On rewatching Battlestar Galactica

Easter. Wanted to travel, but everywhere was too wet, too cold, too dear. And so I am rewatching Battlestar Galactica, Season 1, for the fourth or fifth time.

Starbuck: Now, if you were human, you’d be just about ready to start offering up some false information about the location of the nuke. Some tiny thing that might get you a reward and maybe spare you a few minutes of this. But then I keep forgetting, you’re not human. You’re a machine.
Leoben: I am more than you could ever imagine. I am god.

Battlestar Galactica is a weird show for me. I stopped watching it back in 2003 when the first season was in progress, finding it too dark for my mood back then. I like darkness a lot, but at the time I wasn’t up for it. When my head was in a better place, I started re-watching everything and now think it’s fantastic. I can’t wait for more and I am sad it’s ending, but happy it will end before it starts to suck. I’m also pleased a spin off, Caprica, will be made.

Starbuck: Permission to speak off the record, sir?
Tigh: Granted.
Starbuck: You’re a bastard.

The strange thing is I don’t like anybody in the show. ‘Like’ on lots of levels. I am not a fan of any of the actors, I don’t find anyone particularly attractive, I don’t care much for them as individual characters… they’re all bastards. But I love the show, love the ensemble, love how they interact, love the way everything looks and I love how smart the show is and how it touches on various political and religious topics.

Romo Lampkin: There is no greater ally, no force more powerful,
no enemy more resolved, than a son who chooses to step from his
father’s shadow.

If I had to pick a favourite on the show, it would probably be Romo
Lampkin, who only appears in a handful of episodes in Season 3. Played
by the always charming British actor Mark Shepard
(Firefly, Medium)  Romo’s presence managed to make me forget the utter
drudgery of the Starbuck/Anders relationship, if only because I kept
wondering why Shepard was putting on an Irish accent for the part.

Shepard himself is a fan of he series, he called it
‘the most political show on television’ in a Q&A session last year and practically begging Ron Moore, the show’s creator, for a part.
His love for the material shines through in his performance.

Baltar: Congratulations… You’re not Cylon. 100% human, and
very, very bright green as well… You couldn’t be more human if you
tried.

BSG in ways is like the West Wing, another show so dense I can watch it again and again and again and never get bored. What’s so good about Battlestar Galactica is that it’s not about the scifi, just like the West Wing wasn’t about the President. It’s about us. Which everybody who is watching the show already knows, but now you know too.

I’m bloody tired of those Taiko drums though.