It's a sci-fi drug trafficked by diehard space-show junkies and mainstream viewers alike, and chances are someone you know is already hooked. It takes two words to separate the addicts from the innocent: Battlestar Galactica. The tipoff is a hungry look in their eye, the one that appears with a chance to debate the Cylon wars, and what they symbolize in the post-9/11 world.
That's right, Battlestar Galactica. True, this is a "re-imagined" version of the original 1978 cheese fest, but can a remake of anything that starred Lorne Greene really be called one of the most important television shows of our time?
What the frak is going on?
The basic premise of the new Battlestar Galactica, shot in Vancouver, is this - and stay with me here - humans, inhabitants of the 12 Colonies, have developed intelligent robots to work for them, but these robots, called Cylons, have rebelled and launched an attack on their human masters. The Cylon Wars end with an armistice. But after 40 years of a shaky truce, the Cylons strike again, destroying the human race almost completely. Fewer than 50,000 humans survive, including those aboard starships like the Battlestar Galactica, commanded by William Adama (Edward James Olmos). Secretary of Education Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) becomes president and leads the survivors on a quest to find the missing 13th Colony of the human race and the mysterious planet they inhabit: Earth.
The contemporary Battlestar Galactica (or BSG to hard-core fans) is indeed based on the original 1978 series (which starred Greene as William Adama), but the re-imagined version has emerged as a critical hit and developed a strong cult following since its debut in 2005, following a 2003 miniseries. It's also a favourite with the intelligentsia, the kind of people who wouldn't necessarily identify themselves as sci-fi fanatics. The program has won a prestigious Peabody Award, been profiled in The New Yorker, been named the best TV show of 2005 by Time Magazine and been called "the smartest and toughest show on TV" in Rolling Stone magazine.
Toronto TV writer and blogger Denis McGrath (heywriterboy.blogspot.com), who helped create the Canadian Space channel, says the show is capital-I Influential - and Important. "Thirty years from now, any scholar looking for a portrait of the mindset of contemporary America in the early 21st century will probably take at least a look at TV shows from our time," he says. "And if they really want to know what we were thinking and arguing about and fighting our way through, there are two shows that will help them the most. The first is The Sopranos. The second is Battlestar Galactica."
For BSG fans jonesing for a little action from the 12 Colonies as they await the fourth and final season next spring, there is some relief ahead: A two-hour made-for-TV prequel movie called Razor will air in Canada on the Space channel next Saturday. (It will be available on DVD shortly thereafter.) Good thing, too, as news this week of the show's production temporarily shutting down, due to the Hollywood writers' strike, no doubt caused concern among BSG enthusiasts. Battlestar is not for the lazy-brained, passive viewer. The plots are complicated, the characters complex and the show is fast-paced. No running to the refrigerator without pressing pause.
Tricia Helfer, the Alberta-raised model-turned-actress who stars as the gorgeous but evil Cylon Number Six, says that's why the show attracts a certain calibre of viewer. "I've always been one to say Battlestar fans are smart," she says. "It's not a couch-potato type show. You really need to pay attention ... So it draws a person that is interested and aware and educated, and [while]that's not to say that it can't be enjoyed by anyone, it definitely does assume a level of intelligence in the fan."
The thinking-viewer theory sounds right to Jo Storm, author of Frak You! The Ultimate Unofficial Guide to Battlestar Galactica, published by ECW Press ("frak" is the show's often-used version of a more common expletive). "The show keeps growing because it challenges viewers," Storm says. "Clearly it speaks to larger issues, and the stories are not directed just toward sci-fi fans. In the sci-fi game, it's a unique phenomenon that transcends demographic boundaries. The show is watched by everyone from housewives to football fans."
Indeed, much has been made of BSG's allegorical content and what it might be saying about post-9/11 America. The drama starts with a big explosion on what becomes known as Day Zero. There are suicide bombers, torture scenes and people in power making bad decisions. The storylines may not be ripped from the headlines à la Law and Order, but Battlestar Galactica is clearly aware of the times in which it is airing.
"The show has become known for touching on extremely topical issues, like torture and the war in Iraq," Storm says, "but it all makes sense within the context of the story itself. It allows people to realize: This is really happening in the world, and right now."
And it's no wonder; the show's co-executive producers, David Eick and Star Trek alumnus Ronald D. Moore, began their "re-imagining" in December, 2001, mere months after the Sept. 11 attacks. "We weren't looking to adopt certain issues or comment on a particular event of the day," says Eick, a news junkie who majored in political science in college. "It's more of a feeling; it's more of the malaise of fear, distrust, paranoia, good guys suddenly becoming bad guys and vice versa."
The veiled commentary on real-life issues is something that appeals to consumers of news; people who might be more likely to watch CNN than old episodes of Star Trek - that is, of course, if they can get past the title. For many, the words Battlestar Galactica conjure up images of campy aliens and bad special effects - not smart plotlines or clever subtext. "The original Battlestar Galactica existed to jump on the Star Wars bandwagon," says Storm. "No one could ever mistake it for the new version."
Even Eick, who pens some episodes, admits he's been surprised by the show's acclaim. "I think it would be disingenuous to say that we expected anything close to this kind of reaction.
"The title is both the blessing and the curse," he agrees. "There are people who consider themselves too sophisticated to watch something called Battlestar Galactica. "[Then, on the other hand,]the title [has some viewers]expecting swashbuckling escapist action-adventure with a dash of cheese, and we're not going to give them any of that. ... And the risk was if you don't give [viewers]the basics that they're expecting, you'd better be frickin' right about what you are giving them."
Eick calls next week's prequel movie Razor a "corporate opportunity." The network wanted to capitalize on the show's popularity during the lull between seasons three and four.
Also making the most out of her surprise celebrity is Helfer. For the fourth and final season, Helfer will play a new clone of Number Six called Natalie. After the series wraps, she has a movie project and potentially another TV series in the works. Helfer owes much of this, she says, to BSG's out-of-this-world reputation. "I was pretty new to acting when I started, so you don't get a lot of credit from people ... especially coming from a modelling background," she says. Life as a Cylon has changed that. "A lot of people in the business really respect Battlestar ... so that's really helped me ... even if they haven't seen it much, they'll take a meeting with me."
The countdown to BSG's fourth season is on. And for superfans like McGrath, Razor can't come fast enough. "This movie's kind of like Battlestar Galactica methadone," he says. "We're just trying to maintain, man."
Battlestar Galactica: Razor airs on Space on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
SCI-FI ON TV THE SIGNIFICANT SEVEN
The renewed appeal of Battlestar Galactica demonstrates that the public will always go for a good science-fiction tale. The genre surfaced first in the shocker B-movies of the fifties -remember Devil Girl from Mars and The Brain from Planet Arous? - and later moved to television. Once the TV floodgates opened, the shows just kept coming.
The Outer Limits
(ABC, 1963-1965)
"There is nothing wrong with your television set ... we are now controlling transmission" was the tagline of TV's first significant sci-fi program. The Outer Limits scared some viewers out of their wits in the early sixties. Although modelled after The Twilight Zone, the stories were penned mostly by prominent science-fiction writers, including Harlan Ellison. Most episodes were about humans being terrorized by bizarre aliens. Among the more memorable: The Zanti Misfits (small antlike creatures with human heads) and The Galaxy Being (a whirling ball of electrical energy). All 49 episodes from the original series were recently made available on DVD and most are still darn frightening.
Lost in Space (CBS, 1965-1968)
Never to be confused with serious science fiction, Lost in Space was created by TV kingpin Irwin Allen, who conceived the series as Swiss Family Robinson set in a far-off galaxy. The story was built around the family members of a space-colonizing expedition (named The Robinsons, naturally), who became trapped on a distant planet when their spaceship went off course. Also on-board was the duplicitous Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and a talking robot, named simply Robot. The Lost in Space characters spent three seasons being chased by laughable aliens (one was even bedecked in Christmas-tree lights!) before CBS pulled the show due to low ratings.
Star Trek (NBC, 1966-1969)
The mothership of sci-fi television, Star Trek made an auspicious debut in the 1966 TV season (also landing that fall: The Monkees and The Green Hornet). Conceived and executive-produced by Gene Roddenberry, the series thrust a journeyman Canadian actor named William Shatner into the heroic role of Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the Starship Enterprise. The first sci-fi show to mix social commentary in among the aliens, Star Trek was nominated for a Best Drama Series Emmy for each of its first two seasons. Most critics loved the show, but low ratings forced NBC to pull the show in its third season. The Enterprise's mission resumed four years later on Star Trek: The Animated Series (for which all the original cast members provided voices). In later years, Star Trek grew into the most successful brand name in TV history, courtesy of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and four other spinoffs.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (NBC, 1979-1981)
Worth re-watching only for camp appeal, Buck Rogers starred Gil Gerard as a rugged U.S. Air Force pilot who was frozen in space and returned to Earth, circa 2491. While intended to cash in on the Star Wars phenomenon, the series was cheaply made, and most of the aliens were simply actors wearing makeup. The writing for Buck Rogers was on the wall once the producers introduced the character of Tweeky, a sassy-talking robot.
Red Dwarf
(BBC/syndicated, 1988-1999)
Space travel and comedy were doled out in equal portions in this popular British entry. The series was set on-board the enormous mining ship Red Dwarf, which explored the galaxy on behalf of the Jupiter Mining Corporation. In the first show, a radiation leak killed everyone on board, save for the slacker technician Dave Lister (Craig Charles) and his cat, Frankenstein. The cast later expanded to include the ship's computer, named Holly, and Dave's former boss Arnold (Chris Barrie), who was resurrected as a hologram. At its peak, Red Dwarf drew an astounding TV audience of more than eight million viewers in Britain.
The X-Files (Fox, 1993-2002)
For a while, Fox's unsettling drama series gave viewers a reason to stay home on Friday night. Steeped in paranoia and urban mythology, The X-Files followed the exploits of Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), two FBI investigators specializing in the paranormal. Believing in extraterrestrials was a recurring theme that eventually took over the series in its final few seasons (much as aggressive aliens alternately took over the minds of Mulder and Scully). The show won both Emmys and Peabody Awards during its nine-year run, and is best remembered today for creating catchphrases that became part of popular culture -namely, "Trust No One" and "The Truth is Out There."
Lexx (syndicated, 1997-2002)
The genre came of age with this adult sci-fi series about a group of fugitives cruising through space in an enormous spacecraft capable of devouring entire planets. The bizarre cast of regulars included the "love slave" Zev (Eva Habermann) and the assassin named Kai (Michael McManus), who was legally dead. A co-production between Canadian and German television, Lexx garnered a cult following in this country but was always more popular in the United States, where it ranked as one of the most-watched programs on The Sc-Fi Channel.
Andrew Ryan
Marsha Lederman