The grunts in the Battlestar Galactica look like today's grunts. Especially the leader of the party that the Chief is in. They all look real -- 21st Century real.
And that's part of Galactica's charm. By contrast, a series like Star Trek is different. Trek presents a "better", more evolved future. And yes, people 400 years from now may be a bit different from today. Not fundamentally, but slightly. Just as we are different, in some ways, from folks who lived in 1605. Even the casting decisions were meant to reflect that.
The latest Galactica episode presents horror and beauty -- not the sci-fi horror of monsters and mutations, but the psychological horror of constant war. But there is beauty, as well -- the beauty of life, the beauty of hope, the beauty, above all, of resilience. The realism of it is meant to connect directly to each of us, in this century.
So what does it all mean? The question is meant to be what it means. The question is what is meant. We are meant to question where this is going, because while it is fun to see the dynamics of each character and each group, it is also fun, and tantalizing, to try to understand why the sacred are the dead, and why the dead are sacred, and why Baltar is dreaming of a drowning baby in a mythological place as he talks to an invisible Cylon woman. The series is much more radical than it pretends, because it questions the nature of mythology. Is our life real? Is it relevant to mythology? Are we creating our own mythology in what we do?
Our security in ourselves is sometimes all we have, and that sometimes, even that isn't enough.
This is heady stuff for us to analyze, and Ronald Moore, the man most responsible for Galactica and a former Trek producer, is having fun as much as we are.
It's a brilliant way to end the week, and a helluva way to start a weekend. Who could ask for anything more?
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