By Your Command

get that camera
Originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Okay here's something else to talk about:

I mentioned earlier that I have become addicted to Battlestar Galactica but didn't go into much detail other than I think the female Starbuck is the bee's knees. I should mention - Starbuck is her callsign. She is a Viper pilot and her real name is Kara Thrace. Apollo's real name is Lee Adama, son of Bill Adama the commander of the Galactica. I have no idea where Kara got her callsign. It's obvious with Lee - one of the season two eps involved Lee walking around in a towel. Let's just say that while I'm not that attracted to Jamie Bamber, he is more than welcome to parade around in a towel for the rest of the series' existence.

The miniseries was the setup: we see a little of the 12 Colonies, particularly Caprica. Mainly the action takes place aboard the Battlestar Galactica, an outdated space ship that once was used in the war against the Cylons, artificial intelligence that went to war against its creators but was driven off. Wait, it gets better. Really!

Now this ship is about to be decomissioned and turned into a museum. Aboard her is her commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos - yay! He broods just as well here as he did on Miami Vice), and the XO (executive officer for you non-military pukes) Colonel Saul Tigh. His good points: he's fiercely loyal to Adama. His bad - he has no people skills plus he's an alcoholic.

Tigh's biggest thorn in his side is the aforementioned Starbuck, who is a hell of a pilot but not much on authority. The only thing that kept her from being a permanent fixture in the brig is her relationship (not *that* kind of relationship!) with Commander Adama.

Anyways, with the unwitting help of brilliant scientist Gaius Baltar, the Cylons launch an attack on all 12 colonies at once with nuclear weapons. Baltar, while being a genius and all that, tends to think with his man-tackle and he let gorgeous Cylon model 6 gain access to and cripple the defense mainframes. Baltar escapes from Caprica in an transport ship, piloted by Sharon Valerii (callsign Boomer) and Karl Agathon (callsign Helo). Helo stays behind on Caprica to allow Baltar to escape. The transport ship is part of the Galactica.

The rest of the fleet, by the way, is disabled by the infiltration of the mainframes by the Cylons. The one ship they can't disable is the Galactica which is based on older technology. The Galactica fights back and what remains of the 12 Colonies rallies around the old Battlestar. The only apparent survivor of the government is the Secretary of Education, Laura Roslin (the way-cool Mary McDonnell). She had been aboard the Galactica for the decomissioning ceremonies and was accompanied by Lee Adama (Apollo). She is sworn in as president of the colonies (take that, Geena Davis!) and convinces William Adama the best course of action is to scram, and find a place where the survivors can start making babies.

Adama uses the old myth of Earth, a 13th colony, to rally everyone's morale. He admits to the president he doesn't think Earth exists, but he has to give them something to hope for. They ostensibly start out to search for Earth.

Oh, yeah. After an encounter with a Cylon that looks human (only not as pretty as model 6), Adama is given a mysterious note explaining that there are 8 (or was that 12? I disremember) different human-looking Cylon models. What he doesn't know is who the other ones are. What's really bad is some of those models don't know they are Cylons, either. Like poor Boomer.

End of miniseries. Thank you sci-fi channel for picking up the series because it got better from here! So say we all.