A quick recommendation to those who haven’t seen Battlestar Galactica (2004 reboot version) – Go watch it. You don’t like sci-fi? That’s mostly a backdrop for a story that at it’s core is quite down to earth. This saga has been described as a space opera, and if neither of those words sound remotely interesting to you, please keep reading; because if I can’t convince you you’re wrong, at least you can round off this read with a warm self-satisfied feeling that you were right all along.
BSG has an overarching storyline about the last remnants of humanity fleeing for their lives, for reasons you’ll want to find out for yourself. This is a story of survival, of tough decisions, of holding on to existence by the skin of your teeth, with the black veil of uncertainty about what the next moment might bring, creating a tension you could cut with a knife.
There’s also smaller storylines, all about interpersonal tensions, the interesting dynamics between people, some who shared a past before the events of the first episode, others who meet for the first time somewhere in the show, and it’s in these interpersonal storylines we see a lot of raw humanity in BSG. People brought together, people driven apart, alliances, rivalries, conflicts and resolution.
The many stories of Battlestar Galactica are expertly woven together by phenomenal acting, with names like Edward James Olmos, Katee Sackhoff, Mary McDonnell, Michael Hogan, and many many others. There’s a fantastic and I daresay highly integral musical score by Bear McCreary, there’s detailed set designs, great camera work, the lighting is excellent, and all in all there’s almost nothing to dislike about this show, at least in my opinion. There’s a few things, but they only apply to the last season, and is entirely a matter of personal opinion.
Looking up trailers for it on youtube is not recommended, as they’re all terrible and often full of spoilers. Instead you can enjoy this highly misleading BSG in the style of Friends intro.
I know many people don’t like sci-fi, some of these people claim it’s simply childish, and all nonsense adventures with no grounding in reality, and apparently therefore not worthwhile for an adult to engage with.
To them I say that actually, fiction is an excellent way to learn more about what it means to be human, and it’s through the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, mythology and suchlike that we can easily pose questions you’d have a very hard time conceiving of without the altered reality you are presented with in these genres.
Battlestar touches upon central questions of politics and philosophy such as what does it mean to be human? Is being a person the same as being a human? It deals with questions of the rights of prisoners, of workers, of citizens of all kinds. It deals with the freedom of the press, power structures, civilian vs military, it deals with xenophobia, and greed and a number of the darker sides to humanity that some people refuse to face, because it’s too disturbing. But it also deals with loyalty, friendship, love, hope, faith, kindness, altruism, warmth, democracy, truth and justice too.
If you liked Game of Thrones, I think you’d enjoy Battlestar Galactica, and even if you didn’t, you might still enjoy it, and I suggest you at least give it a chance. There’s not been anything quite like it, to my knowledge.
