Battlestar Galactica is beyond awesome. The casting is good. FX are good enough. Plot is good enough to keep me interested, even if it gets flat occasionally and loses me occasionally with such a large cast. The show has a much more political edge to it, and is - thanks to cable TV - far, far, far more gritty than 1978 ABC.Cylons (human-created robots who became self-aware and self-directing) are out for vengeance to eliminate mankind; and humans are fleeing to the mythical Earth where the 13th tribe left eons ago, which many don't even believe exists. There is a heavily Hellenistic flavor to the culture - the names of the 12 planets (Capricorn, Gemini, ... ), the gods (Apollo, Hera, ...) etc. Particularly amusing is the polytheistic humans being the heroes, while the Cylons are a monotheistic One True Loving God group.
If you've seen the original: the basic plot line is the same. Cylons attack, mankind is on the brink of extinction, valiant warriors shepherd the remaining stragglers onto a perilous journey searching for the lost tribe, who went off and founded another human colony, Earth, we hope our distant relatives will like us.
The Cylon Model 2.0 looks just like us. You can't tell them apart. At all. This isn't Terminator, where faithful Fido can smell the robots. This one is "no make up needed". No more of the silver radiator moving laser pointer eye bad guys ("walking chrome toasters"). Well, they do exist, but the model 1.0 is just the functional servants/soldiers of the advanced model. (An opportunity I thought intriguing: will the cylons be betrayed in turn by their own creations?)
The incorporation of technology beyond "they're robots; they're evil" is well done. At the very beginning, the Galactica, the last of the 'battlestar' war ships is being decommissioned. The crotchy old captain (Edward James Olmos) has refused to slack off on the Rules. E.g., networking of communications and computers was prohibited, due to the Cylons infiltrating them with computer viruses(and such). So, the bridge of the Galactica looks much like a 1960s submarine with those black Bakelite phone receivers. Little tech bits are elegantly woven into the story.
One point I like (as a modern American woman) is that the fighter pilots are also women. And that whole Starbuck/Apollo/goofy-name thing? Call signs, not their real names. And, like fighter pilots today, they tend to get used like a nick name. Several of the other names from the TV show are in, but not necessarily with the same sex organs. Starbuck is still the card-dealing, cigar-smoking pain-in-the-ass hotshot pilot, it's just that this one has tits. Again, if you've seen the original, you will be pleasantly surprised at how they've adapted it for a more modern audience.
I only saw the first 2-1/2 seasons. They were totally awesome. I highly recommend them. I don't currently have a TV. Don't write and tell me how fraking wonderful the next 2 are.
This incorporates all the stuff one would want - sci fi, romance, blowing shit up, politics, blowing cylons up, religion, getting blown up by cylons, dysfunctional families, blowing up even more shit ...
one of the earlier ads:
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1220083993/
Elizabeth's rating:
go buy it on DVD
