A little BSG musing
Feb. 9th, 2005 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI am so tired it isn't even funny. I was still working last night after midnight, because a lot of stuff has hit all at once; I didn't even make it out of the office until 8. So that brownie was a real lifesaver, but now I feel thickheaded and grumpy.
I've been watching BSG and loving it, although I have a few general thoughts about the worldbuilding. One thing I've noticed in commentaries is that this is a show about people trying to hold their society together. I think that's true, but I'm starting to wonder about all the people who are doing the real day-to-day society building in this universe: the ordinary civilians. The people who got onto a shuttle one morning with a suitcase, only to find themselves a few days later at the far end of the galaxy with the whole world they knew in rubble. What are their living conditions like? How much space do they have? How much food, and where is it coming from? What kind of social organization are they developing? How many of them have sunk into depression? How many of them are looking for a way to volunteer like the would-be pilots of episodes 4 and 5? Those people were thrilled at the chance to join up, and probably for a number of reasons. What are they doing with their time? How have they divided up the work of keeping their ships working? Is the passenger/crew divide starting to break down, or becoming stronger?
I was wondering about their living conditions in particular, because President Roslin's quarters looked rather cramped, particularly in comparison with Adama's; but as president she's likely to have more space than others. But then, Colonial One is a shuttle rather than a full-sized ship. Some of the ships we saw in the miniseries are quite large (I'm thinking in particular of the ship with the little girl, which was left behind) but others must be very cramped. And how long were the journeys those ships were on, when the Cylons struck? This is the thing I'm most interested in. It seems that the civilian ships must be more like ocean liners than airplanes, since no one has run out of food yet (or rioted over cramped conditions). I suppose that only long-haul ships would have faster-than-light in the first place, so they might be better provisioned and roomier.
It's possible that these questions were answered in the miniseries, and I've forgotten it; I expect the show to deal with them soon, because that's the kind of show it seems to be. The issue of food supplies and water supplies have already been raised, after all. At the moment, we see the world more through the eyes of the military than anyone else, and they have certain prejudices against civilian life; I'd like to see the show explore the realities of civilian life, rather than those prejudices.
I've been watching BSG and loving it, although I have a few general thoughts about the worldbuilding. One thing I've noticed in commentaries is that this is a show about people trying to hold their society together. I think that's true, but I'm starting to wonder about all the people who are doing the real day-to-day society building in this universe: the ordinary civilians. The people who got onto a shuttle one morning with a suitcase, only to find themselves a few days later at the far end of the galaxy with the whole world they knew in rubble. What are their living conditions like? How much space do they have? How much food, and where is it coming from? What kind of social organization are they developing? How many of them have sunk into depression? How many of them are looking for a way to volunteer like the would-be pilots of episodes 4 and 5? Those people were thrilled at the chance to join up, and probably for a number of reasons. What are they doing with their time? How have they divided up the work of keeping their ships working? Is the passenger/crew divide starting to break down, or becoming stronger?
I was wondering about their living conditions in particular, because President Roslin's quarters looked rather cramped, particularly in comparison with Adama's; but as president she's likely to have more space than others. But then, Colonial One is a shuttle rather than a full-sized ship. Some of the ships we saw in the miniseries are quite large (I'm thinking in particular of the ship with the little girl, which was left behind) but others must be very cramped. And how long were the journeys those ships were on, when the Cylons struck? This is the thing I'm most interested in. It seems that the civilian ships must be more like ocean liners than airplanes, since no one has run out of food yet (or rioted over cramped conditions). I suppose that only long-haul ships would have faster-than-light in the first place, so they might be better provisioned and roomier.
It's possible that these questions were answered in the miniseries, and I've forgotten it; I expect the show to deal with them soon, because that's the kind of show it seems to be. The issue of food supplies and water supplies have already been raised, after all. At the moment, we see the world more through the eyes of the military than anyone else, and they have certain prejudices against civilian life; I'd like to see the show explore the realities of civilian life, rather than those prejudices.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-09 04:59 pm (UTC)The shift for the civilians must, I think, be even more significant than for the crew of the Galactica - they are, to some extent, doing what they always do, while the entire world order has changed for the civilians - with the possible exceptions of the ships' crews.
I'm holding up the 'crew' of Lost in my mind, up against what we've seen of BSG, and Lost isn't coming out looking so good. I hope - I expect - that what we're eventually going to be shown of the civilian social structure will be more cohesive and competent than either Jack's refugees or Tigh's
fearslow expectations.I don't agree that the show's producers/plotters view the civilian component of the fleet as plot-disposable, it's just that things are rather busy this sec, and with the threat of the Cylons hanging right there to trump any minor things like heart attacks, broken laundry machines, rude cabin staff and people sleeping in hallways, I can see where they haven't had the chance to address those issues yet.
I think we're getting hints, though. Roslin asked Adama if he had a physican on board - I wonder how much of that was resonable precautions and how much was driven by her not knowing if there were any other doctors in the Fleet. Following the attacks, physicans/police officers/public officals might have not left their posts, and might be less well represented among the Fleet than normal population distributions would indicate. (Wildly speculating, here.)
As for who we could follow through the fleet - the military doc could be a interesting fellow to follow for a day.
- hg
no subject
Date: 2005-02-09 06:10 pm (UTC)Hee! The way you put that is very amusing ;)
Also, some of the ships are clearly equipped for long-term space travel - like the tanker Boomer finds in the miniseries, for example... So there must be a fairly large spectrum of different types of civilian ships. From the shots we've seen, none of them is as large as "Galactica", but I don't think they all look like the equivalent of 747s (yes, being on one of THOSE for months would get old very, very fast.) Roslin is *doing* something - I guarantee that - and Adama said she'd be the one making the decisions about the civilian fleet, so I have every faith we're going to see at least some of this addressed at some point.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-10 04:24 am (UTC)I agree, and this is why I want to know how they're coping. I suspect that they're doing better than Tigh fears simply because people pull together in the face of massive catastrophe, but I want to see it. (I also have a lot of questions about how the social structure will develop long-term--what will be the valuable social roles? how will group identity form?--but I think that's just mental exercise on my part.)
Following the attacks, physicans/police officers/public officals might have not left their posts, and might be less well represented among the Fleet than normal population distributions would indicate.
You know, I was working on the assumption that most of the ships in the fleet simply happened to be in transit when the attacks came--but of course some of them must be full of people who got away.
A modern cruise ship will have a medical staff, so I suspect that a long-haul ship in the BSG universe would as well. But I'd be interested in seeing the military doc (who I rather liked) going from ship to ship--someone needs to find out what supplies they have, for example.