Not everyone is in love with the New BSG -

[kyburg]

Enough with the Wayback Machine; let's return to me, sitting on the couch, watching the new Battlestar Galactica. And feeling deeply nervous at the appearance of a female in whom sexuality is a visible signal of Evil. The Cylons sent a sexy babe-bot to disarm and confuse the ambassador! Um, why? A Cylon disguised as a guy in a suit and a businesslike attitude would have had exactly the same effect on the plot. It didn't matter one whit whether the ambassador was confused. Boom--space station blow up, and short skirts and tongue-kissing don't change a thing. (Setting aside whether the first and most obvious way of determining the presence of life is swapping spit with someone.)

It got worse. Babe-bot reappears (she is, apparently, as common as Toyota Corollas, except that Toyota Corollas come in several colors) in even fewer inches of fabric, behaves like a fourteen-year-old boy's idea of the perfect girl-toy, and explicitly deploys all that boiling lust-function to do Evil. She even (gasp!) kills a baby. Sex is used to make babies, but sexuality is ultimately the enemy of a nurturing attitude, after all. And nurturing is what real girls are for.

At this point, I realized I was in TV SF hell.

Yup. I knew something was tweaking my WTF button.

And yes folks, this is what is passing for Good right now. God help us.

I miss Quantum Leap even more these days than I have any right to.

Comments

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Oh, suck, and yes, thanks, that's been wigging me out too, especially combined with the weird "God" stuff.

...You know, all the women who are getting laid on that show are Cylons.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Not true - Starbuck has gotten laid more than once.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. I'm only halfway through the first season, so that hasn't happened yet. :)

[reannon.livejournal.com]

It really is becoming a fascinating, complex show. I hope you enjoy it.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

I do believe I miss Athena, from the original series. Mind you, for a bridge officer, she seems to have spent all her damn time being jealous of Starbuck's other bimbo, but it'd be nice to have a chick officer over thirty somewhere in the lot.

Then again, I theorize that the Galactica is full of old rusty warhorses due for retirement, discipline problems, and damp-eared kiddies because before the invasion, the Galactica was not exactly a desirable posting - an old rustbucket due for decomissioning rarely is. The better bright young things and model soldiers would've gone after ships or bases with better promotion chances, newer tech, and so on. Which is not to say it's a shit posting - any battlestar would be better than a ground post, probably, and being deck chief on Galactica might be better than being just another deck crew on a shinier, newer ship.

[dwinghy.livejournal.com]

Didn't Quantum Leap have evil female leapers in its final season? Of course, the final season was the final one for a very good reason.

[blukat.livejournal.com]

I swear we are living in hell right now. There are no if ands or buts about it. When men we pay can sit up there at KS and lie through their teeth, when tv has become their playground to attempts to program us, gee, and don't forget the national driver's license program...

I haven't watched regular tv in such a long time, except I will admit to a couple hours of the American Idol try-outs last week, (it amused me a little).

Somehow I don't regret not watching TV. Nope, not a bit.

[drave117.livejournal.com]

Rocket Ride
Words and Music: © 1994 by Tom Smith

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,
Nothing worth doing that I haven't tried.
There ain't no living on planet-side,
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.

How many cities crumble into dust
At the first atomic attack?
How many self-aware, wise, and just
Computers will we have to hack?

How many supercars will turn to rust
'Cause we don't have a spare or a jack?
Give me technology we can trust,
And give it fins like a Cadillac.

I want a shining tower of glass and steel,
A rubber jumpsuit and a freeze-dried meal,
The will to survive, the need to explore,
The love of adventure, who could ask for more?

I want you, baby, right by my side,
Help me get out before my brain is fried.
The stars are waiting, so big and wide,
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.

How many demons out in cyberspace
Will possess every hacker's will?
How many members of a master race
Will come closing in for the kill?

How many xenomorphs will change their face,
And then hunt us down for a thrill?
Give me a villain with style and grace,
And a little bit of fencing skill.

They used to be angular, sneering and bald,
If someone got killed even they were appalled,
They tried to marry the heroine, no thought of rape,
And they sure as hell knew how to wear a cape.

They never tortured, they never lied,
They'd honor a promise if it meant they died.
Let's find a villain with professional pride,
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.

Terminators, Life Force, Robot Jox, Predators,
Lots of things that know how to flense,
Defenestrate 'em out the doors, gimme gimme Star Wars,
Bring back the Children of the Lens.

Puppet Master, Child's Play, Fright Night, Judgment Day,
Jason, Freddy, Michael, and Stripe,
Let Frankenstein, Ardeth Bey, and Kong chase them all away,
The Movie Snatchers' pods are overripe.

I want more than action and special effects,
To think about what might happen next,
A hero, not a weapons shop with pecs,
A heroine, not an excuse for sex.

I want a bubble helmet matting down my hair,
The ground giving way to the open air,
The joy and wonder as I head out there,
And I know I can have it, if I only dare.

How many bodybuilding macho jerks
Will blow everything full of holes?
How many imitation Captain Kirks
Will spill beer on the ship's controls?

How many stupid personality quirks
Will we see instead of souls?
Give me my baby and a ship that works,
And give us the starring roles.

I want to cruise the galaxy at FTL,
Pursuing Heaven and defying Hell,
I want to do everything that a man can do,
And I want to do it all out there with you.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,
Nothing worth doing that I haven't tried.
There ain't no living on planet-side,
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,
Nothing worth doing that I haven't tried.
There ain't no living on planet-side,
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.
Come on with me, baby, on a rocket ride.

[neintales.livejournal.com]

I love that song so very damn much!

Now I have to dig up all my Tom Smith MP3's...

[drave117.livejournal.com]

I heard it for the first time yesterday, and it made me very happy.

[neintales.livejournal.com]

Friend of mine introduced me to Tom Smith's stuff about two years ago.. he's got marvelous stuff, both serious and silly.

He's got a LJ too, btw, I only found out about it recently myself ^^ filkertom I believe =)

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Please note that I'm not the biggest fan of the new BSG either.. I've really not watched much of it at all, and don't have a great desire to because frankly, so far I haven't seen anything that really looks that great to me, but anyway..

Reading the rest of that review, I really have to wonder whether any female character anybody came up with would have satisfied her. She seems to have her own pre-conceived notion of exactly what a "real" woman should be like in SF, and everything that doesn't fit her mold must be wrong somehow, if she can just find the right thing to complain about. Ironic, really, since that sort of stereotyping is supposedly exactly what she's railing against..

First she condemns one character because she's too sexual (even though, despite the comment quoted above, it actually does make a lot of sense to the story), but then the next one's not a sex object, so that should be better, right? Nope, not sexual enough. Then there's another one who's just right, but turns out to be a super-secret bad guy in disguise, so of course the fact that her cover is actually realistic isn't a mark of good writing, instead it must all be just some sort of freudian plot. Then there's one who's apparently a good model of a real woman, but she's no good either, not because of anything in her character, but because in the midst of a catastrophe she happened to get her leadership role by default (nevermind that it actually (gasp) might make sense in the story that whoever got that position would end up with it that way, male or female).

She also seems to be ignoring the fact that a lot of BSG seems to be deliberately intended to be about a lot of main characters (including lots of the male characters) who are seriously flawed people in various ways. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing (it's actually part of the show I don't really like that much), but nevertheless it seems to me that looking for the perfect female role model in a barrel clearly marked "bad apples" is probably starting at a disadvantage.

I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of stereotyping going on in modern TV, including undoubtedly BSG, but I can't help but think that this particular rant is less about BSG and more about the author's own preconceptions that there's only one possible "right answer" for a female character in an SF story.

[scarcrest.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The villain is villainous -- as villains are supposed to be. But one can hardly say that the heroes are purely heroic, either; the show's a study in shades of gray.

Fact is, there are women on there who are admirable. The mechanic, Kaylee, for one. President Roslin is another. And actually, the pregnant Sharon is a Cylon but is far more complex than just calling her a "villain" could ever suggest.

Sexuality is very confused on that show, from what I've read. I didn't start watching until season two (or three, if you count the miniseries), but I've read that the religious structure of most of the humans there holds that sex is only for procreation ... though a few, like Starbuck, don't seem to hold to that idea.

In that sense, it's a pretty realistic look at where our culture could head if the conservative religious elements controlling American society today stay in place for decades or centuries. My newspaper, just today, had a piece about the head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., saying that families that choose to remain childless are violating God's will -- and we have a Supreme Court nominee who's reportedly questioned Americans' right to obtain and use birth control.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Have to put in a "ditto" here. What makes BSG more interesting than average SF is that there are no real "heroes" or "villains" - sometimes the Cylons are the victims, not the victimizers, and the hyper-sexualized lead Cylon is not an indictment of sexuality by any means, shape or form. If she was a neutral drone, we would be arguing whether that means a woman can't be sexual AND be strong.

Each character is fully formed, three-dimensional and has serious flaws as well as strengths - "good" guys and "not-so-good." That makes for good fiction, not portents to the evils of misogynistic society.

[pseudicide.livejournal.com]

Heh. I personally love the show.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I couldn't get past the first twenty minutes of the mini-series back in the day. Pardon me for loving my cheesy original version. Don't get me started on what they did to my favorite character from the original ...

STARBUCK IS A MAN, DAMMIT!

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Heh.. here I thought I was the only one who actually missed the old cheesy one..

To be honest, although I'm not a big fan of the new one, and I am a big fan of the old one, the "screwing up the remake" thing isn't really a problem I have with it. The reason I don't have that problem is because it's so clearly not a remake of the old one. It's got a different premise, different characters, different style, different plot, different idea.. they call it a "re-imagining", but let's be honest, it's not even that. It's really a completely different show, unrelated in any way to the original.

The thing I don't understand is if you're going to make a completely different show, one that doesn't even have a passing resemblance to the first one, why on Kobol would you re-use all the old titles and names that just don't have anything to do with this one? There's no point. Frankly, it's kinda stupid. It's like making a soap opera set in 1920s Kansas, but using all the character names from Star Wars. Use a bit of imagination, come up with some new names, and let the thing have its own identity, instead of some borrowed hand-me-down title that fits it like an old potato sack.

The thing that does piss me off is that now that they've done this silly mislabeling (which in my opinion really only hurts the show), there's probably no hope left of ever resurrecting anything resembling the old one, which I kinda would have liked to see somebody do eventually.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

To be honest, although I'm not a big fan of the new one, and I am a big fan of the old one, the "screwing up the remake" thing isn't really a problem I have with it. The reason I don't have that problem is because it's so clearly not a remake of the old one. It's got a different premise, different characters, different style, different plot, different idea.. they call it a "re-imagining", but let's be honest, it's not even that. It's really a completely different show, unrelated in any way to the original.

This? This is EXACTLY what I tell every single person who tries to tell me that if I "give it another chance", I'll love it. Well, if it wasn't trying to pass itself off as "remake" or "re-imagining" of the original BSG, it wouldn't irritate me like it does. Human-like Cylons? What? Eh? And I'm for the Grrrrrl Power as much as the next cat, but seriously, did we need to female-ize (I know it isn't a word) practically every character? Even more, in the few moments of the show I've caught since? Starbuck is the character I hate the most. It's so very, very sad.

A couple of years ago, there was a rumor going around that John Woo wanted to "remake" Lost In Space's TV series. I'm a huge fan of that cheesy series (though I'm not old enough to have watched it in its original run), and I almost cried when I read that. The cheese of these shows is a big part of their charm. Also, when one doesn't have big effects to rely on to WOW people, one has to pay a BIT of attention to the actual story one is selling/telling ...

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Thanks for letting me know I'm not actually missing anything here... I do have to work my way through Firefly, but then I can forget about TV for another few years, until Joss decides to do something else....

Or if JMS ever gets something off the ground again. If it ain't those two, I ain't interested.

*sigh* TV started going downhill when M*A*S*H went off, and totally jumped the shark with "Sleeping in Light." Aside from Firefly, and a few flashes of brilliance in Jeremiah, it's pretty much sucked since. I don't even *have* cable, haven't for years.

That's $30 a month or more I don't have to spend.

Spoilers ahead

[moropus.livejournal.com]

If you get far enough, Madame President fumbles a bit getting used to her new job and then behaves like a leaders should. She's also getting visions from the gods. I love her. I love the new Starbuck for smoking cigars and hitting people because I want to and don't have the guts/am a responsible adult.

The guy who used to be Apollo is in this show and he has a very complicated character that I came to respect eventually. At first he seems like a candidate for shoving out an airlock.

It's not your daddy's Battlestar Galactica, but I just rewatched that and muttered all the way through about 70s issues with women. Women can't be pilots, and especially not my gal. Athena puts up with Starbuck cheating when I would tell him to get bent and drink myself into a stupor with all my friends telling me what a rat he is and how I could do better, I'll introduce you to good old what's his name, etc. Waiting around for a man who's openly cheating makes you the Madonna and Starbuck wants it all, the Madonna and the whore. He won't choose and they won't make him. He gets it all.

This new ship was crewed by the worst of the worst because turning it into a museum was a garbage job nobody wanted. Not shining heros like the old show.

Re: Spoilers ahead

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, while I am by no means defending most of the gender roles portrayed in the original, it should be noted that partway through the series they actually directly tackled the "women can't be pilots" issue and showed quite clearly that it wasn't grounded in fact, only in convention, and then proceeded to have female pilots through the rest of the series, even after it was no longer necessary to the plot.

As for starbuck cheating, you might tell him to get bent, but you can't tell me there aren't lots and lots of women out there who wouldn't, even otherwise strong women, even today. I find it really funny that so many people tend to say "these shows need to be more realistic" and then turn right around with the next breath and say "but all the main characters can't have any character flaws". Reality is often good people doing stupid things for stupid reasons, and always will be.

Also, it should be kept in mind that in the era that thing was made, the definition of "cheating" was a lot different, for both men and women (and as I remember Starbuck eventually did choose, actually).

Re: Spoilers ahead

[foogod.livejournal.com]

(grr.. this continually being re-logged out is getting tiresome)

The above was me, in case anybody cares.

Re: Spoilers ahead

[moropus.livejournal.com]

It makes me grit my teeth that women pilots even had to be an issue. There's a lot of old TV I can't watch because of old attitudes, etc. I guess I take today's world for granted a whole lot.

And who am I to judge other people's relationships? If it works for them....

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

You know, I like the show, even as I have much the same issues with it.

Without giving too much away, you'll probably like Monday's strip.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Heh. You've come over and commented in MY journal.

My day. Is made.

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been here before. *g*