If you’ve seen the original series, it’s hard to believe that one of the smartest shows on television is the new Battlestar Galactica. From Reality: A Special Effect:
An out-of-the-blue, world-altering attack. Nuclear weapons. Suicide bombers. Tortured prisoners. Faith-based policy.Sound all-too familiar? The post-9/11 culture, in all its scary ambiguity, gets the full treatment in — of all places — outer space as the surprisingly sophisticated remake of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ begins its second season July 15 on the Sci Fi Channel. A marathon of Season One, the cable channel’s highest-rated series in its 13-year history, will start at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Created in the charged and confusing months of early 2002, the show has managed to energize viewers on both sides of the political debate through its portrayals of inconsistent leaders and unresolved, high-stakes conflicts. In the process, it has also revolutionized science fiction on television, elevating a genre that is often dismissed as cheesy escapist fantasy into the ranks of the most serious prime-time dramas. Indeed, the new “Battlestar Galactica” has won over fans of the original dubious about a remake as well as television critics who like its relevant social and political themes as much as its military hardware and sexy Cylons.
According to “Galactica” co-creators Ron Moore and David Eick, the goal for the show was to create naturalistic, multidimensional characters as opposed to the squeaky clean heroes of traditional sci-fi TV. Rather than advancing any particular political agenda, Moore said, the characters act on the basis of their own deeply flawed natures.
This “Battlestar Galactica” is “designed to make you think, to make you question strongly held beliefs,” he said. “Good people can make bad decisions and bad people can make good decisions. I mean, life is much more complicated than it’s usually portrayed on television.”
Provoking viewers to the edge of discomfort, Eick said, the show also asks, “Are you rooting for the right side?”
The writer doesn’t seem to realize that Star Trek was famously pitched as “Wagon Train in space”:
The Lorne Greene original was often called “Bonanza in Space.” In contrast, the new version starring Olmos and McDonnell as deeply flawed military and civilian leaders of a band of space war survivors has been labeled “The West Wing in Space,” and “24 in Space.”