Battlestar Galactica (often abbreviated
as
BSG or just
Galactica) is a
military science fiction serial drama television series and part of the
Battlestar Galactica
franchise. The show was created by
David
Eick and
Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the
Battlestar
Galactica television series from 1978 created by
Glen A. Larson.
The series first aired as a
three-hour miniseries
in December 2003 on the
Sci Fi network and ran for
four seasons thereafter, ending its run on March 20, 2009. The
series featured Emmy Award-winning and
Academy Award-nominated
Edward James Olmos and Academy
Award-nominated
Mary McDonnell and
garnered a wide range of critical acclaim, including a
Peabody Award and the
Television Critics
Association's Program of the Year Award, as well as Emmy
nominations for its writing and directing.
The
story arc of
Battlestar
Galactica is set in a distant part of the galaxy, where a
civilization of humans live on a series of planets known as the
Twelve Colonies. In the past, the
Colonies had been at war with a cybernetic race known as the
Cylon. With the
unwitting help of a human named
Gaius
Baltar, the Cylons launch a sudden
ambush on the Colonies, laying waste to the
planets and devastating their populations. The handful of human
survivors flee into space aboard any spacecraft they can reach. Of
all the Colonial Fleet, the
Battlestar Galactica
appears to be the only military capital ship that survived the
attack. Under the leadership of famed military leader
Commander William "Bill" Adama, the Battlestar
Galactica and its crew take up the task of leading the
small fugitive fleet of survivors into space in search of a fabled
refuge known as Earth.
The series
was a ratings success for the Sci Fi Channel, and was particularly
popular in Europe, Australia and the United States
. Since its release, the show has received
nationwide critical response from the American media,
Battlestar Galactica has been honored with numerous awards
and award nominations in its four-season run. It spawned the
spin-off TV series
Caprica, set to be broadcast in
2010.
Series overview
Battlestar Galactica continued from the 2003 mini-series
to chronicle the journey of the last surviving humans from the
Twelve Colonies of Kobol
after their nuclear annihilation by the
Cylons. The survivors are led by
President
Laura Roslin and Commander
William Adama in a ragtag fleet of
ships with the
Battlestar
Galactica, an old but powerful
warship, as its command
ship. Pursued by Cylons intent on wiping out the remnants of the
human race, the survivors travel across the galaxy looking for the
fabled and long-lost
thirteenth colony:
Earth. Unlike most
space opera series,
Battlestar
Galactica has no
aliens
(the antagonists are man-made Cylon robots) and intentionally
avoids
technobabble. Instead, most of
the stories deal with the apocalyptic fall-out of the destruction
of The Twelve Colonies upon the survivors and the moral choices the
survivors must make in dealing with the survival of the human race,
as well as their war with the Cylons. Stories also deal with the
concept of perpetuated cycles of hate and violence driving the
human/Cylon conflict, and religious issues, with the implication of
an active God whose angelic agents intervene on behalf of the main
characters, most notably
Gaius
Baltar.
Over the course of the show's four seasons, the war between the
colonists and the Cylons takes many twists and turns. Despite the
animosity on both sides, the Cylons and humans slowly turn away
from their hatred for each other. Part of this is due to a growing
schism within the humanoid Cylons, led by the disgruntled Cylon
"Number One", named
John Cavil. Cavil's
obsession with hiding the true genesis of the humanoid Cylons (the
"Significant Eight" created by the "Final Five", who take residence
on Galactica after the attack, who themselves are humanoid Cylons
from "Earth" who had their memories erased by Cavil) leads to a
civil war among the Cylons, with a faction of the robot race
forming an alliance with the humans. Other plotlines involve the
mysterious destiny of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, who is the subject of
a prophecy involving her as the "Harbinger of Death", who will
"lead humanity to its end" as well as the redemption of Gaius
Baltar, as he becomes a pariah within the fleet (after being forced
to collaborate with the Cylons) but ultimately finds redemption
through monotheistic-based faith.
In the
final
episodes, a resurrected Kara Thrace leads the surviving humans
and Cylons to a new planet which is clearly the Earth of
present-day humanity, with the first colonists landing in Africa.
Adama names their new home planet Earth, as a tribute to the "real"
Earth of legend which had been originally sought by the survivors.
The original Earth was revealed to have been a different planet
entirely, one which, like Kobol, had become an uninhabitable
wasteland as a consequence of a war waged by its own Cylon
creations thousands of years before. The new Earth is found to be
already inhabited by humans who are genetically compatible with the
humans from the Galactica and the rest of the fleet, but who
possess only the most meager beginnings of civilization. Human
beings had apparently naturally evolved on both Earth and Kobol,
the original home world of the twelve colonies. The surviving
humans and humanoid Cylons decide to live on the new planet and
discard all
technology, destroying all of
their spaceships by flying them into the
Sun.
Kara Thrace, apparently an "
angel" since her
purportedly fatal crash on the "Earth" of legend, disappears. The
surviving Cylon Centurions are given possession of the remaining
Cylon basestar and proceed to jump away from Earth, never to be
heard from again.
The
series finale concludes with an
epilogue set "150,000 years later" in
present day Times Square, as two "angels," in the form of Caprica
Six and Gaius Baltar, muse on the origin and fate of present-day
humankind, and on whether or not the cycle of violence between
human and machine will repeat yet again. It is revealed that all
present-day humans on Earth are descended from the half-human,
half-Cylon girl named Hera, who lived out the remainder of her life
in Africa 150,000 years ago, contemporaneous with
Mitochondrial Eve. Consequently, unlike
most space opera
science fiction
stories, the re-imagined
Battlestar Galactica is a myth of
origin for modern Homo Sapiens, taking place in our collective
pre-historic past rather than
future
history.
Cast and characters
Themes and allusions
Theological references
Religion and theology flavored the original series, and they are
prominent in the reimagined series.
Perhaps the prominent religious component is the series'
overarching theme: the human survivors' search for Earth. That
search is motivated by ancient religious texts' references to a
13th tribe of humans that established a civilization on a distant
planet called Earth. Various religious relics and ruins, both on
the Twelve Colonies and elsewhere in the galaxy, provide clues to
Earth's location. Throughout the series, both humans and Cylons are
assisted in time of need by
avatars from a
higher plane of existence.
Human polytheism
Many of the humans share in
polytheism,
worshiping the gods of
Kobol. This appears to
be the official state religion of the colonies; government oaths
refer to the gods and, back on the Twelve Colonies, public museums
housed artifacts of the gods. Human attitudes towards religion are
similar to those in the contemporary United States - some are
devout believers, others are atheists, most fall somewhere in the
middle, and all three viewpoints are accepted more or less
equally.
The Kobol gods have the same names and characteristics as the Greek
Olympic gods, and the
show makes repeated references to
Zeus,
Hera,
Athena,
Poseidon,
Ares and
Apollo. In one story in season 3, the crew fights
with the Cylons to obtain "The Eye of Jupiter"; Jupiter is the
Roman equivalent of Zeus. As evidenced by prayers offered by the
human characters, the Kobol gods are morally refined and are
believed to watch over and intervene benevolently in the lives of
the just. This is similar to the conception of the gods during the
Greek classical and
Hellenistic periods, not the amoral
(and very human) gods of the
Greek archaic period.
In a reference to
Hinduism, the opening
credits are accompanied by an operatic version of the
Gayatri Mantra, a hymn dedicated to the solar
deity
Savitr. During a memorial service, the
residing chaplain recites another important Hindu prayer, actually
a sample from the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (one of
many
Upanishads) which is transliterated
here:
- Om asato maa sad gamaya;
- tamaso maa jyotir gamaya;
- mrtyor maa amrtam gamaya.
- Om shaantih shaantih
shaantih.
- Om. Lead me from the unreal to the real.
- Lead me from the darkness to light.
- Lead me from death to immortality.
- Om. Peace, peace, peace.
— Brihadaranyaka Upanishads (1.3.28)
In another parallel to Western polytheism, the names of the
Twelve Colonies and their planets
are similar to the names of the constellations in the
Greco-Roman zodiac. In the
early days of the 12 colonies, each colony's flag showed the
stellar constellation of its zodiac sign ("Home Pt. 2"). It is
implied by the finale that the Greek/Roman pantheons as well as
several ancient belief systems including the zodiac were imported
to Earth by the colonial survivors.
Divine Texts
The principal means of transmitting divine knowledge is the Sacred
Scroll. The Scroll chronicles the early period of human existence,
when people and the gods lived together on the planet Kobol (at the
beginning of the series, the location of Kobol is unknown and the
planet regarded as essentially mythical among secular humans). The
Scrolls tell that at some point in time, twelve human tribes left
Kobol and founded the 12 colonies, with a 13th heading towards
Earth (miniseries et al.). This is also referenced in the opening
words of the Scroll, "Life here began out there"
(miniseries).
The show
offers little detail of the Sacred Scroll, other than that it
contains the Book of Pythia, which chronicles an ancient
prophetess (similar to the Oracle of Delphi
, herself
named Pythia), who journeyed with the 13th
tribe on their voyage to Earth. Pythia also described the
exodus of the twelve tribes, and the things that happened to them.
She describes a dying leader, who will guide the tribes to
salvation. Among other things, the scriptures tell of the return to
Kobol, stating that bringing the Arrow of Apollo to the Tomb of
Athena will reveal the road to Earth. The dying leader is to die
just before the end of the journey. President Roslin sees herself
as playing the part of the leader in the texts, as she has terminal
breast cancer which was in remission
for a time, but then returned.
Cylon monotheism
Many of the
Cylon also share a
religious belief — in this case,
monotheism. The Cylons' monotheism seems to share
many traits of
Abrahamic monotheistic
religions: belief that God is
omniscient,
omnipotent,
omnibenevolent, that he will one day deliver
divine retribution, and that he
intervenes in the world. The actual teachings and laws of the
Cylon god are infrequently
referenced, but when they are, it is usually conveyed by
Number Sixes. Some humans
have, over the course of the series, come to follow the Cylon
monotheistic faith, mostly by way of
Gaius
Baltar.
References to modern society
Time described Battlestar
Galactica as "a gripping sci-fi allegory of the
war on terror, complete with monotheistic
religious fundamentalist (here,
genocidal cyborgs called Cylons),
sleeper
cells, civil-liberties crackdowns and even a prisoner-
torture scandal". Throughout its run, the show has
attempted to maintain its realism by referring to both familiar
elements of real world modern history –
Laura Roslin's swearing in on
Colonial One directly "cited the swearing in of
Lyndon B. Johnson after the Kennedy assassination" –
and the developing political situation since the
September 11, 2001 attacks. Many
people have drawn parallels between the Cylons and
Al Qaeda" and according to
The Guardian "
Battlestar
Galactica is the only award-winning drama that dares tackle
the war on terror". The show delves into the emotional rationale of
terrorists who act out of rage and vengeance in the aftermath of
their oppression. The show has also tackled issues regarding
terrorist sleeper cell with
stories involving both the reality and fear of Cylon
suicide attacks, Cylon Number 5, Aaron Doral,
in the episode called Litmus, sneaks aboard the Galactica and blows
himself up in the middle of the corridor, and '
sleeper agent', Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
activates after destroying a cylon basestar at the end of season 1
and shoots Commander Adama. Similar themes are revisited in season
3 (Episode 3.1, "Occupation" specifically) with a far different
perspective with the humans, rather than the Cylon 'enemy' becoming
the suicide bombers. It has been suggested that these plotlines
extensively "hinted at war-on-terrorism overtones". The show also
references civil liberties crackdowns during the 3rd season when
the 6 members of The Circle after the Exodus from New Caprica
become judge, jury, and executioner of the people who were accused
of aiding the cylons during the occupation on New Caprica. They
also touch on prisoner torture during season 2 when Cylons 6 and 8
(Lt. Valerii) both are attacked, raped, and tortured by Lt. Thorne
from the battlestar Pegasus. After 9/11, the original series'
"broad premise – the human military's struggles in the wake of a
massive terrorist attack – suddenly gained resonance" and let the
show tackle issues like suicide bombings, torture ("evoking the
darker side of the war on terror") and "civil liberties
crackdowns".
Executive producer Ronald D. Moore points out that the Cylons and
Al Qaeda are not necessarily intended to be directly allegorical:
"They have aspects of Al Qaeda, and they have aspects of the
Catholic Church, and they have
aspects of America", and in contrast, with the
New Caprica storyline the show's humans have
been discussed as an allegory not for an America under attack, but
for an occupied people mounting an
insurgency, and turning to suicide bombings as a
tactic. There is a consensus that with "its third season, the show
has morphed into a stinging allegorical critique of
America’s three-year
occupation of Iraq" as the "cameras record Cylon occupation
raids on unsuspecting human civilians with the
night-vision green familiar to any TV news
viewer. And the reasoning of the Cylons is horrifically familiar:
They would prefer not to be brutal, but they won't accept the
failure of a glorious mission." According to
Slate "If this sounds like Iraq, it
should", and "In unmistakable terms, Battlestar Galactica is
telling viewers that insurgency (like, say, the one in Iraq) might
have some moral flaws, such as the whole suicide bombing thing, but
is ultimately virtuous and worthy of support." The "really
audacious stroke of this season was showing us a story about a
suicide bomber from the point of view of the bomber and his
comrades... because the cause of this terrorist was unquestioningly
our own. We sympathize with the insurgents wholeheartedly." If the
Cylon occupying force is an allegory of the Coalition Forces in
Iraq, then some of the other references are equally controversial,
for example, the "scene of the shiny, terrifying Cylon centurions
(a servant class of robots that actually look like robots) marching
down the main road of New Caprica while the devastated colonists
looked on was the
Nazis marching into
Paris."
Although
David Eick has said the
production staff "don't need to say 'OK, let's do the episode where
we're gonna do the
Abu Ghraib scandal'",
and points out that events depicted on New Caprica "are as much a
story rooted in political tales like the
Vichy France or
Vietnam" rather than current events, he
acknowledges that they "do gravitate in those directions when it
comes to the storytelling".
Music
Bear McCreary is the primary composer
for the television series, having assisted
Richard Gibbs on the
3-hour miniseries. When
the show was picked up, Gibbs opted not to devote full time to the
regular series' production, and McCreary became the sole composer.
He worked on the series until it reached its conclusion in 2009,
scoring over 70 episodes. To date, five
Battlestar
Galactica soundtrack albums have been released, and have
garnered a great deal of critical acclaim. The
Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan hailed
the music as "sensational" and "innovative", Joanna Weiss of
The Boston Globe praised
McCreary as a "visionary composer" who did much to create "the rich
atmosphere of
Battlestar", Alan Sepinwall of
The Star-Ledger described McCreary's
work on the show as "transcendent" and
Variety said "
Galactica
offers some of the most innovative music on TV today."
The music of Battlestar Galactica displays a wide variety of ethnic
influences and intentionally tries not to conform to the "usual"
style of a science fiction score. For some of the series' more
important episodes, McCreary was granted a full orchestra.
Character themes and
leitmotifs gradually
took on a major role, despite being avoided at the outset. A
variety of ethnic instruments have been utilized. One season 4
episode employed:
Chinese membrane flute,
Indian bansuri flute,
duduk (Armenian woodwind),
erhu
(Chinese violin),
yialli tanbur (a
Turkish lute),
dumbek (Middle Eastern
drum), Japanese taiko drums—in addition to four brass players, 30
string players and a 12-voice choir.
There have been several live concerts featuring the music of
Battlestar Galactica. In April 2008, more than 1,000 fans attended
two sold-out shows at L.A.'s Roxy on Sunset Boulevard, with some
fans flying in from as far as England and Australia. A ballet based
on McCreary's scores for
Galactica premiered on March 7,
2009 for a 13 week run.
Entitled "Prelude to War", it was performed
by the dancers of the Theaterhagen in Hagen
, Germany
with
choreography by Ricardo Fernando, and the Hagen Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Bernhard Steiner.
Broadcast and release
International syndication
Season 1 began airing in North America three months later, on
January 14, 2005 in the United States, and January 15 in Canada.
The first episode aired in the US and became one of the
highest-rated programs ever on
Sci-Fi, with 3.1 million
viewers. Successive episodes proved equally successful. The first
episode of the season was later made available for viewing in its
entirety, and without charge from the Sci-Fi website. Moore also
sought to address the "Internet Generation" by posting
podcast commentaries on individual episodes on
the official Sci-Fi website. The Sci-Fi Channel ordered a
20-episode third season on November 16, 2005, which premiered in
the US on October 6, 2006, and in Canada on October 7, 2006, with
the first two episodes being shown together. The broadcast schedule
for Season Three did not include a long hiatus in the middle of the
season, as with Season Two.
Production began in April 2006 in Vancouver, British Columbia
. The Sci-Fi Channel moved the show to
Sundays on January 21, 2007, the first time the show had changed
nights since it began airing. Season Three was broadcast in
high-definition on
Sky One HD in the UK and Ireland,
starting on January 9, 2007, and in the US on
Universal HD, starting on January 27, 2007.The
Sci-Fi Channel confirmed on March 22, 2007 that
Battlestar
Galactica had been renewed for a fourth season of 22 episodes,
which producers David Eick and Ronald D. Moore later announced to
be the series' last. The first two episodes made up the
Razor TV Movie, while the remaining season of 20 episodes
was split into two halves, partly due to the writers' strike. The
first half comprised episodes 3 to 12, while the second half
comprised episodes 13 to 22. The series finale aired on Friday,
March 20, 2009.
The first 2 slots of season four's 22 episode order were taken up
by the two-hour TV movie
Battlestar Galactica: Razor
which was broadcast as an unbroken extended episode detailing the
chronicles of the Battlestar
Pegasus. It premiered
November 24, 2007 in the US and December 18, 2007 in the UK, and an
extended version was released on DVD immediately thereafter.
Razor had
Michelle Forbes
reprise her role as
Helena Cain, and
co-starred Australian actress
Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen who
played
Kendra Shaw.
The first half of season 4 (dubbed
Season 4.0 in its DVD
release) consisted of 10 episodes and premiered April 4, 2008.
The
Canadian cable channel Space
aired season four on the same dates. In the
UK, Sky One began airing Season Four on April 15, showing the first
two episodes on that date, placing the UK four days behind the US
screenings. The first part of Season 4 began broadcast on
Universal HD on August 30, 2008. In Australia,
the first half of season 4 began screening on
Ten
HD as of September 4, 2008 beginning with
Razor.
Linking both halves of season 4 together was a set of 10 webisodes
which played a similar role to that which
The Resistance
played between seasons 2 and 3.
Battlestar
Galactica: The Face of the Enemy was released during the
weeks leading up to the premiere of episode 13, starting on
December 12, 2008, and ending on January 12, 2009, collectively
titled
The Face of the Enemy. The second half of season 4
(dubbed
Season 4.5) consisted of 10 episodes and began
airing on January 16, 2009.
The season (and series) finale was split into
two episodes in the United
States, with the normal length first part airing on March
13, and the second, with a runtime (including adverts) of 2:11,
airing March 20.
In Australia, the second half of season 4 premiered on the
Australian
Sci-Fi channel
on Foxtel January 31 and continued on a weekly basis with each of
the remaining episodes of the series airing about 6 hours after the
US until the final episode on March 21.
In the United States the first half of
Battlestar
Galactica season 4 averaged a 1.8 Household rating: 1,576,000
Adults 18-49 (+15%); 1,726,000 Adults 25-54 (+19%) and 2,326,000
total viewers (+13%). Among Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54, this was
the best half season or full season performance for the series
since
Battlestar Galactica season 1 (Jan-April 2005).
Battlestar enjoyed its best season ever for female
viewers, delivering 592,000 Women 18-49 and 646,000 Women
25-54.
Future
On April 27, 2006, the Sci Fi Channel announced that a
prequel spin-off of
BSG was in development.
Caprica will take place over 50
years before the current series, before the original
Cylon War, and will chronicle the
Adama family and Caprican society as well as
show the advancement of technology leading to the Cylon revolt. On
March 18, 2008,
Ronald Moore, the Head
Writer confirmed that
Caprica is in fact a go project with
a two-hour
backdoor pilot to be
produced initially. On December 2, 2008 SCI FI announced that it
had given the green light for a full series. The first season,
composed of 20 episodes including the pilot, is currently slated to
resume shooting in the middle of 2009 for a premiere on January 22,
2010. An uncut version of the
pilot
was released on DVD on April 21, 2009, prior to the series'
broadcast debut.
On July 24, 2009, Edward James Olmos suggested that
The
Plan will not be the last
BSG movie, saying that he
had written a script involving the
Galactica characters in
which a crisis occurs at some point after their arrival on
Earth.
Home video releases
The miniseries was released in the UK on March 1, 2004 and in the
U.S. and Canada on December 28, 2004, and included deleted scenes,
audio commentary, and a behind-the-scenes documentary. The first
season was released to DVD on March 28, 2005 and September 20, 2005
in the UK and North America respectively and included deleted
scenes. The American set also included featurettes, and a
tongue-in-cheek promotional special filmed for the Sci Fi Channel
in addition to the miniseries. However, it does not contain the
special features that were included on the mini-series stand alone
DVD release.
The second season was released in its entirety in a single volume
in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia, but issued in two separate
volumes (dubbed "Season 2.0" and "Season 2.5") in the U.S. to
correspond with the mid-season break in the broadcast schedule.
Each U.S. volume contains half of the season, along with deleted
scenes and podcasts that were previously available on the official
website. "Season 2.5" also contains an extended version of
"Pegasus", the last episode of the first half of the season. The
Region 2 DVDs include the extended version of "Pegasus", as well as
the commentaries and deleted scenes from the U.S. 2.0 release, but
do not contain any of the commentaries and deleted scenes from the
2.5 release (other than the extended Pegasus episode), nor the
original, shorter version of "Pegasus" included on the U.S. 2.0
release. The Canadian DVD release of Season 2.0 was delayed until
April 25, 2006, as the episodes had only begun airing in January
2006.
The third season came out in R2 on September 3, 2007 and in R4 on
November 21, 2007. R1 was set for a March 25, 2008 release date.
The R2 & R4 DVDs do not contain any extras but R2's box set
came with a 45 minute recap of the previous two seasons (consisting
of clips of the seasons strung together with a voice-over). The
fourth season, like season two, will be released in two parts. In
regions 1, 2 and 4 the television movie
Razor were included in
"Part 1" (as it is technically a part of the season despite it
being released separately at an earlier date). In region 1,
however, both the extended and shortened versions of
Razor
will both be included in the "4.0" box set.
On August 14, 2007, Universal Studios Home Entertainment announced
that the mini-series and Season One would be released on December
4, 2007, in the North American market, on the now discontinued high
definition disc format
HD DVD. The technical
specifications include
1080p/
VC-1 transfers of the mini-series and each episode is
in
16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, plus
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
surround sound and
Dolby
Digital-Plus 5.1 surround audio options.
The complete series was released on
Blu-ray
Disc on July 28, 2009.
Online distribution
In January
2006, Apple
began
offering the miniseries, season 1 and season 2 episodes for
purchase on the U.S. version of its iTunes
Store. After a delay, season 3 episodes were also made
available.
NBC Universal, the producer
and owner of the show, has provided a number of its shows for
purchase the day after broadcast to U.S. customers. In early
December 2007 all of the iTunes
Battlestar Galactica
episodes were removed along with other NBC-Universal content, but
were restored, and in mid-2009 the iTunes store has all four
seasons and the miniseries available.
Shortly after being removed from the iTunes service, Amazon's
online
Video on Demand store
started making them available for sale. All season 1-4 episodes as
well as the miniseries and the TV movie
Razor are
available for purchase in Windows Media Format. Since May 2008, the
newest episodes are added to Scifi.com Rewind and NBC's
Hulu sites eight days after the original air date. As
of May 6, Battlestar Galactica can be downloaded through the Zune
marketplace.
All four seasons as well as the mini-series are currently available
in both HD and SD format for purchase through the
Xbox Live Marketplace for playback via
Xbox 360 game consoles. On September 9,
2008, all episodes so far including the miniseries were released on
iTunes, being released in both Standard and
HD format (except for the miniseries, which is only available in
Standard format). In February 2009, episodes of Battlestar
Galactica became available in HD format at the UK iTunes Store. In
March 2009,
PlayStation Network
began offering episodes for download on the PlayStation 3 and PSP
devices.
Impact
Critical response
Throughout its run, the series earned critical acclaim from
Time Magazine,
National Review,
Rolling Stone,
Newsday,
The
New York Times,
The New
Yorker,
The San
Francisco Chronicle,
The Chicago Tribune, and
Entertainment Weekly.
Diane Werts of
Newsday wrote: "You can look
at this saga any way you want—as political drama, religious debate,
psychological suspenser, sci-fi adventure, deep metaphor or just
plain fun—and it's scintillating from every angle." Robert Bianco
of
USA Today commented: "Driven
by violence and rage, Galactica is perhaps the darkest space opera
American TV has ever produced. In Galactica's future, humans are on
the run, and if external enemies don't get us, internal divisions
will... You'll understand them [the characters], their conflicts
and their desires, because they're recognizable humans in all their
glorious complexity. And that's what makes Galactica a great TV
series." Peter Suderman of
National
Review stated that the series is "arguably the most
potent, dramatically vibrant series on television. ...[I]t packs
the power of a gut punch on screen. For that, much credit is due to
the immensely compelling cast of characters...
Battlestar
Galactica burns with a combustive mixture of political turmoil
and human drama that is as achingly real and relevant as anything
on television. Jeff Jensen of
Entertainment Weekly wrote that
the show "has distinguished itself as one of television's very best
dramas — on a par with
24, The Wire, and
Lost —
because it so utterly transcends both its genre and its source
material. ...[The] series' sophisticated stories have also
attracted a distinctively new breed of fan, one who's not
necessarily a sci-fi buff."
Mary McNamara of the
Los Angeles
Times praises the show's ability to "anchor fantasy with
vivid and recognizable human psychology" and declares that the
series is "not just a cult hit but a significant piece of
television." Maureen Ryan of the
Chicago Tribune describes
it as a "sprawling, enthralling tale of human survival" that is
"full of political allegories and fascinating, multifaceted
characters." She finds, "Like
Deadwood, Battlestar
Galactica is interested in exploring how a society on the edge
decides to govern itself. What rights and actions are sacrosanct,
which are outlawed, when most of the human race is eliminated? ...
Thanks to a stellar cast and brave writing,
Battlestar
soars." Throughout its run, the series has often surprised
reviewers with its many twists and turns. Ryan comments: "There’s
nothing like a good
Battlestar plot
twist to make your head spin, but the “holy cow” moments aren’t
the main point (though they’re one heck of a tasty side dish). The
show and its twists and turns are grounded in deep curiosity about
human nature, and how contradictory and confounding it can
be."
Matt Soergel of
The Florida
Times-Union states: "Its propulsive and complex
storytelling is matched by, at best, just a handful of theatrical
movies a year." Tim Goodman of the
San Francisco Chronicle opines,
"
Battlestar Galactica transcends the sci-fi genre; it
competes, creatively, on the same level as any other top-tier
drama." Mark Perigard of the
Boston
Herald states: "A drama this gripping comes ’round
rarely." James Poniewozik of
Time Magazine has named it
one of the 100 best TV shows of all time.
Time magazine
also wrote in the spring of 2005 that the new show was one of the
six best drama programs on television. It would proclaim the
program the best show on television in December of the same year.
Television Without Pity
describes
Battlestar Galactica as "one of the finest, most
beautifully written, expertly acted shows on television." Alan
Sepinwall of
The
Star-Ledger writes: "[W]hat makes
Galactica so
gripping is its emphasis on character over hardware. The explosions
and the killer robots are cool, but they don't stack up to seeing
fully-drawn people - brought to life by a great writing staff led
by producer Ron Moore and an astonishing cast led by Edward James
Olmos and Mary McDonnell - grapple with these life-or-death,
genocide-level decisions." Joshua Alston of
Newsweek declares that the show "captures
better than any other
TV
drama of the past eight years the fear, uncertainty and moral
ambiguity of the post-9/11 world" and "always finds ways to
challenge the audience's beliefs."
The series also draws praise for having many strong and complex
female characters. The
Seattle Post-Intelligencer's
Melanie McFarland notes, "[Starbuck], played with a tomboyish
swagger by Katee Sackhoff, is fast becoming the latest in a long
line of feminist television icons."
The series has also received favorable reviews from other writers.
Stephen King wrote, "This is a
beautifully written show, driven by character rather than
effects...but the effects are damn good. And there's not a better
acting troupe at work on television."
Joss
Whedon commented: "I think it's so passionate, textured,
complex, subversive and challenging that it dwarfs everything on
TV."
Wider influence
On March 17, 2009, the
United Nations
hosted a
Battlestar Galactica retrospective including a
discussion with
Mary McDonnell,
Edward James Olmos,
Ronald D. Moore and
David
Eick on
human rights,
terrorism, children and
armed
conflict, and reconciliation between civilians and faiths. The
Discussion was moderated by actress
Whoopi Goldberg and also included
Radhika Coomaraswamy, the
Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict;
Craig Mokhiber of the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights;
Robert
Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning; and
Famatta Rose Osode, from the
Permanent Mission of Liberia to the UN.
Battlestar Galactica is the basis for a special session at
the
2009 World Science Festival. The session
includes presentations from
Mary
McDonnell and
Michael
Hogan, as well as scientists
Hod
Lipson and
Kevin Warwick.
Awards
References
- "Best of 2005: Television", By James
Poniewozik, Time, December 16, 2005
- "Space Balls: While politicians spent a campaign
season avoiding the big issues, TV's bravest series has been facing
them in thrilling fashion.", By Laura Miller, Salon
(online), November 10, 2006
- "Intergalactic Terror", By Gavin Edwards,
Rolling Stone (online), January 27, 2006
- "The final frontier", By Dan Martin, The
Guardian, January 13, 2007
- "Battlestar: Iraqtica. Does the hit television show
support the Iraqi insurgency?", By Spencer Ackerman,
Slate (online), October 13, 2006
- "Battlestar Galacticons", By Brad Reed, The
American Prospect (online), October 27, 2006
- "Universal HD Schedule" UniversalHD.com July 19,
2008.
- [1]
- tvshowsondvd.com, February 20, 2009
-
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30217&Cr=television&Cr1=
- http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/03/galactica-un.html
-
http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2009/battlestar-galactica
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