Battlestar Galactica

When they SciFi first re-imagined Battlestar I thought it would be terrible. Most SciFi originals are low budget, and to do a campy show with a low budget could go the way of that New Zealand scifi show or Andromeda with Kevin Sorbo. Point being, I did not watch it. Then the reviews came in, "One of the best shows on television", and I thought I should check it out. Season one came and passed.

Season two came and the reviews came again, "One of the greatest dramas on television today". Again I thought I should watch it, but I have a lot going on in my life. That season passed. I really liked Veronica Mars, and got my wife into it for the second season. So we are watching, and Veronica says "fracking" to replace an expletive. What is this "Frack"? Well, in the original, it was shit or darn, but in the new version, it mean fuck, and is used quite liberally, both as Frack! or Frack off, Don't frack with me, Frack you, etc....

So I thought that was oretty neat - to create a word and give it meaning in your own world to get around censorship. So I set my TiVO for the premiere of Season 3 (December 2006) and I was totally lost. Some people are on New Caprica occupied by the Cylons, some are on Battlestar, some on Pegasus. I do not understand any of the relationships or who the characters are or why I should care - but it is riveting, so I stick with it, and TiVo reruns. I try to piece together who everyone is, their past and connection to the others.

So for the premiere of Season 4 last week, I thought I had done pretty well. I had my bearing on who all of the characters are, how they got there, etc.... I thought I had seen the majority of the episodes here and there from the first two seasons. I tried to get Court into it, but no go.

I'm an not a scifi geek, but I do count Blade Runner as one of my favorite films, and I think Steel Beach is an awesome novel, and of course Asimov is an amazing story teller and Murakami, and Doug Adams are definitely in my top five of favorite authors - and Time's Arrow changed the way I think about linear narrative. That being said I think the genre is very important in the world pysche.

So I can't get back to sleep the other night, and go into our guest room to watch TV around 4:30 am or so. I flip the TiVo on, and there is a Battlestar wrap-up show, explaining the whole series leading up to Season 4. I rewind and watch it, only to realize that I have missed entire story arcs, and characters, and important facts. Very disappointed in myself. I now have to get the first and second seasons from NetFlix and start all over again.

Can you guest who will be the final one of the five?

Post your thoughts and guesses. I will say it is, well I have to watch all the episodes. Do you think they knew in Season 1 who the final five would be, or looked to the strength and evolution of the characters to decide?