Battlestar Galactica: The Hand of God

I was sent seasons 1 and 2 of the new(er) Battlestar Galactica (plus the mini-series) by a friend ages ago, and have been making my way through them very slowly - so far Disc 3 of season 1 is as far as I've got! For some reason, I just can't seem to get into the show and I find it a bit slow and dull a lot of the time. I like Starbuck, Sharon, Helo and the engineer (who I mostly think of as 'Scotty') and Stands With a Fist is fine, but I find Tigh and even Adama boring, and Apollo doesn't seem to be much more than a pretty face so far. Oddly enough I like Sharon a lot, but find Boomer irritating, which is probably a testament to the writing and Grace Park's acting.

There's lots of Classical stuff to talk about in Battlestar Galactica. Obviously, one of the lead characters is actually called Apollo, the name of the sun god (well, his callsign is Apollo). Another is called Gaius, which has less obvious symbolism beyond a general feeling of Roman-ness but is worth mentioning. (It was the Emperor Caligula's name, but although Gaius Baltar's sanity is definitely a wee bit questionable, so far he doesn't seem to have much in common with that particular namesake, and hasn't yet claimed to be a god - he thinks he's an instrument of God, but that's not quite the same thing). Helo's surname 'Agathon' is from the Greek 'agathos,' meaning 'good.'

The religious system in Battlestar Galactica is also Classically inspired. The humans' religion (the only human one we've seen so far - Caprica seems to have had an unusual lack of religions to choose from) is focused on worship of the Lords of Kobol, most of whom are the Olympian gods of Greek mythology (whenever a Greek god is mentioned, they're usually described in the same terms as the 'real' mythological equivalent). The scripts put this polytheistic religion up against the Cylons' monotheistic religion, which is clearly modelled on Christianity. The relationship between the two does not quite match the contrast between Christianity and ancient paganism, because ancient 'paganism' was not one religion with set gods, but the Olympians were among the most important gods and were the main state gods, so there's a clear Classical inspiration there.

In this episode, President Laura Roslin has some disturbing hallucinations during a press conference (a side effect of a drug she's taking to treat her terminal cancer), and asks for advice from a woman who is presumably a priestess (this may have been clear from an episode I watched ages ago and can't remember!). The priestess asks if the images were 'prescient,' implying a fairy strong belief in premonitory visions in her religion. Roslin describes the snakes she saw crawling all over the podium, and the priestess is astounded, saying, 'You read Pythia and now you're having me on.' In Battlestar Galactica's world, it emerges, about 3,600 years before the mini-series, an oracle (the implication is, one of several) called Pythia wrote a sacred scroll about the exile and rebirth of the human race, and about a leader with visions of snakes, who would not live to see the new land.

In real life, the Pythia was another name for the Delphic Oracle, the richest and most important oracle in Classical Greece. The myth attached to the site was that Apollo, god of prophecy, killed the huge serpent/dragon the Python, which guarded the shrine at Delphi, and claimed the oracle for himself (serpents and dragons were very similar, almost interchangeable creatures in Classical mythology). The Pythia herself was a woman who would rant and rave in answer to a question, inspired by the god, and the priests at the shrine would 'interpret' her ravings (i.e. presumably come up with something plausible and likely to please the inquirer).

The scrolls described here sound more like the Sibylline prophecies from ancient Rome. The Sibyls were Roman oracles, not unlike the Pythia, except there were several of them and they were said to have written a collection of prophecies that were preserved, and consulted by the Senate during times of emergency. Some politicians and emperors had a tendency, occasionally, to 'discover' new Sibylline prophecies. The way characters in Battlestar Galactica talk about 'sacred scrolls' learned in school (Gaius Baltar mentions reading Pythia in the sixth grade) is much more like the Christian attitude towards the New Testament, a sacred text learned (about) in school, than the Sibylline prophecies, which were part of a religion with no sacred or dogmatic texts and were consulted only by the powerful. The Sibylline oracles are clearly the inspiration for the Pythia's text, though.

The Viper spacecraft are identified as the serpents from the prophecy by Baltar's semi-hallucinatory  Cylon friend Six. The victory is won thanks to Baltar choosing a spot to bomb at random and it working out - Six claims that (the Cylon, single) God guided Baltar to the site, in order to provoke an eventual confrontation at the home of the gods (which is a bit odd if her religion is monotheistic). This is what convinces Baltar that he is an instrument of God.The wider significance of this, and of the two religious systems, and of the Pythia's prophecy that 'All this has happened before. All this will happen again' will not fully be revealed until the series finale, but in the meantime this episode has some fun playing with the symbolism, throwing around references to snakes and Apollo by having Roslin's vision relate, in immediate terms, to a victory won by the character Apollo using the Vipers.

I will definitely persist with Battlestar Galactica, as it has some intriguing long-term storylines on the go and an excellent fake swear word ('frak') to use alongside 'frell,' 'smeg' and 'Belgium.' It's just... so... slow... My favourite episodes so far were the two dealing with Starbuck's background, her relationship with the Adamas, and her crash-landing on some planet somewhere, though my favourite characters are Sharon and Helo. I also appreciate some of the subtle nods to Star Trek, particularly the badges which are sort of triangular, though I'm less sure about having the main black female semi-regular play, essentially, Uhura. And maybe the pace will pick up a bit if Baltar ever bothers to tell anyone Boomer's a Cylon...