Battlestar Galactica Week: Mysticism, Suicide Bombers and Freud

Battlestar Galactica as a metaphor for poor parenting? Only at Look Again!

This article was part of a regular feature here at Look Again, Newsvine's premiere TV and Movie group.

Today, in our continuing look at Battlestar Galactica in anticipation of friday's season premiere, I'd like to take a look at some of the metaphors and allegories that the show uses to explore its complex themes. Don't miss yesterday's introduction to the characters or Tuesday's recap of seasons 1-3. Finally, as always, beware: there are spoilers here, so don't read if you're not caught up!

Anyway, moving forward: today I want to look at three different metaphorical motifs used by the show's writers. First I'm going to examine some of the numerological and mystical elements employed; then I'm going to take a quick look at the political commentary; finally, I'll explore the way the show looks at Parent/Child relationships.

Each of these three motifs could spawn an entire discussion of its own - as a result, my writeup is going to be necessarily brief. But I encourage you to comment below to help me flesh out my own understanding of the nuanced and complex tapestries woven by BSG's writers on a weekly basis.

Numerology and Mysticism in Battlestar Galactica

In this section I'm not going to present any arguments so much as make a lot of comparisons - we can discuss implications below.

Twelve signs of the Zodiac. Twelve Olympian gods. Twelve Tribes of Israel. Twelve Apostles of Christ. The Twelve Imams of Shia Islam.

There's no doubt that the number 12 is well established in mystical tradition - both pagan and monotheistic. The BSG writers are obviously tapping into this powerful archetype - 12 colonies, 12 models of cylon, etc. There are analogs being suggested everywhere, though never really made explicit.

This gets a bit more interesting when you examine the way the number 12 is used in many of earth's historical traditions - 12 has this sort of mystical completeness and yet everywhere we seem to have this "+1" sneak in. The 12 tribes of Israel are actually 13 once you get the land distribution out of the way; the 12 Apostles are actually 13 when Saul turns into Paul and joins them; certain sects of Shia Muslims believe in the foretold 13th Imam who will arrive at some point in the future. Even in the Zodiac there's an unspoken 13th element: the earth itself, the vantage point without which the other 12 signs would have no meaning.

This too carries over into Galactica - we have 12 cylon models but they serve a single monotheistic god; there are 12 human colonies but scripture tells of a lost colony, Earth. Can we expect this model to persist? Can we perhaps expect a secret 13th cylon?

What other speculations can we draw from these symbols?

Political Allegory in Battlestar Galactica

Authoritarianism vs. Democracy has been a constant motif in BSG - ever since the mini-series premiere. The leadership is regularly faced with difficult decisions between expediency and ethics: should the battlestar try to protect the entire human fleet? Should everyone be subjected to the cylon test? Should the democratic election results be accepted, even when The Masses are obviously wrong? Should even Gaius Baltar receive a fair trial?

In a political climate as charged as that of the United States in the early 21st century questions like this move from compelling to relevant. Habeus Corpus has been suspended, racial profiling is common practice, elections are executed in a blatantly undemocratic fashion and political enemies are demonized as less than human.

Galactica shows us, in my opinion, two important things:

• If the rule of law is to work at all then that law must be upheld precisely during those moments when it would be most expedient to do away with it. We can't advocate a criminal justice system up to and until we want Baltar punished - we must treat him fairly or it gives the lie to our every belief.
• Under the right circumstances, good people can behave insanely. If it had just been drunk old Tigh using suicide bombers against the cylons on New Caprica that would have been one thing - but Tyrol was right there with him, and half a dozen other characters that we like!!!

Honestly, the use of suicide bombers by the protagonists might be the boldest thing on TV since Lucy had a baby. In a climate where our political leaders can point to such behavior and say "See? They're not human!", this show takes a step back and asks us - really asks us - exactly what this "humanity" is.

Discuss.

Oedipus Galactica, or - Family as a Metaphor in Battlestar Galactica

The last motif I'd like to examine today is that of family. So many of the conflicts in this show are generational - Lee is constantly butting heads with his father, for instance, and it took Starbuck until season 3 to come to terms with her mother.

Expanding this idea a bit more, Adama and Roslin essentially act as parents for all of humanity - sort of a reverse Adam and Eve, almost. They constantly have to figure out how to nourish, discipline and protect their charges. We even see a bit of adolescent rebellion on the part of the people - they vote Roslin out of office, opting instead to stay up late watching cartoons on New Caprica with Baltar in charge. Finally, though, like Apollo and Starbuck, this metaphorical child grows up and learns to live with its parents.

Taking this one step further, the central conflict in the series can also be cast as an essentially familial struggle: the Cylons are the children of the humans, and while their "adolescent rebellion" is perhaps a bit harsher than mine or yours (nuclear weapons and genocide, anyone?) at the end of the day they just want to be loved!

Isn't that marvelous? The greatest enemy humanity has ever known just wants a hug. Oh, it's a bit more complex than that - the Cylons are impotent, able to imitate humanity in every aspect except procreation. That must be terribly frustrating, and it's perhaps the reason they built such a strong need for love into their humanoid models. But at the end of the day, have you ever encountered a more compelling justification for genocide? It casts the entire Cylon race in a very sympathetic light, I think.

So the question becomes: will the Cylons eventually reach a reconciliation with their parents? Honestly I think so; I think at the end of the series the 12 Cylon models will each essentially "become human," discarding all other iterations and joining with humanity on the surface of a virgin earth.

I'm kind of a sap, though. What do you think?

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