Lots of sci-fi fans and non-fans all over the world are rejoicing that Battlestar Galactica is finally -- after a long break -- returning for its fourth and last season.

But I'm frequently surprised, puzzled, and annoyed by hyperbole like: Yet BSG has done for the post-Roddenberry space western what Tony and Co. did for the post-Coppola mob tale: exhumed a mummified subgenre and reanimated it with all the relevant eschatological dread and martial hysteria of millennial America. BSG was, for a while there, the most important show on television.

WTF? Seriously, WTF?

I'm a card-carrying, t-shirt-wearing BSG fan, don't get me wrong. I think it's one of the best series I've ever seen.

But from there to bashing sci-fi? "Mummified"? Really? No. Just no.

Whoever expresses a point of view like that either:

• Is trying to hard -- or just being sensationalistic to get more page views.


• Has no idea what they're talking about, probably parroting something they heard.


• Was blown out of their mind by the coolness of BSG. (Hey, it happens.)


• Has never seen, say, Firefly, or Torchwood, or Babylon 5.

BSG is cool. It is very relevant it that it made a lot of people watch sci-fi for the first time ever, or for the first time in years.

But please, let's keep it in perspective. There's nothing new or revolutionary about "realistic" sci-fi; it has happened before, and it will happen again. If anything, I think the greatest merit of BSG is reminding a lot of people of what (good) sci-fi is about. Not visual effects, fancy make-up, lasers, explosions, fistfights, strange aliens. It's a medium for talking about whatever is important to the author; it's a kind of fiction that uses a situation removed from the viewer/reader's reality, in order to create a detachment, and make it possible for us to think about certain things from that detached point of view (which can be used either to make us more objective, or more flexible).

Let's thank Ronald Moore and crew for an awesome work of fiction. Let's enjoy this season. But when it's over -- or, if you're anxious, even between episodes -- let's not feel abandoned. Those DVDs of Firefly, Babylon 5, The Outer Limits, etc are not that expensive. Heck, with any luck, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles may even drift away from the gunfights and explosions into a deeper exploration of what it is to be human.