The Art of Space

For dozens of years film has been hailed as the modern art form. With the advent of episodic television, a la 24 and Lost, television has found its own method of achieving true art. No longer are TV shows weekly stand alone movies, but they can now tell one unified story over many years. No show has captured the essence of this art form like Battlestar Galactica. To disregard Galactica as simple science fiction would be easy, but it has become so much more than that. And as season 4 of this space odyssey begins, it can no longer be ignored

Battlestar Galactica is a re-imagining of the 1978 TV series of the same name. The general idea is that humanity has been destroyed by the servant machines (cylons) that it had created. Only one military ship, the Galactica, along with a few other civilian vessels, survived the attack. With Commander Adama at the helm, and with his ace pilots Starbuck and Apollo at his side, the small human fleet begins its search for the mythical lost colony….Earth. All the while the cylons, who look, act, and feel human now, are in heavy pursuit.

Sounds like a run of the mill sci-fi program, but it is so much more than that. Galactica uses these sci-fi elements only as a setting. This show is about the characters, not battles or space ships. The writers use the setting to explore the human psyche under extreme distress. Galactica does not deal in stereotypes. But rather every character is absolutely unique, yet inherently human. They all have their flaws, and it is those flaws that drive their actions. At times they prove noble and heroic, yet when the action stops they turn to alcohol and sex as a means of coping with their situation. In nearly every episode someone learns the “moral of the story,” but when we next see them they have fallen back to their bad habits. It seems as if happiness is a goal that everyone aboard Galactica is trying to avoid.

What’s just as impressive as the character development is the manner in which Galactica deals with modern issues. Religious fanaticism, terrorism, and even the war in Iraq are dealt with in a way that has never been seen before. The fact that Galactica unflinchingly approaches these topics allows viewers to relate to what the characters are going through.

All of these things are great, but underneath the characters and the issues lays one all important question. What does it mean to be human? As the new biological cylons arose, the line between human and cylon became even smaller. This startling new fact gives rise to a flurry of ethical questions. What gives humanity the right to live after the atrocities it has committed upon itself? How can someone who is fundamentally human be so alike, yet so different? It’s these questions that eat at the mind of each crewmember. And it’s the depth with which these questions are answered that is so unique.

Art, as described by dictionary.com, is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. It’s hard to imagine that a show on the SCI-FI channel could achieve such a status, but Galactica most definitely fits the bill.