Out of Pod Experience

Don't forget that they were also contemporary with Babylon 5, and a few years in B5 actually started to have an impact on DS9 in terms of how they told stories.

Best show ever! Watched it twice enjoyed ever second! Love some Starbuck!

I love BSG. But I think there have been better done sci fi shows. I will say this. When BSG was at the top of it's game, there hasnt been a more relevent sci fi series on TV before or since. Hell, at it's best, it was one of the best shows on TV, period.

But it was too inconsistent and had some bad filler episodes and the "Lets give up all technology and live like cavemen" ending was really a What the Frak! moment if there ever was one.

Wow, talk about Necro-Thread !

I never even Unsubscribed from it as it had just vanished utterly for a month.

It was more something about cycles, the endless cycles of creation/destruction than anything else, either by choice or not. And well, you do know BSG has a healthy dosage of Mormonism dont you? The New series tried to veer a bit away from it, but maintaned a good chunk.

Same as Middle Earth is heavily influenced by Christianism, a fact disclosed several times by the author himself publicly.

The religious overtones are well, just that. You can still see them as matter of fact tv shows, but lose some of the intended meaning.

Sometime into season 2 of BSG I went back and watched an episode from the 1978 BSG called "War of the Gods Part II". In it the crew of the old BSG finds an even older wrecked Galactica on a planet, presumably from an earlier iteration of BSG. It was kind of neat. The implication was that the "Gods" are essentially cylon/humans trying to maintain some kind of balance. ...at least that was how I read it.

Yea, I get it and I didnt mind the religious overtones at all. I mean, Caprica 6 pretty much said she was an angel from day 1 and was pretty much talkign about her God throughout the entire series.

And the finale as a whole was great. The Adama/Roslin story arch was perfect and they ended it perfectly. I just didnt like the decision to forgo all tech. Just didnt seem right to me.

Sure, first of all Glen A. Larson was a devout Mormon, the original show creator.



Now, as I said before, the NEW BSG tried to skim most of this, yet some of the original ideas remain

Now to avoid some issues I will capitalize some here thanks to the work of some people

Observations on the correlation between Battlestar Galactica and the LDS Church.

Note: Glen A. Larson was a member of the Mormon Church and certainly was
more than aware that he was creating a parallel between the show and the church.


1. Organization:
BSG: The colonies were based on a president and a council or quorum of twelve. The two words "council" and "quorum" are used synonymously.

LDS: The LDS church is headed by a president and a council or quorum of twelve. The two words "council" and "quorum" are used synonymously.

2. Origin:
BSG: The colonies originated on the planet Kobol, were all life began. The "Lords" lived there. It was called "The Lost Planet of Ancient Gods".

LDS: The LDS church believes that the Lord lives on the planet Kolob (see The Book of Abraham, Ch. 3, found in The Pearl of Great Price.)


3. Tribes:
BSG: The colonies were started by the 13 tribes which left Kobol and formed the 12 colonies. The thirteenth tribe was lost and is believed to have gone to the Earth. In "Saga of a Star World," Commander Adama delivered the following speech about their origins: "Our recorded history tells us we descended from a mother colony, a race that went out into space to establish colonies. Those of us assembled here now represent the only known surviving Colonists, save one. A sister world, far out in the universe, remembered to us only through ancient writings..." He goes on to assert that the "lost thirteenth tribe" colonized Earth. Something called The Book of The Word described the journey of the tribes of man away from Kobol.

LDS: The LDS church believes that the 13 tribes of Isreal were scattered and colonized the Earth. The 13th tribe was lost, but is believed to be in an undiscovered part of the Earth. Some have concluded that the Book of Mormon describes the 13th tribe and its journey to the Western Hemisphere. This is incorrect. The l3th tribe is still considered lost.


4. Egyptians:
BSG: The ancient records and the culture of the colonies is based on hieroglyphics and pyramids. The fighter helmet worn in a viper strongly resembles an Egyptian Sphinx.

LDS: The LDS information about Kolob and similar topics is supported by a document called the Pearl of Great Price which contains hieroglyphics written in ancient Egypt, and translated by a modern day president.


5. Marriage:
BSG: The colonists use the word "seal" in preference to marriage, and a couple is sealed "not only for now but for all the eternities." (Adama in Lost Planet of Ancient Gods.)

LDS: In the LDS church, marriage refers to a secular joining and "sealing" referes to a bond sanctified by God and "not only for time, but for all eternity."


6. Younger Wives:
BSG: In "Living Legend", Apollo tells Starbuck to re-read the Book of the Word, some of the ancient leaders of the tribes "were married to some very young wives."

LDS: In the LDS church, older leaders of the church frequently have young wives.


7. Nature of God:
BSG: The colonists believe that gods are progressed and more perfect and knowledgeable humans. At the end of War of the Gods, Part 2, the superior life form ("angel") uses the words "As you are now, we once were; as we are now, you may become" to explain the relationship between them and man.

LDS: The LDS church believes identically. Lorenzo Snow, an early Mormon President and Prophet, said, "As man is now, God once was; as God now is, man may become."

Etc Etc ... easy to link up, google it, look around, etc, etc.

Even the second show which had him removed still nominally had him I think as a "Consultant".

It´s pretty washed up in the new BSG, but the core still remains.

Nothing wrong with that in my eyes, and please just as a warning let´s not derail this into you know what haha

Keep the Sci Fi thread alive!

Well I think that answers the question of why my friends mother enjoyed the series so much. I'm going to have to point this out to him when I get home.

I just finished up rewatching the series again. My 2 favorite scenes from the whole series consists of the battle scene on New Caprica when they combat jump Galactica right into atmo, and the scene where Galactica makes its final jump and finally buckles.

As for the cylon detector, it was never guaranteed to work right or else it would have caught Chief, the XO, and his wife, and because Baltar lied about Boomer it was deemed inconsistent and unreliable, hence why it wasn't used much.

However I do agree that the Kara Thrace death, rebirth, and eventual disappearing act was a crap story arch and didn't care for that at all.

It also bugs me that that so many people watched Gaius be batshit crazy day after day, what with ramming himself into walls, twisting his own arms, choking himself with his tie, jerking off in a room full of blood samples, and generally having rather revealing conversations with himself, and through all that nobody thought once to maybe locked him up in a padded room or perhaps remove him from such sensitive departments. Instead they opted to make him a president and then a cult leader.

Yes Indeed.

Most of the newer 'sci-fi' shows are just near-future based twists on our current reality.

Hard SF seems to have completely vanished. EDIT: (from TV)