Early notes about the new Battlestar Galactica

I have to admit that I haven't watched the entire BG 2 episode set through yet. We managed to have a low-TV day three-day weekend at the Packrat household. I worked on the web server in the few spare moments I had over the weekend, so I only glanced at my DVR recording of the first show. I intend to fix this, but I have already been struck by the "vengance of God" theme.

A common science fiction theme is how Science and Technology will lift ignorant man out of the trap of theism into the enlightenment of secular humanism. One could hardly watch the Star Trek: The Next Generation Friday marathons¹ on TNN without seeing one show about a "primative" species that believed in some Deity, and that belief, as wrong as it was, was fully protected by the Prime Directive. Knowledge would always prove that a Deity was a powerful computer, an advanced species, or a myth run wild.

BG is turning this on its head. It's the "backwards", stick-in-the-mud humans who are humanists, and have no desire or inclination to look for a God to either ease or explain their suffering (or even be mad about it). It's the technically advanced machines that believe in God and believe that they are God's instrument of vengance.²

I hope that BG can avoid repeating the "let's show five minute soft-porn sex scenes for ratings" of the pilot, and keep a record of quality.

Food for thought: Is Number 6³ really talking to Baltar, or is he just crazy?

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¹My wife would prefer me to put the period where this footnote was. She is not a Star Trek fan...

²I want to explore a little more what kind of God the Cylons do believe in, but I think that needs to wait for a few more shows.

³I smell a The Prisoner fan somewhere.