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Good start reimaging; I'd wait for season 1 discs to buy. The BSG miniseries is a fascinating reengineering of a classic if campy series and as such deserves a place on most scifi fan shelves. While the added DVD features are nice, I'm knocking a half star off each for writing/editing and for putting this out as a separate disc when it should (and likely will) be part and parcel of season 1. That said, if you haven't seen it or have only seen the NBC edited version, you should buy this. As a previously diehard TOS (the original series) fan - I remember sitting around at my elementary schoolyard in 1979 playing Apollo and my buddy playing Starbuck (had I been older and realized what Starbuck got to do on the side with Athena, would have played him instead!) - I taped TOS on ever-higher quality media every time I could find the broadcasts someplace, with my 10 DVHS tapes from SciFi channel's rebroadcasts now ready for donation to Goodwill now that I have the DVD set, complete with Cylon facemask. I followed poor Richard Hatch's disastrous attempts to make a new series without owning the copyright and felt sorry for him. I watched SciFi channel play ruthless with producers and wasn't really thrilled that the TOS folks got left with nothing. But that's show business. Could TOS have been updated succesfully, removing much of the campiness? Probably. But, in sum, let TOS rest on its own; any review of the new series should review the new series on its own. While season 1 appears to be basically a military soap opera set in space, the miniseries itself is a bit more heavily weighted towards the disaster/survivor movie genre (albeit of the scifi subspecies). The miniseries takes most of its attitude and darkness from movies like 12 Monkeys, 28 Days Later, and the Day After (the 1983 nuclear holocaust movie, not the biblical flood one from 2004). It's a very bad thing having your world destroyed and you not in control of anything, and any characters who survive aren't going to do so unmarked. This is a very different turn than the standard sci-fi genre, which seeks to replicate Star Trek's success with taking the old Wagon Train set of stories to the stars. By and large, it works. There are some nice cameos for devotees of TOS, including the Cylon museum and old call signs, but the motivation of the characters and plot are new, and the backstory is a lot richer and darker and receives more attention here than in the entire 23 episode OS. Being ex-military, I also found the portrayal of shipboard life and announcements a nice touch - and significantly more accurate than most movies. In general, the plot makes sense as we watch the devastation and then cheer on the survivors of the surprise attack regrouping and moving on, celebrating their survival. However, where I would ding this a half star is in the editing. There's a lot been made of the gratuitous sex scenes; personally I think that was a dumb marketing move for it is otherwise a series that is fine for young teens. Also a lot of people don't like the attempts to show first person handheld camera angles. However, where I nitpick more on the editing is that there is probably 10-15 minutes worth of plot that frankly isn't necessary. For instance, the emotional interaction of the survivors expressing relief after relief upon survival takes away from the underlying darkness of the plot and is better suited for the weekly series. Also, some of the minor characters occupy more space than they really need. What I found interesting is that the producers on the commentary agree that the editing wasn't as well done as it could have been when they talk about No. 6 being a child murderer and viewers tuning out afterwards. For a show with this much planning you figure good editing could have been part of it. My other half-star objection is that buying this as a standalone really doesn't make sense given we've got a 13 episode series about to come out on DVD and I would be shocked if the miniseries isn't treated as episodes 1 and 2 of a 15 part first season. Might as well wait. That said, well worth watching; probably the best sci-fi series in the last few years, or at least since the early years of Stargate SG-1.