TV: I can’t stand you, but I love you: My relationship with “Battlestar Galactica”

I have a love/hate relationship with a science-fiction television show, establishing me as a supernerd before I even begin to discuss what the problem is. Masta G and I watched the Battlestar Galactica miniseries and I LOVED it. I thought it was exciting and interesting and I was genuinely surprised by the twists at the end. I was really excited about the television show and began watching it with high hopes.

The television show is still interesing, however, it’s full of gaping plot holes and continuity errors. Some of these errors aren’t even that nerdy…it’s just common sense. For example:

One of the main characters, Starbuck (a woman), is marooned on a planet after she is shot down by an enemy fighter. Starbuck manages to hit the fighter, so they both plummet toward the ground.

She finds the fighter right as she is about to run out of oxygen. She finds that the enemy fighter is a biological creature, finds its oxygen supply, stuffs an article of clothing in the hole where she blasted the fighter down, and then removes her helmet and begins breathing the air. Whatever. It’s a little goofy. It gets REALLY lame when she triumphantly flies into space with NO helmet and having not really mended the spaceship (so the article of clothing jammed into the hole is keeping the spacecraft safe from imploding while in space!!!). Come on, writers. A t-shirt jammed into a hole is NOT a proper substitute for a pressurized spaceship.

The reason I have a love/hate relationship with Battlestar and watch it despite the goofiness is because Battlestar is not masquerading as highbrow entertainment. It wears its plot holes as a badge of honor. It’s almost daring you to say something because you know you love it despite its flaws. Unlike “Lost.”