Battlestar Galactica: The Mini-Series

BSG’s miniseries from the beginning demonstrates the mantra that everything is cyclical—what is happening now, has happened before, and will happen again. The Twelve Colonies created Cylons, a robotic race meant to make life easier for humanity; the Cylons rebelled and a civil war ensued. An armistice was reached and the war ended, with the Cylons leaving to find their own world. That was forty years ago. The mini-series opens with the Cylons’ return with a vengeance, to annihilate humanity and take over their world.

The human genocide is juxtaposed to the decommissioning ceremony of the Battlestar Galactica, a ship that fought in the war forty years ago. Commander William Adama’s (Edward James Olmos) speech is poignant considering what all was happening to his world unbeknownst to him:

The Cylon War is long over, yet we must not forget the reasons why so many sacrificed so much in the cause of freedom. The cost of wearing the uniform can be high, but…sometimes it’s too high.

You know, when we fought the Cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction. But we never answered the question, why? Why are we as a people worth saving? We still commit murder because of greed, spite, jealousy. And we still visit all of our sins upon our children. We refuse to accept the responsibility for anything that we’ve done. Like we did with the Cylons. We decided to play God, create life. When that life turned against us, we comforted ourselves in the knowledge that it really wasn’t our fault, not really. You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you’ve created. Sooner or later, the day comes when you can’t hide from the things that you’ve done anymore.

As the Cylons destroy his world, Adama publicly reasons why humanity is worth saving. Again, harkening to the cyclical theme, he reminds us that despite going through a war forty years ago that almost destroyed his world, they still murdered because of egocentricity, they still model these negative human traits for their children, and yet, they don’t acknowledge that what they do is wrong. While Adama is speaking to his own world in what is supposed to be galaxies away, he speaks to us in our own daily lives. Right? That’s one of the beauties of the Science Fiction genre that I have come to enjoy. While messages and meanings are cast in what is supposed to be a whole other world, time, state of being, these messages are fables for our own lives. Adama points to the mires of self-centeredness as individual people and as a community; in order to shirk responsibilities, we point our fingers to everyone else, that these problems are their fault. Ultimately, however, “the day comes when [we] can’t hide from the things that [we]’ve done anymore.” This point is so important that the Commander repeats it to the Cylon Leoben at the rearmament station in the second part of the miniseries.

Ultimately, the day comes when we realize our sins and misgivings, when we realize the wrongs we have done. What have we as a society created that we ultimately cannot hide from? Environmental/Ecological problems (i.e. clear-cutting, pollution, fossil fuels, etc.) and homophobia (othering any other group or person who is not like us) immediately come to my mind. I’m sure you have many other ideas that come to yours. There are more personal creations what we will have to reconcile ourselves with, too (patience, anger, time-management, involvement in philanthropic associations, drinking, etc.).

With the world’s destruction, with being chased in a deadly cat-mouse game, with the loss of everything and everyone they know, something has to be given to this ragtag fleet of people to give them hope, give them a reason to keep running, give them a reason to live.

While the new President, Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), points to the mission of humanity as needing to run, escape the Cylons, and procreate in order for humanity to continue, it isn’t until Adama sees the young couple (Billy and Dualla) talking in the CIC when the real point is driven home to him. He cannot take the remnants of humanity back into battle where they are outnumbered and face certain annihilation for their sins. He realizes that the President is right, that they need to move on, look to the future, and look to saving the future children of humanity.

This leads us to the Commander’s revelation that he knows where legendary and scripturally founded Earth is, a deeply guarded secret handed from one Commander to the next, which no one else knows about. Their new mission is to find the 13th Tribe that inhabits a planet in a solar system far, far away.

Roslin confronts Adama about this story, that she believes it is a hoax. He confides in her that he really doesn’t know where Earth is, but he admits that it is “not enough to just live, you have to have something to live for.” There has to be a point to living, to surviving, to going through the hell that these people are destined to live through for the next several years. The French Cardinal Francois de la Rochefoucauld’s words couldn’t be ring true according to how the fleet survives: “we promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.” The fear of destruction and survival keep the fleet moving day by day; the hope of finding a better place and of starting over with a better life becomes the means for living.

By Way of Introduction

Hi! Thank you for stopping by. This is my first posting on this blog site, so I just want to outline what I hope to do here, in this tiny parking space of the cyber parking lot. As one who has been very involved in the nuts and bolts of planning for both traditional and contemporary worship services, I found that I was frustrated with the lack of resources tying contemporary, secular media to the Christian life. I am a strong believer that there is something sacred in everything—that everything in our world is or can be in some way touched by the divine, by God; it could be something, someone, or a situation that speaks to us, inspires us to be better people, or it could be something that demands a response from us to make a difference through compassion for the world around us.

While I was serving as a minister, I simply didn't have the time and energy to keep up with all of the current movies and television shows, though I tried! Now I have twins and am fortunate to be able to stay home with them for a few years and, during their nap times and in between laundry and keeping up with the house, I can hopefully provide some resources for others about contemporary, secular media.

I watch secular media, a lot of it, through the lens that searches for the sacred in the secular. I'll post my thoughts on movies and television shows, among other things, and how they can relate to the Christian life, the life that is meant to be lived in love and compassion for the world, for all of humanity.

One of my first tasks is to watch a popular Science Fiction show Battlestar Galactica, which will begin its fourth season early next year. This is a show I enjoy and since it has a long hiatus, this will help me to wait out the next seven or so months. I plan to go episode by episode and blog my views of how it takes on theological points—it's a really interesting show that I would recommend you to watch! It has received a lot of good press, won the Peabody in 2006, and several big journals (like Newsweek) have called it the best show on television. I just pretty much stumbled across it this Spring. You can find out more about this show from scifi.com (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/about/show/) and more background about the show will be posted in this blog. But, don't worry—I'm going to be watching other things, too! So, I'll blog about them.

Hopefully, this little site will provide some inspiration to consider secular media in worship planning, so that parishioners will have a model so that they can see the sacred in the secular.