I never thought I’d be saying this, but Battlestar Galactica is a very good television show.

By this, of course, I mean the current version of the show being broadcast on the Sci-Fi channel, not the original 1980 version which was a poorly-produced half-assed attempt to cash in on the Star Wars craze. I don’t know how they can actually sell DVD sets of that series. Even being the sci-fi fan that I am, I wouldn’t watch it again even if it were a free download. To me, it was pretty much a how-to manual on how not to make a sci-fi series. Everything from the kid with his robot dog to the endlessly-recycled poor special effects, the show was a loser, and quite forgettable.

The new show is almost the polar opposite of the original. It was well-constructed, is well-written and well-produced. Somehow they got two very respectable actors, Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, to head up the cast, and filled in the rest with good people, though relatively unknown. The general storyline is, surprisingly, very close to the original–a robotic race called the Cylons attack twelve human colonies on twelve worlds; survivors flee in ships around the last remaining (or so it is thought) battle cruiser, which leads them on a journey to a mythical world called Earth. But the new version throws in twists and new angles that make the series less about cashing in and more about drama and storytelling.

One angle is that the Cylons have produced a new model which looks entirely human, and can be programmed to think its a human while the machine mind sleeps underneath, ready to take over at any time. When one of these human-Cylon hybrids is killed, their memories are uploaded to a Cylon database and a new copy of the individual is made. This introduces story angles including paranoia and distrust, as well as the question of what being human is, in a sinister kind of way.

Another angle is politics; where in the original series, Commander Adama (played by Lorne Greene) ruled everything, here there is a war of control between him and the emergency civilian administration, where the president (played by Mary McDonnell) used to be the education minister, but has taken strong hold of the reins. Richard Hatch, who played Apollo, Adama’s son, in the 80’s series, is back as Tom Zarek, a political dissident angling to become the new leader of the what’s left of the human race.

One more angle is faith: there is a certain amount of mysticism involved, including a religion with a prophecy which the characters would appear to be playing out. How much of it is real, how much of it is self-fulfilling, and how much of it is simply manufactured by the Cylons, who seem to have a mysterious faith of their own?

The characters in this series are also very three-dimensional. Olmos plays Adama as a tough, gruff, but wise take-control military man, unwilling to believe in legends and prophecies, but human enough to realize when he’s wrong. He is perhaps the least-flawed of all the characters, with the exception of his son, now named Lee, who is more about doing what’s right than adhering to loyalty or even the chain of command. But more interesting are the more flawed characters.

Dr. Baltar (played by John Colicos in the original series, and thoroughly re-imagined here), is a quirky genius who unwittingly gave the Cylons access to allow them to wipe out humanity; this was done through a female Cylon-human hybrid who seduced him, and told him of his culpability when the nuclear weapons started going off. In an interesting twist, even after leaving this female Cylon behind on the bombed-out colony, he still sees her with him everywhere, as if she were real; he can see her, hear her and even feel her, though she is only in his mind and nobody else knows she’s there. But she’s there to him, constantly cajoling, threatening, seducing and leading him on–and the viewer is left to guess whether she’s somehow been implanted into his brain, or if she’s simply a schizophrenic hallucination he’s built up to avoid the horrendous guilt of having been responsible for billions of deaths. Everyone else trusts him; he’s in charge of finding disguised Cylons, he’s made vice-president of the civilian government, and he’s either mad, compromised, or both.

Starbuck is no long Dirk Benedict, nor is she male; but she’s still the best pilot, along with being inventive and highly skilled at other things. But she’s got a checkered past, and has big issues with authority. She tends to be the smartass to Lee Adama’s straight-man routine, and leaves you wondering where she’ll go next. Lieutenant Boomer also went from male to female in this series, this time a pilot who is not quite sure who she is, and for a while, neither are you.

President Roslin, played by McDonnell, is dying of breast cancer. She unwillingly takes on the role of president, but takes it by the throat and will not let go. Eventually she becomes obsessed with the prophecy which she believes she is destined to carry out, and makes certain compromises she feels are necessary but is not comfortable with. Her character is endlessly driven, and McDonnell plays it well. On the other end of the dedication scale is Adama’s first officer, Colonel Tigh. An alcoholic with a scheming, manipulative wife, he is portrayed as both talented and as a pathetic loser, desperately hanging on to a raging tiger by his fingernails, doing his best but being less than effective.

The series began with a miniseries back in 2003, followed by a truncated 13-episode “first season,” and now by a second season that will take a hiatus from late September to early January. If you haven’t been watching it, you should go back to the beginning and do so, if possible. The series is popular with the BitTorrent community, and may be re-viewable there.

Adding to the interest to a certain degree is that the producer, Ron Moore, does a weekly podcast commentary on the episode, just like on DVDs. If you record the show or have a recording of it, you can play the podcast and watch the show with the sound off at the same time, and it’s just like a DVD commentary–except it’s an ongoing broadcast TV show. As far as I know, this is the first time that’s ever been done. It is, however, very much in the style of Babylon 5’s Joe Straczynski, who in the 90’s communicated quite a bit with fans online. Moore similarly answers a lot of questions by fans, though a lot less frequently.

Altogether, this is a series to be taken far more seriously than its predecessor, with far greater human interest and far better storytelling. Even the special effects, while uncontrolling and relatively unobtrusive, are quite impressive, especially for a low-budget TV show on a cable channel. Kudos to Ron Moore and the Sci-Fi Channel on this one.