Letters to the Editor
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Thanks for the great review.
I found out about BSG from a friend who raved about it. Interestingly, he said that each season was better than the previous one.
So the spouse and I watched, starting with season one. What can I say? We were hooked, and indeed each subsequent season was better than the previous one. Some of the individual programs were Ok, some were great, and some were profound. None disappointed. We look forward to the next season.
To paraphrase Star Trek, BSG does indeed go where no sci-fi series has gone before. I have never been a fan of sci-fi, but this series has absolutely sucked me in. Season four -- bring it on!
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Yeah, It's an Okay show
But "Space Above and Beyond" was a lot better.
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smartest sci-fi TV show ... maybe ever?
"It has proved that the genre, when liberated from the body-hugging Lycra jumpsuits and staid dialogue that have plagued most post-"Trek" science fiction series, can be a vehicle for both scathing political commentary and genuine pathos."
How could anyone write that without mentioning "Babylon 5," surely the smartest teevee show ever, whether science fiction or non-science fiction.
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Great review
Thanks for the refresher course. I really think its way too complicated for new viewers to jump on board, at least not without missing a good deal of the subtext of scenes (even this amazing refresher left out huge holes -- it would have to not be 20 pages long.)
I have always wondered that if the Cylons wanted human/cylon babies so badly why did they destroy Caprica and the rest? The smoking hot Cylon ladies could've just come down to Earth and seduced the male population and gotten their babies with no violence.
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Athena isn't Roman
Okay, I'm nitpicking, I know, but Athena is also Greek. Minerva is Athena's Roman counterpart.
(Somewhere, my fifth-grade teacher is smiling)
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"The smartest sci-fi TV show... maybe ever"?
That prize goes to Babylon Five in my book. I mean, have you ever seen that show? I've seen every episode twice, and it blows my mind. It's like a freaking novel.
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Space:AAB I thought I was the only one
I loved that show.
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Went downhill
The premise was great for about one and a half seasons, after that the stories started getting stale. Firefly was better and smarter. Doctor Who is open-ended enough for decades of new ideas. BSG is held back by it's limited scope.
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Doesn't anyone remember....
that the smartest show (sci-fi or otherwise) was Firefly? BSG runs a close second with The Tick in third. Season 2 of Babylon was pretty good too..
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I love Firefly, but . . .
BSG is the best Frakin Show on TV.
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Oooh, we create a race of robots that then rebels against us....how....unoriginal.
Personally I much preferred the Cylons to be alien robots. I agree with the mentions of Babylon 5 as an excellent, well written and no need to be continually 'socially relevant'. The original Star Trek took the (then) unusual step of making a few episodes 'relevant', and while it's still not all that common in TV dramas, at this point it's nothing new or revolutionary. And regardless of how good this show may be, the majority of stuff the sci fi channel produces is still...well...painful to experience. I mean, come on, "Rock Monster"?
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Apples and oranges.
Firefly lasted 14 episodes. It might have continued to produce excellent seasons, or it might've grown stale and disappointed us all. In that respect, comparing it to BSG simply doesn't work.
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I really hate to be "that nitpicker"
But Tyrol's first name is Galen, his son is named Nicholas.
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Science fiction shows
Admittedly, my opinion of the Sci-Fi Channel version of 'Battlestar: Galatica' is heavily influenced by the insipid episodes from ABC-TV's version. The Sci-Fi Channel has done better but I have not been able to follow the series as much as I would have preferred.
As far as the current version of Battlestar being the smartest SF show on TV goes, I must differ. 'Babylon 5' will always be a contender for that title as will 'Star Trek: Deep Space 9'.
As for social commentary, though, Robert Heinlein's novels ('The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress', 'Stranger In A Strange Land') have more social commentary than anything yet seen on TV.
By the way, I think the movie adaptation of 'Starship Troopers' deserves to be ranked with 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' and 'The Horn Blows At Midnight' as a total waste of film and talent.
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Best? Depends what your criteria are.
BSG is a very good, serious effort to use science fiction as drama and commentary on our own society. Does that make it the best sci-fi TV show ever? Maybe, maybe not. Babylon 5 gets points for consistency of its artistic vision; more than any other science fiction series, it was completely the vision of its creator (J. Michael Straczynski). Doctor Who (my personal fave) has an infinite canvas and an irrepressible sense of fun, as well as the best format of any science fiction show ever. (A whimsical alien and his human companion go anywhere in space and time and have adventures. What's better than that?)
Battlestar Galactica is the Six Feet Under of science fiction. It's got some great drama and compelling characters, but it doesn't always seem to know where it's going. Which might be considered a flaw in a program whose introduction establishes a goal of "Earth" and announces before each episode that the antagonists "have a plan". Do you suppose we'll find out what that plan is before BSG ends?
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Sci-fi + war != smartest
War in space is an even stupider concept than war on earth, but it helps condition young apes to consider killing and blowing each other up to be acceptable adult and social behavior.
I hate robots as much as the next human, but fantasies about having a war with them do not do anything about the robots that have replaced the humans at my local grocery store checkout "terminal".
I thought the original "Battlestar Galactica" was stupid war propaganda funded by defense contractors and I can see why it is important to hype and promote War and in space you never have to see the blood, gore and bodies, which make it a harder sell.
So WHY is SALON hyping a stupid WAR IN SPACE fantasy warporn show?
Oh yeah, we got a WAR to GET ON!
Thomas Rogers, ENLIST!
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Have fun with this, Space Nerds...
Yeah, you folks can make all kinda argument about whether Picard, or Kirk, or Adama, or Bruce B5 Haircut or whoever is The Best Spaceship Captain Evar, but if you want to watch the smartest sci-fi series ever produced, you're going to have to tear yourself away from your beloved intergalactic soap operas and watch a sci-fi program that, instead of barfing up endless clashes of make-believe space-machines, stars you, the viewer, sitting on your couch, submissively watching your TV, and in the process shows you exactly what you can expect if you continue to sit on your pathetic, juvenile, escapist asses, hoping each season will bring you a more entertaining and/or politically-relevant make-believe space-world.
In other words, you're going to have to watch Max Headroom.