is one. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game 
is another. There's some more esoteric work out there by Philip K. Dick, and Robert Heinlin. These are archtypes of the genre.But science fiction is inherently different from fantasy, and it is those distinctions that I want to draw on while reviewing Battlestar Galactica, because I believe that Battlestar Galactica blurs some of these distinctions.
Fantasy is about good and evil.
Fantasy is about self-determination and fate.
Fantasy is about standing up against insurmountable odds.
Fantasy is liberalizing.
In comparison, Science Fiction has remarkably different pillars.
SF is about The Big Idea.
SF is reactionary
SF is voyeuristic.
SF is about plot.
Certainly, these definitions are my own, and I submit that they are working definitions. Let's set aside Fantasy for another time.
What is the Big Idea? Science Fiction starts out with an essential question. This question is usually pretty obvious from the get go. In Ender's Game the question is "What is the outcome of human genetic engineering?" In Philip K. Dick's Minority Report
, the big question is "What if the government could convict citizens for crimes they might commit?" The reason why the SF is largely plot driven is because of these questions, because these questions are what's actually important. Meaning that the drama that occurs between people is largely window dressing.So in BattleStar Galactica, what is the Big Idea? Well--it's a fairly hackneyed one. Not much different from the Terminator or the Matrix, except that the humans won round one: Humans created robots, what if human's technology became sentient and turned on us? In BattleStar, the humans gave a truce to the robots, cutely and derogatively called "The Toasters," technically the Cylons. They disappeared for a generation, and then came back and slaughtered humanity. However, it's not Earth. This is an interesting spin on the genre, and certainly part of another big idea, which is distinctly un-SF. The civilization that starts the series, is definitely a human one, and one which has, a liberal democracy as its form of government. But it does not hail from Earth. In fact, Caprica, the home of the BattleStar is one of twelve planets in which humanity now dwells, twelve colonies. At this point it should be noted that the creator of the series, Glen Larsen, is a Mormon turned Church of Latter Day Saints parishioner. Biblial references and a heavy emphasis on God, abounds. As I said, this stuff doesn't bother me. At least--not yet. Theology is a heavy component of every human civilization, and I would be more preturbed if this realm had no representation thereof. One interesting thing to note is that, the humans are Polytheists, and as each of the twelve colonies is named after Greek or Roman Gods, it seems an interesting counter point that the Cylons appear to be Monotheists. Now that is a novel concept, machines believing in God, and one very few of the characters come to grips with, at least in the first season.
SF is reactionary. I'm a partisan, anyone whose read my other blogs would know that. But I think there's a really interesting lesson here. And note, there are of course exceptions. A logical consequence of starting with The Big Idea, is that to illustrate the point, extremes have to be drawn. So SFs for example, take The Terminator, whose big idea is to be "what if humans became too dependent on machines/and technology?" The extreme consequence is that we create sentient machines who resent that they're being made to toil for us, they come to resent us, and come to destroy us. There are few halfway points, like I, Robot
, the movie starring Will Smith, and loosely based on the work of Isaac Asimov. In that the nasty robots have a likeable protagonist who could possibly lead a truce between humanity and robots. Asimov, seems to be an exception to the reactionary rule. But authors like Robert Heinlin, L. Ron Hubbard and Philip K. Dick most definitely follow in this reactionary pathway. Dick went completely nuts. These tales are moralistic and fear based. As in "See what comes if we keep going down this path?"Galactica shares some of these themes, but essentially departs from them. Commander Adama's crew survives because he is something of a Luddite and has refused to allow his ship to be networked to the defense mainframe. A possible Big Idea for the story here is "What happens if everything is networked?" However, the Battlestar does not follow this line of thought. It is merely a plot point to explain why Adama's ship is the one in the entire fleet that survives. Here though, Gallactica becomes more of a fantasy in that the question becomes, what makes someone human? A central plot point is that the Cylons develop a model that is completly human physiologically. And even after the completion of the first season, it is essentially impossible to tell humans from Cylons. The one attempt at such a machine, is run by a mad scientist who is a self-serving inveterate liar. There are lots of flaws in this aspect of the series. If they're essentially the same as us, how is that even the weakest model is capable of inhuman strength when "switched on?" There are multiple copies of each humanoid Cylon. This is a great story telling device, but difficult to manage. If they are indeed connected, wouldn't the network apparatus be somehow detectable? Afterall, downloading mp3s require a fair amount of bandwidth. Downloading an entire personality must be enormous.
Which brings us to, SF is voyeuristic. This is a trait that SF and fantasy share to some degree. Here you have an entire civiliation of human like creatures, placed in an extroadinary setting, and you're curious to learn about how they act in that setting. Remember the Stallone movie Demolition Man
? There you had a society that had solved the AIDS crisis by eliminating sex, and had solved crime through genetic manipulation? They had to bring Stallone back to kill a nasty genetic criminal (Moral: Genetics bad.) and get the heroine of the story laid (Moral: Unprotected Sex Good.) But the voyeur factor is that there in this great scene where they have sex by wearing head sets that stimulate the brain's pleasure centers. I can't provide the link for it, I'm at work, but google search sex and demolition man and you'll find it. Stalone ultimately calls bullshit and seduces her the old fashioned way, but you get the idea. Watching cultures alien to our own is great fun! Fantasy is similar, yet we fantasists take an elegiac look at the past, romanticizing horse and carriages. Remember that great scene from Back to the Future 2? Shitty movie, but hoverboards are an awesome idea!
BattleStar effectively fails at this aspect of SF, which is why I believe it to be more of a cross over piece. Humans still drink alcohol, humans still have sex the same old way. And wow, BattleStar is filled with it. Interestingly, the Cylons seem to have most of it. Turns out their female models are complete sex kittens. The internet and networking has no presence on the Battlestar, so that's out. As to arms and armor, though the Battlestar's are high technology, they're's an effort made to make everything low tech. Unlike the Matrix engineers, who seem to have dealt adequately with the inhereint risks of network security, BattleStar simply ignores it. The fighters are like the X-Wings from thirty years ago. In terms of looks, the show looks stunning. No complaints here. But the fighters shoot machine gun rounds, and the bombs are nuclear warheads. The series is remarkably low-tech for all of this. There are the occiasional windows. Towards the end of the season, they hold elections for Vice President on a space cruise ship that has a biodome. That's nice technology, but it's not really discussed.
Finally, SF is plot based. Fantasy is all about character development. Boys turning into men. Men making ethical decisions or ...not. SF has these elements, but they tend to be sideshows to what is really important. This is especially true of Dick and Heinlin's work. The characters are human and have human relationships, but they're not indepth. This isn't a weakness to the format, it's merely a consequence of focus. Most paperbacks are plot driven pieces. Real relationships abound, but no one reads Ludlum or Grisham or Koontz for tortured characters.
Again, BattleStar Galactica stymies this characterization. Some of this, I believe, is a consequence of being a TV show which faces extinction with every season. Plots have to be on-going, but at the same time must be allowed to wrap up in a foreshortened amount of time. This is hell on traditional story writing. And I haven't seen a TV series yet that doesn't fall prey to outlandish story telling because of it. Regardless, Battlestar has very real human dramas. The relationship between the stern and demanding Commander Adama and his bitter son Apollo. The relationship between Apollo and the quirky fliratious and insubordinate pilot, Starbuck. The two female Cylons have intense romantic relationships with humans onboard and off the ship.
But all of that aside, BattleStar Galactica is a very fun watch. Good action and excitement, with enjoyable characters. It also manages to be serious and funny at the same time, something which very few modern televised Sci-Fi efforts since the original Star Trek can say.
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