Things I liked:
= The way they incorporated the old-design Viper (which really wasn't the design used in the original series, but hey, it looked pretty close) with a new-design Viper. The whole time I was watching those scenes I kept thinking "if the US Navy brought out its F4 Phantoms, would they still be fightable? Heck ya!"
= The background music. I might have to pick up the soundtrack for Friday night ToD squad nights.
= The "new" Starbuck. Nothing wrong with a tomboy fighter pilot. Helps break up the all-male club of main characters. Good to see she's just as handy with a joystick as she is with a wrench.
= The female Cylon with the Doctor. I can only imagine the casting description for this character. But, she's more than just eye candy, too. She makes a pretty good plot device to keep the storyline moving along and provide explanations to the audience about what's going on.
= The new characterization of the Doctor. He's not a willing participant in the Cylon war like the other Boltar. He's just a genius who wasn't properly socialized and now he's trying to cover his crimes. If you want to see an example of a corrupt moral code, it would be him.
= The radio comms sound like they were lifted from Navy logs with only minor changes to the wording. They call for clearance, the flight IDs, "call the ball", "stay out of the Galactica's firing solution!" .... nice touch of authenticity there.
= the way they retained the general shape of the original "Galactica".
= the reference to the Galactica as an old ship about to be retired as a museum. That helped explain why the Galactica wasn't somewhat immune to the Colonial defense computer tampering and also allowed the older "Vipers" to be utilized.
= maneuvering thrusters on the Vipers. A nice bit of realism, but part of me misses the old jet vapors shooting out the back when they went to full throttle.
= The darker "feel" to the interior of the ship. The hallways aren't what I would expect to find aboard a ship, but everything else look believable.
= Adama: "They have to start making babies now." XO: "Is that an order?"
What I don't like about the show:
= the new Vipers. The titanium finish looks too much like computer-generated imagery (which it is). Also, I would expect to see more bumps and protrusions, such as IR tracking balls and RWR sensors.
= only two black characters? One was the captain of a doomed agricultural vessel and the other was a hottie bridge crewman. The captain is probably dead, but hopefully we'll see more of the deck crewman and she'll contribute more to the plot.
= "Boomer" as a Cylon. She's a timebomb waiting to explode. Hopefully the writers will resolve that "open plot" with the next episode or two rather than string us along.
= In the scene where the crew chief is speaking with Adama about how the XO killed 85 crew, a perfect opportunity to provide a leadership lesson was missed. Adama should've told the chief something along the lines of "The XO made a decision that saved this ship. Those crew should've been trained to wear their environmental suits, knowing that there was a possibility that the compartment would be de-pressurized to extinguish the fire. They didn't. You are their chief. Its your responsibility to train them." I think it would've made Adama look like the Old Warrior that he is and would've set the stage to show improvements in the chief's character.
Overall, I like this series almost more than the original. I think it has a nice edginess to it and is written for a more mature audience than the original, family-oriented overly-simplistic show. I think they've done for the Galactica franchise what Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan did for the Star Trek films.
