Apparently not. As soon as the broadcast begins it's impossible not to be struck by how disappointingly soft the picture looks for a show that's not only being broadcast in HD but which was shot using HD cameras as well.

The dark interiors of the Galactica definitely don't enjoy the extreme 'snap' and levels of detailing we would have hoped for, instead looking only marginally better than something we'd expect to see on a standard definition DVD.

It's not just the slightly unfocussed look to proceedings that disappoints either, for the picture also looks a touch noisy for most of the time.

Things look a little better during bright scenes, such as Starbuck's return to the docking platform where she's greeted with so much suspicion by other members of the crew. You can certainly see more texture in the suits of the Viper pilots and the background walls of the ship than is possible in standard definition. This helps bright scenes look more three-dimensional and large in scale, too.

But you can't make out the individual pores on the actors' skin like you can with, say, the recent Zulu or The Italian Job HD broadcasts.

Obviously not seeing pores isn't particularly important in itself, unless you happen to have some kind of celebrity pore fetish. But when you're talking about HD, if you can't see pores, it means there's quite a bit of other fine detailing you're not seeing either.

I'm not entirely sure where the 'blame' lies for this underwhelming picture quality - Sky's broadcast or the original HD mastering of the TV show. Given that the broadcast eats up around 12% of the Sky HD memory, though - the same, roughly, as The Italian Job, with its similar running time - it's tempting to think that it's the original mastering that's gone a touch pearshaped rather than any limitations in Sky's broadcasting bandwidth.

Just occasionally one or two lower register sounds come over a touch compressed and muddy, and I experienced a couple of tiny instances of lip synch error. But for the most part this TV episode packs the sort of punch usually reserved for action movies.