Wow. We just watched the first two episodes of season three of Battlestar Galactica. I have to admit, before watching I was a bit concerned they couldn't be as awesome as they had been in the past two seasons. I was very quickly corrected. I commented after the second episode 'they can't keep this up' - the first two episodes were so intense.

It sounds like this is something I'll need to catch up on, once I'm back! Anyone else "hooked"?

Well, Wil Wheaton, for one.

As Battlestar Galactica shows us today, science fiction has a long tradition of holding up a mirror to our modern world, and reflecting it back to us in a way that doesn't beat us over the head with a message, but makes that message easy enough to find for those who want to see it.

But I bet you were asking the other readers, weren't you?

What's the link between this series & the original series (early 80s)?

That's a tough question - there's the religion, which I think the new series does a lot better. And the basic storyline is the same - cylons come, blow up earth, people look for new home. But really, honestly, they are both products of their time - the original show was sort of like tolkein - big ideas, not a whole lot of character development - people were archetypes. The new series is more like the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson - a lot more interpersonal. But unlike those books (which I didn't care for) the series does the big ideas and the interpersonal fairly well, without becoming too much like a soap opera.