#caprica tv

[couldinfinitytrainhavesavedthem]

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[nellarw95]

Happy Birthday James 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

James Wesley Marsters

August 20,1962

Buon Compleanno 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

20 Agosto 1962

[wouldtheyfuck]

[scifipinups]

Magda Apanowicz Caprica (2010)

[gayspock]

theyre cancelling yaoi, last i heard ...

[tabrownwv]

Wishing a very happy and blessed birthday to Sasha Roiz!! I made this video last year and edited to add the doggy because he reminds me of Bernie 🐶😁 🥳

[pearwaldorf]

idk why I thought episode 7 of IWTV had aired already, but we got to the end of 6 and my husband told me we were fully caught up.

I both love and hate that they're airing it weekly. Nobody out here doing it like Rolin Jones and co.

I genuinely do not know how they managed to make S2 even better than an already stellar S1. People are going to pass on this show because it's genre and doesn't have enough white people in it, and they should be sad and pathetic in their ignorance.

Everything is done with craft, precision, and care in a way you very rarely see anymore. The writing is so fucking good.

You know how sometimes prestige TV is written in this very "I'm extremely fucking aware I'm a prestige TV script" way? (Like Black Sails. I still think the show is amazing, but sometimes it gets old.) IWTV does not do that. All this beautiful dialogue just flows like it's the only way these characters could have ever expressed what they're thinking and feeling.

And the actors elevate this incredible writing. Assad talked about how easy it is to say these lines (and I agree they're definitely pulling their weight), but that nasty fight between Louis and Armand in San Francisco? You can't just yell those lines and expect them to do all the work.

Every character is messy and complicated af. Louis has Lestat in his head like fucking Caprica Six for about half the season. Armand is... well. Everybody's culpable, monstrous even; and everybody's a victim. But in a way that's actually interesting, partially because there's no overt moralization. You're an adult with media analysis skills, you can draw your own conclusions.

If any of this sounds interesting, I really hope you'll give it a shot. There's a 7 day free trial of AMC+ and it's coming to Netflix at some point. Happy to give content warnings if there's something you're specifically concerned about.

[frakyeahbattlestargalactica]

From Classic TV Archives:

45 years ago, April 29, 1979, the final episode of Battlestar Galactica aired. It is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series (Galactica 1980), a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games. A re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica aired as a two-part, three-hour miniseries developed by Ronald D. Moore and David Eick in 2003. That miniseries led to a weekly television series, which aired until 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, aired in 2010.

All Battlestar Galactica productions share the premise that in a distant part of the universe, a human civilization has extended to a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies, to which they have migrated from their ancestral homeworld of Kobol. The Twelve Colonies have been engaged in a lengthy war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons, whose goal is the extermination of the human race. The Cylons offer peace to the humans, which proves to be a ruse. With the aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons carry out a massive nuclear attack on the Twelve Colonies and on the Colonial Fleet of starships that protect them. These attacks devastate the Colonial Fleet, lay waste to the Colonies, and virtually destroy all but a population of 50,000. Scattered survivors flee into outer space aboard a ragtag array of spaceworthy ships. Of the entire Colonial battle fleet, only the Battlestar Galactica, a gigantic battleship and spacecraft carrier, appears to have survived the Cylon attack. Under the leadership of Commander Adama, the Galactica and the pilots of "Viper fighters" lead a fugitive fleet of survivors in search of the fabled thirteenth colony known as Earth.

During the eight months after the pilot's first broadcast, 17 original episodes of the series were made (five of them two-part shows), equivalent to a standard 24-episode TV season. Citing declining ratings and cost overruns, ABC canceled Battlestar Galactica in April 1979. Its final episode "The Hand of God" was telecast on April 29, 1979

[gainesha]

still at Season 1 with my current BSG rewatch, going slower than I wanted, but

stray thoughts:

I have seen a lot of the episodes many many times, and I had one complete rewatch years ago with my family, but it is very exciting that I committed myself to do a full rewatch again. enough time has passed so that I can kinda see it with a new eye, even though most of the show etched myself into my mind and soul forever.

she is a big deal, but i still feel like we underappreciate Katee Sackhoff as an actor and Kara Thrace as a character in the show. she is just ELECTRIC. possibly my favorite fictional TV character, give or take a Nora Durst.

the David Weddle & Bradley Thomspon scripts sing like no others. Michael Taylor is going to be my go-to writer on the show later on, but they are indelible throughout, and the first ones to truly get the wavelength of RDM

i know many purists would rank the first season as the best, and i enjoy the very classical standalone structure and small-scale feel of it, but for me it's still probably at last place, even considering some rock bottoms of later seasons. also, I love the spiritual and theological rabbit holes the writers will write themselves into, and the show gets better for all the weird detours and strange turns of the worldbuilding and the narrative. I am very curious how the dead-ends and messiness of the overall arc will feel this time through, though.

Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down is by far the worst episode of the show thus far. I don't think EJO handles the screwball rhythms well as a director, and the characterization of Ellen this early in the run does not sit quite well with me, considering how they deepen her story later, especially in the New Caprica run. here it's just a crazy scheming bitch and a bros before hos posturing - her dynamic with Saul could (and will) be great and complicated, two people who get the very worst out of each other, which is spelled out in the episode, but isn't really depicted in an interesting way just yet.

also, can't wait for Tricia Helfer to really shine in later seasons. she is already amazing in her limited role of HeadSix temptress, and you can already sense the complexities behind her purr and anger and frustration.

Tahmoh Pennikett is not the greatest actor on the show, but he is amazing at giving a protector / big brother energy for Helo. he is just so rock solid. makes Helo a much better character than on paper, I think.

Flesh and Bone doesn't hit as hard any more (it was the episode that truly hooked me the first time, and one of my faves to revisit at earlier rewatches), but it is still the episode that has the first true glimpse of the thornier political and theological stuff that make the show reach next levels of greatness in terms of the cylon-human relations. Callum Keith Rennie is alluring and next to Tricia Helfer, the most un-human of the cylons.

the costumes in BSG are PERFECT. from the shiny chrome-silver flightsuits in the Caprica arc (both Helo and Sharon have such cute asses in those pants) to the standard blue uniform and the dogtag-sleeveless-tanktop combo of the pilots... so so so cool

the handheld camera shots really pay out whenever they zoom in a close-up of adama's pockmarked face or starbuck's trembling mouth. a huge reason of why Galactica (the ship, the crew) feels so lived in.

quiet moments like this one always make me cry:

[noodleddragon]

🎤🎶🎥📺

🎤 - Top 5 favorite bands music artists?

I'm not great at following specific bands or artists, as I just vibe on a song by song basis, but I suppose:

Venjent

Paramore

Odie Leigh

Daft Punk

Deadmau5

🎶 - Top 5 favorite songs?

This is Why - Paramore

My Heart Has Teeth - Deadmau5/Skylar Grey

Who's Ready for Tomorrow - RAT BOY, IBDY

I'm Not Okay (I Promise) - My Chemical Romance

Shelter - Proter Robinson, Madeon

🎥 - Top 5 favorite movies?

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy - GOAT, I won't even entertain opposing opinions on that

Knives Out - Mene introduced me to it, and honestly I'm obsessed, it's such a fascinating type of film and I'm very much looking forward to the third one.

Underworld - 👀🩸🦇🐺

Spirited Away - If I didn't have one Ghibli film on here I'd be heartless, this is just such fun whimsy

The Matrix - Formative SciFi movie from my childhood, I'm still mulling over what it means to me to this day....

📺 - Top 5 favorite TV shows?

For All Mankind - I'm not knowledgeable enough about the history of America, Soviet Union, and the likes to understand this wild alternate history version of the space race, but it COMPELS ME

Humans (2015) - If its got AI, or anything about trying to understand the human condition from an outside perspective, I'm down, and this one is FASCINATING. One of the few AI TV shows and also being set mostly in the UK helped ground it a bit more for me (honorary mention to Westworld, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Star Trek, Love Death & Robots, Doctor Who, and so many others for any and all AI seeking to be or understand humanity)

Star Trek ************ - All of them except TOS have a special place in my heart, TOS is too far before my time to appreciate properly, I have nothing against it. My favourite changes but ultimately I think DS9 takes the cake for some of the best nuance. Sorry Voyager, Discovery, Next Gen, Enterprise, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy. I love you all.

TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN - INDOMITABLE HUMAN SPIRIT IN THE FACE OF ALL THE GRIEF THE WORLD FOISTS UPON US (we don't talk about the bathhouse episode 🤢)

Farscape - Childhood escape, my first truly amazing SciFi and honestly nothing like it has ever caught me.

I could overthink these lists for 14 million years, so I'm gonna save us all a headache and leave it as is xD

[redrikki]

2024 Pride Month Masterpost

I've written a bunch of queer stories in a bunch of fandoms. Enjoy!

Agent Carter

Because Girls Love Girls (The Soulmate City Remix) - There’s something in the water and the next thing Angie knows, she’s waking up with the name Margaret Carter wrapped around her wrist. (Angie Martinelli/Peggy Carter)

One Last Kiss (The Final Storm Remix) - You never forget your first kiss with your nemesis. Dottie won’t forget her last either. At Howard Stark’s funeral, she puts a few things in the ground. (Peggy Carter/Dottie Underwood)

Avatar: Legend of Korra

Girl, Gotten (The Heroine After Remix) - As long as Asami’s the hero, Korra’s okay being the love interest. (Korra/Asami Sato)

Leaves on the Wind - Korra, Asami, and the next Avatar (past Korra/Asami Sato)

Ten-Thousand Words (Which Once See the Light of Day) -  A series of short stories about the ladies of Legend of Korra. (bisexual Asami Sato/Mako, various het pairings)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Playing with Fire (The Dubiously Consensual Remix) - People didn’t tell Azula no. (Azula/Ty Lee)

Battlestar Galactica 

Persephone on New Caprica - It’s winter on New Caprica and they’re all Persephone here.  A collection of short stories. (bisexual Felix Gaeta/Eight, various het pairings) Trigger warning: non-con/dub con

Batwoman (TV)

Trapped in the Closet - Kate was never afraid to come out to her father, but she is now. Episode tag to the season 1 finale. (lesbian Kate Kane)

Pride - A small army of Batwomen marched at Pride. Ryan should be marching with them. (lesbian Ryan Wilder)

Black Lightning (TV)

Comic Book Life - Comic book Thunder’s boyfriend knew what his woman did, so why couldn’t Anissa tell her girlfriend? (Anissa Pierce/Grace Choi)

Truth Will Out - Anissa’s in the closet about her superhero life. Three times she thought about telling Grace and one time she actually did. (Anissa Pierce/Grace Choi) 

Maybe Baby - “Ever think about what kind of power’s you and Grace’s kids would have?“ Jen asked, raising possibilities Anissa had never considered before. (Anissa Pierce/Grace Choi, Jennifer Pierce)

Sleeping Beauty - Grace had been in coma for over a month now, but Anissa still couldn’t help thinking each visit that this would be the one where she woke up. Maybe today it would be. (Anissa Pierce/Grace Choi)

Cat Lover - When your wife was a deadly jungle cat, it paid to be cautious but Anissa meant to get eaten. (Anissa Pierce/Grace Choi)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Short and to the Mr. Pointy - Collection of drabbles set across all 7 seasons. (Willow Rosenberg/Tara McClay, Willow Rosenberg/Kennedy, Willow Rosenberg/Oz, Larry/Xander Harris, various het pairings)

Cobra Kai

Make a Wish - Tommy has a different confession in episode 2.06 "Take a Right." (Tommy/Johnny Lawrence)

Queer Eye for the Karate Guy - “Our hero this week is Sensei Johnny Lawrence,” Karamo read off the pad. “He’s a 53-year-old, 6-foot-tall master of karaté.” Queer Eye/Cobra Kai crossover. (Queer Eye cast)

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (TV)

The Beast You Made of Me - The Waverider’s resident shapeshifters compare notes. (Mona Wu, Genderfluid Charile) 

Neither Should You (The Real People Remix) - Rescuing her clones was the right thing to do. They deserved the right to live their lives and make their own choices. Ava just wished they’d stop sleeping with Gary. (Ava Sharpe/Sara Lance, Ava Clones/Gary Green, implied Gary Green/John Constantine)

Army of One - Sara Lance was dead. Sara Lance was a clone. Sara Lance was going to need a minute to process. Tag to "Bishop's Gambit," episode 6.06. (bisexual Sara Lance)

Downton Abbey

The Hedgehog’s Dilemma - Thomas Barrow’s daemon is a hedgehog. Five warnings, four relationships, and one revelation. (Thomas Barrow/Duke of Crowborrough, Thomas Barrow/Edward Courtney, Thomas Barrow/Jimmy Kent)

Snakes and Lions - Hogwarts AU. In Thomas, Jimmy finds that courage isn’t exclusive to Gryffindors.  Now if only he could find some himself. (Thomas Barrow/Jimmy Kent)

Genius Loci - Downton Abbey consumes people and it won’t let Thomas go. (gay Thomas Barrow) Trigger warning: referenced canon suicide attempt

When the Wolf Comes Home - Buggery is legal in the army, required even, for wolf-brothers. Bates, Lord Grantham, and their wolves have a certain history. Thomas can't help thinking about it. Fusion with A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. (Thomas Barrow, past Robert Crawley/John Bates)

Kipo and the Age of Wonerbeasts

Dream Girls - On the surface, Mulholland had given Wolf everything she had thought she wanted: her and Kipo, the two of them buff and tough and together. Her guilt had kept her from really enjoying it, but it hadn’t been why she fought back. (Wolf/Kipo)

The Hero Was You - Benson likes Troy and Troy likes Benson. Great! Now all Benson has to do is figure out what to do about it. (Benson/Troy)

A Post Post-Apocalyptic Romance - It was kind of wild when he thought about it. Benson and Troy had fallen for each other super fast, but, between the rescue and the other rescue and all the running around with HMUFA, they’d never really gotten to know each other. Luckily, without Scarlemagne and Dr. Emilia trying to capture and/or kill them, they finally had the time to get to know each other as Benson introduced Troy to the city. (Benson/Troy)

Miraculous Ladybug

Better Than Ice Cream - Orange, mint, and raspberry could be a tasty combination. The solution to every love triangle should be polyamory, but sometimes it’s just not that simple. Spoilers for Love-Eater. (Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Adrien Agreste/Kagami Tsurugi)

The Old Guard 

Take What the Water Gave Me - Quynh drowns and wakes and in between are Booker and Andromache. She would take his life if she could. So she does. (Quynh/Andy)

Orphan Black

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - There’s something magical about Uncle Felix’s flat.  Maybe it’s all the art. (Kira Manning, gay Felix Dawkins, lesbian Cosima Niehaus)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

She-Ra (Modesty) Shorts - Three very short Catra/Adora stories. (Catra/Adora)

Parting Strands - Looking out for each other had been their thing, but Adora’s starting to suspect that’s over. Her thoughts during that scene in "Promise.” (Catra/Adora)

Sick Leave - Back when they were kids in the Horde, they used to hide when they got sick. It’s a hard habit to break, but things are different now and Catra really should be in bed. (Catra/Adora)

Another First Kiss - Five times Catra thought about kissing Adora and one time Adora kissed her. (Catra/Adora)

Spider-man (Ultimates verse)

Queen of Lower Chelsea - Jessica Drew may not be a real girl, but she’s trying to build a real life. (gender-queer Jessica Drew)

Fingertips That Might Ignite - Peter is straight like a straight thing.  Jessica isn’t sure what she is. (Jessica Drew/Johnny Storm, Jessica Drew/OFC)

We Were Orphans Before - The first time Jessica ran into Peter after the Wave she grabbed him into a hug. (gender-queer Jessica Drew, Peter Parker)

Gonna Share My Tin Man Heart - Kitty moves in and Kitty moves out. Jessica falls in love somewhere along the way. (Jessica Drew/Kitty Pride)

Star Wars

For Amidala - Her handmaidens had all poured so much of themselves into Amidala, it was like they were part of her now. Padmé didn’t know if she had the strength to let one go. (Padmé/Her Handmaidens)

Dateline Felucia - Embedded with the troops on Felucia, a reporter from HoloNet News paints an intimate portrait of the men of the 212th Attack Battalion. (Obi-Wan/Cody, Waxer/Boil)

Tag - Sabine and Ketsu, bounty hunters extraordinaire, argue about how to sign their work. (Sabine Wren/Ketsu Onyo)

When I Was Your Age - Kanan, Ezra, and the fruits of a misspent youth. (Pansexual Kanan Jarrus)

Stranger Things

Date Night - Everyone and her mother seems to think they’re together and Robin’s getting pretty sick of it. (lesbian Robin Buckley & Steve Harrington)

Umbrella Academy (TV)

Iconic - When Vanya learns Klaus is gay from a magazine, she’s angry for more than just one reason. (queer Vanya & Klaus Hargreeves)

White Collar

Eyes on the Target (The Solid Ground Remix) - Peter asked Diana to keep an eye on Neal for him while he’s stuck in jail. It could be going better. (lesbian Diana Barrigan, Neal Caffrey)

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

Hello! :) How about 🌧, ✨, 🔥, ⭐️, and 🧞‍♂️ for the ask game?

Hello, thank you! 🤍

🌧what do you like to do on a rainy day?

Ideally, curl up and watch tv shows with my mom and sister. (Sometimes dad will join too, depending on his mood)

✨a movie you like to re-watch?

My Neighbor Totoro. I rewatch it all the time and it's my favorite movie.

🔥last song you listened to?

Labour (the cacophony) by Paris Paloma

⭐️current favorite tv show?

Okay, Sanctuary will always be my favorite.

But right now I am also obsessed with Caprica. It's so interesting and I really love the not-so-good characters.

🧞‍♂️what’s something you’re excited for?

Uh....gosh. I don't know?

Let's go with starting a new piece of original writing that I've been hesitating with for a while. I really love the characters (even though none of them have permanent names) and I want to do some world building, which will be fun.

[jbk405]

I’m finally going to lay out my thoughts on the “Battlestar Galactica” revival series

The 2003 BSG relaunch is apparently seeing something of a resurgence right now.  I’ve seen more and more people discovering it online over the past few months and beginning full-series watches.  I’m happy for any old TV series to get rediscovered (Although the thought that a show I watched as it aired is now considered “old” is disheartening), but I’ll be honest that I was never as in-love with the series as others seem to be.  And after seeing so many people talking about how it’s one of the greatest underappreciated shows of the ‘00s I’ve got to get out my thoughts.

It's not a BAD show, not by any means, but I do honestly think it was much more impressive at the time it came out than it is now.  It tried to do new things for TV sci-fi in the early 2000s, and now that other shows are doing those same things better it doesn't stand out.  It was the novelty that made it seem so amazing at first.

One of the things it is praised for is that it brought in long-form storytelling from the beginning.  The standard for ‘90s sci-fi was to slowly introduce ongoing plotlines into episodic standalone stories, and BSG had direct episode-to-episode continuity starting from square one.  Except that BSG had no plan for what the ongoing storyline would be, despite frequent on-screen references to “the plan” (And even the eventual release of a film called “The Plan”). The writers have admitted that they did not start the series with any idea where they were going, so plot threads would drag on and climax with no buildup or any emotional oomph.  The exemplar in the beginning was Helo’s entire story on Caprica in season one: He wasn’t supposed to reappear after the pilot miniseries, but the staff liked him so much they brought him back for the series and didn’t bother to figure out why the Cylons were observing him and sparing him until season two.  So all of his scenes are filled with pseudo-mysterious conversations from the observing Cylons to cover up the fact that there was no plan.  The eventual reveal that they’re trying to see if “love” will allow Cylons to bear living children was just bizarre and nonsensical in my opinion.

Babylon 5, which aired 10 years before BSG, was conceived with a clear arc for the entire plot so they could put things in the first season that foreshadowed what was to come in the last.  But BSG, despite being praised for ‘pioneering’ serious serialization in TV Sci-Fi, couldn’t even foreshadow the rest of the first season from the pilot.

The series is also praised for its character development, when almost all prior TV shows had a mandate to keep development to a minimum so as to make all episodes accessible even if viewed out of order or without context.  And the characters definitely do change over the course of the series.  Except, just like with the main story plotline, the character arcs were not planned in advance.  The writers have admitted that the reveal at the end of season three that four recurring characters have been Cylons all along was not planned in advance at all.  They specifically said they picked these characters based purely on who would be the biggest surprise.  There was no foreshadowing at all for the audience to have picked up on earlier in the series, since until they made the decision while writing those episodes the characters weren’t Cylons.

In fact, they even needed to put in retcons to patch over this twist, since it directly contradicted their own canon and the in-series mythology.

This end result was that the show was “pretty good”, and it had some individual episodes and arcs that moved up to “great”, but it was dragged down as a whole.  It had meandering plotlines, “shocking” twists with no logic or emotional foundation, and a general lack of focus.  Season three is where I lost interest, and season four is just a mess.  Even the more devoted fans of the series are heavily critical of the finale, and personally I think the ultimate fate of the characters was just plain bad.

And -- again -- it’s still not a bad show overall.  I saw much worse shows on TV in 2003, and I’ve seen much worse shows on TV right now.  None of these faults take away from the phenomenal acting that the cast put into their performances, or the truly beautiful soundtrack (The soundtrack is the one area that I think surpasses the hype for this show).  Even the CGI holds up pretty well twenty years later.  But I just can’t get behind the “This was one of the greatest shows of the era” brouhaha that’s bubbling up.

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

I have realized that if I’m going to be posting about Battlestar Galactica characters on here I ought to introduce them for the people who have no clue what I’m on about. So here’s a post of the main characters in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica TV show and a summary of the plot:

So the plot is this: the Cylons, a race of sentient machines, with the help of a human traitor, attack the 12 colonies of humans during an alleged “peace ceremony” where the two races were supposed to unite. They manage to destroy all but one of the human Battlestars and bomb all the human cities on the colony worlds (the colonies are all named after the astrology signs btw, most of the main characters are Capricans, because the Galactica was assigned to protect Caprica). The survivors of this devastating attack then gather every space-worthy ship they can find and fall under the protection of the last Battlestar, Galactica. Where is the Galactica going, you ask? Why to the 13th colony, to Earth, of course! Earth, in their culture, is a legendary planet, the “lost tribe”. The Galacticans are headed for it, hoping to find a home and peace from the cylons.

Now, on to the characters!

First off we have Captain Apollo. He is a fighter pilot and the leader of Blue Squadron- one of the squadrons of colonial viper ships that defend the Galactica from attacks. He’s the son of Commander Adama and the adoptive father of Boxy. He’s usually pretty levelheaded, but not immune to occasional moments of foolishness (like flying into a void he didn’t know he could get out of). He’s thoughtful and empathetic and cares about other people very quickly.

And then there’s lieutenant Starbuck. Apollo’s best friend and fellow pilot in Blue Squadron. Starbuck is the same kind of character as Han Solo from Star Wars: he acts like a heartthrob and pretends he doesn’t care and treats things flippantly until it really counts. The man’s got a heart of gold and is very dedicated to his friends even at the risk of his own life. He’s also a ridiculous goofball who tries to make light of everything.

Commander Adama. He is the commander of the Galactica and leader of the fleet. He is also on the Council of Twelve, made up of elders from the 12 colonies (or in this case, the rag-tag fleet following the Galactica) who are responsible for making decisions for the betterment of what’s left of their people. He is the father of Apollo and Athena. He can be very stern and commanding, but also kind when the situation calls for it. He has EXTREMELY good intuition about when the cylons will attack, and is the reason that the Galactica was the only Battlestar to survive the initial attacks.

Athena is Adama’s daughter and Apollo’s sister. She can be found serving on the bridge of the Galactica or as a pilot. She can be very shrewd and clever and is not to be underestimated. She is initially a love interest for Starbuck, which I had actually forgotten. xD When all but two of the fleet’s fighter pilots fall ill, she and other newly-trained shuttle pilots learn to fly the colonial vipers to protect the fleet, so she’s very capable.

Colonel Tigh is second-in-command of the Galactica. He comes across as very serious and an enforcer of protocol, but he also occasionally helps people get away with shenanigans of some kind. Basically, the man is surprisingly on board with most crazy schemes despite how on the surface he seems to be a rule follower. Adama trusts him implicitly and it’s implied they’ve worked together and been friends a long time.

Boomer is another pilot in Blue Squadron and a friend of Starbuck and Apollo. He’s a very capable fighter, and often ends up on special missions. He’s fully capable with keeping up with Apollo and Starbuck’s shenanigans, but he’ll probably complain about them.

Cassiopeia is one of the civilians from Galactica’s fleet. She is sassy and clever  and ends up working as a nurse on board Galactica. She’s another love interest for Starbuck too. xD She can be a little bit scary sometimes when she’s angry but she can also be very soft-spoken and kind.

And the baby boy, Boxy! Boxy is Apollo’s adopted son- Apollo married his mother a few months after the Galactica set off for Earth... and then his mom got shot by a cylon a day later. So Apollo’s his single dad now, though the pilots of Blue Squadron, Cassiopeia, and Adama are all also kind of helping raise him. xD Boxy’s a sweet kid, he’s smart and sensitive; he got very depressed when the cylons destroyed his home and his dog Muffet was killed. So to help, Apollo got some of the engineers/scientists on Galactica to make a robot dog for Boxy- Muffet 2. Muffet follows Boxy almost everywhere and the two are very attached.

Aaaand this is Baltar. He betrayed the humans to the cylons and is, for most of the series, working for the cylons to try and capture the Galactica. He’s crafty, and manipulative, but very arrogant and proud, and you know what they say about pride coming before a fall...

Of course this post would not be complete without the ship herself. The Galactica is a massive Battlestar ship, designed to protect the planets of the 12 Colonies against attacks from cylons. Originally, there were at least five of these ships, but after the cylons offered a fake peace treaty the rest of the Battlestars were unprepared for an attack. Adama was the only one who kept his guard up and thus the Galactica survived the vicious attack.

This is the best picture I can find of the Galactica’s rag-tag fugitive fleet, but there’s a lot more ships than this. Forced to flee their homeworlds, these beat up old ships hold the only survivors of the 12 colonies. Without the Galactica’s protection, they would stand no chance against the cylons.

The cylons themselves are a race of machines that outlived their original, organic, creators. They can live on far longer than humans by virtue of being able to replace failing parts of their bodies. Their goal is the eradication of the entire human race.

Alright, so there you have it! An introduction to Battlestar Galactica (1978)!

[sci-fiworlds]

Battlestar Galactica - Sci-Fi and the Terror Wars

Very sadly Stuart Miller's Alien Worlds magazine "will not be published again." Although short lived, I really enjoyed my time working with Stuart and am very proud to say I wrote for AW. In a field largely trapped in the 1990s (if not the 1950s), it was fresh, young and innovative, not afraid to seek new answers to old questions or even ask new ones. Perhaps the best evidence of this is the fact that Stuart was prepared to take a gamble and give new writers like me the chance to show what they can do. For those who don't know, I wrote a sci-fi/TV related column called Sci-Fi Worlds, my first piece was on Doctor Who and is available in issue 4 of Alien Worlds. Anyway, before I got the sad news about the magazine I had already written a second piece on Battlestar Galactica so I thought it might be a good idea to publish it here at BoA instead. Hopefully you'll find it thought provoking, even if you disagree with some of my views.

Unlike the new series of Doctor Who, the resurrected Battlestar Galactica is not a continuation of the classic story but rather a total re-imagining of it. Like its counterpart, the new series begins with 12 colonies of humanity getting savagely attacked and ruthlessly wiped out by the Cylons. A relentless and calculating race of war machines that appear hell-bent on the complete annihilation of all mankind. The Cylons' holocaust leaves only a handful of survivors. A ragtag fugitive fleet, 41, 402 people desperately trying to escape their cybernetic hunters and clinging to the hope of finding the legendary 13th colony called Earth.

But other than this shared back story, the two series have surprisingly very little in common. This is a good thing, because the original descended into little more than a childish action adventure, especially when compared to the more serious, adult drama and post 9/11 allegory which is the new series.

Perhaps the most interesting and, by far, the most disturbing parallel with 9/11, however, is how the survivors behave in the wake of the tragedy. Of course, just as in the wake of 9/11 in the real world, we witness incredible courage, as well as a stubborn determination to continue in the face of terrible adversity. But, we also sadly see how fear, fueled with a legitimate need for revenge, can bring out the worst in people, changing victims into criminals, the terrorized into terrorists, and moving society closer to the evil it is meant to be opposed.

Interestingly, the post-9/11 parallels are completely turned on their head in the third season. In the miniseries, as well as season one and two, the Cylons are clearly meant to represent Al Quada and fundamentalist Islam, whereas the humans clearly parallel America. However, in the shadow of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq, these roles seem to have been somewhat reversed during season three. The bad guy Cylons become the invading westerners and the humans take the place of the Iraqi insurgency.

Much of season three takes place on what the colonials name "New Caprica": a cold, remote and hostile world that most humans decide to settle on after abandoning their vain search for Earth. However, they are eventually found and, strongly echoing real world events in Iraq, invaded and occupied by the Cylons one year later.

Moreover, strongly paralleling the Iraqi Police Service created in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion, the Cylons establish the New Caprica Police: a group of human volunteers who work for the Cylon authority to establish law and order within the settlement. The NCP are considered nothing more than Cylon collaborators and traitors by the resistance who, again like their counterparts in Iraq, even go to the extremes of using suicide bombers in their campaign against the Cylons.

Another interesting parallel with Iraq, of course, is the role religion plays in the conflict on New Caprica. The Cylons worship what they call the "one true God," whereas the colonials have many different gods. This is perhaps a loud echo of the religious differences between a predominantly Christian America and Muslim Iraq.

It should be stressed that in earlier seasons the monotheist Cylons were obviously meant to conjure up images of Osama bin Laden and radical Islam. However, during their brutal occupation they more immediately brought to mind another band of dangerous religious fundamentalists... George Bush and the Christian Evangelical right that supported his mad crusade in the Middle East. Like the Cylons (or even bin Laden) they used God to justify their immoral war.

Similarly, many people sadly supported the 2003 invasion because they were beguiled into believing our troops were fighting to free Iraq from an evil dictator before he could develop weapons of mass destruction and threaten, paradoxically, international peace. Disastrously though much like the Cylons, far from peace all we've done is throw Iraq dangerously close to civil war and terrorized the Iraqi people.

Five years on from its relaunch, the writers of the re-imagined Galactica have to be congratulated. It would have been easy to write a more simplistic series with, like the original, everything presented in distinct black and white terms of good vs evil and no shades of grey. Instead, they created a highly compelling post 9/11 allegory, a mirror for our troubled times that shows the Terror Wars, warts and all. Hopefully, the rest of the series and the planed spin-off Caprica will be equally brave and thought provoking.

READ RICHARD THOMAS'S SCI-FI WORLDS COLUMN FOR BINNALL OF AMERICA