The end of the world and what happens afterwards : Battlestar Gallactica

"Battlestar Galactica" is often called a space-opera, and, judging from the pilot episode, that's a great description - for better or worse, that's what you get, a soaper aboard a soaring spaceship, with half the characters in ridiculous military uniforms that look to be a cross between Nehru jackets and costumes from Rent. The plot setup is terrific: a "race" of robots, the Cylons, have turned against humanity, leading to an intergalactic war; following 40 years of peace, the Cylons have infiltrated the human galaxy (now twelve planets, the main one called Caprica) and destroyed all or most of human life; one set of survivors is the Battlestar Galactica, a vast war machine in space, about to be decommissioned and turned into a tourist site, like Mystic Seaport or Battleship Cove; Education Secretary is visiting for the decommission, and it appears she is highest ranking surviving cabinet member and becomes president. Battlestar put back into commission, but it's aging, as is her commander. We get bits of back story on the commander and his deputy, some of the fighter pilots, the flight crews, as well as some of the survivors from Caprica - a lot of story lines spun out there in the first episode, so it's no surprise this series lasted for several seasons. All in all, a lot of fun, if you have a taste for basically comic-book plot and lots of video-game laser battles among model spacecraft. Not the kind of thing I usually go for, but clearly this seems a high-water mark for this often-cheesy genre, and I'll give it a few more episodes at least.