The
re-imagined Battlestar Galatica has become a staple of science fiction
television, often heralded as one of the greatest science fiction shows of all
time, if not greatest shows. For many it has become a consensus that, like Star
Trek or Firefly, BSG has reached a new height in television science
fiction, not easily topped until the next great program.
This
may come as a shock but not only do I disagree, but think it is an amazingly
mediocre show for the many reasons that will be discussed.
It’s
the Characters, Stupid!
BSG
stands out from many shows because of the attention to detail in crafting the
vision of the series. The show’s creator, Ronald D. Moore, even outlined this
vision in an essay titled “Naturalistic
Science Fiction.” In it, he lays out goals such as: realistic
characters, plausible technology, no melodrama, not relying on deus ex machina.
Indeed, it does nothing less than try to remake science fiction.
What
is so stunning about this outline is how wholehearted it is ignored, starting
with the characters.
One
of the most important (if not the most important) aspect of television
is the characters and how they interact. In the essay, Moore explicitly wants
to stay away from “one-dimensional characterizations” and instead have them be
“living, breathing people with all the emotional complexity and
contradictions.” As he says:
We
want the audience to connect with the characters of Galactica as people. Our
characters are not super-heroes. They are not an elite. They are everyday
people caught up in a [sic] enormous cataclysm and trying to survive it as best
they can. They are you and me.
Likewise
he wants to “tak[e] the Opera out of Space Opera” and have these characters
interact the way average ordinary people would.
Amazingly,
BSG does none of that. To understand what I mean, let’s look at what makes a
character.
"Describe
the following [BSG] character[s] WITHOUT saying what they look like, what kind
of costume they wore, or what their profession or role was in the [series].
Describe this character to your friends like they ain't never seen [BSG]."
First,
let’s use other shows. To give a few clear cut examples of where characters
pass the test: Michael from The Office is outgoing and socially inept;
Walter White from Breaking Bad goes from quiet and passive to
controlling and sociopathic; and Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly is
cynical and “curmudgeony.”
Notice
that their roles as an office boss, chemist-turned druglord and bounty-hunter
are not their defining characteristic; rather it is their personality.
Almost
every character in BSG fails this test. The overwhelming majority become stock
“drama personalities;” they’re mild mannered people who go from reserved to
extremely angry depending on what the plot calls for (to do another test, see
how many of the characters’ Wikipedia articles have a “personality” section or
mention personality at all).
Indeed
one might be hard pressed find differences between Adama, Roslin, Tigh and
Tyrol, just to name a few. Someone could argue that the majority of the BSG
crew is meant to be bland but if that’s the case, why bother watching such a
show with bland characters? Arguably the only exceptions to this are: Kara
Thrace who has the added dimension of being cocky, Six who can be manipulative
and Gaius Baltar who is egotistical, cynical, outgoing, and manipulative (and
probably the only character who really has a developed personality).
To
make matters worse the characters do not interact in the way ordinary people
do; throughout much of the show, people go from tense whispering to angry
shouting. This might make for good “drama” (assuming constant yelling keeps
your attention) but it is not realistic. Granted the people aboard Galatica are
in extreme circumstances, but even in extraordinary circumstances people manage
to find ways to cope.
Interestingly
Firefly abides by the essay perfectly. Notice how in that show there are
solid characters that interact like normal people (without constantly
whispering and yelling to artificially inflate tension). Like the
Galatica, the crew of Serenity is also in pretty terrible circumstances but
rarely does the show resort to the whispering-then-yelling cliché of soap
operas (imagine Simon dramatically yelling "THEY EXPERIMENTED ON MY SISTER'S BRAAIN!")
Plot-I
mean-Character Change
Another
sign of poor drama characterization is when figures undergo drastic character
(read: role) changes for the service of the story. What do I mean by this?
In
every good drama some characters go through an arc and, all things being
equal, the greater the change the better the dramatic experience. However when
a show like BSG has poor characters, drama writers might try to compensate by
taking them to extreme leaps which turn out to be silly.
First
let’s look at an example of arcs done right: Breaking Bad. In the show, Walter
White goes from a passive chemistry teacher to a domineering drug kingpin. This
process is gradual, taking the show’s entire 5 seasons to complete (maybe a few
years in the show’s universe). It was realistic; Walter didn’t just start
killing people, he became powerful in a “wounded animal” way, where his actions
were often desperate and scared responses. And it was simple, Walter had
largely two roles.
In
BSG on the other hand, the search for Earth apparently changed everyone
multiple times over, and only over the course of a few years in the show’s
universe. To take the character of Laura Roslin, she goes from Secretary
of Education to President (albeit immediate and forced from the Cylon attack)
to teacher to resistance leader to leader of a government in exile. Not only
that, but her character is virtually unchanged from all this, and arguably only
changed from grieving over getting cancer.
However,
all the characters pale in comparison to Baltar’s arc. Perhaps milking the fact
that he’s the only character with complexity, the journey made him go from:
- Computer
scientist
- Science
advisor (albeit forced via the Cylon attack)
- Vice
President
- President
- Puppet
President
- Cylon
prisoner
- Human
prisoner/dissident
- Cult
leader/resistance leader
That’s
about eight drastic and ultimately ridiculous role changes. Ok yes, it’s
science fiction television but are we really to assume that someone can go
from Steve Wozniak to Marshal Pétain to Karl Marx to Jim Jones? Likewise
the only real personality change is he becomes less selfish by the very
end.
It
could have been interesting to see him take two or three gradual changes,
maybe slowly inch his way from computer scientist to political agitator to
president, but instead, the writers chose to milk every bit of “drama” from the
increasingly inane character arcs.
The
Middle of the Space Road
This
is where the essay gets a bit political, or at least, points out the political
in BSG. One of the strong points of the show is its exploration of political
themes (for instance, it’s the only show on television, ever, to have
protagonists engage in suicide bombings). Moore tried very hard to have a
political show that was also “neutral” in how it explored the topics, people
would watch and decide for themselves what is right and wrong. The problem with
this is there seems to be a clear consensus, at least among the fans, of who is
right and wrong.
The
consensus goes something like this: Roslin, Adama et al. are cool badasses who
try to do what is right by getting the ship to earth. Baltar is the villain of
the show (yes forget those Cylons trying to kill humanity, it’s Baltar) and the
badasses make the tough decisions to get to earth by keeping the Cylons and
Baltar at bay. Whether or not the writers intended this, that is what the logic
of the story suggests and what the fans took from it.
Except
this “badassery” looks a lot like a political dictatorship. Roslin frequently
declares martial law, attempts to forge an election and locks people up for
speaking or acting out. This is done for a grandiose religious prophecy. And if
the connection to religious fundamentalist states (or dictatorships with
grandiose visions in general) wasn’t close enough, The Badasses have people in
engage in suicide bombings when they are occupied on New Caprica.
Sometimes
the show tries to tidy the obvious bouts of political repression with a “coming
together to settle things out” ending. In one episode, Tyrol starts a general
strike on the ship to which Roslin responds with massive political repression.
Adama
then comes to threaten to execute Tyrol’s wife if he doesn’t call off the
strike. In one of the most bizarre moments in the show, Tyrol and Roslin
work out an agreement for improved conditions. He apparently forgets that her
government, literally hours ago, was threating to execute his wife.
It
could just be a coincidence that BSG fans equate “badassery” with political
repression, and Ronald D. Moore did not mean for that interpretation at all.
But the politics of the show come across as repressive while pretending to be
centrist.
The
MYSTERY!
Mystery
shows usually fail. Just looking at the dissatisfaction with the ending of Lost
or the cancellation of Heroes, mysteries often end badly for a variety
of reasons. A mystery has to keep being interesting for 4-7 seasons. In order
to keep viewers interested there need to be an inordinate amount of twists and
turns which become more and more convoluted. Often it becomes so convoluted
that writers paint themselves into a corner when they have to conclude
everything or do a “final reveal.”
Like
Lost, this is pretty much what happened with the ending of BSG. In order to
solve the mystery of where’s Earth!? Are these humans actually Cylons!? etc.
the writers took effort away from exploring the characters and focused full speed
ahead on the mystery of finding Earth. Then, not surprisingly, there was no
clever way to solve it in a “final reveal” so the show ended with a “eh” and
not a bang.
BSG’s
Place in TV History?
So
what explains everything to do with Battlestar Galatica? One word: Lost. In
2004 Lost came out and became a big hit. I’m tempted to even call it the “Lost
era” of television where dramas tried to mimic the show by having a
serialized plot, a central mystery and the shows ended up taking themselves way
too seriously. This includes shows like Heroes and Prison Break and 24 (which
although came out 3 years earlier does something similar).
After
the 2003 miniseries, the 2004 show had a clear influence from Lost. Moore, who
set out to make a realistic, character-driven, political, space drama, ended up
focusing on the magic space mystery instead. And as audiences learned from the
late 2000s, the momentum of Lost-type shows burns out big time when they end.
In fact, the most recent show to try this was Touch in 2012 and got cancelled
after two seasons.
So
what happened in response? In the late 2000s, shows like Mad Men and Breaking
Bad became late hits and ushered in something very different. They were
character-driven dramas with no definite serial structure and often feel like
black comedies instead of dramas.
At
any rate, even if the re-imagined BSG series will be remembered, it should be
remembered as a space show from the Lost era.