UPDATE :: According to a recent interview a friend sent me given by Ronald Moore, creator of the new "Battlestar Galactica", my theory is indeed right but with a slight twist...President Roslin is Moses.
I had this epiphany today about one of my favorite TV show Battlestar Galactica on the Sci-Fi channel. Besides being an amazing, I believe the show to be a modern retelling of the Israelites wandering through the desert for 40 years. Think about this...humans go into Exodus from their world to wander the vastness of space for years. They are lead by a man of tremendous charisma and character, Admiral Adama (Moses) with his team Lee (Joshua), Roslin (Aaron) and Starbuck (Caleb).
The group grows tired of being told the promise land (Earth) awaits them and settles on the nearest place to call home...leading to further decimation of the group. BSG is a modern retelling of the Israelites wandering the desert. My thoughts on the whole deal anyway...
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3 comments:
I like that reasoning. Its quiet the narrative, and if true, then they ought to make it to earth.
Is Adama Moses, or is the President (since she seems the more likely candidate to lead them, but not make it). Lee is Joshua. Who would Starbuck be?
The original BSG from 1978 was created, produced, written, and directed by Glenn Larson. He is a devout Mormon. The whole 1978 series (which folded in just one season) had strong shades of Mormonism in it. The three "most Mormon" episodes included the one where they went to the Planet Kobol (which is meant to sound like the planet Kolob, Kolob being an important place of origens in Mormon theology), then the episode with Count Iblis (who was really the Devil in disguise) and then the episode with Johnny Gage from the "Emergency" TV series (he was an alien from a planet called Terra, and Adama knew that Terra was just another name for Earth).
More focused on American cowboy culture, Glenn Larson's Mormon theology rarely made it into his many TV productions, although he was always certainly a very family-values kinda guy, so a lot of "wholesomeness" marks his shows. But this TV show was perhaps the most overtly Mormon of his creations, and even THEN, the theology is so subtle you have to dig for it.
One of the major tenets of Mormonism includes the belief that when we die and pass on to the next life, we may be granted a special reward of being elevated to godhood on par with God himself. Such lucky individuals will begiven their own planet to rule over and to populate (kinda like Sim Life). So the idea that there are at this moment other planets in the universe with human brothers/cousins living on them is an important aspect of hope, aspirations, and imagination for Mormons.
One interview with him back in 1978 quoted him as explaining that for years he envisioned producing a TV series about a "wagon train in space" and then when Star Wars came out, he was finally able to give that idea shape and form, "legs" was the word he used. The Mormon faith includes strong cultural identification with their East Coast perscutions, and then their eventual Mormon exodus from New York to Salt Lake, Utah, so the idea of a wagon train is part of their heritage. He wanted to extend that idea of persecution and fleeing to a space convoy of sorts.
In the original series, Adama was BOTH the military commander AND the president of the fleeing fleet. So that made him more on par with Moses.
@sheila
Thanks for the insightful post. Much of that I had no idea about so I wonder how much of the same undertones may be in the new series.
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