Time Immortal

Grace and I sat down to watch the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica last night. Being that we don’t get Space Channel as part of our cable package, the arrangement that we have in place involves me getting my younger brother to tape the episodes for us (which reminds me: I need to lend him the second season of Deep Space Nine at some point).

Guess What’s Coming to Dinner was, I thought, just a great episode. It wasn’t as theologically deep as the previous episode, but it was a nice return to the methodical, paced, straightforward and tense drama that has been such a hallmark of the show. It moved rapidly, fluidly, from scene to scene, and kept a good pace.

Some observations I took away from the episode follow.

>> The Final Five

The Colonials now know that the Final Five are in the fleet, that it was the Raiders that discovered this fact, and that it was their discovery — and subsequent refusal to fight — that was the impetus behind the Cylon retreat from the Ionian Nebula. Colonel Tigh doesn’t appear to have made the connection between this revelation and what Samuel Anders had to say about the events of the nebula battle.

>> Justice and morality

Once again, the tension is there between human and Cylon concepts of justice and Morality, and the Cylons in particular seem to be struggling mightily to move away from “eye for an eye” justice. Intially, the stage is set with basically back-to-back scenes of first the humans (Laura Roslin, Saul Tigh, and William Adama) plotting to in effect double-cross their newfound Cylon allies by withholding the Final Five once they are revealed, then of the Cylons planning to hold the human crew aboard the basestar hostage until the Final Five are turned over. Both plans hinge on re-activating the Number Threes.

Natalie goes back on the plan, though. While her initial argument was that while the Cylons may have changed, the humans haven’t, her follow-up argument is basically that it is more important that the Cylons have changed, and that this reality needs to be demonstrated. Again, the message is clear: the cycle of tit-for-tat has to end in order for both races to progress.

(This is interesting for another reason: assuming my prediction is right about the series being, essentially, eschatological in nature, and given my guessing that the end of the show hinges, in part, on the idea of breaking the cycle of history that has so far driven the backstory of the show, coult it perhaps be the case that the attempt by the Cylons to break out of the cycle of blood for blood and betrayal for betrayal is a hint of things to come?)

This shift appears in another place. Natalie, perhaps correctly guessing at Roslin’s apparent bloody-mindedness where Cylons are concerned, initially offers the possibility of an attack on the Resurrection Hub as a method by which humanity might get some vengeance. But it is made clear later that she doesn’t actually believe this: for Natalie, the issue is not one of revenge, but of development and meaning. Her speech to the Quorum of Twelve reflects this:

In our civil war, we’ve seen death. We watched our people die. Gone forever. As terrible as it was, beyond the reach of the Resurrection Ships, something began to change. We could feel a sense of time. As if each moment held its own significance. We began to realize that for our existence to hold any value it must end. To live meaningful lives we must die, and not return. The one human flaw, that you spend your lifetimes distressing over — mortality — is the one thing…well, it’s the one thing that makes you whole.

It’s almost as if she’s moved past the whole issue of fighting the civil war at this point; her desire seems to be for the Cylons to, in her words, become “whole.” She desires that her brothers and sisters be able to live “meaningful lives,” and she realizes that another cycle must be broken for this to happen: the cycle of Cylon resurrection.

>> Kara Thrace and her special destiny

It really does sound like the name of a bad cover band, doesn’t it?

At any rate, Starbuck’s destiny begins to move in a potentially different direction with this episode, and both Grace and I sat up a bit straighter during the rather well-edited sequence of Natalie giving her speech to the Quorum. Inter-cut with that sequence are a series of momentary flashbacks that Kara Thrace (watching the speech from a few feet away) has of the Cylon Hybrid professing to her that she is the “harbinger of death” who will “lead them all to their end.”

I think Grace realized it first, actually. “I thought of that too,” she remarked, meaning the possible implication that Starbuck would be the “harbinger of death” for the Cylons. I kind of talked about the idea when discussing the previous episode, Faith: rumours concerning what will transpire later on in the season suggest that the Colonials will attempt to destroy the Cylon Resurrection Hub, without which no Cylon will be able to resurrect even if a Resurrection Ship is present. I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps the repeated warnings that Kara Thrace is the harbinger of the apocalypse might be an indication that if the Colonials follow her, she will lead the Cylons to their end, if not humanity.

>> Hera

Little Hera Agathon basically is the last act of the episode, and while she only gets a few minutes of screen time (and even fewer lines of dialogue), she is back in a big way after being essentially ignored since the previous season. From her cryptic, spooky “Bye bye!” that she says to Sharon Agathon after the latter awakes from another opera house dream, to the scribbler full of sixes (and Sixes!), the fact that Hera is significant in a way that Nicholas Tyrol is not is very evident.

>> The Hybrid and the President

Starting with Razor, and now with the events of this episode, little hints are beginning to develop that the Hybrids may have their own agenda that is at cross-purposes with the intentions of the Cylons and the humans. Laura Roslin’s decision to visit the Hybrid on the basestar, in the wake of Starbuck revealing that the Hybrid has intimate knowledge of the content of Roslin’s visions, is foolhardy at best, and demonstrates an almost hubristic impulsiveness that may well be her undoing.

I have no idea what the Hybrid’s motives might be in abducting the President, if in fact that was “her” intent (Possible spoiler: episode summaries released to various television guides specifically mention that the Hybrid has abducted Roslin). I expect it ties in to the bit about the “dying leader” coming to know the “truth of the opera house,” although that’s hardly a certainty either.

>> Predictions, various and sundry

1) I still think Karl Agathon — Helo — is the final Cylon, especially in light of the attention (and the nature thereof) given to Hera in this episode.

2) I still think the identity of the final Cylon is in some way tied up with Cylon reproduction, especially in light of what is shaping up to be a major mission to destroy the ability of all Cylons, everywhere, to resurrect. If in fact the Cylons are to survive as a species, in the wake of the Hub’s destruction (which is by no means a certainty, although it probably will happen), then they will need to be able to reproduce.

3) I’m almost certain, now, that Cally Tyrol is not the final Cylon, especially if the unboxing of the Number Threes is to coincide with the destruction of the Resurrection Hub. It would be hard for the Threes to reveal the identity of the last Cylon if, in fact, there was no means by which that last Cylon could be introduced back into the narrative.

Although, having said that, I suppose there might be a certain dramatic validity to the revelation that one of the Final Five is permanently gone.

4) There’s a lot of nervousness in Anders, and I’m still fairly certain that he’ll end up being “outed” first. His nervousness was played up a lot in this episode, and if the Threes do not out him at once I’m almost certain he’ll do something to out himself.

5) I still think Adama will not end the series an atheist.

6) An interesting situation has developed with the abduction of Roslin by the rebel Hybrid. Firstly, Roslin herself is in the end stages of her cancer; that far from the Galactica and its doctor, she may end up in very dire straits in the coming episodes. Indeed, it’s certainly possible that she won’t make it back to the fleet alive. Another issue that crops up is the issue of the attack on the Hub itself; will Galactica make the attempt on her own, with what Vipers and pilots remain?

7) Did anyone else notice that the camera lingered on a very nervous-looking Leoben Conoy after he told Natalie to stall for time while he dealt with the Centurions? Obviously, the Hybrid’s actions change everything, but I wonder if perhaps he’ll end up getting killed off permanently — especially since we know that the Leoben that Kara interrogated way back in Flesh and Bone did manage to resurrect, and yet nevertheless told Kara that her destiny would be to send his soul off to God.

BeliefNet has an interview with Ron Moore, the mastermind behind the new iteration of Battlestar Galactica that I have been watching with avid interest. The topic of discussion is the Theology of the show, which is both a timely topic (given the intensifying religious debate that is shaping up as the show continues through its fourth, and last, broadcast season) and also a necessary discussion.

I’ve been trying to ferret out, for months, exactly where Moore is attempting to take the religion in the show, but one consistent thought I’ve had in all that time is that I really do want to applaud how he has handled the issue in its entirety. Outside of Babylon 5, very few science fiction series have ever really handled the issue of religion in any serious fashion (Deep Space Nine, which Moore also worked on, is the one exception I can think of), and indeed too much of science fiction seems predicated on the assumption that religion will go the way of the dodo by the time humanity well and truly takes to the stars.

I guess that’s why it’s called “fiction,” but still.

Some viewers say the show stereotypes fundamentalist Christians as kind of robotic, while others are saying, “This is great…pagans are finally the good guys!”

The parallels between the Cylon beliefs and fundamentalist Christian beliefs, yeah, there are certain aspects of it there, but there’s also the roots of the drama, also contains things such as Al Qaeda’s use of its religious practice to justify what it does. That’s part of who the Cylons are too, they aren’t just really stalking horses for fundamentalist Christianity.

There also seem to be elements of Eastern religions in the show with Leoben Conoy, another Cylon, talking about consciousness and reincarnation. Does each of the different models of Cylons represent a different religious point of view?

I think that’s true. Part of the idea of Leobon was to separate it from easy stereotypes of Christian beliefs. There wasn’t really a hierarchical church, there wasn’t an easy notion of Heaven and Hell. Leoben was starting to talk about things that were more Buddhist — consciousness, Enlightenment and reincarnation. I thought it was interesting to marry those notions to the idea of one deity.

As to Moore’s own religious views:

Do your own religious views shape the story lines?

I’m an Irish Catholic, not practicing. It probably just reflects my interest in my movement from Catholicism to atheism to agnosticism to interest in Eastern religions. I think the show is a reflection of my acknowledgement that faith and Religion are a part of the human experience, even if I’m not quite clear on exactly what it all means and what I truly believe. The most direct reflection of me in the show is this idea that when the Cylons became self-aware, when they became sentient, when they became people, they began to ask themselves the existential questions: “Why am I here? What is this all about? Is this all that I am? Is there something more?”

My view is that that’s fundamental to a thinking person. And that inevitably leads you to questions of faith and religion and “what will happen to me when I die?”

…

There’s been a lot of chatter on the message boards about the spiritual character of the show, with many people saying they enjoy it.

It’s fun to do a science-fiction series that isn’t just dealing with secular matters. I’m really glad people are responding to it.

I might not agree with Ron Moore’s personal religious convictions, but I applaud him heartily for putting things in this way. The show sets up very nicely many religious discussions, and even in the last couple of episodes there is a great example that one could draw upon.

In looking at Gaius Baltar’s newfound zeal for preaching monotheism amongst the Colonial population, one can draw certain parallels between that monotheism and Christianity. And yet, at the core of the monotheistic sentiments is a doctrine which is actually a logical inversion of Christianity. For whereas Baltar teaches that…

God only loves that which is perfect and he loves you. He loves you because you are perfect. You are perfect. Just as you are.

…Christianity teaches that God loves us in spite of our imperfections, that God — through Jesus — perfects that which he loves.

Things like this motivate a lot of thought, I find, and I think that’s something to be applauded in a television show, especially a science fiction show. Religion is an inescapable part of the human condition, and always has been; it is folly to think, like Gene Roddenberry did, that religion will disappear in due time. It won’t, and more importantly will continue to serve as an impetus for human action and reason for all ages yet to come.

Update: Welcome, WebElf readers!