I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Battlestar Galactica is the greatest science fiction TV series ever. That’s a pretty big claim to make in front of hordes of Star Trek and Babylon 5 fans, and it’s not to say that those shows don’t have their merits, but there is something about BG that takes it beyond the genre: and it was a remake.
Let’s face it, the original series was a bit cheesy. A poor bastard child of STAR WARS and Star Trek, it suffered more from the constraints of low budgets than the actual writing and ideas, which meant the special effects weren’t always up to much. Star Trek was more the pure science fiction of speculative technology, but it often suffered from the alien-of-the-week syndrome (which were invariably humanoid or insectoid in form), and even though the crew were mostly from Earth it didn’t really have much grounding in reality.
Battlestar Galactica, on the other hand, didn’t even start on Earth – in fact, Earth was its goal – and the characters in the show were decidedly human, with all their vanities, foibles, strengths and weaknesses. And the technology was advanced, in the sense that we don’t have the capacity for space travel they have, but it is still very much manufactured and retro and subject to constant failure and breakdown – just like the humans. And the Cylons make a formidable enemy because not only were they created by the humans but also superseded them and almost brought about their total destruction: something we are facing now, where technology is destroying the planet and killing people en-masse. And making the newly evolved Cylons to look like humans was a stroke of genius on the part of the writers that not only overcomes the problem of creating believable aliens, but also adds extra tension and depth to the story.
When encouraging non-genre fans to watch the show I would always describe it as West Wing in space, although it was, in my opinion, far superior to the lauded political drama. BG had plenty of political intrigue, but it also had healthy doses of theology and plenty of action and human drama, and some of the sexiest looking robots you will see anywhere. The show was superbly acted and the writing was immaculate and totally absorbing, and filled with unexpected twists, so you were always left wanting to watch another episode. (I would watch a whole season in a weekend, rather than wait for each weekly instalment.)
Like many of the best sci-fi shows (at least those that weren’t prematurely axed), the producers made a definitive decision to not let the show run and run until it ran out of ideas, but contained it to just a mini series (or two) and four (or five) seasons, depending how you count them. However you want to count them, they are all available now in a single box set that includes all the episodes, the introductory mini series, as well as Razor, and a stack of extras not previously released, especially on the Blu-ray. So if you’ve been holding off watching the series, or buying the DVD you have no more excuses. It is also available Blu-ray. Some of the earlier seasons are film to HD transfers that don’t look that much better than the upscaled DVDs, but the later seasons shot on HD look superb, and they make good use of the Blu-ray menu options: so a good one to get on the hi-def platform if you haven’t taken the HD plunge yet. Both formats come in a collector’s tin with a 36-page book. There is also an Ultimate edition that includes two books and a Cylon figurine.
Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series is released on 21 September by Universal Playback and is available direct from their website or from Play and all good retailers.
We have a copy of the Battlestar Galactica Final Season, signed by Jamie Bamber, to give away courtesy of Universal Playback.
Click on the link below to enter the competition, which closes 15 October 2009
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