Battlestar Galactica

I picked up this series because of a friend's recommendation, and also because some site (apparently boston.com) had ranked it the best sci-fi television show of all time. Right... I'm not quite convinced.

Currently, I'm halfway through the first season. And damn. There's so many things that annoy me greatly.

1) Religion crap.
There's way too much of it. Science fiction is the last thing where I want to see people praying to a nonexistent god. Just cut it off. In Star Trek: Deep Space 9 the "prophets" were at least somewhat real, but who really cared to see Captain Sisko jumping into that sea of flames, because he was the emissary and destiny and whatever. Pointless.

2) Madman, whose condition no one but the viewer is aware of.
I wonder how long Gaius Baltar is able to/wants to hide his schizophrenia (possibly caused by a cylon chip inside his head?). Everytime he is talking to someone and that imaginary cylon chick shows up and he's then talking to her too, I feel like I were watching a comedy show, except that the situtation always turns out ominous, thanks to the theme that plays. I wish he will soon tell someone HE IS OTHER PEOPLE and be done with it. And he is s'posed be a some sort of genius? I don't buy it.

3) Traitor, of whom no one but the viewer is aware of until it's too late.
Another plot element I dislike. I didn't like it in Matrix and I don't like it in BSG. There's a reason traitors are in the ninth circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno. I just don't like following the good guys to the betrayal that will inevitably happen at some point. (The traitor I mean is Lieutenant Valerii.)

4) A weakling leader.
That sad excuse of a president for the surviving people who has cancer... And was it breast cancer too? Oh my. Well, at least she cuts some trouble from Galactica for having to protect a fleet of civilian ships.

5) Overall, things are just grim.
Obviously, life sucks if you are the only surviving members of humankind and constantly hunted by an overpowering enemy, but I almost wish they had just turned their ship towards the cylons and made their last stand, in the pilot episode, instead of fleeing onto this journey of torment.

Also, I wish they had kept the theme of the original series and made a modern version of it. The opening theme the new series has isn't really a theme at all.

But is there anything good in Battlestar Galactica? Well, there's no english speaking alien races, and no stupid laser beam weapons, which is nice. And, there is Commander Adama.

I mean, seriously, he's the guy you want to command the battleship that is the only thing between you and the evil robots who want to kill you. Adama is a wise and tough leader, who takes care of his men, and corrects his mistakes before they become so. The scene in the episode 'Litmus', where Adama terminates the inquiry and the corporal of the guard decides to follow his instructions instead of the sergeant's order to restrain the commander, is pure win.