thoughts on the new battlestar galactica

Battlestar Galactica (2004) has always been a show that has me perturbed.

Many critics have hailed the remake as a stunning accomplishment and a quantum leap forward in the genre of science fiction. And while this may have been true once upon a time, I think it's been scraping the proverbial 'bottom of the barrel' lately.

A recent episode caught my eye earlier tonight as I browsed Hulu.com's television section out of boredom. In the mid-season finale "Revelations", it was revealed to Admiral Adama that Saul Tigh, his best friend of 30 some years, was a Cylon. One would expect many things from the show at this point, but I never expected what we got-Tigh being thrown into the airlock not five minutes after he made his reveal. Now I realize that the humans in this show still have some angst over having their entire civilization destroyed by the Cylons, but Adama's reaction mystified me.

If you or I had been Adama at this point, I think we'd be having any number of emotional reactions to this, but I think eventually the knowledge that Tigh had been a life-long friend would have outweighed the hatred toward Cylons as a race. This certainly would have been the direction I'd have expected from the show's producers since they (often smugly) pride themselves on being able to tell complex stories in shades of gray. But instead, we basically got a knee-jerk reaction and an excuse for Adama to tear apart his entire office in a fit of insanity.

Let me say that I've severely disappointed in Battlestar over this incident. The entire point of the show (and this comes straight from its creators) has always been examining what it means to be human. The Cylons were even made to look human to cause the characters to stop and view them as something other than simple machines. But apparently, a grown man can't even be bothered to consider that his best friend might still be the same man underneath. From all the facts we've been given about Tigh, he's still a loyal, devoted friend. He's a man who cares deeply about the human race and the admiral. So why has he suddenly been reduced to a toaster oven? I can only shake my head at this portrayal of Adama and his cohorts.

As I've said before, many people in the mainstream media view Battlestar Galactica as a shining example of intelligent drama-a template for all other shows to follow. But I have to ask, when a show doesn't even permit its characters to empathize for someone in this way, have we merely taken one step forward and two gigantic steps backward? I think so. Battlestar still has impressive special effects, respectable acting (on a good day) and some interesting episodes. But at the end of the day, I think the message of BSG that will resonate with people is that we should feel rather than think. And when I consider this, I'm almost certain that any of the genre greats such as Asimov, Stracznski, Clark and Card would all be shocked and disgusted right now. I know I am...