Who is the antagonist?

Cylons. The Empire. Klingons. The Sentinels/Matrix. The Others. The Syndicate.

Gotta have some evil antagonist, right?

It's problematic -- all the evils in TV shows seem so black-hat, mustache-twirling. I think the real evil in the world is cleverly disguised in a variety of forms, and trying to pinpoint the WORST, and embody it in my show, is hard.

I thought of a growing empire that is species-ist, saying humans were the children of God, and oppressing other sentient species as a result. But growing Empires are hardly a real threat, in my mind; those who say the U.S. government is corrupt exhibit enough influence to change it. It's fun as a villain, in some ways, but we beat the Nazis, then the Soviet Union, and I don't see any country ever succeeding in conquering the Earth politically.

Oh, but corporate emperialism, they cry. Okay, so the corrupting influence of greedy corporations -- that's a force to be reckoned with. But again, we are reckoning with them. Plenty of organizations are fighting to raise awareness of sweatshop conditions supported by American corporations, or to fight environmental damage caused by companies that disregard the environment. It's still going on, but it's not anywhere near the most evil thing we have to deal with.

The greatest evil is that which is disguised as good, or that is invisible, and that slowly corrupts the souls of mankind. Not destroying the world, not enslaving other people... slaves can grow in humility and spirituality, and their masters inspire the masses to rally against such an obvious evil.

These evils will surely exist in my universe, and may serve as red herrings in stories where our characters are trying to root up some evil. But while they do damage to people, they don't necessarily corrupt those people.

Real evil corrupts but doesn't show its damage.

Now, the love of money is the root of all evil, so we have that to go on. Perhaps the growing tide of consumerism is it.

Or, consider the desensitizing effect of most media, which panders to baser desires for violence or sex. And even when it doesn't, it's often feeding individuals' desires to Escape. While the occasional diversion is, I think, healthy and needed, FULLY diverting into Escapism, and hungering for TV time or video-game time or whatnot is not.

The two work together nicely -- the media giants pushing more and more escapist entertainment at the populace in return for the money they love and crave.

But the good guys can't defeat the bad guys in one fell swoop. You can't throw the Emperor over the railing and restore peace to the Galaxy with this one.

Story-wise, I think our heroes are also following prophecies that talk about The Great Evil or somesuch, and hoping to fight it; for a long time, TV-wise -- multiple seasons? -- they pursue this. When they finally discover what the real evil is, they see they are powerless to fight it with violence as they have fought other evils, and they seem depressed. But they resolve to keep fighting anyway, The End.