Battlestar Galactica – an appreciation

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3 responses to “Battlestar Galactica – an appreciation”

1. January 20, 2006

   Rilina

   I actually prefer Battlestar Galactica to Firefly. It’s curious, of course, that Firefly gives a lot of lipservice the idea of having an Asian-dominated culture while simultaneously having 1) no Asians in the regular cast and 2) Asians only existing in the background as decoration.

   I did enjoy watching Firefly, but I think BSG works much better as speculative fiction.

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2. January 20, 2006

   Lee

   Well, I should probably suspend judgment until I’ve watched more BSG. And good point about the dearth of Asian cast members in Firefly – as I recall, the backstory was that the Alliance was the result of some kind of Anglo-American/Chinese(?) get together (presumably since they were ultimately the two dominant societies on Earth).

   One thing I really liked about Firefly – notable absent so far in BSG – was the humor. Though the lack of humor in BSG is understandable considering how grim the situation is (and maybe this will change as the series progresses).

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3. January 20, 2006

   Rilina

   The Orientalism of Firefly is something that’s been discussed a lot in sf/f fandom. What actually disturbs me as how much it didn’t register with me when I was watching it. (I’m Asian American.) It only began to bother me after the fact, when I began to think about it, and during the run up to the movie, and it’s really come to color how I think about the series in general.

   I don’t think BSG will ever be funny in the way that Firefly is; that’s not the story it seems to be trying to tell.

   BSG has its own weaknesses; it’s obviously modeled on and a response to certain things happening in America and the world today, and that ends up being a weakness and a strength.

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