jewels
June 29th, 2004, 10:33 AM
::repost from OWD's scifi.com Battlestar Galactica The Original board::
My whole growing up we have been in the space age. My earliest news broadcast memory is of Neil Armstrong bouncing around on the moon's surface with his buddy. We were so positive about spacetravel when I was young that it seemed our destiny would reach to the stars in our lifetime.
While star travel still captured the imagination, Star Wars was released with the most convincing special effects that had ever been done. But it's setting was in a fantasy, a fairy tale, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."
Close Encounters brought us aliens who were friendly, but quite unlike us. For me, it lacked appeal. We couldn't truly connect with the aliens.
Along came Battlestar Galactica. "There are those who believe that life here began out there...with tribes of humans...who even now, fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens." These were people, who were not only like us, many were like the best in us. They fought impossible odds just to survive. And their history was somehow intertwined with ours. A mystery that would unravel over time as we watched.
Starbuck, Apollo, Boomer, Sheba, Jolly and the rest: we wanted to meet them, to know them--and in the Colonial universe, this was possible. They were on a journey to find us. We were their hope for survival. They were a chance for us to reach beyond these earthly bounds in our imaginations, long before we could hop on a ship ourselves and be out there.
Duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, fraternity and family were all strong bonds we shared with the colonials. Their sum was greater than their parts and ours could be too. They could face complete despair and live on to hope for a better day. In the days of ever increasing nuclear stockpiles, in the late '70s it was a message that we could go on beyond the darkness our own world faced.
And we too could reach for the stars, in hopes that we might just find brothers out there who like us, were caught in the midst of the war between good and evil. They could make choices that would change the fabric of the universe, as do we.
The reality of those childhood spaceflight dreams is that we have much to learn before our own travel is interplanetary and as available as a cruiseship stateroom. Perhaps not our generation, perhaps not our children's, but our grandchildren's may have a shot at actually touring space firsthand.
Galactica taught us to look at ourselves through the eyes of space and time. To wonder at the world we have, and our own creations as well as too look higher and farther out to seek our origins, our creator. By seeking our origins, to find our purpose on this blue green marble floating in space. Engaging our wonder at the depths of the beauty of our universe, sparking our desire to see it firsthand. To look further beyond ourselves and know that there is a greater good order to the universe. To know that to look through the eyes of space and time one needs faith and will find hope. And perhaps somewhere beyond the heavens, to find that we are not alone in our struggles.
The Colonials journey must continue. They've got hope to teach to us.
jewels
My whole growing up we have been in the space age. My earliest news broadcast memory is of Neil Armstrong bouncing around on the moon's surface with his buddy. We were so positive about spacetravel when I was young that it seemed our destiny would reach to the stars in our lifetime.
While star travel still captured the imagination, Star Wars was released with the most convincing special effects that had ever been done. But it's setting was in a fantasy, a fairy tale, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."
Close Encounters brought us aliens who were friendly, but quite unlike us. For me, it lacked appeal. We couldn't truly connect with the aliens.
Along came Battlestar Galactica. "There are those who believe that life here began out there...with tribes of humans...who even now, fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens." These were people, who were not only like us, many were like the best in us. They fought impossible odds just to survive. And their history was somehow intertwined with ours. A mystery that would unravel over time as we watched.
Starbuck, Apollo, Boomer, Sheba, Jolly and the rest: we wanted to meet them, to know them--and in the Colonial universe, this was possible. They were on a journey to find us. We were their hope for survival. They were a chance for us to reach beyond these earthly bounds in our imaginations, long before we could hop on a ship ourselves and be out there.
Duty, honor, loyalty, fidelity, fraternity and family were all strong bonds we shared with the colonials. Their sum was greater than their parts and ours could be too. They could face complete despair and live on to hope for a better day. In the days of ever increasing nuclear stockpiles, in the late '70s it was a message that we could go on beyond the darkness our own world faced.
And we too could reach for the stars, in hopes that we might just find brothers out there who like us, were caught in the midst of the war between good and evil. They could make choices that would change the fabric of the universe, as do we.
The reality of those childhood spaceflight dreams is that we have much to learn before our own travel is interplanetary and as available as a cruiseship stateroom. Perhaps not our generation, perhaps not our children's, but our grandchildren's may have a shot at actually touring space firsthand.
Galactica taught us to look at ourselves through the eyes of space and time. To wonder at the world we have, and our own creations as well as too look higher and farther out to seek our origins, our creator. By seeking our origins, to find our purpose on this blue green marble floating in space. Engaging our wonder at the depths of the beauty of our universe, sparking our desire to see it firsthand. To look further beyond ourselves and know that there is a greater good order to the universe. To know that to look through the eyes of space and time one needs faith and will find hope. And perhaps somewhere beyond the heavens, to find that we are not alone in our struggles.
The Colonials journey must continue. They've got hope to teach to us.
jewels