Syfy's 78-Episode Space Opera Is A Masterclass In How To Reboot A Franchise

Published Nov 1, 2026, 8:30 AM EST

Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.

For some reason, Hollywood studios are much more inclined to greenlight a TV show if it has some vague, tangential connection to a familiar franchise. They won’t just make a mock-doc sitcom about a dying newspaper anymore; it has to take place in the same universe as The Office, with the same in-universe camera crew. Netflix won’t just make a teen drama set at a school for kids with supernatural gifts; it has to be about Wednesday Addams. Warner Bros. won’t just make a show about an ex-SAS badass in alternate-history London; it has to be the origin story of Batman’s butler.

Hollywood won’t leave these intellectual properties alone. We’re about to see the fifth Avengers movie, the fifth Jumanji movie, and a second season of Carrie. HBO is about to spend the next decade readapting all seven Harry Potter books as a TV series. We’re seeing reboots and spinoffs of things that weren’t even that good in the first place; we’ve got a Big Bang Theory multiverse on our hands.

These reboots aren’t always a bad thing. Sometimes, the reboot can even surpass the original. If the original work had a lot of promising pieces, but the execution failed, then the reboot is a second chance to land that plane. The original She-Ra cartoon was a glorified toy commercial, but the reboot is empowering and emotionally engaging. The original Saved by the Bell was a corny, formulaic sitcom, but the reboot developed a meta, self-effacing edge. Battlestar Galactica is a masterclass in how to reboot a franchise.

Battlestar Galactica Took The Bones Of The Original & Added Way More Depth

The 2004 reimagining of Battlestar Galactica easily bested the original 1978 miniseries, because it was actually about something. The ‘70s original, created by Glen A. Larson, was just a shallow humans-versus-robots sci-fi adventure, cashing in on the recent box office success of Star Wars. It earned a formidable cult following among diehard sci-fi fanatics, but it didn’t resonate with a wider audience and break through to the mainstream.

But the remake, spearheaded by creator and showrunner Ronald D. Moore, did resonate with casual audiences; it did break through to the mainstream, and it was hailed as one of the greatest TV dramas of its generation, regardless of genre. Whereas the original movie was just a meaningless space battle, the reboot used the war between the humans and the Cylons as a timely allegory for the War on Terror.

Arriving just three years after the Twin Towers fell, Battlestar Galactica proved to be the perfect post-9/11 sci-fi allegory. The show’s recurring mantra of “All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again” feels very analogous to the Iraq wars. The whole concept of humanity fighting a forever war against an enemy of its own making is a commentary on warfare in general. Moore took the pieces of the original Battlestar Galactica and shaped them into something much deeper, darker, and more substantial.

Battlestar Galactica Set The Stage For More Drama-Led Sci-Fi Shows

Before Moore rebooted Battlestar Galactica as a sobering war drama, there was a big divide between prestige television like The Sopranos and Band of Brothers and schlocky sci-fi shows like Farscape and Buck Rogers. The prestige shows were all about mature themes and complicated characters, while the sci-fi shows were all about rubber masks and pew-pew laser fights.

But Battlestar Galactica brought the two together. It was a sci-fi show, with all the pew-pew laser action you could ask for, but it was also a deeply resonant drama with thematically rich storylines and three-dimensional, human characters. It led to a wave of sci-fi dramas that put drama first: Dark, Andor, Orphan Black, The Expanse, Severance, Pluribus — all standing on the shoulders of the Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica

9/10

• 

  Edward James Olmos

  William Adama

• 

  Mary McDonnell

  Laura Roslin