Of space shows, old and new
Sep. 18th, 2006 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI've started to rewatch the second season of Battlestar Galactica, and mmm, when it's good, it's very good. The big question for the third season probably won't be whether the first six to eight episodes or so will be good - I'm sure they will be - but whether the show will be able to avoid the mid-season slump this time around.
Now, one thing about Ron Moore I always appreciated is that he didn't join the game a great many journalists play these days when they praise BSG, to wit, bash Star Trek. (Or at least the later spin-offs of Star Trek.) He never denied his ST origins. And now I find he wrote a love declaration to the show, and what it meant for him both as a fan and as a writer, for the New York Times, here. While he's at it, he also takes a swipe at the cliché of the Sci-Fi fan the media still is so fond of. But really, the main thing is what he has to say about Star Trek, and it should be interesting for BSG-only watchers as well. Some choice excerpts:
Jim Kirk may have beat up his share of bad guys, but you could never imagine him torturing them.
A favorite quote: “We’re human beings, with the blood of a million savage years on our hands. But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we won’t kill today.” Kirk clearly understood humanity’s many flaws, yet never lost faith in our ability to rise above the muck and reach for the stars.
(....)
And as I grew into an adult, and my political views took shape, I treasured “Star Trek” as a dream of what my country could one day become — a liberal and tolerant society, unafraid to live by its ideals in a dangerous universe, and secure in the knowledge that its greatness derived from the strength of its ideas rather than the power of its phasers.
In my 20’s, through a combination of luck and determination, I fulfilled my childhood dream — I became a writer for “Star Trek.”
For 10 years, I helped propel the latter-day incarnations of “Trek” into new territory while keeping alive the set of moral principles I’d taken to heart. As I plotted the adventures of the Enterprise-D and the travails of the space station Deep Space 9, I gradually became interested in pushing the boundaries of “Star Trek,” and began to let Captains Picard and Sisko find the shades of gray in a universe Kirk sometimes saw only in black and white.
(...)
Nowadays, it may appear that I’ve turned a blind eye to my lodestar as the crew of the Battlestar Galactica behave in ways that would’ve been unthinkable in the “Star Trek” universe that Gene Roddenberry created. But “Battlestar Galactica” remains very much informed by the lessons I learned from that slightly paunchy man in the gold pajama top on the good ship Enterprise.
My characters may not have all the answers (sometimes they’re not even aware of the questions) but they contain kernels of both good and evil in their hearts and continue to struggle for salvation and redemption against the darker angels of their natures. Their defeats are many, their victories few, but somehow, some way, they never give up the dream of finding a better tomorrow.
And, thanks to a 40-year-old television show, neither do I.
But read the entire article, please.
On a related note,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
k_julia made a fantastic BSG vid, about Laura Roslin and my favourite recurring character, Tom Zarek, State of the Union. In recent con reports I've read, someone quoted Richard Hatch's description of Zarek as a "fallen idealist", and over the course of two seasons, one can say this description would also serve for Laura Roslin, who sometimes draws different and sometimes similar conclusions from it. But she does not stop trying, and you know what? Zarek doesn't, either.
Now, one thing about Ron Moore I always appreciated is that he didn't join the game a great many journalists play these days when they praise BSG, to wit, bash Star Trek. (Or at least the later spin-offs of Star Trek.) He never denied his ST origins. And now I find he wrote a love declaration to the show, and what it meant for him both as a fan and as a writer, for the New York Times, here. While he's at it, he also takes a swipe at the cliché of the Sci-Fi fan the media still is so fond of. But really, the main thing is what he has to say about Star Trek, and it should be interesting for BSG-only watchers as well. Some choice excerpts:
Jim Kirk may have beat up his share of bad guys, but you could never imagine him torturing them.
A favorite quote: “We’re human beings, with the blood of a million savage years on our hands. But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we won’t kill today.” Kirk clearly understood humanity’s many flaws, yet never lost faith in our ability to rise above the muck and reach for the stars.
(....)
And as I grew into an adult, and my political views took shape, I treasured “Star Trek” as a dream of what my country could one day become — a liberal and tolerant society, unafraid to live by its ideals in a dangerous universe, and secure in the knowledge that its greatness derived from the strength of its ideas rather than the power of its phasers.
In my 20’s, through a combination of luck and determination, I fulfilled my childhood dream — I became a writer for “Star Trek.”
For 10 years, I helped propel the latter-day incarnations of “Trek” into new territory while keeping alive the set of moral principles I’d taken to heart. As I plotted the adventures of the Enterprise-D and the travails of the space station Deep Space 9, I gradually became interested in pushing the boundaries of “Star Trek,” and began to let Captains Picard and Sisko find the shades of gray in a universe Kirk sometimes saw only in black and white.
(...)
Nowadays, it may appear that I’ve turned a blind eye to my lodestar as the crew of the Battlestar Galactica behave in ways that would’ve been unthinkable in the “Star Trek” universe that Gene Roddenberry created. But “Battlestar Galactica” remains very much informed by the lessons I learned from that slightly paunchy man in the gold pajama top on the good ship Enterprise.
My characters may not have all the answers (sometimes they’re not even aware of the questions) but they contain kernels of both good and evil in their hearts and continue to struggle for salvation and redemption against the darker angels of their natures. Their defeats are many, their victories few, but somehow, some way, they never give up the dream of finding a better tomorrow.
And, thanks to a 40-year-old television show, neither do I.
But read the entire article, please.
On a related note,
k_julia made a fantastic BSG vid, about Laura Roslin and my favourite recurring character, Tom Zarek, State of the Union. In recent con reports I've read, someone quoted Richard Hatch's description of Zarek as a "fallen idealist", and over the course of two seasons, one can say this description would also serve for Laura Roslin, who sometimes draws different and sometimes similar conclusions from it. But she does not stop trying, and you know what? Zarek doesn't, either.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 02:24 pm (UTC)Not to be too predictable. (If I were TOO predictable, I'd say something about his shirt.)
Thanks for the links!
no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 06:03 pm (UTC)And yes, exactly! While Mr. Benedict is still complaining and complaining, Richard Hatch has landed this meaty recurring role and you can see the writers love using him - Zarek is in two s1 episodes, but in six s2 episodes.
Leaving that aside, Bastille Day is one of my favourite episodes because of the way it subverts expectations. We do expect Lee to outwit/defeat Zarek, but we do not expect him to say "you're right, Tom" afterwards. And instead of locking Zarek & Co. up again giving him what he had asked for - the elections.