BSG Preview and Star Trek talk

Mania's website scored some pretty interesting stuff today. At least if you are a sci-fi fan. Which, as it happens, I am.
First, it has a neat interview with Simon Pegg, who, aside from talking about Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, talks about getting the upcoming roll as a young Scotty in the reboot of Star Trek:

I had just stepped off a plane and I got an email from J.J. Abrams. It was just one sentence: “Do you want to play Scotty?” I showed it to my wife and she laughed, and we carried on laughing all the way home. Then I called J.J. and said, “Are you serious?” And he said, “Yes.” I said, “Of course I’d like to play Scotty, but is it the right thing to do? Am I tying myself to something which could run and run?” J.J. just said, “Well if the worst thing that happens is that we get to spend three months together every three years and have a great time, what’s the problem?” I thought that was a good argument, so I said yes.

Mania also posts the a review of the Season 4 premiere episode of Battlestar Galactica. The preview is SPOILER-FREE and gives the episode a solid "A" rating, but I'll just quote from the opening paragraph, which does a great job of encapsulating why the series rocks:

The return of Battlestar Galactica is easily one of the most anticipated events this year, and for those that aren’t anticipating, you’re missing out. This series, up to now, is easily the deepest and most complex science fiction series on television in the last 20 years, maybe of all time. The series takes the social and political commentary from the original Star Trek era and does it in even more intelligent ways. This series isn’t simply a morality play tied to current situations and current culture as was common with Star Trek, it deals in shades of gray and examines the struggle to get to an end that’s right without doing wrong to get there. No individual in this series is the hero in the classic Superman sense and no species really has the moral high ground. BSG portrays all of this without beating you over the head. You could literally make this series as thought provoking as you’d want. You can get into the commentary and rethink your beliefs on everything from what it means to be a family to what it means to be a suicide bomber or you can just watch the series for a well acted and directed science fiction drama. That’s what’s made this a near perfect series. There are other top notch series out there such as the good Star Treks and Firefly, but I don’t believe they ever tried so hard to be both fun sci-fi and relevant in the world in which they have been created as Battlestar Galactica has.

Ok, I'll give you one other tantalizing bit from the actual review:

The writing is solid and the final moments ask questions that will make waiting for the next episode physically painful. It just doesn’t get much better than this series and this episode starts the final season off phenomenally. Seven models of Cylon are out there, four more are in hiding, and one will be revealed. This episode is a don’t miss.

I won't. And this time, with my new HD Sci-Fi channel, it will be spectacular.