SBSG #3: Take Me to Your (Dying) Leader
How can a benevolent God allow suffering? Is there another way to interpret the hybrid after “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner”? Is Cylon resurrection a misnomer? We answer these questions and more in this latest episode of the Secrets of Battlestar Galactica. You can follow us on Twitter (Zina_rsn and JeffLiss). Feel free to join the conversation in the comments section of the site, and remember to review us on iTunes.
Your podcast is fantastic and provoking. I very much enjoy them. Keep up the GREAT work Zina and Jeff.
Zina and Jeff,
A question for the podcast, if you were born in one of the colonies, what would be the role of Tradition in your life? Would you hold fast to your faith based on Tradition? Would you be drawn to the scroll of Pythia even if your colony’s tradition had been to disregard it? Would you be drawn to teachings of Judas Baltar?
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I think this season has gone way down hill. Where have all the priestesses, priests and preachers gone? Where are the quick but important scenes of public and private prayer? Judas Baltar has no competition proselytizing? Where are the priestesses of Pythia? Where is the Archbishop Fulton Sheen of Caprica? Where is the Joel Osteen of Picon? The faith of twelve diverse colonies has been been disregarded.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the feedback. Glad you like the show!
Borellian:
Well, it’s hard to project myself into a polytheistic tradition. It’s hard to imagine what my approach to or understanding of my faith would be without the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I know I wouldn’t slavishly parrot a faith I believed was false. So, if I suspected the Lords of Kobol were false gods, I don’t imagine I’d be particularly dedicated to religious tradition.
As for the change in the nature of the show, I agree if can be frustrating when a show you really like changes direction. For me, though, we are beginning to see the payoff for the careful exposition you describe. The producers have transitioned from explanation to revelation, and mere static description has been set into motion. We are now beyond seeing a religion and culture described and are seeing it transformed. At least I hope so. The ghosts of The X Files are hard to shake.
Jeff
re 30 May 2008 episode
For an episode with so many changes, it seemed oddly, well, *quiet*. Previous eps with less overt violence and upheaval seem to be more wrenching. Required, I know, to advance the story, but there was nothing to match the shock of that hybrid gasping “jump!”, nor even of the clips of Diana from next week’s teaser. Not complaining, mind you, just an observation on the different story-telling techniques used from week to week, writer to writer.
BSG in general seems to have this terribly addictive quality to it. I find many of the episodes nihilistic (and more than a bit depressing). I recently finished watching Sine Qua Non, in which Romo Lampkin returns, proposes Lee Adama as the next president and proceeds to threaten his life simply because he can’t stand the possibility of hope for the human race. There are many other spoiler-type things that go on toward the end of the episode that lead one to believe that everything is falling apart for the rag-tag fleet.
But thanks guys for a fresh perspective on this very addicting show.
Just throwing this prediction out there: It keeps in line with cyclical events of BSG, “all of this has happened before and all of this will happen again.” As well, with Starbuck being herald of the apocalypse. Things will culminate in a final battle in which no one survives, with the exception of Hera and Nicholas. Life on earth will have either long been destroyed or destroyed in the final battle. In which case, Hera and Nicholas will be left to become a new Adam and Eve starting humanity over again on Earth.
Father Jim,
Thanks for the feedback. We talk about this scene in SBSG #5, and I think you will be a little more hopeful after our analysis. There are two scenes, one with Bill Adama and one with Lee Adama and both are about absolution. There are themes of sin and forgiveness that run deep in this show, and we will explore them during the break. That should provide you with a bit of relief from the darkness presented in this series.
Tom,
But wouldn’t that be too easy?
Actually, with the transition from the old gods to the new gods the producers may be moving from the idea of cyclical time to that of linear time. We are doing some research on the religious perspective of time … but then that is a topic for a future episode.
If you want a glimpse of what I am talking about, see the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time#Time_in_religion_and_mythology
Fr. Jim,
To see what I am saying about absolution you may want to see the text of the conversation between Lee and Romo. You can find it near the bottom of this site:
http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Sine_Qua_Non
Terry,
“Jump!” was my favorite part. I think Michael Angeli, the lead writer, tends to write episodes that are plot movers. I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense at all. They are necessary, and he does them very well. Also, I think they were playing with the episode a bit, introducing the idea of a song, Gaeta’s Lament, moving with the action of the story.
Bear McCreary writes about the idea of opera in this episode:
http://www.bearmccreary.com/blog/?p=349
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No, no, Terry. I really do have a life. Really, I do!
Really!