Two Battlestar Galacticas

Two Battlestar Galacticas

After Star Trek Voyager returned to earth, ending both the series and the shows of Star Trek, (Star Trek Enterprise rose as a weak prequel to the original Star Trek series, but soon fell crashing down airing for only four seasons), my family and I earnestly scanned the new shows of science fiction. Nothing in the realm of quality science fiction seemed to show up and we feared that there wouldn’t be another Syfy series to get excited about, like we did with Star Trek. That we would end up watching reruns of its different series.

            Then, the remake of Battlestar Galactica aired.

Remakes. We’ve all seen them. Whether we are cheering for the new version or walking out of the theater defending the original story. The premise between the two Battlestar Galacticas is the same. Following a brutal attack from the Cylons, a war is started between the humans and Cylons. Both series pushed the envelopes of special effects. How the two different writers dealt with this premise is what separates them. 

Created in 1978 by Gene Larson, the original series focused on the human relationships rather than the fight against the Cylons. The Cylons were two dimensional villains represented by lumbering robots called Centurions who were led by Gauis Baltar, a human traitor, and an emperor-like Cylon. The original never explained why Gauis Baltar sided with the Cylons and assisted in the complete destruction of the human race.

The original had few battles with the Cylons. The limited screen time spent on the Emperor and the Centurions presented as stale, robots without any inner conflict. The writers did not allow any development or growth for the characters or storyline. On the human side the story line was a direct reflection of the seventies culture. Instead of focusing on surviving attacks from the cylons the cast seemed to care more about who was dating who and the social structure of new planets. It seemed to me to be a mix of the evil emperor from Star Wars and the planet hopping taken from Star Trek. 

At first, I turned a blind eye to the complexities of the scene as Six (a tall blonde Cylon model) sauntered on screen followed by two sleek Centurions in the pilot of the remake of Battlestar Galactica. She leans back onto the desk, her tight red suit wrapped around her as she looks curiously at the human man sitting in the chair. Cylons haven’t been heard from in forty years. Having never met with a Cylon, let alone one that looks so human, he sits there bewildered.

“Are you human?” she asks, kissing him.

Too distracted by Smallville and other teenage shows, I wasn’t overly impressed. It wasn’t until the first season came out that I began fall in love with the society of the show. It is a society series with a multitude of in depth three-dimensional characters that reveal the motivation on both sides of the war. I have only recently watched the pilot episode of the original series. Although I was impressed by the special effects of the time I was disappointed by the simplicity of the screenplay. Whoever says that a genre can’t mature over time has never seen the drastic difference between these two Battlestar Galacticas.

“The Cylons were created by man.

They evolved.

They rebelled.

There are many copies.

And they have a plan.”

One main difference in the new series is that some of the Cylon models look like humans. By having skin jobs, (as the characters on the show called them), the new creator, Ronald D. Moore, of the new updated Battlestar Galactica were able to pose questions on the human condition. If the enemy looks like you, how do you tell who your enemy is and who your allies are? How do you not turn against each other under small suspicions? When people who you’ve known for years turn out to be another race working to drive humans to extinction, what do you do? How far will you go to protect the human race? And where do you draw the lines in order to say if we are going to survive, we have to remain human and not turn into the enemy? An enemy it turns out was created by humans.

The second major difference in the new Battlestar Galactica was that faith played a major role in the lives of the characters and the plot. Both the humans and Cylons have a structured religion. This may not seem like a big deal, but this is the first syfy series with a focus on religion in the storyline. Both Cylons and humans believe that God has chosen them to be the supreme race. There is a conflict of faiths. The twelve colonies of Cobalt (humans) believe in multiple Gods, similar to Greek Mythology, whereas the Cylons believe in the one true God. This idea of having faith is one of the many layers that this show offers in creating a complex society of survivors traveling through space.

Lastly, the human condition comes through as both species search for a home, a theme as old as Homer. As I watched these characters strive through their many trials and tests across the galaxy to find home, their good traits made me cheer for them and flaws made me angry at them, for struggling to survive. And that paradoxical pull made me appreciate the show even more.

“47,858 survivors

          In search of a home

   Called earth.”

NEXT WEEK'S BLOG:

Firefly and Dollhouse 

When people hear the name Joss Whedon, they think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Avengers. They often miss the adventures of the crew of the Firefly ship and the inner workings of the Dollhouse corporation. Both only made it up to two seasons with Firefly running for fourteen episodes and Dollhouse making it to twenty-seven episodes. They may have had less running time, but they don’t lack in storyline or humor.

“I know something ain't right,” Zoe says, looking out the window of the cockpit.

“Sweetie, we're crooks. If everything were right, we'd be in jail,” Wash says from the pilot’s seat.