Battlestar Etc...
A few additional points that didn’t make it into my Battlestar Galactica article:
Adama holds the show together, and I am thrilled to see a protagonist who is willing to make tough, unpopular decisions and stick to them unapologetically. While I can get behind the tortured hero that’s become so popular in Hollywood these days, it’s great to see a leader who isn’t vilified for making politically divisive decisions – it’s an acknowledgement that sometimes there is no third way, and leaders have to choose an option and live with it.
I’m also impressed by really fine-grained moral shading with which the show sketches the Cylons. Ross Douhat mentioned recently that good drama ought to take the phrase “and everybody meant well” to heart. So the show lets us in on the Cylon’s motivations – God, reproduction, human feeling – and even has the courage to let us identify with some of them. Yet it also never judges Adama or Roslin when they’re willing and ready to take out a life-giving Resurrection ship, killing perhaps hundreds, maybe even thousands of the biological Cylons. The enemy, it willingly admits, isn’t merely some grotesque villain, but that doesn’t for a moment mean that one shouldn’t take every opportunity to wipe them out if that’s what it takes to protect one’s own civilization.
And also, and perhaps most important, 6 (Tricia Helfer) is hot.
Article related update: I've just become aware that the "anarcho capitalist" link in the article goes to the wrong place. No one to blame--just an error. However, it ought to point to this blog by long time anarcho-capitalist theorist David Friedman.
posted by Peter @ 1/20/2006 03:29:00 PM
7 Comments:
The villain is the hero of his own story, they say.
This is repost of an e-mail I sent after reading your very disconcerting piece on NRO praising this terrible show that is little more than the Michael Moore style trashing and destruction of a show that once stood for positive, conservative principles.
E-MAIL REPRINT BELOW
As a long-time fan of the original "Battlestar Galactica" show, which contrary to your characterization as not "terminally cheesy" but was a wonderful epic series that dared to be different with its positive portrayal of faith, and its endorsement of a conservative message, it really disappoints me to see that you have joined Jonah Goldberg in falling for the notion that this is a show that can somehow appeal to conservatives, when in point of fact, this bastardization of a beloved show is nothing more than the most excessive expression of anti-America, and anti-Christian bigotry to ever appeal on television.
I previously wrote Jonah Goldberg on this, and what I said to him I can equally say to you, so rather than retype a new e-mail expressing the same point, here is what I said to him.
"I am very disconcerted to see the continued plugs for that program that has taken the name "Battlestar Galactica" (but which for someone like me is best known as Galactica In Name Only, aka GINO) because as a long-time fan of the original Galactica series (and author of more than two dozen fanfic stories), I and many other conservatives saw the original series as a refreshingly rare case of a program on television that showed sympathy to conservative perspectives on matters of foreign and defense policy as well as religious faith. In short, the very things that one does not find in conventional Hollywood sci-fi where the liberal secularism of a Star Trek is the template.
"By contrast, Ronald D. Moore's "reimagining" has taken a show that was conservative in outlook and replaced it with the most blatant left-wing template I have ever seen in a program.
"For the record, I have watched the pilot miniseries multiple times and the first season episodes once on DVD, but more importantly I've listened to what Ron Moore and his production team has had to say about these things regarding their philosophical approach, so this is not simply the result of some angry fan of the original series (hereinafter referred to as TOS) upset over the failure to see a continuation delivered after 25 years of broken promises and failed expectations. What has come to distress me most as a fan of TOS is to now see a program with the name "Battlestar Galactica" stand for the very opposite of what the original represented.
#1-The nature of the Human-Cylon war. In TOS, the morality of the war between Human and Cylon was simple and stark with no shades of grey relativism. The Cylons were NOT created by man, they were the robotic offshoot of an extinct race of reptiles who waged war against humanity because as Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) summarzied, "They hate us with every fiber of their being......we love freedom, independence, the right to question.....to them it is an alien way of thinking." In short, this is the conservative take on things like World War II, the Cold War and the current War on Terror. The sneak attack by the Cylons that destroys the 12 Colonies comes under the guise of a phony peace settlement to end the Thousand Yahren war between the two races, and is the result of weakness in humanity that put a premium on "peace" with an enemy that one could not reason with over readiness and aggressiveness in waging a just war.
"Ultimately, the memorable two part episode "War Of The Gods" revealed the ultimate reason why the Human-Cylon conflict could not be seen in shades of gray or "try to understand their motives" or "are we really better than them?". In that episode, we see the revelation that the robotic race of Cylons who wage the war were basically created by a man who is revealed to be the Devil himself (Patrick Macnee as Count Iblis). Thus, the Cylons as they exist today are literally the Devil's own creation in a universe where absolutes of Good and Evil do exist in contrast to the usual sci-fi template of moral relativism.
"Now consider GINO. We get in short a view of the Human-Cylon war that could easily be the leftist interpretation of the War on Terror. We get Cylons being created by man and thus driven to their evil as a result of man's actions. We get this Commander Adama in a scene Moore wrote (but cut at the last minute) in the pilot, calling mankind the "flawed creation" and thus suggesting that maybe mankind has not really had the right to claim being on the just side in the struggle. These Cylons might as well be the Hollywood view of Arab terrorists being "driven to terrorism because of what the Israelis did to them". Compared to TOS, this is a view of conflict that frankly repels me.
"#2-The role of religion. TOS was created by a Mormon, Glen A. Larson, and Larson frequently injected aspects of Mormon doctrine into the series (such as a "sealing" ceremony between man and woman and a "Quorum of the Twelve" in the governing Council). The aforementioned Count Iblis character also shed important light on the role of religion and religious absolutes in TOS universe. But at the center, you had Lorne Greene's Adama who was a man of strong faith, and whose belief in the reality of Earth came as a result of his faith and determination. That's a positve role model to look to in stark contrast to the lying duplicitous Adama of GINO, who basically lies about Earth on the grounds that people need something to believe in. The subliminal message of this ultimately is that things people are to put faith in, are usually the result of man-created myths.
"Then we come to the matter of the parallels to our own religions. Because TOS drew heavily from Mormon doctrine, that meant ultimately we had a religious culture that was at its heart monotheistic. The "Lords Of Kobol" that are often referred to in Galactica lingo, are not contrary to Ronald Moore's ignorant proclamations, reflective of a polytheist template, but the equivalent of Catholic Saints, or lesser beings in the overall structure that is monotheistic at the top. On multiple occasions throughout the series Adama uses the word "God" in the singular, as do other characters (indeed, the last episode of TOS, the best one of the series is called "The Hand Of God"). Thus, whatever quibbles one has with certain aspects of Mormon doctrine, those of a traditional Judeo-Christian background could easily feel comfortable with the religious culture of TOS.
"And what does GINO give us? It gives us a culture that first off, strangely emulates present day America in all aspects of culture (dress, language etc) EXCEPT religion. Instead we get polytheism and the Cylons, the evil side that murders are the monotheists proclaiming belief in the "true God" and using phrases from Christian evangelism like "God is love." And Ron Moore himself has admitted that he's trying to use a parallel to the rise of monotheism in our own culture as a template for what he's doing on this, which requires him to resort to a fraudulent premise since the rise of monotheism did not come about as a result of murder and terror, unless Moore thinks that early Christians were "polytheists". In short, Moore is giving us the fraudulent left wing interpretaion of the rise of Christianity in Western Civlization as one might see it from the eyes of a Ward Churchill or some other person who holds such an abiding contempt for the Judeo-Christian foundations of Western culture.
"I won't bother to explain the departures from TOS in terms of characters, plotlines etc. because while they are of importance to me as a diehard TOS fan (it is amusing though to see that the two characters of TOS who were gung-ho macho men, Starbuck and Commander Cain, have been reinvented as women pretending to be men, on the grounds that TOS lacked strong women, which requires Moore to disregard the emergence of a strong female warrior in TOS like Sheba, who was a giant step forward from Lieutenant Uhura the switchboard operator of Trek). But as a conservative, I am frankly puzzled to see this show embraced by someone of impeccable conservative credentials as you are, when this show ultimately is taking a show that *was* conservative in its outlook and reinventing it through a left-wing lens.
Sincerely,
Eric Paddon (Conservative College History Teacher in real life)
Oh dear,
What a shame that we had to get an extended rant from a paid up member of the GINO crowd.
eric paddon:
I consider myself of the right, and in an American context would probably be called conservative or at least a south park conservative, and yet I cannot see how you possibly can come to the conclusion that this show is outrageously left liberal.
First off judging art based solely on it's perceived politcal orientation is completely wrong headed. Just see Stalins edicts on Art that produced unreleived mediocrity, and Hitler's produced gargantuan works of bombastic chintz, or for that matter your own sad and absurd view that a high camp cheeseball science fiction space opera is to be preferred over a brilliant moving honest and ambitious work of art like the current series.
Aside from the manifest absurdity of your critical judgments I simply cannot see how on earth you can see a pro-left agenda in the show. I am sure there are message boards or blogs on the other side of the political spectrum where another sad acolyte of the original show laments it's current fascist, anti liberal, anti-left incarnation, what whith the military focus, a pro death penalty president, it's lamabasting of media excess & etc.
I both cases the problem lies not in your politics per se but your lack of discernnment and critical judgement. You will end up being just ideological shells if you continue like this.
Peter, I loved the review and it is great that this show is garnering the critical acclaim it deserves, in both it's ambition and the degree to which it acheives that ambition I really
Peter, I agree with you that the new Battlestar Galactica series is terrific. It is a naturalistic approach to science fiction, with constant suspense, and the characters come across as real people. However, I also agree with Eric Paddon that the original Battlestar series from the 1970s was unusual in that it took a conservative political view. After the utopianism and "the aliens are not evil, just misunderstood" approach of Star Trek and other science fiction, it was refreshing to have a sci-fi series constantly warning about the danger of appeasement, and how freedom is something that must be fought for.
Excuse me genwolf, but I'd have an easier time taking your comments seriously if there was only a response to the specific points, which you engaged in not once. But don't worry, I don't plan on taking the same approach with regard to your remarks.
"I cannot see how you possibly can come to the conclusion that this show is outrageously left liberal."
Because (1) I'm familiar with the original source material of this program, which is more than I can say for most people who always like to take a gratuitous slam at the orignal series when praising GINO and (2) I simply take Ronald D. Moore at his word when he talks about purposefully making this show his version of 9/11, and purposefully making the whole religous angle of this show his comment on the rise of monotheism in Western Civilization. He's done this on many occasions, and I see little reason why I should be taken to task for taking him at his word on that point, and then seeing that perspective show up in the final end-product.
And as for judging this program by its political content, well sorry but I think that as one of those fans of the original series who waited 25 years to see a continuation, and saw that snatched from us at the last minute because of Ron Moore's screw-job on TOS fanbase (epitomized by his arrogant dissing of TOS fans as those who like that show because of the 70s hair and FX which is a flat-out lie), I think the politics of where this show comes from is fair game when the end result is to take a property called "Battlestar Galactica" and change its thrust from a show that was decidedly sympathetic to the conservative template and replacing it with one that is blatantly left-wing in its approach. From my standpoint, it's no different then being ticked off if one made the recent Narnia movie devoid of any of its Christian allegories.
"I am sure there are message boards or blogs on the other side of the political spectrum where another sad acolyte of the original show laments it's current fascist, anti liberal, anti-left incarnation,"
You'd be wrong actually. Since I'm an active member of a number of Galactica message boards, including one that Ron Moore himself once took part in (in which he rather tellingly took it upon himself to blast anyone who criticized his political slant as a "McCarthyite") that's given me an opportunity to see where the ideological breakdown of fan reaction/sentiment from TOS to GINO generally falls, and in the overwhelming majority its a case of conservatives who saw TOS as a conservative friendly show now turned into a left-oriented show on the critical matters of religion and its approach to conflict and the just-war concept.
Fans of the original (and real) Galactica are not deadheads trapped in a 1970s timewarp. We are people who came to love a program that despite the flaws borne of the age in which it was produced, was a show that at its fundamental core was about decent people of solid moral values, who we came to identify with, and who were part of a struggle that dovetailed perfectly with the conservative mindset regarding the Cold War at that time. That has accounted for the original series' long-term appeal, and seeing that story continued in the improved, modern storytelling features that are possible today, has been the only thing so many of us have waited for with the patience of Job since 1979.
Enter Ron Moore, a person who is not a fan of the original series, has no understanding at all of what it was about, and what made it reasonate with so many, who then turned it into something that is fundamentally not what a show called "Battlestar Galactica" is supposed to be about. "Battlestar Galactica" is not a show about dysfunctional people with soap-opera problems in their personal relationships ripped off from bad movies like "In Harm's Way" and "Midway", nor is it a show in which we see an overobsession with sex and rape as shock value plot points, nor is it a show where the religion closely related to American Christianity is given to the side of the mass murderers and the polytheists are wrongly made the side of Colonial culture.
If Ron Moore wished to come up with this kind of dysfunctional universe to make his social commentary, he should have had the creativity to do it in a purely original concept rather than glom off someone else's work to achieve that (this is why anyone who refers to Moore as the "creator" of Battlestar Galactica is engaging in more than a bit of dishonesty. To "create" means one must devise something entirely from nothing. But Moore alas, took something that was the creation of Glen A. Larson, and instead shaped it to his own ends). For me and so many others, "Battlestar Galactica" refers to one thing only, and that's a show from 1978-79 that deserves more respect and credit for what it accomplished and stood for than it's gotten.
"High camp, cheeseball?" Please. Galactica at its best, in episodes like "Saga Of A Star World", "Living Legend", "War Of The Gods", "The Hand Of God" equaled if not exceeded anything put out by Star Trek or any of its other predecessors in sci-fi TV. And that's the standard by which the original series should be judged by and not by unfairly comparing it to the standards of how TV shows today are made. People who use that epithet, are inevitably the people who too often don't know what they're talking about, when it comes to what the original series was and attempted to be.
1 - The original Battlestar Galactica was cheesy.
2 - Tricia Helfer is hot.
Nuff Said.
To which my comeback is, Anne Lockhart exudes more sex appeal even today than Helfer ever did or will! :)
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