Galactica Delivers, Surprisingly

The new Battlestar Galactica is what I’ve been waiting for. This is it, finally: good science-fiction. Science-fiction that I looked forward to and that didn’t disappoint. Finally.

I learned my lesson from Starship Troopers. I was so looking forward to that movie — the Heinlein novel is wonderful. What did I get? Drek. Garbage. Flotsam. Ditto for Star Wars; once the Phantom Menace turned the Force into a blood disease, it was over.

So I don’t look forward to good sci-fi anymore. I take what I can get.

There just hasn’t been a great piece of sci-fi in quite a while — one with a great story, self-consistent plot, good acting, non-campy dialogue, effects that complement the story but don’t overwhelm it (are you listening, Mr. Lucas?), characters who work well together, and a sense of fun. (Lord of the Rings is fantasy, by the way, not s-f.)

Since Deep Space Nine went off the air, there hasn’t been an exceptional Star Trek franchise; Voyager was pathetic, and Enterprise is… well, it’s there, but that’s about all.

Babylon 5 had a terrific plot — the idea of a five-year story arc was wonderful — but suffered from horrible acting and cliché dialog. Still, I keep thinking that having an arc can make a series stronger. If Star Trek knew where it was going, it wouldn’t have to keep resorting to the Borg.

Stargate SG-1 isn’t bad, but it’s so darned campy. Cute, funny, but campy. And it’s hard to introduce a vast political-military enemy without some kind of arc to hold it together. (You can do an arc without commiting yourself to only X number of seasons; Buffy the Vampire Slayer had one story arc after another; that worked just fine.)

So I sat down to watch Galactica as a big fan of the original series (I was 13 at the time) who didn’t care if it was reworked. I wasn’t expecting much, anyway.

Boy, was I wrong.

This sucker is good. It’s the best sci-fi I’ve seen in quite a while.

The big stuff is good: the story, the acting, the sets. (Man, those sets are wonderful.)

But it’s all the little things they got right that come together: the right touch of Tom Clancy-ish dialogue (”Contact bearing 234-189, speed 7
decimal five, range 601 and closing”). Communications that sounds like it’s actually coming over a radio — warbled and static-y. Directional thrusters on the ships that fire when they turn; they move more like spaceships, not airplanes. Blood. Burns. (Contrast Star Trek, where the only way to know someone is injured is because he’s on a bed in sickbay.)

The writers — here’s a copy of the script — dropped some of the silliness from the old series. Seconds are now seconds, not “microns.” Years are years, not “yahrons.” And the pilots’ names — “Starbuck,” “Apollo,” etc. aren’t their names; they’re callsigns, like “Maverick” from Top Gun.

But there are plenty of tips of the hat to the old series. A ceremonial flyby is done to the old theme music. An old-style Cylon stands in a museum. The curses remain the same, too — “frak” is the classic. And my favorite: When the President refers to Apollo as “Captain Apollo” he replies, “Apollo’s just my callsign. My name is Lee.” And she says, “But Captain Apollo has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” Well done.

There are problems, to be sure, but they’re small. The same two Cylon fighters seem to be doing all the menacing. When she’s flying, Starbuck seems to be the only one generating any radio chatter. There’s no explanation of how far the Colonies’ 12 world’s are from one another. And the ship’s designation is “BSG-75″ — the initials appear to stand for “Battlestar Galactica” when they should indicate the type of ship. (For example, “SSN” is the U.S. Navy’s designation for nuclear attack subs — “sub-surface nuclear.” So the USS Cleveland might have the designation “SSN-17,” much like Star Trek’s Enterprise was NCC-1701.) But these are minor flaws.

I write this just after seeing the first episode. There’s still half to go — plenty of time for screwups, clichés, hokiness. But after those first two hours, I have a little more hope.