Battlestar Galactica: Best Poli-SciFi Videos

Battlestar Galactica, the aforementioned best political show on television, returns to Sci-Fi Channel tonight with the much-awaited movie, "Razor" (check local listings). Check out the trailer and several "flashback" shorts that were shot as backstory for the new movie below.

The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica is not your father's space parable. Updated for a generation who thinks Richard Hatch is a tax-dodging reality show winner, this iteration eschews campy mythology references in favor of a much darker political allegory. Those familiar with the show know of it's unblinking examinations of such hot-button issues as genocide, torture, suicide bombers, villainous occupiers and heroic insurgents. Those unfamiliar would do well to get caught up.

Science fiction has always had a stealth ability to explore topics too sensitive for more straightforward narrative. Often, the result is long on preachy, short on entertainment. This is not the case with Battlestar Galactica, as thrilling a space shoot-'em-up as you'll find, and the allegory is not spoon-fed or strident. The viewer is left to decide for themselves how he or she feels about the moral dilemmas raised.

In keeping with this theme, join me for a brief journey through some of my other favorite moments in "Poli-Sci-Fi". Star Trek: When I say "Star Trek", I , of course, mean the Original Series and that cast's movies, not the subsequent ruinations of all that is good in the universe. Gene Roddenberry spoke endlessly about sneaking political themes past the censors in sci-fi drag. Watching them now, it's hard to believe this stuff was edgy. Most famous was "A Private Little War", a very thinly veiled examination of the Vietnam conflict.

Also notable was "Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country". I remember a movie critic at the time delivering this clueless assessment: "The cast of Star Trek enacts a tired Glasnost parable." Excuse me? Floating "Pepto Bismol" Klingon blood? Kirk making out with Iman? Christopher Plummer chewing up everything in his path?

Starship Troopers: Paul Verhoeven's interstellar war epic is also rife with prescient insights on the adaptation of propaganda to the internet age, plus it's really gross.

Robocop: Verhoeven again, exploring Michael Moore's hypothetical idea of a privatized police force and other fruits of capitalism run amok. Plus, it's really gross.

Soylent Green: "A Modest Proposal" meets "An Inconvenient Truth" in Charlton Heston's greatest contribution to Liberal Cinema. With Edward G. Robinson's final role, this 1973 masterpiece says all that needs to be said about wrecking our planet, no matter the crisis du jour. Favorite line:

Heston: (smoking deeply on a cigarette) If I had the money, I'd smoke two, three of these every day."

Planet of the Apes: Charlton Heston marches for the leeeberals again, as Hollywood turns Darwinism on it's head. Aside from the iconic final scene, I love Dr. Zaius lecturing Heston's astronaut Taylor on the violence of mankind. I always imagined him meeting up with Clyde from "Every Which Way But Loose."

War of the Worlds: The 1953 version. I love the scene where the priest and 2 other peaceniks approach the Martian craft with that white flag and get mercilessly incinerated. Kinda makes you want to paraphrase Cromwell: "Put your trust in God, but stay the f**k away from glowing Martian spacecraft."

The Alien Quintilogy: Ridley Scott directed "Alien", a suspenseful pro-choice parable, followed by James Cameron's "Aliens", an examination of HIV paranoia. David Fincher then helmed "Alien 3", a strongly anti-capitalist film that literally killed the franchise in the person of Chief Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley. "Alien: Resurrection", Jean-Pierre Jeunet's contribution, was an exploration of the merits of therapeutic cloning, while "Alien vs. Predator" was director Paul Anderson's defense of the U.S.' support of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq conflict. Plus, they're all really gross.

I'm sure I've left out some obvious choices, these are just some of my favorites. Most of the fun of a post like this is hearing your choices. Klaatu Barada Nikto, readers.