Short post today because I stayed up far to late last night watching Battlestar Galactica. I want to do a series of posts as I watch through the whole (modern) series. I might do the same with 1980s series if I get time.
I have seen it before but since I was looking after a baby boy I only watched with a small part of my mind. I would take Alex in the morning about five so that my wife could have three hours of uninterrupted sleep. But as I became acquainted with the first few episodes I began to remember the Pegasus.
The Pegasus is another Battlestar that escaped from the Cylons but in contrast to Galactica who are generally ‘good’ the captain of the Pegasus is corrupt. I suddenly reflected of the role of the Mirrorverse in Star Trek. In the Star Trek Mirrorverse the Federation is replaced with an Empire and the characters are in general reversed. We see in both cases what might have been, what could be if the underlying motivations and standards of the characters are inverted.
As I write this I am reminded of the Star Trek Voyager episode Equinox which contrasts the moral Voyager crew with the immoral crew of Captain Ransom. Ransom is appropriately named because he is held hostage by the difficult circumstances on his ship. The two episodes hang on the question ‘if Janeways circumstances had been the same as those of Ransom would she have made the same decision?’ Clearly Janeway is a driven character capable of “actions” but I think that she would shy away from murder, possibly. The closest that Voyager comes to the Mirrorverse in my opinion is the Demon episode but I think that is worth another post.
I think I have become distracted in this post. It is one that I am very interested in and I think dystopia becomes more vivid when placed in such proximity to utopia. Good and bad have meaning where they can be compared and contrasted with each other, as Screwtape wrote to Wormwood.
Jack Russell 