Themes in Battlestar Galactica (RDM)

For the article covering themes in the original series, refer to Themes of Battlestar Galactica (TOS).

There are many literary themes that are noticeable through the series run. This article notes and summarizes these themes, without having to rummage through the episode guide.

Some of these themes also tie closely with the story lines running throughout the series.

Life here began out there

While not codified in the run of the re-imagined series, the theme that "life here began out there" is derived from the original series. It is a theme derived from the works of Erich von Däniken, who is well known for his belief in the ancient astronaut theory.

These theme is introduced in the Miniseries, during which Commander William Adama declares that the Fleet's destination should be the mythical Thirteenth Colony, Earth.

It is later touched up on after the discovery of Kobol in "Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I", which solidifies the background theme of the series.

You reap what you sow

Essentially, this theme also ties closely with responsibility. This theme affects every character in the series, the only difference lies in how this ties into the characters.

Man and the Cylons

As codified in the series, mankind created the Cylons as servants to fight humanity's petty wars and to address social needs that humanity didn't care to attend to. This later lead to a prolonged conflict, which brought humanity to it's knees.

Kara Thrace and Saul Tigh

As established in the series, both Kara Thrace and Saul Tigh both share the same outward problem, alcoholism. In the Miniseries, Tigh attempts to make peace with Thrace, only to have the offer thrown back in his face. Later, Thrace attempts to bury the hatchet with Tigh, only to have Tigh similarly reject her offer (Bastille Day).

It should be noted that the two did, apparently, reconcile sometime during the colonization of New Caprica (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II). The circumstances which brought this about are unknown, however.

Baltar and the Cylons

Gaius Baltar has a unique relationship to the Cylons, given that he aided them through their proxy and, in that process, became a traitor. Not only did he aid the Cylons in sowing the destruction of the majority of humanity, he also became worried about reaping the results of how the Cylons were able to neutralize the Colonial defenses.

Due to his survival instinct, Baltar did survive the Fall of the Twelve Colonies in the Miniseries and claimed to be able to create a Cylon detector. He would later create this detector using a nuclear warhead furnished by Commander Adama (Bastille Day); this nuclear warhead would later be furnished to the Demand Peace movement and the Number Six copy called Gina (Epiphanies). Gina would later use this warhead to destroy the Cloud 9 and surrounding ships; the resultant nuclear signature later attracts a Cylon fleet -- likely lead by Baltar's actual Six and Galactica-Sharon -- to the colony of New Caprica (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).

It is not enough just to survive, one has to be worthy of survival

According to executive producer Ron Moore in the podcast for "Resurrection Ship, Part II", this is one of the central themes of the series. There it was shown in the prominent dichotomy between Commander Adama and Admiral Cain: Cain held a "survival at any cost" mentality. This resulted in her abandoning her own civilian fleet after stripping them for parts and leaving them for dead, shooting her own Executive Officer, torturing enemy Prisoners of War, having no regard for civilian government, and abandoning all civil liberties when she ordered summary executions for crewmen without a trial by jury. Cain had survived, but in the process, had she proved that she was any better than the Cylons? Commander Adama might run a less strict command, respecting civil liberties and the continuation of a civilian government may have made his military affairs less efficient, but he knew that such things were too vital to compromise for their society.

Dr. Gaius Baltar provides another intruiging example that on the series, simple survival is not it's own justification. Number Six said in the Miniseries that the thing she loves best about Baltar is that he's "a survivor"; when Baltar found out that he had unwittingly betrayed all of humanity, he was more concerned with contacting his attorney for his own legal defense. He was willing to condemn who (he thought to be an innocent man, Aaron Doral to death, to preserve his own safety. Baltar delayed reporting the results of his own Cylon detector, because he was afraid that if he revealed that it worked before he found all twelve Cylon models, he would be assasinated. Shockingly, Baltar did on one occasion do more than simply survive, when he "fragged" Crashdown whose poor leadership endangered that of the group he was in as a whole. Soon after, however, he was willing to risk Chief Tyrol's life by injecting him with a toxin to blackmail information out of Galactica-Sharon. Finally, Baltar was corrupt enough to disastrously mislead the Fleet into settling on New Caprica because this would allow him to become President. Baltar is quite a remarkable survivor, but have his Machiavellian manipulations made him "worthy" of survival? Does the audience view him as "more" worthy of life than a Cylon?

Children of abusive parents often fear passing along that abuse to their own children.

The humanoid Cylon Simon said this to Starbuck in "The Farm," and it comes up many times in the series. The Cylons feel that they are the children of humanity, and that humanity abusive them by making them a slave race. Now, the Cylons are attempting to create a new race of Cylon-Human Hybrids (such as Hera), and they are concerned about whether they will be good "parents" to this new race. Lee Adama had a very poor relationship with his father William Adama, and it was revealed in the episode "Black Market" that he became distressed and pushed away from his fiance Gianne prior to the attack, when she revealed that she was pregnant with his child, because he could not come to terms with having a child of his own. Starbuck's relationship with her mother was a criminally abusive one: her mother beat her regularly and broke many of her bones when she was a child. Ever since, Starbuck has been a wildcard, always finding it hard to settle down in a relationship. In her own words, "I'm a frak up, don't forget that". Starbuck has always had trouble facing the idea of having a family of her own as a result.

Re-imagined Series definition: all-purpose vulgarism; Colonial version of "fuck" (see: frak)