One last look at Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)
By Matthew Martin| July 9, 2020 TV Blogs
FINAL THOUGHTS & FAVORITE EPISODES
As this (lengthy) look back at Battlestar Galactica draws to a close, I can’t help but reflect on Ron Moore and co.’s ability to balance several big-picture ideas, any one of which would be enough to build a whole show around. At the same time, it didn’t just settle to cover ground other shows had done but went where few if any science-fiction shows had. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say, in one area, no other sci-fi show has touched what BSG did, before or after. In that case, I’m talking about, to quote the characters of the show, “God, or gods, or the gods, or whatever you want to call it…”
Now, obviously, science-fiction is not a genre afraid to talk about religion. Typically, however, the talk is slanted from the atheistic viewpoint: There is no “God” or “gods” or “higher power.” A movie like Contact is rare for the way it walked the tightrope between faith and science, disrespecting neither along the way. Contact is the exception that proves the rule, though. 99% of the time when religion is viewed through a sci-fi lens, it’s done with either the wink-and-nod of the author or the explicit statement by characters in the story that there is no “god” and anyone who thinks otherwise is a primitive ignoramus.
I always felt it was a missed opportunity for sci-fi writers to acknowledge the idea of a higher power, especially through the prism of Arthur C. Clark’s fantastic one-liner:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
If that’s true, then why not a story that considers “God” or “gods” as a sufficiently intelligent being capable of creating life from nothing? Maybe there are sci-fi stories that do just that and I’m forgetting them; I dunno, maybe I’m thinking too much of the way Star Trek approached the idea, which was from a humanistic standpoint (DS9, of course, played around with the idea that “gods” could just be aliens).
What I do know, however, is that Battlestar Galactica dared to make “God” more than an idea to consider. BSG made “God” an actual, living character in the show, even at the risk of the criticisms (which did ultimately come their way) of “Deus Ex Machina.” If you’re not familiar, that’s Greek for “god from a machine.” The idea dates back to the stage plays of the ancient Greeks. They would devise stories where their heroes were backed against the wall with all the odds against them and no hope of escape only to miraculously be aided by the gods. The gods would descend “from the heavens” to save the day. In actuality, the actors playing Zeus and Athena, etc, would be lowered by rope-and-pulleys. Thus, they would literally be “gods (lowered) from a machine.”
Now, to be fair, the number of times when “God” in the BSG universe actually saved the day at the last second, is noticeably few. If you’ve watched the show as many times as I have, try to think of the times when God—not a human or Cylon character in the show—actually swept (swooped?) down from the heavens to stop the proverbial bullet from hitting the hero in the proverbial chest.
Think of it like this, in “The Hand of God,” Baltar points out the location of a spot to target in the Cylon base, a spot he picked seemingly at random, and yet his finger fell, guided by the hand of God, on the exact right spot needed to be destroyed. Is that Deus Ex Machina? I’d argue no, because Lee still had to pilot his viper to that spot, doing some incredibly dangerous and foolhardy flying along the way. God wasn’t piloting that ship; Apollo was. Apollo blew up the target, Baltar pointed it out, and God worked in the background “helping” along the way.
BSG is loaded with examples like that; times when God guided people somewhere, revealed important information, and helped passively. And, as said, there are even times when God helped actively, but not (if not very rarely) in such a way to stop someone’s actions from having its natural consequence. In that case, it’s not really a show riddled with Deus Ex Machina at all.
That being said, if any show was to be guilty, wouldn’t it be fitting for it to be the show whose own mythology contends that Zeus, Athena, et al, were actual living beings? That’d at least be consistent, no?
I think Moore’s naked willingness to make God a character in the show, and the way God’s hand factors into the finale, is the key reason BSG has not taken its place alongside other “greatest shows ever produced” like The Wire or Breaking Bad. Nevertheless, controversial as it may have been, and continues to be, I will whole-heartedly defend God’s inclusion as a character and the way the Work of God was explored as one of the themes of the show.
Speaking of, I view each of the show’s four seasons as having a strong theme that doubles down on one of its core components. What makes BSG tick? What are the big ideas being discussed here? I think there are four…
Season 1 is about unity and family
Both the military and civilian sides of humanity’s remnants have to come to grips with what happened, and they have to find a way to co-exist. Adama and Roslin spent the first season holding onto a tenuous alliance until it all came crashing down. The theme of season one really didn’t conclude until the scattered arc was over in the two-part “Home” episodes. Adama’s line “I’m putting the fleet back together. I’m putting our family back together” really hammers home the point. After things are mended, Adama and Roslin were rarely ever at odds again.
Season 2 is about law and order and what kind of people the remnants of humanity are going to be
For lack of a better term, the first season is very much the honeymoon period for the civilian/military alliance. Both sides put on happy faces and talk about co-existing, but when things go bad, they really go bad. Martial law is declared and the fleet looks like it will never come back together. Humanity is forced to ask itself if it wants to continue being the vassals of King Adama (or, really, Emperor Tigh while the old man is out of commission) or if the semblance of a normal life will be maintained. After “Home part two” the decision is made and normalcy is restored. But then, out of the blue comes “Pegasus,” threatening to upend things for good. After that arc in the middle of the season is over, several stand-alones occur, many of which illustrate the strong sense of a tug of war between following laws and making them up/breaking them as we go, reinforcing the theme of the season.
Season 3 is about personal suffering
By the end of the second season, humanity is ready to be done with roaming the galaxy looking for earth. They find a planet that’s good enough and are willing to elect Baltar to get down there. What follows is a nightmare. The New Caprica arc damaged every character in the show, in one way or another, and everyone spends the rest of the season picking up the pieces. It gets ugly, especially when Baltar is put on trial and escapes conviction. Many of the same ones who elected him to go to New Caprica wanted to string him up for putting them there. That’s humanity for you, and all our ugliness, hypocrisy, and easiness of hurting is laid to bare in this season.
Season 4 is about “Divine Providence” vs “Free Will“
One of the common complaints against the show is that it “got away from” the “gritty, sci-fi/military” notions of the early seasons (say, season one through the Pegasus arc), in favor of mysticism, prophesy, angels, God’s providential hand, etc, that was common in the latter half of season three and all of season four. I understand that complaint but I don’t think it’s fair. For one, the “gritty, sci-fi/military” aspect never left. In season three we have the fabulous New Caprica storyline, which explores plots like suicide bombers and enemy collaboration. In season four we have a full-on mutiny/coup against the military and civilian leaders. In addition, the show was never “just” about the “gritty, sci-fi/military” stuff. God was talked about from the beginning. The episodes “The Hand of God” and “Kobol’s Last Gleaming” were right there in season one. And “Epiphanies” is there in season two. The fact is, the show has always been about various big ideas, it just focused more on one over the others depending on the season. Here, in the end, the focus is on “God” guiding humanity to their final planetary destination. In the macro, the characters really have no say in it, but in the micro we see them make a thousand little choices that may not have big picture consequences but which personally affect them and those around them. Providence vs. Free Will, God’s plan vs. our actions along the way; that’s the theme of the season.
Finally, I will say this in defense of the show being written “on the fly.” It’s a common complaint that the show struggled because there was no story laid out from the beginning; the writers just sort of made it up in chunks as they went along. That’s true. It’s also true of shows like Deep Space Nine or Breaking Bad, both of which were written on a season-by-season basis. Very few shows are like Babylon 5, which was mapped out to an insane degree before the first episode was written (and which still had to be revised midway-through due to unexpected production changes). You can find nits to pick with BSG’s overall story, specifically with regards to this scene:
You can try and “headcanon” your way out of this but the fact is, the writers hadn’t conceived of the idea of Earth 1 and Earth 2. There was just earth, and the ending of “Revelations” was not in their mind when they wrote “Home part two.” So, yes, there are problems. They don’t bother me any, though, but maybe that’s just me.
I’ll say this and then be done: Consider how fundamentally critical the baby Hera ended up being to the show’s mythology, and yet, when the miniseries was ended, none of the writers or creators thought we’d ever see Helo again. According to Moore, Helo was meant to die off-screen but the actor was so good they decided to go back to Caprica to check in on him throughout season one, devising the love story that ended up being the fulcrum of the whole final arc of the show.
That’s what writing on the fly can do. It allows you the freedom as writers to improvise and revise the story along the way, trusting that a good story will be told when all is said and done.
Battlestar Galactica’s story has been told, and it was great.
It’s been a pleasure revisiting this show during my COVID-induced quarantine. It had been a few years since my last rewatch and when I finally sat down, I did so thinking it would be something I came back to on and off throughout the spring and early summer. Instead, I blazed through it in just three weeks. Toward the end, as season four drew to a close, I felt like Adama, who once mentioned to Laura that he deliberately never finished his favorite book, because he didn’t want it to end. That’s how it was with me and Daybreak. It was the last one and I don’t want to watch it because I don’t want it to end.
No show moves me like this one. No show is nearer and dearer to my heart. I’ve been watching science-fiction since I watched the Next Generation’s third season premiere as a child. TNG was my favorite, then DS9. For years that was the king, no show would ever be better.
BSG is my favorite now and forever.
MY FAVORITE EPISODES
In terms of seasons, I think the first is the strongest, probably due to it only having thirteen episodes. It was leaner and meaner in that respect, and balanced the themes of the show nicely. After that, season four would be my next-favorite, as it was the best since the first in terms of episode quality-consistency. It helped that the season was conceived as a pair of ten-episode arcs. That really tightened up the writing. Season two is next, on the strength of its first half and the Resurrection Ship two-parter. Season three comes in last, but that’s no slight, as almost every other show on TV would kill to have episodes as high in quality as the four episodes that opened the season and the four that closed it. The show’s forward momentum really took a hit in the middle and that’s why it’s here in the back, but I’d take the weakest season of the show over almost every other show’s best.
I think it’s almost silly to try and list my favorite episodes. It would be easier to list the ones I flat-out didn’t like or the ones that I want to like but which didn’t work…
Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down
Black Market
Hero
Deadlock
That’s it; just four episodes—one from each season—and of them, only one that is 100% skippable (Black Market), and one that is 75% skippable (Hero). The rest I have problems with but they’re essential viewing all the same. Four misfires out of almost eighty is a pretty incredible run if you ask me.
Now, if I must list the ones that particularly wowed me (in order of appearance)…
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Flesh and Blood
Resurrection Ship 1-2
Downloaded
Lay Down Your Burdens 1-2
Occupation / Precipice
Faith
The Oath / Blood on the Scales
Daybreak
Battlestar Galactica S03 Poster
THE BEST
33
Act of Contrition / You Can’t Go Home Again
The Hand of God
Kobol’s Last Gleaming 1-2
Home 1-2
Pegasus
Exodus 1-2
Maelstrom
Crossroads 1-2
Guess What’s Coming to Dinner
Revelations / Sometimes a Great Notion
So say we all.