I have mentioned Galactica's relationship with Iraq and 9/11 before, and that I believe that it is actually more profound than the fabled relationship that 24 has with 9/11.
However, in light of 24 being seen as so 'non-post-9/11' by forum members than Battlestar Galactica must be evaluated in the same way. Therefore...
If 24 is simply drawing from age old conventions within Hollywood. So if 24 comes from the 'True Lies' tradition, could Battlestar be from the lineage that started in '70's disaster movies (and included Planet of the Apes) right up to more recent fare such as 'The Day After Tomorrow'.
Battlestar indeed has similarities to disaster movies; following a rag tag band of survivors battling to flee a disaster that has wiped out most of their compatriots. In line with modern disaster films it has a distinct apocalyptic feel, in that it portrays the destruction of humanity as we know it.
However it is undeniable that much of Battlestar is influenced by 9/11. From the wall of pictures, reminiscent of the 'shrines' that popped up around lower Manhattan after the attacks to the torture of prisoners that underpins much of the human/cylon relationship.
Because I can't find any pictures of videos of any toruture (other than Gauis, a human, being torutred in a video I posted earlier), this video of Galactica going head on with the ships from Star Trek.
It may be some form of 'nerdvana'.
Monday, April 30
Monday, April 23
24 Forum Responses
Postings I did on the tv.com forums for 24 bugging people to respond to my questions have spurred an interesting debate.
The first response given started with:
Yet a second response from another person reaffirmed what I thought.
However, it was interesting to see that perhaps different people are able to disconnect with reality easier and concentrate on the narrative of the show. In some ways, ignore any kind of political overtones in a show like 24 and watch it for the purely entertainment value.
With luck, more to come...
The first response given started with:
I have a few thoughts..
The only thing that 24 and 9/11 have in common, is they both involve terrorism. 24's success has nothing to do with 9/11.
Yet a second response from another person reaffirmed what I thought.
I disagree.
Do you think the general viewing audience would be okay with a hero that is willing to torture anyone and everyone at the drop of a hat - so long as said hero is working in the best interests of this country, mind you - if the year were 1998? Something tells me no.
However, it was interesting to see that perhaps different people are able to disconnect with reality easier and concentrate on the narrative of the show. In some ways, ignore any kind of political overtones in a show like 24 and watch it for the purely entertainment value.
With luck, more to come...
Friday, April 20
Deaths Become Numbers
The amount of deaths after 9/11 meant that finding tragedy in each individual death would be nearly impossibly; the news network showed only a sample of the people grieving afterwards.
Therefore the amount of deaths became easy to understand numbers; around 3000 died on 9/11 (around 2970 if I recall) or 3000 American soldiers are dead in Iraq or 1/2 a million Iraqis have died, etc. It is not only the indiscriminate nature of the attacks, but the arbitrariness of the deaths too.
This is where the television dramas took over. They followed the stories of people, and every deaths mattered again(as death of characters generally do in serials). 24's creators have always insisted that Jack Bauer may always die and he was not immune from the many deaths in the show, they did this surely to reflect 9/11's huge amount of indiscriminate deaths.
Battlestar Galactica takes this numbering idea to the extreme by using the number of human survivors as a part of the plot. Initially the number was simply shown within the narrative of the show, but as the show progressed it started putting the number of survivors straight up front (this change could be attributed to two things, that the chaos and panic from 9/11 had long since passed and the number was now more official and somewhat more distant. Also, it may be due to the developments of the war in Iraq, during which many news programs were displaying a continuously updating number of American fatalities in Iraq).
TV dramas were somewhat the antithesis to the cold hard truth of the impersonal numbers of dead, as they are able to mourn for the important people and completely bypass the mourning or depression when a mass amount of relatively faceless people die (for example a whole ship with thousands of people of may be destroyed in Battlestar Galactica or a nuke can explode in Los Angeles in 24 yet neither one will stop to grieve the thousands of dead in the way that was done after 9/11).
Therefore the amount of deaths became easy to understand numbers; around 3000 died on 9/11 (around 2970 if I recall) or 3000 American soldiers are dead in Iraq or 1/2 a million Iraqis have died, etc. It is not only the indiscriminate nature of the attacks, but the arbitrariness of the deaths too.
This is where the television dramas took over. They followed the stories of people, and every deaths mattered again(as death of characters generally do in serials). 24's creators have always insisted that Jack Bauer may always die and he was not immune from the many deaths in the show, they did this surely to reflect 9/11's huge amount of indiscriminate deaths.
Battlestar Galactica takes this numbering idea to the extreme by using the number of human survivors as a part of the plot. Initially the number was simply shown within the narrative of the show, but as the show progressed it started putting the number of survivors straight up front (this change could be attributed to two things, that the chaos and panic from 9/11 had long since passed and the number was now more official and somewhat more distant. Also, it may be due to the developments of the war in Iraq, during which many news programs were displaying a continuously updating number of American fatalities in Iraq).
TV dramas were somewhat the antithesis to the cold hard truth of the impersonal numbers of dead, as they are able to mourn for the important people and completely bypass the mourning or depression when a mass amount of relatively faceless people die (for example a whole ship with thousands of people of may be destroyed in Battlestar Galactica or a nuke can explode in Los Angeles in 24 yet neither one will stop to grieve the thousands of dead in the way that was done after 9/11).
Thursday, April 19
Personalising 9/11
9/11 doesn't really have any heros. The closest thing to a hero were the firefighters of New York, or the passengers on United flight 93 who fought back.
The problem was that the victims (those working in the Trade Center), the heros (the firefighters who died en masse) and the terrorist who highjacked the planes all died in the same place at the same time. There was no one to hunt down for commiting the crime,no vallient hero coming out of flames with a 'helpless' pregnant women on his back.
The closest personalisation there was were the pictures of friends and relatives that were stuck up on walls all over the city, and subsequently shown on television news.
When dramas started being based around 9/11 they inevitably had to personalise what they were showing. Terrorists in 24 (at least in the first couple of seasons) were not attacking symbols of the United States' power, or attacking civilians, they would be going after specific targets or people. More often than not that meant the President or another important person. Therefore 24 personalised the victim (the target of the attacks), the 'bad guys' (the terrorists), but also personalised the hero. Jack Bauer was not modeled after the 'true heroes' of 9/11, the firefighters, but as the show wore on Jack came to embodiy many of the characteristics that the firefighters had; he is seemingly always prepared to die for the cause of fighting terrorism and for a time seemed fairly working class protecting a rich elite politician. This was surely a reflection of the relatively working class firefighters protecting the enourmasly rich investment bankers and stoke brokers who worked in the World Trade Center.
Battlestar Galactica too represents the tragedy in human terms. It centers around a group of survivors and focuses on their lives after the attacks (in somewhat similar style to how Lost focuses on its survivors). Battlestar Galactica looks at the mental and physical degredation that came about after the loss of almost everyone they ever knew, as if it was an extension of that intial covergae on the television news in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 of the friends and relatives asking for any news at all about people lost in the towers. Galactica portrays the bleek realisation that no-one would come out of that alive.
[inspired by 'Today Is the Longest Day of My Life' by Ina Rae Hark]
The problem was that the victims (those working in the Trade Center), the heros (the firefighters who died en masse) and the terrorist who highjacked the planes all died in the same place at the same time. There was no one to hunt down for commiting the crime,no vallient hero coming out of flames with a 'helpless' pregnant women on his back.
The closest personalisation there was were the pictures of friends and relatives that were stuck up on walls all over the city, and subsequently shown on television news.
When dramas started being based around 9/11 they inevitably had to personalise what they were showing. Terrorists in 24 (at least in the first couple of seasons) were not attacking symbols of the United States' power, or attacking civilians, they would be going after specific targets or people. More often than not that meant the President or another important person. Therefore 24 personalised the victim (the target of the attacks), the 'bad guys' (the terrorists), but also personalised the hero. Jack Bauer was not modeled after the 'true heroes' of 9/11, the firefighters, but as the show wore on Jack came to embodiy many of the characteristics that the firefighters had; he is seemingly always prepared to die for the cause of fighting terrorism and for a time seemed fairly working class protecting a rich elite politician. This was surely a reflection of the relatively working class firefighters protecting the enourmasly rich investment bankers and stoke brokers who worked in the World Trade Center.
Battlestar Galactica too represents the tragedy in human terms. It centers around a group of survivors and focuses on their lives after the attacks (in somewhat similar style to how Lost focuses on its survivors). Battlestar Galactica looks at the mental and physical degredation that came about after the loss of almost everyone they ever knew, as if it was an extension of that intial covergae on the television news in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 of the friends and relatives asking for any news at all about people lost in the towers. Galactica portrays the bleek realisation that no-one would come out of that alive.
[inspired by 'Today Is the Longest Day of My Life' by Ina Rae Hark]
Tuesday, April 17
Representation of Arabs Before 9/11
Movies and TV shows that represent 9/11 inevitably need to represent the 'evil doers' (a surprisingly useful Bushism). A show like Battlestar Galactica has the freedom that sci-fi gives to change the terrorist characters to Cylons (effectively robotic humanoids). A show like 24 that is (supposedly) realistic finds itself needing to portray Arab terrorists as Arabs. However, it is questionable whether this is a new phenomenon and Arab terrorists on screen is directly related to 9/11.
There were many movies before 9/11 that featured Arab terrorists, so it can be seen that perhaps that this depiction of Arab terrorists stems from earlier political changes (without going overly political, the numerous airline hijackings during the 1970's is likely the genesis of this). A movie like 'True Lies' predates 9/11 by almost a decade but features Arabic terrorists every bit as sinister as those in 24.
Curiously 24 has persisted in using the old Cold War enemies, the Russians, as the 'bad guys' in multiple series. This perhaps suggests that as a program 24 is quite indiscriminate in its enemies (it is certainly indiscriminate in regards to Arabs, whom they treat as all emanating from one country somewhere in the Mid-East). It may not be that the creators of 24 are directly channeling 9/11 in the show to the extent that is generally assumed.
It is plausible that they just need 'bad guys' and are reflecting society insecurities and fears. It could not really be argued that Russia is truly the bad guy in a political sense anymore and the depictions of Russian government officials attempting to detonate nuclear bombs in the U.S. or assassinate the President are most not a reflection of current political tensions. Yet in American society Russia still has connotations of an 'evil empire' (as Ronald Reagan said), therefore the creators of 24 are able portray Russians in the same way it represents Arabs; for in the American psyche they both exemplify of entities fighting against the American way of life.
Therefore, it is possible that 24 could be said to have at least some elements that are entirely non-post 9/11 elements within it, a rather confusing statement since 24 is truly the ultimate show of post-9/11 ideas.
There were many movies before 9/11 that featured Arab terrorists, so it can be seen that perhaps that this depiction of Arab terrorists stems from earlier political changes (without going overly political, the numerous airline hijackings during the 1970's is likely the genesis of this). A movie like 'True Lies' predates 9/11 by almost a decade but features Arabic terrorists every bit as sinister as those in 24.
Curiously 24 has persisted in using the old Cold War enemies, the Russians, as the 'bad guys' in multiple series. This perhaps suggests that as a program 24 is quite indiscriminate in its enemies (it is certainly indiscriminate in regards to Arabs, whom they treat as all emanating from one country somewhere in the Mid-East). It may not be that the creators of 24 are directly channeling 9/11 in the show to the extent that is generally assumed.
It is plausible that they just need 'bad guys' and are reflecting society insecurities and fears. It could not really be argued that Russia is truly the bad guy in a political sense anymore and the depictions of Russian government officials attempting to detonate nuclear bombs in the U.S. or assassinate the President are most not a reflection of current political tensions. Yet in American society Russia still has connotations of an 'evil empire' (as Ronald Reagan said), therefore the creators of 24 are able portray Russians in the same way it represents Arabs; for in the American psyche they both exemplify of entities fighting against the American way of life.
Therefore, it is possible that 24 could be said to have at least some elements that are entirely non-post 9/11 elements within it, a rather confusing statement since 24 is truly the ultimate show of post-9/11 ideas.
Thursday, March 22
Director Kevin Smith Talks Galactica
Kevin Smith, director of Clerks, Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob (among others) wrote about his love for Battlestar Galactica. He says one of the reasons they got it so right was that it was a reflection of our current culture.
This gives an insight into how representation can be shown on screen. Kevin Smith clearly thinks that the reason it has succeeded is by showing us a part of ourselves that goes unnoticed, or is often ignored to give a vision of perfection. He says sci-fi succeeds (but this can be worked to most dramas) when we watch it and we see something scarily familiar to our real lives being shown to us. Battlestar Galactica especially is full of 'imperfect' people, strangely it is somewhat a rarity on TV (and even more so in TV sci-fi) to have the characters as gritty and realistic with flaws and all.
How did the new “B-Star G” peeps spin straw into gold? How did they
make the human beings as interesting (if not more so) than the fucking Cylons?
Like all great art, they simply held a mirror up to our culture. “Galactica” V.2
is an allegory for 9/11 and the War on Terror viewed from both sides. It offers
a far more complex view of two opposite ideologies in juxtaposition to one
another, presenting neither side as particularly evil – just terrifying.
Extremely well done Science Fiction has always been most powerfully effective
when it lays out humanity naked and shows us ourselves, warts and all. Whether
it’s “Planet of the Apes”, “Star Trek”, or almost anything by Phillip K. Dick,
the best sci-fi isn’t simply laser-beam driven shoot-‘em-ups between good guys
and bad guys; it’s the abyss we look into and see someone awfully, sometimes
painfully familiar looking back from.What Sci-Fi does best is allow the author
to comment on what it’s like to be a human being – the shame, the miracle, the
sacrifice, the desire, the grand heights, and the abject lows. And if an author
can accomplish this in stealth mode – be entertaining while not calling
attention to his or her loftier goals – so much the better.
This gives an insight into how representation can be shown on screen. Kevin Smith clearly thinks that the reason it has succeeded is by showing us a part of ourselves that goes unnoticed, or is often ignored to give a vision of perfection. He says sci-fi succeeds (but this can be worked to most dramas) when we watch it and we see something scarily familiar to our real lives being shown to us. Battlestar Galactica especially is full of 'imperfect' people, strangely it is somewhat a rarity on TV (and even more so in TV sci-fi) to have the characters as gritty and realistic with flaws and all.
Wednesday, March 21
Big Scary Disasters and Battlestar Galactica Blogs
On the official Battlestar Galactica blog creator Ronald D. Moore talks about the relationship betwen 'Big Scary Disasters' and Battlestar Galactica.
(Link to article)
Whilst this is written in reference to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the idea that a television show is so based on the fear stemming from a situation is telling, and in fact can easily be applied to Galactica itself.
9/11 created a climate of fear that directly influenced many shows, the fear is most prevalent in Battlestar Galactica, yet it also seen in The West Wing or Sex and the City. People felt they could empathize with characters who had experienced pain and suffering, as most Americans felt they went through some degree of pain and suffering after September 11 no matter how distant from the events they were.
-harry
I work on a show that's premised on the idea of an apocalyptic event actually
happening to group of people and their struggle to survive in its aftermath, and
so the idea of being ready for the unexpected does actually occur to me on
occasion.
I won't make this a rant or a sermon, but I will ask anyone reading
this blog to take at least a moment to think about the idea that maybe, just
maybe, something really bad can happen to you and the people in your life that
you care about. Your life can be upended by any one of a litany of disasters.
(Link to article)
Whilst this is written in reference to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the idea that a television show is so based on the fear stemming from a situation is telling, and in fact can easily be applied to Galactica itself.
9/11 created a climate of fear that directly influenced many shows, the fear is most prevalent in Battlestar Galactica, yet it also seen in The West Wing or Sex and the City. People felt they could empathize with characters who had experienced pain and suffering, as most Americans felt they went through some degree of pain and suffering after September 11 no matter how distant from the events they were.
-harry
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