I’ve been thinking altogether too much about Battlestar Galactica lately. Not sure why.

Maybe because news has come out about The Plan telemovie. Maybe because Katee Sackhoff was cast in Season 8 of 24. Maybe because the Season 4.5 DVD drops next month. Maybe because I have the Caprica DVD sitting on the piano, mocking me for not having watched it yet.

Maybe just because I haven’t been able to cope with the fact that the series is over and it was just that frakkin’ good.

But I was thinking to myself about all the ways the new series was better than the old, and I realized that the old series doesn’t quite get its due among fans of the reimagining.

So I thought I’d do an old-fashioned matchup and see how the two stack up:

• Adama: Sorry Lorne Greene, I know you’re dead and all, and you were definitely awesome as Cmdr. Adama back in 1979, but Eddie kicks your ass. Edward James Olmos scared me in the way that the commander of a mixed civilian/military fleet should. When Lorne got mad, I felt like I’d disappointed my grandfather. When Eddie got mad, I wanted to hide under the sofa. Advantage: Reimagining.

• Starbuck: This is a tough one. Many were taken aback when Starbuck was turned into a woman for the new series, but I thought that Katee Sackhoff did a great job of embodying the spirit of Starbuck at the start, but then turning the character into something of her own. But how can you not love the classic Dirk Benedict character, cigar in mouth, winning at Pyramid games, romancing the ladies? I’d call it a draw. I can’t decide.

• Apollo: A young Richard Hatch v. Jamie Bamber? In and of itself, that’s a nearly impossible decision to make. But I have to go with the classic flavor here. Old-school Apollo was always good, always made the right decision and was damn cute while making it. New-school Apollo had great abs, but made bad choice after bad choice, screwed over Dualla and just made me want to slap him silly on more than on occasion. Advantage: Classic.

• Fight scenes: Hands down, the new series. Part of this was due to the advances in special effects, of course. But part was also because the old one recycled the same freakin’ scenes over and over and over and over again. How many times did you see the triangle of Cylon fighters flying in perfect formation, with one Colonial viper on their ass, shooting them up? Did the Cylons learn NOTHING from previous fights? These new Cylons were crazy! They randomly flew around, shooting anything that moved. And the fighters themselves were Cylons! There’s a twist. Advantage: Reimagining.

• Baltar: No contest. The new Baltar was a sniveling genius who just wanted to have sex with women. Old-school Baltar was evil with a capital E. John Colicos looked mean and evil and scary. You did not want to cross this man. A little-known fact is that an alternate ending of the original miniseries had Baltar being killed by the Cylons because the humans weren’t completely wiped out. He argued that his colony was supposed to have been spared. They beheaded him. So that’s why he did it. Yeah, I have the boxed set of the original series, the one that comes in the centurion-head-shaped box. Don’t judge me. Advantage: Classic.

• Cylons: “By your command.” That roving red eye. That humming sound whenever they walked into the room (hard for them to sneak up on anyone with all their clanking metal and that humming, but still cool). And some of them even had those little toga-ish skirts, which was just so stylish. But the idea to have the Cylons be Centurions, Fighters, Base Stars and the human form? Soooooo cool. The fact that they were all partly organic and that all machines were Cylons was a stroke of genius, IMHO. Advantage: Reimagining.

• The Quorum: Frankly, both versions of the Quorum of 12 needed to be slapped into submission. In the old series, they were always second-guessing Adama, despite his being proven right EVERY SINGLE TIME. Idiots. And they were all a bunch of really old white guys. The new quorum, however, typified every single thing that’s wrong with modern-day politics. Wait – they’re basically the same thing. I gotta call it a draw. I hated both of them.

• Pets: Old series wins this one, hands down. No daggits? No Muffit, real or mechanical? Come on, Moore & Eick. You totally could have gone the merchandising route. Advantage: Classic.

• Boomer: Another major character turned into a woman. But whereas the old Boomer was a loyal pal to Apollo and Starbuck and generally a third wheel, Sharon Valerii was third wheel to no one. She was, however, a Cylon, and almost killed Adama. I gotta go with Herb Jefferson Jr. on this one. He only tried to kill Cylons. Advantage: Classic.

• Aliens: Now this is a weird one. The old series had those weird bugs in the miniseries, some chicks with three eyes and a whole bunch of planets they kept mistaking for Earth that had humans on them. The new one: Nothin’. There were humans and Cylons and that’s it. I can’t decide which is better, but for realism, I’d have to go with the new one, because if there were a whole bunch of habitable planets out there, what are the odds that they’d all be just like Earth and evolve beings just like those on Earth? Advantage: Reimagining.

• The Galactica: She was an awesome ship in both series. Huge, well-armed and with all sorts of funky hiding places. I have to go with the new Galactica, though, because she wasn’t all networked up and showed her age. I liked her external design better, too. Advantage: Reimagining (but not by a heckuva lot).

Score

Reimagining: 5
Classic: 4
Draw: 2

Not too shabby, Glen A. Larson.

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Friday’s episode was perhaps the finest ever for Battlestar Galactica – in part because it was absolutely the bleakest.

Because we have a mere seven episodes left, and we know this show doesn’t go in for the happy endings, who knows what’s going to happen. We know Adama makes it to this Friday’s episode, but will they kill him? Totally could happen.

I truly looked forward to everyone’s reviews this week because there was so much to consider.

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I still haven’t properly caught my breath since Friday’s magnificent episode of BSG.

When it ended, my husband turned to me and said, “There’s no way they’d kill Adama off, is there?”

Then he looked at me. We both knew that when it comes to this show, nothing’s off the table.

Unlike almost any other show, Battlestar is fearless in showing the faults of all involved. (OK, The Wire was pretty good at it, too.) No one’s truly 100 percent likable. And even the people you know you should hate, you find yourself … not hating entirely.

Remember back in Season 3 when we found ourselves back on Cylon-occupied Caprica with a resurrected Caprica Six and newly self-aware Boomer? For the first time, the Cylons were humanized and the pain Caprica Six felt over her separation from Baltar was heart-rending.

And Leoben’s creepy obsession with Starbuck was also tinged with love. He didn’t care how many times Starbuck killed him, he would come back for more, convinced he could, in the end, win her over.

Which he did, sort of, this season.

President Roslin has made us uncomfortable in the past – when she tried to steal the election from Baltar – and until Friday, had really been pissing me off lately with her complete inability to cope with the disappointment that was Earth.

When Roslin got off the Raptor upon returning to the Galactica from Earth, her decision not to answer anyone’s questions angered me. Then her withdrawal from everything and decision to allow Zarek to basically hijack the government really angered me. Roslin is fully responsible for the situation we found ourselves in on Friday. Her use of Baltar’s wireless was too little too late.

And Baltar – how often have we utterly hated him, only to be sucked back in, feeling, perhaps, sorry for him? His remaking of himself as a prophet with his flock, even, had him redeeming himself by praying to the One True God to save the life of a little boy. And when the boy recovered from his illness, who among the show’s fans didn’t wonder if maybe, just maybe, Baltar was on to something and actually did have a pipeline to the OTG?

As much as I’d hate to see Adama be killed, I can only imagine how intensely amazing the show would be if they went there. We know that nothing truly will end well. BSG isn’t a happy ending sort of show.

Watch the whole episode here:

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In honor of this long-awaited event, I thought I’d discuss the “10 things you need to know about Battlestar Galactica” that Moore & Eick detailed in a half-hour special this week on SciFi.

1. The fate of the human race is in jeopardy.

This is the central underlying theme of BSG. It colors all their interactions with the Cylons and, maybe, makes their extreme actions sometimes more bearable. If you’re fighting for your very existence, you get a little more leeway, no? I.E., airlocking Leoben in Season 1 or, in the pilot, leaving behind all the colonial ships that didn’t have FTL. Sacrifice many to save at least a few.

But they are determined not to lose their humanity in the process – thus the actions of the folks on the Atlantis (sorry, brain cramp, Pegasus, of course) seemed beyond the pale to those on the Galactica. Only when we watched Razor did we realize that the Atlantians Pegasus crew felt even more than the Galactica fleet that they were alone in the universe. Without having a civilian fleet to protect from the start, the Atlantis (hey, at least I was consistent) and its crew felt extraordinarily isolated, in ways those on the Galactica actually can’t begin to imagine.

2. Admiral Adama leads the colonists in a search for Earth.

Look, whatever they were going to change from the original series, they weren’t gonna change this. What I like about the new Bill Adama is (besides the fact that he has a first name) that he’s flawed. In the original, he never did anything wrong. Sometimes the civilians didn’t listen to him, but we the viewer always knew that every decision he made was correct.

Bill Adama is human and makes mistakes.

3. The Galactica crew is a family.

Just like a family, they may fight like the dickens with each other, but when faced with an outside threat – Cylons or Adm. Cain and her crew – they rally together. You may make fun of your parents or siblings or cousins, but if someone else tries to say something nasty about them? They’d better run.

4. Cylons look like us now.

I do wish, however, that we had more time with the Centurions. I found it fascinating that they’re capable of the same kind of advanced thought and consciousness as the skinjobs, but the skinjobs had just suppressed it.

I’m very curious about all that, and how the Centurions really spend their days.

5. The president is dying.

I’ll admit it, for a while I figured they’d never kill her. And when she was “cured” by Hera’s blood, I was all, “aha!!!!” But  it looks like she’s a goner for sure. I mean, she’s really sick.

6. There are Cylons within the Galactica crew.

At first, no one knew they were in the crew; the revelation that Boomer was a Cylon was devastating, and then there was that PR guy, Brother Cavil and suicide bomber Leoben.

But now? We have the Athena Sharon as a full-fledged crew warrior and the Sixes, D’Annas, Sharons and Leobens working with the fleet, even going to Earth with them.

7. Starbuck has a destiny.

I guess Kara’s mom was right about something. But wtf is it already?!?!?!??!?!?!

8. A civil war has split the Cylons.

The Cylons are far more human than we ever imagined.

9. Enemies have become allies.

The enemy of mine enemy is my friend. Even when my friend is my enemy. Hell, if these Cylons are willing to give up the ability to resurrect, they’re pretty serious about cooperating.

10. They found Earth.

Wasn’t exactly what they expected. So what now?

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