Thursday, March 22, 2007

Why Wither Galactica?

Believe it or not, the answer is ... too much focus on character. (Note that I didn't say "character development". More on that later.) The strength of Battlestar Galactica - from the original mini through the first third of Season 3 - has always been character development in conjunction with advancing the overall storyline - namely, these are the last humans, running for their lives from the Cylons. In quality storytelling, character development pushes plot, plot forces character development. Focus solely on plot, and you get the '70's version of Galactica (or, virtually any other piece of genre fiction.) Focus only on character and ignore your main story - as BSG has done of late - and you get fluff of the sort you might expect to find on Lifetime or on any daily soap opera.

This season, the writers - and showrunner Ronald D. Moore, whom I have counted as a personal inspiration for a decade - crippled themselves twofold. First, after closing out Season 2 with a brilliant jump forward of one year, they wrapped up the whole New Caprica occupation/resistance plotline way too soon. Wouldn't it have been great to drink in so many revamped and redefined characters in this new setting for even half a season, instead of a mere 3 episodes? Instead, an admittedly fantastic episode allows humanity to escape and return to the stars - and shepherds in what could almost be called the Season without a Cylon. And this is the writers' second misstep.

Yes, a fair amount of the first half of Season 3 devoted time to the Cylons - but not in the usual chase-down-the-humans way. Instead, we learn - through Baltar - many nuances of their lives and society. While some of these revelations proved interesting and cool - each Cylon sees his/her environment as he/she sees fit - the overall effect robbed the Cylons of so much of their mystery. Furthermore, with their lack of hostility and pursuit of humanity, the Cylons gave up what is truly their most important role - the Antagonist.

With the lack of an agressive main plot, Season 3 suffered with lesser storylines that did little if anything to move the story forward. The Starbuck/Apollo will-they-or-won't-they "love story" was the most forced and uncomfortable example of unrequited passion(?) in a series since the writers on X-Files tried to make Mulder and Scully an item. A whole episode of Helo playing detective to catch a bigoted clinic doctor? Another focused on the Chief leading a fleetwide general strike? Don't get me wrong. These are two of my favorite characters on the show. But - aside from the fact that these are both shining examples of the lack of the main plotline - if these stories had to be told, then why serve them us as stand alone bits of filler? Helo discovers the problem, conducts his investigation, and proves his case - all in one episode. This could have been a much richer subplot had it been intertwined with other stories and carried over for, say, three episodes. The same with the story of the strike. In fact, both could have been intertwined, upping tension, for the benefit of all. And, wouldn't it have been great if even one Cylon had shown up?

Season 3 has its finale on Sunday. The most recent episode - Crossroads, Part 1 - appears to be putting the story back on track, with plenty of subplots affecting the major characters - and the return of the Cylons. There is potential for the season to go out on a high note. However, one wonders if it's too little, too late. As of now, the Sci-Fi Channel has only ordered up 13 episodes for Season 4 - not a ringing endorsement. Whether or not the end is truly near for Battlestar Galactica, here's hoping the writers can keep the show on course, returning it to the quality that brought it so much deserved praise.

So say we all!

2 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I agree that this season has been a huge disappointment. The first few episodes about New Caprica were the best in the whole series and then the show became a soap opera.

I think the main problem with BSG is that the writers seem embarassed that it's a Sci-Fi show so they do whatever it is to remove the "sci" from the "fi." They drive humvees, smoke cigarettes, fire guns with bullets, and talk on corded telephones.

The Cylons are supposed to be robots, but never show any evidence of being electronic in any way. They bleed, have children, and have never been shown to have any kind of robotic anatomy.

Anyway, I think one of the things that is still fun on the show is guessing which characters will turn out to be Cylons.

At my day job, we did some guesswork and turned it into an article. Check it out:

Who's a Cylon?