I couldn’t wait for the “Battlestar Galactica” season premiere.

Yeah, yeah, I’m a bit of a science-fiction geek, but you don’t have to be a geek to think the new version of “Galactica” is one of the best shows on TV – it’s a gritty drama, wrestling with real moral issues, and a far cry from its cheesy 1970s predecessor. Plus it’s got Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama, and he could bring a dark and brooding intensity to a singing telegram.

ADAMA: (Quietly) “Happy birthday.” (Looks down at feet, avoiding eye contact while wrestling with the difficult words he must speak next, in a whispering, gravelly voice.) “Happy birthday … to you.” (Ominous music plays.) “You’re dismissed, soldier.”

So I’m a big fan. But I didn’t actually watch the series on TV during the first couple of seasons. Instead, I got hooked when Doug at Liberty Hall recommended I rent the show on DVD. I watched the entire first season in one weekend, the entire second season two weekends later. There was very little getting out of the house on those weekends.

I binged on “Battlestar,” in other words.

After months of waiting, the third season started a couple of weeks ago. I declined all social opportunities that Friday night, including a trip to go dancing in Kansas City. It was embarrassing to tell people that I was rejecting their company for a television show. Somehow, I managed the moral courage.

I took my place on the couch. The show started. The story was told. And then the show ended.

It was over. After just one hour. A week to go until the next episode. I felt a sense of disappointment.

This is how television is changing. It used to be that if you liked a show, you’d have to watch it while it was on TV, or get left behind.

No more. Now we have DVDs of “Seinfeld” and “Sopranos.” “Firefly” got a movie, based on DVD sales, even though almost nobody watched the series on TV. If you can’t wait for the DVD collections, you can usually download an episode from the Internet hours after it originally appeared.

You don’t need a television to watch television anymore.

In my case, that leads to binge viewing, so much so that watching a single hour of my favorite series and waiting a week for the next hour – the way we used to do it – hardly seems like fun.

What does this mean? I’m not sure. But I don’t envy the Hollywood executives who have to figure out how to keep up with this evolution.

And in the meantime, I’ve got 46 hours of “West Wing” to watch.