Review: Battlestar Galactica

There are certain shows I didn't watch while growing up that I feel I must to upgrade my nerd level.  Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Dr. Who, and both Battlestar Galactica series among others.  Thanks to Netflix, I can catch up on most of these and recently I finished the newer BSG.  I finished the old one (the 1979 version) sometime last year.

The general premise (at least to begin with) of both series is the same.  Cylons (robots) have wiped out all of humanity except a fleet of civilian ships guarded by one Battlestar (warship), the Galactica.  The Cylons were able to wipe out the 12 human colonies due to a man named Baltar in both series.  Much like a zombie movie, much of the tension and drama of the show comes not from the enemy that wiped out humanity, but from the in-fighting of the remaining survivors.  Running of out resources (fuel, food, water, etc), one ship being a prison ship, and political power struggles are shared plots of both series.  Other similar plot lines involve the quest to find Earth, stolen Cylon Raiders, and capturing and trying the traitor, Baltar, for his crimes.  They also both had their own jargon - frack/frak, cubits, yahren, tylium, etc., which adds a unique touch to the universe they have built

The differences are mostly based on when they came out.  The special effects in the 1979 version are dated, the plots and writing are generally much more light-hearted, and the relationships seem more for comedic purposes than for character depth (or maybe that's just Faceman...I mean Starbuck...).  While the 2004 version has much more twists making for a much deeper and complicated overall story.

Both series had their issues.  The 1979 version was cheesy and had Boxey and Muffit (annoying little kid and his robot....dog....thing - a daggit).  The 2004 version had a whole religious side thing I never felt was necessary (the Lords of Kobol vs. the one true Cylon god) as well as every character at some point during the show making some decision or doing something very out of character or just plain dumb so that the only characters I consistently liked were the Cylons.  You should never really want to root for the thing trying to wipe out humanity...

Ultimately, I'm not sure I can really recommend either series.  The 1979 one was entertaining, but it didn't age all that well.  I feel like I want to like the 2004 version more than I ended up liking it.  The twists in the overall plot and the universe they built for that series are great, but if by the end of the series my favorite characters are the mute CGI cartoons running around shooting at the humans, I think something is wrong.