Ronald D. Moore is very good at detailing this new Battlestar Galactica series and that's no surprise as he is from the federation of talented scribes who gave us the modern Star Trek series prior to the current Enterprise (STTNG, DS9 and Voyager.) He serves as head honcho for Galactica's new return (there have been several false starts since the original series), formerly the domain of TV heavyweight producer and Galactica creator Glen Larson.

Moore wrote the screenplay and story for the beloved Star Trek Generations movie, (the one where Captain Kirk and Captain Picard got together to save the universe), Star Trek First Contact, and was the gun hired to pump up the TV series Roswell when executive producer Jonathan Frakes tried to save that show from inevitable cancellation. Moore more recently did the story for Mission Impossible II and wrote one of the best episodes of the now-defunct USA series Touching Evil.

With all that experience, I expected a lot from Moore's Battlestar Galactica mini last year, but I didn't really like it the first time around. I can now admit that I was prejudiced by the contempt I felt for the original Galactica series.

The Larson show was not a favorite of hard-core science fiction readers / viewers in its day, reviled as a cheapo TV rip-off of Lucas with its Network family-oriented casting and plots.

Luckily for me, NBC (now the parent company of Sci Fi Channel) had the good sense to re-run the mini in prime time prior to the launch of Sci Fi's new series. After a holiday hiatus of reruns and unwatchable "reality television" events, I was ready to try Moore's new take on the old turkey again.

This time I came away from the mini with the conviction that Battlestar Galactica could become something more than just another Star Trek / Star Wars clone.

Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) led his rag-tag flotilla of post-Cylon invasion human survivors onto my TV screen and I was rooting for them every light year of the way. The reworked Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff), Apollo (Jamie Bamber) and Boomer (Grace Park) characters won my heart. Tricia Helfer, as the big bad human model Cylon, peaked my interest in robots. Mary McDonnell, as President Roslin, Aaron Douglas as Chief Tyrol, and Michael Hogan as First Officer Tigh proved that there is still room for excellent character actors on the small screen. [Movie fans may remember McDonnell from her wonderful performance in Dances With Wolves. Ed.]

The first two episodes of the new series, which Sci Fi bravely pitted against JAG, CSI Miami, Medical Investigation and 20/20 on Friday night, proved that everyone deserves a second chance and Ron Moore still has his chops. Mr. Moore wrote both episodes, which established the harrowing dangers of Cylon pursuit and possible Cylon infiltration of the Galactica fleet.

Although Battlestar Galactica leans heavily on spectacular outer space special effects, Moore brings a human equation to the space opera. Deep Space Nine kept its characters real and Battlestar Galactica continues that tradition. Everything not hanging in the vacuum between solar systems is close up on the hopes and fears of individuals among the scant fifty thousand humans who survived the Cylon invasion.

Mary McDonnell as the President is the ultimate face of humanity as events force the destruction of one of the human ships, the loss of precious water and the growing fear that Cylon moles are sabotaging Galactica's pilgrimage to Earth.

Grace Park was particularly notable as Boomer, not quite sure if she has been replaced by a Cylon double.

There are also some weak points in the new Battlestar Galactica for veteran TV science fiction viewers.

After several seasons of Farscape, a former Sci Fi Channel flagship, with arch villain Scorpious (Wayne Pygram) constantly appearing in the imagination of lead character John Crichton (Ben Browder), it is very hard to put up with exactly the same plot device used in Galactica between the aforementioned arch villain Tricia Helfer and Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis.)

I can accept the possibility that Ron Moore didn't have much time to watch Farscape while he was writing all those laudable scripts and stories listed above, but am I to suppose that no one connected with Battlestar Galactica at Sci Fi Channel pointed out this too close for comfort similarity to Mr. Moore?

Farscape fans will not be pleased no matter how many times the delightfully perfect Helfer removes her clothes. (She is prettier than Wayne Pygram, but Scorpy was more fun.)

The Boomer duplicity thing also bothered the hell out of me. Grace Park did her bit well, but the construction of the Boomer in two places at once scenes in the second episode was confusing. Not just a wait and see what happens kind of confusing, but more a did they leave out some scenes here kind of confusing.

Moore has already begun work on a second season for Battlestar Galactica, so I'm sure the Cylon duplicate thing will clear up eventually.

Just as long as he doesn't subtitle season two War of the Clones.

Battlestar Galactica Official - http://www.scifi.com/battlestar

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