There are few TV shows that are spoken about with almost universal praise – you’ve got The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Sopranos, and this – Battlestar Gallactica.
Even if you’ve never watched even a minute of the series, it’s one of those names that lives in your head rent free, that when someone mentions you get that twinge of distant familiarity. If you fancy turning that twinge into a full-bodied experience, luckily for you, Battlestar Gallactica is once again available to stream, this time for free on the iPlayer. If you’re not familiar with its premise, let us set the scene for you: a dark and brooding bunch of deeply flawed characters with contrasting politics try and navigate life on board a space ship, whilst also trying to save humanity from a robot race, called cylons. You may have switched off with the word space, and we get it, sci-fi isn’t for everyone. But this show didn’t get on all those ‘best TV of all time’ lists for nothing.
You don’t have to look very far to find some positive press about Battlestar Galactica, and a simple google search will bring you to many of those above mentioned lists. In 2009 Richard Vine of The Guardian published an article concerning the show titled, “Better than the wire?” A bold claim, but one he backs up by saying that after watching it, “you want to tell as many people as possible that they’re missing out on something really special.” More recent, yet equally full of praise, was The Telegraph’s Ed Power, who calls it “the sci-fi series that Star Trek could never be… rooted in the grubbiness of realpolitik.” This perfect mix of grit and science meant that during its airing, the show gained a cult following, and essentially trended before trending was really a thing.
It may be an oldie, but Battlestar Galactica is definitely still a goodie.
First shown October 2004.
