Please note that the following review contains major spoilers of the second part of the Sci-Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" miniseries.

Billions of people are dead on 12 colonies. The unity felt by the human colonists are gone as a new wave of attacks by the Cylons threaten to wipe out humanity completely.

Seems like a very straight-forward story, until you take a look at all the twists.

Part 2 of the "Battlestar Galactica" miniseries has aired, and all I have to say is, "Don't wait, Sci-Fi! Let's get the ball rolling on a series now."

Sure, with the Cylons looking like humans, the paranoia on the Galactica throughout the second part reminded me a little bit of the kind of paranoia Starfleet officers had in regards to the Changeling threat in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Something, by the way, that Ronald D. Moore also worked on.

But, I have to say that this is an entirely different situation. While yes, everyone is going to be giving their neighbors strange looks of suspicion, like they did on DS9, there is a much greater threat looming here. In Star Trek, the Federation only had to worry about defeat. In "Battlestar Galactica," the stakes have rose. They are fighting against extinction.

While I have enjoyed Mary McDonnell's portayal of Laura Roslin in the first part of the miniseries, I have to say that I was a bit nervous about how her character was written. Since it had been months since I read the shooting script for the miniseries, I wasn't sure how her character was going to be written. Would she be weak because of her inexperience, or would she be strong -- almost an equal to Edward James Olmos' Cmdr. Adama.

I'm happy to report that it definitely is the latter.

The decisions that President Roslin had to make in the second part were the most difficult anyone would have to make. After Boomer (Grace Park) made a bunch of runs and collected ships, it was discovered that only some of them had Faster Than Light, or FTL, drives. So, evacuations began immediately so that everyone would be on the ships that could get out of there in a hurry.

During all this, Roslin took a few minutes to visit one of the ships, where she ran into a little girl who was expecting to meet her parents in Caprica City. It was something that definitely pulled at the strings of your heart, and felt sad because we, as the audience, knew that her family was most likely no more.

What made things worse was when a Cylon scout ship was detected. It was able to get away, and the president had to make a decision: either leave now even without everyone evacuated, or evacuate everyone and risk death.

The president obviously made the right decision, but learned that the little girl she just talked to was not an FTL ship, and that she would die. The scene of the little girl still playing with her doll as the volley of nuclear warheads from the Cylons struck her ship made things even more sad.

Sticking with the spiritual aspects of the original series, I enjoyed the religious service where Adama gave one of his most rousing speeches. Once again, the sets were extremely impressive and the momentum was there. Using the priest, and the "myth" of Earth, he gave his crew something to reach for -- despite the fact that he was simply pulling it out of his ass.

Yes, I know, when the original Adama talked about Earth, he believed with every fiber of his being that it existed, and that's what inspired his crew. But, hello, this show is trying to be a bit more realistic, and I thought it was a great plot turn how even Adama doesn't think it's true, but more or less a Band-Aid for the morale of the crew after losing so many people.

Overall, I really enjoyed the miniseries, from the conspicuous, slow-moving beginning to the fast-paced ending. The plot twist at the end was the most exciting part, and is a perfect way to lead into a possible series, and was a bit reminiscent of the time on DS9 that we learned that the Julian Bashir on DS9 was a changeling, and that the real Bashir was a prisoner at a Dominion prison camp.

There are some people who will not give this miniseries a chance, even if it were written by God Himself. But I strongly think those people are missing a lot of enjoyment, and it's sad, because overall, this series was strong.

But, let me also share a couple of points that bugged me.

I didn't like how the writers got around the nuclear attack against Colonial One that ended the first part. I, for some reason, thought that Apollo (Jamie Bamber) would have initiated the FTL drives to get the ship out of there. Instead, he pulled a Wesley Crusher and made the Cylons think they had blew the place up while at the same time disarming the nuclear warheads (puhleez).

Also, when Adama and his Cylon friend get trapped at the weapons depot, it was a bit too contrived for my tastes. Adama told his crew not to waste time, that they knew another way out. It seemed that by the time Adama was able to walk a detour, his crew could've easily cut him out. Of course, that wouldn't have helped with the discovery that Cylons look like humans now, but it could've been handled a lot better.

But finally, let's get this series rolling. I ready to see what is next for the Galactica crew.

Battlestar Galactica
Part 2

Writing: B-
Story: B+
Acting: B
Directing: A

Overall: B+

Battlestar Galactica
Overall

Writing: B
Story: A-
Acting: B+
Directing: A

Overall: B+

Michael Hinman is the founder and news editor of Airlock Alpha. He is based in Tampa, Fla., and can be reached at michael@airlockalpha.com.

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