I am, for once, jumping on a “news” bandwagon early (for me… I know there are roughly 399+ blogs up already on it). It is difficult to do; my cat thinks my time is better spent contemplating her navel. Despite these setbacks (and meows), I will endeavor to relate the experience of Episode 1 of Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica (BSG).
Battlestar Galactica is (and was) set on a very simple and possibly cliché premise: “—, WE ARE LOST IN SPACE! How do we find home?” Granted, their implementation puts a twist on the concept. They have no home to return to, their first attempt at establishing a new home failed, and they have an uncertain home to find. In the midst of it, they are being chased to their death by their own children, the robotic (the term cyborg seems increasingly more appropriate) Cylons. At the outset of the series, they desired to pursue humanity to its destruction. Contrary to the series’ claim that the Cylon’s have physicaly evolved, both sides have evolved psychologically and sociologically. The Cylon’s have grown “faces” and BSG shows more and more what their side of the story is. At the same time, you see the psychological toll and societal stress on humanity locked in a never-ending war while attempting to maintain some semblance of civilization. Such a simple, cliché premise is used to create an excellent psychodrama and great social, political, and philosophical commentary.
Note: Spoilers ahead…
The evolution continues in Season 4. It does not seek political commentary or much social commentary. It asks the more profound, older, and basic questions. These questions work well with its plot, a nice slide back into the series after a yearlong break (a year of discovering the wonders of Doctor Who). We see at the surface humanity’s struggle for survival. A year ago (a few seconds for the BSG plot), they had jumped into a Cylon ambush and now must hold on for the 20 minutes it takes to warm their hyper-light engines. One ship and 600 people are lost. While a minor point in the battle, the character’s reactions still convey their sorrow, anger, and slight surprise at the loss. You feel the emotion, but you understand that such a loss seems normal and expected. You see the everyday horror they must live with, death and human suffering. They live with it, doing what they can to survive. You dont see what can happen when the emotional toil gets out of hand, as you did in last season’s finale. You do see how it affects their behaivor, views, beliefs, and reactiosn to certain plot points in this (and the previous) episode.
Interspersed, and following, the psychologically gripping battle scenes are profound revelations. First, four well-known crewmembers are revealed to be Cylons. They have little personal time to experience the shock of losing their humanity, duty calls. It is this gram of knowledge they posses, while trying to carry on life normally, that forms the philosophical weight of the episode. The revelation of Cylonhood always has questioned one’s identity and humanity in the series. It was somewhat explored when Sharon was revealed to be a Cylon. Now, because of its late occurrence (only 20 episodes left) and Sharon’s reveal, their revelation explores the question of identity more in depth. The character’s themselves only have enough time and psychological integrity to see the issue and make a snap resolution. The show plays it out as they experience an existential crisis, Saul Tigh faces the horror of being forced to kill his captain and best friend; normal life, Anders must fly a Raptor to defend the BSG fleet from the Cylon ambush; and humanity’s prejudices that arise out of the major plot point of the episode, Starbucks return. They, and the audience, are throughout the episode forced to consider the question, “Does my physical inhumanity invalidate my identity, who I want to be, my humanity?” Furthermore, their now-even-more-tortuous lives begin to ask the Asimov-ian question, “Can we live with robots?” and “Are our prejudices moral?”
This is the brilliance of Battlestar Galactica. The show takes a cliché foundation and a basic survival plot and weds them to a philosophical dialectic, analysis in a format approaching an almost tragedy. It allows the audience to appreciate the show on many levels, from the space battles and space missions to the psychodrama and social commentary. As Kafka would say, ‘It wounds us,’ as well as the characters, which pierces us even more, while Battlestar Galactica provides a steady diet of the staple of Sci-Fi entertainment.
For all those who haven’t watched it yet, I recommend watching it.
