I liked the TV pilot for Battlestar Galactica (2003). I thought it had super effects, very strong characterization and did a great job of re-imagining a series that I enjoyed (although I’m in no way a fan of) as a child. This Film Forensic of Battlestar Galactica looks only at the pilot (I haven’t seen any of the series), and so in one sense the material it examines is only a small part of a greater whole. And so with the disclaimer that what is autopsied herein may now be irrelevant due to developments on the show, I’ll continue.

A pilot for a series is in a difficult position. It must be able to stand alone as a movie, while providing enough background to setup a series. This is no easy feat. Battlestar Galactica does very well in introducing its human characters, but not so well with other areas. I’ll forensic it from the perspective that less background of the Cylon’s would have been better for the movie, and that more background of the human’s culture would have helped its epic qualities.

“The Cylons who look like us” looks like it was an idea that was burning a hole in the writers’ pockets. They couldn’t wait to introduce it, and so it is shoehorned into the story. This time the Cylons are going to be more than intelligent machines. They have religion and some higher motivation for their attack on humanity. They also have developed technology beyond humanities’. But finding out all this from Number 6 is too much development for the pilot. Revealing two major changes to the Cylons is at least one, more probably two revelations too many. This is especially as neither one is revealed by the actions of the characters. The show spoon feeds what could be at least a seasons worth of storylines and a brilliant season climax.

In order for these revelations to be shown many of the Cylons’ actions make little sense. The Cylons are being forced through hoops so that the audience can meet them in scenes that the creators of the show are in love with, but can’t justify. The destruction of Armistice Station makes no tactical sense. The Cylons, like the humans, have FTL drives. Stopping at Armistice Station to kill one human has no military advantage, and can only alert the humans that something is wrong. And it does, for the loss of communication with the station is mentioned to Cmdr. Adama when he first enters the command deck. Luckily for the Cylons nothing is done about it.

And the Cylons are again hoop jumping when Leoben Conoy, a latest model Cylon, is discovered at the munitions base. Yet while they took the time to destroy Armistice Station, this munitions base was untouched. Instead Leoben Conoy is left there alone. The reason for this is a mystery. Instead of leaving Leon Conoy there, it makes better sense to just destroy the base.

And it is never explained or even hinted at why the Cylons, who have meticulously planned the destruction of humanity, give humans this opportunity to discover that they have developed these human-like models. That should be the Cylons’ secret weapon, yet humanity knows of it before the end of the pilot. It seems like the creators of the show wanted to get these great new changes into the program, but hadn’t thought about how best to do so.

The Cylons are also hampered by poor characterization, being introduced as the villains in a ham-fisted way. At Armistice Station Number 6 acts as if she hasn’t seen a human before as she asks the diplomat, “Are you alive?” Yet she has already been interacting with humans, even sleeping with one. Also the killing of the baby on Caprica City by Number 6 just hours before the attack on humanity is the worst kind of characterization. There is no explanation given for why she risks detection to kill a single child that will probably be dead in a few hours anyway. If it is the writers wish to show that the Cylons are evil then it is enough that they are about to exterminate humanity. It comes across as the writers’ heavy-handed attempt to introduce the Cylons as the enemy.

I’m not keen on the two big changes that this re-imagined pilot makes to the original series. Sure, the Cylons looking like humans opens the door for many stories about “them” and “us”. But it opens up more problems than if the Cylons remained robotic. The Cylons now have all the technology of humanity, and then some. And as one piece of technology is never developed in a vacuum this could be like the situation with transporters in the original Star Trek, and replicators in Star Trek: The Next Generation. If they have transporters then they must have replicators. I wonder what else the Cylons have now that they can manufacture synthetic beings that are indistinguishable to the eye from humans. There was no evidence of this in the pilot, and I suspect that the technological and social implications of their advanced technology haven’t been thought through. But this is mere speculation on my part.

However if so, then why are there only 12 Cylon models? Why not 50, or 100? Why do the advanced models look only like humans? Why aren’t there Cylons that look like big spidery creatures that are 10 meters tall? Maybe they are built in the image of the creator and they are somehow trying to attain “humanness”. But again, this is just speculation.

The search for the last remaining colony gave the original Battlestar Galactica TV series mythic and epic qualities. The new version replaces this with an untenable lie. Cmdr. Adama’s speech was the worst moment in the pilot, and a poor decision by the writers. The idea that the leaders of the 12 colonies have secretly known of Earth’s location but never told anyone is just plain silly. Cmdr. Adama thinks that this information alone is supposed to give the survivors hope to continue. I guess that in the future everyone are so much more trusting of their leaders, but I would have thought that people would have filed out of the ceremony saying, “What was the commander snorting? Have you ever heard such a load of bollocks?”

But this wouldn’t be the case if the mythic quality of the 13th colony had been retained. The idea is too good to be relegated to being a lie. The pilot could have spent more time on humanity, especially its religious beliefs. And with the Cylons religion elaborated on in the series there could be comparisons between the two religions. And if the 13th colony had been born from religious persecution then there are all sorts of storylines that come to mind. Maybe the Cylons religion is based on the banned texts of the 13th colony. Or maybe the religion of the 13th colony attained popularity after the colonists left, and the Cylons and humans worship the same god(s), but with different interpretations. Or maybe the 13th colony could end up siding with the Cylons because of sympathetic religious ideals. All it needs is some evidence that has recently come to light about where the 13th colony settlers went, and so following this slim lead will become humanity’s chance for survival.

I also envisage the Battlestar Galactica pilot without Number 6 introduced as a Cylon. She could be part of the show, but she is a fiction in Baltazar’s head, the lover only he can see. Of course he doesn’t know this. She comes to him only when he is alone. It is like The Sixth Sense, but stretched out over a season. Gradually he (and the audience) realizes that she is a Cylon construct, and that he has been a pawn of the Cylons all along.

The human-like Cylons are then introduced as part of a major storyline of the series. It is something that the humans discover along the way. Maybe there could be unexplained acts of sabotage in the fleet. First it could be thought to be political or military unrest, but by the end of the first season it is discovered that the Cylons are amongst humanity, and they look like humans. The Cylons themselves are not even shown in the pilot, just their ships. The pilot concentrates on giving background to humanity, the Cylon attack and its aftermath as the remnants of humanity try to survive and take off in the footsteps of the 13th colony.

Based on the pilot Battlestar Galactica looks like a sci-fi series with a lot of promise. There is plenty to develop here. The tension between the military and the civilian refugees, the tensions between the well developed personalities of the characters, the Cylons and their civilization, the religions of both races, and the hope that Earth is real. I hope that I get the chance to see the TV series.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2005 at 9:04 am and is filed under B, Forensic Analysis, Science Fiction, winston. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.