Let???s get straight to the point: bar none, Battlestar Galactica is the best science fiction television programme currently showing. In fact, let???s go further. It???s the best of the last decade. And truthfully? You???d find very few sci-fi fans who???d disagree.

What???s more, plenty of people must be busy eating their words, too. Back when it was announced that Battlestar Galactica was being revived, feelings were mixed, not helped by the divided reaction to the mini-series that kickstarted this iteration of the show. Yet over the past couple of years, it???s cleverly proven to be a tense, gripping mix of action and drama, with a tightly-woven plot.

This third season? It???s arguably the best so far. A delicious soup of mystery, relevations, actions, striking characters and winding narrative, Battlestar Galactica is also served superbly well by a quality cast, some quality special effects, and a real focus on what matters from behind the camera.

As usual, there are no spoilers in this review, although it???s not giving much away to say that the deadly cylons have to share the screen time with some intriguing and revealing character development this time round. And with word that season four of the revived Battlestar Galactica will be the last, things are set up for a terrific final act.

Season three of the show though is extraordinarily good, a real, genuine sci-fi classic that???s going to have one mighty shelf life once this particularly iteration of the programme has gone. And with umpteen surprises to go back and check out, it???s never likely to be one to gather dust on the shelf, either. --Jon Foster

Almost finished series 3. 3 episodes to go but I'm really losing the will to live.

For me they've broken the 1st commandment of entertainment: Dont be boring.

The major plot: Galactica and co are trying to find Earth whilst being chased by the Cylons.
The sub plot: Baltar and No.6
Everything else: Sub-sub plots.

How much time is spent on the major plot line? about 20 mins.
How much time is spent on the sub plot? 10 mins?
About 20 episodes take up the completely boring sub-sub plots. Do we need 3 weeks of Apollo fancies Starbuck? If people want to watch marriage breakdowns and adulterous affairs they can watch Eastenders can't they? I dont watch BSG for that!
Everything that's supposed to be so meaningful is really skimmed over...this week is racism...sorted in 40mins. Next week see the class system fixed in 40mins. Except nothing ever really is nicely resolved.
The rest is so predictable, mainly because you know none of the major characters are going to be killed off. Oh, Chief is stuck in a room with no air, will he make it? (yawn), Oh, is the President going to be executed (yawn). Is Baltar going to hang himself (what shall I do later). Is Starbuck dead? (what time shall i go to bed).

And as for the whole Presidential thing, it just feels more and more stupid.
Does Merthyr Tydfil need a President? Does it need a Governor? Does it even need a Government to survive? No. I think a locally elected council will suffice made up of working people yet we have 10'000 more people here than are in the whole human race in BSG, where a President sits at her desk all day trying to sort out 'big' issues. yeah, OK.

Right now I really could'nt care less if the whole human race is wiped out just as long as it stops being boring.

I think I'll try and make it though the next 3 episodes but then that's it. There's a lot more interesting series out there to take my time.

UPDATE:

I finished it last night. There was only 2 episodes to go, not 3, The Story So Far was a feature not an episode.
Anyway, how did they end this cliffhanging 2 part filane? A huge space battle? A fight for survival? Capturing something important?
No. A courtroom drama. yes, 2 weeks of Baltar being tried.
But, wait a minute, some of the people are hearing strange sitar music of Jimi Hendrix?
And then!!!!

SPOILER:
They turn out to be 4 of the as yet unseen 5 Cylons. i mean, come on! Colonel Tigh a Cylon? That makes absolutely no sense at all. If they spent 40years evolving and Tigh has been in service for 40years then does'nt that mean he was a cylon before the Cylons left and started to evolve? And then Chief is one too, why did'nt they just go the whole hog and make both the Adama's, The President and Baltar Cylons, would easily have made as much sense.


They all went into the boot sale pile.

I missed the entire Battlestar Glactica oeuvre when it came out (indeed the original series as well) but read so many reviews about the allegorical sophistication of BG, I thought I'd better check it out. The obvious place to start is the 2004 mini-series, assembled on DVD as a three-hour feature (and selling for less than four quid on Amazon as I write). Aficionados claim the series doesn't get into its stride until later, but this was for me an impressive opener. The human species is attacked by the Cylons, a robot-race that comes in two distinctive designs; toaster-on-legs and hot, hot humanoid. Thanks to some sexy treachery involving the latter, the human defences are annihilated leaving a rag-bag of refugee vessels, clustered round the eponymous `Battlestar' a sort of ageing aircraft-carrier in space. A desperate fight-back begins, with the survival of the last remaining humans in the balance. The problem with much sci-fi is that it just isn't logical or convincing, but the `re-visioning' of BG here is remarkable. The plot, acting, semi-documentary filming style, the striking retro sets and the special effects all mesh together seamlessly and persuasively. The action is undeniably exciting, perhaps because it is balanced by reasonably realistic characterisation and a storyline that is engaging and often quite moving. All this quality sci-fi for only ??1.25 an hour? A bargain!

This is a fantastic pilot for a remake of an old 80s sci-fi series where it's ditched the lycra and lasers for grit and realism. It's quite a grim tale featuring flawed and desperate people thrown together into the worst situation they can possibly image. The complete annihilation of their species. It seems that the crazy killer robot Cylons (nick named toasters) have a sinister agenda to go along with their new and disturbing make over.

Nothing is resolved in this pilot. This is just setting up the main plot and introducing the characters, but it is a fantastic beginning to an equally fantastic new series. Definitely not one to miss. Highly recommended!

I had never seen the original Battlestar Galactica and watched this mini series because it was cheap and I saw it had reasonable reviews. BSG is now my favorite TV show. The characters are complex and believable, the story is dark yet superbly told and the show combines stellar acting with some fantastic action sequences. As a whole the series manages to be compelling in many ways. The music and CGI are top notch and the wonderful cast add depth to every issue that gets raised and many are. This is no black and white story as it hinted at in the mini series and it is astounding how deep it all gets while never losing sight of the struggles of the amazingly well defined and diverse characters.

The mini series itself was the first thing I have ever watched that brought me to tears just with the sheer emotion it exuded, it has a real quality (possibly helped by the decision to have documentary style camera effects) that means everything impacts the audience much more than is usually the case and enables us to care much more deeply about characters we've only just been introduced to. As an opening to the new series this mini series did a brilliant job of drawing me in and it was well worth it. The stories are A grade, the characters are powerful, cowardly, crazy, moral, heroic, stoic and more and all backed up by a tense atmosphere, a terrifying yet still sympathetic enemy (when the show begins to delve into that), and quality music and SFX while still being a show that feels very real. It is dark, yet not without some hope and rarely stops hitting you hard emotionally. A masterpiece.

The Only other successful Re-Imagining of a Classic Show other than this is DOCTOR WHO. But BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has done well as a sci-fi drama kicking the original out of the Galaxy.

A True Representation of Television made good.
When I first heard of it i thought "Yet again, They'll screw it up." But the New version grabbed me from the Pre Title on the Miniseries right until the Cliffhanger. starting on the First Season Currently then moving on to seasons 2 & 3 (Already Seen RAZOR - Not a Bad Film).

some of the many things this version has over the original is the fact that the Galactica is a ship that was meant to be put in mothballs. The shocks that are through the whole story. But the thing I love most is the Blake's 7-esque feel to it: that unlike the original the deaths are thivk and fast (By The End of "33", the first episode of Season 1, the Survivour count had reached 47,972, Went Up by 1 when a Child was born on the rising star, and kept dropping throughout Seasons 2-4)

Hands Down the Best GALACTICA So Far.