Battlestar Galactica
I wrote some stuff about battlestar for my international relations class. Its a little long, but I thought I'd post it here behind a cut just for fun. (fyi: the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs contain plot summeries)
Ronald D. Moore’s re-imaged “Battlestar Galactica” first aired in Dec. 2003 and now has a passionate following. It is based on a 1970’s TV show of the same name and is now in its third season. Where the original “Battlestar Galactica” was campy and did not take itself very seriously, Moore’s re-imaged series is deliciously dark and has gone way beyond the show it was inspired by.
“Battlestar Galactica” contains two types of characters - Cylons and humans. The Cylons are robots created long ago by humans to do menial labor for them. About 40 years before the series starts the Cylons rebelled against their human masters and a bloody human-Cylon war ensued. Eventually, an armistice was signed and no one has seen or heard from the Cylons since. The show opens with a surprise Cylon attack on the 12 Colonies - the planets on which the humans live. The humans try to fight back but discover that the Cylons hacked into their computers. The commander of the battlestar Galactica, William Adama, realizes that the battle is not winnable and decides to flee. He takes with him a group of civilian ships who escaped the bombing of the 12 Colonies. The show follows this rag-tag fleet, the sole surviving humans, as they flee the Cylons and occasionally engage in battle with them. Most of the series takes place on the battlestar Galactica, whose crew is in charge of protecting the fleet.
Soon after the humans flee their destroyed homes, they discover that the Cylons, who originally were made entirely of metal, have evolved and that some of them now look like humans. Some of the Cylon human models serve as spies within the human population and several have been uncovered within the course of the show. There are 12 different Cylon human models but only 7 have been revealed as of November 2006. There are multiple copies of each model. Recently, the show has had some story arcs that take place in Cylon society.
Ronald D. Moore is often quoted as saying that “Battlestar Galactica” was inspired by 9/11 and the associated political aftermath. However, the show is not an escape from reality but is dark and tries to confront issues head on. There is an interesting discourse in the series about balancing security and human rights, with security consistently being presented as more important. The series also contains a certain glorification of the military and war, giving the show a conservative quality. However, if one considers the Cylons in the human-cylon battle to represent the U.S., the show becomes a potent social commentary. Though certain parallels are drawn between the humans and the U.S., the interpretation of the Cylons as the U.S. is still possible. The series gives viewers the flexibility to see what they want and allows them to claim the media as their own. Perhaps the ability to interpret the series in multiple ways is part of what has made it so successful.
In “Battlestar Galactica”, doing what preserves human rights is presented as antithetical to preserving security. Furthermore, when characters choose security over human rights things go well, and when they do not things go poorly, suggesting that security should be placed as a priority. For example, in the episode “33” the human fleet is attacked every 33 minutes by the Cylons. Commander William Adama wants to shoot down the ship that he thinks contains a spy who is revealing the humans’ location and enabling the Cylon attacks. President Laura Roslin does not want to shoot down the ship because of the innocent civilians on board who would get killed. Commander Adama shoots the ship down anyway and the attacks stop. As a viewer, one gets the impression that security should be placed before human rights considerations. Additionally, in the episode “Bastille Day” Commander William Adama suggests using the prisoners aboard the prison ship the Astral Queen, including the terrorist Tom Zarek, to extract much needed water from ice found on a planet. Captain Lee Adama, William Adama’s son, does not like the idea of using slave labor and questions the labeling of Zarek as a terrorist. However, when Lee visits the Astral Queen with a contingent from Galactica he and his contingent are held hostage by Zarek. Zarek hopes that Commander Adama will send a rescue mission and that he will be able to initiate a blood bath that will discredit President Laura Roslin's government. This presents Lee’s respect for human freedom as naive, misguided, and dangerous, reinforcing the idea that security should be placed before human rights.
There is also a glorification of the military inherent in “Battlestar Galactica”. The show takes place almost exclusively on Galactica, a military vessel. With the exception of President Laura Roslin, all the main human characters are part of the human military. They wear military uniforms most of the time and follow military protocol. Additionally, though the characters face their share of hardships, the military is presented as honorable and as something that one would want to be a part of.
For the first season of “Battlestar Galactica”, and for most of the second, viewers and critics often saw parallels between the humans who survived the surprise Cylon attack on the 12 Colonies and post-9/11 Americans. For example, on Galactica there is a wall with pictures and notes pinned to it that serves as a memorial to those who died in the Cylon attacks. It looks a lot like memorials made for people who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Additionally, in the episode “Litmus” one of the Cylons carries out a suicide bombing on the Galactica.
However, it is possible to see the Cylons as representing the U.S., which turns the show from something reinforcing the status quo into a social commentary. This idea came to me during a scene in which one of the Cylon human models talks about how Cylon religion and culture are superior to human religion and culture. Her rhetoric seemed reminiscent of U.S. imperialist rhetoric. The idea of the Cylons as representing the U.S. is reinforced at the end of the second season when the Cylons occupy New Caprica, a barely habitable planet on which the humans have settled. The Cylons justify the occupation with a rhetoric of peace and civilization that resembles the rhetoric the U.S. uses to talk about Iraq. The parallels between the Cylon and American occupations are further reinforced in the beginning of season three when the humans organize a resistance against their Cylon occupiers that includes the use of suicide bombing. The Cylon occupation is a clear commentary on the U.S. war on Iraq, but this commentary becomes even more profound when one applies the parallel between the Cylons and Americans to earlier seasons. One begins to see the show as a systemic critique of American imperialism and violence rather then a condemnation of just the war in Iraq. The Cylons are presented as over confident, excessively violent and evil. By creating parallels between the U.S. and the Cylons, the show suggests these traits are true of Americans too.
Ronald D. Moore’s re-imaged “Battlestar Galactica” first aired in Dec. 2003 and now has a passionate following. It is based on a 1970’s TV show of the same name and is now in its third season. Where the original “Battlestar Galactica” was campy and did not take itself very seriously, Moore’s re-imaged series is deliciously dark and has gone way beyond the show it was inspired by.
“Battlestar Galactica” contains two types of characters - Cylons and humans. The Cylons are robots created long ago by humans to do menial labor for them. About 40 years before the series starts the Cylons rebelled against their human masters and a bloody human-Cylon war ensued. Eventually, an armistice was signed and no one has seen or heard from the Cylons since. The show opens with a surprise Cylon attack on the 12 Colonies - the planets on which the humans live. The humans try to fight back but discover that the Cylons hacked into their computers. The commander of the battlestar Galactica, William Adama, realizes that the battle is not winnable and decides to flee. He takes with him a group of civilian ships who escaped the bombing of the 12 Colonies. The show follows this rag-tag fleet, the sole surviving humans, as they flee the Cylons and occasionally engage in battle with them. Most of the series takes place on the battlestar Galactica, whose crew is in charge of protecting the fleet.
Soon after the humans flee their destroyed homes, they discover that the Cylons, who originally were made entirely of metal, have evolved and that some of them now look like humans. Some of the Cylon human models serve as spies within the human population and several have been uncovered within the course of the show. There are 12 different Cylon human models but only 7 have been revealed as of November 2006. There are multiple copies of each model. Recently, the show has had some story arcs that take place in Cylon society.
Ronald D. Moore is often quoted as saying that “Battlestar Galactica” was inspired by 9/11 and the associated political aftermath. However, the show is not an escape from reality but is dark and tries to confront issues head on. There is an interesting discourse in the series about balancing security and human rights, with security consistently being presented as more important. The series also contains a certain glorification of the military and war, giving the show a conservative quality. However, if one considers the Cylons in the human-cylon battle to represent the U.S., the show becomes a potent social commentary. Though certain parallels are drawn between the humans and the U.S., the interpretation of the Cylons as the U.S. is still possible. The series gives viewers the flexibility to see what they want and allows them to claim the media as their own. Perhaps the ability to interpret the series in multiple ways is part of what has made it so successful.
In “Battlestar Galactica”, doing what preserves human rights is presented as antithetical to preserving security. Furthermore, when characters choose security over human rights things go well, and when they do not things go poorly, suggesting that security should be placed as a priority. For example, in the episode “33” the human fleet is attacked every 33 minutes by the Cylons. Commander William Adama wants to shoot down the ship that he thinks contains a spy who is revealing the humans’ location and enabling the Cylon attacks. President Laura Roslin does not want to shoot down the ship because of the innocent civilians on board who would get killed. Commander Adama shoots the ship down anyway and the attacks stop. As a viewer, one gets the impression that security should be placed before human rights considerations. Additionally, in the episode “Bastille Day” Commander William Adama suggests using the prisoners aboard the prison ship the Astral Queen, including the terrorist Tom Zarek, to extract much needed water from ice found on a planet. Captain Lee Adama, William Adama’s son, does not like the idea of using slave labor and questions the labeling of Zarek as a terrorist. However, when Lee visits the Astral Queen with a contingent from Galactica he and his contingent are held hostage by Zarek. Zarek hopes that Commander Adama will send a rescue mission and that he will be able to initiate a blood bath that will discredit President Laura Roslin's government. This presents Lee’s respect for human freedom as naive, misguided, and dangerous, reinforcing the idea that security should be placed before human rights.
There is also a glorification of the military inherent in “Battlestar Galactica”. The show takes place almost exclusively on Galactica, a military vessel. With the exception of President Laura Roslin, all the main human characters are part of the human military. They wear military uniforms most of the time and follow military protocol. Additionally, though the characters face their share of hardships, the military is presented as honorable and as something that one would want to be a part of.
For the first season of “Battlestar Galactica”, and for most of the second, viewers and critics often saw parallels between the humans who survived the surprise Cylon attack on the 12 Colonies and post-9/11 Americans. For example, on Galactica there is a wall with pictures and notes pinned to it that serves as a memorial to those who died in the Cylon attacks. It looks a lot like memorials made for people who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Additionally, in the episode “Litmus” one of the Cylons carries out a suicide bombing on the Galactica.
However, it is possible to see the Cylons as representing the U.S., which turns the show from something reinforcing the status quo into a social commentary. This idea came to me during a scene in which one of the Cylon human models talks about how Cylon religion and culture are superior to human religion and culture. Her rhetoric seemed reminiscent of U.S. imperialist rhetoric. The idea of the Cylons as representing the U.S. is reinforced at the end of the second season when the Cylons occupy New Caprica, a barely habitable planet on which the humans have settled. The Cylons justify the occupation with a rhetoric of peace and civilization that resembles the rhetoric the U.S. uses to talk about Iraq. The parallels between the Cylon and American occupations are further reinforced in the beginning of season three when the humans organize a resistance against their Cylon occupiers that includes the use of suicide bombing. The Cylon occupation is a clear commentary on the U.S. war on Iraq, but this commentary becomes even more profound when one applies the parallel between the Cylons and Americans to earlier seasons. One begins to see the show as a systemic critique of American imperialism and violence rather then a condemnation of just the war in Iraq. The Cylons are presented as over confident, excessively violent and evil. By creating parallels between the U.S. and the Cylons, the show suggests these traits are true of Americans too.