"Galactica": Not To Be Pigeonholed

If You Think This Sci-Fi Series Is Just For Fanboys, You're Missing A Phenomenal, Existential Epic

(CBS)  The premise comes from a cheesy series from the '70s, but the new "Battlestar Galactica" goes beyond cosmic special effects and asks some big cosmic questions. Our David Edelstein explains.

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You might think sci-fi spaceship shows are the province of adolescent fat boys and yeah, I watched 'em, but you can't pigeonhole "Battlestar Galactica." Women love it, too, and they should, since two of the three most vivid characters - the President and the hotshot fighter pilot - are females with iron wills and haunting vulnerabilities.

And if the battles in space are thrilling - and they are … they're wild dogfights with a great percussive score - they're secondary to more cosmic struggles.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, "Battlestar Galactica" is an existential epic. It turns on building a viable civilization in a threatening universe, which often turns people against one another.

Yes, it's a remake on a cheesy '70s series with Lorne Greene, but what it borrows is largely the premise: Humans on a planet in a galaxy far away are virtually exterminated by an artificial race called the Cylons. Survivors take off in search of a mythical planet called Earth, led by an old warrior named Adama, played by Edward James Olmos, and the president of the surviving humans, played by Mary McDonnell.

The Cylons pursue, but they're not just walking toasters. They've created their own humans - twelve models with multiple replicas, some of whom don't know they're Cylons. They're sleeper cells that are really asleep. Who are they? What is their ultimate purpose? Nobody knows.

The permutations this creates are dizzying. Civil liberties go by the board in ways that parallel our own dilemmas. There are knotty love triangles, vicious enmities, flabbergasting visions. Some humans were forced to live under Cylon occupation, leading to trials of collaborators.

The show can be hilarious too, and the cast is a treat. Olmos is the soul of beleaguered male authority, and Katie Sackoff as Starbuck might be the most charismatic actress on TV. I know I sound like a fanboy, but you should see the Internet message boards, where obsessives pore over mythical and religious overtones.

"Battlestar Galactica" is phenomenal, but if you blunder yonder up the cable and watch the first show of the new season, you won't have a clue what's going on. So get the DVDs and catch up. Pretty soon you'll be throwing around the show's invented expletive, frak - as in "this show frakin' rocks."


For information on the series, visit the Sci-Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" Web site.

[tameka349]

I passionately watch the series but I rarely find it funny.

Still a great show even though it does get pretty depressing at times.

[mythoughtsr]

What kind of i.d.i.o.t m.o.r.o.n wrote this article? Sci-fi fans FAR exceed the stereotype of "adolescent fat boys". We are men AND women of all educational and socio-economic backgrounds and I would rather watch a show that asks questions and demands answers than "Family Guy" or Britney Spears in a sitcom. Frak off! Battlestar Galactica is a show for intelligent adults who crave more than the everyday.

[hypnotoad72]

I miss the days when sci-fi meant exploring actual ideas, and not acting like dorky "soap operas in space" with a bunch of characters like the terran ruler in the BSG remake more worried about her cancer instead of the people she''s supposed to protect being bombed all around them... ditto for paralleling events in current history with a one-sided point of view and ending with maudlin and depressing outcomes.

[dinodavid220]

I LOVE THIS SHOW....IM GOING TO CRY WHEN IT ENDS...."SNIFF,SNIFF"

[cmdrgmh]

BSG is a great series. It is more like a blockbuster movie every week. The FX''s are spectacular. I for one will be sad to see it end this year.

[sevenveils]

I never could get past the terrible acting. All the great props could not soften the actors inability to make themselves seem real.

[dredre2k]

I love this show, but season 3 had too much of a soap opera element to it at times! The whole Anders-Starbuck-Adama-Dee tryst was just about SICKENING, and way too mellodramatic. Also, humanity can jump instantaneously from one solar system to another but they can''t cure cancer or viral encephalitis? What the frack? I see a little bit of a disconnect in technology here. Rosylin''s illness would be much more convincing if it wasn''t cancer. Also, BSG is a little too primitive at times... no automatic doors, projector screens in the CAG rooms... ?

Also, let''s dispense with the scenes of #6 having *** and let''s see some of the other cylons go at it... like BOOMER, or that DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE CYLON MODEL...Eat it up!

[irliberal]

I LOVE BG!! MORE MORE MORE!! I didn''t read the article or any other comments because I''m scared of spoilers. LOL MORE MORE MORE!

[dedelstein1]

To Mythoughtsr: I am the "idiot-moron" to whom you referred. This piece was meant to be televised, not read (it was bumped for Charlton Heston but should air next week). Please drop me a line at [e-mail] and I will explain the origins of the piece and the line in question to you. I hope you will write me, and using your real name. David Edelstein.

[dedelstein1]

To Mythoughtsr: I am the "idiot-moron" to whom you referred. This piece was meant to be televised, not read (it was bumped for Charlton Heston but should air next week). Please drop me a line at [e-mail] and I will explain the origins of the piece and the line in question to you. I hope you will write me, and using your real name. David Edelstein.