BSG Season Finale

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

As I said elsewhere of the Galactica episode "Pegasus"; Holy. Hannah. Inna. Handbasket.

Possibly the most disturbing element of the show was the realization that the Pegasus' captured Cylon had been used as a rape-toy for her crew, followed by the attempted rape-torture of Boomer.

Predictions? Fans of the show will be distracted by the red-herring of the rapes, in so-so many ways.

For one, we're going to take it as TV-shorthand for "Admiral Cain [*] and her crew are Serious Bad Hats." And while I've noticed a disturbing female-brutalization creep in the action shows I like, as just that kind of shorthand, I suspect - I hope - that this clever show's creators have more up their sleeve. I'm betting that we may discover that we're mistaken in both Cain and her crew. They're more complex than we know: Pegasus is the Galactica from the outside, without the interior knowledge Seasons One and Two have given the viewers. Context matters. And they'll still be villains. Or, more likely, but less satisfying, it's a feint, designed to distract us from What Really Makes Them Bad. The safe return to The Fleet of the Pegasus? "It's a dream."

For two: "It's not rape (or murder) when it's a toaster". So those who take the "Cylons aren't merely our enemies, they're inhuman machines," line have repeatedly told us. And the viewers, through the more sympathetic media of characters like Starbuck, or the Chief, aren't buying it. And while we wind ourselves in knots arguing whether or not the machine intelligences can truly love (or hate) and thus truly be tortured (or raped), we're missing an important point. By taking on a human form, by mimicking human emotional attachments and human behaviour perfectly they make humans perceive them as, well, human beings. Sure, we can tell ourselves it's just a toaster; just a fancier, more complete version of Tickle-Me-Elmo.

"[Human] Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put on this earth to rise above"

But we won't believe ourselves: The characters won't, can't believe it; they know, gut-level, whatever their brains may be reiterating, that they're beating, torturing and raping another human being. Each rape, each "murder," makes it easier to erode the civilized barriers that prevent humans from, quite naturally, raping, killing, using one another as animals use their prey. Think of the Velveteen Rabbit, in which Love makes a stuffed toy Real. Whatever they tell themselves, the survivors aboard the Galactica and the Pegasus will be making those Cylon captives Real, too.

And this is assuming that the Cylons are, in fact, human machines. What if they're not? What if this is, in fact, the ultimate scam, a form a psychological warfare striking humans at their very humanity?

Such a clever show: How I do love it.

[*] Admiral Cain. Captain Adam(a). Can Abel be far behind? If so, I doubt he'll have merely been Cain's XO. Considering the hints of the cylon mythos revealed by Baltar's Six, it's likely that Abel will have been (or will be) more pleasing to the cylonic Deity: and murdered by the Admiral.


For the true fandom, my rare foray into fannish disquisition is likely old news. For the non-fan, a big fat "eh." For me: A chance to work out some "thinky-thoughts" engendered by the finale. Either way, it's going to be a long wait until the story continues in January!

Cross-posted to therightfangirl For whom I have this questions: D'you think the the show's creators are liberals or conservatives of some stripe or another? And is it just me, or do you find it wonderful that it's hard to tell?

Comments

[leadensky.livejournal.com]

D'you think the the show's creators are liberals or conservatives of some stripe or another? And is it just me, or do you find it wonderful that it's hard to tell?

Intellectually, I think that, given the corporate mindset of Hollywood/TV/writers in general but not each specifically, that they (and Ron Moore) are very likely to be liberal, and left-wing, not left leaning.

But, as you point out, it's hard to tell from the show and that's just *fantastic*. Because, from the show, if they're liberal, they're thinking, impassioned, and not closed-minded liberals. If they're conservative, they're thinking, impassioned, and not close-minded conservatives.

We need all of both that we can get our hands on.

And I love the show they make.

- hossgal

[zyllah.livejournal.com]

I believe that *sorry brain farting on his name* the producer who also did ds9 is fairly pro military if not nothing else.

[derringdo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ron D. Moore is ex-Navy, so his perspective on the military, though often demythologizing (mom and dad found this last episode very negative on the military, I didn't catch it), is much more informed than most Hollywood types. In his Trek days, he had a newsgroup folder or something where he would interact with fans, and was capable of discoursing on things like, say, the Monica Lewinsky scandal or the legacy of Ronald Reagan, from a leftwing perspective, in a fairly level-headed, nonvicious way.

Also, the DS9 writers' room was noted for its love of classic movies: show runner Ira Steven Behr (of "The 4400", which portrays Homeland Security pretty negatively but can be equally down on the media) was and is a passionate western fan (he claims it's perfectly logical for a little Jewish kid from the Bronx to be obsessed with the Alamo!)-he allowed the Weddle-Thompson writing team (currently employed on BSG) to pitch to him because one of them had coauthored a Peckinpah book Behr liked, and Behr cast one of the recurring guest stars because he'd seen him play Col. Travis in an IMAX movie about the Alamo. Moore has cited the John Wayne/Kirk Douglas war movie "In Harm's Way" as an influence, especially on the Adama/Tigh dynamic.

DS9, whatever its other failings, was also right of center in two important aspects: at the height of the Clinton era, it portrayed a complacent, peace-obsessed civilization forced to rediscover the necessities of war; and unlike the other Treks and the more subtly humanistic B5, it remained profoundly skeptical about the perfectability of human nature. That's one of the primary environments that shaped Moore's writing philosophy, so although I've been pleased with BSG's writing approach, on the whole, I'm less surprised than some.

[zyllah.livejournal.com]

I was a passionate trek fan. I grew up on the original series and really the only way I can reconcile tng, etc is that it takes place in an alternate dimension. TOS was not a communistic cashless utopia, next gen is. Ferengi are the villians or were supposed to be and what are they? Capitalists. I clean to the hours of trek on spike and I am so frequently struck by just how pc/leftie next gen is. DS9 is really the much more interesting show of the treks. Its interesting that you found ds9 more skeptical about the perfectability of human nature than b5. If anything I found b5 much more realistic than any of the treks.

[derringdo.livejournal.com]

Well, B5 is quite realistic in the details, but at the end of the day, it still seemed to me like it was all about passionate idealists dragging the human/alien cultures into a Better, More Utopian Future kicking and screaming. And if they fail in the short term, well, they'll win out in the long term (or really long term).

DS9, again, has more of an "old-Hollywood" humanism: everyone has their flaws (which are, conveniently and unrealistically, mostly interesting, tragic or cute traits, including the Ferengi, who are seen as silly and backward but capable of surprising common sense), everyone would like to *keep* their flaws, thankyouverymuch, and somehow they muddle along more constructively than the Superclean NextGen types. Philadelphia Story, with Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart is a good sum-up of the kind of outlook DS9, to me, embodied most of the time.

In any case, DS9 was made by people like Moore, trying to subvert the Huxleyan/Orwellian/Utopian aspects of Trek from within, without blatantly destroying it. BSG is simply that darker and more cynical side of him (and that side of some lesser DS9 writers) unleashed, without any need to Trojan-Horse it discreetly into more innocuous stories.