Conscience in Extremis
I gather some of you are fans of the retooled Battlestar Galactica, which remains one of the more intelligent and compelling science fiction series. Given the issues raised during the last three seasons and their real world resonance, law professors Daniel Solove, Deven Desai and David Hoffman have taken an interest and interviewed BSG’s creators, Ronald D Moore and David Eick.
Part 1 deals with the trials and legal systems of the human survivors. Part 1-B explores the depicted use of torture. Parts 2 and 3, on the series’ treatment of politics, cylons and religion, will follow shortly.
Those of you unfamiliar with BSG can watch the episode 33 below.
Link: sevenload.com
(h/t, Volokh.)
Thanks–that was fun. I’m still jonesing for the next season, seems like it’s been forever. Interesting to hear them talk about bringing current events into the show, but in a neutral way. I remember being annoyed at what seemed too obvious–I think it was the “resistance” groups, when half the population had been captured on that planet they thought was a haven. Particularly when the suicide bombers showed up–there didn’t seem to be a social context to rationalize that. Diabolus ex machina?
Clazy,
Yes, I agree. The cylon suicide bomber was much more dramatically credible – and more shocking. On the whole, the New Caprica episodes weren’t the strongest, with too many misjudged attempts to play the other side of the argument, as it were. The show depends a lot on claustrophobia and momentum – it’s an elaborate lifeboat drama – and departures from that can be tricky. Though the escape from New Caprica did provide some memorable scenes, including Adama taking the phrase “dropping in unexpected” quite literally…
http://en.sevenload.com/videos/NviETZk-hH3p/Battlestar-Galactica-Die-Adama-Taktik-aus-Exodus
I don’t recall Picard ever doing that in Star Trek.
Yeah, that was a very cool scene. One thing it reminded me of, though–there’s a shot of a viper pilot with his helmet on. I know one has to make certain compromises for the sake of storytelling and to accommodate the medium, but every time I see a pilot’s face glowing blue, nice as it looks, all I can think is, He can’t possibly see beyond his facemask.