It's going to be legendary!

The Best Show I've Never Seen

Well, over the past few days I've been totally hooked the show BattleStar Galactica. This is a remake of the sci-fi show done in the late 70's. The original was basically after the Star Wars craze and ABC wanted a piece of the action. I've never seen the original series, but from what I've seen and heard so far, it was a campy, bad special effects, and cheezy dialogue. I also saw a behind the scenes special on the new series and it was awesome as well. The one thing that I found the most intersting about the original show was that almost everyone knows the name Battlestar Galactica. I've never seen the show, but I knew the name, recognized the bad guys and basically knew what type of show it was. One thing I found interesting was that the orignal show was only one for one season. I think it's amazing that a show can make that kind of a cultrual impact for only being on for such a short time.

So I don't know the storyline from the original show, but for this one, Humans created this race of machines called the Cylons. These were created as a slave race, which eventually gained sentience and rebelled against the Humans. They were at war for many years and suddenly they left. The Cylons were gone for a ton of years, and then they returned. They came back and exterminaed all of the humans on all of the planets that they colonized. All of the Humans were killed except for approximately 50,000 people in ships on the run.

I think that the show is extremely well writen and done in that it's not just another action show or a sci-fi show. What I find the most intersting about the show is how the characters act and do when faced with total extinction. Right off from the first episode, these people are in the race for not only their lives, but they have the responsibliby of the rest of our species. The way they deal with crisis that come their way and the decisions the leaders make to ensure the saftey of the rest of the people running. Out of the 50,000 people still alive there is only one Military ship, the Galactica with it's fighters to defend everyone. There are about 40 different ships that just carry the rest of the people around as they run away. So to me it's intersting to see how the military commanders not only have to worry about their own ship, but the the other defenseless ships in the fleet. Because one thing was abundantly clear from the beginning, the Cylons are after the extermination of the human Race.

Since I've never seen the original, I don't know what the oringial Cylons were and what they're plan was, but this show has impressed me with what they are now. Basiclly in the original show, the Cylons were big StormTroopers with reflective armor and a red glowing eye that moved back and forth like K.I.T from Knight Rider. One of the most major changes for this show was that now, the Cylons have evolved to make themselves look, feel, and act like humans. There are about 5 different models shown so far, and each has copies of themselves. They are even programmed to not even know they are Cylons. This brings up very interesting issues with Sabotage and paranoia within the rest of humanity fleeing for their lives.

What I find the most intetsting about the Humanoid Cylons in this series is that they seem to be experimenting. The focus of one experiement is Love. It's interesting that they would pick that particular subject but it does make sense to me. As everyone knows, Love is the one force that drives humans to disreguard their natural instincts as well as logical thought. To me it would make sense that Machines would not be able to understand this concept and try to experiment to find the true nature of it. The other phenonmenon that they bring up is God. The Cylons seem to be convinced that they are God's children and that they are doing his work. I also find this interesting in that God is the other driving force in human existance that has not been rationalized, or categorized, or even proven in the last 2000 years. I think that's why the Machines are also totally engrossed with the idea of God as well. So in the end, I think that this show is another example of why Humans are screwed as soon as we make the machines our slaves and then make them self-aware. It will always lead to disaster, but that is another discussion in iteslf. (Let me know and I'll try to find the paper I wrote on this particular topic).

So I really suggest that everyone watches the show, in that it's not what appears on the surface when you see previews or hear the name BattleStar Galactica. I think the show is a very intesting supirse. And hell, you just might like it too.

posted by Adam @ 11:58 PM