Wherein we discuss the premiere of Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica and associated spoilers.

I’m very glad I took the time to watch the 10 Resistance ‘webisodes’ that were on the Sci-Fi channel website last summer (non-US viewers should find torrents of them as the site doesn’t let you watch them if you’re not in the US). It’s not essential but it did fill in some gaps and give background to at least one of the minor characters. It also introduced the detention centre too but that’s not so relevant.

Let’s cut to the chase though: the suicide bombings. I knew these were going to happen because I couldn’t refrain 100% from reading peoples opinions about the series when it aired in the US last year. I can see what Ron Moore is trying to do, especially as he went from calling the “Resistance” to “Insurgents”. It’s such an astoundingly blatant way of equating the situation the last survivors of the colonies find themselves in with the troubles in Iraq. There’s probably a better word than “equating” but regardless, the connotations are the same. It’s clever but, to my mind, overdone and very out of place.

Ya see, I just don’t think that the colonies are the sort of people who have the religous fervour required to blow themselves up. I don’t think that their beliefs encourage suicide at all. Now there’s no evidence of this but the fact that the religion has generally been portrayed to be a polytheistic belief system comparable to the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations and which also did not encourage the type of fervour required to become ’suicide bombers’.

At one point in the episode, Laura Roslin (the former President) tries to dissuade ol’ one eye Tigh from carrying out any more of these attacks. His response is that it’s no different to sending Viper pilots out on missions where they’re unlikely to return. It’s not a bad argument on the surface but the problem is the word “unlikely”. A suicide bomber is not coming back - the viper pilot might. I’m sure they’ve made the point that it’s that “might” and the idea of “hope” which makes some good soldiers become great soldiers. Even so, there’s still a fundamental difference between someone prepared to die or to sacrifice themselves in a battle to serve the greater good and those who are prepared to carry out suicide bombings.

Perhaps it’s because to me, the situation on New Caprica brings to mind Occupied France in WW2. The French Underground, the Resistance, spent most of it’s time trying to sabotage their Nazi oppressors. They were definitely terrorist, that much is certain, and many of them died for the beliefs and sacrificed themselves for the good of the country. The same could be said of the Greek resistance and all the other countries in Europe at the time. But suicide bombings? I’ll admit that my knowledge is limited, but two things I’m pretty certain of are that a) there were no dedicated suicide bombings and b) civilian targets - even collaborators - were generally off limits and were never targeted. (I’ll freely admit that I might be wrong about this and I know that there was a lot of collateral damage as well as accpeting that German reprisals would involve executing innocent civilians, but it’s still different.)

And the ending? Well yeah, that was a scene straight out of “The Great Escape” or “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”. How WW2 was that?

But even with the niggles I have about the particular plot point I’ve just discussed, it was great to see BSG back. Adama still rocks and it’s nice to see Commander Chunky still bulging out of his flightsuit. I wondered where the storyline with Baltar would go and I’m glad they’ve given him doubts and a conscience (while still being a spineless bastard). Best of all, the next episode has that scene in it. (Don’t know which one I mean? You will do! It’s one spoiler I’m glad I saw and can’t wait to see again.)

Battlestar Galactica is definitely cream of the crop when it comes to good sci-fi at the moment. I mean, I might not think that the whole suicide bomber thing fits, but at least it’s made me think about it and discuss it.