Sci-Fi and my Dad

Recently Rob and I have been watching Battlestar Galatica on Netflix since we never saw the episodes the first time around.

First off, WOW. What a show. If you haven't seen it and like Science Fiction, start watching now, you won't regret it.

Secondly, I'm so sad I can't share it with my dad. We loved Sci-Fi together, especially Star Wars and Star Trek the Original and Next Generation. I still remember going to see the movies with him, and waiting in long lines at the Air and Space Museum to see the Star Trek exhibit to sit in Captain Kirk's Chair. It was one of our highlights.

My dad loved Sci-Fi for the adventure and the thought of someday going to space, but he really loved it for the social and political messages and themes written into them. I still remember him telling me his favorite story from a book by William Shattner was about how he and the producer said they "wanted more color on the set" and asked the network if they could make a change. Thinking they meant adding color to the bridge, i.e. more red lights, they said sure. Instead, he and the producer hired Lt Uhura, the black woman who used the communicator devise in her ear. He loved that in the 60's when blacks and whites usually weren't on the same show, let on alone in the same room together, they snuck her on using creativity and smarts to make a point. He loved Next Generation for Lt Data and the story behind robots wanting human thoughts and emotions. And of course all of the Sci-Fi stories for inter-galatic relations between different races. He gave that intrigue to me.

Granted we loved it together for the special effects too, but it was more than that.

Well, BSG is all of that, but at a much deeper level than most. It's philosophical questioning of Humans and God and the Universe, mixed in with Robots becoming their own race, are just mind blowing. Rob and I discuss each episode in depth and often find ourselves having discussions about it, and Sci-Fi in general, over dinner or in the car. Which, naturally leads to Politics, Human Nature and the Environment. All things which my dad would have loved to ponder about.

So Dad...I'm watching BSG in Honor of you and are our repeated trips to the Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum and shared movies and TV shows.

I miss you and love you.

To everyone else, have you seen it? What did you think? Keep in mind we are almost done with Season 1, so no spoilers please :-)