Nima Yousefi's Equinox of Insanity

I Don’t Believe ‘Battlestar Galactica’

Let’s review: humanity is wiped out in a nuclear holocaust instigated by a nefarious race of killer robots with a grudge against their human creators, forced to flee with the remaining 40,000 humans in a series of crappy ships defended by a lone battleship (which itself is kinda falling apart), they settle on a planet, build a terrible society, are dominated by the same ruthless robots that almost made them extinct, and then are rescued by that battleship, where they go on the run for their lives again.

Am I to believe that after all that the last 40,000 survivors of the human race would keep whining about their justice system or questioning the decisions of their military or spiritual leaders? Really?

I call bullshit.

After the American Revolution we elected General George Washington president. After World War II we elected General Dwight D. Eisenhower president. After having their race nearly exterminated and then getting rescued from New Caprica the people of Battlestar Galactica would have crowned Admiral Bill Adama frakking emperor of the Universe. At the end of “Exodus, Part II” the people were literally chanting his name. He was the humanity’s greatest hero. He was their savior. So to see in last night’s episode that the remnants of humanity were getting their panties in a bunch over Adama’s decision to send a garbage heap out of the fleet on a “secret military mission” quite shocking. Hell, our President makes a claim of national security and, regardless of how severe the case or specious his claim may be, people let it go pretty quick.

One of the questions Battlestar Galactica has presented to us is: what would be the nature of the society that would arise from a people that go through what the people of BSG have gone through? In the beginning, a very believable picture was being painted–the people would try, desperately, to recreate the society that they knew, even if it didn’t really make sense anymore. The first season of BSG dealt with that head on. Tom Zerek’s role on the show originally dealt specifically with that issue. In “Colonial Day” Zerek’s major political argument with Roslyn is that, since their society has been destroyed, they should create a new society that serves the new needs of the people (presumably with him as it’s leader), instead of trying to cling on to their old concept of what a society should be. Zerek ultimately lost that debate, made it clear that they would have to return to that question in the future.

The people of BSG continued to struggle with the structure of their society deep into season two. “Black Market,” a generally poor episode most notable for staring the black guy from Predator that wasn’t Apollo Creed, explored not only the seedier parts of the fleet, but also how the government of BSG would tolerate such evils. Adama ultimately decided that in order to maintain order in the fleet they would have to tolerate a black market, but that they would also keep it in check to make sure it didn’t get too vile (drugs and smuggling = ok, child prostitution = not ok). This was a completely understandable decision, given the circumstances. One could debate the appropriateness of the choices the characters made, but not their believability.

Season two ended with a massive alteration to the BSG society. The people of BSG ended up on a planet, eking out a meager living in their generally poorly structured society, and then the Cylons show up and subjugate the human race in brutal and sucky ways. People were forced to explore careers radically different than what they had known even after the attack on humanity, and the Cylons only made matter worse by pitting human-against-human. When Adama finally shows up with the Battlestar Galactica to rescue the people off the planet humanity couldn’t be happier to get off that crap-rock.

Everything would have changed with New Caprica, but the society really wasn’t profoundly altered by their experiences there. Sure, there was an episode or two that dealt with people “dealing” with the New Caprica debacle (read: killing the traitors), but there was never a reexamination of what the people thought about the nature of their society. Wouldn’t the people, having not only suffered at the hands of their enemies but also now lived under their tyranny, be more inclined to turn to the military that saved them? Would they still question the authority that tried to protect them from settling on New Caprica in the first place? Wouldn’t they (to steal from Obama) cling to their guns (Adama) and their religion (Roslyn, basically)?

Instead, we see there are people who are turning away from the their own religious beliefs and accepting the Cylon’s concept of God (apparently the next episode deals with this more). Excuse me, but when does it work like that? If anything, while being controlled by the Cylons some people might have converted, but afterward? That doesn’t make sense. The argument the show seems to be making is that people are losing hope, and therefore turning to alternate religious support, but wait, they’re starting to lose hope now? They have a very strong leadership, both in Adama and in Roslyn, a goal, a path to that goal, a general lack of threat by the Cylons, and a really devastatingly bad point of comparison to how miserable their lives could be if they ever submitted to the Cylons. If anything, they should be piss-full of hope and optimism right now.

In a show that is really a character drama you sort of have to have believable characters, reacting believably to the situations they’re placed in. Those situations may be unbelievable–such as those involving murderous robots and their resurrecting kinda-cyborg masters–but the believability of the reactions is what’s important. All through season one, and mostly through season two, the characters on the show were reacting believably to what was happening to them. Now? Not so much. And a lack of believability gives rise to apathy, which is, unfortunately, how I find myself feeling as I watch these episodes.