If you follow Barbara Nicolosi’s Church of the Masses blog, you know that she’s lately gotten hooked on the new Battlestar Galactica television show. She recently wrote a great post wrestling with whether or not BSG is a good show—in the moral sense. (Caution—her post contains major spoilers for the show.) I love the way Nicolosi approaches art, asking questions like:
I have been brooding over whether the worldview of Battlestar Galactica can ultimately be reckoned moral or immoral. What is the show’s underlying presumption about human life, and can it be said to be true or a lie? And if it is a lie, it is the kind of lie that is appropriate in art – a false vision that would provoke people to seek out the truth?
Questions like this cut a lot deeper than “how much swearing/sex/violence does it have?” Not that content-based questions aren’t valuable, but they can be misleading if that’s all we use to evaluate whether a piece of art is morally good or not. A bleak, unpleasant work of art can point to ultimate truth, and a squeaky-clean work of art might not. At any rate, if you don’t mind the BSG spoilers, read Nicolosi’s analysis and think about how you might apply her approach to other films, TV shows, or books.
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January 22, 2008 at 23:21
I liked what she had to say. BSG is my favorite TV show. I love the the multi-dimensional characters, and that the show asks hard questions. There haven’t been many TV shows that both entertain me AND get me thinking about my own life in light of what I just saw.
Morally good? Looking at the worldview is a good way to think about it. The Book of Judges (in the Bible) is hardly moral if one looks at content, but the context of the content makes it moral. I’m not sure the point of BSG is to provide a worldview though, but rather to help us ask questions about our own…
January 23, 2008 at 12:59
Sci Fi verses Christian?
YES! I unashamedly admit I am a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica BSG), my favorite TV show and a Sci-Fi fan! I was when the original show ran in the late 70’s I had discussions then with my mentor and uncle Francis Schaeffer, as we booth wrested with these issues, I in HS and he a renowned philosopher and thinker of Christian precepts (and he loved art, including TV and move production-most people do not know that about him. His proposition is art can and does point to truth, the question is what is the truth, is it? As the Christians who hold the real true-Truth, how can we express it in today’s would?). We saw Star Trek and Star Was together and a taping of “HR Puffinstuff” as a youngster, and contemplated can a Christ follower seeking “true-Truth” see them and be true to the faith? The answer was yes and no. It depended on the maturity and faith of the believer and the ability to see through the writers point and what the agenda of the produces were. They have a clear worldview, Star Trek and its main writer DC Fontana, (she goes or went to Holly Wood Press near my home and have known her for years, I had the incredible opportunity as a Junior Higher to sit and her and Schaeffer dialog as she was writing Star Trek II in the mid seventies, that show never sold and became the first movie, I got to see the sketches and her the secrete plot and had to keep silent for a few years about it- tough for my age then and now) is a committed Christian and you can see some Christian themes in all the original Star Trek and most of its franchises, hidden, but there nonetheless. Star Wars was a Hindu worldview and BSG is an atheistic / Mormonism. And don’t get me started on my other favorite “Star Gate”, currently I am writing some scripts and story arcs for its newest incarnation, “Star gate Universe”). The original BG series had Mormon writers and actors (now it is an English production from the folks who brought us fish and chips); just compare the themes to the Book of Mormon…. And Schaeffer saw these shows, then as “campy” and predicted as time went on they will get more and more dark and depraved because that is the sate of our soul without a Savior. Anyway, each of these shows, show a depraved society in need of hope and a Savior. The BG characters clearly show even a more state of hopelessness than any other TV show I have ever seen, but they are in epic search of hope. They have led immoral and self destructive lives that led to their down fall, while the Cylon villains show more and more a supplementary spiritual centered lives and morality, although misguided, while the BG characters for the most part are living life without taking responsibility for it, although the main Character Adama does.
BTW, I think “Touchwood” on the BBC may even be a better show…
I personally think the BSG and any show would be much better if the swearing/sex/violence (except space ships fighting, that is just good stuff!) were cut, as I think the Sopranos would be great too if the same, depravity in New Jersey-lol
Bottom line, yes it is a depraved show and it should not be seen by young people or those with “unthinking faith,” but, it shows the world as it is, the state we are in and all headed too, we can also see it as a warning of what it could be. Now as a Christian how do we address these issues, how do we show the Real Hope and how to “journey to Earth” or in our case faith in Christ? As Schaeffer pointed out, it is our nature is to seek the depravity without the Savior, how do you show the Savior as a Christian to a depraved mind?
January 25, 2008 at 10:08
I’m actually going to use the ethical realities present in the episodes which took place during the Cylon occupation of New Caprica in a Sunday School class at some point. Riveting – not since Babylon 5 has there been a show that handles questions like this without cliche and with depth.
The conversation between the two Adama’s at the end of Razor – on the ethics of survival, was also a scene worth watching.
February 1, 2008 at 05:23
I’ve watched this show during it’s debut, even though, I thought it was dreary, obnoxious, sexed up, & boring, however, I had a feeling this 1 wasn’t going to leave any time soon…
Don’t know why, intuition I suppose…
Personally, I thought the 70s version was way better in the dept of fun… campy, but likeable & fun… so, Yeah, I welcomed an upgrade rather than a twisted overhaul.
I guess I’m exactly Generation X with entertainment.
Anyway, the whole show, seems to advocate or revolve around the idea, that religion (Christianity, not really considered in the original), is essentially the enemy of mankind, bringer of malice & deceit, & is definitely in need of extraction.
(So much for the idea of Christmas, I suppose)
If one’s a christo-phobic jerk, I can imagine the show’s logic, makes perfect, slanderous sense.
If I’m ignorant about this series’ direction, I welcome, sober replies from it’s more educated fans.