From USA Today:
'Galactica' back, better than ever
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
7/14/2005
You don't have to love sci-fi to love Battlestar Galactica.
Obviously, having some basic interest in space ships, apocalyptic prophecies and genocidal robots can't help but add to your enjoyment. But like all great science fiction, Galactica is less about outer space than inner lives. Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick created a fully realized, extraterrestrial world of their own and use it to explore and explain ours.
It is not, however, a pretty world. 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.
The second-season premiere finds the beleaguered colonists — the few remaining survivors of the human space race after a surprise attack by the robotic Cylons — in extreme peril, even by Galactica standards.
Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) has been shot, and his son Apollo (Jamie Bamber) has been jailed for supporting deposed President Roslin (Mary McDonnell). Crewmembers are stranded on two hostile planets, and the Battlestar itself is now in the incapable hands of Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan) and his Lady Macbeth bride. Which means things quickly go from bad to worse, as Tigh somehow manages to lose the fleet. And don't even ask about the Cylons, whose ability to mimic human form allows them to pop up in the strangest places.
As often happens with fantasy series, Galactica's complex mythology can pose a barrier to newcomers. If you have trouble breaking through, let go of the story and focus on the characters. You'll understand them, 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.
'Galactica' back, better than ever
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
7/14/2005
You don't have to love sci-fi to love Battlestar Galactica.
Obviously, having some basic interest in space ships, apocalyptic prophecies and genocidal robots can't help but add to your enjoyment. But like all great science fiction, Galactica is less about outer space than inner lives. Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick created a fully realized, extraterrestrial world of their own and use it to explore and explain ours.
It is not, however, a pretty world. 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.
The second-season premiere finds the beleaguered colonists — the few remaining survivors of the human space race after a surprise attack by the robotic Cylons — in extreme peril, even by Galactica standards.
Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) has been shot, and his son Apollo (Jamie Bamber) has been jailed for supporting deposed President Roslin (Mary McDonnell). Crewmembers are stranded on two hostile planets, and the Battlestar itself is now in the incapable hands of Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan) and his Lady Macbeth bride. Which means things quickly go from bad to worse, as Tigh somehow manages to lose the fleet. And don't even ask about the Cylons, whose ability to mimic human form allows them to pop up in the strangest places.
As often happens with fantasy series, Galactica's complex mythology can pose a barrier to newcomers. If you have trouble breaking through, let go of the story and focus on the characters. You'll understand them, 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.
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