TOS Galactica and Lord of The Rings

[BST]

For a good while, many of us, myself included, have gone to great detail explaining why TOS was special to us. We spoke of values, attitudes, duty, honor, family, etc. As I was watching LOTR:TTT, the other day, it struck me that many of the values to which we ascribed to TOS are present in the LOTR trilogy.

Both shows are epic tales, filmed and produced on a larger than life scale. Both involve a "quest" - one to destroy a ring and the other to find a home.

Both have real heroes - Apollo, Adama, Starbuck, Sheba, Cassie; Aragorn, Legolas, Frodo, Gandalf, Eowyn, Arwen; and real villains - Cylons, Baltar, Iblis; Saruman, Sauron, Orcs, Urukhai.

Both show the heroes/heroines commitment to duty - protecting the civilian population.

Both show a love of family - Adama, Athena, Apollo, Boxey; Sheba, Cain; Elrond, Arwen; Eowyn, Theoden.

For me, I think there are definite similarities in the 2 productions and perhaps those similarities are what draw me to both.


Any thoughts?

BST

O
battlestargalactica

[thomas7g]

John Colicos as GOLEM!!!! I can see it nowww!!!!

PPPPPRRREEEECCCIIIOOOOUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS...............

[Lara]

IMHO

Both are the sort of storytelling that references our cultural roots. The sort of tales we have told each other over a campfire for hundreds of years that are older than the current state of technology.
They are also the 'universal' stories that help explore the human condition. Fate and choice, good and evil, the use of inner reserves vs the yeilding to temptation..

Tolkein knew this from his life long study of the language and traditions of europe, Larson came upon it more intuitively. We all discuss how things in BSG could have been tidied up, and the fanfic community takes little threads and makes whole blankets because the references are there but unexplored.
LOTR is a comprehensive masterwork in its depth and complexity. It speaks to the soul of the reader in fundemental ways.
TOS gets a pluck at some of the same heartstrings, but I suspect you have to be primed to get that deeper resounance (probably by being the sort that liked LOTR)

Cheers,
Lara

[BST]

B U M P !

:D

[peter noble]

I think there are more similarities between Babylon 5 and Lord of the Rings myself.

That JMS, he's such a hack! ;)

[Tabitha]

Maybe more similarities between BSG and S:AAB? I mean at least to me they seem alike, but then Im pretty superficial huh...

tabbi

[Darrell Lawrence]

B U M P !

:DPeople tend to hurt their heads with bumps like these ;)

[Senmut]

Some values are transcendant and universal. In both strories,universes, the idea or presence of "God" behind the scenes is always felt. Thus, in both we should expect to find such similarities.

[LadyImmortal]

Ouch, BST, MY HEAD!!!!! OUCH OUCH OUCH!

Anyway, where was I?

I can see a LOT of the similarities between LOTR and BSG (I do happen to think LOTR went about it much better).

A huge thing that they both have in common though, is that the enemy was clearly defined. There wasn't too much of the looking for the bad guy amongst us as there was knowing that group a is the good guys and group b is the bad guys.

That's what I loved about both series.

As well, there was the religion inherent to both and the belief in God as well. Something that always warms my heart :).