As a young kid (we’re talking around 1978 when I was six years old), I looked forward to Sunday evenings at my grandma’s house because I would watch episodes of Battlestar Galactica there while my dad and my grandma would visit.

The only sci-fi I had been exposed to at that point was Star Trek re-runs, which I was very fond of. I hadn’t seen Star Wars which had come out a couple years before and I wouldn’t be introduced to the Star Wars universe until The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980.

While some people had speculated that BSG was simply an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Star Wars, it was the first time I had seen a space drama that was dark, dirty, and full of mysticism.

When the BSG franchise was reborn in 2004, I watched with fear and excitement. Would they butcher the series I had liked so much as a kid? Would they do it justice?

Ron Moore and co. did something I didn’t expect. They recreated the universe and the background while still giving fans of the old series plenty to appreciate.

Season Three premiered this last Friday night. A major plot twist in the last couple of episodes of S2 left the story in a very weird place the original series never got close to. It really was unknown what S3 was going to be like.

Having seen the S3 premiere, I have to say I’m shocked and dismayed with what they’re doing. I will probably watch a couple more episodes just to find out if what they’re doing with the story is just temporary, but if they don’t break out of this downright stupid plotline, I’m going to have to turn the TV off.

Potential spoilers here...

The first episode of S3 introduces a number of concepts to BSG we’re already all-too-familiar with from the evening news: occupying forces, suicide bombings, insurgent uprisings, torture of prisoners, and detainment without charges.

I’m not exactly sure why I was so soured by the presentation. Maybe it was because I turn on the TV to escape the world we live in. Maybe it was because I was uncomfortable with scenes that place the Cylons in situations that obviously parallel the situation the U.S. is experiencing in Iraq. Perhaps it was the portrayal of the protagonists (the humans) justifying resorting to suicide bombings.

It’s possible I was simply disappointed by the apparent abandonment of the classic BSG story of the "rag-tag fleet" looking for Earth and evading the Cylons. That story has been completely shredded and replaced with a difficult-to-comprehend concentration camp setting with the Cylons in charge and a few humans in space trying to devise ways to save those trapped under Cylon rule.

What other themes from today’s news can Moore throw in before he’s exhausted? Let’s see... Maybe President Baltar can tell the Cylons the humans have the right to generate their own energy regardless of the fact the energy generation process will also produce materials which can be used to build weapons that can be used against the Cylons.

Oooh, Adama can go down to New Caprica and stand before a court and tell everyone Baltar is the devil. Or maybe Baltar will tell everyone else Adama is the devil.

Maybe we’ll find out (fat) Apollo has been preying sexually on young male viper trainees. Ewww, creepy!