Frackin' Cool: The Greatness of 'Battlestar Galactica'

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IN THE WORLD of nerd fandom, there are many things that are sacred: Princess Leia in the gold bikini; HAL's cold, murderous cruelty; the final cut of "Blade Runner" (no narration, please); Mulder and Scully; and how awesome the trailers for "Watchmen" are, to name a few.

Sure, there are schisms every so often (for example, the arguments over "Star Wars" v. "Lord of the Rings," as perfectly captured in "Clerks II"), DC Comics v. Marvel Comics or "Star Trek: The Next Generation" v. "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"), but pretty much all geeks agree:

"Battlestar Galactica" is baller.

In a time when most television shows unfortunately have the world "reality" in their names somewhere, the Sci-Fi Channel's little show that could, the latest adaptation in a whole pantheon of previous television series, films, books and video games, has survived since 2004, drawing a cult following for its dark storyline about the humans in the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, those damn Cylons that just keep hunting them down and the humans' trek in the Battlestar Galactica ship to find the mysterious 13th colony known as Earth.

The first part of "Battlestar Galactica's" fourth season (the show, like so many others, was stalled by the Writers Guild strike in 2007 and 2008) comes out on DVD on Jan. 6, while the second half of the season, which is also the show's last, premieres on Sci-Fi on Jan. 16.

But why is this Holy Grail of nerdy couch potatoes everywhere so frackin' great — winning numerous Emmy Awards and garnering praise from outlets such as Television Without Pity, the American Film Institute and Time Magazine, which named "Battlestar Galactica" the best show on television in 2005 and one of the best shows of all time in 2007?

We'll break it down for you.

AN EXCEPTIONAL ENSEMBLE
In some regards, "Battlestar Galactica" could be described as some weird hybrid of "The X-Files," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." People keep dying (see: the Survivor Count preceding most episodes of "Battlestar Galactica") and things keep sucking, but the main characters (Mulder and Scully or the Scooby Gang, if you will) keep on trucking, encouraged by Admiral Adama, a leader (much like Captain Benjamin Sisko, perhaps) who just won't give up. It's that cast that made those shows so successful, and "Battlestar Galactica" is no different.

Specifically outstanding are the Emmy- and Academy Award-nominated Edward James Olmos as the aforementioned admiral, who's arguably the show's strongest and most committed character; the Academy Award-nominated Mary McDonnell as Laura Roslin, the president of the Twelve Colonies who is battling cancer while trying to help lead her people to safety; and Katee Sackhoff as the desperate, survival-minded Starbuck, whose tough demeanor supports her ideology of "fight [the Cylons] until we can't."

And the development of each character is multilayered and enthralling: Adama must struggle with the loneliness associated with the position of leading the crew on the Battlestar Galactica while realizing that it is sapping him of any chance of a personal life; Roslin must face down death, immediately because of her cancer and possibly in the future because of a potential Cylon victory; and Starbuck must grapple with her guilt over playing a role in the death of her fiancee, Zak Adama — who just so happened to be Admiral Adama's son. Each character has grown as the show has progressed, and with only half a season left, it can only get better.

REIMAGINED REPLICANTS
Can't we figure out how to make robots that can't rebel against us already? Without them, though, science fiction would probably be exceptionally boring. In a fashion similar to "The Matrix" and "Blade Runner," the Cylons of "Battlestar Galactica" are murderous guerrillas who were once robots created by the humans of the Twelve Colonies. But in a bid to gain their freedom, the Cylons — who can think, love and feel on their own — rebel, murdering most of the humans in the Twelve Colonies and pursuing the survivors in the Battlestar Galactica as the humans try to reach Earth.

And the fact that the Cylons look like humans certainly helps things — both for their spying efforts and for the show's plot arc as a whole.

The 11 Cylon models we've seen so far have nearly all contributed complicated, intense storylines — most fantastically between Number Six and Saul Tigh. We always know that Number Six, also known as Caprica Six, is a Cylon, but when she starts having a sexual relationship with Tigh and ends up getting pregnant, things get all the more complex. And then, with a snippet of Bob Dylan's classic "All Along the Watchtower" writhing in the background, we learn Tigh — who we always thought was human — is actually a Cylon, one of the final five Cylons who thought they were humans all along.

Come Jan. 29, we want to know: What's going to happen to Tigh and the other three revealed humans-actually-Cylons? Who is the last member of the final five? Is Caprica Six really pregnant? And what other robot-related duplicity is going to occur? Tell us please, thx.

A HEALTHY MIX
Are you a standalone or a myth arc? Don't worry; "Battlestar Galactica" has both.
Thanks to seamless production and writing, the show has episodes that add to the human v. Cylon point of it all (season two's "Lay Down Your Burdens" and season four's "The Road Less Traveled") and ones that work just fine on their own (season two's "Final Cut" and "Scar"), kind of similar to the monster-of-the-week dynamic of "The X-Files." There are unexpected deaths, love affairs, shocking allegiances and tons of other twists — and with producer Ron Moore at the helm, it all works. Though not as bizarre as "Lost," the same us v. them mentality applies — and the show has managed to stay believable for four years without having to rely on islands, polar bears or hatches.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE WEBISODES
Thanks to YouTube's ubiquitous Internet takeover, you can now not only watch clips of some of your favorite shows online, but entire episodes, too. Hence the genius of "Battlestar Galactica"'s Webisodes: Three sets of different episodes released on the Sci-Fi Channel's Web site between different seasons of the show. They're not very long — only three to four minutes each — but there are enough of them in each set (seven to 10) to keep the storylines working and the audience thinking.

First was "The Resistance," released in 2006 between seasons two and three, which focused on the invasion of colony New Caprica by the Cylons. The Webisodes centered on Tigh, who would later in the series turn out to be a Cylon himself, and his efforts to fight the invaders and their human collaborators (a concept so interesting that the Sci-Fi Channel will release a whole television series about the subject in 2010 called "Caprica"). Next came "Razor Flashbacks," released in 2007 as a lead-up to the Sci-Fi Channel movie "Razor;" the seven Webisodes dealt with the First Cylon War and Adama's first stint on the Battlestar Galactica as a fighter pilot. And last is "The Face of the Enemy," 10 episodes released after the first part of season four that will continue through the show's return on Jan. 29. Though brief in length, the Webisodes are tightly written and addictive, and a little bit of backstory is always a good thing, right?

RELIGIOUS REFS
Like all good sci-fi shows ("Lost," "The X-Files"), "Battlestar Galactica" has a healthy amount of religious flirtation fluttering about — a reference here, a quotation there. The entire crux of the series — that 12 human colonies (or tribes) developed, with the 13th colony (or tribe) being safe on Earth — is pretty theological, but what makes it more so is the twist that humans in these colonies worship many gods inspired by Greek mythology, while the Cylons worship only one (take that, monotheism).

But "Battlestar Galactica" doesn't just flip the script — there are oracles, reincarnation and a whole host of other reimagined religious ideas floating about, and even if you're not looking for them, they play an important role that will probably get bigger as the season progresses.

Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi