Individual Entry: Battlestar Galactica
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April 01, 2005

TV : Battlestar Galactica

For those who are unaware, there is a new "re imagined" version of Battlestar Galactica in production, and its first season ended tonight. The original "Galactica had some original ideas; but suffered significantly from being targeted at young people (the idea that adults might be interested in SciFi, while starting to gain acceptance now was unheard of back then).

The new Battlestar Galactica is a very different matter. It is dark, gritty, and full of adult themes. The basic idea is the same with one major twist – the Cylons (the robotic villains of the old series) have mastered biotechnology, and have in fact created lines of artificial humans which are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing (in addition to the more classic robots). By giving the Cylons a voice and a pretty face (literally in many cases), the show is able to explore issues of what it means to be human and to open the door to actually sympathizing with them (well, as much sympathy as one can muster for creatures responsible for genocide). The moral issues presented are complex for both the humans and Cylons.

The series is arc-structured, with many parallel story lines being played out over multiple episodes. One intriguing arc is that the Cylons are devoutly monotheistic, and it is their belief in one true god that appears to drive their actions. From context, it does not appear that this god is some kind of master computer program; but is in fact a god in the usual meaning of that word. This is in contrast to the human colonists who are presented as being polytheist – believing (to varying degrees) in what appears to be the Greek pantheon of gods.

Posted by Steven at April 1, 2005 10:39 PM