There are some people who call Battlestar Galactica nothing but a soap opera in space and question some of the science fiction aspects and whatnot. I have not been to a Star Wars convention or dressed up as my favorite character from Star Wars/Lord of the Rings/The Matrix while waiting in line to see them the first day, so I could give a shit about some of the more arcane and trivial details that bug some people. Just enjoy the show and those things won't bother you.

For those of you who were kind of wondering what was going on at the beginning of the program, here is the basic premise. Humans created robots, robots got fed up with humans and evolved. Some of the robots now look human. All of the robots want to kill the humans. Robots nuke human worlds into oblivion, leaving alive only the people who happened to be flying in space at the time. Being outnumbered by about 10,000 to 1 and having only one military ship, Battlestar Galactica, in existence, they decide to run. While on the run from the robots, lots of shit happens, like prison ship riots and assassination attempts. Since some of the robots (they are called Cylons) look human, they can do shit without being detected, although the Cylons aren't necessarily doing all the bad stuff. In fact, some Cylons don't even realize that they aren't human. That is the case with Sharon "Boomer" Valerii.

Boomer believes she is human, and even has a boyfriend (a couple actually, but we'll get to that). Seemingly against her will, she has been at the center of many a ship disaster, including the loss of the water supply, various bugs placed around the ship, and the big one, shooting the captain. She was so good at what she did, not even her own suicide attempt (gun to the mouth) could stop her. But how did we get there?

Well, it's basically because the President of the colonies has cancer. I want to explain it in some other way, but that is the gist of it. The President was Secretary of Education before the nuclear holocaust took care of the first 20 or so in line for succession. Considering what she has had to do, you have to give her credit for keeping people together. There was a point where she kind of lost her way, however. When morale was particularly low and people thought that the human race was doomed to fly listlessly through space, Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) said that they were going to go in search of Earth, which in their religion is a homeland that the thirteenth tribe of mankind inhabited. I would think of it is some sort of Atlantis: some people believe in it absolutely, while some people think it is a bunch of bullshit.

Anyway, Adama told the President that the legend of Earth was fake, but a funny thing happened while he was lying about the legend. It turned out that more and more of the legend has started to come true. As more things that were supposedly legends came true, the President started believing in more of these legends, including one prophecy which seemed to say that an ill leader (cancer is an illness, remember) would lead the remainder of the colonies to Earth. All she needed was to find Kobol, the planet where their holy texts say mankind originated, and Apollo's arrow (I believe it was Apollo, I am slightly sketchy on some of these details, feel free to correct me) and they would be taken to the promised land, Earth. The only problem was that the Arrow of Apollo was on Caprica, which had been nuked fairly heavily by the Cylons in their original raid on mankind.

Luckily for the president, there are a lot of people who believe in what she has to say including Kara Thrace, call sign "Starbuck." Starbuck was originally played by Dirk Benedict of A-Team fame, and having Starbuck played by a woman is one of the interesting twists the series has put on the original. Starbuck is a loose cannon, but a great pilot. She crash landed on a planet, but was able to get out safely by stealing a Cylon Raider, a type of aircraft. If you needed to get the Arrow of Apollo from a Caprica that is crawling with Cylons, the best way to go undetected would be to fly one of their own ships in, right? Kara has had a couple of epiphanies since civilization was wiped out, so she decides to go along with the plan.

Posted by J-Unit on July 21, 2005 10:54 PM