Sounds like a crazy matchup, but it can only happen in the multiverse that is my brain.  However, I know there are fans that are crazier than me, know more stuff, dieharder, and diligent.  I was feeling like I was getting sucked into the Downton Abbyss, this last week, watching so many episodes- and related specials.  Then I saw this funny clip from Portlandia, which is even more relevant as I am about 2/3 of the way through Season 3 of Battlestar.  Why am I so late to the game?  It doesn't matter, the show is fracking awesome, and it helps me slog through knitting and bicycling, time goes by so much faster. An episode a day makes the back pain go away. 

As I have not seen every and all episode, nor visited any fan pages, please don't give too many spoilers.  However, the open call nature of this, here in comments or on your own blog (please post a link) is to make your own comparisons or expand on one here.  I will just give some highlights.

1) The home is an organism, and every role in it is important!

Downton Abbey could not run without the servants, and the servants wouldn't have direction or a role without the house.  They cannot really survive without each other.  

Battlestar Galactica (ship) and the rest of the fleet.   Obvious, plus jumping.  

2) I love a man in uniform!   Ruling class vs working class, politicians, officers, and the rest of us.

Write an essay on your favorite uniform wearer.  Corsets and bibs apply.

3) Honor, duty and your job.

Well, we see a lot of the constraints in both shows, personal freedom hits the ugly head of what you have to do.  Repercussions are serious when lines are crossed.

4)  Love triangle with the handsome, inadvertant hero.  

Matthew, Mary and Lavinia.

Starbuck, Apollo and Dualla.  

5) Love suppressed in the name of duty

Mr Bates and Anna

Adama and Laura Roslin

6) War.

Cylons vs Germans 

7) Forbidden love

Lady Sybil and Branson

Agathon and Sharon 

8) Wild old lady who gets the best lines and steals every scene

Countess Violet Crawley

???  

 9) Breaking up aristocracy is hard to do!

Socialist revolution vs capitalism vs martial law, who runs the show?

10) All I want is a room somewhere....

The individual desire for love and hope.... does anyone not dream of their own little place- in the village serving beer or in a cabin by a lake or on the side of the ship far away from the engines?

**** 

I offer this as an alternative Valentine, to those who love and who are loved, who also don't want to write about hearts and flowers.  

I am pretty sure you guys have some of your own opinions on this.  There are reasons why these shows are so damn popular, so mindstirring, so emotionally wringing.  Please, carry on and write already.