a million monkeys typing

“Starbuck, a woman?!?”

Posted January 31st, 2005 at 07:55am

When I was nine, I remember the quasi-religious experience of going into my grandfather’s room, huddling up in front of the radioactive television set (we had only two channels, by the way), and sitting in complete awe watching the original Battlestar Galactica series unfold. There was nothing else like it at the time on television –Star Trek? — puh-lease… that was for kids– and I got caught up in the action, the allusions to ancient Greek and Eqyptian legend, the bouts of humour, and the almost-oppressive atmosphere of the rag-tag fleet’s continual flight from the deadly machines that were the Cylons. It was a new mythology for me, one connected with both the past and the future, and it was fascinating.

Like many others, especially those who have closely followed Richard Hatch (the original Apollo) and his struggle to convince the powers-that-be to launch a continuation of the original series, I awaited the new “re-imagined” Battlestar Galactica with an overwhelming sense of dread. Would it be a complete disaster? Would it wipe out, in one stroke, so much of the pleasure I derived from the series as a child? Would it look like yet another modern Star Trek rip-off, filled with female aliens in skin-tight costumes, weak plots, and boring politically-correct lead characters?

Lately, I’ve had the occasion to watch the two-part miniseries of the new Battlestar Galactica and all 13 episodes of the series.

In a word… wow.

I must admit that the new series –while being completely unlike the earlier– is one of the best-written shows I’ve ever seen. I’m also a fan of Babylon 5, but even that now seems a little too “slick” by comparison to the gritty “reality-style” filming, plots and acting of the new series. The characters are well fleshed-out and the situations real enough to identify with — for example, political power struggles, father-son issues, torrid relationships, alcoholism, religion and interpersonal blow-ups. There’s enough action and suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat, there’s enough plot threading through the series to keep you involved, and there’s enough subtle emotional tug-of-war to make you really feel for all these people.

By far, one of the biggest issues that fans of the original series were lamenting was the re-imagining of Starbuck, originally and ably played by the charismatic Dirk Benedict, as a woman. Yes, a woman! The horror! The cowboy-esque role-model for a generation of thirty-something males is now a woman! Psychoanalists are no doubt grinning with the possibilities. Strangely enough, the new Starbuck is sufficiently macho enough to pull this off. She takes the original to a whole new level through a kick-ass, defiance-of-authority attitude. And, unlike most other stereotypical kick-ass women in the shows today, she (like everybody else) can screw up regularly. That’s one of the “reality” bits that makes this show so watchable.

I only have one complaint about the show. Guys, would it have killed you to inject a little humour every now and then? We cry, we cheer, we cringe, we pity… but we almost never laugh. The oppressiveness is nigh-overwhelming. I am fully aware that the writing and filming is carefully contrived to evoke this atmosphere, and that’s well done indeed. But humanity is humanity because we can display a whole range of emotion, and especially in the worst of times, a sense of humour can take our courage, inspiration and perceptive faculties to a whole new level. By avoiding the subtleties and intricacies of humour, the scriptwriters are taking the easy way out. And the abilities clearly demonstrated through the wonderful scripts show them capable enough to tackle this all-too-important aspect of human nature and survival. Please, for season two…?

By the way, there’s a nifty DVD shoot-out between the old series and the new mini-series over at DVDTalk.