Battlestar Galactica - Season One

On a whim I decided to get into Battlestar Galactica, so I downloaded an episode and then bought the complete series on Blu-ray.

It started off a little slow, but after a few episodes I really got into it. This is not just a science fiction show, it's a smart and strongly acted character piece. I was particularly impressed with some of the scenes involving Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackoff as Adama and Starbuck, who grew to be two of my favourite characters (although I more or less like everyone except for Colonel Tighe, who is a drunken old douchebag.) Third favourite is probably President Roslin, who for some reason many of the characters have a problem with even though she is an intelligent and capable leader.

To be honest the plot isn't even that complex: in classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers style, there are evil robots (Cylons) who look, feel, and act human so that it's very hard to tell who is one, and the crew of the Galactica, the last surviving members of humanity as far as we know, are trying to fight them in order to make their way home to Earth, which to them is merely a myth because they're so far into the future. There are only 12 Cylon models, and in the first few episodes we are shown 4 (possibly 5 if the ones who don't look human count). I imagine the rest of the series will bring us many cool reveals on the other 7 or 8, and no doubt some will be people we've already been introduced to - for example, Leoben tried to tell Roslin that Adama was a Cylon but, assuming there is any truth to that, he didn't say which Adama.

So, yeah, I find this show impressive because sci-fi can sometimes be corny or heavily reliant on action and visual effects (not that Battlestar is lacking in those departments), but instead we get a whole lot of interesting characters and scenes that mess with our heads a little as Galactica tries to survive in the void of space. Nice shocking ending too, I'll probably start season two almost immediately.

Best Episode: "Flesh and Bone", in which Starbuck interrogates a Cylon and a lot of dodgy mind games are played.