Life doesn't readily offer miracle cures. Adult audiences don't expect easy answers as a recurring part of their story-telling bargain. Don't ask me what happened, but after glowing about it not too long ago I am forced to recant my praise for the new "Battlestar Galactica." Though technically impressive, after forsaking science fiction in favor of fantasy, it's finally given out even in terms of providing a recognizable mythos for humanity.

Two disturbingly such easy answers from recent shows frame my objection. The "lost battlestar" Pegasus story was retold from the BSG original series, but in this case the leadership friction threatened to boil over into civil war. (That was good television.) Played up as tragic human drama, at the last moment they opted out with easy answer #1: pawn off responsibility to a new non-human character introduced that very morning. That was a despicable bait and switch.

Next was the terminal breast cancer afflicting President Roslin, a very human malfunction written into the character from the beginning. It had progressed to the point that the cancer had had metastasized to her brain. She wasn't doing well. (That was good television.) Rather than deal with the situation realistically though, they opted out with easy answer #2: shoot her up with Cylon baby blood (I am not making this up). Bucking on her death-bed unmistakably like Kirk in "The Deadly Years," she was toodling around in no time.

"But isn't it just as offensive when Trek turns to a miracle cure?" After thinking about it one could argue "Miri," "The Deadly Years," and "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" all have a main character (or characters) facing immediate medical peril. Each of those episodes winds up with those characters cured ... leaving no character history. Yet in all those episodes the "disease" was of non-Terran origin, and the resolution was specific and "understood." Apples and oranges. No miracle.

These examples convinced me they're not able or interested in establishing textual limits on their creation - oh, excuse me, their copy of someone else's creation. They let it get away from them due to incompetence or hubris, and it's both informative and alarming that it looks exactly like what happened to "Enterprise." Too much power in, and too few rules over, the overconfident hands on the reins make for an emotional draining, non-rewarding experience. It's no longer telling stories anybody in their right mind would want to consider, nonetheless select for entertainment.

Too bad, I'll miss it.