This is War

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone, I hope your weekend is starting off well! 

In the US, of course, this is memorial day weekend, and that's gotten me thinking about BSG as a specifically military drama.  My husband and I have sometimes said that we thought BSG was a better military show than it was a sci-fi one; those gritty, realistic elements were often the ones that struck our emotions most strongly and got us thinking about ethical issues that might actually play out in the real world.  I'm curious about how you think BSG compares with other war dramas set in real history -- series like Band of Brothers, or films like Saving Private Ryan, Patton, The Great Escape, Twelve O'Clock High, Valkyrie, etc.  Do you think the BSG story and actors could have worked just as well in the setting of a historical or modern war, or in the aftermath of a nuclear exchange between real superpowers?  Did the sci-fi elements create important story-telling opportunities?  Did making the enemy into robots allow the creators to side-step any important ethical or dramatic issues about warfare?  I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

Saving Private Ryan?

Comments

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I agree that it was much more of a military drama than a SF one (and worked better for it). Where I think they fell down with the SF elements is not that they weaseled out of military or ethical concerns because cylons were robots but just on their own level--that they never bothered to explain what actually physically made the robots different than humans. I mean they played fast and loose with that so much--and it got really sloppy storytelling wise because they didn't want to really commit to a simple blood test showing what the differences were, they got inconsistent about how pregnancies could be conceived by cylons, they were super vague about how the data network worked between them (Sharon couldn't tell Kara why she was special to them, etc.) That always bothered me. I wanted to know exactly what made them different. Not even just on a physical level, but morally--aside from believing in one god and believing they were the superior race...their views on humans kept changing (We want to kill them! No we want to breed with them!) Messy.

Although I know the show's ultimate point was "they're NOT different! They're just like you and me!" but...it struck me as a bit lazy, especially early on that they didn't have a clear idea of what even made these robots different.

I actually wish they'd explored more of the military issues in a bit more detail -- what does it mean to have a wingman, what are the frat regs all about and what exactly do they restrict, tension between the various ranks, etc. I always liked those storylines a lot.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I think BSG definitely is a military drama, at its heart - and it was strongest when it stayed there, rather than veering into SF territory (ultimately, what did I really care about? It certainly wasn't the Cylon Debates On Spaceships, or Cavil's mommy issues, but I wanted to know what would become of Galactica, and the people we'd come to know as part of it).

I think the fact that the show was sci-fi, though, that allowed it to explore war in a way that perhaps would have been far more uncomfortable for people to watch without it. I mean, the miniseries aired barely two years after 9/11, and pretty much kept going as an Iraq war allegory (before veering off into Crazytown in Season 4). And that was pretty brave for a show in that time - especially for a show in that time.

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

One of the elements that making it sci-fi offered was that it reduced the options for the human race almost to nil. If the drama had been planet-based, it would have felt ordinary to me, as if the entire world(s) were not actually destroyed - it was just another war. By destroying twelve planets and making them uninhabitable, the crisis of survival is always present, always driving the narrative, whereas a more standard war would be more predictable, possibly less dire.

I agree that BSG used standard sci-fi tropes in a limited way, which is something I very much appreciate because many people believe that science fiction must have lots of crazy tech and aliens and wormholes, etc., to be "real" science fiction. I love the idea of ordinary human struggles in a space setting. I love crazy, out-there scifi, too, but the best scifi I've ever read has been about characters struggling with ethical and moral questions while technology simply sets the stage. In that regard, I think BSG was a superb example of what the best of science fiction can offer.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

the best scifi I've ever read has been about characters struggling with ethical and moral questions while technology simply sets the stage.

This exactly! And I actually like the fact that you can see the effects of that struggle reflected in the lives of the Fleet - it was always at its best when the sci-fi tropes informed the story but took a bit of a backseat.

(I always liked the ship in your icon, btw. It always looked really fragile though, I'm amazed it survived the series)