Is ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Better than ‘The Wire’?
Richard Vine, Guardian: Yes, it is set in the future. Yes, humans are battling it out with robots. But don’t dismiss Battlestar Galactica just because it’s sci-fi. As the series draws to a close, Richard Vine celebrates a groundbreaking piece of TV.
You’ve finished The Wire box set? You’d like something else that is just as good as “the greatest show ever in the history of television” (© all Guardian journalists) but you’re not quite sure where to go next? How about a series that’s as passionate and intelligent as The West Wing when debating war and terrorism, or as emotionally articulate about death, loss and love as Six Feet Under, or as trippy, mystical and deliciously baffling as Twin Peaks? A series that’s not afraid to take you on an epic, existential journey during which you’ll grow to love characters who are wrangling with metaphysical issues such as the nature of humanity and god? A series that does all this while never losing sight of the idea that television should be entertaining? But what’s that? You don’t do spaceships? Oh…
That’s the problem when you start to recommend Battlestar Galactica. As we approach the last-ever episode (or get ready for the last box set, depending on how you’re watching it), it’s clear to fans that the last five years have been about much, much more than watching robots chasing people across space. And yet, there’s no denying it — BSG is filled with scenes where brilliant actors such as Mary McDonnell or Edward James Olmos are called on to deliver lines about “firing up the FTL drives for a jump” with a straight face.
And yes, it is set in a universe where a lone military spaceship is protecting an ever-dwindling population of humans from the relentless onslaught of a race of sentient robots. And yes, even the show’s name is ridiculous. It’s not solid and enigmatic like The Wire, it doesn’t have the elegant irony of The Sopranos, and there’s a distinct lack of the now-wow zeitgesty zip you get from say, Sex and the City or Desperate Housewives. It’s daft. It’s pompous. It’s — let’s face it — sci-fi.
And yet, as anyone who has actually committed to it will tell you, BSG has evolved into one of the most sophisticated, compelling and original shows that’s ever been made. Which isn’t bad for the remake of what was in itself a trashy show — one designed chiefly to cash in on the success of Star Wars. If you were a kid in the late 70s/early 80s and found yourself plonked in front of the TV on a Saturday night, you might remember watching Lorne Greene hamming it up in the original Battlestar Galactica while his ace fighter pilots Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch fended off evil “cylon” robots every week.
The new version of the show that emerged in 2004, courtesy of producers Ronald D Moore and David Eick, might have shared the bare bones of creator Glen Larson’s original space-western — the plot and the character names, and also Richard Hatch (playing a terrorist-turned-politician in the reboot) — but that’s about all.
