38BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2005)

Aired: SCI-FI, 2005-2009

Having written for the series Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, Ronald Moore arrived at his remake of Battlestar Galactica determined to bring the "space opera" genre out of its fusty cartoon past. Moore wanted to make "naturalistic science fiction," to "use the genre for what it was initially intended to do," providing commentary "on the human condition from a different point of view," he told Written By heading into his show's final season. Battlestar Galactica, conjured the monotheistic Cylons, at once alien and able to take on the form of humans, who have declared war on the twelve human Colonies, wiping out billions in the process, and leaving all aboard the battlestar Galactica on a desperate quest to find the mystical 13th colony known as Earth. During its four seasons, Battlestar Galactica was one of the most praised series on television, lauded as a timely allegory of post-9/11 fears and geopolitics.