Battlestar Galactica

I came in a little late, knowing nothing about the original except that it had a reputation of being cheesy, but the new
Battlestar Galactica is easily the best SF show on TV in a long time. That's in no small part due to show-runner Ron Moore, who provided much of the creative energy that made the middle seasons of DS9 so much fun. BSG is a much darker show (figuratively and literally - I never understood why Trek always had to be filmed under kleig lights), and it's the better for it.

The toughest part for the writers and producers, I think, will be exploring the mythos. This is where, say, Babylon 5 fell down for me. The early seasons offered some real mystery, both about the characters and the universe they inhabited. But the "revelations," spread out over 4 years (season 5 doesn't really count), brought to mind the quote from Conrad about sailor's tales fitting within the shell of a nut. Ultimately there wasn't that much to the backstory that couldn't be summarized in a few sentences: Shadows = chaos, Vorlons = order, Sinclair = Valen. The characters were interesting for the most part, but because the story arc was so threadbare, almost every event of consequence had to revolve around them. This might work well for a medical drama, but you're sacrificing what makes good space operas: the sense of scale, of a huge universe you can only meagerly comprehend.

On the other hand, you can go too far the other way, and treat the mythos as an inexahaustible supply of new weirdness. X-Files fell victim to this. I don't think anyone can tell a plausible story that fits everything that was thrown onto the screen.

BSG will hopefully manage to walk the line here. I hope it'll be clear by the end of this season whether, for example, there's anything more than mysticism to the Cylon's God-talk and the President's prophecy talk.

Luckily, even if the mythos sucks, if the production quality shown so far continues, it'll at least be worth watching.