Time Immortal

Spoiler Warning: this entire article is pretty much one big act of musing about the direction the series is going to go in the second half of its fourth and final season, which is set to begin airing episodes on January 16th. As such, pretty much everything I’m about to write should be considered to be a potential spoiler.

You’ve been warned, good Reader. If spoilers aren’t your bag, it’s best to skip to the next article and be done with it.

As I noted previously, series creator Ron Moore has said that he is committed to telling a story from within the framework of naturalistic science fiction, which means that the show more or less conforms to the scientific realities that we, the viewers, should know and be familiar with (apart from a set of core assumptions concerning Macguffin-esque technology that is necessary to drive the plot forward).

In other words: jump drives and artificial gravity are in. Aliens, transporters, replicators, phasers, and all the rest are out.

Because the show is built around a naturalistic sci-fi framework, its purpose won’t be to tell an “origins story” — the Colonial fleet will not be the “latest new Ark,” and its people will not be the “latest new Adam and Eve.” The emergence of humanity as a product of millions of years of evolution is reasonably well-documented, and it would defy Ron Moore’s stated commitment to that naturalistic framework were he to suddenly pull back the curtain and reveal, say, William Adama and Laura Roslin, or Lee Adama and Starbuck, to be the real Adam and Eve.

If anything, I think it will be revealed that humanity initially came from Earth and that BSG is set many thousands of years in the future. I think it will be revealed that at some point, pace Firefly, humanity fled Earth and found Kobol, and that centuries or millennia later they were forced to flee Kobol as well. I’m not sure if, or how, the Lords of Kobol will play into the story as the season progresses, and whether or not any revelations will be made about who, exactly, these beings were (if indeed they existed).

The arrival at Earth, then, will not be a discovery so much as it will be a return.

In the main, looking again at the above-linked reflection some months after having written it, and especially in light of the last episode of BSG that aired (in which what was apparently Earth was discovered), it seems that my basic assumptions were correct. What’s been interesting to observe, as the series has progressed, is that as the Colonial fleet has drawn steadily closer to Earth and discovered artifacts of either their ancestors or the Thirteenth Tribe, the age of those artifacts has been steadily increasing. The ruins on Kobol were about 2,000 years old. The beacon found in the nebula was about 3,000 years old. The Temple of Five, on the algae planet, was about 4,000 years old.

This suggests one of two things: it could, on one hand, be taken as tacit confirmation of the fact that humans originated on Earth, and subsequently took to the stars…or it could be confirmation of the fact that the Thirteenth Tribe left Kobol well in advance of the other tribes, went to Earth, and then voyaged back to Kobol at some later point in time.

This latter theory would, at least, explain why the Pythian scrolls that are so often quoted in the series would seem to chronicle a journey to Earth. At the same time, this theory is contradicted by the fact that in at least one episode, it is suggested that all thirteen tribes departed Kobol at roughly the same time. On the other hand, it is supported by the observation that the Zodiac signs that represent (and give name to) the Twelve Colonies are all constellations which are visible from Earth. Then again, that could just as easily be indicative of the fact that humanity originated on Earth, and that even though Earth itself became myth as the centuries rolled on, aspects of that history were nevertheless preserved.

I find, more and more, that I’m tending toward the theory that the Pythian prophecy speaks of a cyclical history that has now fulfilled its event arc three times: human habitation of Earth ended in catastrophe, so humanity fled to Kobol. That colonization in turn ended in catastrophe, so humanity fled in turn to the Twelve Colonies. Now those colonies have ended in catastrophe, and humanity has once again fled to the stars. But rather than flee to someplace new, they are fleeing to someplace old: Earth, much as the Thirteenth Tribe fled to Earth after the Exodus from Kobol.

And I think — still think, really — that BSG is shaping up to be an “eschatological myth” for our times. It’s not a story about humanity’s beginning, but about humanity’s end. The cyclical nature of history has been a recurring theme in the show; I think, before the end of the show, the cycle will be broken, and history “as it is known” will come to an end — and then, quite possibly a fiery, sudden end. The show is not so much a re-working of the Book of Genesis as it is a re-working of the Book of Revelation.

To my thinking, this theory was given strong support indeed by the last episode to air, Revelations, which dealt with the theme of breaking out of history’s brutal cycle. But now the question becomes: if history is indeed cyclical, within the framework of the show, then what does breaking the cycle mean? Does it perhaps signal the end of history.

Consider, for example, Edward James Olmos comments concerning the end of the series:

Edward James Olmos has said that audiences will not be prepared for the upcoming finale of Battlestar Galactica, in a panel at London’s MCM Expo and an exclusive interview with SciFiNow.

“It’s not a happy ending, we end up with almost nothing,” the 61-year-old actor told journalists from the magazine over the weekend,

Meanwhile, rumours swirl that the show’s finalé will feature a full-scale conflict and “gigantic, never before seen effects.” Coupled with Jamie Bamber’s revelation that the last scenes he shot for the series invovled Lee Adama “running around ’shooting at stuff’ with extras,” this suggests that massive battles and destruction may be the order of the day for the closing moments of the show. Numerous other hints of just such a battle have also emerged.

The series finalé seems to be shaping up to also incorporate a number of flashback-type sequences. In particular, several scenes featuring Laura Roslin were shot at Simon Fraser University’s Academic Quadrangle, which was used as the backdrop for the “Riverwalk” district in Caprica City earlier on in the series.

And then there’s Tahmoh Penikett’s statement to consider:

Everybody dies. We have a dark ending…Obviously you know, those last couple of episodes, they’re going to blow your mind. They are going to go down in history as the best television ever done.

Flashbacks, dark endings, and people left with almost nothing…yet at the same time, a satisfying, organic ending which signs everything off really well? That sort of mixture of hardship and hope is the same sort that would seem to accompany eschatological tales of virtually every sort, including (and perhaps especially) Christian eschatology. Great suffering, followed by hope and the promise of a future beyond all imagining, a future beyond the brutal confines of history and sin.

Update: One potential wrinkle in all of this could be if Ron Moore takes the story in a different cyclical direction, escaping humans and Cylons from their cycle of violence and exodus only to reveal that they represent a kind of evolutionary cycle in terms of species development. There are scattered rumours emerging that Cylon remains will be found on Earth, suggesting that the extant humans of the BSG universe are, in fact, descendants of the Cylons that the original people of Earth, or possibly Kobol, developed.

This would also tie in to the plot threads surrounding Cylon reproduction that have swirled through the show’s four seasons.

Well, I have to say that this was one of the best episodes of the current season of Battlestar Galactica to date, and certainly one of the better ones in the whole series. Not only did it take a very reasonable look at the twin concepts of death and dying, but it did so in a way that certainly hammers home just how much of a departure the show’s themes are from what could be called the “traditional” treatment of Religion in science fiction. And unlike Babylon 5, in BSG it seems to be the case, more and more, that God is real and, what is more, that He is actively involved in the Universe.

Barb Nicolosi has an excellent analysis of this and a few other themes, and I will probably borrow some of the structure of her post in my own reflections.

> Theology

I think it’s clear that the producers and writers of Battlestar are attempting to communicate the reality of God within the show; He exists and, what is more, is very personal and present. The theme of “I am with you” resonates throughout the show, with the line being uttered by several different characters (always in relation to death, and in particular in relation to consolation in times of suffering and fear of what lies “beyond”). The experience of God’s “I am with you” is described (by Nana Visitor, who turns in one heck of a guest performance) as being accompanied by a sense of being warm and safe. That same sense resonates at the end of the episode when Samuel Anders consoles the dying Number Eight, and then with the same words.

This also speaks to the agentic actions of God in the series; not only does he address people directly, as in the case of Emily Kowalski, but He speaks through other people (as in the case of Anders). Of course, God’s speaking through other characters had been alluded to in previous episodes, in reference to the Cylon Hybrids, and it serves to note that once again a basestar’s Hybrid serves in a prophetic role. More on that later.

Also, I can’t help but observe that this is another instance in the series in which impending death and the passage between death and life has been abstracted with imagery involving water. In Faith, the imagery involves a ship crossing a river, where lost loved ones await the arrival of the recently deceased with open arms in an air of joy and celebration. (Grace noted that she’d heard a similar analogy of the passage between life and death from a priest at her church in Vermilion.) In Resurrection Ship, Part II, when Lee Adama is slowly dying of oxygen deprivation in the cold of space, the imagery invovles him at first floating, and then slowly sinking, into a dark abyss of water.

And I think that these scenes not only communicate the reality of God and His actions in the Universe in BSG, but also the realities of heaven and hell. One observes that William Adama is an atheist, and certainly Lee Adama has shown no religious sentiments in any episode of the series so far (and in fact, it could be argued that the way in which he discusses sacramentality with Starbuck in this episode demonstrates an “outside looking in” perspective).

The connection is tenuous, I realize, but the sense that one comes away with is that there is a connection between these different bits of visual imagery that relates to the people having them. For the secular Lee, the passage across the water is despairing and doomed. For the religious Emily, it is a time of joy and hopefulness.

At any rate, the existence of both a personal and present God and an afterlife is quite clearly communicated. There is a supernatural dimension to the Universe in BSG, and what is perhaps most impressive about it is that it is being demonstrated, more and more, in such a way that shows that the existence of the supernatural is an idea which is compatible with empirical realities, albeit in ways that at times require understanding things in ways that could be termed “outside the box.”

> Prophecy and Kara Thrace’s destiny

“The destiny” is back with a vengeance in this episode, especially with the Hybrid’s prophecy as she is being disconnected: “Thus will it come to pass. A dying leader will know the truth of the Opera House. The missing Three will give you the Five who come from the home of the Thirteenth. You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead them all to their end. End of Line.”

The prophecy would seem to start out by referring to Laura Roslin, who has made forays into the Opera House before. In light of Roslin’s experiences with Emily Kowalski in this episode, the “truth” of the Opera House could possibly refer to a future repudiation of the Colonial religion by Roslin (which would mean the claims of Gaius Baltar’s “Head Six” back on Kobol, in which she claimed that the Colonial Scriptures are lies, fabricated to cover up the reality of life on Kobol, which included ritual human sacrifice).

Alternatively, it could mean that Roslin will be the one to whom the identity of the fifth Cylon is first revealed.
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James McGrath writes in to provide some alternative commentary on the issue of Battlestar Galactica’s Theology, which I discussed in this article.

I thought I’d draw attention to some of the posts on my blog about BSG and theology (I’m a religion professor who is also a fan), such as :

http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2008/05/gospel- according-to-gaius.html

http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2008/04/bartlestar- theodica.html

I’d welcome your comments!

While I could say more for Professor McGrath’s opinions regarding Bart Ehrman (my own views on the “problem” of evil and theodicy are well known; I don’t see the existence of evil and/or suffering in the world as any kind of challenge to the Christian conception of God, and regard those who use said issue(s) as an objection to Religion as being, shall we say, rather deluded themselves), some of his views on BSG and the theology of Gaius Baltar’s new religious movement (itself a derivation of the Cylon religion) are rather interesting.

For example, McGrath remarks thusly concerning the first episode of the latest, and final, season of BSG:

In the BSG Season 4 premiere, entitled “He That Believeth In Me“, a more relevant verse would seem to be “Whosoever seeks to save his life will lose it…” Gaius Baltar moves from an unwilling Messiah disgusted by the gaudy Hindu-style flashing votive lights surrounding his picture, to one who seems genuinely willing to give up his life to save another. The “one true God” has yet to be explored fully as a concept on the show, but in the mean time, interesting questions continue to be asked about how we live our lives and what matters most to us.

I observed to my wife, while we were watching the latest episode of the series to date, that Baltar seems unable to avoid some manner of beating in each and every episode he has been in this season. I’d have to go over all the episodes again (we have them on tape), but I can’t recall yet a time when Baltar has not been pistol-whipped, choked, or punched during the course of an episode since the fleet departed the Ionian Nebula

And in each and every case, Baltar’s personal sufferings have been intimately relevant to the narrative of the show. Indeed, through examples as varied as the knife attack on Baltar in the head to Galen Tyrol attempting to choke him, the series has demonstrated in almost every episode this season that the God whom Baltar is preaching effects His plan for humanity in part through human suffering.
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