So say we all?

The series finale was last Friday. Some fans regard BSG as the greatest SF program ever. Let’s briefly consider the competition.

A number of SF shows were always pretty mediocre or worse, viz. Andromeda, The 4400, Prey, Painkiller Jane, Sanctuary, Star Trek: Enterprise, Code Name: Eternity; The Dresden Files, First Wave, Flash Gordon, The Invisible Man, Mutant X.

Some SF shows were good shows or promising shows, but were canceled prematurely, viz. Firefly, Harsh Realm, Jake 2.0, Now and Again, Space: Above and Beyond, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne.

Some SF shows were okay to begin with, but went rapidly downhill, viz. Roswell, Earth: Final Conflict, Kyle XY.

Some SF shows were so-so, viz. Invasion.

There are also some SF shows I haven’t bothered to watch, viz. Eureka, Sliders, Doctor Who. For all I know, these may be terrific shows.

In terms of the best and the worst, BSG is clearly one of the better entries. But as far as I’m concerned, I don’t think it’s the best of the lot:

Characters

Except for Laura Roslin and Chief Tyrol, I don’t find most of the characters very sympathetic. Put another way, I don’t care what happens to most of them.

Bill Adama is an admirable character, and the casting (Olmos) is flawless. But he’s not all that likable. Indeed, his position requires him to maintain a professional distance from the rest of the crew.

Number Six is a complex and potentially sympathetic character–if it weren’t for the fact that she’s a classic femme fatale.

Ellen Tigh makes a good villain.

Felix Gaeta is a conflicted and ultimately tragic character. His resentment of favoritism towards the Cylons is justified. However, fomenting mutiny way out of proportion to the provocation.

It’s true that Adama constantly skirts the knife-edge of military dictatorship, but he never crosses the line. He’s not power-hungry. Although he can be ruthless, his decisions are driven by exigent circumstances.

Then you have characters like Apollo and Boomer who could be renamed Bland and Boring.

Apollo was typecast as the rebellious son. This would have been more effective if he’d chosen is battles better. Youthful idealism versus the old man’s seasoned pragmatism.

However, in a war for the survival of the human[oid] race, the stakes are too high to empathize with his concern for bureaucratic niceties. It isn’t that idealistic.

Youthful rebellion can take various forms, but one form is to rebel against traditions that have lost their utility. It’s a good thing to break the rules when the rules get in the way of what needs to be done.

Ironically, there’s almost a role reverse, where Apollo acts like a crotchety old man who’s too set in his ways to cut the red tape while his old man is prepared to bend or break the rules for the common good.

Kandyse McClure has beautiful eyes, but not much of a role.

Baltar is a juicy villain, but he’s also tiresome. Turning him into a Bhagwan-type cult leader made dramatic sense, but he’s still tiresome.

A villain is the character you should love to hate, not merely hate.

I never cared for Starbuck. An angry, depressed, self-loathing drunk. How much time would you want to spend in her company?

Col. Tigh only existed because Adam needed a friend his own age.

Helo would have been just another bland and boring stand-in, except that he betrayed the human race by sabotaging a chance to destroy the Cylons once and for all. Unforgivable.

Crewman Cally was such a wet blanket! It as a relief to see her flushed out the airlock.

Naturalistic Science Fiction

The producer decided to go for the genre of “naturalistic SF.” That has the advantage of character-driven plots. Character development is often a weakness in SF.

The downside, however, is that it fails to exploit the distinctive conventions of the SF genre. BSG lacks the creative imagination of a show like Farscape.

Political Allegory

The producer and screenwriters couldn’t resist the temptation to use BSG as their very own political soapbox–with heavy-handed allegories of the war on terror. There are two problems with this:

i) It alienates viewers like me who don’t share their leftwing outlook.

ii) The narrative ought to develop internally. Instead, extraneous plots are grafted onto the storyline, from CNN or the NYT.

Entertainment Value

The show wasn’t much fun to watch. You shouldn’t have to watch a TV drama out of a sense of duty, as if you’re supposed to appreciate what’s going on. The show took itself a bit too seriously. It’s kind of like folks who go to Ingmar Bergmann movies because they think it’s good for them. A way of proving how sophisticated they are.

You’re not supposed to like it. If you enjoy it, it wouldn’t be great art!

BSG was too humorless for its own good.