Just watched the second episode, which in America aired as the latter half of the pilot, so I'll throw up some random thoughts here too, why not.
I'm very pleased that the gang leader survived this episode. His conversations with the professor have been, writing-wise, the strongest stuff the series has provided me so far. It's a poor showing from our professor of Cambridge when the outlaw can provide a better historical analogy: The American War of Independence was not fought against wholly alien invaders from undreamed of climes who were out to seize the land of their foes and drive them before them. In a show where characters seem to brim with rosy, wholesome optimism - which the professor defines, like the brightest, most inoffensive sitcom dad imaginable - it was nice of the show to inject someone with a little cynicism and perspective, however otherwise loathsome the character is sketched out as (which, I guess, is unsurprising).
The leader of our motley band also comes off very well in this hour. If the outlaw can be our Baltar, snarking at the sidelines, then surely this level headed commander who combines good military sense with poor personal skills is our Colonel Tigh. Either one could be the breakout character of the show.
Not much else to say... although it interested me the series brought up the point about bipedal mechs versus hexapedal aliens. Again, the professor's quip about psychological impact seems insufficient - the nukes, the masses of human death; the numbers of legs on a robot is the very least of the trauma these aliens can inflict on the heroes... but I can't imagine any interesting reason for the robots to be two-legged, unless it also has something to do with the aliens' interest in the children... which, I suspect, it just might.
