Battlestar Galactica Rocks!

I’ve been catching up on Battlestar Galactica thanks to some marathon broadcasts on the SciFi Channel leading in to the new season. All I can say is…Wow! This might be the best thing on television.

I had missed the whole New Caprica storylines altogether, and I was riveted by the treatment of the insurgency against the occupational government of the Cylons. In the current political environment, the writers and producers courageously presented a view of insurgency and asymmetrical warfare that turns conventional wisdom on its head.

The insurgency, led by Colonel Tai (sp?), resorts to suicide bombings and killing human collaborators in the police force. When ex-President Roslyn argues that this tactic is beyond the pale, Tai remarks that he has sent many soldiers on suicide missions in his career and that whether they are in a Viper or carrying bombs strapped to their bodies they are just as dead. The resemblance to the occupation in Iraq, with Americans as Cylons, is doubtless completely coincidental.

Dean Stockwell does a bang up job as the ultra right wing representative in the leadership of the Cylon occupation. His character could pass for “human” at Little Green Footballs. Strike that. His character is more “human” than the folks at Little Green Footballs. I could swear that Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin are among the hardliners in the Cylon cadre.

This is not your father's Battlestar Galactica. There's nothing cartoonish about this version. It is dark, the characters are complicated and flawed, and the distinctions between right and wrong, prudent and foolhardy, loyal and disoyal (and in relation to what) are not always crystal clear. There's no ultra-cute Boxie and his daggett. Adama is played by Edward James Olmos in contrast to Lorne Greene. It's Captain Castillo versus Ben Cartwright, and everybody smokes and is a boozehound to some degree.