Battlestar Galactica's Third Season Premier

If you were old enough to watch television in late 70s and early 80s, you'd remember Battlestar Galactica. It was a big, campy science fiction show - less intellectual than Star Trek, less of a fairy tale than Star Wars, and more fun than Buck Rogers. The dialog was hackneyed and not a week went by when you didn't hope the stupid robotic dog would get blown to bits. Nonetheless, the original Battlestar Galactica was successful because of interesting characters and a compelling premise.

Long before The Terminator promised he'd be back, Battlestar Galactica envisioned a universe in which the machines rebelled with intent to exterminate mankind. The twist was that the machines had largely succeeded. The human survivors escaped the holocaust on their far away planet in space ships. As Lorne Greene would solemnly remind each week, "Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a rag-tag, fugitive fleet, on a lonely quest - for a shining planet known as Earth."

The show left such an indelible memory in the minds of fans, that the current SciFi version of Battlestar Galactica had a difficult time winning them over. The original actors wanted a continuation of the series rather than an overhaul of the entire show. And fans were outraged when they learned that Starbuck, the popular macho renegade pilot, had been rewritten to be played by a woman.

But due to excellent writing, deeply conflicted characters, and a terrifyingly realistic science fiction universe, the new Battlestar Galactica eventually won over old fans and made lots of new ones. This is not your typical SciFi show. This one has broad cross-over appeal. It has won a Peabody, garnered Emmy nominations and secured critical acclaim. No lesser authority than Time Magazine named it the best show on television.

This is probably because the new Battlestar Galactica is thoroughly modern and takes full advantage of the show's premise in a way that the original rarely did. This science fiction show is not about futuristic gadgets; it's about genocide. It doesn't try to soften the quest for survival with 70s platitudes or corny humor; it's rare to see any character on the show break a smile. This Battlestar Galactica is bleak, brutal, and sometimes morbid. As the New Yorker pointed out, "The journey in Battlestar Galactica is born not of the urge to explore strange new worlds but of the need to survive; space isn't the final frontier for these characters-it's the last chance."

The show has always been political; as the humans fight for the survival of the species, tension between liberty and security is always at the forefront. Battlestar Galactica is generally wise enough to put two likable characters on opposite sides of the argument. And the questions that arise are meaningful and contemporary. When you know sleeper agents could be living amongst you, will the paranoia cause a breakdown in society? What role should religion play in the decision-making of a leader? Can abortion remain legal when the population of humankind is ever-dwindling? Can a constitution or a civilian government function in the aftermath of a catastrophic loss of life?

As you can see, Battlestar Galactica has never been afraid to start a debate.

But this season's Battlestar Galactica doesn't just start a debate - it picks a fight.

When last we left our rag-tag group of survivors, they had decided to give up on their search for Earth and settle on a habitable planet. But soon the machines found them. Led by a weak and corrupt President, they surrendered.

It was hard to imagine that the third season could be much darker.

But the season premier picked up with the humans actually living under Cylon occupation. We're forced to define and redefine terrorism within the first five minutes of the show, and it never lets up. Human technology is no match for the Cylons, so humans resort to any and all means necessary in a futile attempt defeat the machines including suicide bombings and other acts of "asymmetrical warfare." Torture, detentions, informants, puppet regimes, and forced reproduction are issues all put right out there on the table.

At first, it's impossible not to cringe every time the Cylons refer to the human rebels as "insurgents." But then you realize this isn't a clumsy attempt to disguise a political message. This show is not pussy-footing around. It's a full-throated challenge, and thoroughly, refreshingly, reactionary.

The best speculative fiction is that which illuminates the ordinary in extraordinary ways. It allows us to explore great moral questions without the political baggage of the real world. This season promises to embrace that idea and then some, with an in-your-face scenario that forces viewers to ask and answer the hard questions about our current political situation. And the writers aren't bothering with subtlety.

They force you to ask what acts are too grotesque to be condoned even during war? Does the morality of those acts change when faced with an existential threat? And all these big questions loom over very personal stories about deeply damaged characters we have come to know and love.

There's the tough-as-nails pilot Kara Thrace, who settled on the new planet and foolishly let her hair grow long. (We all knew no good could come of that!) But now, imprisoned by the Cylons in an attempt to feminize her, she chooses the only protest left: repeated and pointless violence against her captor, who simply downloads his memories and returns in a new body every time she kills him. We also see the tortured, Colonel Tigh, who can no longer distinguish between sending a soldier to die in a firefight or sending a soldier to die with dynamite strapped to his chest. And then there's the always-smart Gaeta who is working for the government, stealing secrets, and feeding them to the insurgency. And these are the good guys!

Of course, on Battlestar Galactica, everything is always a shade of grey.

Admiral Adama undoubtedly did the right thing in abandoning the civilians on New Caprica when the Cylons invaded, so that he could save what was left of humanity. It's the same choice he has made at every critical juncture since the show's inception. But with this season's premier, it's a choice that he can't live with anymore. His son, Lee "Apollo" Adama has gained weight, gone soft, and all but given up. And then there's President Baltar, who doesn't want to sign an order for the execution of "insurgents" but does so with a gun to his head.

There is even conflict even amongst the machines. Some Cylons have a soft spot for the humans and want to win them over, hearts and minds. Others want to convert them to the true faith, and think executing bunches of them is the best way to do it.

The season promises to cause arguments in living rooms across America. That's a shining example of speculative fiction at its best, and the obvious real world parallels made the season premier absolutely riveting television.