Four Reasons Battlestar Galactica Isn’t Just for Sci-Fi Fans
Please welcome back my husband Chris for a guest post on why he thinks one of our favorite science fiction shows, Battlestar Galactica, isn’t just for science fiction fans. If given a chance, Chris is convinced it would appeal to almost everyone.
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Picture Source: google.com via Marcy on Pinterest
I’ve written about Battlestar Galactica before, but only in passing, and only comparing a single BSG character to Star Wars’ Wedge Antilles. But BSG is one of the few science fiction shows with appeal for all kinds of viewers (such as Marcy, a Trekkie, and me, the Star Wars equivalent to a Trekkie), so I decided to put together this post to tell you all why I absolutely love Battlestar Galactica—and why you probably would, too.
Great Storytelling
The plot of almost every BSG episode was believable, interesting, and extremely engaging. We started off buying just the first season, but very quickly added the remaining three seasons because the story was just that good. And many were the nights where we stayed up until 2am or later, until we could barely keep our eyes open any longer, because we always wanted to watch “just one more,” to see where the story went. The writers had a talent for ending on a cliffhanger.
A Realistic Depiction of the Future
Star Trek has phasers and transporters and replicator technology. Star Wars has lightsabers and turbolaser cannons and the HoloNet. The Stargate series has interstellar gates. But none of these technologies are all that realistic when you look at today’s technology level and its likely rate of evolution even 300 years into the future.
In contrast, all the ships in Battlestar Galactica use kinetic weapons (weapons that don’t contain an explosive or electric charge). These range from a sort of machine gun in the nose of the human’s Viper starfighters to the nuclear-tipped missiles hurled by the Cylon basestars. Even the depictions of the Vipers’ maneuverability were more accurate than you’d expect, and included the use of attitude thrusters to move the ship around. Astronauts already use less sophisticated attitude thrusters today.
Galactica used an internal phone and intercom system, and lacked the comm badges, comlinks, and viewscreens of Star Wars and Star Trek. Galactica’s computer systems, even when networked, required several minutes to run complex calculations, and the comm systems in BSG all seemed to feature the type of distorted transmissions I would expect to hear over such long ranges.
Basically, I think the technology in Battlestar Galactica is closer to the technological reality we’ll have in the next couple hundred years.
A Unique Villain
The biggest sticking point for most science fiction is having a flat villain. If you don’t have a unique, believable, engaging villain, the show just doesn’t work well. Fortunately for us, BSG doesn’t have that problem. The Cylons (cybernetic organisms originally created to serve humanity) gained sentience and revolted against their former masters, disappearing after the first human-Cylon war and appearing again after 40 years to destroy the Twelve Colonies.
But the Cylons aren’t your typical cybernetic organisms. While the original Cylons looked like many depictions of futuristic robots, the Cylons have evolved and gained the ability to look just like a human, indistinguishable from a real person. The look, sound, and feel just like a real human, and the sleeper agents don’t even know they’re a Cylon until their sleeper circuit gets tripped. About the only difference between a “skin job” and a real human is that the female Cylons’ spines glow red during sexual activity.
And worse for the human survivors of the Cylons’ nuclear bombardment of the Colonies, the Cylons possess a Resurrection Ship, which automatically downloads a fallen Cylon’s memories and experiences into a new body and activates it, creating a never-ending stream of cybernetic warriors bent on grinding their former masters into so much interstellar dust.
How do you even fight against an enemy like that?
Engaging Special Effects and Cinematography
I found the special effects and cinematography of BSG to be top-notch. One of my favorite things about the show was how a lot of the exterior, long-distance shots were shown. Rather than the standard, steady, zoomed-in fare you get in most film, BSG has a lot of exterior shots that look like they were recorded on a hand-held camera, with the field of view zooming in too fast before resolving itself, and the recording itself being shaky, as would befit a distant observer.
For those of you who already love BSG, what do you think made it such a great show? If you haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica before, has this convinced you to watch an episode on Netflix?
Feb 20, 2012 @ 11:04:49
That does sound interesting. The only other I’d need to know before wanting to watch is if there are any cute guys in the cast? That is a must for me in a genre I’m not so sure about.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 14:54:02
Being a very straight, married man, I can only guess as to what would qualify as a “cute guy” for you. However, I will make an attempt:
Jamie Bamber (Lee “Apollo” Adama)
Tahmoh Penikett (Karl “Helo” Agathon)
Michael Trucco (Samuel T. Anders)
Feb 20, 2012 @ 15:00:28
The actor who plays Helo was my personal favorite in terms of eye candy, but the other two that Chris lists would be good runners up 🙂
Feb 20, 2012 @ 11:33:56
My daughter is a trekkie who also loves BSG. she has all the seasons on DVD. Me, not so much but after reading this post, I think I’ll borrow season one and see what she likes about it.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 15:01:22
Maybe you can even watch together and give her a chance to point out her favorite parts. I’d love it if my mom wanted to do that.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 11:35:14
Thanks for reminding me of this series! I’ve heard for a while now what a great show it is. Now I just gotta find the time to actually sit down and watch it 😉
Feb 20, 2012 @ 15:06:04
If you have Netflix, that’s a very handy way to go (and it saves 15 minutes of cut commercial time).
Feb 20, 2012 @ 12:12:23
I love love love this show! The characters were so deep and believable – it was so much fun to watch. And although the Cylons were the bad guys, sometimes you really sympathized with them (esp Boomer) and wanted them to win.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 15:03:24
I loved the Boomer/Athena dynamic, and I was definitely rooting for them both! Other times, I just wanted the cylons to get blown up far from a resurrection ship 😉
Feb 20, 2012 @ 12:21:19
I had trouble getting into BSG for a long time. Then hubby and I watched the first season of Caprica and decided to give BSG another shot. We waded through the first three episodes, still unconvinced, but then by the fourth, we were hooked. I haven’t yet analyzed why – maybe too much backstory up front? I’ll have to think about it.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 15:05:16
I wonder if it isn’t that the earliest episodes are filled with a little too much of Gaius Baltar talking to the #6 cylon in his head. That was probably my least favorite part of the show.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 14:15:26
I loved BSG for a while, but then I started to hate President Roslyn, who was as bad, if not worse, than the toasters. That’s okay, as long as at least one other character notices or comments on it.
Toward the end, the characters were completely schizophrenic and unbelievable. It’s okay to be complex and have doubts, but their behavior changed wildly _only_ to suit the plot. It turned me off, especially because the series still had all the other qualities you listed above. A real shame.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 15:32:24
Fabio, I had a similar experience with BSG. Loved it for a while, but never finished the series. Great drama and emotional arcs are one thing, but unrelenting darkness and shades of grey from all characters finally got to be too much for me. As you say, it’s a shame. It was a great series for all the reasons mentioned in the original post.
Feb 20, 2012 @ 15:16:53
Thanks for reminding me why I need to finish watching BSG! I fell in love with the show after it ended and went off the air for all the reasons that you’ve listed here. I think I got distracted after Episode 6, but I’ll bump it up on the Netflix queue. 😀
Feb 29, 2012 @ 23:13:26
I’d love to hear what you think once you’ve seen more of the series 🙂
Feb 20, 2012 @ 23:25:11
My husband and I loved this show! We ordered them through Netflix, and would race through them as quick as we could. “Did you forget to mail the disk back?” That little question could ruin a weekend. Great piece!
Feb 29, 2012 @ 23:14:05
We stayed up much too late because they’d end each episode in a way that made us both say “just one more” 🙂
Feb 21, 2012 @ 10:24:06
LOVED this show! I thought it one of the most brilliant TV shows ever produced. They didn’t coddle you, or talk down– they assumed intelligence. That’s actually why I didn’t like the very sherry end of the last episode. They’d trusted us all along, and then at the end had to hit us over the head saying “get it? get it?”
Feb 29, 2012 @ 23:21:56
It’s unfortunate that it fell apart the way it did at the end. It was so brilliantly done, as you said, that I think that’s why the shakiness and “get it” *nudge nudge* at the end stuck out the way it did. Even so, it remains one of my favorite series.
Feb 21, 2012 @ 12:04:16
The hubby and I loved this show! Brilliantly done. I loved the way the “skin jobs” began to think independently of the whole. They exhibited individual desires, feelings, and ultimately began following their own paths. It started to make a real mess of things. Did I say brilliant? My husband’s best friend is good friends with Ron Moore and he told us a funny story. He told us that Ron told the crew that they needed to cut corners, meaning costs. The crew, playing a joke on him, cut all the corners on the paper. That is why all the paper used on the Galactica had the corners cut. In the end I suspect that ended up costing more. LOL
Feb 29, 2012 @ 23:20:13
I love that! I noticed their paper didn’t have corners, and I can remember wondering how they came up with some of the unique little touches. It’s so funny that the lack of corners was meant as a joke and stuck 🙂
Feb 21, 2012 @ 21:58:02
IF you haven’t seen BSG, what are you waiting for?
There is nothing, absolutely nothing out there to match it.
Watch the Mini-Series first, that is a must. Then watch magic. You can skip Razor. It’s good, but not crucial.
The final two episodes of Series 1, (Kobols Last Gleaming 1 and 2.) were the finest examples of television made to date.
To give you an idea how high a rating that is, I am a TSCC fan, through and through.
I showed spouse the mini-series and she watched it, 3 episodes a night, right through January:)
brendan
Feb 29, 2012 @ 23:16:36
We started with the mini-series too. Definitely essential. Haven’t seen Razor yet, but it’s actually waiting for us for the coming weekend!
Feb 29, 2012 @ 17:14:37
i LOVED BSGR more then i can say. The sad part is the ending and all the dangling strings left unsettled. Like who is Daniel? Starbucks father I expect, but they had to end with her being an angel? doesn’t fit..I would love to the original cast come back and do 2 seasons just to end it properly. Or have another reimagining to fix the loose ends. It also needs at least a head writer who keeps the storyline straight and flowing plus just one director who knows what is going on. Loved the music And the DRUMS… mISS THE SHOW SO MUCH, THERE IS NOTHING LEFT DECENT TO WATCH.
Feb 29, 2012 @ 23:18:23
I was really disappointed with the way they handled Starbuck at the end. It felt like a cop-out for them to not explain what exactly she was and to end it as inconclusively as they did. Other than that, I loved this series.
Jun 22, 2012 @ 20:34:20
I’ve heard nothing but things about BSG but I’ve never seen it. I like sci fi movies and tv shows, I just don’t generally have the time to watch many of them.