My desperation for “Battlestar Galactica” to resume has grown so urgent that I recently began looking to other fiction featuring the show's cast. That brought me to “Stand and Deliver,” for which “BSG” star Edward James Olmos was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award in 1989.

Olmos portrays Jaime Escalante, a software specialist who follows his heart into teaching math at James A. Garfield High School in urban Los Angeles. Escalante overcomes the apathy of his students and the social pitfalls that sap their attention - gang violence, poor families, teenage lust - to endear himself to the class. Following his ambition along, Escalante proposes teaching calculus at the school. His unheard-of proposition demands his students commit to rigorous hours of study that consume their free summer and vacation time. With the reluctant approval of his fellow faculty, Escalante steers his class toward the AP Calculus exam - a milestone of academics for the school, and one of personal achievement for Escalante and his students.

The story is loaded with teacher-meets-hostile-class tropes also found in films spanning from “Blackboard Jungle” to “Dangerous Minds.” Worse yet are the Hispanic urban youth stereotypes, the cheesy '80s synth pop music soundtrack and the conventional story turns that drive “Stand and Deliver” along.

But single-handedly redeeming the film is Olmos (and, to a lesser extent, Lou Diamond Phillips as troubled pupil Angel Guzman). Olmos plays Escalante with a irresistible charisma that would induce any student to learn what he's teaching. He maneuvers the aisles of his classroom with a comedic vigor that never becomes so clownish as to disguise his determination. The only blight on his otherwise brilliant performance is Olmos' wig, which is the absolute worst comb-over bald cap I've ever seen.

Thankfully there'll be no such rug to put up with when “Battlestar Galactica” returns to Sci Fi in January.