During the opening credits of each Battlestar Galactica episode, we learn how many human survivors remain after their latest fight to the death against the enemy Cylons.  There are 41,435 survivors listed at the start of “Collaborators,” the fifth episode of season three.

Does that ever-shrinking number of human beings specifically include James “Jammer” Lyman?

After pleading unsuccessfully for mercy, Jammer (portrayed by Dominic Zamprogna) was literally sucked out of the gene pool.  He was executed by fellow humans who ejected him into the cold vacuum of space outside the Galactica. Such a savage end to a young warrior’s life was brought on by a circle of survivors aboard Galactica.  They found Jammer guilty of collaboration with Cylons after escape from the Cylon-occupied planet, New Caprica.

An imperative of the human race is to keep the species going.  With ongoing casualties of war, will the remaining survivors have sufficient time or initiative to reproduce?  Battlestar Galactica episodes thus far have not dealt in any detail with sexual reproduction.  With the notable exception of the sexual activity between Hilo and Cylon Sharon, more attention is given on Battlestar Galactica to lives ended than to lives begun.

We can only wonder whether Jammer had a chance to contribute towards propagating the human species before his life was ended.  But, when would Jammer have had time to sexually reproduce when he was preoccupied with betraying his own species to the Cylons on New Caprica? 

 One frequent criticism of sci-fi space adventures is that they emphasize special effects instead of character development.  The fourth episode of season three on Battlestar Galactica, “Exodus, Part II,” demonstrates vividly that the producers and writers understand how to develop characters even when the special effects are jaw-dropping. 

This episode involves an essential plot point:  The Galactica intentionally drops out of faster-than-light travel deep within the atmosphere of the planet New Caprica as a military strategy to avoid detection by the Cylons.  The huge ship falls downward through blue skies with white puffy clouds.  

We get to see this happen thanks to some stunning special effects.  We watch the outer hull of the Galactica heat up due to the friction of the ship colliding with the atmosphere.  It appears as if the Galactica will crash in bright yellow flames to a fateful end on the surface of the planet. 

The fundamental purpose of this free fall into the atmosphere is to launch the small Vipers in which fighter pilots will battle the Cylons who occupy New Caprica.  The tension created by these special effects propel the emotional intensity of “Exodus, Part II” into the ultimate victory of the humans over the Cylons.

To the credit of Battlestar Galactica’s producers and writers, the series focus on characters and their stories was not lost for even one second despite such an ambitious plot and the necessary special effects to make it happen.  Others who produce and write sci-fi space adventures should study Battlestar Galactica to learn how character development can come first even in the presence of jaw-dropping special effects.

One of the most important plot points in Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica series is sex between human beings and humanoid Cylons. Although human beings deeply fear and disrespect their enemy, the Cylons, and even refer to them with extreme prejudice as toasters, it was inevitable that human beings would have sex with toasters.

This is so because the Cylons had a plan to bring it about. The motivation for this Cylon plan to entice human males to have sexual intercourse with female humanoid Cylons was to give the Cylons the power of sexual reproduction of their species.

 The honor of being the first human male enticee into this liaison goes to Lieutenant Karl “Helo” Agathon (played by Tamoh Peniket).

The female enticee is Cylon Sharon (played by Grace Park).

The happy couple are thrown together by circumstance on Cylon occupied Caprica, one of the home planets of the human race that was nuked by the Cylons.  Helo did not realize that he was being tricked into spending time with Cylon Sharon on Caprica to fulfill the Cylon plan for him to start having sex with her.

He was manipulated by Cylon Sharon into enjoying his interactions with her on the planet Caprica. He grew comfortable with her and enjoyed tender moments of laughter, for example.

Before too much time had passed, however, Helo and Cylon Sharon were drawn together emotionally, and, as planned, he started to show that he felt sexually attracted to her.

He lights her up.  On Battlestar Galactica, whenever a humanoid Cylon female has an orgasm, her spine glows red.

In the first two hours of its third season Battlestar Galactica jumped unflinchingly into controversy. Pity those who have not watched every hour that came before these first two hours of the third season. NBC Universal might hope otherwise, but it is just not possible for anyone to tune in to Battlestar Galactica at the start of its third season and truly understand what this series is all about.

Evidence of such utter disorientation can be found easily by those who Google for blog posts about the start of season three in the United States on Sci-Fi on October 6, 2006.

One must watch every hour of Battlestar Galactica starting with the 2003 miniseries in order to perceive in any detail what Battlestar Galactica is doing. This site provides details of how Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica rivals Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek for attempting to persuade audience members with stories that have embedded messages and themes worth considering.

If the first two hours of Battlestar Galactica’s third season are any indication, there is no question that Ronald D. Moore has surpassed Gene Roddenberry in terms of gutsy attempts by television writers and producers to insert powerful political opinions into “mere” science fiction storytelling. The first two hours of season three depict real, flesh-and-blood details about insurgents in a warfare against occupiers, the true motivations of suicide bombers, and the use of organized religion by unscrupulous leaders to create fear in the hears of their followers as a means of controlling them.

Some viewers–most especially those who have not seen every hour the came before season three–will perceive of Battlestar Galactica in 2006 as being emotionally disturbing. This must be viewed as being quite deliberate. No television writer or producer could accomplish this kind of emotional impact accidentally.

Battlestar Galactica is asking viewers to consider what happens when one goes to war for religious purposes. The series asks important questions: Can any warfare be holy? Are people who fight an enemy based on their deeply-held religious beliefs to be held morally accountable for their violent acts? What makes some aspects of warfare holy and other aspects unholy? And, most importantly, who is capable of judging? Season three is beginning to answer these questions, but in doing so, Battlestar Galactica certainly will be seen as highly controversial. No television writer or producer could accomplish that accidentally either.

Season three of Battlestar Galactica is boldly going where polite society won’t.  The first 3 episodes of the third season have started opening a curtain behind which there certainly may be religious mysteries, and perhaps even evidence of the existence of the Almighty.  This is science fiction storytelling at its very best.

“There is no God but God” is the English translation of what is arguably the most famous Arabic Islamic phrase from the Muslim religion.  The phrase in Arabic, Assalamu `alaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu, is found prominently inscribed on The Dome of The Rock in Jerusalem but more importantly, that phrase is the first and foremost thing that Muslims believe about God (Allah).

Should viewers of any faith be surprised to find that phrase – “there is no God but God” –uttered in episode 3 of season with crucial prominence in the story?  The phrase was spoken by an alien leader whose organized religion holds a single deity as central to her life and to the lives of her fellow aliens. 

Note that the word aliens in this context must be understood to mean the Cylons on Battlestar Galactica.  The Cylons are frequently referred to by human beings as machines, and sometimes even Cylons refer to other Cylons as machines.  But, this is not accurate.  The most accurate term is synthetic life form–that is, Cylons are a life form that was created by human beings deliberately; Cylons most definitely do not occur, and would not occur, in nature without being manufactured by someone.  Cylons, of course, learned how to manufacture additional Cylons because they have not (yet) learned how to sexually reproduce (but that’s a subject for another blog post!)

Due to their industrial origins, the humans have a nasty habit of referring to the Cylons as toasters.  This pejorative term originated from the fact that the first Cylons manufactured by humans looked decidedly like shiny and silvery robots whose outer skin is reminiscent of how a toaster looks.  When a human calls a Cylon a toaster, it is a very prejudicial thing.  It is meant to convey great disrespect.  Yet, the word toaster has come to be interchangeable with Cylons, both the humanoid variety and the shiny, silvery robotic kind. 

Despite the fact that these alien life forms were created by humans, the Cylons nevertheless developed their own organized religion that differs substantially from the organized religion of the humans.  Does it follow that the one held to be known as God by the Cylons is also a toaster?

How can a machine, or, excuse me, a synthetic life form, have its own organized religion?  Does is not seem at first glance that the synthetic life forms merely created their own deity?  Did the Cylons invent a toaster God?

Not surprisingly, the humans on Battlestar Galactica mock the organized religion of their creation, the Cylons.  In contrast to the Cylons’ one true God, the humans on Battlestar Galactica believe in many gods as did the ancient Greeks and Romans on our planet.  The humans on Battlestar Galactica scoff at what they do not understand, so it follows that they would mock the one true God as well.  And they do.

But, it seems true that Battlestar Galactica is saying to us that the synthetic life forms most likely had to create their own God, who most likely is going to turn out to be as synthetic as they are.  How can life forms create their own God?  And why would they do so?  Why do sythetic life forms need a deity at all?  Does it not make the whole concept of deity rather suspect? 

Equally puzzling is why do the humans on Battlestar Galactica, who are shown to be smart with advanced technology, insist on believing in many gods instead of the one true God?  How smart or advanced can someone be who insists on believing in many gods?  On the other hand, how smart or advanced can Cylons be since they apparently had to create their own God?

These are all deep and troubling questions that season three of Battlestar Galactica has started asking the viewers to ponder.  This is certainly going to be a most compelling season.

All of the hyper-heated political blogging about the behaviors of Florida Republican Congressman Mark Foley, who admitted he is gay and thereby changed the whole public dialogue about the scandal he has caused, means one thing for sure: Few are going to notice that meanwhile, in another part of the blogosphere, there is some significant business blogging going on at NBC Universal about Battlestar Galactica, which airs on Sci-Fi.

Certainly, this business blogging will not attract the same level of attention of a Washington, DC scandal. But, all who blog should become aware of it. Here’s why: A major media corporation has chosen to use blogging in a pioneering way–to market one of its own television series. This opens up many exciting possibilities for the near future of blogging.

Much of the credit for this blogging which includes both audio and video podcasting must go to Ronald D. Moore, whom this writer considers as the next Roddenberry. Moore genuinely deserves that label–which he probably would find embarrassing–because of he has a strong connection to Star Trek that is both deep and significant.

Moore was only 2 years old when Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy first beamed onto the popular culture scene on NBC in the original Star Trek in 1966. But, when he grew up, he proved to be a talented writer who wrote nearly 30 episodes of Paramount Pictures’ Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 1980s. Moore went on to be supervising producer for Star Trek: Deep Space 9 in 1993, and then co-executive producer in 1995 for Star Trek: Voyager. Moore co-wrote Star Trek: Generations, released in 1994 as the seventh major motion picture in the lucrative Paramount Pictures franchise, and also Star Trek: First Contact, released in 1996 as the eighth.

Mainstream media outlets recently started to notice Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica even though this science fiction series first appeared in late 2003 as a completely reworked version of the 1978 television series on ABC. People today may be put off by the very name Battlestar Galactica because they probably remember the 1978 version, which lasted only 21 episodes. That version of Battlestar Galactica was playful and fun in ways very similar to Saturday morning cartoons.

In stunning contrast, Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica is decidedly and deliberately sophisticated and mature, most notably in how its storytelling embeds political and religious themes together with intelligent and witty character development. This Battlestar Galactica outdistances the 1978 version and NBC Universal is banking on its continued popularity as season three begins this very week on Sci-Fi. Check your local television listings for day, time, and channel number.

If you pay even cursory attention to Ron Moore’s blogging and podcasting about Battlestar Galactica, you will quickly forget that there ever was a 1978 version. Somebody sure knows what they’re doing here! This may technically be “merely” business blogging and business podcasting, but it sure is very exciting for what it portends for the near future of marketing. NBC Universal must realize how the target audience for Battlestar Galactica is predisposed to be early adapters of emerging technology anyway. But, this digital media marketing is noteworthy.