Political Issues and Science Fiction Perspectives Of Such
So the question here is: How many political issues can writers put into B.S.G ? I believe I counted four this last episode - five if you count cloning like the Cylons do. The first is Breast Cancer Awareness with the President of the colonies dying from the second leading killer of women. The second political issue being Terrorism with the sabotage and bombing of space craft and the taking of lives be they military or civilian. I think the speech that the female bomber made before she blew a hole in the side of one of the ships is almost word for word what a Iraqi bomber said on a tape she left for TV. The third being poor quality of the school systems and the low pay of teachers, that even in the future still seems to be a problem that can’t be resolved. And forth, I think is that of a play on stem cell research involving a cure for cancer from the blood of a half Cylon fetus belonging to Halo and Boomer. I think Ron Moore and David Eicks have seemed to find issues near to fans hearts be they good or bad and I love that idea. I think the story lines give fans a point of reference from their own present time lines. I doubt any of the writers or producers read this but if anyone knows them please pass along our thanks from SCIFIPUNDIT for keeping folks and fans alike, aware of these issues.
2 Comments:
I wrote this: http://rfraley301.blogspot.com/2006/01/short-tv-post.html before I read your post. Apparently the political component was apparent to everyone but me. Good post. Hope to see you all at the Starcon.
Sadly the political component is what ends up dating sci fi so that it does not still seem relevant when you see it some years down the road. Star Trek (ok, absent special effects and other technical reasons) had "relevant" plot lines focusing on politics of the times and almost all those shows aged very badly. You see it commonly in Sci Fi novels as well. Timeless classics tend to set the tone of the universe they are in and set a new paradigm in that time frame. So it is a trade off, current themes expressed against future technology (interesting but short lived) or future themes interpreted in the past......... I like them both
Steve
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