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The following is excerpted from this interview with Katee Sackhoff, who plays Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the new Battlestar Galactica. The point of this post is the last line.
P-I: "Battlestar" has been getting a lot of critical notice, and earned a slot on the American Film Institute's top 10 shows of 2005. Must be nice.
Sackhoff: That's the biggest accolade that we've gotten so far. That gives us a little more credibility, I think. We always had it. But I think as a science-fiction show you get looked over, so many times, just because we're on Sci Fi. I'll meet people who haven't watched the show purely because it's on Sci Fi. I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me. It's not really science fiction.
This makes Sackhoff the second actress who has said this garbage, the first being the scary-looking Tricia Helfer ("Six"). And once again, I wanted to reach through space and time and thwap her upside her head.
YES it IS science fiction, Katee. Science Fiction is more than Star Wars, more than Star Trek, more than crappy stories set in the future. Science Fiction is about revealing our humanity, good and bad, through the metaphor of other times and places, through the use of technology we don't have.
Galactica uses the Cylons as a metaphor for Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists, among other things, who want to destroy the way of life the rest of us live because it isn't theirs. The show reveals our own inhumanity by exploring the humanity of the characters, both human and Cylon. It asks questions about the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, about what it does to us to use the tactics of our enemy. It asks questions about Faith, about how it can help us, and how it can harm us. And that's what Science Fiction, at its best, does. To claim the show isn't "really Science Fiction" does the show, and the genre, a disservice. It fosters the belief in the mainstream that this genre is all silly robots and lasers, and completely undermines the growing awareness that such is not the case.
This is also part of why I'm not totally pleased with the producers' decision to eschew other races in the series. You can do tight, human drama with non-human characters; look at Farscape, or Babylon 5. Both successful shows that brought in traditionally non-SF fans, and they had aliens up the backside. Because Galactica is so damned good, I can overlook it, but it does bother me on one level, because in a way I think it is an artificial decision made to bring in those who can't deal with non-human characters. I'm most displeased, however, with Edward James Olmos' statement that if an alien is ever brought into the show, he'll quit. Wait a minute, Ed. That's absurd. Shouldn't how the story is written matter more than if a guest character doesn't look human?
Edit: It's not that I object to the show not using aliens, really. It's that I object to the idea that using them would automatically detract from the show. I reject that line of reasoning as vehemently as I reject the idea that having a gay character on a show would detract from the show just by being there. And actors who are so uptight about their "craft" that they think doing something like that would make the show less than it is irritate me, because they are being closed-minded gits. I hasten to add, however, that the lack of aliens does not lessen the show any more than having them would, in my opinion. It's merely EJO's attidue that bugs me, not the producers' decision.
Gah. Anyway, I love the show, but some of the decisions made baffle me.
P-I: "Battlestar" has been getting a lot of critical notice, and earned a slot on the American Film Institute's top 10 shows of 2005. Must be nice.
Sackhoff: That's the biggest accolade that we've gotten so far. That gives us a little more credibility, I think. We always had it. But I think as a science-fiction show you get looked over, so many times, just because we're on Sci Fi. I'll meet people who haven't watched the show purely because it's on Sci Fi. I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me. It's not really science fiction.
This makes Sackhoff the second actress who has said this garbage, the first being the scary-looking Tricia Helfer ("Six"). And once again, I wanted to reach through space and time and thwap her upside her head.
YES it IS science fiction, Katee. Science Fiction is more than Star Wars, more than Star Trek, more than crappy stories set in the future. Science Fiction is about revealing our humanity, good and bad, through the metaphor of other times and places, through the use of technology we don't have.
Galactica uses the Cylons as a metaphor for Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists, among other things, who want to destroy the way of life the rest of us live because it isn't theirs. The show reveals our own inhumanity by exploring the humanity of the characters, both human and Cylon. It asks questions about the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, about what it does to us to use the tactics of our enemy. It asks questions about Faith, about how it can help us, and how it can harm us. And that's what Science Fiction, at its best, does. To claim the show isn't "really Science Fiction" does the show, and the genre, a disservice. It fosters the belief in the mainstream that this genre is all silly robots and lasers, and completely undermines the growing awareness that such is not the case.
This is also part of why I'm not totally pleased with the producers' decision to eschew other races in the series. You can do tight, human drama with non-human characters; look at Farscape, or Babylon 5. Both successful shows that brought in traditionally non-SF fans, and they had aliens up the backside. Because Galactica is so damned good, I can overlook it, but it does bother me on one level, because in a way I think it is an artificial decision made to bring in those who can't deal with non-human characters. I'm most displeased, however, with Edward James Olmos' statement that if an alien is ever brought into the show, he'll quit. Wait a minute, Ed. That's absurd. Shouldn't how the story is written matter more than if a guest character doesn't look human?
Edit: It's not that I object to the show not using aliens, really. It's that I object to the idea that using them would automatically detract from the show. I reject that line of reasoning as vehemently as I reject the idea that having a gay character on a show would detract from the show just by being there. And actors who are so uptight about their "craft" that they think doing something like that would make the show less than it is irritate me, because they are being closed-minded gits. I hasten to add, however, that the lack of aliens does not lessen the show any more than having them would, in my opinion. It's merely EJO's attidue that bugs me, not the producers' decision.
Gah. Anyway, I love the show, but some of the decisions made baffle me.