I posted some time ago about the new Sci-Fi network miniseries, but we just started watching season one of Battlestar Galactica, and it holds up to my cautious excitement. The third episode: as the fleet scurries to escape Cylon pursuit, the President (Mary McDonnell, playing a minor political functionary who becomes Pres because everyone higher up died in the massive destruction of humanity) and military commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) begin to fight behind the scenes for control; Cylons have infiltrated the ships disguised as humans–and have begun a series of terrorist attacks on the ships, including venting most of the fleet’s water supply to space; an insurrection on a prison ship opens up problems about who to call a ‘citizen’ of the fleet, how to envision the future of democracy during wartime, etc….
You get a small sense of the picture: it’s a by-god sociopolitical soap opera, with fascinating foci on issues of how actually to “run” a community with scarce resources, limited cohesion, attackers on all sides (and within). The allegorical connections to America’s current situation are not hyperbolically shouted, but hell they don’t need to be.
It’s amazing, but I think this is the most interesting “post-9/11” fiction I’ve yet seen. And it ranks up there with the best television science fiction. So far. But I am very hopeful….