Battlestar Galactica

[Olin Elliott]

I have to admit that I don't get the Battlestar Galactica craze.  I have tried diligently to watch it and though I recognize the quality of the storylines -- I think it is written just about as well as any drama currently on television -- and characterizations, it doesn't grab me.  I think there are two reason for that, primarily.  One, I'm really just tired of the cold, calculating machines seeking to wipe out flawed-but-noble humanity theme.  It seems to be everywhere in mass market sci-fi, from BSG to the Sarah Connor Chronicles.  They even turned Isaac Asimov's wonderfully smart robot stories into an excuse for Will smith to shoot up evil robots.  I think it's a failure of imagination, taking the most common track about the future of man's relationship to technology.  Second, I just don't see that BSG, while it might be good drama, is good science fiction.  Sure, it has a science fiction background, other planets, set on a space ship, etc. but that that doesn't make it science fiction.  If I re-write the plot of a western to give the cowboys ray guns instead of six-shooters, its still a western.  Star Wars is still a fantasy no matter how many jumps to hyperspace the Millennium Falcon makes.  Most of BSG's plotlines could be set in totally different locales -- it wouldn't matter for instance if the Cylons were any evil empire anywhere in history, you could still tell basically the same stories about the fleeing refugees.  What BSG lacks, and what defines science fiction for me, are ideas -- new and challenging ideas about science, society, humanity, aliens -- etc. etc. etc.  The society on the Galactica looks pretty much like 20th century society on Earth. BSG may be a very well written and produced tv drama, but it just doesn't seem like good science fiction to me.