Firefly

Congratulations to another great article on BSG. I agree that the series deals with some really important issues. The main wellspring of the series however is the three-dimensional way the characters are written. This is one feature that BSG shares with one of the greatest SF series that many people have never seen: Joss Whedon’s spectacular series "Firefly" which was cancelled after a single season by the moronic suits at Fox.

These two series really mark the advent to television of thoughtful character-driven "drama" style SciFi, something which has been in print SF for decades (as other readers have pointed out).

The sense of dread that haunts BSG emotionally is also foreshadowed by "The X-Files", and also by the sci-fi foray by X-Files writers James Wong and Glen Morgan "Space: ABove and Beyond" which had far better atmosphere than characterization, and by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine which was one of the first SF series on TV to deliver great plot arcs along with strong characters.