Battlestar Galactica gets rebooted with this Miniseries

I never saw the original Battlestar Galactica series, and am only vaguely familiar with it. However, I’ve been interested in this latest updated series for some time, but never took the time to sit down and watch until just recently. The series was rebooted with this three-hour Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries that lead the way to the show that has now run multiple seasons and is still quite popular.

The title of the show is the taken from the name of the large ship where most of the story takes place. One might liken the Battlestar Galactica to the Starship Enterprise because it is a giant vessel holding thousands of people and functions like a space city. At the beginning of this miniseries, the ship is about to begin a decommissioning ceremony and so a bunch of tourists and dignitaries are there to see it off. Even some areas of the ship had been converted into museums, and some of the ‘old’ Battlestar Galactica space fighters had been put on display like antique cars.

Several decades prior, humans created a bunch of robots called Cylons, and those robots eventually became self-aware and started a war with the humans. Once that all settled, nobody heard anything from them for about 40 years, then suddenly one of them comes back in the form of a leggy blonde intent on destroying humans, though she seems equally fascinated with them. What eventually occurs is a full scale nuclear strike against most every inhabited planet, plus many of the newest Battlestars are also destroyed.

With the planets and other ships gone, all of a sudden the relic ship called Battlestar Galactica has become the last hope for humankind. Using mostly ‘old’ technology, the crew members work to pick up survivors and try to fight the Cylons as best they can. The main problem they face is that Cylons have figured out how to make themselves look human, and it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference. It seems as if they only reason that the Galactica has managed to survive for so long is because the Cylons want to study humans up close. There are also some religious undertones that I hear are greatly expanded in future seasons.

This miniseries is great and I loved the story. The idea of an old ship suddenly being forced back into active duty is cool, plus I like the theme about how all their new technology is useless against the Cylons. You can tell a lot of money went into this production, because the sets are huge and well-detailed, and the visual effects are awesome. It has some big space battles that are on par with a Star Wars movie, and the characters are all fleshed out very well.

Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver) is wonderful as the captain of the Galactica. He plays the character like an old soldier who takes on his job like a duty he must perform. Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves) plays the acting President after most everyone else is killed in the initial attack. Katee Sackhoff plays Starbuck, which has caused some controversy since the original character was played by a man, but it still works for the show. Jamie Barber is good as the son of Olmos who is also a star pilot. James Callis has a very interesting role as a doctor who was used by the main Cylon to start the war, and he is struggling to comes to terms with it, plus he keeps having visions of her. Finally, there’s Tricia Helfer as the sexy female Cylon who seems to be at the head of the operation. She thinks of herself as a god, and is very interested in the way humans behave, even though she seems to have no problem killing them. The rest of the cast, who are far too many to mention, all give very good performances.

My only real complaint about this miniseries is that it does have some slow moments. Although the DVD plays seamlessly, I had to remind myself that it was originally aired as a TV show with breaks and such. Sometimes the translation from the TV to DVD suffers this way because everything moves along without interruption. Even so, the three hour length of this series opener does wonders for setting up the story and characters, and I can’t wait to jump into the first season of the show.