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| This image from here. |
I had barely waken up
this morning and was staring at my computer screen with sleepy eyes when I saw this piece of news: It's been ten years since the first
episode of “Battlestar Galactica” premiered. That was like a
bucket full of icy water emptied over my head. “That can't be
right!” (Closely followed by “I feel old!”) But no, they
weren't wrong. (And, naturally, since it's been 10 years, I'm talking about the
later version, not the older original, which, I must admit, I've
never watched.)
Anyway, “Battlestar Galactica” is
one of my favourite TV series. But that very nearly never happened!
My husband and I lived in Canada in
2005, so we actually saw the pilot episode when it first aired. I
wasn't impressed. My husband kept watching the show, but I didn't care to. Roughly a year later, we'd moved back to
Finland, and the series premiered here. I decided to give it another
chance. I was instantly hooked.
I don't know what happened, or what had changed, but I really, really
liked it.
It
wasn't the concept or even
the storyline(s) or the
odd mixture of realism and mystery
that grabbed me
(though those are great, too). It was the human drama. The
relationships between the characters are never easy,
never uncomplicated, and that's
what makes them real.
The characters are pushed beyond
their limits and they
face moral dilemmas and
situations where they're forced to choose the
lesser of two (or more)
evils. They make their
choices and deal with the consequences... and they
don't always do that admirably and heroically. But
then there are those
moments when they do. The
first, I guess, is why
we like them and root for them.
The second is why we
love them. We've been shown that they're like us – human, fallible;
it's easy to root for them. And then, when they're shown doing the
right thing, the impossible thing, or the noble thing... it's
inspiring. It's encouraging.
And that's the show's main appeal for
me. Even today, when I try to think of examples of three-dimensional
characters, characters that have strengths and weaknesses, who
struggle and fail, who face conflicts (external, internal – there's
plenty of both) and
who, as a result,
change – for better or
for worse (and in some cases, both)...
the first characters
that come to mind are the ones from Battlestar Galactica.
