X-Star

X-Star: Battlestar Galactica and The X-Files

I think the new Battlestar Galactica is capturing the attention and imagination of the Sci-Fi Fan community in the 2000s in much the same way as The X-Files did in the 1990s. As I continue to watch BSG I can see more and more likenesses and ‘reminders' if you will of how similar it is to the X-files; not in content and character of course (but on that latter one I will explore some possible comparisons below) but in terms of show quality and gripping style.

First of all, a little of my own history in watching BSG and becoming a total, enthralled fan; I only reluctantly recorded and watched the original miniseries at the prodding of my brother-in-law, who at 3 years older than me, was a big fan of the original TV series. I was just a wee bit young when it was on to really even follow at the time, although I certainly do remember it and watching it in a vague sense. But I could not have told you about any particular episodes or anything like that other than a few scenes here and there that have stuck in my mind and the anticipation of its debut (mostly in terms of it looking like Star Wars, which had REALLY captured my imagination the year before).

Anyway, I finally got around to watching the miniseries about 2 weeks before the series itself debuted; which was probably a good thing as there was about a year in between these two events which probably nearly killed many of the new mini-series fans who were waiting that entire time. As it is I think it was the last thing I recorded and watched on VHS. I thought it was pretty good, and figured I'd check out the regular series when it started. That first night of double episodes hooked me; and the rest is history as they say.

But getting back to my topic, I did not start thinking about any parallelisms to the X-files right away by any means. That has something that has developed over time in me and really just struck me toward the end of the 2nd season. So, lets get to what I see as these comparisons, shall we? Consider the following, if you will, starting with the more trivial and moving up:

• Filming Location: This is something that just came to my attention, that BSG is filmed in Vancouver. So was the X-files for its first several seasons until it relocated to Los Angeles so that (reportedly) David Duchovny could work closer to his wife and family. One could fairly easily say that the show's quality started downward from that point. But anyway, I find it interesting and not at all coincidental that these two shows filmed in the same Canadian town have similar feels to them: dark, character-driven, realistic, even paranoid; and just flat-out top notch storylines and writing. Why I don't know; but whatever it is, its working.



• Broadcast night: Moving from Friday to Sunday. BSG is just about to do this, and the X-files did the exact same thing at about the same point in its run (right around the 3rd season if I remember right). It's when its viewership really took off and I'm sure the folks at the SciFi channel are hoping for the same effect on BSG. Not really relevant to the shows themselves but just another interesting point of commonality; they are following a similar development path in expanding from good word of mouth, cultish SciFi fan followings to a broader audience that will appreciate the quality of its drama and storytelling. The only thing BSG has going against it here is that is moving to 10pm instead of 9 (not that big a deal in the TiVo era) and its not on a network, as the X-files was on Fox. But time will tell if the move has the same or similar effect. It should for the teenage demographic anyway.



• High Quality: Both are just the best damn SciFi shows on TV in their respective times. High quality, all the way around. A large part of this I think is that neither relies on the fact that they are essentially SciFi shows to thrive; they thrive on their great writing, intriguing ‘mythic' storylines, and strong, well-defined, well-acted characters that really drive the show. And that leads us to: