This reference, (from a BriTANick comedy video), was but one among many I have encountered over my lifetime of the 2003 re-imagined science fiction series Battlestar Galactica, broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel for six years before reaching its end in 2009. The series was watched by over two million viewers (a network high for the Sci-Fi Channel), and spawned numerous other media, including a television film titled "The Plan" (2010), a prequel series called "Caprica"(2010), and another prequel television film in 2013 called "Blood & Chrome". It has become one of the most renowned TV dramas in the last decade.
While many people are watching award winning series such as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Homeland, or The Walking Dead, I usually watch slightly lesser known shows such as Chuck, White Collar, and Arrow. While definitely not unknowns, they certainly don't have the following that the others do. Despite all of this, I heard enough about Battlestar Galactica to give it a chance, and I can honestly tell you now, it is lightyears better than any of the series I just mentioned.
In a faraway galaxy, the Twelve colonies of Kobol exist in harmony. Orbiting the capital planet Caprica is the famous warship Battlestar Galactica, which is to be decommissioned in a matter of days to become a museum. The Galactica is a relic of a great war with a race of robotic organisms called Cylons, who rebelled against their human masters in order to obtain freedom.
It has been over forty years since The Second Cylon War, and the Cylons haven't been seen since. On a day like any other, Secretary of Education Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) visits the Galactica prior to its decommissioning. She learns a great deal about the old ship, as do we. All phones are wired directly into consoles, touch screens are hard to come by, and any kind of lazer gun was dispatched long ago. Fighter ships, called "Vipers", are fired out of the ship through pressurized tubes, after which air tanks zip the fighter about as it fires upon its targets with air-propelled missiles. For a science fiction series seemingly positioned as a space opera, this was about as low-tech as things can get. As it turns out, any and all technology that could've been hacked by the Cylons had been replaced with low-tech during the war.
Headed by seasoned war veteran Commander William Adama (Edward James Olmos), the Galactica maintains one hell of a crew, including the commander's talented son Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber), Electronic Countermeasures Officer Karl "Helo" Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett), Crew Chief Galen Tyrol, (Aaron Douglas), Specialist Cally Henderson (Nicki Clyne), Lieutenant Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, (Grace Park), and Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan), the Executive Officer of the Galactica.
And of course, I would be remiss in neglecting to mention the heart and soul of the series, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, the beautiful hotshot fighter pilot of the Galactica's crew.
She smokes cigars, curses like a sailor, and gambles like you wouldn't believe, but her enthusiasm and spirit make up for any of her personal misgivings. In the original series Starbuck was a man, and boy would that be interesting to see, considering actress Katee Sackhoff owns the role with every fibre of her being. Without her charm, the series would be considerably darker, for she is the guiding light in what quickly becomes a dimming universe, as the Cylons make their dramatic return.
On Caprica, a beautiful blonde woman known only as "Number Six" activates malware hidden in the systems of all Vipers and Battlestars, disabling them entirely, and leaving them vulnerable to attack. A Cylon fleet swarms in and quickly destroys any kind of human resistance, as one by one, the 12 colonies slowly fall prey to their vengeful robotic creations. Billions of lives are lost. To Laura Roslin's surprise, the entire government gets destroyed, leaving her, a lowly Education Secretary, the President of all that remains of humanity. Under the newfound protection of the Galactica, a fleet gathers, containing only a small handful of survivors numbering somewhere around 50,000.
With no chance of fighting the new Cylon empire, the Galactica and its fleet begin their trek into deep space. Seemingly doomed to wander the stars for eternity, hope arrives in the form of a message from Commander Adama, who claims to know the existence of a lost Thirteenth Colony, where the remains of humanity still exists to this day. His plan is to find it, and salvage what's left of civilization. This missing colony has gone by many names, most lost to legend and the tides of time, but some people know it by it's true name; Earth.
With a background in Science-Fiction, I tend to have high expectations of a series such as this, a space opera where humans battle aliens, robots and the like. But I tell you now this is not that kind of show. Battlestar Galactica is one of a kind, and it's not just a show, it's an experience, and so much more.
If I were to break the series down to its root level, from season 1 alone, I'd say BSG is as if someone took the plots of Top Gun, The West Wing, and Terminator, and set it on a spaceship. Top Gun is most definitely the biggest influence of the bunch, with much of the drama happening between Starbuck and the other Viper pilots. Indeed when the space fights happen, they do harken a bit back to Star Wars, but there's definitely no X-Wing fighters here; if anything the sequences remind one most of an aerial dogfight as opposed to some futuristic warzone. Each pilot has his or her own call sign, and like Top Gun, they are constantly addressed by that alone.
Starbuck as a whole is basically the female Maverick for that matter. They share all the same qualities; rebellious, cocky, sometimes reckless. Starbuck even does the famous upside down jet move from the film. Need I say more?
Besides the pilots, you also have subplots involving Chief Tyrol and his engineers. The crews behind the Vipers and Raptor transport crafts are the bones that hold the Galactica together, and we do get a glimpse of how much damage someone can do if the ranks of the crew are infiltrated by the enemy. One of my favorite characters is among the crew, Specialist Cally Henderson.
Cally is one of the more interesting and helpful deckhands for the Viper repair, and works closely under Chief Tyrol. She hasn't been given an incredibly deep backstory as of season 1, but her handiness on deck and ability to operate under stress is notable from some of the other characters. I'd like to see her role expanded in subsequent seasons, and I look forward to seeing where her story goes.
The reason why I bring up The West Wing is because a great deal of BSG is political, what with Laura Roslin dealing with the aftermath of the Cylon uprising and the rebuilding of society upon the fleet. After responsibility is thrust into her lap, she discovers an unfortunate truth; she has terminal breast cancer, and will not likely survive to see Earth. With this knowledge looming over her, she must undergo the most painful journey of all, and help build a world she will never truly get to see flourish, all while traveling in the deepest reaches of space. Many of the political storylines run alongside whatever A story may be happening from episode to episode. Over the course of season 1 we see Roslin and her handy personal aide Billy Keikeya (Paul Campbell) tackle problems such as a Terrorist incursion, a Vice President election, a fuel shortage, and setting up a new monetary system. All of these different issues are tackled in a similar way that the West Wing did things; with humor, great dialogue, and excellent interpersonal relationships between the characters.
One of the more interesting stories of BSG is that of Helo, who I honestly think shoulders a great deal of the series all by himself. During the first episode, he and Boomer (his partner) pilot a Raptor transport vessel down to Caprica to evacuate as many people as possible. He inevitably gives up his seat to save another, and stays behind on the planet, leaving himself stranded on a planet being scoured over by Cylons. For the entirety of season one, Helo must avoid and survive in this strange new world, unknowing the entire time that the Cylons are well aware of his presence.
Soon after he is seemingly rejoined by Sharon (Boomer), who is in fact a Cylon herself. That's the interesting thing about Cylons. While most of them are just robots, straightforward, there are thirteen different models of Cylon human forms. Each one of these models has thousands of copies, and are for some reason more intelligent than other Cylons. In the vein of Terminator, they are unassuming, and on the surface appear to be actual flesh and blood. Both male and female, they are peppered throughout the Cylon armies of robotic Centurions as authority figures. They are the leaders, and also act as sleeper agents onboard the Galactica. Only four models are known thus far, the primary one being Number Six, the beautiful blonde woman who helped destroy the Viper and Battlestar defense systems. One of her models is working with the Sharon model that is with Helo on Caprica, and slowly throughout the season, we get to see a very unique dynamic, where slowly but surely, Sharon rebels against her Cylon allies in favor of love, for she has fallen for her human comrade. The love story between Sharon and Helo is complex, because most of the time, she is lying to him about who she is. Towards the end of the season, Helo learns the truth about Sharon, and is hestitant to trust her, even shoots her in the shoulder, but realizes he cannot kill her, for he has fallen for her as well. Things become more interesting when it is revealed that Sharon is pregnant. This is by far one of my favorite elements of the series, what I call "Helo's story"; it's a complete sidestory that never gets resolved, even by the end of the season, and I can't wait to see where it goes next in season 2.
Now why do I call her Sharon instead of her call sign Boomer? That would be because there are in fact two Boomer's on the show; the one with Helo, and the one that actually DID return to the Galactica and stayed there. Boomer's personal arc in one of the most intense on the series, considering we already know she's a Cylon, but she does not. On multiple occasions throughout the season, Boomer is "activated", and she carries out certain tasks to sabotage the Galactica and its workers. When she awakens from these tasks, she is unaware of what happened and is sometimes terrified of the results, particularly in the fourth episode "Water", where she awakens directly after the action of sabotage, catching herself red-handed so to speak.
Actress Grace Park brings a surprising realism to both characters; as Sharon she portrays a range of conflicted emotions from a confused Cylon spy who's emotional attachment to Helo overwhelms her duty towards her own race, and as Boomer, she plays a human who goes through confusion, panic, and eventually near-insanity as she slowly discovers the terrifying truth about what she really is. It definitely brings one to a profound question; What does it mean to be human? Can you still be human even though you biology says otherwise? In Sharon's case, are memories truly false if they aren't yours? Is being human a matter of flesh and blood, or is it something more?
Creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick have made television history in developing a series remake that has surpassed its parent series in popularity. Spin-off media, comic books, novels, and endless fanfiction make up the new show's legacy, and it's genuinely impressive. The series has won numerous awards for its special effects as well. Although I have not looked into how they are done, for 2004, they're absolutely spectacular. When Cylon Raiders come a-calling, the Vipers are there, zipping about through space like the U.S. Air Force on a routine patrol. None of that Star Wars lazers and explosions stuff either. Anything we hear is what the pilots hear, all sound is muffled, just almost audible.
There is barely any sound in space, and that is definitely noticeable here, particularly during the best episode of the bunch; "The Hand of God". The entire fleet has been running low on fuel, and the situation is becoming dangerous. Luckily, a gigantic asteroid nearby contains an abundance of tylium, the element that fuels the ships. The bad news is that the asteroid is being mined by a small army of Cylons. In a moment of notable bravery, Commander Adama orders an attack upon the facility, and after some brilliant planning, the Viper pilots trick the Cylons into leaving it completely defenseless, and open to attack. What follows is the most exciting battle of the series thus far, with special mention given to the character Lee "Apollo" (Adama's son), who nearly commits suicide flying down a mining shaft and then bombing the facility from within, escaping just nearly before detonation.
Watching Lee fly off into the distance, I felt myself let out a breath I had been holding for a couple minutes. It was then that I realized the absolute truth that I had fallen in love with the series.
I had been worried Lee might die. I had become connected to a fictional character. But he's by no means my favorite character. No, that title goes forward someone far more unique.
Dr. Gaius Baltar is the sole scientific genius aboard the Galactica. Formerly the most brilliant mind in all of Cparica, Baltar spends most of the season developing a "Cylon detector", a medical procedure that is able to differentiate Human from Cylon via blood sample. Despite looking like a total asshole, he's actually timid and awkward, even if his ego shows sometimes. While usually he just kicks around the Galactica, Baltar can often be found keeping to himself in his lab, and has been dismissed by many as an odd one. In episode 11, "Colonial Day", President Roslin reassembles the government, and Baltar is appointed as Representative of Caprica, almost to his dismay, considering how accustomed he has become to his lax lifestyle. One of the reps, Tom Zarak (Richard Hatch, the original Apollo from the classic series), demands a Vice President be elected, and by the episodes conclusion, that offer is bestowed on none other than Gaius Baltar. While part of him curses the newfound responsibility, the perks of the job end up outweighing the disadvantages, and he embraces the job with open arms. All in all, Baltar is an unassuming, somewhat strange scientist who no one will ever truly understand. He may be clumsy and unaware of his surroundings, socially awkward and a bit sexist, but the crew of the Galactica accept him as one of their own, and all his little misgivings give him almost a sort of charm. Which is one of the things I love most about him.
But poor Gaius is hiding a profound secret, something that catapults him beyond the rest of the cast and into my heart as one of the most brilliant and interesting characters in television history. Baltar is followed by the vision of his ex-girlfriend; Number Six, the beautiful blonde woman who used his algorithm to shut down the other Battlestars and leave the colonies open to attack. She died in the destruction of Caprica, but somehow, someway, she returns to haunt Baltar in the most fascinating way; she's trapped in his mind, still a Cylon, but disconnected from the rest.
Only he can see her, and he's not in control of when she appears. Six comes and goes throughout his life, often appearing when he's in the middle of conversations with other people. This leads to hilarity beyond anything else in the series, as Baltar must juggle two conversations at once, responding to both Six and whoever he's talking to with the same sentence. He also must try his hardest not to look at Six, and avoid her sexual advances. She usually is wearing some form of a scandalous dress, and seems to have the ability to manipulate her appearance at will. Watching Baltar go about his life with Six constantly around him is both amusing and somewhat terrifying, as she manipulates him into doing whatever she pleases. Baltar has long since gotten over the shock of basically having an Imaginary friend, and even develops a sexual relationship with the Cylon. She's physical to him alone, and he can feel her touch every time she lays a finger on him.
Six is equally interesting as Baltar. Like Sharon, she too has developed human emotions, and believes she has fallen in love with her human companion. Considering he's the only one who knows she exists, it makes sense that he's the one she's become infatuated with. Baltar on the other hand is conflicted between wondering if there's some sort of microchip in his brain, if she's telling the truth, or if he's actually insane. This remains partially unclear to both him and the audience, but he continues to listen to her nevertheless. To an insecure genius, the concept of a beautiful woman being trapped in his mind is too interesting a concept to dismiss. It's apparent that Baltar would absolutely rather her be real, as the alternative is too difficult for him to ever accept. In the season's finale, Six claims that another will bear their child, which adds another layer of intrigue and possibly delusion to her character. Their story is left open-ended, and leaves me yearning for more. It's hard to think of Baltar without Six, and in some ways they have become one and the same. They are the sole reason I am addicted to the show, and the reason I am going to grab season 2 as soon as possible.
The finale ends with so many stories on cliff-hangers; Starbuck back on Caprica encountering Helo and Sharon; Baltar, Tyrol, Cally and others stranded on planet Kobol; and President Roslin removed from power and thrown in jail. In a last moment shock, Boomer is temporarily activated and fires two rounds into Commander Adama's chest. With the crew screaming for a medic, the screen cuts to black, leaving a whole fanbase wondering what would happen next. Unlike them, I won't have to wait months at a time for the next season to premiere. No, I can experience the world of season 2 now, all it takes is a quick jaunt to the library.
I have truly found the definition of great television, and this is it. To anyone who loves the military, Sci-Fi, politics, or just great acting and drama, I recommend this show. It's a striking series about the survival of the fittest, the beauty of humanity, and the power of love. I have never seen anything like this anywhere else, and I doubt I ever will. If you want to laugh, cry, or just smile in delight, this is hands down an excellent choice, and while shows like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad take up time and waste away your day, after an episode of Battlestar Galactica, you'll feel like you've lost no time at all, because time really flies when you're having fun.
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