Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

I know right?  Battlestar Galactica.  Like the rest of the characters in the show The Office, and everyone else who watched The Office, I too laughed at Dwight for liking the show because I knew it had the reputation of “being that scifi show that was really nerdy.”  But I really shouldn’t have scoffed at him or anyone else (fictional or real) who likes it because it’s all I’ve been watching since the summer began.  Yes, my friends, it is that good.  My friend Sam recommended the show to me last winter, telling me I’d probably enjoy it so I should try it.  I trust Sam’s word, so that Christmas I went ahead and bought the first season on Amazon.

I was completely hooked in the first 5 minutes of the pilot. 

I couldn’t look away.  Everything about the show drew me in: the sets, the music, the writing, the acting.  The cast is incredible and this paired with such excellent writing created characters who became real people to me.  I watched the entire first season by myself last winter and knew that I had to finish the journey through the next three seasons—I had to know how the story ended, but I didn’t want to travel the path alone.  Once the insanely-busy Spring semester was over and summer finally began, I convinced my family—including my awesome grandparents—to watch it with me and now they are just as in love with it as I am!

The plot of Battlestar Galactica isn’t new.  We’ve seen the same premise before in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, Ridley Scott’s movie Bladerunner, the Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix, and countless other books and films: humanity decides to play God by creating a new race of sentient beings and pays the ultimate price for their arrogance and conceit.  Battlestar Galactica is the tale of the war between the twelve colonies of humans and the cylons they created to be their slaves.  Humanity, however, is at an extreme disadvantage when the show begins because the cylons have destroyed most of the human race, leaving only 50,000 humans left.  This saga is about how these people, these survivors of a terrible holocaust, deal with the threat of extinction on a public and personal level.

Not since The X-Files and LOST have I cared so deeply and so passionately about a show and the characters in it, both cylon and human.  These characters of Battlestar Galactica have become real people to me and I love trying to get inside their heads to figure them out.  They fight, they bleed, they make mistakes, they play cards, they drink, they smoke, they have affairs, they die, they try, they pray, they cry, they conspire, they stand tall, they try to do the right thing, they laugh, they love.  If you know me personally then you know what a romantic I am, so of course the profound romances that develop between many of the characters have especially captured my imagination.  But the one relationship between my two favorite characters of the show, William Adama and Laura Roslin, is the one that has captured my heart.

William Adama is the commander of the battlestar ship Galactica.  He is a father and warrior.  He is brave, strong of heart and mind, honorable and loyal.  He loves his people.  He faces his fears and does what is hardest to do.  He is the kind of man men want to become and thus has not only the respect but the love of his people.  Laura Roslin becomes president of the colonies after the cylon attack that wipes out most of humanity on the twelve planets.  She is poised, intelligent, clever and sharp-witted.  Like Adama, she is brave and strong in heart and mind.  She believes in her convictions and doesn’t back down even if her beliefs are unpopular.  These two characters have their flaws, of course—they’re human, after all—and I love seeing them acknowledge and face these flaws of theirs.  It’s part of what makes them so intriguing. 

At the beginning of the series, Roslin and Adama are wary allies.  But as the series progresses, their relationship slowly unfolds from this cautious alliance to a partnership of mutual respect and trust, which develops naturally into a deep friendship and then into a love so profound that it has brought tears to my eyes many times.  Theirs is the kind of romance that inspires me because it isn’t rushed.  It takes the entire series for these two to get from point A to point D and I loved seeing them get closer and closer every episode.  As I went through the seasons I looked forward to every scene they had together, wondering what they would say to each other this time, or what little touch would one bestow on the other, or how they would look at each other.  I love this couple because they trust each other, because they danced together, because they share a love of books, because she knows what’s best for him, because he tells her what she needs to hear, because they find an inner peace when they are with each other, because they make each other laugh, because they miss each other, because they understand each other, because he sang to her, because they have their disagreements, because they forgive each other, because their walls come down when they are with each other, because her home is where he is, because they are there for each other, because he read to her, because he left the fleet to find her, because they got high together, because she told him her dream, because he brought her dream to life, because she made him believe, because they have their own song titled “Roslin and Adama” on the series soundtrack, because you would be a complete and utter fool to cross them, because they are each other’s strength and weakness, because they kissed, because they made love, because one cannot live without the other, because they love each other.

So…moral of the story: do yourself a favor and watch Battlestar Galactica.  And don’t scoff until you've watched the pilot.  I made that mistake already and have laughed at myself ever since!  The show explores so many themes and life lessons relevant to life today that you might take something more from it than just the satisfaction of watching a TV saga of quality.  And if you do watch it, I hope you love it—and I hope you love Adama and Roslin as much as I do!

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