More Taradiddle: Battlestar Galactica

Remember Starbuck, and Apollo, heroes of one of the most godawful SF series in existence?

They're back.

Try as he might, JMS doesn't seem to have the clout to get another B5 project off the ground, and yet execrable rubbish like Star Trek:whatever just gets a rubber stamp (well, until recently, that is, when even the suits noted that the old cash cow's impulse engines are stone cold)

...and as for remakes of Battlestar Galactica?

oh, puh-leeeze!!!

The mini series came and went about a year ago. I didn't bother watching it: common wisdom being that, if remakes are generally so-so, what is the so-so of awful?

Now the follow-up series has started and, by chance, I happened across it a week or two ago.

Huh? Grunge? Hand held cameras? Real human pathos? This is Battlestar Galactica?

The beast appears to have been turned inside out. The only common points of reference are that:

• humanity has been whupped into near extinction by a group of alien nasties
• alien nasties are called Cylons
• heroes names are Apollo, Starbuck, and Adama
• villian's name is Baltar
• the effects are state of the art (when they appear: the producers apparently having learnt the 'Dr. Who' law that a decent story will cover for crap effects, but not vice versa)
  

Based on two episodes' viewing, the result is inifinitely better*. Will it continue? I'll have to see.

The only other thing I want to add is that the art of subversive political messages isn't dead: last night's episode featuring the human gov't reaction to a group of terrorists who have taken hostages. Their demands? The restoration of democracy!

Homework: compare and contrast with today's political stage.

*A more in-depth review can be found here.