Topic: Battlestar Galactica Versus Star Trek

[Moloch]

I give it to Star Trek based on it not being a Mormon parable. However, the true winner is Firefly.

Is BSG really that, though? I'm starting to question that as one of those rumors that somehow just gets out there...also personally I don't see the similarity. Maybe I don't know enough about Mormonism though, or maybe it's more apparent in the original series?

There are similarities to Mormonism, but also to just about any Exodus story ever written. I personally see a bunch of similarities between it and Watership Down.

[Vincegamer]

The creator of the original BSG in the 70s was a Mormon and borrowed heavily from Mormon mythology in writing the story. That does not make it necessarily a Mormon parable. The re-imagined series in the 2000s borrowed heavily from Greek and pre-Christian gnostic religious symbols and it may be more a gnostic parable than the original was a Mormon parable.

Here is a neat site just listing similarities between the original series and Mormon sources:
http://home.comcast.net/~billotto/Mormon_N_BSG.html

[PANTS!]

Eh.  I don't know bout BSG:TNG being a Mormon parable for most of the series.  But that bit at the end was straight out of the book of Mormon.  True Believers get their own planet and all their ex wives get to visit?

[Karyn]

FYI "Bones" is the lead female in Bones.  It's her nickname. Angel is not "Bones".  I'm not even sure how you guys got that mixed up.

[Karyn]

PS.  Star Trek.  WTF is wrong with you people?

[teethering]

PS.  Star Trek.  WTF is wrong with you people?

Yeah.  My reaction exactly.

[SVoid]

Would it be terrible of me to say that I like them both, just in very different ways. I almost don't see them competing with eachother.

Also, to those that said Star Trek because Battlestar Galactica was cheesy... I don't understand. The camp in Star Trek was utterly untouched by BSG. UNTOUCHED!

I have been watching the brutal decimation of all the Star Trek episodes at http://www.sfdebris.com/ and worried it would make me lose love for the series. But I've recently got my girlfriend to watch a full 6 seasons of TNG and we are on to season 2 of DS9. I have to say I think I am enjoying it more now knowing all the flaws. But I'm weird like that. That, and it's been a half decade since I've watched any of the Star Trek TNG episodes. (Did recently watch DS9 over the last 5 years, haven't touched Voyager but that's next on the list during season 3 of DS9.)

I know people like to pretend they are all the same because they are 'science fiction'.

But in truth, I like Star Trek (esp TNG) because it is inconsistent. It's funny. It's serious. It's interesting. It brain candy that will rot your neurons. Everything a growing kid needs. And that's what I grew up on.

Galactica was great because the story arc allowed for a more realistic portrayal of life. I was getting tired of episodic content because real life isn't like that. I like repercussions. I like things not being solved in 44 minutes. I think both have their place. Galactica was also misanthropic: those writers hated the human race. (And especially Cally!) It was a refreshing and different take.  As SF debris above said in the BSG mini-series review, "everywhere that Trek zigged Battlestar Galatica zagged."

At that point in my life I guess I was ready for a change. I caught it mostly on reruns. I didn't start watching until after the final 5 were revealed.

[Daws]

Also, to those that said Star Trek because Battlestar Galactica was cheesy... I don't understand.

Seriously, a wtf? statement if I ever saw one.  I like both for different reasons, but even a cursory glance will tell you star trek had infinitely more cheese than BSG. I mean it's basically pre-determined by the directing style, BSG went for realism in acting as a point, Star Trek seemed to almost try to make the actors be hammy... but then maybe we have different definitions of "cheese" if it means "drama" than sure...if it means "hambone acting" I dunno wtf you guys are smoking.

And to reiterate, I still voted Star Trek.

[SVoid]

Also, to those that said Star Trek because Battlestar Galactica was cheesy... I don't understand.

Seriously, a wtf? statement if I ever saw one.  I like both for different reasons, but even a cursory glance will tell you star trek had infinitely more cheese than BSG. I mean it's basically pre-determined by the directing style, BSG went for realism in acting as a point, Star Trek seemed to almost try to make the actors be hammy... but then maybe we have different definitions of "cheese" if it means "drama" than sure...if it means "hambone acting" I dunno wtf you guys are smoking.

And to reiterate, I still voted Star Trek.

Some like cheese on their burger, while others don't.