BattleStar Galactica: Series Pilot Episode

Chels: Ohhh you read that header correctly my friends. This is a review that I posted ... about BattleStar Galactica. And I guess I should just come right out and say it, I like this show. So by now I've seen more than just the pilot episode, but for the purpose of this review we'll focus solely on the series pilot. I was less than eager to start watching this show, as I'm sure you could guess. This was Justin's choice of the next TV we were going to watch from pilot to finale. I completely picked small with my previous show choice. Damn you Party Down, I need way more than 2 seasons of you! So here's the breakdown. We're in the future, really really really far in the future. So far in the future in fact that we've created a superior race of robots (Cylons), and they've had enough time to evolve and almost wipe us dumb humans clear off the map. They're smarter, stronger, and now, they look like us. And, they have a plan. Dunnn dunnn dunnnnnnnn. I love the cast of this show, it's just bizarro after bizarro. There's Colonel Saul Tigh who looks EXACTLY like skinny John McCain. We can't forget Dr. Gaius Baltar, who obviously jumped too far into the future while being Desmond on LOST and is now forced to be the smartest human alive (no pressure or anything). But my personal favorite bizarro is Admiral William Adama. Does this guy not look like Tommy Lee Jones and George Lopez had a baby? You know you see it! As I dive deeper and deeper into the almost endless abyss of BSG episodes, and the numerous full length movies (when does it stop!?), I find myself becoming more and more of a fan. Did I just say that out loud?

Justin: Dude, you should have heard Chels trying to get out of watching this show. Perhaps she doth protest too much? Off topic here, but please indulge me. My geek father raised me on a little show called Star Trek. Chels is strictly a Star Wars girl. I was actually unaware that it was a problem to be a fan of both until I was an adult. No one is going to argue Episode 4-6 of Star Wars was anything but a landmark for film and science fiction in general. Star Wars changed everything. My argument was this: as a Star Wars fan, if you hate the prequels, don't play the games, don't read the comics or novels, and don't pay attention to the excellent Clone Wars animated series, what can you really say your a fan of? 6 or 7 hours of film? Let's take Star Trek, for example, a franchise that predates Star Wars by over a decade and has literally hundreds and hundreds of hours of episodes, spinoffs, and more than ten full length features. If you want to seriously get your money's worth out of your Netflix account, you need a franchise with some content, am I right? So since I've already seen most all of Star Trek (up until about season 2 of DS9, even I can only handle so much) I set my sights on fraking Battlestar Galactica. The original Battlestar debuted shortly after Episode 4 of Star Wars came out and blew everyone's minds. The modern reboot has some real insidious twists on the original series. It's like a mixture of some of the best TV Sci Fi tropes in one show. It has the space battles that made Star Wars so exciting. It has the military mission mentality from Star Trek. It has Desmond from Lost. Just kidding, but that Gaius dude really reminds me of him, brotha. It's like Star Trek if the Federation got destroyed in the first episode. It deals with the notion of science vs. superstition, which I find fascinating. Also, these like, cylons, who don't know they're cylons. The character's are really human and the technobable is limited, compared to Star Trek. It can become a dramarama, but I knew it was famous for this. The Space Opera stuff is one of the reasons this show had appeal beyond the usual LAN party nerds.