You see, I thought that the moment All Along the Watchtower musical themes that had been running through the show tied together with Starbuck using the notes to type in the jump coordinates that led to our Earth was awesome.

It hearkened back to Leoben telling her she’d find Earth early in season one. Also, higher powers were at play from the very earliest episodes with Head Six guiding Baltar, with Laura Roslin’s visions and the questing themes linked to Kobol. To me, it all ties in very nicely. Deus Ex Machina, in my view, is when a solution comes out of nowhere (as often happens in Russell T Davies’ abysmal Doctor Who episodes.)

In comparison, Galactica simply lived up to its themes as sci-fi version of the Exodus. And, compared with the original show, it was a good deal more circumspect about higher forces guiding the fleet. There were no glowing ships full of angels bringing Apollo back to life, there was no Iblis, although the possibility exists that Kara went to join the angels, as was intended for the original Starbuck in Larson’s shows.

Also, as Head Baltar points out at as he walks through time square, humans have existed in a cyclical pattern of creating AI, then humans and AI mutually destroying one another. The hope was that, after so many cycles, the pattern would corrupt and the outcome would be different. Effectively, both iterations of BSG (and the possible new film version) could be part of those cycles.

Of course, that’s just my reading of it, but both Galacticas always struck me as being about humans caught in a higher plan, trying to keep control.

And now we have the movie ‘The Plan’ coming up which puts Dean Stockwell in the lead role(s) and will apparently make you want to rewatch the entire show following some of its revelations.

I… Well… I guess… Nope – just speechless.

In the case of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry would make a clear distinction between beings of seeming omnipotence or omniscience and the worship of these beings as “gods” by lesser lifeforms. In this sense, accepting the existence of “supreme beings” is not in question – the blindly obedient “religions” organized around them are seen as the problem.

Although I don’t automatically have a problem with religious themes in science fiction, I do question the intent. If you want to make your setting feel familiar to the audience, it makes perfect sense to include religion. If you want to portray the tension between science, which seeks to explain the order and chaos of reality, and religion, which wraps it all up with “god made it that way,” you’ve got my attention. However, if you’re just using science to create a problem but then religion to solve it, don’t call it Science Fiction, call it Fantasy.

I was an avid watcher of Battlestar Galactica and I wasn’t aware of any criticism from “the ill-read atheist bigot brigade.” I was disappointed in the end of the series because it felt like the writers painted themselves into a corner and the only way out was to fall back on the tired old “god’s plan” cop out. For a show that prided itself in having a final resolution in mind from the start, it should have ended much better. Oh well, I still enjoyed the show as a whole.

You might also reconsider using phrases like “ill-read atheist bigot brigade” unless you actually intend on being insulting. I have found that far more “theist” individuals could be defined as ill-read bigots, unless you count the one particular book that they happen to think explains everything.

I reckon I’ll be keeping an eye out for the US edition of Maxim in my local branch of WHSmith! Probably both eyes! ;)

32. JohnWA

It depends: part of Kirk’s personal drive (although it’s clear he’s a Christian in the dialogue of several episodes) in TOS is for the right of man to determine his own existence free from the interference of ‘Higher Powers’ be they the god Apollo, Organians, or the M5 Multitronic System.

That said, the very nature of the Star Trek universe is that it is heavily populated with ‘advanced’ beings such as the Q, the Organians and so on, meaning there will always be situations where they might interfere. I don’t mind religious material in science fiction. It’s to the detriment of science and science fiction to deny outright the ***possibility*** that there might be (a) supreme being(s).

Unfortunately Battlestar Galactica suffered when the ill-read atheist bigot brigade went on the march to complain about the ending of the series when anyone with half a brain always knew Galactica’s roots were in religion: I mean, it’s based on Moses, the plagues and the Exodus, with a dash of the Book of Mormon, for crying out loud! :0