Battlestar Galactica You want shiny metal killing machines? Check. You want good-looking cyborgs? Check. How about a struggle in which the stakes are nothing less than the survival of the human race? Check. So pretty much everything Terminator has, Battlestar Galactica has too—plus fleet-on-fleet space combat, an insightful allegory to our post-9/11 world, and a wickedly layered narrative with three-and-a-half seasons of buildup. Sci-Fi Channel starting January 28, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. (EST)S.A.C.
Terminator There comes a point in almost every complicated serial drama when it begins to eat its own mythology. The once-brilliant BSG is now deep into autophagia. Terminator, in contrast, is racing to spin out the backstory to the two great (and one decent) movies that preceded it. In present-day America, people battle cyborgs to avert an apocalypse in which intelligent machines overthrow their human creators. The plotting is smart, the acting sharp, the mood pitch-black. Fox, Mondays at 8 p.m. (EST)C.S.P.
