The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica started by telling us that the Cylons had a plan... so, now sometime after the end of BSG, we have the release of "The Plan"... and it's no exaggeration to call this a glorified clip show.

We get some insight into certain events - mostly (as you'd expect) seeing what the Cylons were doing in the human fleet... Apparently their master plan didn't involve Galactica escaping - they wanted to wipe out humanity in one move... and the way they kept getting the fleet's position was because the human form Cylons that died were giving co-ordinates to the Cylon fleet.

There isn't much to write home about. For the true BSG aficionado - it will fill in some blanks... but really, what it seems to highlight most is that the plan... wasn't very good. Other than that, it really comes down to... a little background. There are no cosmic revelations to be had about the story, no awe inspiring twists... which is probably for the best. For an average BSG fan... maybe not so much - possibly for nostalgia value... but if you want to watch the show again... why not just watch the show again?

RDM has been something of a darling of the sci-fi world since he brought a re-imagined BSG back to the small screen. It's no secret that some feel that the show was flagging a bit in season 3 - in much the same way it did in season 2 - but even so, it effortlessly beats everything except Heroes.


Season 4 isn't starting until 2008, so to tide hungry sci-fi fans over - we have been treated to Razor... a film covering events on board Pegasus, from the time of the Cylon attack to before the discovery of New Caprica... Centring almost entirely around a previously unmentioned and unseen Pegasus officer and showing key events on Pegasus from her point of view - specifically several instances that had been mentioned in Galactica.

It suffers from the rather unfortunate inevitability that almost all prequels do - that people and events of a pivotal nature aren't mentioned... ever. As such, it's somewhat throw away but good clean fun nevertheless. In fact, it's more likely to whet your appetite for the show - if only because it plays very much like a feature length episode.

The episode plays out as a number of flashbacks from the point of view of our newly introduced Pegasus officer. Namely three incidents mentioned in BSG - the initial Cylon attack, Kane shooting one of her officers and the seizing of personnel and equipment from a civilian fleet. That is all essentially setting the scene for the meat of the piece... a trip back to the 70s where we finally see OLD SCHOOL CYLONS!

The exact significance of the "hybrid" isn't really elaborated upon beyond the fact it's some kind of bridge between the mechanical and organic stages of the Cylons and hence needs to be blown up, naturally things don't go quite as planned but the Cylons are dispatched and everything wraps up nicely... with just one possible tie-in for the show.

As Galactica goes, this is about as solid as they come... it's not really action packed but it has the high drama that Galactica seems to do so well and without any of the smaltzy romance that marred much of the latter half of season three. It certainly doesn't feel as if it's required viewing - although any BSG fan of merit would see it - but it's certainly fun and it breaks the somewhat longer interim between seasons 3 and 4.

The fact that considerable amounts of time are spent outside of the main cast is surprisingly acceptable. We do KNOW all the characters - except the female lead - and have some acquaintance with them and we get enough of the main cast that we don't forget this is BSG and not BSP but it does distance you somewhat and to have the lead as an unknown makes things just a little harder to swallow. Not that she is a deficient actor. She's quite adept at being the hard ass XO but it's hard to get a lot of character building into ninety minutes...

Still, all in all - a solid effort that any BSG fan could watch and enjoy.

Science fiction has an unfortunate habit... it likes to put humanity on a pedestal. Somehow, we're just this awesomely wonderful race. Special and wonderful and just lovely. What does it mean?

Basically - humanity isn't much. People think that humanity is the greatest thing ever. Destined to heal the universe, ascend to a higher plane and so and so forth. Even Babylon 5 thought that humans were pretty amazing... despite our lack of comparative technological advancement. Not that it really spelt out all that much.

Unlike Star Trek - which went "Oh by the way, Humans are pretty much awesome and will become omnipotent!" and SG-1, which said "Humans are descended from omnipotent beings!" Hell, Star Trek had the stupidest episode ever where an act of immense stupidity - wilful exposure to a deadly virus - was expounded to make humans somehow special... especially stupid, I'd say.

Farscape was better. It liked to point out that humanity was - of the species shown - the shortest lived, the least resilient... just generally not that great. Which is somewhat ironic given the fact that 99% of races in Star Trek lived easily twice as long as Humans. Men in Black also playfully poked fun.

Dr. Who seems to be uncertain - at times, The Doctor is keen on humanity. Lauding humanity for going off and exploring, then going off about how humanity are "the monsters"... Still, given the focus of the show - especially as it is now - he pretty much has to be enamoured with humans... or the show wouldn't work.

Also, human morality - that is to say Judeo-Christian flag waving, truth, justice and the American Way morality - is the best in the universe and superior to all. Realism isn't an object, eh?

Sci-fi gets to its most embarrassing when it pretends to have an actual basis in fact.

It's often notable that the best sci-fi steers itself clear of any real talk of science... Heroes doesn't have people trying to explain the superpowers - people express amazement that they violate the laws of physics with such ease but no one ever starts using big made up words to try and explain it. Neither did Farscape or Babylon 5... and Battlestar Galatica hasn't either. BSG never really tries to explain anything. Hell, they had an episode where their never explained FTL drive got broke and all that was involved in fixing it was pretty much like changing a fuse.

Star Trek... well, as it progressed - it just got embarrassing. By Voyager the script was just dominated by meaningless Treknobabble... some of it actually impossible... expressing the power output of something in Dynes? Wasn't that show supposed to have a science advisor? It seems unlikely he had more than a subscription to New Scientist... although the closest they probably got to reading it was using it as a coaster. Furthermore, beyond simply becoming a significant proportion of the dialogue, the jargon actually became a plot point that allowed the writers to avoid any kind of thinking or originality. Bad guys got you down? Get one of your bridge staff to reel off 15 nonsensical science sounding words and BAM! You killed them.

Of course, it's clear that they did actually learn from their mistakes in this case because Enterprise was clearly a setting envisaged to avoid the kind of babbling previous treks had become synonymous with. Of course, that meant there was only about half as much dialogue in there and they had to introduce the obligatory catsuit in the first episode. More on that later.

Stargate SG-1 became increasingly guilty of treknobabble as it got more worn out. Was there any need to have Carter spout out gibberish every so often? Actually, there was... that's about all she said... and given that the format of SG-1 dialogue was generally:

O'Neill - flippant comment.
Carter - treknobabble.
Jackson - simple summation and conclusion.
Teal'c - Indeed.

The obvious change when Ben Browder came onboard was this.

Mitchel: pop culture reference.
Carter: treknobabble.
Jackson - simple summation and conclusion.
Teal'c - Indeed.

SG-1 probably thinks that because they acknowledged that their treknobabble was frequent and gibberish - generally by O'Neill raising his eyebrow and looking like he'd rather be in a vat of boiling acid. That doesn't change the fact that they became increasingly Voyager like in its usage... transiting from explanation to plot point.

It probably isn't coincidence that the shows that babble on and on about pseudo-science nonsense are those of inferior quality aimed at dullards who will watch anything with tight tops and explosions every thirty seconds and those that don't tend to be the more critically acclaimed and just plain better.

Babylon 5... a name that will set the pulse of sci-fi fans the world over racing.

It seems that only a decade later that something has surpassed it - and that's Heroes... which is a wholly different proposition in its attitude, setting and style... so for the moment, let us focus on more "pure" sci-fi. Just why is it that Babylon 5 didn't lead to more "video novel" style shows?

It would be fair to say that the only things that really came close to B5 were Farscape and BSG.

Farscape took a while to get up and running - though, it could be argued that this was the case with B5... but really, even the pilot was setting up plot points for the future - but when it did, it actually became something approaching a serial. Of course, then Sci-Fi went and axed it... despite it being their highest rated show. While the show still had plenty of "oh no! A PROBLEM!" the bit before and after that tended to impart quite a lot of character and drama. It seems clear that there was some kind of envisioned plot... which unfortunately had to be wrapped up rather quickly in Peacekeeper Wars.

The show was certainly esoteric but what made it enjoyable was that the characters - and cast - evolved and changed over the seasons, more than almost any other comparable show... and unlike some shows, where the introduction of new characters felt jarring - a somewhat ironic example being Farscape's own Ben Browder hammered into SG-1 -in Farscape it generally felt natural... but then Farscape seldom conformed to the sci-fi norms. Few other shows have only had one human as a regular character... and TWO weren't even humanoid. Plus, we didn't have any of the "praise truth, justice and the American way!" or "humans are unique and special!" either... In fact, it seemed that the show often went out of its way to point out that humans were pretty rubbish compared to all the other species portrayed.

Still, it had a direction and a continuity that only grew as the show developed. Some have bemoaned it being a soap opera... but really, that's just whinging fanboys who think that any interaction between characters that doesn't involve technobabble or CGI is soap opera and the way the different characters interacted in Farscape was almost certainly what made it such a popular show. Sad that rubbish like Smallville, SG-1 and Voyager gets to run for years and an innovative show like Farscape gets the chop just because it's not cheap... but regardless it maintained a solid narrative that made it a far more interesting proposition than hundreds of cookie cutter episodes.

Battlestar Galactica is interesting... in that it seems to have started out thinking about itself as directed and focused and then lost its way somewhat. Certainly with seasons two and three it felt as if the story episodes had been written and then some generic drama had been introduced. It remains to be seen whether the show can manage to pull itself together to give a more coherent story.

While it may not quite be a B5 or even Farscape in that respect, it does have continuity. It's not a case of Voyager where half the ship is destroyed one week and then next week it's back to normal... resources do tend to be a problem for Galactica and the ship has really taken a pounding. The start of season 3 marked one more or less continuous storyline but then after that it was more... things to be attended to.

Regardless of some of the greatly inferior work that JMS has gone on to do since B5 - and Legend Of The Rangers is enough to make anyone raise an eyebrow - there is little doubt that B5 was all alone until Heroes rolled around... and possibly did the concept of a video novel better than B5 itself.

Still, you have to wonder why no one even attempted it again... certainly, B5 wasn't a massive success but it was good television. It is is quite possible that it was simply the force of will and creativity that JMS represented. Perhaps it is simply the difficulty of the feat. Sad that... because episodic pap like Star Trek just spoils it for everyone.

What is it with sci-fi shows?

You'd think that lessons would be learned from the likes of seminal works such as Farscape and Babylon 5... Farscape with aliens - in the main cast - who weren't actually humanoid with maybe a funny earring or a stripy face and Babylon 5 with it's masterfully constructed plot and continuity.

It seems that even the refreshing Battlestar Galactica is starting to wilt under the continued expectation of excellence. There can be no doubt that BSG understood that sci-fi is not a genre in the true sense of the word... it's merely a backdrop for stories to play out in.

Indeed, many whinging fanboys frequently bemoaned the fact that too often it was about talking and drama and feelings... things your average whinging fanboy would trade in an instant for hours of mindless Matrix Revolution style action. However, I fear that BSG has lost the plot... very literally. It seems as if Ronald D. Moore hasn't taken it upon himself to co-ordinate these episodes...

Oh, naturally, there are some elements of continuity here and more than you'd get in time fillers like Star Trek's Voyager or Stargate and so on... but it feels very much as if a few writers went off and thought "OK, we're off New Caprica - you take episode four, I'll take five, you take six... we'll meet up later and get some kind of continuity."

In a sense, that's how early Farscape felt... but it was far more natural there. With BSG it feels somewhat forced and of course... we have the perpetual Starbuck/Apollo element... LORDS OF KOBOL please, hear this prayer. STOP THAT LOVE QUADRANGLE. It's rubbish, boring and tedious... As if Lee having some forgotten love that he remembered in one episode wasn't enough - given the fact he never seemed to have a problem shagging Starbuck - this is just irritating. The best way to solve this dilemma is just murdering one or more of the participants... and we all know it's minor characters, women and ethnic minorities first... bye bye Dee!