Between maintaining the last 40,000 people in the human race and trying to hold together a tumultuous crew, it hasn’t been a very easy three years on board “Battlestar Galactica” for Admiral William Adama (brilliantly portrayed by Edward James Olmos).
Combining William Shatner’s rough and tumble portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk and the eloquent diplomacy in Patrick Stewart’s role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Adama is with little exaggeration TV’s most bad-ass character.
He’s the kind of man who will take a beating in a boxing match just to make a point about the futility of taking grudges to the ring. The kind who puts a gun on the table and will ask his drunken – and long-time friend – second-in-command Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan) to shoot him if he wants mutiny so badly, just to make a point.
He’s the sort of commander who will say to his crew, “Gentlemen, it’s been an honor,” when faced with atmospheric incineration. A man who stands by his word, he’s the kind of leader we wish we had more of these days.
In many ways, Adama also embodies the best qualities of “Battlestar Galactica” itself. He knows that no decision is ever easy, whether it be potential genocide of their sworn nemesis or, as of the most recent cliffhanger, pointing nuclear missiles at a religious site that holds both his last surviving son, Lee, and an ancient artifact that could hold a clue to the titular ship’s ultimate goal – finding the mythical planet “Earth.”
Granted, Adama doesn’t always make the right choices – the back-stabbing of a comrade during a secret mission came back to haunt him with almost deadly results in a recent episode in the third and latest (some fans would also say most intense) season.
In a more personal note, Adama is something like the dad I wish I had. As much as I despise the whole idea of the necessity of a father figure, it’s hard not to find a strong role model in Adama. In a film landscape filled with so much corruption, pointless nihilism and mindless laughs, frankly it’s refreshing to see that TV still has solid characters that provide positive examples even for this cynical college newspaper writer.
-New episodes of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ began at 10 p.m. on Sunday.
-Fernando Ramos is a television, film and new media productions senior.
-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec.
