At Joe Carter’s prompting I set aside some time over Christmas break to re-watch Battlestar Galactica. I’ll have to take Joe’s word about Galactica being the best ever sci-fi show and the best ever military-show as I don’t have a great deal of experience in those areas. I’ve never been a huge sci-fi fan. I watched the original Star Trek mainly because I think the chemistry between Spock, McCoy, and Kirk is impeccable, and I watched The Next Generation because Patrick Stewart is awesome. But TNG and the rest of the Star Trek universe and similar shows wore on me after awhile. I dreaded hearing the preachy monologues about how the superior humans in the 24th century abolished war, hunger, poverty, and political problems in general (yet somehow still have enough excitement and action to fill seven seasons).
The appeal of Battlestar Galactica, and the feature that proves Carter’s other two points about the show being the best to discuss religion and philosophy, is that the humans in Galactica are still human. The show doesn’t pretend that the secret to changing human nature is the passage of time and the creation of big space ships. Religion plays a large role in the plot, as does the harsh realities of politics. Few issues are left untouched from abortion to wartime civil rights issues. We even see men get fat after a few years of marriage. It’s all there.
However, the show’s greatest criticism may be that it sometimes harps on these issues for too long. I can certainly sympathize, especially when it comes to the big deal the show makes of elections and democracy in wartime. It almost doesn’t seem believable that people would keep such a strong insistence on democracy when the entire human race has been wiped out. (I, for one, would be the first to suggest Adama have wartime powers, but solving half the drama doesn’t make for good TV.)
Nevertheless, the presence of these conversations is what sets the show apart and allows meaningful conversation. There’s no covering up human nature, and most importantly, there is no trace of the lie that more technologically will equal more morality.
