In Very Grudging Praise Of…

… Battlestar Galactica.

Now!

This entry will hopefully be brief, because I spent many, many months arguing with my editor about the merits or otherwise of the TV-remake of Battlestar Galactica that has graced screens for the last few years.  My position being that it was rubbish; his position being that it was the greatest thing ever made.  My conviction that it was rubbish was, I fully admit, based on dubious information.  I’d seen some of the original series, which was, let’s face it, not exactly Shakespeare Does Robots, and I’d seen bits of the new series, which seemed to involve more sombre staring into the vacant beyond and more sweaty vests than I’d thought one little screen could ever contain.  And my god the vests are sweaty, I mean, let’s not beat about the bush here, more artily-disshevelled-gleaming-sexy-people-having-a-horrid-time-on-the-edge-of-breaking you’re unlikely to ever meet.

But…

… since then, Battlestar Galactica has come to my local library…

… and thence to my DVD player…

… and so, after all this, I grudgingly and with all the grace of a wounded buffalo, reform my position.  I would still argue that perhaps it takes itself a little bit too seriously… ‘light relief’ are not words you’re likely to run across in the course of any of Battlestar Galactica’s series… but on the other hand, in the absence of light relief, it does an absolutely brilliant job of retaining ‘crushing tension’ right up to the very, very end, as humanity, and along the way, the other lot too, battle against each other, themselves, the possibility of exctinction, death, misery, and all the symptoms of all the above on the way.  When there’s action, it’s utterly thrilling; when there’s betrayal, it’s soul-wrenching; when there’s politics, its savage; when religion, it’s fanatical.

And it says a lot about Battlestar Galactica that my one lingering caveat now that the series has run its course, is, naturally, a caveat about the nature of god.  But, if you wish to find out why this is my last narrative concern, you’ll just have to watch it, won’t you?