BSG-Razor

I wound up watching the tape this morning and to say "it was fraking awesome" understates it. Shit, in this country, we kick out gays and lesbians from the military. In the Twelve Colonies, a lesbian makes admiral and she is so mission driven that she personally shoots another officer in the face for refusing to carry out her orders.

Battlestar Galactica has a lot going for it. It is probably the best action show on television in years. The stories themselves have a lot of nuances in them. If you haven't seen the show, the next season begins its run in March (assuming the writers' strike doesn't frak it up), so you have 4+ months to go rent the four-hour miniseries that started it all and then rent Seasons 1-3. The story arc that took place on New Caprica is some of the best storytelling outside of HBO and it dealt with some very tough subjects. The women characters are some of the strongest and most capable women on TV since Buffy the Vampire Slayer went off the air (and no, they are not imbued with super powers).

Besides the stories themselves, the sets are just amazing. The two battlestars (Galactica and Pegasus) in the interior have the look and feel of a Navy aircraft carrier. The multi-pushbutton intercoms that you see on the wall are the same that were (and probably still are) used on USN ships (they were not referred to as "intercoms", but as "bitch boxes"). The ranks are not the always the same, but many of the jobs are, including the CAG.

The current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica is not, in any way, the cheesy show of the late `70s. If you haven't watched the current show because you remember the old one, well, you've cheated yourself of some excellent tube time.