I love Battlestar Galactica, it jumped to being one of my favourite sci-fi shows almost immediately, amongst such lofty companions as Doctor Who and Firefly, but when friends tell me the reasons they don’t like it I find it very hard to argue. So what makes it so good even while parts of it are so bad…?

I must admit that it doesn’t have the drawcard that usually gets me addicted to shows, likeable characters. Firefly, in my opinion, was the master of this (Joss Whedon is a literary god, after all), as the characters were so well developed you felt you knew their motivations and could understand and empathise with their actions. But I never felt that with Battlestar. In fact, looking back there’s very few characters I actually liked. Respected, yes, but very little I could really relate to. But then perhaps that was the point. Battlestar was as much a study of human psychology under pressure as it was a story of war between two species. What *would* the last few remaining humans do if they suddenly found themselves an endangered and hunted species? How would the weight of this responsibility affect those in charge of humanity’s continued survival? Is it any wonder we saw both alcohol and drug abuse, physical fights between former friends, and decisions made that we would never ever want to believe ourselves capable of making. But we are. And no matter how painful it is to watch the breakdown of various characters, the necessity of destroying an entire ship that had fallen under suspicion, or any number of the other acts of desperation, THIS is human nature that can’t be denied. The writers captured it brilliantly by sacrificing a feel-good ‘happy family’ for realism. We’d all be bastards in the same position. And if I was Laura Roslyn I’d have airlocked Gaius back in the first season!

You can’t talk about Battlestar’s strengths without mentioning the CGI. I’ve heard so many people say it’s not about the special effects, it’s about the storyline. But lets be honest with ourselves, it’s a little about the special effects. It’s the first ‘point of contact’ of the show after all. We’re going to decide something looks frakking awesome long before we appreciate the depth of the plot. And Battlestar has spared no expense with their CGI. The Cylons are appropriately creepy with their morphing claw-like hands, the jump effect is visually stunning when seen with the whole of the fleet, and no one can deny that the viper vs raider space battles are visually amazing. The opening fight of season 4 still takes my breath away no matter how many times I re-watch it. And you genuinely are worried for the characters. Right from the beginning we were given hints that the writers had no restraints about killing characters off, that no punches would be pulled and be prepared for sharp corners ahead. Adama’s shooting at the height of victory, Six’s destruction of Cloud Nine, both Cally’s and Devala’s deaths (I would mention Gaeta and Sarak, but they deserved it), and the revelation of the Final Five including some of the most trusted characters. “They’re so Cylon it hurts,” a friend said to me after it was revealed, and it *did* hurt, as if the betrayal was against us as well as the Galactica fleet. Viewers have come to value surprise over happy endings – we like being shocked even if it’s at the expense of a character’s life. And Battlestar certainly delivered.

So all this is sounding pretty damn good: Realistic character development, impressive CGI, interesting storylines and surprise twists that leave us dying for the next episode. What could possibly turn people away from it?

Well…

I have to admit that the largest problem is a glaring one that’s hard to sweep under the carpet for love of the show. It’s unresolved storylines, or worse, badly resolved storylines. The writers were trying to be clever, and in many instances they succeeded, but the times they failed they fell in something of a flaming heap.

What were the head visions of Gaius and Caprica Six? The brief explanation at the end that they were angels was tacked on and devalued the whole story arc. It had no substance to the rest of the story, there was no precedence or lead up. It was like the writers got to the end of the series and couldn’t think of anything else so they fell back on something unknowable – deus ex machina. A friend of mine has come up with a much more interesting and plausible explanation:

Humans and Cylons are essentially the same – or they will be/have been at some point. That means download and resurrection technology can be used on humans as well as Cylons. This isn’t a large leap of logic, especially in light of the recently released first episode of ‘Caprica’. So, as Gaius is important to the Cylons in the beginning, they create a spare body in the event that he is killed. Which he is. Does anyone believe he could have survived that explosion simply because Six told him to “Get down”? That’s about as effective as the old ‘Duck and Cover’ routine. In fact Six herself is surprised to hear Gaius survived, after being resurrected from dying herself in that same blast. So they both die and BOTH downloaded, but due to the massive levels of radiation interference the signals get mixed up. An imprint of Six is copied into Gaius’ new body and likewise for Six. This also explains why the head-characters retain the same personality and goals they had at the beginning while the true characters evolve, there is no character growth because they are no more than glitches, computer-generated ghosts. But no, the writers went with angel because it’s far more mysterious sounding, and people like that, apparently.

This example is by no means alone, unfortunately. Another that stands out painfully for me is the recurring shared dream in the opera house revolving around Hera. This was a good concept, there’s no denying that, and it kept me intrigued for many an episode. But where did it go? What was the resolution to the tension created from Six and Gaius spiriting Hera away from Athena and Laura? They rescued her from the battle in the last episode. It wasn’t even that they were trying to abduct her for their own purposes, or that she wouldn’t have been picked up by someone else two seconds later. It was a hugely disappointing anti-climax to a storyline that began with such promise. It’s literally as if the writers suddenly thought, “Oh frak, we’ve forgotten to tie up this loose end, quick, just write anything.” We deserve more than that.

And that brings us to Starbuck… What the hell is she? I usually enjoy ambiguity, or suggestions towards paranormal post-death assistance. I loved it in Angel when they did the same with Cordy because it was handled *well*. Battlestar, unfortunately, fumbled and dropped the ball. There was so much of interest surrounding Cara that was never resolved, and while I hate shows that spell out every single thing, I’m equally annoyed when we’re left so completely in the dark. Oh, she’s an angel, that explains everything. Actually, no it doesn’t, and is just as contrived a resolution as the head-visions being angels. The writers took one small step towards explaining things like the Eye of Jupiter references with the introduction of Daniel – who I think is safe to assume is Cara’s father. But they in no way explained WHY this would give her magical powers to navigate from a random point in deep space to Earth. The Colonies’ jump drive must use a completely arbitrary system of coordinates that the Thirteenth Tribe would have no way to put into a song that somehow was programmed into every human-Cylon and human-Cylon-human hybrid, including Hera. Even if they knew where the alternative Earth was, which they didn’t. So it’s ‘God’ again, deus ex machina, a unsatisfactory cop out.

I’m not even going to go into the final episode, except to say it’s the first time I’ve been disappointed that more people didn’t die. Battlestar was not a show for happy endings.

And yet I find myself forgiving it all its sins, even if others can’t, simply because I feel it’s an exceptional story of survival under extreme conditions. I like that it pushes the bounds of what’s appropriate (whether with drug use, suicide bombings, or eventually allying with an enemy who nearly brought about genocide), because in those circumstances *nothing’s* appropriate. Some try to cling to the tatters of civilisation they once had, while others move on to full survival at any costs mentality, and it makes us ask ourselves what we would do in the same situation.

So despite its glaring faults I’ll continue to recommend it to friends and consider it a masterpiece of the sci-fi genre.