For the uninitiated we will say this only once: Lorne Greene has nothing to do with it.
Battlestar Galactica: The Final Chapter
Universal
Yes, the former Bonanza star did play the part of Commander Adama in the 1970s version of Battlestar Galactica but while Bonanza at least left us with one of television's great theme tunes, Greene's turn on the bridge of the eponymous battlestar is best forgotten.
Battlestar Galactica is about Edward James Olmos, he of the granite jaw and cream-curdling glare.
It's also about Caprica Six, perhaps the most important sci-fi character since Voyager's Seven of Nine.
Olmos also featured in that great '80s style-fest Miami Vice but, importantly here, he was Harrison Ford's sidekick in Blade Runner.
There he battled the growing threat from skin-jobs, robots indistinguishable from you or me that threatened humankind's very existence.
In Battlestar Galactica, and particularly the final episodes, he battles the growing threat from skin jobs, robots indistinguishable from people, that threaten humankind's very existence.
It is the tyranny of the modern world, bearing down from all sides, the relentless march of technology spreading into even the furthest reaches of space so that there is no rest, no peace.
It is edge-of-the-armchair stuff as answers to the big questions raised by the long-running series rush nearer at warp speeds, offering the prospect of near-religious enlightenment, while simultaneously hastening the bittersweet close of a wild ride through distant galaxies.
The pace quickens and sharpens throughout the final series as leading characters follow plot-lines to denouements both brave and ignominious.
Not that the show takes itself unnecessarily seriously.
As events take a turn for the worse a graffiti artist daubs "Frak Earth" on a wall next to the spaceship bridge.
Brilliant stuff.
