Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is a military science fiction space opera tv series franchise created by Glen A. Larson that began in 1978 and was re-imagined into a series for the SyFy channel (then the SciFi channel) in 2003. The series has had mulitple spin-offs including the 2010 series, Caprica, and the recent prequel movie and webisodes, Blood & Chrome.

Backstory

Humanity began on the planet of Kobol and subsequently ventured out into the universe to settle onto twelve planets that would be called the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. The planets are named in the likeness of the astrological signs of our world. The planets are named as this, Caprica, Tauron, Gemenon, Picon, Virgon, Canceron, Scorpia, Saggitaron, Libran, Leonis, Aerilon, and Aquaria. Each planet has its own culture and practices but all colonials follow a polytheistic religion centered around the Greek gods.

Eventually the colonies created the Cylons, cybernetic life forms. The Cylons were meant to be used as the ultimate helpers of humanity, being unconditionally obedient and in servitude of the people forever. The Cylons developed their own faith through a monotheistic religion. Subsequently the Cylons revolted, beginning the destructive and costly Cylon War between humans and Cylons which killed millions and millions of colonials. The war ended in an armistice with the Cylons given their own ships to leave the colonies and find their own home.

Plot

Nearly fifty years later, the Cylons returned. But this time they had evolved to have the ability create humanoid Cylons. Using these humanoid models they infiltrated the colonies undetected. Eventually gaining access to the defense mainframe through scientist Gaius Baltar by having a "Number Six" model seduce him, the Cylons waged nuclear genocide on all the colonies. They nearly wiped out all of humanity except for the few who escaped in baseships including the military Battlestar Galactica. With the Twelve Colonies forever ruined and the Cylons hunting them throughout space the last of humanity band together in a fleet led by Galactica to find a new home, the fabled mythical planet of Earth.

The story of Battlestar Galactica deals with many themes of civil rights, racism, religion, destiny, life, and most importantly whether or not if humanity is worthy of survival. The conflict between the Cylons and the humans mirrors that of the conflict between the United States and the Middle East (The colonials being the US and the Cylons being the Middle East), as the show had began two years after the 9/11 Attacks. Battlestar Galactica portrays the conflicting beliefs of the Cylons and the humans while showing sympathy for both and depicting the strife between the Cylons faith in a one true God versus the polytheism of the colonials who look down on the faith of the Cylons.