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The Best...sci-fi drama

Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber and Grace Park
  • Posted at 5:13am
  • 15 March 2007
  • by DavidBrown-RT
  • 2 comments

If the words Battlestar Galactica merely conjure up recollections of a Star Wars rip-off from the 1970s with acting hammy enough to make a vegetarian gag, then shame on you.

Because you're obviously missing out on its blistering 21st-century offspring, where every whiff of cheese has been eradicated and fantasy-land's default techno-babble has been ditched in favour of language more common to 21st-century news bulletins.

The landscape we navigate in this "re-imagining" is one of power struggles, assassinations and deeply flawed heroes. It's science fiction, but not as we know it.

Taking the lead among the rag-tag remains of humankind on the run from the mechanical Cylons is Commander Adama, a man with a face as scarred and woody as an old school desk.

His task is a fearsome one, as the evil androids are no longer limited to gleaming disco-era chrome with the eerie red swoosh later pilfered by Kitt on Knight Rider. Now they can assume human form, including that of a statuesque supermodel with a ball gown for every occasion, and an investigative reporter who looks uncannily like Xena Warrior Princess.

With Cylon sleeper cells hidden among Adama's fleet, the crew must face the enemy within in the form of terrorist attacks from an opponent with a religious fundamentalist agenda. It's the war on terror set against a backdrop of star fields - sci-fi for those more used to the political machinations of The West Wing than the utopian ideals of Star Trek.

Only it would be short-sighted to assume that Galactica serves as an outer-space paean to the Bush administration's ventures into Afghanistan and Iraq. Adama's shackling of an unwitting Cylon infiltrator has queasy echoes of Guantanamo, while President Laura Roslin's policy of executing her enemies by firing them out of the nearest airlock leaves you questioning your allegiance to the human race.

As the third season begins on Sky One, we find an even greater inversion of expected roles as our protagonists fight against a Cylon occupation of their newly adopted home with suicide bombings and violence.

So, let's get this straight - the good guys are the insurgents and the occupying forces are the boo-hiss villains. Getting an insight into the mind of a bomber isn't something most audiences would even consider if it was a member of al-Qaeda. But, at its best, sci-fi can explore such matters behind the cloaking device of space battles and futuristic technology.

Galactica certainly never plays it safe. This isn't the spick-and-span universe of previous "lost in space" epics like Star Trek: Voyager with its pristine bridge and neatly pressed uniforms.

But with a crew constantly under the strain of attack, there's also the opportunity for some rollicking cosmic dogfights. Space operas should always allow time for ships and explosions and as co-executive producer David Eick says, "I can be as highfalutin as anybody about the socio-political relevance of contemporary science fiction. But sometimes I just want to see stuff blow up." So say we all.

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  • Posted on 02 November 2009
  • at 7:43pm
  • by CyberT

Without a doubt, one of the finest productions of all time. If you love "24" - you'll love this. Its Frakin' Awesome!!!

  • Posted on 11 January 2009
  • at 7:24pm
  • by Pester

Superb drama, not only superb SF, and if anybody tells you it's the best thing on TV ever, believe them. It ticks all the right boxes, political thriller, psychological trauma tales, and, yes, the SF conceptual content is hardly missing, this is more than an excuse for a hard look at the world through a space opera prism, there are plenty of genre exclusive head-spinners on offer of the kind normally only found in books rather than on-screen. Simply brilliant writing and acting, every single episode. Can't wait for the final ten episodes to air and the prequel, Caprica.

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