Last night, Battlestar Galactica - the new hit show from the Sci-Fi network opened it's second season with a smash.Continuing a story that draws heavily from the original 1978 series and current events in the post-9/11 world, the Season 2 opener for Battlestar Galactica indicates that what many have called "TV's Best Show", has gotten even better.
At the end of last season, Colonial Fleet Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) was shot twice at point blank range by Boomer, a Cylon sleeper agent.
Adama's son Lee, callsign Apollo (Jamie Bamber) has been arrested for disobeying orders to arrest and detain President Laura Roslyn (Mary McDonnel), who had convinced the fleets best pilot Starbuck to take on a secret suicide mission to retreive an ancient artifact that just might lead the fleet to the safety of Earth.
Seconds after Adama is shot, a Cylon Basestar appears and the fleet has to execute an emergency FTL (Faster-Than-Light) Jump - but when Galactic emerges on the other side it finds that the rest of the fleet has jumped somewhere else due to a miscalculation. They are alone, with the doctor aboard one of the other ships while Adama's life continues to slip away each passing second...
I have to say this is a great show, and highly recommend it - even to those who are not so fond of SciFi for it's tendency to use pseudo-science and techno-babble to tell it's story -- but because this show has managed to get far beneath the technology and look quites seriously at how tragedy and war can affect people, both those in the military and civilians.
What choices do you make, when the wrong one may lead to the end of the human race as you know it? Do you stick to conventional rules of engagement, rules of human rights and decency -- do you strickly obey the law or do you do what you believe you have to do?
In a much broader sense, this show has been the only one to address questions of this nature with the possible exception of Fox's hit show 24. Now, on 24 - they established in it's first season that the rules and law can be bent, twisted and broken by the legendary Agent Jack Bauer without consequence.
On BSG, things aren't quite so simple. We aren't working within a 24 hour timeframe where the future is something that will be addressed next season -- the future begins in the next episode, and consequences may be immediate and devastating.
How do you treat an enemy prisoner when they might have vital information - even when that prisoner may have been one of your best friends, or even your lover, just the day before? Whose authority should you follow when the top military commander and the civilian President directly clash?
None of the choices made by the characters on BSG are easy or simple, and they almost always have consequences both in the short term and in the long term. Among many of it's fans, the events and characters on the show are often viewed through a modern-day political prism. Pro-War Hawk vs. Peacenik-Dove, they battle and argue over plot points and their ramifications in the "real world" as fervently as Crossfire hosts would about the latest events within the beltway.
A war crime is when you whole sale slaughter people and uniformed POWs for no apparent reason.Vs...The captured prisoners are not traditional POWs. They don't wear uniform, by tradition, it is in our full right to sumarily execute non-uniformed combatant as soon as they're [captured]. This administration have extended certain POWs rights, which are a huge mistake.
Being non-uniformed, they don't deserve the same treatment as uniformed soldiers. I have no problem whatsoever with the torture of irregular forces. In fact, I encourge such action to discourage that type of combatants from being [popularized].
Don’t you see where this is going?
<>You think torture is okay?
Did you learn nothing from history?
As soon as the American People realize that this is a war with Islam the better. We need to use General Sheridans version of Total War, like he used against the Northern Cheyenne Indians. These Islamic terrorists are animals and need to be treated as such. America needs to nuke Mecca and let these Satanist know that their is only one god and his son Jesus Christ. Also the United States needs to cut all ties with the United Nations.Battlestar Galactica is must-see TV. If you have cable, watch it.
Vyan
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