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Why Smart People Love 'Battlestar Galactica'
TV's hottest unreality show is the real thing.
'It's The West Wing in space.'
Robots, low-tech battleships and hot space babes: sounds like a sci-fi B-movie. But somehow, this small, made-in-Vancouver cult TV hit series is seeping into the mainstream.
Why? Apart from predictably attracting sci-fi viewers, fans say it offers the only fresh take on terrorism, religion, gender, abortion, civil liberty, democracy and corporatization to be found on TV. They say it's The West Wing, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under rolled into one.
The sci-fi is only the backdrop, apparently: the soap opera keeps people gossiping and the political allegory is what keeps people coming back.
I've never watched the show. So I asked six über fans to give me, the uninitiated, a guide to the political and emotional lessons available from Battlestar Galactica, just in time for this Saturday's season premiere. What follows are verbatim excerpts from our conversations.
Scott Ian, lead guitar player for Anthrax:
On what got him hooked: The webmaster for Anthrax is a huge fan and he kept raving about it to me in the first season, about how great it was, but I just couldn't get past the title: it's so cheesy. Then he sent me the series on DVD, and he said, just give it 15 minutes, and as soon as I started watching it I was hooked. From the first minute, you see it has nothing to do with the original show except character names.
On info for Battlestar virgins: It's The West Wing in space. It's a searing political drama that just so happens to take place on a spaceship. But for real: take away the fact that they're on a Battlestar and searching for a home. It's what's going on in the world today: deep, dark, brutal politics. I don't have a lot of time to watch TV and it's one of the few shows I watch. It's better than movies.
On Baghdad in outer space: The cylons (robots) are just an allegory for terrorists, or maybe the humans are the terrorists. There are direct parallels with current events, absolutely. There's bombing by the humans in the show, for example. One of the planets is like Baghdad and there's an insurgency and it's pretty much what's going on in the world today. And the cylons are religious fanatics and they're going to get their way no matter what. And I couldn't imagine anybody not catching all these allegories -- the show is just too smart. People aren't just watching because the space battles are really cool. They are, but there's not enough of that for it to just be that kind of show.
On the hot ladies: The fact that they've got a bunch of hot ladies doesn't hurt either. Tricia Helfer is in Maxim and Playboy. She's getting a lot of the uninitiated to watch.
Madeline Stanionis, Internet advocacy and fundraising consultant, and organizer of Frak Party:
On BSG 411: It's about real people like you and me who suddenly thrust into remarkable circumstances and who deal with that incredibly humanly. I love the complicated yet timeless themes of religion, politics, the search for meaning in life: what we're all trying to understand about ourselves and our role on this planet. Many programs are full of action or about a thing that happened; this show is about the experience of being human. No one is good; no one is bad. Good people make bad decisions; bad people make good decisions.
On frak parties, strangers in the house and civil society: Frak parties came about when a couple of friends and I were away on a political retreat having a couple of beers and it turned out we all like BSG. It turns out that everyone we really respect in the world watches this show. So we put together a house party campaign around it, just for fun, and it sort of took off. The idea is that you have a party at your house and invite other fans -- strangers -- over to watch it. There are now over 100 frak parties across the U.S. and Canada for the season premiere, and some of the cast members have found out about it and are coming. I'm a big believer in the way civil society works. We find each other and connect with each other and that leads to more. Sixteen people have RSVP'd and I have no idea who they are. They're going to ring my doorbell and I'm going to let them in and it's going to be great.
Kris Krug, president of Bryght, builds online communities and social software:
On what's dark and sexy: Battlestar is basically a unique sci-fi show that is dramatic and sexy and dark and interesting and not about spaceships and aliens but about humanity and interpersonal relationships and about a lot of interesting existential sociological issues, that just happens to be set in space.
On genocide and abortion: The show deals with some really tough issues which you couldn't deal with if it was set in 2006 on earth -- like genocide and abortion. But if you depersonalize them and take the subjective and take your own feelings out of it, you can be objective and analyze it and enjoy that. There was one recently where abortion was outlawed for the good of humanity, because there were only 40,000 humans left in the world. They decided the good of the group outweighed the individual. And they need everyone to repopulate the world. It twisted my brain. At what point do the rights of the collective supersede the rights of the individual?
On why über geeks are fans: Part of the reason the show blew up so much and appealed to people like me was because the director does a podcast about what's going on, including his thoughts on the daily tapings. And they've had a blog since the beginning. There are lots of online tools that had never been done. They reached out to the tastemakers and got them into it.
On why this blog works: In general, in the blogorati, people who write and talk about that kind of stuff, we're down on character blogs, like the kind they have on Whistler. We think of blogs as being from a human being: it's authentic and discourse based. A character blog is co-opting the tools of blogging to do marketing. So good luck with that. I'm sure it will be a cool online project. But that's not the same as the director of Snakes on a Plane blogging about the title change, or hearing from the crew and real people. Now if the guy from Whistler was blogging about the Ross Rebagliati thing, that's what I'd want to read. That's where they're going to get big people to link to them.
On Battlestar Aggregatica: For the last year, I've been running a superpowered aggregator on the Internet that monoitors everything to do with Battlestar Galactica, fraks, cylons, all the actors, you name it.
On where he'll be: I'm going to my buddy Bob's house. My friend AJ plays Mr. Gata on the show and he's coming over.
Dawn Buie, director of web technology, TheTyee.ca:
On community in space: I liked Star Trek as a youngster because I fanaticized about being part of the crew. Although Battlestar Galactica is light years more advanced than Star Trekfor showing real human drama, I’m still attracted to that similar sense of the main characters being part of a team. They rely on each other; everyone has a place. Of course, in Battlestar Galactica, doing your job well usually means some one lives, and failing means you or others die, and since there are only 40,000 humans left, that’s a big burden. But it is shared.
On female leaders: I find the female president really fascinating. She suffers behind the scenes, but doesn’t reveal that. She makes people feel comfortable and cares about them but also lays down the law. When she’s made a decision, it’s to be abided by, even when it’s a bad decision. There’s a discussion in the show about what power is, who should be in power, how they should act. I think their assertion is that you have to have someone in power. Life on the Battlestars (Galactica and Pegasus) are modeled after life in the army. Two of the writers served in the US army and the show gets kudos from military people who say the depiction is accurate. The show explores our love hate relationship with our leaders, and the importance and danger of creating social order.
On low tech sci fi: I love how on the Battlestar none of the computers are networked and they use phones with coil chords. This is so the Cylons -- who are machines –- cannot infiltrate the system as easily. This prohibition forces the humans to come up with simple solutions, using the tools at hand. This reminds me of how some open source software like Linux is way better than an operating system designed by a company with vast resources, like Microsoft. The Cylons could take down a Windows operating system in a millisecond.
C. Michael Campbell, science fiction writer, just finished first novel-length manuscript, Jackson Orange:
On why BSG is better than movies: A series has the luxury to meander through character development whereas in a novel, it must be more concise because few will read or publish 1000+ page books of a fictional narrative, which is unfortunate.
On the problem of sci-fi: One of the problems with most sci-fi is there's too much leaning on technology. When writers create technology for sci-fi, it's usually a prototype for something that's actually in the works now. Decades later, people realize that won't work, then the show loses its believability. That's why it's good this show is so low-tech.
Dave Gowans, lead singer of The Buttless Chaps:
On soap in space: I've always liked sci-fi. But my partner has never been a sci-fi fan at all. And she loves it. I think it's converted a lot of people over because it's just like other really good adult soap operas like Six Feet Under. They leave you hanging and you want to know what happens next.
Vanessa Richmond is the managing editor of The Tyee. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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50
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darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
Comments on "Why Smart People Love 'Battlestar Gallactica'&
How do these people get defined as smart?
A bit self indulgent to name your own director of web technology, isn't it? Grammar like this:
" some open-source software like Linux is way better than an operating system designed by a company with vast resources"
doesn't support your assertion.
And the lead guitar player of Anthrax -- just because he's willing to destroy his hearing in exchange for fame doesn't make him smart.
billy pilgrim
5 years ago
it took me a while to get into this series but it was worth the effort.
the good doctor is the best villain on tv.
nightbloom
5 years ago
I can’t get enough of thisnew re-conceived Battlestar Galactica series. Just when the sci-fi genre appeared to have exhausted itself from the endless run of glossy utopian Star Trek series’, this gritty cinema verité reincarnation of the old ‘70s classic has hit the screens to breathe new life into science fiction (an underestimated genre). Networks outside the U.S. were initially slow to realize its popularity (even though it's filmed in Canada), making it for a time the most downloaded show on the internet.
The changes to the original plotline and cast of characters are brilliant. The reconception of Starbuck as a woman has proven to be a stroke of genius, notwithstanding initial resistance from diehard fans of the original Dirk Benedict character. The dramatic tension between the civilian president (Laura Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell) and the military leader (Admiral William Adama, played by Edward James Olmos) provides a striking counterpoint for modern real-world dilemmas in civil-military relations. The new generation of Cylon has been reinvented as the bio-engineered prodigal child of humanity, which has evolved away from the original robotic “toaster†models into human simulacra who suffer uniquely human internal dramas – Love, Mortality, God, Vengeance, Legitimacy, Hatred, Fanaticism, Alienation – all these are now deeply felt signposts and obstacles in the Cylon quest to forge a destiny of their own, much like the human protagonists themselves. The eerie alikeness that the producers/writers/actors have created between the 'us' and the 'them' is a work of small-screen genius.
The most striking characters for me are the women: the maternal but tough-as-nails President ("Blow it out the airlock"), the dysfunctional crackerjack pilot and self-destructive party-girl Starbuck, and the humanesque Cylons "Number Six" and "Sharon", who are so enthralled by their neo-human passions, impulses and weaknesses that it totally fcks them up. I like the idea that the Cylons succeeded too well when they sought to create improved versions of their human creators. Then there's the ongoing sub-theme revolving around talk of predestination, souls, immortality, and who is really the legitimate and favoured child of "the gods" - the human "Cains" or the Cylon "Abels". It's a lot like the ongoing subtext of the real-world news on any given day, but without hitting the viewer in the face with it. Very good entertainment.
grouchomarks
5 years ago
Of course, the very smartest people know that it's spelled 'Galactica'.
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
hahahahahahahahahahahah
Bang on, groucho, bang on.
Vanessa Richmond
5 years ago
Thanks for pointing out the typo. It's been corrected.
skeptikool
5 years ago
Have not yet seen an episode but certainly will if my lack of cable allows.
From what I've read here, the series seems innovative in getting around taboo topics. It was this feature that attracted me to All in the Family.
I wonder how, if available, one gains access to previous episodes.
Elliot
5 years ago
i'll watch it if the blonde's front and center.
Rhea
5 years ago
Previous eps (season 1, season 2 and the miniseries pilot) are all available on DVD. That was how I got into it...I haven't watched ANY TV shows since Star Trek when I was a kid, and I was instantly hooked. I still won't get cable just for a single show, but you can also get the episodes on iTunes.
scifi.com also has tons of info, including trailers and a free complete downloadable episode from mid-Season 2 (Scar).
skeptikool
5 years ago
Thanks for that info, Rhea.
Frank
5 years ago
Ah yes, Playboy playmates in space exploring the deep questions. Is there anything they can't show us?
Canucks and Red Wings at 4:00 on CBC for those really interested in finding meaning in their lives.
Coyote
5 years ago
Ahhh, the vacuousness of the new look, young successful's Tyee, "The Tame One." :-) However you spell it.
I think I'll go watch some paint dry. :-)
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Touche, Coyote, touche.
You've always had a soft spot for the sacred feminine haven't you nightbloom?
Interesting threads and discussions closed down after a day or two, what's actually going on here?
Moosebeer
5 years ago
Do smart people really waste their time watching the idiot box?
Steve P
5 years ago
No -- we rent dvds to watch shows without commercials.
thomas49
5 years ago
Seems to me everyone likes those outer space travels,whether the stories are cheap Dr Who tv shows or glitzy movie pyro technics from hollywood.
Now as to IQ levels ... i beleve you have to suspend belief to get a good ride,so what does intelligence level have to do with anything BORN OF FANTASY ?
My faves are still The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and Red Dwarf ,neither,glitzy,but better written than most of the CRAP that invades our top selling/renting lists.
Does being a smarter viewer mean you can vacate your brain faster when you sucuumb to the plotline or the pyrotechnics...or does it mean you need a couple of tokes to really get into the show ?
Excuse me while i fire up a fattie and watch Bladerunner again...
AH ! ESCAPISM...my favorite ISM .
TyeeModerator
5 years ago
Thanks for the great review Tyee. I'm a fan of BSG too.
I wonder - who are these annoying old guys who feel the need to insult ever Tyee article that isn't geared toward their personal interest? Fairly intolerant LOL's I'd say: Lonely Old Lefties.
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
oh yes, incidentally...I am a big fan of the new Galactica. I think it's exceptionally well written by teh standards of modern television.
I just don't think that there's a direct correlation that says:
Smart == BSG good
nor, and this seems to be one of this article's thrusts, does
I watch BSG == Smart.
Coyote
5 years ago
Mary Jane?
What's her real name, Alcibiades? You know the one who writes for Tyee and seems to have the "inside track" with the head honcho.
I'll never forget...., what's her name?
EDITED FOR SEXIST CONTENT. Please commenters, let's raise the tone above base, personal insults. TYEE EDITOR
mightyfastpig
5 years ago
I remember the original BSG from my childhood, and even then I noticed they were using the same stock footage over and over.
The new BSG borrows very little from the original, beyond the title and the basic premise. Instead of Biblical myth and "ancient astronauts" theories, it's based on the current war on terror and the fear that our technology will create something smarter than we are.
After the blandness of 18 years of Star Trek spin-offs, it's great to see a vision of humanity that is imperfect, conflicted, sexual, religious, and often driven to do unpleasant things just to survive.
Add tight writing, lots of mysteries and plot twists, beautiful spaceship sequences and more, and it's just a treat.
Frank
5 years ago
Oh I love this quote. I think I got smarter just reading it. Cylons are terrorists man. And playboy bunnies are just an allegory for mother nature man. I don't know why I bother with books, magazines and documentaries about the real world when I could've saved myself some serious time by watching robot bunnies in space.
Hey Mary Jane, I'm glad you like your show. Everyone needs entertainment, but I don't tell myself Naslund is an allegory for the U.N. or that watching Luongo makes me smart. Nor do I see Righties whose education stopped right after they learned to spell "booger" hold back from commenting on threads about gov't finances or Afghanistan. So being as everyone else feels free to comment on whatever they like, I'll do the same thanks. Enjoy your robots.
off-the-radar
5 years ago
It's a great tv show: a rare combination of exploring human character and moral conflict and very entertaining.
Sometimes tv can be fun (and life). Lighten up coyote, :-).
Coyote
5 years ago
Okay, as soon as I stop laughing.
Good write, Frank.
Ohhhh, hell. This piece, indeed all of them is so much fluff, I can't be bothered.
Nighty night, robots. LOL :-)
"Lighten up...".
Chuckling. Yea, okay.
Tyee, "The feisty one." 8-D ROFLMAO.
Gerhardius
5 years ago
Smart == BSG good
nor, and this seems to be one of this article's thrusts, does
I watch BSG == Smart.
The title of the piece seems to be lifted from a 50's marketing primer:
Why smart people love Winstons
Why smart people love Lucy
Why smart people love Liberty
The structure is an effort to imply that those who use/view etc product X are somehow better, in this case smarter, than those who use/view brand Y. This removes the need for the vacuous to apply any discrimination in their tastes as long as they can identify with a label like smart. The nice part about it is that they feel affirmed when seeing a sentence like the title.
Myriad pieces could be done using this template: ask a half-dozen people who like something why it is so bitchin' and tack on an brief introduction. The format is perfect for an in-flight or entertainment magazine.
Wow! That is a fascinating insight, but how would they fare against the non-open source *nixes? How about OS X? The core is open source but OS X itself is not. This reminds me of how some open source groups like Hezbollah are way better than a military with vast resources like the IDF. The Cylons could take down Israel in a millisecond.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
That would be, Coyote, (Ms) Shannon Rupp.
murdock
5 years ago
just for off-the-radar:
Theatre is life.
Film is art.
and;
TeleVision is furniture.
murdock
5 years ago
I agree coyote, interesting threads are being stopped in mid-discussion while 'safe' subjects, like great TV are left alive to 'bubble-away'
jordo
5 years ago
I love BSG. I think it appeals to smart people because of how it tackles tough issues that affect us all. In fact I tend to focus on Battlestar on my blog at:
http://www.ewebtvworld.com
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
This:
reminds me of people's inability to separate reality from TV. The cylons couldn't take down a Windows operating system in a millisecond...because the cylons aren't real!
The assertion that open source is better than windows is a meaningless assertion without specific details. While I generally prefer BSD based Unix systems (specifically FreeBSD) this isn't because "Windows sucks" it's because it suits my purposes substantially better.
MetisGirl
5 years ago
What, the cylons aren't real! ;-)
I just became hooked on BSG. As to the "TV is furniture" folks, lefties can't be interested in popular culture?! Pop culture is fascinating is one of the best zeitgeist indicators out there.
ModernSerf
5 years ago
Never a disappointment folks. Once again the comments have surpassed the article.
LOL (Learned old Lefty)
LOL (Laughing out Loud)
Leslie Smith
5 years ago
Boston Globe, now them people must be smart.
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/10/05/moral_dilemmas_pulled_into_battlestar_galaxy/
thomas49
5 years ago
Small wonder todays geniuses don't vote !
They are blogging their big brains out teaching old lefties what is IMPORTANT in life...BATTLESTARGALACTICA...ooooooohhhhh
nightbloom
5 years ago
I just watched the third season premier - it's definitely a show with a message. It doesn't get any more topical than that - insurgencies and suicide bombers and puppet governments - Maybe some of ninnies on this thread might actually want to try it before they judge it. But then again, some people make it their business to offer instant and uninformed opinions on everything. For television, it's a terrific show, and a cut above a lot of the other stuff. Credit where credit's due.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
sez nightbloom, describing himself!
nightbloom
5 years ago
If you say so, although if you check out my opinion up top, that's not what I've done here.
I'm not going to get into it with you guys here, but in general you might want to be a little less negative in your posts, Alcibiades. Just a friendly observation.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
When I read something positive, as I just did on the women in politics thread, I post a positive response. It doesn't happen often, sadly.
But have a good holiday nightbloom, bonne chance!
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
Just about finished watching the Galactica season premiere. Excellence continues...well written...huzzah.
I'm not sure the fact that I watched it makes me smart. I though the fact that I was smart did that.
Leslie Smith
5 years ago
taken from this unlikely source:
http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/9568.htm
Watching Battlestar Galactica from the Middle East.
You think that this show is having an impact? It remains to be seen if the stellar writing can be sustained but it is nice to know that TV can still have a few gems.
Kerrisdale Frak
5 years ago
One word captures why women like Battlestar Gallactica:
Adama.
nightbloom
5 years ago
Agreed, but which one? There's an Adama to appeal to each age group... the Admiral Adama character certainly re-incarnates an old masculine archetype (one in much need of reincarnation, at that). The younger Adama is an interesting character too - they're taking him in a new direction this season, it seems. It's almost a sacrilege to pack the pounds onto a body that perfect, but I guess it's for the sake of character development. And Starbuck has a massive lesbian following - like no one saw that comin'!
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Do you mean 'a' massive lesbian watches the show, nightbloom?
To write of a 'massive' lesbian following seems a contradiction in terms, vague and largely meaningless.
Perhaps you need to push back from the tube a bit and get out into the fresh fall air. I watched the thing, derivative and largely much ado about nothing - in my view. I won't be watching again - mordantly self-aware people and their TV programs are boring in the extreme.
Colin
5 years ago
Haven’t really watched it much, got fed up with the constant infighting that Hollywood seems to feel that is always needed. According to some very serious fans who post comments about this show, is that the Cylons are trying to “save†humanity by remaking them. Unless BSG is on Treehouse I won’t be watching much of it.
nightbloom
5 years ago
Alcibiades said:
Uh, Alcibiades? Perhaps you need to come up with your own material and stop mouching off others'. You're negative and uninteresting.
haraldkann
5 years ago
Geez,nightbloom ! That has never stopped you before .
Has the Tryptophan knocked you for a loop? this Thanksgiving .
Are you a TRYPTOFAN and just overindulging ???
GET WELL SOON
nightbloom
5 years ago
No turkey for me this weekend - never been big on it. Besides, since giving up drugs I never need to supplement my serotonin precursors, thank you very much. I spent most of the long weekend in transit. I did get sum great bangers 'n mash at the Earl of Sussex tho. Even better than Doolins.
Thanx 4 asking tho...Now would you like to comment on the article or did you just stop by to pass gas...?
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
Can't wait for that spin-off and The Tyee's article about how smart toddlers watch it.
:)
darcy.mcgee
5 years ago
Oh yeah, for a preview of what that Treehouse version might look like, see this cartoon version of a Cylon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFj5WoRJxwY
Colin
5 years ago
Thanks Darcy, I missed that one!!!
Or: Franklin’s new friend the Cylon, who comes to dinner.
Of course mighty machines could feature the Basestar
And the soundtrack for Dora the cylon would sound about the same, except you can add the words: “you will comply†repeated ad nauesum.
haraldkann
5 years ago
I would think thou art the GASEOUS one son...after the bangers and mash.I know that dish usally kills me.
And commenting on a subjective venue like TV is like personal tastes,ala bangers and mash versus turkey.
I like em both,but is one really going to make me smarter?Or is one going to boost my EGO ?
Actually,after watching certain shows i just feel like someones been trying to sell me something...ever count the COMMERCIALS on really popular shows ???
Now that is when i feel smarter and my ego is really boosted.