The way you and Goat talk about BSG makes me want to dive in. I'm a big Star Trek fan because to me it wasn't about space...it was about great philosophical dilemmas that test your moral compass and makes you view things from multiple points of view...with Spock being the unemotional voice of reason to whatever emotional reaction it's getting out of you.
I never gave it a chance because I so disliked the TV series from the early 80's. I thought 'V' was a better SyFy show. That series reminded me of Disney's 'The Black Hole'. I was also 10 years old so I probably didn't understand it fully.
The reason why I'm such a GOT freak is because IMO it's the most efficient and intelligently written show I've ever encountered. That might say more about myself that anything but I'm so used to things being pretty simple and linear. That's a bad guy, that's the good guy...that's the tension created by the bad guy that the good guy much overcome. Even star wars was pretty simple. When Vader walked on the screen you knew...yeah that's the bad guy.
Thrones to me is such an amazing story because one what you think is obviously bad is sometimes good and what is obviously good is sometimes bad...just like real life. Also there is very little wasted dialogue, music or set piece. It all is important to the story. Even conversations from 5 years ago are just now coming back to be as important to the story as they were way back then. Lastly it has done an exceptional job dropping clues but not making it so obvious at the time...but in retrospect it's plain as day. Things like in Season 1 when Jon Snow yells at Tyrion 'what do you know about being a bastard'. That's an extremely powerful line today, or I strongly believe will be once Tyrion's origin story is more revealed. Or when Benjen Stark is trying to convince Jon not to join the Night's Watch in season one. He says 'family might not mean much to you now but it might in the future' then he pauses and says 'you have no idea what you would be giving up'. At the time it seems like he's just talking about the Night Watch lifestyle with no pu$$y to a teenager...now people are convinced that Benjen is the only Stark Ned told his little secret too'. It's why Benjen joined the NW and took a strong liking to Jon. Incredible and so obvious when you look back at the clues they gave (I mean I think every main character has made a comment about how honorable Ned Stark is....and only two male characters have been described as 'pretty'...Rhaegar and Jon (both multiple times by different characters). I believe that's on purpose by the writers. Awesome.
If you would have told me to watch the first 4 episodes of thrones I would have said 'Got it, Starks are good and the Lanisters are bad. This is probably a story of the poor but honorable Starks eventually beating the rich and spoiled Lanisters.' Then if you would have said 'someone becomes the jesus character and brings balance to the force...who is it?' I would have guessed probably 10 characters before I got to Jon...and it's still not for certain that Jon is the hero of the story.
So yeah, I'm looking to get lost in a series that can make me think and emotionally react the way GOT's does which is why I'm excited for BSG now. Thank you!
Oh and the Shwimmer deal is just his voice. He's a fine actor but his voice always sounds like he's about to cry. Good for comedies but bugs the s$%t out of me for dramas.