Frakking Good TV!

I’ve been catching up with the first season of the new Battlestar Galactica series, courtesy of Netflix. I’m about halfway through the season now, and I’m ready to say it’s a damn good TV show.

I had some apprehension before I watched the first episode, because I’m old enough to remember the original series from 1978-80, which was heavy on the cheese, with cuddly pet robots and kindly old men and ah, well, I don’t remember what else, except it just seemed to be a Star Wars knockoff. To make matters worse, there was this story in my hometown (and I don’t know if it’s true) that a mentally retarded kid jumped off a bridge when the show was cancelled.

Yeah, so let’s just say in my head there was a taint to the show. But that all went away as soon as I started watching. It has grit, ruthlessness, humor, action and just good drama. It conveys a kind of sci-fi realism. For example, the characters curse. Well, sorta. They say "frak" instead of "fuck." Close enough.

Plus the special effects are really good. I hate to say the effects are realistic, because I’ve never battled evil robots in space in order to protect the survival of the human race. Really, never. But the show feels realistic during the outer space scenes. Spacecraft zoom around and blow each other up but you hear very little sound, because there’s no sound in outer space (attention aerospace engineers: correct me if I’m wrong).

It also feels like I’m watching an epic war movie. Aside from the air battles, there are battles on land between humans and Cylons, the particularly evil robots that are programmed to exterminate the human race. They're big scary hunks of metal. Meanwhile back on the Galactica, the humans themselves negotiate power among the President, the military commander (Edward James Olmos) and his staff. Plenty of military-style conflicts are worked out. Also the music recalls the military drama Black Hawk Down.

There are also some great characters, especially Starbuck, as played by Katee Sackhoff, pictured above. She’s the hard-drinking, card-playing, cigar-chomping top gun fighter pilot who challenges authority. I suspect she has the same appeal Xena, Warrior Princess had in certain bars in big cities.

But back to the Cylons. They were robots created by humans. They rebelled and overthrew their masters. Now they’re out to kill the human race for good. What seems to drive them is the knowledge that it’s kill-or-be-killed when dealing with humans. That and a total belief in God. When interacting with humans, they speak like true believers. They hate blasphemy. They believe their souls will never die, that their spirits will be transferred to another body. They have no problem dying in the war or blowing themselves up around civilians. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? For me it's this relevance to the here and now that makes great science fiction.

The Cylons also have the ability to appear in human form. Some are blonde bombshells. Some are regular guys. Some appear only in the heads of humans. Some have forced humans to commit treason. I could tell you more, but just watch for yourself. I promise, no cuddly robot pets.