BECAUSE DWIGHT ISN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO THOUGHT IT WAS THE BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION
By Baz Miller
Back
in 2012 I found myself in a very strange place.
I
was 20, had recently moved back into my mother's basement, and had
recently signed up for an account on a popular online dating website
after having ended a 5 year relationship with my high school
sweetheart.
I
met my current partner there, we had been talking for a while and I
had been fairly obvious about my love of Sci Fi and character-driven
dramas. He was surprised that I had never watched Battlestar
Galactica.
 |
| Katee Sackhoff |
I
rooted around for a bit and eventually scrounged up a copy of all
four glorious seasons of the 2004-2009 show, as well as two movies,
and the accompanying Caprica sereis.
The problem with Battlestar Galactica is you can't simply stop watching Battlestar Galactica. Roughly 70 hours later I emerged from my mother's basement in a daze, staring warily at the toaster and wondering if my brother was a robot.
Battlestar Galactica is about space travel, and Artificial Intelligence, and People. Mostly People.
It's a show that appealed to my mildly obsessive attitude about prejudices. Gender roles, religious extremism, what makes a person a person? It's all there but it doesn't insult your intelligence by telling you what to think, or how to feel. The character's react, but because they're all amazingly flawed and kind of horrible people sometimes you don't feel like any one point of view is there to make you say "Ah yes, this is the good guy so all his opinions are on the moral high ground and I should agree with him".
Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck is a force to be reckoned with. The woman owns the show. A female character who is a badass but still has moments where she's able to be a screw up, feminine and loving. It makes you forget that Starbuck in the original series was a dude.
The problem with Battlestar Galactica is you can't simply stop watching Battlestar Galactica. Roughly 70 hours later I emerged from my mother's basement in a daze, staring warily at the toaster and wondering if my brother was a robot.
Battlestar Galactica is about space travel, and Artificial Intelligence, and People. Mostly People.
It's a show that appealed to my mildly obsessive attitude about prejudices. Gender roles, religious extremism, what makes a person a person? It's all there but it doesn't insult your intelligence by telling you what to think, or how to feel. The character's react, but because they're all amazingly flawed and kind of horrible people sometimes you don't feel like any one point of view is there to make you say "Ah yes, this is the good guy so all his opinions are on the moral high ground and I should agree with him".
Katee Sackhoff as Starbuck is a force to be reckoned with. The woman owns the show. A female character who is a badass but still has moments where she's able to be a screw up, feminine and loving. It makes you forget that Starbuck in the original series was a dude.
 |
| Mary McDonnell |
The
other female lead, President Laura Roslin is played by Mary
McDonnell. She takes office at the beginning of the series and spends
the duration of all four seasons battling a terminal breast cancer
diagnosis and still finding the strength to not only manage the
fractured remnants of the human race, but to serve as the democratic
buffer to the show's militarist male lead (Edward James Olmos as
William Adama).
Those
two women (and Jaime Bamber in a fat suit) are a huge part of my love
for Battlestar. It is a show that has taken the time to represent
people like me, and people who I want to be like. Strong,
intelligent, powerful women who are still imperfect and a little
crazy sometimes.
Two
years later I'm still a huge fan of the show, and have the coaster's
to prove it.
Baz is a chronic doodler and has a habit of subjecting her friends to long rants about feminism, video games, and whether or not Thorin is the hottest Dwarf. She's using Capital Geek Girls to channel some of that energy. You can also find her at facebook.com/bazcave
