last week the last episode of the 3rd season of Battlestar galactica was aired on the SciFi channel in the US. the next season, expected on January 2008, will most likely be the last. while the last few episodes weren't extremely exciting, the season finale was an excellent cliff hanger, leaving the dedicated fans on their tows for the next 9 months.
over the years, this show received moderate ratings, of around 1.5 million viewers give or take. i think this is one of the best scifi shows ever aired, and this rating doesn't do it justice. however, as much as i know, the first time star trek TOS was aired it didn't receive high ratings as well, and its success only came later. i have a feeling this will be the case here too. currently it is aired in the rather small scifi channel, as well as some networks around the world (including yes stars 2 in Israel). but with an interesting story, human drama, and realistic computer graphics (star ships actually fire machine guns and nuclear warhead missiles there!), i think it has a good chance of being replayed over and over again like star trek, and be just as world famous.
if the name sounds familiar, then you are right. a series of that name was aired in 1978/1980, and this one is a reproduction of it, with brand new cast (well, except for Richard Hatch who played Captain Apollo in the original series, and now plays Tom Zarek, vice president of the colonies) and modern visual effects. the basic story is similar: twelve colonies who lost contact with Earth thousands of years ago, build a race of robots. the robots rebel and after a war, leave to another planet. the new series, who's production began in 2003, starts when the robots return, with vengeance. in a quick nuclear attack (and not by personally shooting every human like in the original series) the colonies are destroyed, and the few tens of thousands who were lucky enough to be in space at the time, or quick enough to find a space ship, flee, and try to find the lost Earth, with the robots chasing them. the setting allows the creators, Ron D. Moor (who also wrote many ST:DS9 episodes) and David Eick to explore love and hate, loyalty and betrayal, fear and victory, despair and relief, in a realistic and believable way.
