Sunday, July 30, 2006

I’m absolutely enthralled by the new Battlestar Galactica. I am enthralled with each episode. So far I have watched the miniseries and the first six episodes off of the Season One discs I rented from Netflix, but I am absolutely in love with this show.

It seems so blessed intelligent to me. Not once have I felt like I was getting cheated with some sci-fi loophole or some hoky emotions or what not. As it stands, I have felt like they have been nothing but true to the story and the characterization of the last vestiges of these humans.

And the Cylons are bloody scary, man. They are heartless and logical. The new twist with some of them looking like humans is fascinating.

What was probably the cheesiest aspect of the 1970s show is now one of the best, too. Dr. Baltar of today, who used to be Baltar or whomever in the 1970s, is cunning and devious. That Cylon head probe thing that he talks to is downright ingenious. He has real motives for doing what he does, real human motives.

Plus, having the Cylon look like this chick is far more interesting than looking like this disco-ball from the 70s:


I am excited mainly because I have found my new show. I’ve been looking for a long time for a new show that I can call a favorite. I have watched The Prisoner now so many times that I can recite whole episodes. No more Star Trek: The Next Generation to dig into as I never could get into the more recent incarnations. I tried watching the Stargate and that Babylon 5 but found them horrendous. I truthfully haven’t watched Lost in quite some time and I frankly don’t miss it because it started moving so slowly. Even the new BBC Doctor Who, while decent, is not a home run for me.

I have the same emotions watching this show as I had reading some of the best novels I have ever read. I still remember sitting bolt upright while reading Michael Chrichton’s Rising Sun when the main character got into trouble. When I caught myself, I couldn’t believe a book made me literally sit on the edge of my seat. Robert Cormier’s I Am the Cheese is still the only novel to this day that I can say I read in one sitting because I simply could not put it down. I feel that with these Battlestar episodes.

As a fan of science fiction and drama in general, I have found it rare to find such new and exciting concepts while being dazzled with taut scripts and plots. I plainly haven’t had this much fun watching TV in a long time.

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