Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Battlestar Galactica

Heh, anybody catch the surprising season finale of Battlestar Galactica? I just saw it, and as a regular viewer of the TV series, I was totally floored:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Io7XSuulk

While being the most popular military fiction and science fiction show on TV today, its story also has a number of interesting Indian themes. The human protagonists are explicitly depicted as polytheistic, while their robotic Cylon adversaries are explicitly depicted as monotheistic fanatics. The opening theme song of the TV show is a recitation of the Gayatri Mantra from the Rig Veda. While the show is set in an imaginary science fiction backdrop of outer space, the plot revolves around the challenges faced by a democratic pluralistic society in confronting an implacable militaristic foe which resorts constantly to terrorism. An interestingly darker re-imagining of the original campy 1970s series.

The closing scene of the Season 3 Finale episode features an unusual musical accompaniment of Bob Dylan's song, "All Along the Watchtower"
Hmm, the citar music was alright, but I really liked how they integrated the lyrics of Dylan's song into the dialogue in that episode. Nice touch.

3 comments:

Santhosh said...

I love the show.
btw, the elusive music that four of the characters, supposedly among the final five, sounds Indian too.

I like the way they were able to integrate lots of current socio-political issues into the show.

What the Frak!! We have to wait until 2008 for the next dose of Galactica.

A certain someone said...

Here's Bear McCreary's blog:
http://www.bearmccreary.com/html/blog/blogmain.htm

He's the one who does the music for the show. The Indian elements of the music are discussed in it, and note that he even imported a harmonium for this piece!
This episode was one of the best season finales I have ever seen. Hope they impress us as much next year. But given the low ratings I suppose Sci Fi channel won't commission a 5th season.
Wish they showed it in India, but as long as the episodes are available in the torrent network, I am not complaining.:)

TallIndian said...

Wow -- and I was taught that the Gayatri was one of the most sacred chants.

Where is the outrage?