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. Obviously, these themes are intertwined with the story lines running throughout the series.

Life here began out there.

While not codified in the run of the re-imagined series, this theme is derived from the original series. It is likely derived from the works of Erich von Däniken, who is well known for his belief in the ancient astronaut theory.

These theme is introduced with the declaration by Commander William Adama that the Fleet's destination should be the mythical Thirteenth Colony, Earth.

It is later revisited with the discovery of Kobol (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I).

You reap what you sow.

This theme is related to the ideas of personal responsibility and karma. It affects every character in the series, but particular examples are noted below.

Man and the Cylons

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

Kara Thrace and Saul Tigh

Both Kara Thrace and Saul Tigh share an 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 inadvertantly aids them through Number Six and thus becomes an unwitting traitor to his species. Not only does he materially assist the Cylons in sowing the destruction of the majority of humanity, but he also becomes worried about reaping the results of his actions (Miniseries).

Baltar survives the Fall of the Twelve Colonies and claims to be able to create a Cylon detector (Miniseries). He later creates this detector using a nuclear warhead furnished by Commander Adama (Bastille Day); this nuclear warhead is given to the Demand Peace movement and the Cylon Gina (Epiphanies). Gina would later use this warhead to destroy Cloud 9 and surrounding ships; the resultant radiation later attracts a Cylon fleet—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.

This is one of the central themes of the series according to Ronald D. Moore (Podcast:Resurrection Ship, Part II). It was shown in the prominent dichotomy between Commander Adama and Admiral Cain, who held a "survival at any cost" philosophy. This resulted in her abandoning her own civilian fleet after stripping them for parts, shooting her own Executive Officer for failure to order an ill-advised attack, torturing enemy prisoners of war, having no regard for civilian government, and ordering summary executions for crewmen. Cain had survived, but in the process she had blurred her distinction from the Cylons. Commander Adama might run a less draconian command, respecting civil liberties and the continuation of a civilian government even though they 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 case study for this theme. Caprica-Six says 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 is willing to condemn one he thought to be an innocent man, Aaron Doral, to death in order to preserve his own safety (Miniseries). Baltar delays reporting the results of his own Cylon detector, because he is afraid that if he reveals that it works before he finds all twelve Cylon models, he will be assasinated.^{[citation needed]} Shockingly, Baltar does on one occasion do more than simply survive, when he "frags" Crashdown, whose poor leadership endangers the group as a whole, not only Baltar (Fragged). Soon after, however, he risks Chief Tyrol's life by injecting him with a toxin to acquire information from Galactica-Sharon.^{[citation needed]} Finally, Baltar is corrupt enough to disastrously mislead the Fleet into settling on New Caprica because this would allow him to become President (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II). Baltar is quite a remarkable survivor, but his Machiavellian manipulations make his "worthiness" for survival questionable. The audience can easily view him as less worthy of life than a Cylon.

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

The humanoid Cylon Simon says this (verbatim) to Starbuck (The Farm), and it comes up many times in the series. The Cylons feel that they are the children of humanity and that humanity abused them with enslavement. Now, the Cylons are attempting to create a new race of Cylon-Human hybrids (such as Hera), and they are concerned about being good "parents" to this new race. Lee Adama initially has a very poor relationship with his father William Adama (Miniseries), and 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 (Black Market). 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 (The Farm). 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."^{[citation needed]} 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)