It’s a tough universe

THE critically lauded “Battlestar Galactica,” Sci Fi Channel’s remake of the fluffy 1978 television series, was politically minded from the outset. The 2003 miniseries began with the genocide of billions of people in a Sept. 11-like attack by the Cylons, a mysterious race of robots.

The show, now in its third season, has mostly been set in space, as the survivors on the Battlestar fleet have tried to evade the Cylons. In their struggles to rebuild a civilization, the characters on “Battlestar Galactica” have faced dilemmas about the legality of abortion, torture in military prisons, and the separation between religion and politics, all while asking, “Why do they hate us?”

The beginning of this season, though, put the action on the ground: The humans’ attempt to colonize a planet failed when the Cylons found them and occupied the planet. Now, having been rescued after a fierce insurgency developed, the humans must attempt to restore order to their even more diminished and demoralized population.

In Friday’s episode -- “Collaborators” -- a small tribunal of humans seeks to root out those who betrayed their race and worked for the Cylons during the violent and poorly planned occupation. Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, the executive producers of “Battlestar Galactica,” talk about the show’s political allegories.

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Why is punishing the collaborators the first priority after the humans are rescued from the planet New Caprica?

Moore: The first episode back, it felt like, no matter what it was, they had to deal with the aftermath of what they had just gone through. What do they do with the people who collaborated with the Cylons?

Eick: What’s interesting is what we didn’t talk about. We never really got into the morality of whether or not our quote-unquote heroes would be embarking on this immoral or somehow judgmental journey to punish the collaborators.

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And the heroes are, in fact, the ones doing the punishing.

Moore: The episode itself is all about breaking a lot of comfort zones in television. TV, generally, is really frightened about protecting your characters. Don’t let the audience lose sympathy for them, they have to be heroic, they have to always do the right thing. We don’t worry about protecting our characters to that extent. We think, “Well, what would they do in those circumstances?”

Eick: These decisions aren’t made for shock value. Without this, the injustice that had taken place would metastasize and cripple the fleet.

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In the most recent episode, one of the main characters, Col. Tigh, had to kill his own wife for giving the Cylons information, even though she had done it to save him. What did that say about him?

Moore: In the occupation, it’s like, here’s why you keep Col. Tigh around: because when the chips are way down, this is the guy that’s going to find a way to win. It’s us vs. them, you collaborate, you die: That’s the way the resistance has to function. Nobody gets a pass. And then it’s his wife. That Tigh would still do it, and it breaks his heart -- he has trouble recovering from it, and it affects him for the rest of the season.

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On the planet, President Baltar let the Cylons run their government through him in a Vichy France-like setup. How responsible is he for how badly the occupation went?

Eick: Most of those Nazi trials are so interesting to me because so many of the convictions are not of mustache-twirling, bloodthirsty Nazis. They were people who were pushing papers, setting train schedules and collaborating, and -- what’s the phrase? -- “following orders.” I think likewise in this case, Baltar’s hands were tied.

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The human insurgency -- which included suicide bombings -- was also led by main characters that viewers probably identify with and like. How much was that storyline meant to reflect current events?

Eick: We don’t -- like the folks over at the Dick Wolf shows -- sit in the story room ... trying to do an adaptation of what’s on the 11 o’clock news. It really is about just pulling the story out and being honest about who the characters are. Of course, what would an occupied people do if they found themselves under the heel of some horrible presence? They would start to rile up, and an insurgency would begin.

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On the show, there were conversations among the Cylons about not enough resources, not enough soldiers on the ground -- the kinds of conversations people might imagine are going on in Washington and Baghdad.

Moore: We just wanted New Caprica to be a bad situation for everybody. If there is a parallel to Iraq, it’s that: It’s a bad situation without an easy answer for everybody.

Eick: It does sound familiar. And you do find yourself relating to their plight. It’s very frustrating; it wasn’t what they thought. And part of you should be thinking to yourself, “Good, I’m glad to see them miserable, because they’re the bad guys and I’m rooting against them.” But in almost equal measure, you’re thinking, “Geez, if only the humans would just pipe down and relax, maybe everything would be OK.”

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But that piping down doesn’t seem to happen in the real world, and it doesn’t happen on the show. What are you saying about occupation?

Moore: I think it’s generally an impossible thing. But it’s all kind of history-specific. The occupation of Japan was a remarkable success, but that had a lot to do with context and the Japanese culture. But there are so many other examples where it doesn’t work that way, from Algeria to Vietnam to Iraq. Native populations generally don’t like whoever is on the other side of that boot.

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How much has the show changed because of the evolution of the war in Iraq?

Eick: We talk a lot about World War II, we talk about Vietnam. The inspiration from contemporary events is very loose. I think we view it more on a treatise on war and on the nature of conflict and the severity of it.

Moore: But it did happen in the context of Iraq, and it was informed by all of the things happening around us.

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There’s a darkness to “Battlestar Galactica” that’s rare for TV. Does it ever get too dark, even for you?

Moore: The premise of the show is a dark premise. On some level, we have to be true to the world the show created: These are the people who survived an apocalypse. They are running away from their enemies in the night forever. And it’s just such a dark idea, that you can’t get outside of that bubble too much, or it just doesn’t feel real. Which is what happened with the original series. Same premise: an apocalyptic attack, the genocide of billions. We’re in our ship, now let’s go to the casino planet! It’s escapist fun about an apocalyptic genocide. You could never really buy into it.

-- Kate Aurthur