Thoughts I have on Battlestar Galactica.

No sci-fi movie/television series has struck more fear in me than Battlestar Galactica. That is probably the reason I cannot seem to get past the ninth episode of what is arguably the most nuanced and engaging futuristic portrayal of mankind (At least up until where I am). The gist of the story is this; Humans created intelligent robots called Cylons and it did not end well. The robots grew smarter than its creators and began to wonder why they had to take orders. The Cylons then exit to a planet far away, and peace is maintained by way of a meeting every so often on neutral ground. And the robots have never attended a meeting…until now. Turns out, the robots have managed to create human replicas right down to the blood, guts and sarcasm, and these replicas have been deployed into the human society in preparation for a doomsday event. And BOOM! The world as they know it is destroyed by a nuclear blast attack from the Cylons, while the remnant of the human race is left wandering space in search of a mystical planet called Earth, led by an old warship named Battlestar Galatica. Research into the series revealed that the remaining humans eventually find a planet earth inhabited by rudimentary homo sapiens and settle to create the world we now know.

The human remnant on Battlestar Galactica carries along with it a religious system based on polytheism. Religion is pervasive in this society, and remains center stage in the survival, philosophy, ethics and rituals of the main characters. Commander Adama’s no-nonsense attitude and desire to maintain a standard of integrity for the greater good, is rooted in the belief of his duty to lead the people to the new earth. Captain Starbuck keeps an idol in her locker, and regularly pays homage to the gods of Kobol as she executes her duties aboard the ship. Funerals are carried out with meticulous rituals and rites of passage to ensure that the souls of the departed find their way to the afterlife. The gods of kobol constitute a small amount of the dark matter that leans into the action, and their pervasive presence takes shape in the hope of the people for a better future.

What surprised me however, was the religious dedication of the Cylons. In addition to looking, talking, moving, breathing, bleeding, thinking and even making love like human beings, these creatures also believe strongly in a monotheistic god whose laws and desires eerily line up with the god prevalent in modern day Christianity and Islam. The robots aim to purge the immediate cosmos of humanity so that they can start anew and create a society that is true, just, honest and pleasing to their one true god. Number six in particular, is a sensual blonde cylon whose seductive nature seems at odds with her intense belief system rooted in a singular creator (Not to say that seductive people can't be religious). She appears often to genius/scientist Gaius Baltar, to either seduce and make love to him, or implore him to turn away from his atheism and believe in her god. In her opinion, the gods of kobol are tantamount to the pagan gods of the old testament, and the only way that humans can be saved is by turning from their ways and believing in the true god. 

The monotheistic belief that is so prevalent today is queered by its association with the ‘bad guys’. The cylon’s inclination towards violence for the greater good is at odds with their firm belief in the good, greater plan and purpose of their god. The deep roots of religion are torn out of the ground and laid bare in the systematic purging of the human race. What can currently be described as a deep-seated, low-burning belief system that silently pervades our collective subconscious, is re-fashioned as a piercing white light that scours the earth that it may rid it of the dishonorable. Much like the eye of Sauron, the monotheistic religion in Battlestar Galactica works to expose rather than to cover, and to make itself known through its operatives.

Courtesy of Wikipedia; “…the revelation that Battlestar Galactica takes place in our collective prehistoric past means that unlike most space opera science fiction stories, the series is a fictional tale of ancient history rather than future history and serves as a fictional tale of origin for modern humanity.”

I found this discovery interesting because it reminded me of a passage from the book of Ecclesiastes (Chapter 1, Verse 9);

What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.

The monotonous and cyclical nature of what short life I have lived, has led me to believe that the past, present and future align at the point of the capital ‘T’ truth. The standardization via which we confirm and affirm our existence is, by nature, desiring of an ‘other’. Written into the machinations of the planet are the binaries which enable us to exist and to comprehend our purpose for existing. There is day because there is night. There is hot because there is cold. There is young because there is old. And vice-versa. This is what makes the conflict in Battlestar Galactica roil with unrest; if the Cylons have become so close to humanity that it is now imperceptible; how can human beings be sure that they are human beings? I know way less about this series than most people, but I believe that this is one of the reasons why the series was so successful when it was rebooted; it created a world in which the lines between the standard and the other were erased. Humanity itself is queered by the possibility of a new standard of intelligent beings, and this functions as a tool to level the playing field. Divisive markers such as race, economic and social status fall to the wayside in the face of unrest. But, because we need a way to understand the world, a new social order begins to form with the divisive markers of rank, role and religion.

What is the standard now may soon find itself on the opposite end of spectrum. The focal point of that Capital 'T' truth is fickle and always riding the tide, and time becomes the only deciding factor.