci-Fi Channel by Ronald D. Moore, a producer/writer who had previously been involved with Star Trek. The awkward taste of Voyager still in my brain--and ignorant of the fact that Moore had no real involvement with that show--led me to the conclusion to give the show a pass. I was intrigued enough to search IMDb about both the original, discovering at last that it had been a short-lived TV series, and the new project, but that was it. It faded from my memory into obscurity.

Fast forward a couple of years. I'd enrolled at USC, in the screenwriting program. TV was a forgotten past-time, lost in an ocean of dreck. There was no interest in watching CSI: Birmingham, Law & Order: Safety Patrol Squad, or Buddies. But through the grapevine, through fellow screenwriting and interactive entertainment students, I'd heard astoundingly positive reviews of the new Battlestar Galactica TV show. I shrugged it off, however, because the Sci-Fi Channel and I have a checkered history, with the Frank Herbert's Dune miniseries and a one-time viewing of Stargate SG-1 seared into my brain by Satan's branding iron; i.e. their terrible acting, horrible CGI effects, and in the case of Stargate, a lame, lame plot. Still, I was encouraged to investigate further, finding many positive reviews from critics. I became interested, but not enough to invest in purchasing an entire season's box set for $60. Watching the show was placed on my backburner; very low priority.

Fast forward to November, 2006. The persistent praise has kept Battlestar in my thoughts. The show's won a Peabody Award. And there is the glory of Netflix. Clearly I had been missing something, and there's really no excuse for not trying. With that in mind, I placed the inital miniseries in my queue. The night it arrived in our mailbox, I gave it a spin.

And discovered what a frakking idiot I'd been.

From the intriguing initial line of dialogue--"Are you alive?"--to the cliffhanger ending, I was hooked. The writing was excellent, the effects of high quality, and the acting was very good. Reports that the series was even better than the miniseries had me immediately pumped to buy both the first and second seasons so that I could catch up during the hiatus and start watching the show when it returned in January.

I was somewhat delayed in this experience by not receiving the first season until Christmas, and because of said delay I didn't quite reach my goal; I missed the first episode, "Rapture," but was able to catch up in time for last week's "Taking a Break From All Your Worries." Watching two and a half season's worth of material in such a compressed timeframe was, frankly, a joy. The character arcs are dynamic and engaging, taking the characters to new places emotionally and maintaining the interest of the audience. Indeed, it is the emphasis of the show on its characters that maintains it high quality, as emphasizing what might, to some, be the selling point of most sci-fi shows--the space battles--would have reduced the impact the battles have when they do occur and led to some truly horrible and clichéd storylines.

My experience with Battlestar Galactica has been, in effect, the one I thought I had held when I was into 24, before I realized that show had devolved into a parody of itself that should be titled The Jack Bauer Power Hour and featured such paragons of dialogue as: "Just a few hours ago, Jack and Audrey were in love. Now they can barely stand to look at each other." Terrorists kidnapping the Secretary of Defense as a "diversion" for melting down all the nuclear reactors in the US as a "decoy" to shoot down Air Force One to get the missile codes to fire a nuclear warhead at Los Angeles. Yeah, right. (Perhaps it's gotten better after Season 4, but I haven't watched it since.)

Watching Battlestar has been one of the more rewarding pleasures I've gotten out of television. Luckily, I was bombarded with praise that kept me informed until I ultimately caved and watched the show. Unfortunately, my efforts at "conversion" have been met with absolutely no success whatsoever. Partially this has been due to others' unwillingness to watch a 3-hour miniseries to get involved in a show as opposed to a single 45-minute episode, and partially because it is a sci-fi show and the stigma that classification carries. I suppose this blog entry is another humble plea to those skeptics, those doubters that may stumble across its contents, a plea to please give it a chance. It may be a "sci-fi" show, but more than anything else, Battlestar Galactica is a character-driven drama, and a damn fine example of one to boot. Give it a chance.

So say we all.