Though I didn’t make it a priority when it first hit, the new Battlestar Galactica series has had my attention since last spring. Being a latecomer to Firefly, and having decided to try and catch some of the Buffy episodes I’d missed on DVD, I already had plenty of tv to fill any time I felt like devoting.

I enjoy BSG at a general level, but one very specific thing impressed me from the start: the series’ narrative allows the Cylons (the androids that looked like chrome toasters in the original series) their reasons for fighting against the Colonials (the humans looking for earth) and allows them their beliefs about what they’re doing. The structure More and Eick have chosen for conveying the story gives viewers a look at the Cylons’ “side” of things, and their activities when “unobserved” by the Colonials suggests that their belief that they’re doing the work of god is sincere. ((At the time I wrote this, 6 was the primary speaker for the Cylons, Leobon was the only other self-aware (non sleeper) Cylon that had really spoken. Since finishing Season 2, I’d only qualify it with a “some Cylons’ belief is sincere.”))

I find this refreshing in contrast to the treatment of the machines in the earlier parts of the Matrix series. (I’m specifically speaking from having seen The Matrix, The Animatrix, and Matrix Reloaded.) To be fair, it’s a question of where the viewer’s placed as the story’s told. The audience is led to identify with the humans and in the original Matrix film, never leaves the psychological perspective of the human characters, where BSG allows the viewer to experience both subjectivities, if only briefly on the Cylon side. (Since I wrote this we got to stretch around in 6′s head for a bit, so a little less on the “if only briefly.” Excellent television.)

The Animatrix provides further insight into what led to The Matrix continuity’s human-machine war in the history segments (The Second Renaissance). These sections aren’t entirely unsympathetic to the raw deal the machines got from humanity, but even with its sympathies, the story is again told from the human’s side. Matriculation‘s “machine rescue” story provides the best look into machine subjectivity, but again we run into subjectivity problems in the final depiction. We see problems with humanity in the way the “rescuers” are happy to use human friendship, romance, and sexuality to coax the machines into switching sides, but unwilling to extend actual friendship, love, or sexual contact. Problem is, in the end the depiction leads us to sympathize with the rescuing woman’s horror at a machine wanting to be romantically involved with her. The machine is depicted in a form that’s just too alien for viewers to fully empathize.

So I find the BSG approach a refreshing change. The machines may be at least partly right. Right or wrong, it recognizes to some degree that “you can’t play god and then wash your hands of the things you’ve created.” It also doesn’t make the too frequent assumption in sci fi that machines can’t possibly have any claim to spirituality because they’re not biological creatures like us, as if biology were the key to the soul.

Thanks to the magic of TV on DVD (the way god intended television to be viewed), and Fox’s limited edition *The Chosen Collection*, I’m reliving the joys of yesteryear with a little more context.

I could talk about the character development over the course of the series (my standard reason for loving a tv show), but my enjoyment centers on two of the show’s repeating themes: laying down what you want for what’s necessary, and making your mistakes right. Though everybody gets a few turns at it, the themes come out most plainly through Buffy herself.

At the macro level, you have the slayer’s burden. Evenings of vampire slaying, days of people thinking you’re flaky because your night job isn’t especially compatible with daytime responsibilities. Work hard all night to save people that think you’re a freak.

More specifically, there’s pushing the lower end of the grade rankings because there’s no time to study, taking a dead end job to support yourself and your sister now that Mom’s gone, and no love with your vampire boyfriend because it will turn him evil.

Examples abound in the “making things right” category, but the most common pattern boils down to Buffy pushing her friends away (typically to keep them safe), realizing that she’s making them miserable because all they want to do is help, reconciling with them, and Buffy and the scoobie gang beating the baddies together.

Specific plotlines vary of course, these are just recurring themes over the 7 seasons. But after the fun of the banter and the commentary on high school, I’m glad to see Joss Whedon and his team consciously providing a positive message about growing up and getting through life without getting too preachy about it. Letting your characters be flawed helps, as does letting them take some time to recognize their mistakes.

Anyway, a nice jaunt through memory lane. One I’m looking forward to repeating when my kids are old enough to appreciate it. ((And you can bet that one of the first things Dad will say about the show is how Grandma got him started watching it back when he worked in Chicago. Grandma will thereafter forever be known as the Buffy grandma.)) …Provided we can find one of those primitive pre-high definition DVD players and a TV that will connect to it in the glorious world of the future.