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The Cylons were created by man.They evolved.They rebelled.
There are many copies. And they have a plan.
BSG returned as a three-hour mini-series in 2003, developed by veteran
Star Trek
writer/producer Ronald D. Moore. This was followed by four
seasons, comprising a total of 75 episodes.
Reimagined as a gritty space opera with theological undercurrents and
allusions to the War on Terror post 9/11, the new look
Battlestar Galactica
was everything its now somewhat cheesy ‘70s predecessor wasn’t. More
a ‘novel for television’ than an episodic weekly series, it continually cut to
the chase with something momentous occurring in every episode, as the
last of the human race battled the Cylon menace whilst searching for the
mythical planet Earth.
The rebooted series shared a number of characters with the original: Commander Adama
(Edward James Olmos), Apollo (Jamie Bamber) and Baltar (James Callis), with a gender change
for Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and Boomer (Grace Park). And the Cylons were upgraded in both
appearance and sex appeal – the latter in the form of Tricia Hefler and Lucy Lawless
– although the more traditional robotic design (nicknamed “Toasters”) did occasionally feature.
A massive hit with critics and viewers, the series received multiple Emmy nominations in addition
to two Peabody Awards for its “plotlines that are deeply personal and relatable, while never
compromising their affinity and passion for science fiction”.
The new BSG also spawned three spin-off telemovies.
Razor
(2007)
featured the ruthless Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes),
commander of the Battlestar
Pegasus
(believed to have been destroyed
during the attack on the Twelve Colonies), and bridged the gap between
Season Three and Four.
The series’ opening titles always declared that the Cylons “have a plan”,
but what was it? Prequel telemovie
The Plan
(2009)
set the record straight,
revisiting the events of the first two seasons from the Cylon perspective.
Blood & Chrome
(2012)
looks even further back to the tenth year of the First
Cylon War, and the adventures of rookie pilot William Adama (Luke Pasqualino).
Conceived as a potential pilot for a new BSG spin-off series (which was sadly
never green lit) and initially released as an online series of 10 webisodes,
Blood & Chrome
will be available in an extended edition on DVD and Blu-ray on
November 27, and as part of the TV Movie Collection on Blu-ray.
London-born
Jamie Bamber
plays
Lee Adama – call sign ‘Apollo’ – in
the reboot of
Battlestar Galactica
(2003–2009), and admits he didn’t
have great expectations for the show
at first, simply seeing it as “a job
that was around”. But he was quickly
swayed by the quality of the scripts
and the commitment of colleagues.
“With a good script you can have
people that are only interested in the
most facile elements of it,” he says.
“But when I started working with
[director] Michael Rymer and Edward
James Olmos, they made me realise
that people were taking this
really seriously.”
Bamber was delighted with the
journey his character took over the
course of 75 episodes. “When you’re
an actor in an ensemble, there are
moments when you are wondering
what the hell the whole thing is
about, where you’re going… I’ve
been very fortunate to be front and
centre of this show for five years.”
He attributes the show’s success
to its basic and elemental nature.
“There’s no aliens with three heads
– it was just people stuck in a tin
can with nowhere to go. What if
everyone you know is dead? What
if everywhere you know is gone?
What is the point of life? That’s a
question that I think we all answer
even without losing everyone and
everywhere we know. It resonates
right down to the most horrendous,
naked truth, which is that we have to
create a meaning for our life. That’s
basically what the story is about.”
Bamber looks back at his time
on the series with great fondness.
“I was really pleased,” he says.
“Especially now I’m looking back at it
with hindsight and I realise that the
whole thing was a very special chunk
of my life for many reasons. We
were telling an epic story with soap
operatic tinges. The final 20 episodes
are the best by a mile. I’m very
proud of it, very nostalgic.”
The Complete
Galactica in HD
is available on
27 November.