Battlestar Galactica's Third Season Premier

If you were old enough to watch television in late 70s and early 80s, you'd remember Battlestar Galactica. It was a big, campy science fiction show - less intellectual than Star Trek, less of a fairy tale than Star Wars, and more fun than Buck Rogers. The dialog was hackneyed and not a week went by when you didn't hope the stupid robotic dog would get blown to bits.  Nonetheless, the original Battlestar Galactica was successful because of interesting characters and a compelling premise.

Long before The Terminator promised he'd be back, Battlestar Galactica envisioned a universe in which the machines rebelled with intent to exterminate mankind. The twist was that the machines had largely succeeded. The human survivors escaped the holocaust on their far away planet in space ships. As Lorne Greene would solemnly remind each week, "Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar, Galactica, leads a rag-tag, fugitive fleet, on a lonely quest - for a shining planet known as Earth."

The show left such an indelible memory in the minds of fans, that the current SciFi version of Battlestar Galactica had a difficult time winning them over. The original actors wanted a continuation of the series rather than an overhaul of the entire show. And fans were outraged when they learned that Starbuck, the popular macho renegade pilot, had been rewritten to be played by a woman.

But due to excellent writing, deeply conflicted characters, and a terrifyingly realistic science fiction universe, the new Battlestar Galactica eventually won over old fans and made lots of new ones. This is not your typical SciFi show. This one has broad cross-over appeal. It has won a Peabody, garnered Emmy nominations and secured critical acclaim. No lesser authority than Time Magazine named it the best show on television.

Will the rag-tag fleet of fugitives ever find their shining planet earth?

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