Battlestar Galactica: "You Can't Go Home Again"

Starbuck is shot down by a Cylon Raider and abandons ship on a hostile planet. She seeks shelter in the downed raider and discovers that it is a living organism. She figures out how to fly it and makes her way back to Galactica. Meanwhile, a father-son drama unfolds on Galactica as Adama and Apollo have launched a dangerous rescue mission and are trying to find Starbuck. When Roslin finds out that they are risking the rest of the fleet and the survival of humanity, she takes them to task guiding to realize that they are obsessed with clinging onto the last connection they may have to Zak Adama.

After this conversation with Roslin, on their way to CIC, Apollo continues his thoughts with his father:

Apollo: I want you to know, I think she’s wrong. I think we have
some to terms with what happened to Zak.
Adama: I
haven’t.
Apollo: I need to know something: Why did you do
this? Why did we do this? Is it for Kara? For Zak? For
what?
Adama: Kara was family. You do whatever you have to
do. Sometimes you break the rules.
Apollo: And if it was me down
there instead?
Adama: You don’t have to ask that.
Apollo: Are
you sure?
Adama: If it were you…we’d never leave.

While this conversation, in fact this entire episode, doesn’t have an overt religious references, this scene is a good one for sermon illustration of God never leaving us alone, never abandoning us. At times we may feel abandoned, but actually we may have been the one doing the abandoning. God will not leave us, but will keep searching for us.

What Adama seems to be doing in this continuation of the previous episode is an Act of Contrition. His last conversation with Starbuck did not end well, as she admitted putting his unqualified son in the cockpit of a viper that ultimately killed him. Understandably, Adama was angry…furious. He basically kicked Starbuck out of his quarters. Now, seemingly sorry for how he left things with this sort of adoptive daughter, he looks for her, risking everything and everyone to find her.

As the fleet is about to leave, a lone raider appears. Lee tries to engage it but it outmaneuvers him until he is able to see its underbelly—Starbuck has written her name on it. Adama and Starbuck reconcile.

Battlestar Galactica: "Act of Contrition"

When I go on vacations, especially when I am in Europe, I have a habit of visiting churches. I picked up a card in one cathedral (I don’t know which one). On one side is a copy of a painting of Jesus holding a lamb on his lap with one hand and holding a staff with his other hand. On the other side, it is printed:

Act of Contrition—O My God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I
detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell,
but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving
of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess
my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

The Act of Contrition is a prayer, recited by the penitent during the Latin Rite Roman Catholic sacrament of Confession. This prayer (and various forms of this prayer) is used throughout not only the Catholic Church, but in some Protestant churches and denominations, as well.

The title of the fourth episode of Battlestar Galactica is appropriately “Act of Contrition” and largely deals with Starbuck’s grappling with the accidental death of her fiancé, who also happened to be Commander Adama’s son and Lee Adama’s brother. She is left in charge of training some new “nuggets,” recruits to become sort of replacement pilots after a terrible accident killed a dozen or so on the flight deck. This training task surfaces painful memories of Zak Adama’s death, for which Starbuck feels responsible since she had passed him for Basic Flight despite knowing he didn’t have the chops to be a Viper pilot. She is overly harsh and critical of the nuggets’ first day performance and flunks them all. A mix-up in communication between Commander Adama and Apollo leads to the Commander to calling Starbuck to his cabin to discuss Zak’s death and ultimately finding out what she did for Zak, resulting in a seriously strained relationship.

Adama’s cabin becomes a confession booth and this conversation becomes one of confession:

Adama: He said something else. That you might have been feeling
guilty about something you did for Zak. What did you do for
him?
Starbuck: I don’t know. You’d have to ask
Lee.
Adama: I’m asking you.
Starbuck: Well I don’t kn-…I, ah…I
don’t really know what he was talking about, so…
Adama: Don’t fence
with me, Kara. I love you like a daughter. I don’t deserve
that.
Starbuck: Ummm…Zak…failed…Basic Flight. He wasn’t a bad
pilot; he just had no feel for flying…and, um, when it came to his final check
ride he…busted…three of the test maneuvers, and I should have flunked him, but I
didn’t. The bottom line is your…son…didn’t have the chops to fly a
Viper…and it killed him.
Adam: (following a flashback) You did it
because you were engaged.
Starbuck: (breaking down) Because I made a
mistake…because I was just…I was so in love with him…and I let that get in the
way of doing my job…and um, and he um, he just wanted it so much, and I…I didn’t
want to be the one who crushed him…
Adama: Reinstate the trainees to
flight status.
Starbuck: I will…but I just want you to understand…that
I…
Adama: Do your job.
Starbuck: Yes sir…
Adama: And
walk out of this cabin…while you still can…

Adama receives her confession with clear anger in his eyes, but pushes her forward, forcing her to reinstate the nuggets and train them for flight status, forcing her to move past her deep feelings of guilt into penance. When Starbuck is dismissed, her reaction is as that of one who has lost heaven, who has offended her father figure. It seems that she needs to forgive herself in order to move on in her life and what she does to forgive herself, what she does to move on in her life, is her job correctly—be a good teacher for the new recruits. It’s an opportunity to start new as their teacher.

During a training exercise with the nuggets, a Cylon Raider shows up and attacks Starbuck and the nuggets. She orders everyone back to Galactica, while she stays to face the entire patrol by herself. However, one of the nuggets, “Hot Dog,” stays to help her. Starbuck’s viper is damaged during the dog fight and sent hurtling towards a nearby planet out of power and out of control, along with the last surviving raider that was damaged.

Another interesting theological point during this episode happens when Roslin consults with Dr. Cottle about her cancer. He tells her that her cancer has advanced beyond surgery and suggests a traditional treatment that is similar to our chemotherapy and radiation. She asks him if he has heard of an alternative treatment. “You mean prayer?” he asks rather sarcastically. She suggests an herbal treatment. When he acquiesces, he still suggests to her as he leaves her partition that she consider prayer as part of her treatment. I find it interesting and very real that the doctor/scientist is the one who suggests a faith avenue.

Battlestar Galactica: "Water"

Sharon Valerii, a.k.a. “Boomer,” awakens in a tool room, but has no idea of how she got there. Dripping wet and disoriented, she finds explosives in her duffle, a discovery that chills her later with the explosion of Galactica’s water tanks, a devastating set back for the whole fleet, all of which depends on Galactica for its water supply. President Roslin and Commander Adama work to keep order on the ship and in the fleet, try to figure out just what may have happened, and put the rest of the fleet on a smaller supply functionality until balance is restored; however, Sharon still has no idea what happened to her. The crew (mainly Chief) has some differing opinions on her role, or lack thereof, in the explosions.

The interesting issue that begins to unravel in this episode is not necessarily an overtly theological one—no high concept theological discussion about the nature of God. But Sharon begins to realize that she has had some blackouts and that she possesses explosive devices. While she finds these devices in her possession and evidence points to her having been in the water tanks, she hides this knowledge. Later, after she sees the one unaccounted explosive device on her raptor next to her seat, she still does not report it to anyone except her boyfriend, the Chief, who protects her.

The most interesting part of this plotline is her struggle to turn from the “dark side” of her soul in the raptor. It seems like there are two parts of Sharon: the Cylon killer robot, who is programmed to destroy the human fleet; the human sympathizer, who at the very least wants peace for humanity. Interestingly, she pilots a raptor whose mission is to find water and restore the water supply, rectify the wrong she did. When they do find water, her computer notes it, but she has trouble announcing its findings. Instead, it seems that she is programmed to destroy their raptor, rather than share her findings. The struggle is intense, but the sympathizer part of Sharon wins and she is able to pull away from the explosive device and announce her findings, thereby in a sense rectifying part of her earlier wrong by replenishing the fleet’s water supply.

The scene with her struggling to do what is right is poignant, showing how excruciating it can be to go against what we have been perhaps “programmed” to do. I think of the times when I have been in the minority speaking out against an issue or decision. It would be so easy to just go with the mob; to not really have to think and to be a part of a club. But, how easy would it be to live with that decision to go against your conscience, go against what you think is right? Tomorrow or years from tomorrow that decision to go against your scruples will eat at your heart and, like that ancient fig tree, your heart will wither and not bear fruit.

Sharon’s character (for that matter, all of the Sharon models) is interesting to watch through the series.

Battlestar Galactica: "33"

Survivors: 50298 (Billy's statements about how there were "some over counts" make this number's accuracy questionable.)

Basically, this episode is about endurance, surviving on no sleep. The Cylons appear every thirty three minutes to attack the fleet; the fleet is prepared to spin up their FTL drives and runs away before the Cylons can destroy them; the clocks are then reset for thirty three minutes, when the Cylons will appear and the cycle starts over, again. So, no one is getting any rest, as everyone is on high alert to engage their enemy every 33 minutes.

On board Colonial One, Gaius Baltar has waking dreams of Number Six back at his house on Caprica. It’s these dreams that are loaded with theological baggage, that gave me pause and I had to sit back and think about them. “God has a plan for you, Gaius. He has a plan for everything and everyone.” What a statement! Something that I hear over and over from some who do not understand the ramifications of what they are saying. It’s something that at times I wish I could believe—it would be easy to blame God if something doesn’t go the way I hoped it would, easy to find refuge in an organized plan in a seemingly irrational universe; but, this is a statement I have seen destroy some who cannot understand why God would “take” their child who drowned in the family pool, or the young, brilliant mother who died from cancer and left her four children , or the baby who was shot in his mother’s arms in a drive-by shooting, or the earthquake that buried thousands of people in Central America, or the tsunami that wiped away whole towns, or the hurricane that destroyed several cities, not to mention human against human atrocities, such as the Holocaust—how can we explain that these terrible things were part of God’s plan, according to the Christian Gospel?

Baltar tells Number Six that he believes in a world he can understand, “a rational universe, explained through rational means.” Number Six then tells Baltar, “I love you. That’s not rational.” “No, but you’re not rational. You’re also not really here. Neither am I.” Baltar takes the opposite view of Number Six. Being the scientist, his “god” is reason, a collection of theorems and equations that all balance together and make sense of the universe. Isn’t this what we look for in our world? When things don’t go as we think they should go, when we’re fired from our job of 40 years, when we’re stuck in a traffic jam, when our child dies, when we hit financial crisis, we try to find some solace in a rationalization of why these terrible things happen to us and around us. So often there are no rationalizations that can explain these events. And it doesn’t seem right that a compassionate, loving God would make such horrible things part of a divine plan.

After the next jump, Baltar experiences another waking dream with Number Six. “Do you want children, Gaius? Procreation is one of God’s commandments. I want us to have a child.” He wakes up from this dream/hallucination when he hears Billy mention the name Dr. Amarak. Billy says Amarak has “uncovered important information regarding how the Cylons were able to defeat Colonial defenses.” An alarmed Baltar says that he used to work with him at the Ministry of Defense. He is noticeably worried and suggests that he speak to him instead of Billy, but Billy replies, “I think he wanted to speak directly with the President. Sounded urgent.” Roslin instructs Billy to bring him on board after the next cycle.

Unfortunately, it is with the next cycle, the late-to-arrive Olympic Carrier is thought to have been infiltrated in some way by the Cylons, is loaded with nukes and headed directly towards the fleet. The conversation Baltar has with Number Six when he learns this news is compelling:

“God’s watching out for you….” Number Six tells Baltar, “Dr. Amarak posed a
threat to you. Now he’s gone. Logic says there’s a
connection.”
“A connection, maybe, but not God. There is no God or
gods, singular or plural. There are no large invisible men (or women for
that matter) taking a personal interest in the fortuned of Gaius Baltar.”
“Be
careful. That which God gives he can also take away.”

In the meantime, the Olympic Carrier continues to head toward the fleet with its nukes. Roslin hesitates to make the call to destroy the ship, while Number Six taunts Baltar, demanding he confess his sins and repent to the Cylon God. After Baltar tells Number Six “I repent,” Roslin gives the order to destroy the Carrier. Its destruction means the destruction of Amarak. Baltar, who has repented of his sins and, consequently, proclaimed a sort of loyalty to the Cylon God, feels safe from being connected with the Cylon attack and destruction of the 12 Colonies. The Cylons arrive and the fleet makes a final jump, leaving the Cylons behind, along with the brutal 33 minute cycle.

It seems that Number Six is trying to make the Cylon God into a sort of rational God, one of patterns and results. If you do this, then this will be the result, according to God’s will. The Christian Gospel describes a God of compassion and love, one who embraces all people and gives forgiveness. The God described in the Gospels doesn’t hold a threat of taking away blessings, but promises to be a bulwark for the weak, love for the disenfranchised, hope for the desperate. In this sense, the God of the Gospels seems to be the opposite of logic and, therefore, the opposite of the Cylon God.

Interesting facts about this episode:

• This episode won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.This episode received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series. (2004)


• This episode received a Visual Effects Society nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program. (Cylon Centurions) (2005)


• Number Six says that procreation is God’s command; the episode ends with Roslin finding out that she can add one person to the census count because there was a birth in the fleet.

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.