I recently finished watching the whole Battlestar Galactica (new series) 1st season. First thing to say is I can’t wait to catch the 2nd season. As mentioned in my last blog on what I am watching these days… Galactica is looking good.
The whole premise of the human race on the run from relentless and in some cases human-like cylons as a backdrop creates the tension that is not felt in any of the Trek series. Sorry the comparison is unfair as Trek tends to be more wholesome and optimistic. Galactica is a little more pessimistic in nature, but its allusions to the mythical “earth” is intriguing. You see, mankind has been colonising space many millenia from now. It would appear that Earth would be inhabitable forcing humankind to venture forth into space. The memories of earth are then confined into the realm of mythology.
In addition to these undercurrents, we also get an almost Asimovian philosophical debate about what makes humans human… can robots acquire human traits? Some of these questions are similar to those asked in Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep… or in its’ silver screen version Blade Runner.
The series is very much character driven, with many interesting characters.
This also brings me to another sci-fi flick Serenity which is a follow up to the now defunct TV series, Firefly.