'Battlestar Galactica' has a fan on 'Mars'

Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas is a fanboy and wears it on his sleeve.

Despite the fact that his show, perennially ratings starved critic's darling that it is, just barely made the move from UPN to the CW, Thomas still managed to tease his bosses on last nights premiere. Well, OK, not so much tease as give a free advertisement to another networks show. And not just once but twice.

While solving a standard Neptune CA mystery (who's been stealing the stuff from gullible freshmen at Hearst U?) Ms. Mars was introduced to the term "frack" by a well-meaning RA, a term she then used herself for a typically Marsian punchline later in the episode.

Frack, of course, is the euphemism for a less-FCC-friendly F-word that is used constantly on that other critically acclaimed show with not so many viewers on the SciFi Network, Battlestar Galactica. Being fans of both shows we enjoyed the references, but we couldn't help but wonder why the powers that be at the CW would give up such valuable airtime to plug a show on one of NBC's networks.

To be fair to Thomas though, the same episode also included references to Mars' CW/UPN sister, and occasional guest-star farm, America's Next Top Model.

One last language question about last night's episode: Is "douchebaggy" really ok on broadcast TV? We laughed out loud when it was used (Veronica was discussing ignoring spoiler alerts) but still…

By Garth Johnston