Battlestar Galactica
Amazon Prime Video has managed to land the rights to one of the best science fiction shows in TV history, Battlestar Galactica. While the show has been on the service in the past, it was removed due to the bouncing around of licensing, as tends to happen in the streaming space.
Now Battlestar Galactica is back, however, which includes all four seasons and the miniseries you absolutely need to watch before starting it. The revival/reinvention of the 1978 series swept through the TV scene starting in 2003 when the miniseries debuted, and despite that being 21 years ago (wow, I’m old), it really does hold up over time, and not all that many shows have reached its highs since (even if there is much controversy about how the series decided to bring things to an end in season 4).
This is also a time when TV seasons were large. While the miniseries was two long parts, season 1 is 13 episodes and season 2-3 are 20-21 episodes. Given the current state of things where seasons of shows are 6-8 episodes at most, usually, that’s the equivalent of probably 9+ modern day seasons in terms of total length. There was also a post-show movie called The Plan that adds additional context to the series, albeit not being an essential watch, I suppose. And that too is also streaming on Prime Video now.
Battlestar Galactica
Ronald D. Moore was one of the series’ creators, and is still making a big impact in the sci-fi space all this time later as the creative force between Apple TV+’s For All Mankind, writing 40 episodes of that series which is one of the current best sci-fi shows on TV. Easily top 3, and it has just been renewed for season 5 on Apple. Definitely watch that as well.
I totally forgot this was happening, but there is also a reboot of Battlestar Galactica coming, where 20 years later, it will bring the IP back for the third time. I thought maybe that was languishing, but as recently as January 2024, we got an update about it, where The Sinner creator Derek Simonds has been announced as the showrunner, and it’s being produced by Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail, a pretty good pairing to start with.
That show is supposed to be airing on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, so definitely not Amazon Prime Video. There’s no date on this, however, and the project has been in the works as early as 2019, so it’s taking a while to come to fruition.
For now, you can watch the last series, which is certainly better than the original and again, is one of the best science fiction shows ever made, even 20 years later here. Enjoy your Cylon hunt.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
