Battlestar Galactica is back and it's grimmer than ever!
We've got infanticide (again!) this time by drowning, people getting eviscerated by Cylons, mercy killings, incompetent commanders, shit-scared engineers, blood splattered marines and a mad-as-a-hatter anti-hero. Watching this lot stumble through catastrophe after catastrophe is slightly unnerving to say the least.
BSG manages to make Babylon 5 look conventional and 24 look far-fetched (which is pretty ironic when you think about it). The first couple of episodes of season 2 are pretty damn amazing; last night's episode was a cross between Die Hard, The Poseidon Adventure and an East European art film and yet it all works beautifully. It also manages to make Lost look like the pedestrian nonsense it really is (incidentally, those trailers are just daft!).
I love how the cliffhangers from season 1 still haven't been resolved (it takes two whole episodes until a Doctor can get to the recently shot Adama, and there's still no sign of Helo getting off Caprica anytime soon) and you really get the sense that no one is really safe (or what they seem) on the show. Even the schmaltzy love scenes feel realistic and appropriate.
All this *and* a Philip Glass score too; which is kinda odd as it implies that Mr Glass has somehow managed to make the hit parade in a galaxy far, far away...
BSG really is the perfect show for our time: rampant paranoia; terrorist attacks; the battle between religions; hawks and doves battling for hearts and minds of the survivors; honestly, American TV doesn't get any better than this.
I'm so enamoured of this show I even caved in and bought the original Disco-in-Space 1978 version on DVD and it's, well... weird. In come the giant lizards, visually impaired walking toasters, hilariously inept matt-shots and one-dimensional boo-hiss villains BUT the essence of the show is still there. When Caprica is wiped out in a Pearl Harbour style sneak attack it still feels years ahead of its time and it's unlike anything Star Trek would contemplate, never mind attempt. Dirk Benedict's Starbuck is hilarious and it's a strangely sexual show for its time. I still remember Cassiopeia confusing the hell out of my 12 year old hormones back in 1979.
And it was a bargain at 16 quid. In order to make up the extra three quid so I could bag the free postage, I ended up trying one of those newfangled Su Doku books. And now I'm completely and utterly hooked. The bastards!
Well, after being written out of the third Star Wars film early, Count Doku had to earn a crust doing summat, so he came up with these fiendishly clever logic puzzles.
Posted by: Damon Querry | Monday, July 25, 2005 at 06:46 PM