Vox Populi is pleased to offer another television rewatch after a successful run last year with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This year we will attempt to fully bring into scope a television series praised for its multiplicity of political viewpoints veering from its historical context and connection with religion to the present day from a modern American perspective. Battlestar Galactica has often been described as a narrative in connection to America’s War on Terror stemming from September 11, 2001 to, as some citizens believe, the American purview today. The sci-fi series originated in 1978 and was brought back on the air in 2003 by creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eickin. Notably, Ronald D. Moore is most acclaimed as a screenwriter and producer on Star Trek. With his work on Deep Space Nine, Moore, prior to Battlestar Galactica, utilizes the science fiction narrative to connect with contemporary American culture. Now amongst a time of political upheaval as we come upon the 2016 election season that will bring in a new President of the United States we are most thrilled to broaden the discussion via a television show about American politics. We will be discussing our political history, feminism, language, writing and time travel in relation to Battlestar Galactica seasons 1 through 4 which aired on the Sci-Fi channel from 2003 to 2009. Each lecture presented will be paired with a screening from the season it is discussing along with readings centering around the topic of discussion. Following the lectures and screenings there will be a round table discussion with all lead lecturers focusing on the featured season. The round tables will have specific topics in order to cover though we also encourage the audience to join in on the discussion. As the lectures help illuminate much of Battlestar Galactica Universe the Round Tables will help further highlight other themes from within the series including philosophy, religion and science fiction genres.
We have some returning lecturers and some new people coming into the group. Each bringing to the discussion in their own interests from art, history, nerdom, television and writing; Ann Cornell, April Aguillard, Beth Heinly, Derek Jones, Kate Kraczon, James Myers & Jonathan McCabe.
Cosplay welcome. Ambrosia for all who attend. There are spoilers. As we conduct the rewatch in chronological order our conversations will sometimes branch off into upcoming seasons. Stay tuned, we will be airing round table discussions on Vox Populi’s iTunes channel.
Description of Battlestar Galactica via Wikipedia:
“Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the original television series in 1978 and was later followed by a short-run sequel series (Galactica 1980), a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games. A re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica aired as a two-part, three-hour miniseries developed by Ronald D. Moore and David Eickin 2003. That miniseries led to a weekly television series, which later aired up until 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, aired in 2010.
All Battlestar Galactica productions share the premise that in a distant part of the universe, a human civilization has extended to a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies, to which they have migrated from their ancestral homeworld of Kobol. The Twelve Colonies have been engaged in a lengthy war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons, whose goal is the extermination of the human race. The Cylons offer peace to the humans, which proves to be a ruse. With the aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons carry out a massive attack on the Twelve Colonies and on the Colonial Fleet of starships that protect them. These attacks devastate the Colonial Fleet, lay waste to the Colonies, and virtually destroy their populations. Scattered survivors flee into outer space aboard a ragtag array of available spaceships. Of the entire Colonial battle fleet, only the Battlestar Galactica, a gigantic battleship and spacecraft carrier, appears to have survived the Cylon attack. Under the leadership of Commander Adama, the Galactica and the pilots of “Viper fighters” lead a fugitive fleet of survivors in search of the fabled thirteenth colony known as Earth.”
Season 2
Sunday, November 13th, 2016, 1pm
Episode 20 “Lay Down Your Burdens Part 2”
Jonathan McCabe is an associate director of curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Media Arts from Temple University and a Master’s Degree in Liberal Arts from Penn. Jon also teaches creative non-fiction for adult learners, is a frequent writer of short stories that are ‘not quite what we’re looking for,’ and a full time Razorback. When he’s not drinking tea in the woods or watching horror movies with his hubby, you can find him brewing snooty homemade beer in his tiny Chestnut Hill apartment.
“Lay Down your Burdens 2” The second season finale of Battlestar Galactica, dramatically changes the scope and shape of the entire series in (seemingly) a single shot. Through an unexpected and nearly unprecedented ellipsis of time near the end of the episode, the plot and overall theme is changed and expanded. While shocking, this time jump is presented organically and almost subtly. This lecture will draw on literary and film theory to examine the form and function of the shot, and discuss its effect on the episode, the season, the series, and the television that followed.
Suggested Readings:
Ames, Melissa, ““About Time: Narrative, Fiction and the Philosophy of Time”“, University of Press, Mississippi, 2012.
Currie, Mark, ““Time in Television Narrative: Exploring Temporality in Twenty-First-Century Programming”“, Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
