Monday, May 15, 2006

this is how you evangelize: cylon fundamentalists and the coolest show ever


my roomie and i are new to 'battlestar galactica'. (she hates that i tell everyone how much we love this show.)

i mean, i remember the old show with lorne greene walking around in shiny robes and richard hatch and dirk benedicts with guns strapped to their thighs. (oh, how many pictures of those two did i have taped to the inside of my book case? i loooved apollo.) but all i really remember from the old show were the really bad firefights and, actually, i think most of my memories are mixed up with Buck Rogers.

anyway, to catch up with everyone else who loves this show, my roomie and i spent two weekends renting season one and season two (damn them for splitting up season 2!) and we've immersed ourselves in the whole mythology.

yes, we're dorks! i love science fiction! space opera is the best!

things we love:
that starbuck is a woman - this is a HUGE improvement and we love it.
the fight scenes are so much better!
lt. gaeta is hot

i'm fascinated with how BG treats religion; i sense that there's a fairly complex 'theology'/mythology behind the whole narrative and we get a glimpse of it when the President goes on one of her drug induced visions or when the really annoying blonde Cylon babe (she's SO annoying) ups her Cylon-witnessing gambit with Baltar. or when adama and the president get into one of their faith v. military maneuvering discussions. i love it.

but is this religious war supposed to be analogous to our christian/islamic clash of cultures or just a basic christian/heathen thing?

and there are other questions:
how can the cylons have religion if they're machines?
what is their religion? and how did they get it?
and the humans worship greek mythology? huh?
what's the deal with kobol, again?
can someone please explain this to me??

5 comments:

Delia Christina said...

never say gaeta's a cylon!! no way! (really?)

what's interesting to me is how, in both 'religions' the idea of peace or fellow-love is totally gone. the cylons make no secret of fusing their evangelism with total world dominance and while roslin's touchy-feely gods and goddesses thing looks soft and frail, she has no issues with blowing the enemy out of an airlock.

in other words, there's no 'love thy neighbor' involved at all. it resonates in an interesting way for me.

Wasp Jerky said...

It looks like I'm going to have to break down and download both seasons sometime soon.

jp 吉平 said...

Best show on tv.

The humans don't have a 'religious' problem when it comes to killing machines.

We don't know the details of the Cylons' religion, but we know they are acting based on their religion.

The premise of the show is that Earth is the lost tribe/colony of humans; the ancient Greek pantheon is related to Earth's original colonization by the humans, hence the Greek preocupation with the zodiac.

See, I got all the answers. Also, there are dorky websites all over the internet that you can enjoy!

Delia Christina said...

i was reading an article on Beliefnet and it said that the original mythology came from mormonism! who knew?!

and yes, wasp, you really must. i just read the season two episode summaries and i CAN'T WAIT.

Molly Malone said...

I read that article on Beliefnet, too. I'm so glad you've discovered that show. Be pulled in! Don't resist!
I hated it as a child, because it seemed so dopey, so I was reluctant to watch it anew. Luckily, at Honey's insistence, we started and I now think this is the best damned thing to TV in a long-ass time!
We've got the season2 closer on TiVo waiting for Seaon3 to start so we can watch the cliffhanger right into the new season. Cylon hottie (agent6) gets WAY more interesting in season2.
I posted on BSG on 2/19, but it may have a season2 spoiler in there if you haven't already seen it. oh, well, long story short: I concur. BSG: cool by me!