A few weeks ago Rich recommended Battlestar Galactica to me. I’ve been wrapped in the series since.

For those of you that are not sci-fi slash generic geeks but still read lambie.org (yes, both of you) I’m talking about a television series set in outer space. It’s a remake of the popular series from the late ’70s with the same name.

The modern series was first shown a few years back and its now into it’s fourth and final season, though there are rumours that as many as three made-for-TV movies will be pushed out the door before the cast and crew disband.

The premise is that humanity built these robots called Cylons and the Cylons rebelled against the humans. There was a big war and in the end the Cylons took off never to be seen again… or so we thought. 40 years later the Cylons return, now looking exactly like humans. They bomb the hell out of the human colony planets and destroy all but one Battlestar (think of them as the space-bound equivalent to an aircraft carrier), the Galactica.

At the end of the two-hour pilot Galactica escapes along with about 50,000 passengers, the remnants of the human race, spread over several dozen other ships. The series so far has been about how the fleet is escaping Cylon forces, mostly using their faster-than-light (FTL) jump capabilities to scoot off when the Cylons attack.

I’ve never been a big science fiction fan but I’m really liking this show. The characters are being well developed and because there’s a constant threat of “maybe they’re secretly a Cylon” you know that as a viewer you’re in for a twisty-turning rollercoaster ride. As Rich pointed out too, there’s a large ensemble cast, meaning several story lines can interwine. It also means there’s lots of characters who are potentially Cylons.

Apparently there’s 12 separate Cylon models and we know what 4 of them look like, so far. I’m having fun picking characters that I think might be Cylons; I’ve got my eye on that ranga kid that Boomer saved when she left Caprica. I was heart-broken to find that Boomer herself is a Cylon, but because she’s been ousted so early I think there might be a twist in that she can be “turned” human or something. Maybe.

My only challenge now is to stay away from any spoliers so I can enjoy the series!