BSG: The Beginning (with a nod to Veronica Mars)

I know I'm coming way late to the game here, but -- over the holidays, I found myself in possession of a loaned set of the Season One DVDs of Battlestar Galactica.  Which I'd been meaning to watch for a while, given that people speak about it with that hushed, reverent tone of voice reserved for things that take over your life and are unspeakably brilliant.  (Full disclosure: I first started thinking about catching up on BSG when I fell into an insane, passionate obsession with Veronica Mars, and when I scoured the internet for everything I could read about that show, Battlestar Galactica kept coming up on all the same "Top Ten" lists, and with all the same sorts of disclaimers: i.e., "It sounds like Nancy Drew but it's smarter!" became "It may be sci fi but it's the most realistic portrayal of our society on TV today!")

Anyway.  Now I've whipped through the first two seasons and I'm awaiting the release of Season Three on DVD.  And I'm re-watching the first two seasons, but more slowly, and probably more thoughtfully, while I wait.  You know something's good -- book, movie, TV show, whatever -- when you finish it and immediately just want to devour it all over again. 

Also in the meantime, I'm proselytizing like crazy.

I believe pretty strongly in my powers of persuasion.  I converted probably a dozen people to Veronica Mars, and, really, if everyone who watched that show had converted a dozen people, maybe the ratings would have been drawn just enough out of the gutter to save it from premature cancellation (all complaints about the third season aside).  With BSG, it's a little bit different.  Some people are easy converts -- the people who are already comfortable with science fiction, mostly.  Other people you just know are never going to get it, no matter how much you try, no matter how many episodes you sit and watch with them, breathlessly pointing out why they should love the show like you do.  (I did that with Veronica: "Don't you love Veronica?  Isn't she smart?  Isn't she spunky?!")

But then there are the middle-ground watchers.  You know who I'm talking about -- the people who are open-minded enough, even if they don't consider themselves readers of science fiction (or even watchers of science fiction movies), to embrace an alternate universe without being turned off by the clanking, first-generation Cylons and cries of "Frack!"  Who just might be swayed by passionate claims of how you can't get the show out of your head and how brilliantly it parallels certain aspects of our society and how you want to believe anything Adama tells you, always, even when he's maybe wrong and how Baltar's relationship with Six creeps you out and you can't figure out whether she (and therefore he) is helping the humans or leading them into the clutches of the Cylons, and if you can't figure that out, how can Baltar, and so how do you define good guy and bad guy when it comes to him, when actions don't necessarily follow from intentions? and how during the mini-series you thought Starbuck was maybe kind of butch and annoying, but now you think Katee Sackhoff has incredible bone structure and gorgeous skin and maybe you cried a little bit during "Scar," when she was spinning so wildly out of control.  So, for them, those on-the-fencers, who want to understand your insanity but need a little extra push -- I have compiled (with the help of Wikipedia, thank its clever little citation device) a list of "respectable" reviews for BSG.  Send it to any friends who haven't yet discovered the genius, and who need something quality to watch while the Writers' Strike drags on!

(And in the meantime, please don't tell me what happens in Season Three.  I'm really trying to remain unspoiled, and it's really hard.)

-- Kate

"Most of you probably think this entry has got to be a joke. The rest of you have actually watched the show. Adapted from a cheesy '70s Star Wars clone of the same name, Galactica (returning in January) is a ripping sci-fi allegory of the war on terror, complete with religious fundamentalists (here, genocidal robots called Cylons), sleeper cells, civil-liberties crackdowns and even a prisoner-torture scandal. The basic-cable budget sometimes shows in the production, but the writing and performances are first-class, especially Edward James Olmos as the noble but authoritarian commander in charge of saving the last remnants of humanity. Laugh if you want, but this story of enemies within is dead serious, and seriously good."  -- Time Magazine (naming Battlestar Galactica #1 TV show of 2005)

"Civilization is under attack by religious fanatics -- and the fanatics are winning. There are suicide bombers, a clueless president and prisoners who get tortured by the good guys. No, this isn't a particularly grim night on CNN: It's Battlestar Galactica, the smartest and toughest show on TV. In its second season, this remake of the 1978 camp classic has become -- no joke -- TV's most vivid depiction of the post-9/11 world and what happens to a society at war."    -- Rolling Stone

"Wow. Who expected the year's best drama and most telling current-events allegory to come in a space-set actioner? This sly and sleek reimagining from "Star Trek" veteran Ronald D. Moore tackles nothing less than the meaning of civilization and the makeup of morality. As post-nuke humans battle for survival against a race of seemingly ruthless androids, Moore's writers neatly twist our expectations of who and what is "good" and "right" in a war of covert terrorism. You can look at this saga any way you want - as political drama, religious debate, psychological suspenser, sci-fi adventure, deep metaphor or just plain fun - and it's scintillating from every angle." -- Newsday (naming Battlestar Galactica #1 Top TV Moment of 2005)

"But what interests people who normally don’t care about science fiction is how timely and resonant the show is, bringing into play religion and religious fanaticism, global politics, terrorism, and questions about what it means to be human . . . The story isn’t ridiculous—something that viewers are on the lookout for in science fiction more than in any other genre—and it raises questions that nag at you in the same way that life on Earth does. “Battlestar Galactica,” refreshingly, is as real as science fiction gets." -- The New Yorker

"As in the original show, the humans of the Galactica and its fleet are relentlessly pursued by evil robots called Cylons. But in the current version, conceived by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, most of the evil Cylons look like people and have found God. Ruthlessly principled and deeply religious, the Cylons have been compared by fans and critics both to Al Qaeda and to the evangelical right. And the humans they are relentlessly pursuing are fallible and complex. Their shirts are not clingy or color-coded; the men of space wear neckties. They are led by Edward James Olmos as the Galactica's commander and Mary McDonnell as the president of the humans, and their stories revolve as much around the tensions within -- between the military and civil leadership of the fleet -- as they do around the Cylon threat. As Eick described the show to me last month with evident, subversive pleasure, 'The bad guys are all beautiful and believe in God, and the good guys all [expletive] each other over.' Moore, who is also the show's head writer, put it more simply: 'They are us.'"  -- The New York Times

"[A]rguably the most potent, dramatically vibrant series on television. An unflinching examination of how the military, government, family, and religion interact in the fragile ecosystem of society, it as morally and intellectually serious as it is thrilling . . . Despite its fairly standard science-fiction premise (intelligent robots have an awfully bad habit of turning on their human creators), the show is a stirring portrait of human survival in the wake of tragedy, where even the most mundane challenges come loaded with the threat of species-wide extinction. Thus, the show navigates a galactic debris field of challenges both paramount and petty, the most central of which is building a stable civilization while under constant siege . . . Battlestar Galactica plays like a fantastic B-movie crossed with a social-studies lesson, and while all this social-structure diagramming may sound wonky or academic, it is packs the power of a gut punch on screen. For that, much credit is due to the immensely compelling cast of characters. From the quixotic, possibly insane Dr. Balthar, to the insouciant tomboy pilot Starbuck, and the iron-girded, recovering alcoholic second in command, Colonel Tigh, the fleet is populated with quirky, spirited, and deeply flawed individuals, a floating clutter of neurosis and psychic baggage . . . Despite the geeky presence of ribbed leather jumpsuits and space fighters, the dimly lit, metallic corridors of the Galactica house a poignant, human reality that belies its fantastic setting. A shining, distant star in the outer reaches of niche cable, Battlestar Galactica burns with a combustive mixture of political turmoil and human drama that is as achingly real and relevant as anything on television." -- National Review

Comments

[felix]

Yes. Sadly, though, it seems that there's a lot of people who are not in the choir or near the choir. For whom robots and spaceships are a deal breaker but time travelling electricity throwers are strangely not. Sigh.

Although, I can't say I mind BSG coming to an end on a high note vs. going out well after the shark was jumped Buffy style.

[Diana]

Of course, you get all the blame and credit here, since you were the one who started this all by lending me BSG. I then lent it to Kate so she could also be obsessed. All your fault!