David Seed asked me to formulate some questions to help guide the development of my MA thesis. The following is what I developed to help guide me through the initial stages of my research for my paper currently titled, “Subversion of the Self in the Re-Imagined Battlestar Galactica.”
General Questions
Does SF change following the end of the Cold War? Is Post 9/11 SF significantly or subtly different than Cold War SF? How is personal identity dealt with in Cold War SF? What differences are there between identity for the good guys versus the bad guys?
Specific Questions
Does the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (BSG) represent a shift in SF from a Cold War mode to a new, Post 9/11 mode? How is identity portrayed differently in the Post 9/11 re-imagined BSG than in the Cold War era original BSG? How are enemy identities portrayed in these two series? Are there significant differences between the two series, or is the new BSG merely a continuation of Cold War narrative?
Methodology
Using the re-imagined BSG as a test case, I want to answer the question: Does the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica represent a shift in SF from a Cold War mode to a new, Post 9/11 mode? BSG is a unique example to study, because it’s original “text” comes from the Glen A. Larson 1978 movie and subsequent ABC television series, which is deeply embedded within the Cold War temporally as well as narratively. The new BSG, even with Larson attached as a “consulting producer,” is a very different story than the original. Whereas the original BSG presents simplified characters in a dualistic struggle between humanity and machine mapped over the Cold War ideologies of West/democracy and East/communism, the new BSG is a loosely veiled retelling of the conflict in Iraq and the Global War on Terrorism. However, the new BSG also relies on Cold War narrative influences such as those pointed out by Tom Engelhardt in The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation. For example, both series rely on the sneak attack on democracy that was born out of World War II with the Nazi blitzkrieg and their disregard for non-aggression pacts, and more specifically, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In BSG, humanity is attacked by Cylon/machine invaders–during a peace conference in the original series and during years of cease fire in the re-imagining. Additionally, Engelhardt makes a connection between the merging of self and the enemy following the use of atomic bombs at the end of WWII:
The atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima also blasted openings into a netherworld of consciousness where victory and defeat, enemy and self, threatened to merge. Shadowed by the bomb, victory became conceivable only under the most limited of conditions, and an enemy too diffuse to be comfortably located beyond national borders had to be confronted in an un-American spirit of doubt (6).
The original BSG follows this trajectory in part, because the machine Cylons resemble humanity, and in the latter part of the series, they develop uncanny human Cylons. However, the re-imagined BSG literally takes this much further by merging the “enemy and self” with the human doppelganger Cylon clones (“skinjobs”). Additionally, the overwhelming odds of the Cylon forces to humanity’s approximately 48,000 survivors reinforces the Cold War framework of overcoming staggering odds following the treacherous sneak attack.
Where the new BSG differs from the original specifically has to do with self and enemy identities. Characters in the new BSG are much more developed and are decidedly not archetypes as in the original series. Also, the human appearing Cylons have their own motivations and characteristics that place them above the status as targets as in much other SF. However, the truly interesting element of the new BSG is the fact that identities of both humans and Cylons is that they are both dealing with an identity crisis. Humans worry that they may be sleeper Cylons acting out their lives, unknowing about their “true” selves until the signal or time lapse occurs to activate their hidden programming. The Cylons are worried about internal dissention and individualistic concerns that run counter to the anarchistic commune ideology promoted by group consensus. Also, there is the threat of the final five Cylons, five unknown human form Cylons hidden amongst humanity. Who are these Cylons, and what will their presence mean for the existing Cylons? Other identity issues that concern both humans and Cylons are psychological issues with the human Gaius Baltar and the Cylon “Caprica Six.”
I will utilize the original BSG and re-imagined BSG series as primary sources, but I will also refer to ancillary materials such as DVD extras as well as sourcebooks and official guides. Several useful secondary critical sources are Englehardt’s The End of Victory Culture, Scott Bukatman’s Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction, David Seed’s American Science Fiction and the Cold War, and J.P. Telotte’s Replications.
Posted by Jason W Ellis 
