Last semester, I was introduced to the newest incarnation of the TV show “Battlestar Galactica”, and have been checking it out from the library to watch whenever I get the chance since. It's slow work, and I regret that I will be going home without even having finished the first season, but at the very least I can write my first impression of it.
“Battlestar Galactica”, I've noticed so far, is extremely character-driven. Despite being set in a exciting and foreign world, it is not so much the dogfights in space or the futuristic setting that takes the center stage as it is the complicated relationships between characters and their own very personal reactions to what is happening around them. The plot point of “the last human survivors” has been done before, but “Battlestar Galactica” really makes me understand and feel the emotions that should be, but usually aren't, associated with it. Even in the pilot episode, the show managed to convey the horror and shock at seeing a majority of the human race destroyed that, somehow, I have never felt watching another film or movie with the same situation.
A small piece of the show that I really am a fan of is the spaceship battles, if only for how different they are from how other science fiction films handle things like this. Rather than being filled with epic music and huge explosions, the scenes are quiet. The music is fast-paced yet minimal, and does a wonderful job of making me excited without breaking my focus from what the characters are doing or saying to one another. Once again, the characters are the whole point of this show, and I have yet to feel bored or distracted from it by even something as epic as evil robots in space.
I've written several times about how much of a fan I am of the fictional worlds of fantasy and science fiction literature. However, when a story can have such a world that serves only as a completely believable backdrop to a completely character-centered story, I feel like this world is just about perfect.
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