Having watched the original series as a child I put off watching this for some time expecting it to be a virtual remake but with CGI and characters who had been gender switched for no obvious reason... I'm glad I eventually decided to watch it though as I could not have been more wrong! This is nothing like the light hearted original that I loved as a child; series creator Ronald D. Moore has taken the original premise and made something much darker and much more grown up. As with the original the series starts with the destruction of the Twelve Colonies where humanity has settled and the survivors head off into space in search of the mythical thirteenth colony; Earth. Here the similarities end though; the Cylons that destroyed the colonies weren't crated by aliens; they were created by humanity and rebelled against their masters. As well as the familiar Centurions we soon learn that there are some Cylons that can't be distinguished from people and some of those don't even realise they are Cylons. As humanity flees they will have to struggle against both Cylons and themselves if they are to survive and find their new home.
I really enjoyed this series; the story may have been familiar but the characters were much deeper than in the version I saw as a child and there wasn't the feeling that if a character was a regular they would inevitably survive; in fact many major characters die including some that manage to survive for several seasons. The cast did a fantastic job; most notably Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katie Sackhoff, Grace Park, Jamie Bamber, Michael Hogan, Tricia Helfer and James Callis... and even listing this many stand out performances seems unfair on the rest as just about everybody was great! Fans of the original series will be pleased to see Richard 'Apollo' Hatch return; this time his character, Tom Zarek, is far from heroic. I don't usually think to comment on the music for a series but here I must as composer Bear McCreary did such a fine job and later on some of the music is actually integral to the plot. As with all series there are some weaker episodes but even the poor Galactica episodes are better than much of what is on television. When the series finished I was left wanting more but all the key story threads had been tied up and it was good that it ended while it was still good rather than overstaying its welcome. If you haven't seen this series yet I strongly recommend it; just remember to watch the miniseries before series one as that sets up the whole story.
