It's high time Organ Grinder paid tribute to Battlestar Galactica, the truly great sci-fi drama that has been rivalled only by The Wire in attracting criticial praise since it launched in 2004.
BSG, as we fans call it, is coming to an end when its fourth series finishes next year, producers confirmed this week.
"This show was always meant to have a beginning, a middle and, finally, an end," executive producers Ronald D Moore and David Eick said in a joint statement. "Over the course of the last year, the story and the characters have been moving strongly toward that end, and we've decided to listen to those internal voices and conclude the show on our own terms." They promised to sign off "with a bang".
The only consolation for this premature cut is that BSG won't be around long enough to go off the boil. So far, apart from the occasional lull in the second series, BSG has maintained an impressively high standard, which comes from the tightness and ingenuity of the writing.
There's also a planned prequel, Caprica, to look forward to - if that does indeed get off the ground.
So what is BSG's appeal in a nutshell? It converted me, a lifelong sci-fi sceptic, at the drop of a hat because it tells a grand story with huge confidence, yet is wonderfully observant about human behaviour. It raises genuinely fascinating questions about human nature and the challenges of politics, yet never neglects the importance of appealing characters and an entertaining narrative.
The sci-fi accoutrements are charming rather than absurd. The show's metaphorical dimension - the allusions to the war on terror and the occupation of Iraq - is subtle and suggestive rather than dogmatic or explicitly allegorical.
A final word if you've yet to get into it: start with the three-hour miniseries. Then go through it methodically and chronologically, to appreciate the intricacy of the plot development to the full. You'll frackin' love it!
