~moose0225

I guess by this point, it goes without saying that I am a huge nerd.

I’ve been getting more and more excited about the 4th season of Battlestar Galactica, which kicks off tomorrow night. I mean, it is by far my favorite show on television. I have a few genre shows that I watch regularly and enjoy: Lost, Smallville, Pushing Daisies. Battlestar blows them all out of the water; it’s the only show to vie with The West Wing for my favorite show EVER.

But again, I’m a huge nerd. I’m SUPPOSED to love good SF. I mean, I’m a trekkie. I love Star Wars. (I’m getting to Firefly, I swear… But this show is GOOD, I mean unrelentingly good. It’s the sort of thing that I feel compelled to spread the gospel on.

My wife has no interest in science fiction, beyond enjoying visual spectable from time to time. Her favorite movie is Love, Actually. Tonight, we watched Blade Runner the Director’s Cut. On a scale of 1 to 10, she gave it a 3, and this movie is one of the true classics of the genre.

But I got her to watch Battlestar. And she loves it. Next to Oprah and Real Time with Bill Maher, which don’t count because they’re about the real world, it’s her favorite TV show. (Pushing Daisies is probably next. Me too, in fact. We can’t wait for it to come back.) I convinced her best friend to watch based on her recommendation (and my constant badgering). The three of us were watching the first season together, and I turned around to find the girls in tears, clutching each other.

It is a show with real resonance, with true drama. The beauty of really good science fiction is that it allows the creator to explore the issues of the day, the stuff that divides us, but leave those divisions at the door. Only in science fiction can the heroes use tactics like suicide bombings, the stereotypical tactic of the wild-eyed Muslim terrorist, and have an American audience open their mind to what it must feel like to walk in shoes that desperate. To cling that utterly to an ideology.

Unfortunately, SF is too often simply escapism. Hey, I write comics, I thrive on escapism, but any story that takes me to a new world…which I later recognize as my own…that’s special. It’s something to treasure. Star Trek managed it on its best days. The Twilight Zone was a huge success because of it…and Battlestar Galactica pulls it off routinely.

I cannot overstate how good this show is. It’s better than anything you’re currently watching, in my opinion. If you read my blog or journal, and you’ve never seen this show, you must. Rent the first season and watch it. You’ll thank me.