Salut, Battlestar Galactica

There's a hole in my TV schedules that looks like a duckbilled platypus on ski's. It's been a few weeks now since the final episode was shown on Sky1 and since then I've had one more evening a week where I've had to scour the schedules for something to watch.

What's so special about this programme? Why do I miss it so?

It's one of a handful of TV shows which transcends its purpose. The bulk of
programmes created and broadcast are just lazy creations that follow a formula pulling in potential customers for advertisers.

This kind of attitude leads to some very creative and inteligent shows being cancelled before they've found their feet.

The advantage Galactica had over a number of similar shows is that it was created on a cable subsciption channel. That meant that it didn't have to suvive on ratings alone. A strong creative vision was enough to sustain it over the course of the series.

The tone was set in the initial mini-series that had arrived amid controversy among long-term fans.

Galactica was a grounded tale of human survival against a seemingly unstoppable destructive force with a personal vendetta against the Human race. with just the one
high-level sci-fi concept done and dusted it got on with telling stories about those
involved.

It didn't get caught up like some other shows do in having to demonstrate a different sci-fi idea every week. Strangely, it was better for it.

One of the tricks it used was for episodes to act as allegories for real life events. Not something uncommon in science fiction but the execution felt more humanised rather than from a high-minded, faux-hindsight that seeks to show us the errors of modern society.

It also took risks with its characters. Not just the obvious with switching the gender of previously male characters, but being ready to put them through the mill and let actions have consequences that would come back and bite them eventually.

There was the odd few episodes that felt unecessary or like it was treading water but those were still better than most series episodes and were not that often.

The actors were hardly the finest of their generation, but they were solid and believed in the material they worked with and gave credible, believeable performances, not acting like stars. That kind of chemistry is rare and benefited the quality of the show.

The finale was as unexpected as other key moments of the series such as, the shooting of Adama, the reveal of the final five Cylons and the discovery of Earth.

In a lot of ways it was right that they ended the story as it it gives a lot of the issues a resolution. Some people complained about the mysticism apsects that popped up but in the end that wasn't the point of the story. The story was about the survival of the Human race not the meaning of life.

That said there was a message about what it means to be alive as the Humans and Cylons were both driven to the point of extinction.

The general impession was it's better to compromise your morals and principles and be
alive rather than fight for them to the death.

All this just from a TV drama? That's why I'll miss it. I'm not holding my breath for another show like it to appear in the next few years, so I'll just have to be satisfied with my dwindling list of quality TV shows.

Salut to you, Battlestar Galactica!