Allegory in Battlestar Galactica: Why New Caprica is Not Iraq

The modern incarnation of Battlestar Galactica, like its somewhat campier counterpart from the late 1970s, is a dark story of how a human civilization consisting of twelve colonies is all but destroyed by a race of intelligent machines known as the Cylons. The last remains of this civilization are on the run in a motley collection of star ships, protected by a space going battleship/carrier called the Battlestar Galactica, attempting to find refuge on a legendary planet known as "Earth." They are pursued by Cylon ships, determined to finish off the rest of the human race.

The 1970s version of the series was great fun and certainly had its moments. The 21st Century version has risen to the level of an epic, with its depiction of humanity just on the edge of destruction, if not by the Cylons, then by their deep, human flaws. But along with the flaws has been nobility and honor, a determination to fight on even in the face of certain annihilation.

Season Three of Battlestar Galactica finds the fugitive humans in very dire straits indeed. At the end of Season Two, the humans aboard the fugitive fleet held an election for their President. The statesmanlike President Laura Roslyn, who had been Secretary of Education before the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, was voted out of office in favor of Gaius Baltar, a man who can best be described as a combination of Carl Sagan and Bill Clinton.

Glib, morally flexible, probably insane, certainly an inadvertent traitor to the human race, Baltar has ascended to office with the promise of ending the long flight across the stars and settling the last of the human race on a newly discovered planet now named New Caprica, after the largest of the destroyed colonies.

This has proven to be a huge mistake, perhaps a fatal one. A year after the arrival of the fleet at New Caprica, the humans are discovered by the Cylons. The Cylons, instead of finishing the job of the total annihilation of humanity, decides instead to occupy and to take control of the colony. The Cylons, who look but do not act as humans, are backed up by an army of Terminator-like Centurions.

Season Three begins four months later. A human insurgency is mounting a resistance against the Cylon Occupation Authority. There have been cases of suicide bombings. The Cylons have recruited a police force of humans willing to do their dirty work. There have been cases of torture and sexual humiliation.

Is Ron Moore, the show runner for Battlestar Galactica, trying to tell us something?

Well, perhaps, but not what one might think. New Caprica is not Iraq. Nor are the Cylons the United States. And certainly the humans are not Iraqi insurgents, While Moore has certainly plucked some real world elements to illuminate his story, Battlestar Galactica is not a direct allegory to the current war in Iraq. It is certainly not a slam against President Bush, or the "Neo cons", or several of the other things that people have suggested. There are too many difference great and small between New Caprica and Iraq, the climate aside.

First, it is the Cylon occupiers who are the religious fanatics. It was made clear in the first two seasons of Battlestar Galactica that the Cylons were committing mass genocide against the humans because of the dictate of a God that they worship. Certainly one can suggest that the destruction of the twelve colonies was a 9/11 on an interstellar scale. The Cylons are intolerant of anyone who has a different belief system, especially the human colonists who seem to worship the Ancient Greek pantheon. The Cylon are determined to convert the humans to their religion by any means, with "love" if possible, by fear if necessary. That sounds like Al Qaeda.

While it is true that the human insurgents use suicide bombing as a tactic, there is much agonizing over the moral implications by several of the human characters. Laura Roslin, who has come back to teaching, but has gained new political respect as she was proven right about the dangers of settling New Caprica, tries to put a stop to the suicide bombing. Colonel Tighe, the alcoholic XO of the Galactica with the very scary wife, who has sanctioned the suicide bombings, is shown to be just a tad but insane, mostly because of the torture he has suffered at the hands of the Cylons. One doubts that the insurgents in Iraq spend much time agonizing over the morality of suicide bombing or any of the other atrocities they tend to commit.

There have been no free elections on New Caprica, unlike in Iraq. The Cylons are content to keep Baltar, now almost universally despised by the humans, as a puppet.

Finally, the goal of the insurgents in Iraq is to evict the US led coalition, overthrow the freely elected government of Iraq by force, and then to use that country as a base for their jihad against the West. The goal of the human colonists on New Caprica is to escape the planet they so incautiously settled and to continue their quest for Earth, something which the fleet, which managed to escape, proposes to play a part in.

So while the 21st Century Battlestar Galactica holds up a kind of funhouse mirror to the events of our time, it is not directly allegorical. It is a awe inspiring show to watch, to discuss and to argue over afterwards. Long may it air.