It's about frakkin' time: BSG is back!

Photos: Justin Stephens

The final season of SciFi's Battlestar Galactica begins tonight at 10pm. If you haven't been introduced to the best show on television already, catch up with this 8 minute video. The show has oodles of gay appeal with its cast of strong female leaders, great sense of aesthetics (no corners on paper!) and hot dudes -- and we nabbed an advance copy of the premiere and wanted to give you a sneak peek. Don't worry, we leave out all the jaw-dropping bits (and there are quite a few). Also included after the jump are convenient discussion questions for your BSG viewing party, which we promise not to tell your friends who only watch American Idol about. Though, if you're like us, you've already decorated your walls with Colonial propaganda, so the secret's probably out.

If our descendents want to get a feel for what life was like in post 9/11 America, they need not look further than BSG. Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of a campy '70s Star Wars rip-off has gone where few shows have dared to go, asking viewers to empathize with suicide bombers, understand how well-meaning politicians could approve acts of torture and to get inside the heads of religiously fanatical terrorists. It helps of course, that many of the terrorists look like Tricia Helfer.

In the same-sex department, we recently found out bad-ass Admiral Helena Cain had a fling with a woman named Gina. Then she found out Gina was a Cylon. The relationship soured (details too graphic and long to repeat here) and both ladies bit the big one, but one of the advantages of being a self-resurrecting robot is you don't die -- so expect to see more of Gina this season.

The big shockers from last season's finale were that Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster, Sam Anders and Col. Saul Tigh are all Cylons. Or as we like to all them, "Pudgy," "Pretty," "Pouty" and "Asshole." The other big news is that everybody's favorite little frak-up, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is back from the dead. Tonight's premiere (titled "He That Believeth in Me") picks right up where we left off with the Colonial Fleet under attack and every character finding his or her faith tested amid rapidly shifting loyalties, especially related to Starbuck's miraculous return.

President Laura "Throw Em' Out the Airlock and Ask Questions Later" Roslin is pretty sure it's a Cylon trick, while the men in Kara's life are far more open to believing Kara's story. Her husband Sam, is hoping she really is a Cylon, because then they'd finally have something to talk about. While true love Lee Adama is all, I'm just glad you're alive -- and by the way, did you know I'm a lawyer now? Now, I know Lee is the go-to sexpot for gay boys watching the show (above), but I'm on Team Anders all the way. I don't know if it's his hair, the tattoos on his biceps or his senseless puppy-like devotion to Kara, but if I had to choose between dating a possibly genocidal robot or a lawyer, I'd take the toaster any day. Especially when he looks like this:

Meanwhile, Gaius Baltar, having won the Colonial's Worst-Person-Ever-Award last season, finds himself under the protection of a bunch of Manson-like groupies that will henceforth be forever known as "The Baltarettes." The Baltar shrine they erect and his reaction to seeing it is alone worth the price of admission. We get the first inklings of just what Baltar's visions of Number 6 are and in a great Saul-Paul conversion (that's the biblical Saul, not the alcoholic Cylon), Baltar becomes the one character on the show who has anything resembling a sense of faith. Not that any of us expect it to last, of course.

-- JAPHY GRANT

FROM THE EDITOR: Check out Astropolis: Saturn Returns, a transgender sci-fi novel from best-selling Australian author Sean Williams. "I grew up in the '80s, in the era of bad gender-swap movies," Williams tells Out, "and it was an immense relief to explore an issue that I had always wondered about as a teenager."

Plus, Japhy's BSG discussion questions for the uber-geeks among us are after the jump...

Discussion Questions:

1. Who is the Final Cylon? Does he or she already know that they're a Cylon and are just hiding?
2. What's the deal with Starbuck's Viper?
3. Is there a sign outside Tigh's quarters saying Super Secret Cylon Clubhouse. No Humans Allowed! (That means you, Admiral!) If not, how do we make that happen?
4. Why do none of Galactica's resident Cylons (Sharon & 6) recognize the four revealed models?
5. Are the President and the Admiral frakking or are they just domestic partners?
6. Will we get the long-awaited Anders, Lee, Helo naked oil wrestling fight? Pretty please?

Please prepare for next week's quiz.

Previously > This is your TV on frak > Sexy Sci-Fi Saturday

Comments

[Aman Chaudhary]

Love the quote about the lawyer and the genocidal robot! :)

Personally, I've preferred Helo over those two, but Young Bill Adama is my new favorite!

[Drew]

everyone's gonna hate me but i'm all for a Starbuck/Leoben coupling.

i think I agree with aman though on hotness standards.

[raymond]

"Pudgy"? Frak you. I'll take Chief in my bed any day.

[cyborganize]

A little obsessive correction for you: unless you know something I don't, what made the stakes of Gina's self-sacrifice so high was that, since the Fleet was playing hide-and-seek inside the nebula, she wasn't able to transmit out and resurrect. The upcoming Six (who resembles Gina, with her darker hair), is actually a new character named Natalie.

And awwww, Tory. I don't think she's that pouty (because it's obviously Anders who's "Pretty")! Or at least if she is, she has good reason: she's getting a lot less of Laura's attention now that Kara's back!

[Alison]

Starbuck needs to hook up with Leoben so Anders and Apollo can get makin' with the love. Those boys got tension! ;-)