I have to admit that I don't get the Battlestar Galactica craze. I have tried
diligently to watch it and though I recognize the quality of the storylines --
I think it is written just about as well as any drama currently on television
-- and characterizations, it doesn't grab me. I think there are two reason for
that, primarily. One, I'm really just tired of the cold, calculating machines
seeking to wipe out flawed-but-noble humanity theme. It seems to be everywhere
in mass market sci-fi, from BSG to the Sarah Connor Chronicles. They even
turned Isaac Asimov's wonderfully smart robot stories into an excuse for Will
smith to shoot up evil robots. I think it's a failure of imagination, taking
the most common track about the future of man's relationship to technology.
Second, I just don't see that BSG, while it might be good drama, is good
science fiction. Sure, it has a science fiction background, other planets, set
on a space ship, etc. but that that doesn't make it sc
ience fiction. If I re-write the plot of a western to give the cowboys ray
guns instead of six-shooters, its still a western. Star Wars is still a
fantasy no matter how many jumps to hyperspace the Millennium Falcon makes.
Most of BSG's plotlines could be set in totally different locales -- it
wouldn't matter for instance if the Cylons were any evil empire anywhere in
history, you could still tell basically the same stories about the fleeing
refugees. What BSG lacks, and what defines science fiction for me, are ideas
-- new and challenging ideas about science, society, humanity, aliens -- etc.
etc. etc. The society on the Galactica looks pretty much like 20th century
society on Earth. BSG may be a very well written and produced tv drama, but it
just doesn't seem like good science fiction to me.
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
