What's John watching?

Battlestar Galactica (2003): Just watched the 180-minute movie that kicks off the new series. This was the Canadian premiere, I believe. My brother-in-law said that the original airing in the U.S. last year (well, year before last now, I guess) was 240 minutes. Can anyone confirm that? I believe it, considering how rushed a lot of this felt. [Edit: (smacks forehead) commercials! Clearly I don't watch many movies on TV. Say eight minutes on every half hour, multiply it out, and, yup, it would take close to four hours to show all 180 minutes of the movie, matching the IMDB entry. So no wonder it felt so rushed, showing a three-hour movie with lots of commercials in three hours.]

Overall, I was impressed: the battles were visually stunning and well choreographed, the cast and dialogue weren't too annoying, and lots of innocent people died. I actually believed that they were in the middle of a war. One question I have re the battles: sounds and explosions in space are generally-accepted fallacies for entertainment's sake, but contrails? In space? It looked cool, no question, but it kicked me out of the moment every time as I pondered its plausibility. I suppose they could be composed of frozen propulsion residue. Maybe. Comments?

I loved the drums during the opening and closing. Excellent choice for the score.

If you're wondering why I haven't talked about the 1978 movie, or any of the other Galactica offerings, it's because this was my first exposure to the story. To the Battlestar Galactica fans out there, feel free to comment on how this one stacks up. ¶ 11:18:00 p.m.