Battlestar Galactica

What’s it about?

Battlestar Galactica is set in a far-away galaxy where humans live in the peaceful and civilized utopia of a planetary system named the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Everything changes when their cyborg creations declare war on them and attempt to wipe them out. With humanity on the brink of extinction, a tiny faction of humans manage to escape to the stars in search of a new home.

Starring

Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Grace Park

An Introduction to Battlestar Galactica

Starting with the mini-series, the world of Battlestar Galactica is introduced in confident and gritty style. While popular space shows such as Firefly, Star Trek and The Expanse feature humans from our humble solar system, Battlestar Galactica’s humans originated on a planet called Kobol and now live on a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies.

The human-created race of enemies are called the Cylons, sworn to destroy their makers. In the original 1978 show, the Cylons resembled robot centurions; in this re-imagining they have evolved to resemble humans, initially embodied by the enigmatic ‘Six’ (Tricia Helfer).

Half a century ago, the humans of the Twelve Colonies had been at war with the Cylons until they suddenly disappeared from the scene. Assuming the Cylons had fled, the humans relaxed and began moth-balling their instruments of conflict, including the huge warships known as Battlestars.

The Galactica is the one of the last functioning Battlestars and is in the process of being converted into a floating museum – much to the resigned sadness of its Commander, Bill Adama (Edward James Olmos). Adama has never trusted the Cylons not to re-appear and still insists on keeping the Galactica off any sort of computer network to prevent any infiltration. How quaint and old-fashioned!

Meanwhile, a brilliant but ego-driven computer scientist named Gaius Baltar (James Callis) is basking in compliments given to him for his work on an operating system that powers a sizable portion of the Twelve Colonies’ defence network. He co-wrote the code with his charming girlfriend, whom he trusts implicitly; a good job, as an untrustworthy programmer might covertly include a ‘back door’ for an enemy to deactivate the defences when they are most needed…

Summary

Battlestar Galactica really is first-rate science fiction drama. Re-imagined from Glen A. Larson’s 1978 creation, Ronald D. Moore has made this version smart, tough and compelling with complex, realistically flawed characters and plenty of intrigue.

As you would imagine, there’s plenty of action, but Battlestar Galactica also delivers psychological and mystery elements for the characters to deal with, like: Do the Cylons have a plan and if so, what is it? How do you even identify a Cylon? Are there other forces at work? What to believe?

To get the most from this show, it is strongly recommended that you start with the mini-series before you view season one. The mini-series gives you everything you need to know before embarking on the powerful journey that the full series offers.

Reassuringly, a specific number of seasons for the story arc was set from the start as Ronald D. Moore didn’t want standards to slip with ‘filler’ episodes. So, quality is high and you get an ending that’s a proper finale to reward your loyal viewing. Outstanding!

Check out the Mini Series Trailer here: