The Best Show on Television

I honestly believe that right now, there are more quality shows on television than ever before. Partly, that's due to the huge expansion in the number of channels. There's just a much bigger universe of people producing shows and so more good ones will be produced. The networks also seem to have learned the lesson of the moment and are buying some really good, edgy, unusual shows and giving them a decent shot.

That being said, in my opinion, the best show on television right now is BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

Had I written those words during the 1979 television season, I might have been laughed off the blogosphere (which would have been painful since the blogosphere didn't yet exist.) But today, I write them without irony or embarrassment. Who would have thought that a former Star Trek (TNG and DS9) writer, Ron Moore, could have turned such an overblown, portentous, sometimes campy series into a dark, compelling, sophisticated, mature, thought-provoking show? And that it would air on the Sci-Fi channel? (Actually, me, because Ron Moore is a great writer.)

If you're not familiar with the basic story, BG tells of humans, the 12 colonies of Kobol, caught in a surprise attack by the Cylons, a race of robots created by humans centuries before. The colonies are all but obliterated and humanity wiped out but for 50,000 survivors who flee in whatever ships they can, protected by the last fighter-carrier, the Battlestar Galactica. How humanity deals with this genocide, the ongoing pursuit of the far more powerful Cylons, and their hunt for the "lost" thirteenth colony, Earth, was the story of the original 1979 series, now greatly enhanced in the current show.

What makes BG so great? It's got a huge ensemble cast, led by Edward James Olmos, with consistently strong performances all-around. The "traitor" of the original series, Baltar, is now multi-faceted: part Einstein, part Dr. Smith from "Lost in Space". He's a great character. Even the minor characters shine. Richard Hatch, Apollo from the original BG, has a recurring guest role as political agitator Tom Zarek and he's fabulous. Genre guest stars have included Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap), Michelle Forbes (ST:TNG), and Xena herself, Lucy Lawless.

The atmosphere of the show is as intense as 24 and the mysteries as interesting as Lost. In the original series, the Cylons were monolithic bad guys with no depth or shading. The majority of Cylons in the current version are indistinguishable from humans and their motivations are varied, complex and sophisticated. The show has dealt with genocide, politics, religion, ethics, terrorist tactics, relationships, torture and the whole range of human activity. And it's done so not in a heavy-handed way but thoughtfully and subtly.

Check out this review.

New episodes air Fridays on the Sci-Fi Channel. If you want to catch up, the mini-series that started it all and BG's first two seasons are on DVD. It's worth checking out.

So say we all.