BSG Pre-Season 1 Miniseries

I'd never watched, nor even seen clips of, Battlestar Galactica. But people had recommended it, and Lost had finished its fourth season so I had nothing else to focus on, so I decided I would give it a whirl. This blog will chart my reaction as I watch each episode as I work my way through the show just as a different kind of diary, journal endeavour.

So the miniseries, as I didn't know beforehand, was actually three hours long in total! And yet on reflection it's a three hours that really zips past. I thought the first half hour was interesting - showing the woman who would become president having breast cancer, and that womanising scientist Gaius (probably spelled incorrectly) involved with the mysterious blonde. All mysterious plot threads that I hoped wouldn't keep teasing the audience with stuff yet to be revealed. . .

And it didn't. Suddenly there was a nuclear attack, the Cylons launching a full-on assault and as humanity began to get wiped out colony by colony, ship by ship, I realised what this miniseries was setting up: Battlestar Galactica was going to be the last refuge for the entire human race against the Cylon forces.

Wow, I thought. This was far more full-on than I anticpated, relishing a show that wasn't afraid of really going for it. It was darker and grittier than I expected (a notable highlight being the moment Boomer and her co-pilot were defending themselves against survivors desperate to get on their ship) with the choice to leave the ships that could not perform Faster Than Light travel being left behind to save the majority being one moral hardline dramatically handled.

It felt like adult stuff, sophisticated in its handling of audience's expectations and intelligence.

I liked the special-effects and the action sequences. I don't know if a lot of money was spent on this miniseries that perhaps won't be splashed out on the rest of the real series (I hope so) but it was impressive stuff. And the fact that the Cylons' agenda probably amounts to more than just wiping out humanity is an interesting angle. Like that blonde woman who claims she is in love with Gaius, appearing in his own imagination (?) to converse and flirt with him. Not sure what that is all about, and I did feel the show spent a little too long with them, but maybe it's headed somewhere very interesting so I am willing to go with it.

The ending was all about Boomer, revealed to be a Cylon. There was a note left for the Captain about how there are only 12 types of Cylon (who left that note? did I miss something?) and between Boomer and that reporter guy and the blonde and a couple of the others that have turned up we have seen some of their 'moulds'. Is Boomer aware of being a Cylon, or a sleeper agent? I feel she's probably a sleeper, but I shall see.

Overall I was more than impressed with the start of the show - it bettered my expectations and I am looking forward to getting stuck into the series properly. The Galactica is on a mission to find a mythological Earth - which we the audience know is not a myth at all! - which begs the question of whether this is an Earth of the future, or the past, or the present day. That's if they ever make it, of course. . .