Battlestar Galactica; a metaphor of post 9/11 World

Over many years, the story of struggle of human beings against their own creation: Cylons, as told in the Starship series, has evolved into much more than a battle between species. Rather than describing apocalyptical war between man and machine, it deliberates over emotional landscape of those perpetually living under the shadow of death which, I am afraid, not many sci-fi do. Beside the ongoing fight to save humanity from its nemesis, Galactica fearlessly addresses the most fundamental issues like gender equity, religion, and what it means to be a human being or not to be one.The series kick start with the annihilation of the earth with only 12 space colonies left. The Cylons which were made by man to serve mankind evolve into intelligent beings refusing to serve them anymore. It results in a fierce battle followed by a detente of 39 years. Cylons withdraw to a distant area of space only to return on 40th anniversary. They have evolved beyond the wildest imagination of man. Androids, as they are now called, look like human beings but cannot be killed. Rather they regenerate. They ruthlessly kill millions of people who are caught unaware. Less than 40,000 manage to flee in the spaceships with Androids in pursuit, looking for the legendary 13th colony called Earth.At this point, the series could have degenerated into a violent video game with computer generated images and innumerable fight scenes of senseless killing. But instead, it rose to touch even those who are not at all attracted to sci-fi by its sensitive narration of stories of human interest. The Starship was called a sci-fi allegory of war on terror, complete with religious fundamentalists, sleeper cells, civil liberties crackdowns and even a prisoner torture scandal by Time Magazine. There are suicide bombers, Androids who want to destroy starship just as we have fanatic Al Qaeda suicide bombers who don’t think twice before blowing themselves to pieces in order to kill those, who they consider their enemies. The larger question is that whether such people who relegate their rights of making choices and decisions to others by following them blindly are in any way better than robots. The issues of trust and betrayal, love and deception overlap in most episodes of the series. At one point Olympic Carrier a commercial passenger vessel goes missing with 1345 people abroad and Battlestar Galactica assumes that it has been lost to Cylons. But to everyone’s surprise, Olympic Carrier rejoins the fleet after 3 hours. Captain Adama’s suspicion about the sudden appearance of the vessel is further fueled by Dr. Baltar who also suggests to the President Roslin that ship may have been infiltrated with Cylon agents. Galactica’s radiological sensors detect nuclear weapons abroad Olympic Carrier and even after the repeated orders not to approach the fleet it refuses to comply, leaving no other option for President Roslin but to destroy it. This whole incident, strangely, reminds me of the attack on twin towers by Al Qaeda using civilian airplanes carrying passengers. Religious bigotry is another issue which has come to relate very closely with terrorism in post 9/11 world. Al Qaeda incites people to kill in the name of religion. Each terrorist believes that he is serving God by killing infidels. Each mission that he successfully accomplishes is a sign that God is with him. After Olympic Carrier is destroyed, Number Six declares that God is looking after the interests of Baltar, as he allowed the destruction of Olympic. She was alluding to the death of Dr. Amorak, a passenger on the vessel who had earlier contacted President Roslin and insisted that he had information concerning a traitor amidst them. Dr. Baltar suspected that Amorak had come to know about his role in the Cylonic attack on the colonies. With Amorak dead, his secret was safe. And Number Six erased any sense of guilt that he felt by describing it as the ‘will of God’. Strangely, every fanatic claims that he knows the will of God and feels compelled to carry it out while eliminating his enemies and looking after his personal interests. Sadly, those he uses to achieve his goals, fail to see that, just like Baltar did. May be, they deliberately turn their faces away from truth, afraid to confront what they know in their hearts and bury themselves in the falsehood invented by their mentor. Today, while a war is being waged between the Islamic fundamentalists and western nations, there is a need to address certain issues, many of which were raised in Battlestar Galactica. As the world is being polarized on the basis of loyalties towards religion and ideology, don’t you think its time to pause and give the meaning of religion and humanity a serious thought?