Battlestar
Illness has delayed my posting today. In fact, spies from the office may leave vicious comments because I have written this short bit during my convalescence, as happened the last time I missed work.
Anyway, my downtime coincides serendipitously with my acquiring, through loan from my friend Mitch, the complete first season DVD set of Battlestar Galactica. Wow. Double wow. Having heard all the hype, and having seen a couple of episodes along the way, my expectations were high, and yet they were exceeded. This series is easily the best sci-fi in TV history. The only question in my mind is whether it is the best thing TV has produced in any genre.
How do I love thee, Battlestar Galactica? Let me count the ways:
1. Commander Adama's face looks like something run over by a dozen Cylons driving earth moving equipment. This guy's face is weathered. He's far from the usual TV pretty-boy ideal, and the realness is a relief. The contrast with the 1970s Battle Star Galactica, where even the men had Farrah Fawcett hairdos, could not be greater.I've been trying to think of another TV series that affects me so strongly. The only thing that comes close is the (brace for impact!) Pride and Prejudice miniseries from A&E. Jane Austen has never been treated more respectfully.
2. Other character flaws are on display. Adama is the commander of the oldest Battle Star in the fleet, due to be decommissioned. Galactica's XO is a drunk. The new president of the civil government is the only surviving official, the obscure secretary of education of one of the twelve home worlds -- and Adama's reaction is, "we're supposed to take orders from a school teacher?" Starbuck, the most talented pilot is haunted by guilt over the death of her lover. Adama's son, Apollo, hates his father so much, he can barely make it through a conversation with him. These are real people. Only Gaius Baltar's weaknesses (cowardice, arrogance, and sexual incontinence) seem over the top -- but even he's good for some laughs.
3. This BSG has all the great themes of any war drama: survival, fear, hard decisions under extreme pressure. BSG's scenario is an extreme example: a race of people are wiped out in one day, with their population reduced from many billions to 50,000.
4. This BSG reconsiders our current political themes, just as Star Trek reconsidered the cold war. The Cylon attack is a 9/11 on steroids. The survivors pull together -- then tear each other's hair out. How do you manage a threat you cannot completely understand? When does caution bleed into paranoia?
5. Needless to say, the production values are high and the dialog rarely embarrasses. Sci-fi writers carry the heavy burden of building a plausible civilization from the ground up. The BSG scenario is a bit easier to pull off because these are regular human beings with a distant connection to earth's population. In any case, everything works -- well, okay, the use of "frak" as a cuss word always jars, and there's something slightly patronizing in the casting of a black woman in the role of priest. Still, these are quibbles. Sci-fi fans need to have strong stomachs -- BSG gives us very little indigestion.
6. As always, I'm fascinated by the religion, and BSG treats it more thoughtfully than most sci-fi (which, sadly, is not saying much). I can't help but envy this people's culture which is unified under one religion. (A religion not always believed, to be sure, but always respected.) Laura Roslin learns that she must be sworn in as the new president of the surviving government: "we'll need a priest," she says. Imagine that in the USA -- the mind boggles. Only our English friends can relate, I suppose. Are these people polytheists? They talk about God, but pray to the Lords of Kobol. Maybe the Lords are saints, or angels. Turns out, there's a Mormon connection.
Anyone care to declare their nominations for best TV series ever?
Umie the Umlaut says, "ask your doctor about the Fredösphere!"
5 Comments:
I have not seen it, but the clips I have stumbled upon have made me dizzy. Everything appears to be shot by a hand held camera under the control of a drunk.
You probably should have gone to work, even if you were terribly ill. It is the only way to move society forward. Steve K.
There have been plenty of outstanding science fiction writers who deal intelligently with religion, from Walter Miller, Cordwainer Smith and R.A. Lafferty in the '50's and '60's, to Gene Wolfe and Mary Doria Russell. Some dogmatic atheists may be better-known, but they are not necessarily the best nor the most representative.
I quit watching teevee when I was quite young. I had better ways to waste my time. Nothing I saw on the toob ever affected me as strongly as Haibane Renmei or even Jubei-chan I. It's possible that some recent occidental series may be worth watching, and I probably will eventually check out BSG, as well as Babylon 5 and Firefly. These investigations require money and time, both of which are always in short supply, so it may be a while before I get around to them. Until then, I'll nominate Moose and Squirrel as still the greatest English-language TV series ever.
Orson Scott Card comes to mind. Very good treatment of religion in his stories. Does not present religious people as cardboard cut-outs. Babylon 5 does a reasonable job too. Good series (especially after the first season).
Fredo, how is the music in this BSG? - Steve K.
BSG freakin' rocks. Babylon 5 was OK, but BSG is in my top three favorite sci-fi series of all time already. It's amazingly well written.
Fredo,
You know my vote for best all-time series still goes to The Prisoner. 40 years later it still intrigues, dares, and pokes at the most important issues of the day: integrity, privacy, the value of the individual, totalitarianism, mind control, psychoactive drugs, simulation as reality, political prisoners, personal responsibility, and conscience.
Hell it's more Kafkaesque than Kafka and if you think its only about bouncing white balloons you're as good as gassed.
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