Okay, first of all, I grew up on the original series. I confess, I love this show, and to my amazement, so too do a number of Jews. Could be because of all the crypto-rah references- or the fact that the show it well written, thoughful and beautifully shot. To my dismay, it airs on Friday nights when I’m generally not watching TV… So I have to torrent it on Sundays. Annoying (I know, but I have neither cable or tivo, so what difference does it make?).
To my amazement, last Shabbes I’m sitting across the table from a friend at an impromptu Shmini Atzeret lunch when she, a lawyer, blurts out something about loving BattleStar Galactica. Its not what I would have expected from her. It turns out she and I are far from alone. Mark hearts BSG and raises some interesting ethical questions about the issues in the season openner. Same with the Other Fringe Blog and with the Suburban Kvetcher. Still, with all its Philo-semitism, I ask you, does BSG beat out Firefly? i mean at least Joss Wheadon’s ‘verse has Jews in Space…
Why do you say BSG is philosemitic? Looking back at the first two seasons (I have the DVDs, come get em if you want) while pro-Israel and anti-terrorist attitudes are represented, I’m not sure that the conclusions favor them. Instead, the theme seems to be that in order to fight evil, you will become evil. IN that case, he is equating the US and Israel as Evil. Not for the purpose of evil perse, but because of the need to combat other evil. Moral Equivalence again.
Still, he does give very cogent arguments to the anti-terror position, and he really does make the peace now types look ridiculous.
Firefly still rocks. But if you want Jews in Space, you gotta go back to Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5.
I have to admit that I first started watching BSG because of Mary McDonnell who was awesome in Passion Fish. I know nothing about Firefly or Babyon 5.
That said, I love BSG (I never watched the original). I love the religious imagery and the drama. I too though am a bit conflicted about the analogies and references in this season. I like how they depict the difficulty of the oppressed in fighting “fairly” against an oppressive regime, and the “humanity” of the cylons (with their unified G-d and the cute blond kid). I assume (maybe I’m wrong) that the cylons represent Israel and the humans represent the Palestinians, and I tend to not like the “poor Palestinian” rhetoric that sometimes predominates in the media. Mistakes have been made on both sides, and neither side is perfect. But maybe that is BSG’s point in showing the humanity of the cylons.
I don’t know. I guess I don’t feel as strongly as Psychotoddler does.
I still love BSG (and Mary McDonnell!)!
I don’t think that the writers have intended either side to “represent” either Isrealis or Palestinians specifically. They do seem to have appropriated some of the terminology and imagery of various conflicts. I don’t think its fair to try and paint either side as right or wrong, evil or righteous, or for that matter, Israeli or Palestinian.
I think the show is more about examining societal and personal issues in times of conflict, sometimes existential. One might draw comparison to the between Israel and Cylons in how conflicted they are on New Caprica in dealing with a hostile occupied population. Some elements are radically bent on violence, others want to help but can’t understand how to do it when they arae so hated.
But it could also be about the US and Iraq, or for that matter, one could also turn the tables and say the surviving Colonials are the Jews, the Sheerith Yisrael after the Roman dispersion or the Nazi Holocaust. But it could be the Kosovar Muslims or the residents of Darfur running from the Janjuweed. Its a better show if you set aside the specific analogies and see it as a study of humanity and its imperfection.
There’s a Jewish angle on the series if ever there was one.