We’re Doomed!

Before 2003, the name Battlestar Galactica made you think of cheesy sci-fi from the 1970s. Back then, because of Star Wars (and all the crazy money that movie made) every studio around had to get their own sci-fi franchise out the door. We can thank Star Wars for the return of the Star TrekOriginally conceived as "Wagon Train in Space", Star Trek was released during the height of the Hollywood Western film and TV boom. While the concept CBS originally asked for had a western vibe, it was the smart, intellectual stories set in a future utopia of science and exploration that proved vital to the series' long impact on popular culture. franchise, the return of Flash Gordon, and so much more. And, because of that film, ABC was willing to take a chance on a sci-fi space opera about humans fleeing their home planets upon their destruction, heading into space on a ship called Battlestar Galactica.

The original show wasn’t a massive hit. Although it initially premiered huge, it quickly fell in the ratings (in part due to ABC jockeying it around the schedule and then leaving it off the air for weeks at a time) until it was finally axed after a single season of 24 episodes. And while a revival was attempted a year later (with the very on the nose title of Galactica 1980), the show couldn’t find its feet or its fanbase. It didn’t so much fall into obscurity but became a curiosity, a show people talked about even if half the time it was to point out how cheesy the original show was in the eyes of modern audiences.

But it was a name people knew, and when a studio has a potential intellectual property to use they are loath to let go of it. NBCUniversal owned the rights to Battlestar Galactica and, in the early 2000s, they set about producing a new version of the show. Ronald D. Moore, who had previously worked in the Star Trek franchise (from The Next Generation through Voyager eras) was brought in as showrunner and it was his ideas, and his vision for the show, that came to define the voice of the new Battlestar Galactica. Taking a page from the original series, this reboot started with a two-part mini-series that set the story for the whole show, creating the award-winning series fans continue to love to this day (so long as we maybe ignore the last half season or so).

The humans and Cylons were at war for decades. The Cylons were intelligent robots designed by humans as a kind of worker class for human civilization. But at a certain point they rebelled and launched an all out attack against their makers. The two sides battered each other to a detente, and at that point an armistice was called, with the Cylons heading out into space to find a new world to colonize. Years later, a single spaceport stands at the edge of the demilitarized zone between human and Cylon space, with the humans posting a representative there in case the Cylons ever want to talk.The Cylons do eventually arrive on one of their great battleships, with a single, human-looking representative (eventually to be known as Number Six, played by Tricia Helfer), who promises the destruction of all mankind.

That space port is blown up, while a virus infects the human defense systems across all twelve of their colonies, bringing down their grid. Up on the Battlestar Galactica, a massive warship from the old Cylon War that was set to be decommissioned and turned into a museum, the ship’s commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos) gets word from the fleet that the twelve colonies are under attack. Gathering what crew and ships he can, and ending up with the new flagship of the colonial government, holding Education Secretary Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) who is soon to become the President of the Colonies when all the other Cabinet members die in the initial attack, the Galactica has to break free and fly off, protecting the last survivors of humanity before the Cylons wipe them all out.

For anyone that watched the original series, or knew the story from that show, the mini-series doesn’t necessarily tell a story that’s all that new. Same setup, same delivery: the twelve colonies are attacked by the Cylons, and the only hope is to take what remnants of humanity exist and head out into the stars. It’s in the execution that the show differentiates itself, avoiding the schlocky 1970s vibe of the original series for something more grounded and daring. If it didn’t bear the name Battlestar Galactica you’d almost swear they were two different shows.

Moore worked on Deep Space Nine, and you can feel that influence on this show with its darker storytelling and willingness to go in for long-form, serialized storytelling. Some of the best seasons of Deep Space Nine came during Moore’s tenure, and you can feel him taking the lessons he learned there and applying them to this new show where he was free to build his own story and his own characters. Yes, it’s Battlestar Galactica, but without any previous continuity he had to stick to, or versions of characters he couldn’t change, Moore was able to remake this show in an image he preferred and, at least in this initial mini-series, it’s great.

Some changes were more controversial than others. The character of Laura Roslin had no analogue to a character from the original show, making her something new for the format of the series. Having her be at the same level as Commander Adama (her the President, by default, of the remnants of humanity, he the leader of the fleet) meant that more emphasis could be placed on civilian stories, even in this first mini-series. It broadens the scope beyond just the main ship, and that allows us to have more, and different, stories to tell.

The bigger change that really drove fans wild was making both Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and Boomer (Grace Park) into women. They were both male characters on the older show, with Starbuck in particular being a main hero character for the series. Male nerdlings were absolutely up in arms online calling it an absolutely travesty to do this to the characters. But then the show debuted and the characters were awesome. Sackhoff’s Starbuck in particular is fantastic, played to perfection by the actress to be a headstrong, mouthy, rascal of a character. The show wouldn’t be the same without her.

But perhaps the biggest change is the fact that there are human-looking Cylons that the characters have to contend with. The Cylons on the original show were iconic, one of the great designs of that series, so trying to create something even more iconic would have been hard. Instead, the show introduces the mystery of who the human Cylons are and what their plan might be. It adds tension, and risk, and intrigue, all things that really help to keep the audience invested and the series moving forward. This was a good addition for the show.

Overall, this mini-series is the perfect start for the show. It provides a much needed hook to get audiences invested, and it sets the stakes for everything going forward. This mini-series absolutely gets people pumped for the show, which was great at the time since it was nearly a year between when this first taste aired and the main series followed. But the audiences remained because this story, and this series, was so good. How could they not?