Battlestar Galactica (series): A must-see for any sci-fi fan

If you are a science fiction fan, chances are you probably already watched this but in the even that you somehow managed to not see it, you really should do so. I recall seeing the series when I was a child, the early very cheap series that is, and it was just ok because we didn't have much in the way of technology so while I guess I was wowed as a little kid, it looks extremely fake and stupid by today's standards.

I think it was quite a risk when they decided to earmark what is clearly a lot of money for the remake of the series and for me it is my favorite sci-fi series of all time.

src

Just like in the first installment made in the late 70's, humanity is being hunted and wiped out by a species of creatures called Cylons. I don't want to give away too much of the plot but the Cylons are initially extremely successful in wiping out most of humanity after one of their own people becomes a Judas and deactivates the planet's defenses. This results in near complete destruction of the entire planet called Caprica. Only a single armada or group of ships (whatever that is called) remains and it is the Battlestar Galactica.

Realizing that they have zero chance of taking on the Cylon fleet, they instead flee with no real idea about where they are going to go.

src

In the past and also to some degree this version of the show, the Cylons are presented as robotic looking things with "eyes" that are LED's that phase back and forth in a menacing way. In the recent series, the Cylons are able to take on human form much like a Terminator and this allows them to infiltrate the ranks of the humans a lot more easily.

These are not spoilers because it is presented in the trailer as well as the first moments of the miniseries as well as the full-on series. They take it to another mysterious level because we, the audience, are not aware of who is a Cylon and who isn't. Also, as is pointed out many times, many of the human-looking Cylons don't know that they are Cylons either, up until they are activated.

src

There are some faces that even non fans might recognize such as Katie Sackhoff who is a problematic but very good pilot for BG. While these days this would be kind of required to have a "girl boss" in a lead role this was made before the woke period and we didn't mind because it is completely conceivable that a woman could be a very good pilot. In other physical situations though, she doesn't girl boss man-handle people 3x her size and this my friends, is how you have an effective leading woman role. It's believable and it was from a time before the entertainment industry just went completely nuts with the DEI crap.

Battlestar Galactica is kept tense because for reasons that are not entirely explained, they have to warp out of whatever area they are in every 33 minutes. This is a very cool plot device because the humans do not know how or why it is always exactly 33 minutes but that is how long it takes. We have to suspend our systems of wondering how the fleet gets supplies and what not because obviously they would run out in real life. Sometimes they try to explain this to us and it doesn't make a lot of sense but whatever! It's science fiction and isn't supposed to be a representation of things that are possible.

I think that a fantastic way to see if this is going to appeal to you will be to look up the miniseries that was made possibly as a test to see if there would be enough interest in it and therefore if it was worth it to dedicate the resources necessary to make a full on series. There was more than enough interest and the show went on to win many awards that were mostly sci-fin in nature but they won a few mainstream awards as well including several Emmy's and a Peabody award.

src

I am not ashamed to admit that one of the main reasons why I continued to watch this show was because I became completely infatuated with Grace Park, who plays the role of Sharon. I love how they gave Sharon a normal looking dude as a boyfriend in this thing so that it could give all of us normal looking guys hope that perhaps we could land someone as stunning as Sharon. News flash! no, you can't. :P

src

I think that we were meant to all have the hots for "Number 6" played by Tricia Helfer, but I went a different route. Hotness aside, both of these two actresses absolutely nail their roles and are not only there for eye candy purposes.

It might seem a bit difficult to have a series that consists of 74 episodes in total, but the writers actually did a VERY good job with mixing things up and not having a bunch of useless filler put in there that is simply for the sake of wasting time. Each episode is self-contained in a way so that someone who hasn't seen the ones prior to it aren't going to be completely lost but there is also an overall goal or theme of an entire season. It is very rare that a series is able to pull this off but they absolutely nailed it with this one.

Also, they wrapped things up after 4 seasons because the show had kind of utilized every imaginable scenario and even though they still had more than enough numbers to continue to make the show, NBC and the Sci-Fi channel decided to wrap things up after 4 seasons. I love it when showrunners do stuff like this because I absolutely hate when series milk the fanbase for all they can get out of them and only stop making the series once the audience dries up and moves on. A perfect example of a show that seriously overstayed its welcome is the show LOST which kept going long after the story made any sense anymore.

Should I watch it?

If you are a sci-fi fan this is absolutely something you should watch and honestly, even if you aren't there is a very good chance that the story will still appeal to you because it isn't just about space lasers and robots, it is about the preservation of humanity at all costs and against all odds. The drama that takes place between the various characters is also very interesting so it is not like this is 74 hours of space combat that just confuses everyone other than ultra nerds. They also avoid any technobabble in the show and even though I don't consider myself stupid, I like that they avoided complicated naming conventions so that the audience doesn't get confused as to what the hell they are talking about. Another thing that is pretty amazing is that since when this was made you couldn't swear very much on network television and you definitely couldn't say "fuck" they invented a new swear word "frack." It's funny and also very effective.

I'm biased because I love Sci-Fi, but I think that almost anyone will find this show appealing.

_{Oddly, the only place you can stream this legally is with an Amazon Prime membership. They also have all 3 miniseries in their library as well}