{"id":828,"date":"2011-02-22T05:38:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T05:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=828"},"modified":"2014-06-24T18:17:52","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T17:17:52","slug":"battlestar-galactica-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=828","title":{"rendered":"BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: SEASON 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Television drama rarely specialises in big ideas. Amongst the comfortably circumscribed crises that litter soaps, medical dramas and police procedurals there is little room for questions about religion, identity or politics.<\/h3>\n

Which is what makes the new incarnation of Battlestar Galactica<\/em> (BSG<\/em> \u2013 season two now available on DVD) so unusual. Almost every episode contains some huge issue and BSG<\/em> doesn\u2019t just slip this stuff in under the radar as metaphor \u2013 questions about belief, faith and the nature of humanity are right in the frontline, driving forward the plot every bit as much as the battle between humanity and the Cylons. Most rewardingly BSG<\/em> also contains a satisfyingly complex political streak that is contemporary, engaged and dramatically powerful.<\/p>\n

Comparisons between Glen A Larson\u2019s Battlestar Galactica<\/em> from the 1970s and this modern incarnation are revealing. Larson, a conservative and Mormon, also filled his show with religious and political allegory, but it was one-dimensional. The original BSG<\/em> transposed the writings of the Mormon faith to a futuristic setting but the politics remained firmly rooted in the Cold War. His Cylons were militaristic communists in shiny armour and the battle was simply good versus evil. His human community was wholesome and, apart from a pantomime villain, united.<\/p>\n

The political drama in the modern BSG <\/em>almost entirely derives from the conflict between \u201ccivil rights\u201d and \u201cmilitary necessity\u201d in the show\u2019s fractured, space-faring polis.<\/em> The ensuing struggles are clearly influenced by the ongoing \u201cwar on terrorism\u201d.<\/p>\n

In season two episodes \u201cFragged\u201d and \u201cResistance\u201d Adama\u2019s second in command, Colonel Tigh, suspends the democratic constitution and imposes martial law in an attempt to impose control. The results are predictably disastrous, with Colonial troops shooting unarmed protestors aboard the ship Gideon.<\/p>\n

The \u201cGideon incident\u201d reverberates throughout season two, provoking the need to \u201cmanage\u201d the media and increasing the tension between civilians and the military.<\/p>\n

In \u201cFinal Cut\u201d a journalist, D\u2019Anna Bier (Lucy Lawless) is asked to make a documentary about the \u201chuman face\u201d of the military. D\u2019Anna’s scepticism, she fears that the price of access will be her editorial independence, reflects contemporary concerns about the reliability and credibility of the media under the conditions of war. Throughout the episode the tensions between the freedom of the press and the needs of the military are made plain, though perhaps the episode ultimately disappoints when the final \u201cdocumentary\u201d lets the military off the hook.<\/p>\n

In the Pegasus arc (\u201cPegasus\u201d and \u201cResurrection Ship\u201d parts one and two) high octane space battles play second fiddle to an argument about the importance of civil rights during a military crisis. The discovery of a second surviving Battlestar, the Pegasus, commanded by Admiral Cain (who outranks Adama and who has no qualms about trampling the constitution) causes friction and brings what\u2019s left of humanity to the edge of civil war.
\nPerhaps the most interesting conflict in the Pegasus arc relates to the contrasting way in which Adama and Cain treat their prisoners. Adama is hardly soft on Cylons but Cain has permitted maltreatment and the grossest torture on a captured female Cylon and seems set to do the same to a member of Adama\u2019s crew who has been revealed as an infiltrator. Cain\u2019s attitude to prisoners and her pre-emptory military justice creates a rift between Pegasus and Galactica and results in a fantastically tense \u201cwill they\/won\u2019t they\u201d assassination sequence.<\/p>\n

The question of the continued utility of historic civil rights in the face of a military threat has obvious contemporary associations in the era of the \u201cwar on terrorism\u201d. It is clear that the sympathies of the writers are with Adama\u2019s uneasy democratic compromise rather than Cain\u2019s military dictatorship but BSG<\/em> offers no pat solutions. The military are necessary, their work benefits all, but the maintenance of a balance between their need to act decisively and the needs of a political order to preserve the rule of law has no simple solution.<\/p>\n

BSG<\/em> is much more complex than most contemporary political dramas. The issues it addresses are not presented as simply \u201cright\u201d versus \u201cwrong\u201d but are expressed by characters who are complex, engaging and difficult to pigeonhole.<\/p>\n

The warm, likeable President Roslin, is actually an arch conservative capable of making decisions that would have even Bush Jnr blinking \u2013 opposed to abortion (\u201cThe Captain\u2019s Hand\u201d), courting religious fundamentalism and executing captured Cylons \u2013\u00a0 she still remains the most vocal and influential voice for democracy and the rule of law. Adama, by contrast, appears straightforwardly authoritarian \u2013 he is the face of the military and the voice of authority \u2013 but by the end of the season he is able to see \u201chumanity\u201d in the Cylons, he demonstrates that he will fight to the death to preserve civil liberties and he saves the democratic system when Roslin succumbs to the temptations of expedience. Even the Cylons get complex and plausible characterisation with divisions and beliefs and distinct motivations.<\/p>\n

BSG<\/em> does two very rare things. First, it recognises that while politics is messy, annoying and full of political differences that may be forever intractable, the democratic political process remains crucial to any kind of good society. And, second, it asks the viewer to do a very difficult thing \u2013 to like and respect those with whom you fundamentally disagree. BSG<\/em> contains characters and plot elements that can resonate with or infuriate those on both the left and the right, yet it almost never collapses into a cosy centralism that imagines that everything would be better if people could forget their principles and \u201cjust get along\u201d.<\/p>\n

BSG<\/em> doesn\u2019t offer solutions or manifestos \u2013 indeed it rarely editorialises \u2013 but, at a time when loyalty is demanded and dissent is suspect, this sf show is doing something rather radical \u2013 it is encouraging people to think.<\/p>\n

(Originally published in Matrix <\/em>181, Oct\/Nov 2006)<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Television drama rarely specialises in big ideas. Amongst the comfortably circumscribed crises that litter soaps, medical dramas and police procedurals there is little room for questions about religion, identity or politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,15,10],"tags":[76,43,46,84],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/battlestar_galactica.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-dm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}