...Because the RaceFail09 discusssion is for everyone
OK, breaking a long LJ silence, the reasons for which I won't go into. I'll blame credit bethbethbeth for making me think about those reasons. Not that she asked, or should care. *g* It was just something that came up in the course of another conversation - the reasons I prefer to be on IJ, when I'm online these days at all. Such a pesky nuisance, RL
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BSG - I'm looking forward to reading about this. So far, fans don't seem very impressed with the ending on the whole, much less its final word on cultural/racial/species issues. I will confess to a bit of schadenfreude: I was at my favorite regional pop culture conference last month and very much looking forward to a good mix of fandom papers. Instead it was like nonstop uber-pretentious BSG analysis. (Well, along with the uber-pretentious Buffy analysis. Which seems eternal.)
I did read with interest today's New York Times article on its conclusion: "Show About the Universe Raises Questions on Earth". The writer seemed to me to be struggling to comprehend - much less explain - the myriad readings on and reactions to the series. But then, most mainstream media are astonishingly blind to fandom and its real complexity of analysis, from elementary to highly intellectual. I've been intrigued watching just this one newspaper's response to the existence of fandom. It's like they almost get that it's there...
(Clearly, even the NYT does not know that BSG analysis ranges all the way up to hyper-theoretical post-postmodern takes written by 24-year-olds EVERY MONTH, such as those at my conference, that put even the Times' uber-intellectualizing media critics to shame. This NYT meta is only - what, average? In length, certainly. :-) And where's the 1202349587 comments? LOL)
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1. Names - we are expected to believe that somehow, some way, the only change to all the mythological names in the series is dropping the final "a" from "Adama." Also, why are the only world mythologies in use Greek and Judeo-Christian? Why wasn't anyone named "Vishnu" or "Amaterasu" or "Oshun"?
2. Race of the actors - only two of the actors playing main characters (Edward James Olmos and Grace Park) were non-white, and Olmos, who is Mexican, is at least partially of European descent. There were NO black characters in the main cast, and two of three young female members of the cast were blondes (Tricia Helfer in particular is, I'm afraid, a Nazi's Aryan wet dream: tall, statuesque, and of Norwegian and German descent). And despite the gender-blind casting (the new Starbuck being female, ditto the captain of the Pegasus), the one black character in the original series, Colonel Tigh, was recast as white in the remake.
That means ONE visibly non-European actor in the core cast. ONE. Star Trek did a better job of multiracial, multi-ethnic casting forty years ago.
3. Hera as the Mitochondrial Eve - once again, we have white writers deciding that the Mother of Humankind is light skinned and the product of superior technology that's brought to Earth by a bunch of light skinned aliens. Not only is the fallback on Erich von Daniken's theories ridiculous, the cultural/racial appropriation is little short of horrifying. It's as if the mere idea of all humanity being descended from Africans is more than these people can stand.
This doesn't touch the predestination, or the sheer stupidity of a "surprise ending" that would have been tossed by John W. Campbell, Jr., in the 1940s, or the idea that Jamie Bamber and Edward James Olmos are genetically related.....
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Your case is solid. All three of those are appalling - and OMG obvious - backward slidingness. Ugh. I enjoyed the first couple seasons of BSG on disk, courtesy of my elder sister, but now I suspect I know why she lost interest in the show and never bought or TIVO'd more seasons.
It really is sad to think that ST:TOS did a better job forty years ago than most sf/f shows (and many novelists) do now! UGH. How can people have managed to just look past the point that ST made, and in such an overly obvious way at that?
I'm going to pin it on BSG writers who were not very broadly educated or thoughtful, and unable to come up with anything more than retread tropes and stereotypes. After all, TV can't keep blaming their race, gender, sexuality, religion, class, etc. fail on the audience forever.
(OTOH, I saw a screenshot of the new ST movie bridge? And it looked like overdone gaudiness. With miniskirts on women. Ugh.)
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(OTOH, I saw a screenshot of the new ST movie bridge? And it looked like overdone gaudiness. With miniskirts on women. Ugh.)
I also object to Kirk being taller than Spock, McCoy being played by an Australian, and Uhura being taller than almost any of them. Not to mention it looks like they're mucking about with time travel AGAIN. Harlan Ellison really needs to sue them (again).
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Hey - there will be *much* fandom discussion of this remake, I guess!
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