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I don't think I can go back to the original series "Professional" is the word that kept popping up in my head when I was watching this, as the original series (which hasn't really aged that well) was thrown together rather hastily to capitalize on the success of STAR WARS. Instead of Greco-Egyptian-themed space opera, the new series is an America-esque gritty, dark spaceborne Navy technothriller-type docudrama, where the uniforms look like uniforms rather than pajamas, the cameras recording it all actually exist (a piece of debris from a destroyed space station sends it spinning in the opening) and the old Colonial warriors' names have become fighter pilot call signs ("starbucking" seems to be slang for drunk & disorderly conduct, and Boomer's landings are so loud and bad you can hear them down in the hangar bay even through hard vacuum). You can even forgive Baltar this time around for selling out humanity, as he's now a horndog scientist who thinks more with his libido and the Cylons now have human-looking infiltrators that come in a Victoria's Secret Lingerie Model variant that seduces him. In addition to introducing new characters, everyone from the original series has gotten a humanizing makeover: Adama's a quiet brooder who only yells to motivate the crew, Tigh's a functional alcoholic, Zak's offscreen death was the result of pilor error due to lack of talent, Apollo's furious about Zak being pushed into the military because of that lack of talent, Starbuck's antics seem to be penance or panacaea for getting Zak killed because she was dating him, and Boomer's a rookie recon pilot sleeping with the head of aerospacecraft maintenance. The simple fact that the new show got renewed says a lot about its improvements over the original.