“Lost” and “Battlestar Galactica” (9 p.m., Sci Fi, season-4 premiere) offer proof that the best TV dramas leave viewers with more questions than answers. And that’s what keeps us coming back for more.

The folks at Sci Fi have promised to unleash Cylon warriors (and not the shapely kind) on me if I reveal too much about tonight’s episode, so suffice it to say that none of the players seems to have a clue as to what’s real anymore. I’m reminded of the old Firesign Theatre gag “What is reality”?

Left for dead during a dogfight two months ago, Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) returns in a pristine vessel to declare that she’s seen Earth and knows how to get there. Only don’t ask her to explain how she returned to the ship, or how two months elapsed while she had been gone for only a few hours. Or at least that’s what she thinks.

And if you think she’s confused, put yourself in the place of the four major characters who’ve discovered that they are really Cylons and may have been all along. Talk about an identity crisis.

And disgraced former president Gaius Baltar (James Callis) escapes execution only to find himself the subject of an adulatory cult. But by the end of the episode, even he has to wonder whether their seemingly dimwitted devotion is all that misplaced.

Perhaps I’ve said too much already. You owe it to yourself to check out “Galactica” and see why it has become one of cable’s most-watched dramas, and why it’s won an Emmy and a Peabody Award.

¢ “Numb3rs” (9 p.m., CBS) returns from the writers’ strike with a story about a domestic-terrorist cell that comes to light only after an FBI bust of a meth lab. Was this a coincidence or something more profound? The plot offers a tip of the conceptual hat to the book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” by Nassim Taleb (Random House, 2007), a study of how events beyond our control or even our anticipation can force us to change our perception and understanding of the world.

But just when things get a tad too heavy, leave it to Judd Hirsch to show up and promise to settle everybody down with a nice cup of coffee or something to nosh.

¢ Over the next two weekends, Spike will broadcast the six-movie “Star Wars” saga in sequential order, beginning with “Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (7 p.m., Spike).

¢ Turner Classic Movies will honor Richard Widmark, who died March 24, by screening three of his films: the 1966 Western “Alvarez Kelly” (7 p.m.); the 1953 war movie “Take the High Ground” (9 p.m.), co-starring Karl Malden; and “The Tunnel of Love” (11 p.m.). This 1958 film features Widmark in a rare comedic turn in which he shares quips with Doris Day.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Ned thinks his girlfriend may be haunted by her father’s unsettled spirit on “Ghost Whisperer” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ Scheduled on a two-hour “Dateline” (8 p.m., NBC): An innocent man leaves prison after a 24-year stay; a small town is beset by disturbing whispers.

¢ Teen clients in trouble on “Canterbury’s Law” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ Viewers who can find paradise only by the dashboard light of their high-definition televisions should not miss “Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise” (9 p.m., VOOM), a documentary profile of the singer.