. . . in Battlestar . . . name the scifi traditions that are evident.
My favourite sci-fi tradition is that the Point of View character is a scientist who gets involved in a war . . . I consider Baltar a POV character cos we see inside his head . . .
But when is Baltar himself and when is he, truly, Head Baltar? I have always found it odd Six and Baltar have Head characters which are angels. Why duplicate the form? One could say the show is form his POV, or is about him but also Six. Both versions of both characters.
There are probably quite a few when you get down to it, but many of them were not the ones when you think of sci-fi on television.
The one that comes to mind is the civilian leadership vs. the military. Also a lot of the character archetypes. The reluctant leader (Lee), the strong and noble commander (Adama), and so on. BSG did a great job by having great stories and great characters, regardless of what it borrowed from other stories.