Battlestar Galactica

I have to write something about Battlestar Galactica. I must. To those who've only heard of the series and don't know much more than that it's SF, it will seem an unlikely candidate for feel good stuff. But oh, there's so much more than this than just some battleships firing away at asteroids and humans clashing with aliens.

Some terrific entertainment is certainly one of the perks of incarnating on this planet. Isn't the ability to be creative one of the most wonderful things of being human? Creativity is the mere ability to create stuff; stuff of beauty, stuff that moves, that instructs, that entertains, that teaches... We take so much for granted, but it's good to now and then take a little pause and look at something an be amazed at the mere fact that we humans... are able to make that, whatever that is.

It's a feeling i've head more than once while watching Battlestar Galactica. The series is so moving and multi-layered, and I think that if they Cylons would have seen the story that we wrote, and how we wrote it, about the battle we are waging with them, they would be so moved that they would never have attacked us in the first place.

All this doesn't mean much to the ones who are not watching BSG, I'm sure, but well, let me just add one of the many thing it is, is an allegory about xenophobia and racism. And how brilliant: of course people in their right mind today won't discriminate any population group these days (at least not in theory), and vegetarians or vegans won't even discriminate against most other species. But what about the next frontier: a life form that... isn't really? The Cylons are supposedly machines, and yet they can feel. So what to do with them?
Other than that, we are confronted with the human struggle, in more meanings than one. Humanity bravely struggles for survival with only 50.000 people left, but even then every indivual has to struggle with his or her own demons and people are "fracking" each other over. Yet they seem to learn from their mistakes and they just never, never give up. It makes want to cheer for the human race time and time again.

BSG also features wonderful character development. Admiral Adama, with his stern and wise leadership, has become a personal role model. The following is a fragment from the episode "Unfinished Business", in which unfinished business is settled in "friendly" boxing matches. Two of the lead characters, Starbuck and Apollo, certainly have such business with each other... This is the ending of that great episode.
Well, series like these demand many hours of watching but... they're totally worth it. Imho.