| | This was another highlight of the month of March - most awesome sci-fi television series of present times, Battlestar Galactica, finally draws to a close. Ever since the first season, I have always held that this is the best sci-fi television series since Babylon 5. I recall when it first made its way around back in MMU days when the mini series started a lot of hype. One look at it and it resembled a dark and depressing future, somewhat along a series I remembered from back in school days Space: Above And Beyond.
But Battlestar Galactica has grown to be so much more than mere science fiction. Many critics have said that it has transcended the science fiction genre ( the other time I heard the term 'transcending a genre' was with The Dark Knight ). The themes which was explored in the series where just profound, issues like war, self worth and identity, terrorism, faith and belief among many others. This is a series which was bold and not afraid to put on screen scenes which were considered dark and mature like attempted rape and torture. Definitely not for the kids.
But at the centre of the series actually is not science fiction or war or technology, but in fact a lot to do with faith and belief. Yes, once again subjects which I like to discuss a lot about. They have been throwing around themes like 'God has a purpose', prophecies and 'everything has happened before and it will happen again'. Who said sci-fi was geeky? But its this central theme that puts forward the question of a never ending cycle of death and violence, which is so familiar in human history. Wars and conflict will come but who does one really put an end to it?
SPOILERS START HERE
Now after having watched the finale for the series, I felt that this is what closure feels like. Not grand or mind-blowing, but just a nice calm ending. It is perhaps that an ending should come quietly. The whole opera house dream sequence is played out at last. The Final Five's story is finally revealed. And what of Six and Baltar? They are angels or messengers sent by God? So there is a God in this universe. I think I should use this series to preach to people who do not believe in God. But unfortunately they had to throw in a line which says that 'He hates being called God'. Well, sci-fi dares only go that far into the grounds of religious belief.
And is Kara Thrace to be the Christ-figure of this series? Having died and resurrected, not in the usual science fiction explanation of a clone, but one who indeed has died with a physical corpse to prove. So is her current form the series way of calling it the resurrected body, like the one Jesus had after his resurrection? And Kara's life had a purpose, eventhough it was just to push some coordinates at the end. But there you go, that idea that all of our lives do have a purpose, no matter how small or insignificant. What more, Kara Thrace has her own 'ascension', but it bascially involved just vanishing into thin air.
On some level I thought would have been niced to try and explain how the God in this series, with his angels and his messenger actually work. But then I think again and it feels like do I need to explain God to my ownself? God is not to be completely understood, but rather just to believe in. So perhaps it is with this thought that the series should not have to explain further its interpretation of God in this series.
Gosh, see what Battlestar Galactica can open up to? It is that awesome. It will be missed, but it has left its mark in television history. So say we all.
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| | Posted 3/29/2009 10:05 PM - 8 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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