Battlestar Galactica: I don't get it

So much hype for the show that even Slate has finally discovered it. After hearing about it for a while myself, I finally gave BSG a try for about three episodes, sometime during the previous season. (It was, if I recall, when Adama was convalescing, Tigh was mismanaging the ship, and a bunch of marines were planetside for some reason or other.) To put you in my frame of view, I really enjoy science fiction usually (and especially the character-driven post-new-wave stuff, ahem), and will cut a lot of technical disbelief for the service of a good story and interesting people.

But like I said, this show just didn't grab me. Some flaws I found:


Indistinguishable plots:
There were arcing threads in these episodes, which, to be fair were the engaging ones. I didn't resent being confused by these, as obviously they were works in progress. Each of the episodic threads was the same each time though, and less than compelling for their repetition. Marines on the planet go through some harrowing (yet strangely formulaic) ground combat (in one of the episodes I watched, it was fighter combat instead), and one character confronts some Scary Issues. Meanwhile cylons might be infiltrating the ship. Can the leadership effectively repel them? Ho hum.

- Plot-convenient threats:
Man, if those cylons really wanted to take over the ship, it looks like they could. They get in easily, lay some waste, and then get rebuffed at the last minute and at great human expense. Maybe they should send more than two next time.

- Confusing transitions:
Here they're on the planet, now they're on the ship. It's not clear why, when dirtside, they needed a ship to rescue them, nor is it clear why they ever needed to be walking around on an allegedly poisoned planet in the first place. Their modes of transport seem inconsistent in capability. What kind of drama can there be when they can scoot back up to the mother ship at a moment's notice?

- Unrevealing reveals:
The last episode I sat through ended with three prominent cylons (the blonde mindfucking one, the pretty asian one, and under the circumstances, I can't remember the third) somehow sitting together at evil alien HQ, after being dealt with convincingly in their plot-related locations (again with the confusing transitions), saying everything was going according to plan. Seriously, when after a setback, the evil overlords cackle over some counterintuitive plan, it usually means that they (the writers) have no plan. It's like the X-Files: too many grand dramatic twists and they eventually became meaningless. Evidently, it took BSG a season and a half to get to that point. (In this respect, it's a ballsy move to podcast the writer's meetings!)

- (I want to complain about the reversion to 21st century technology and mindsets when the writers can't think of something appropriately space-operatic (which isn't a complaint about war allegory, mind you, but more about poor technobabble generators and props). The setting doesn't get a consistent enough feel sometimes. I can't remember enough specifics for that one though.)

Good science fiction uses fantastic settings to pose questions that are difficult under normal circumstances, and then lets the consequences play out logically according to the premises as they're defined. It's not clear that BSG has managed that, and those three conniving cylons at the closing curtain was sufficient evidence of make-it-up-as-you-go-alongism that I was inspired to throw the remote across the room and re-devote my Saturday nights to drunken blogging. I'd be willing to give the show another shot, but at this point, I need to be convinced.