Battlestar Galactica 2003 Reimagined series

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The story arc of Battlestar Galactica is set in a distant part of the galaxy, where a civilization of humans live on a series of planets known as the Twelve Colonies. In the past, the Colonies had been at war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons. With the unwitting help of a human named Gaius Baltar, the Cylons launch a sudden sneak attack on the Colonies, laying waste to the planets and devastating their populations. The approximately 50,000 human survivors flee into space aboard any spacecraft they can reach. Of all the Colonial Fleet, the eponymous Battlestar Galactica appears to be the only military capital ship that survived the attack. Under the leadership of Colonial Fleet officer Commander William "Bill" Adama (Olmos) and President Laura Roslin (McDonnell), the Galactica and its crew take up the task of leading the small fugitive fleet of survivors into space in search of a fabled refuge known as Earth.

The series was a ratings success for Syfy, and was particularly popular in Europe and the United States. Battlestar Galactica has received nationwide critical acclaim from the American media and has been honored with numerous awards and award nominations in its four-season run. It spawned the spin off TV series Caprica, which began airing in January 2010. It was also the second most watched cable show of 2009.

"The Cylons were created by man. They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies. And then the day came when The Cylons decided to kill their masters. After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared. The Cylons left for another world to call their own. A remote space station was built......Where Cylon and Human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations. Every year the Colonials send an officer. The Cylons send no one. No one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years."

Battlestar Galactica continued from the 2003 miniseries to chronicle the journey of the last surviving humans from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol after their nuclear annihilation by the Cylons. The survivors are led by President Laura Roslin and Commander William Adama in a ragtag fleet of ships with the Battlestar Galactica, an old-but-powerful warship as its command ship. Pursued by Cylons intent on wiping out the remnants of the human race, the survivors travel across the galaxy looking for the fabled and long-lost "thirteenth" colony: Earth. Unlike most space opera series, Battlestar Galactica has no aliens (the antagonists are man-made Cylon robots), the primary armaments used by both military forces utilize bullets, rail guns, and missiles instead of lasers, and the series intentionally avoids technobabble.Instead, most of the stories deal with the apocalyptic fallout of the destruction of the Twelve Colonies upon the survivors, and the moral choices they must make as they deal with the decline of the human race, and their war with the Cylons. Stories also portray the concept of perpetuated cycles of hate and violence driving the human-Cylon conflict, and religion with the implication of a "God," whose angelic agents intervene on behalf of the main characters, most notably Gaius Baltar.

Over the course of the show's four seasons, the war between the Colonials and the Cylons takes many twists and turns. Despite the animosity on both sides, the Cylons and humans slowly turn away from their hatred of each other. Part of this is due to a growing schism within the humanoid Cylons, led by the disgruntled Cylon "Number One" named John Cavil. Cavil's obsession with hiding the true genesis of the humanoid Cylons (the "Significant Eight" created by the "Final Five," who themselves are humanoid Cylons from Earth, who had their memories erased by Cavil) leads to a civil war among the Cylons, with a faction of the robot race forming an alliance with the humans. Other plotlines involve the mysterious destiny of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, who is the subject of a prophecy involving her as the "Harbinger of Death" who will "lead humanity to its end," as well as the redemption of Gaius Baltar through the Cylons' monotheistic religion, after he becomes a pariah within the fleet (after being forced to collaborate with the Cylons).

In the final episodes, a resurrected Kara Thrace leads the surviving humans and Cylons to a new planet, which is revealed to be Earth, with the first colonists landing in Africa. Adama names their new home planet "Earth," as a tribute to the "real" Earth of legend, which had been originally sought by the survivors. The original Earth was revealed to have been a different planet, one which had become an uninhabitable wasteland by a nuclear war waged by its Cylon creations thousands of years before. The new Earth is found to be inhabited by early humans, who are genetically compatible with the humans from the Galactica and the rest of the fleet, but who possess only the most rudimentary civilization. Human beings had apparently naturally evolved on Earth and Kobol, the original home world of the humans who settled the Twelve Colonies. The surviving humans and humanoid Cylons decide to live on the new planet, and discard all technology, destroying the fleet by flying it into the Sun. Kara Thrace, apparently an "angel" since her purportedly fatal crash on the "Earth" of legend, disappears. The surviving Cylon Centurions are given possession of the remaining Cylon Basestar, and proceed to jump away from Earth, never to be heard from again.

The series finale concludes with an epilogue set 150,000 years later in contemporary Times Square of New York City, as two "angels" in the form of Caprica Six and Gaius Baltar, muse on the origin and fate of humankind, and on whether or not the cycle of violence between human and machine will repeat itself once more. It is revealed that humans on Earth are in some small part descended from the half-human, half-Cylon girl named Hera Agathon, who lived out her life in Africa hundreds of thousands of years earlier, ultimately becoming Mitochondrial Eve

Cast and characters

Themes and allusions

Theological references

Religion and theology flavored the original series, and they are prominent in the reprise.

Perhaps the prominent religious component is the series's theme: the human survivors' search for Earth. That search is motivated by ancient religious texts' references to a 13th tribe of humans that established a civilization on a distant planet called Earth. Various religious relics and ruins on the Twelve Colonies and elsewhere in the galaxy, provide clues to Earth's location. Throughout the series, humans and Cylons are assisted in time of need by mysterious entities, possibly from a higher plane of existence.

Human polytheism

Many of the humans share in polytheism, worshiping the gods of Kobol. This appears to be the state religion of the colonies; government oaths refer to the gods and back on the Twelve Colonies, public museums housed artifacts of the gods. Some are devout believers, others are atheists, most fall somewhere in the middle and all three viewpoints are accepted more or less equally.

The Kobol gods have the same names and characteristics as the Greek Olympic gods and the show makes references to Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Ares and Apollo. In one story in season 3, the crew fights with the Cylons to obtain "The Eye of Jupiter"; Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of Zeus. As evinced by prayers offered by the human characters, the Kobol gods are morally refined and are believed to watch over and intervene benevolently in the lives of the just. This is similar to the conception of the gods during the Greek classical and Hellenistic periods, not the amoral (and very human) gods of the Greek archaic period.

In a reference to Hinduism, the opening credits are accompanied by an operatic version of the Gayatri Mantra, a hymn dedicated to the solar deity Savitr. During a memorial service, the residing chaplain recites another important Hindu prayer, actually a sample from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (one of many Upanishads) which is transliterated here:

In another parallel to Western polytheism, the names of the Twelve Colonies and their planets are similar to the names of the constellations in the Greco-Roman zodiac. In the early days of the 12 colonies, each colony's flag showed the stellar constellation of its zodiac sign ("Home Pt. 2"). It is implied by the finale that the Greek/Roman pantheons as well as several ancient belief systems including the zodiac were imported to Earth by the colonial survivors.

Divine texts

The principal means of transmitting divine knowledge are the Sacred Scrolls. The Scrolls chronicle the early period of human existence, when people and the gods purportedly lived together on the planet Kobol (at the beginning of the series, the location of Kobol is unknown, and the planet regarded as mythical by secular humans). The Scrolls tell that at some point in time, twelve human tribes left Kobol and founded the Twelve Colonies, with a thirteenth heading towards Earth. This is also referenced in the opening words of the Scrolls, "Life here began out there."

The show offers little detail of the Sacred Scrolls, other than that it contains the Book of Pythia, which chronicles an ancient prophetess (similar to the Oracle of Delphi named Pythia), who journeyed with the Thirteenth Tribe on their voyage to Earth. Pythia also described the exodus of the other Twelve Tribes, and the things that happened to them. She describes a dying leader, who would guide the tribes to salvation. Among other things, the scriptures tell of the return to Kobol, stating that bringing the Arrow of Apollo to the Tomb of Athena will reveal the road to Earth. The dying leader is to die just before the end of the journey. President Roslin sees herself as playing the part of the leader in the texts, as she has terminal breast cancer, which was in remission for a time, but then returned.

Cylon monotheism

References to modern society

Time described Battlestar Galactica as "a gripping sci-fi allegory of the war on terror-reign of terror, complete with monotheistic religious fundamentalists (here genocidal cyborgs called Cylons), sleeper cells, civil-liberties crackdowns and even a prisoner-torture scandal".The show has attempted to maintain its realism by referring to familiar elements of contemporary history – Laura Roslin's swearing in on Colonial One directly "cited the swearing in of Lyndon B. Johnson after the Kennedy assassination" – and the developing political situation since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Many people have drawn parallels between the Cylons and Al Qaeda and according to The Guardian "Battlestar Galactica is the only award-winning drama that dares tackle the war on terror". The show delves into the emotional rationale of terrorists who act out of rage and vengeance in the aftermath of their oppression. The show has also tackled issues regarding terrorist sleeper cells with stories involving the reality and fear of Cylon suicide attacks, Cylon Number 5 (Aaron Doral) in the episode called Litmus, sneaks aboard the Galactica and blows himself up in the middle of the corridor and 'sleeper agent', Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii activates after destroying a cylon basestar at the end of season 1 and shoots Commander Adama. Similar themes are revisited in season 3 (Episode 3.1, "Occupation") with a far different perspective with the humans, rather than the Cylon 'enemy' becoming the suicide bombers. It has been suggested that these plotlines extensively "hinted at war-on-terrorism overtones". The show also quotes civil liberties crackdowns during the 3rd season when the 6 members of The Circle after the Exodus from New Caprica become judge, jury and executioner of the people who were accused of aiding the Cylons during the occupation on New Caprica. They also touch on prisoner torture during season 2 when Cylon 6 is attacked, raped and tortured by Lt. Thorne from the battlestar Pegasus. After 9/11, the original series' "broad premise – the human military's struggles in the wake of a massive terrorist attack – suddenly gained resonance"and let the show tackle issues like suicide bombings, torture ("evoking the darker side of the war on terror") and "civil liberties crackdowns".

Executive producer Ronald D. Moore points out that the Cylons and Al Qaeda are not necessarily intended to be allegorical: "They have aspects of Al Qaeda and they have aspects of the Catholic Church and they have aspects of America" and in contrast, with the New Caprica storyline the show's humans have been discussed as an allegory not for an America under attack but for an occupied people mounting an insurgency and turning to suicide bombings as a tactic. There is a consensus that with "its third season, the show has morphed into a stinging allegorical critique of America’s three-year occupation of Iraq" as the "cameras record Cylon occupation raids on unsuspecting human civilians with the night-vision green familiar to any TV news viewer. The reasoning of the Cylons is horrifically familiar, they would prefer not to be brutal but they won't accept the failure of a glorious mission." According to Slate "If this sounds like Iraq, it should", and "In unmistakable terms, Battlestar Galactica is telling viewers that insurgency (like, say, the one in Iraq) might have some moral flaws, such as the whole suicide bombing thing, but is ultimately virtuous and worthy of support." The "really audacious stroke of this season was showing us a story about a suicide bomber from the point of view of the bomber and his comrades... because the cause of this terrorist was unquestioningly our own. We sympathize with the insurgents wholeheartedly."If the Cylon occupying force is an allegory of the Coalition Forces in Iraq, then some of the other references are equally controversial; the "scene of the shiny, terrifying Cylon centurions (a servant class of robots that actually look like robots) marching down the main road of New Caprica while the devastated colonists looked on was the Nazis marching into Paris."

Although David Eick has said the production staff "don't need to say 'OK, let's do the episode where we're gonna do the Abu Ghraib scandal'" and points out that events depicted on New Caprica "are as much a story rooted in political tales like the Vichy France or Vietnam" rather than current events, he acknowledges that they "do gravitate in those directions when it comes to the storytelling"

Music

Bear McCreary is the primary composer for the television series, having assisted Richard Gibbs on the 3-hour miniseries. When the show was picked up, Gibbs opted not to devote full time to the regular series' production and McCreary became the composer. He scored over 70 episodes. Five Battlestar Galactica soundtrack albums have been released to great critical acclaim. The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan hailed the music as "sensational" and "innovative", Joanna Weiss of The Boston Globe praised McCreary as a "visionary composer" who did much to create "the rich atmosphere of Battlestar", Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger described McCreary's work on the show as "transcendent" and Variety said "Galactica offers some of the most innovative music on TV today."

The music of Battlestar Galactica displays a wide variety of ethnic influences and intentionally tries to avoid the "usual" style of a science fiction score. For some of the series' more important episodes, McCreary was granted a full orchestra. Character themes and leitmotifs gradually took on importance, despite being avoided earlier. A variety of ethnic instruments have been used. One season 4 episode employed: Chinese membrane flute, Indian bansuri flute, duduk (Armenian woodwind), erhu (Chinese violin), yialli tanbur (a Turkish lute), dumbek (Middle Eastern drum), Japanese taiko drums and four brass players, 30 string players and a 12-voice choir.

There have been several live concerts featuring the music of Battlestar Galactica. In April 2008, more than 1,000 fans attended two sold-out shows at L.A.'s Roxy on Sunset Boulevard, with some fans flying in from as far as England and Australia. A ballet based on McCreary's scores for Galactica premiered on March 7, 2009 for a 13 week run. Entitled "Prelude to War", it was performed by the dancers of the Theaterhagen in Hagen, Germany with choreography by Ricardo Fernando, and the Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernhard Steiner.

Impact

Critical response

Diane Werts of Newsday wrote: "You can look at this saga any way you want—as political drama, religious debate, psychological suspenser, sci-fi adventure, deep metaphor or just plain fun—and it's scintillating from every angle." Robert Bianco of USA Today commented: "Driven by violence and rage, Galactica is perhaps the darkest space opera American TV has ever produced. In Galactica's future, humans are on the run, and if external enemies don't get us, internal divisions will... You'll understand them [the characters], their conflicts and their desires, because they're recognizable humans in all their glorious complexity. And that's what makes Galactica a great TV series." Peter Suderman of National Review stated that the series is "arguably the most potent, dramatically vibrant series on television. ...[I]t packs the power of a gut punch on screen. For that, much credit is due to the immensely compelling cast of characters... Battlestar Galactica burns with a combustive mixture of political turmoil and human drama that is as achingly real and relevant as anything on television.Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the show "has distinguished itself as one of television's very best dramas — on a par with 24, The Wire, and Lost — because it so utterly transcends both its genre and its source material. ...[The] series' sophisticated stories have also attracted a distinctively new breed of fan, one who's not necessarily a sci-fi buff."

Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times praises the show's ability to "anchor fantasy with vivid and recognizable human psychology" and declares that the series is "not just a cult hit but a significant piece of television." Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune describes it as a "sprawling, enthralling tale of human survival" that is "full of political allegories and fascinating, multifaceted characters." She finds, "Like Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica is interested in exploring how a society on the edge decides to govern itself. What rights and actions are sacrosanct, which are outlawed, when most of the human race is eliminated? ... Thanks to a stellar cast and brave writing, Battlestar soars." Throughout its run, the series has often surprised reviewers with its many twists and turns. Ryan comments: "There’s nothing like a good Battlestar plot twist to make your head spin, but the “holy cow” moments aren’t the main point (though they’re one heck of a tasty side dish). The show and its twists and turns are grounded in deep curiosity about human nature, and how contradictory and confounding it can be.

Matt Soergel of The Florida Times-Union states: "Its propulsive and complex storytelling is matched by, at best, just a handful of theatrical movies a year."Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle opines, "Battlestar Galactica transcends the sci-fi genre; it competes, creatively, on the same level as any other top-tier drama." Mark Perigard of the Boston Herald states: "A drama this gripping comes ’round rarely."James Poniewozik of Time Magazine named it one of the 100 best TV shows of all time.Time magazine also wrote in the spring of 2005 that the new show was one of the six best drama programs on television. It would proclaim the program the best show on television in December of the same year. Television Without Pity describes Battlestar Galactica as "one of the finest, most beautifully written, expertly acted shows on television." Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger writes: "[W] hat makes Galactica so gripping is its emphasis on character over hardware. The explosions and the killer robots are cool, but they don't stack up to seeing fully-drawn people - brought to life by a great writing staff led by producer Ron Moore and an astonishing cast led by Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell - grapple with these life-or-death, genocide-level decisions."Joshua Alston of Newsweek declares that the show "captures better than any other TV drama of the past eight years the fear, uncertainty and moral ambiguity of the post-9/11 world" and "always finds ways to challenge the audience's beliefs."

The series also draws praise for having many strong and complex female characters.The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Melanie McFarland notes, "[Starbuck], played with a tomboyish swagger by Katee Sackhoff, is fast becoming the latest in a long line of feminist television icons."

The series has also received favorable reviews from other writers. Stephen King wrote, "This is a beautifully written show, driven by character rather than effects...but the effects are damn good. And there's not a better acting troupe at work on television."Joss Whedon commented: "I think it's so passionate, textured, complex, subversive and challenging that it dwarfs everything on TV."

Cast and characters

Themes and allusions

Theological references

Human polytheism

Divine texts

Cylon monotheism

References to modern society

Music

Impact

Critical response

Wider influence

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009