13 Reasons Why Battlestar Galactica Rules!

Great god, I'm too geeky for words. I'm watching Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica (the new one) and am totally hooked. After speaking with Scott yesterday, I figured it'd be fun to go back and post the email I wrote all my other geeky friends when I first saw the mini-series. Evidently, I liked it:

I just finished watching the first episode of the mini-series remake of Battlestar Galactica. Hereafter is my review:

Wow. Holy shit. I mean, holy FUCKING shit, they didn't fuck it up! I mean, WOW HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS, they actually did a great FUCKING remake!!! Without offering TOO many spoilers, I attribute the success of the remake to the following reasons...

1) We get to see the destruction of the home worlds, at least in part, generally the way one would experience it.
2) There's a human cylon as bodacious as Seven of Nine. Yowza! Oh, and did I say they have human Cylons?
3) The pilot radio "chatter" is heard like you're wearing a headset, not like it's recorded in a sound studio with $500,000 sound equipment filtering out rat farts.
4) The Cylons use nukes. Cool.
5) The Cylons aren't seen too much. At least, I haven't seen any so far... then again, I did tune in late. [They are introduced in the first few minutes, but not seen at all until the end of the mini-series.]
6a) The ensuing confusion over chain of command during a state of war is tantalyzingly real...
6b) ...and they reference a moment in history that REALLY hits home...
7) Galactica's crew members use WAX PENCILS in the war room, not ultra-high tech light pens that one would expect to see in sci-fi series—this small detail is a very clever way to get us "ancients" to relate to it since wax pencils are still used in current Strategic Command centers. Also, it's just a cheap way to portray the future. Likewise, there aren't any cheesy 'helmet lights' to signify 'invisible' protective shields. Oh yeah, they also use a kind of AWAC to relay data to the vipers... which further reinforces its real war feel.
8) Nearly all the special effects shots are kinetic, which feels like watching a Indy 500 with crash zooms and fast tracking shots.
9) The ships use maneuvering jets to do cool stunts. In fact, all the dogfights were exactly the way you always wanted them to be in the original, but you knew were frustratingly out of reach with 1970s technology.
10) Unlike Lorne Greene, whose resounding voice lended him a patriarchal feel, Edward James Olmas as Adama commands respect. Period. His XO kicks ass, too.
11) Oh and get this— Starbuck, the best fighter pilot in the fleet (with a 'tude that lands her in the brig), is a woman. Sha-WING! Rock on, Garth!
12) The Galactica can HYPERJUMP????? When do we see THAT?!?!?!
13) At the start of the series, Galactica is undergoing a decommissioning ceremony which puts the ship at a disadvantage to fight the Cylons, since most of their munitions have been off-loaded. While this story tactic of "crippling" the protagonist to turn them into the underdog is so familiar as to be nearly cliché (Die Hard, anyone? How about Pitch Black? Aliens? Soldier? Best of all, Jesus vs. Satan on South Park), it is nevertheless effective, especially for me since I have actually attended a decommissioning ceremony of a U.S. naval vessel.

You can rent the mini-series, I think... Apparently, the mini-series was so successful that it started off a regular series, which premieres this Friday on Sci-Fi.

Egads. I'm such a geek.

When does Season 3 come out on DVD???