Very light spoilers.
The original Battlestar Galactica is a a campy little show that was super expensive to make, but only lasted one season. Who would have thought that its 2004 reboot would turn out to be one of the best shows ever made. Yep its that good.
It’s the classic sci fi story. Humans makes machine. Machine turns on Humans. But what if you couldn’t tell the difference between Humans and machine anymore? The humans of this show of live in a region of space called the twelve colonies of Kobol. Earth is more or less a far off myth. After a long war with the machines that turned on the humans, a truce is agreed. Every year the Cylons and the humans are supposed to meet to to reclarify the peace agreement. The Cylons haven’t turned up for a very long time. That is until one year they unexpectedly make an appearance. But it’s not the metallic robots that the humans expect. You see Cylons don’t necessarily look that different from us any more, but most worrisome is that they have a plan......
The Cylons launch a massive surprise attack on all of Twelve colonies All twelve colonies are destroyed with what few humans escaping with a small fleet, a makeshift government and a battleship called the Galactica. Constantly under attack the surviving humans decide to make their way to the fabled earth to find a new home. So far so, so sci fi. The show opens up with a pretty action packed 2 parter that you could very much lead you to think that his was a traditional sci fi show. But its all deception. The brilliance of this show is that it’s almost anti sci fi, In the sense that’s no techno jargon (they fold space to travel, but it literally doesn’t matter how it works). There’s no non humanoid aliens, in fact I’m not sure there’s any alien species at all. None of that matters to the writers. Coming of the stunning and at first (at least to some fans), controversial Deep Space Nine, executive producer Ronald D Moore extends the style they at least partly produced with that show. Battlestar Galactica deals with such things as religion, sex, politics and terrorism, in a way other sci fi shows can only dream of. Its long form story telling at its highest level.
The strength of the characters on display is also key to the success of this show. Characters feel rounded and real partly because, even though we’re in space the show is treated in such a grounded way. There were two moments that signaled to me that I loved this show. The first was during season 2 when a surprise ship turns up. Something Terrible is happening on this ship and its being done by the humans on board. Here’s the thing that got me. I started to wonder if, even though there were hardly any humans left whether they were actually worth saving. That hit me hard because before that point it seemed like a pretty clean cut case of black and white, good and bad. And it was the moment I knew this show was turning into special. The other moment which happens in season 3, had me questioning whether these humans, which I’d been following all this time, were actually the bad guys? It literally had me considering if terrorism could ever be justified. I’ve never felt like that before about characters in any show before. Total confliction.
One of my favorite lines from a movie is from Clear and present Danger. Harrison Ford's Character is told that the world isn't black and white. He responds saying "not black and white, right and wrong." The other character responds saying "grey jack, the world is grey". This entire show is grey. Your opnion on what the right thing thing for characters to do will change from season to season. That holds true to the viewer because yes, the world in reality is grey.
Lets talk about that ending without actually talking about the ending. By the time you get to the last episode, (which some find to be unsatisfying, but I thought was amazing) you will be in despair as you wont want it to end. Yes, it doesn't really make any logical sense, but its not like we haven't been warned of the circular nature of things all through the show. And remember. The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning.
Show Rating 10/10
There's never been a sci fi show as brave as well written and as brave as Battlestar Galactica. This is a must see.
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