LAST night, on my return from the Commons, I stayed up well beyond bedtime, eschewing my Horlicks, in order to watch the last ever episode of Battlestar Galactica.

First off: how cool is that name? It was probably the only good thing about the original series which, in most other respects, was as rubbish as a pile of rubbish that’s been dumped in Rubbishville’s municipal rubbish tip. So I was surprised as anyone when it was announced a remake was on the way.

As in the original series, human civilisation, spread among 12 space-travelling colonies, is all but wiped out by an attack by the evil Cylons which, in the newer version, were originally created by the humans themselves as robot slaves. What’s left of mankind — about 50,000 souls — form a convoy, led by the colonies’ last remaining battlestar warship, the Galactica, and attempt to seek a new home, the mythological “13th colony” of Earth.

Battlestar Galactica is a slow burner. I watched the mini series that kicked the whole thing off, and thought it was interesting, intelligent, with great special effects, but also a bit clinical, with very few sympathetic characters. So I didn’t bother watching the subsequent series initially. But word started to circulate that here was science fiction worth paying attention to. I was intrigued, particularly when I saw an advert on Sky which described it as “the only science fiction which explores the war on terror” or some such. So I started watching the box set DVD collections.

Season one was extremely enjoyable; a bit slow but with a tremendous cliffhanger ending. Season two, with the introduction of a battlestar previously assumed destroyed, the Pegasus, and its authoritarian admiral Cain, provided the dramatic and emotional pinnacle of the whole series, with some amazing scripts, acting and moral paradoxes. The “war on terror” parallel reaches a height during the first part of season three, where the surviving humans have established a colony on New Caprica, only for it to be invaded and occupied by the Cylons. A campaign of suicide bombings by the humans against their robot oppressors and a systematic campaign of intimidation, torture and summary execution by the Cylons and their human collaborators ensue, throwing up none-too-subtle comparisons with Iraq. A brave thing for any US-made science fiction TV series to attempt.

Battlestar Galactica cast

The cast enjoyed winding up Christians and Dan Brown fans alike

One over-arching thread throughout the series is a religious one, and a debate about whether the human colonies’ traditional multiple gods should be replaced by a single God. There are tons of religious or pseudo-religious allusions and discussions among the characters, and they don’t always sit comfortably with the rest of the space opera.

Nevertheless, Battlestar Galactica is intelligent and grown up. It’s refreshing to see science fiction for adults being produced in an age when almost everything seems to be produced for teenagers. Most of the characters are in their thirties or older, and virtually all of them are morally ambiguous; even the flawed Baltar — the main villain of the original 1978 series — comes across most of the time as sympathetic, though selfish and cowardly.

Richard Hatch, who starred in the original series as Apollo, returned to the re-imagined series, as Tom Zarek, a sometime politcian, hero, terrorist and villain. But the central figure is Admiral William Adama, Galactica’s commander, played brilliantly by Edward James Olmos (known to West Wing fans as President Bartlett’s eventual Supreme Court nominee, Judge Roberto Mendoza). The fact that the producers went to great lengths to secure the talents of so many fine actors is a testament to how seriously they considered their job. The most controversial decision they made was to cast a woman in the role of Starbuck who, in the original series had been played by Dirk Benedict (The Face in The A Team, if you’re interested). The only controversy for me is that Katee Sackhoff irritated the hell out of me in every screen appearance she made in four years.

In the end, as I discovered last night, it’s virtually impossible to provide answers to all the puzzles and mysteries that have been invented by the writers in the previous four years. Elements of the finale were unsatisfying, others quite moving and uplifting.

If you haven’t watched it so far, and if you want science fiction that actually makes you think and care about the characters, then make an effort to catch it on DVD.

So say we all.