BSG is how the world really works

Lorenjavier over at the Confessions of a thirty-something drama queen blog makes an interesting observation from the Mini-series DVD commentary which is worth sharing:

"At one point in the commentary, they compare Colonel Tigh (the XO of Battlestar or the equivalent to the First Officer on Star Trek) to Commander Ryker (the First Officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation). Commander Ryker is noble, affable, and will risk everything to save one person because he knows he can do it. Colonel Tigh is a functional drunk, not very well liked, and has to make difficult decisions that will not be popular (including closing off sections of the ship and sending a hundred people to their doom in order to save thousands of lives). We all want to be Ryker, but, in reality, we're more like Tigh. I really loved that analogy. "

Read the whole post

This is a theme that has been coming up over and over lately in my various diggings through feeds and my curious readings on human psychology. This fits very well with a book I am reading at the moment called Freakonomics where it is proclaimed that morality is how we think the world should work, and economics is how it actually works.

There is a part of us that wants to see the utopia of human behavior, but a side of us that rejects that in favor of behavior that is more real and full of markers we can relate to. I think story telling is cyclical in this manner. It oscillates back and forth based on culture pressures driving optimism and pessimism in our society. It doesn't take a genius to see we are at a more pessimistic time in our pop culture and therefore identify with more realistic fictional portrayals like 24, Desperate Housewives, reality TV, the new BSG, etc.

I own the mini-series DVD but I haven't listened to the audio commentary yet.  Discoveries like Lorenjavier's make me want to go home and watch it right now!

Comments

[Loren Javier]

Thanks for the nod in this post. :o)

The commentary on the mini-series DVD is loaded with all kinds of these tidbits. It's interesting how the original Battlestar Galactica took many elements from Star Trek and how the reimagined version has moved away from that. But, that's why the reimagined version is so great. It isn't rehashing what's been done before. Anyway, I highly recommend listening to the commentary. If you like Ron Moore's podcasts, you'll like the commentary.