Allegory in Battlestar Galactica: Why New Caprica is Not Iraq

The modern incarnation of Battlestar Galactica, like its somewhat campier counterpart from the late 1970s, is a dark story of how a human civilization consisting of twelve colonies is all but destroyed by a race of intelligent machines known as the Cylons. The last remains of this civilization are on the run in a motley collection of star ships, protected by a space going battleship/carrier called the Battlestar Galactica, attempting to find refuge on a legendary planet known as “Earth.” They are pursued by Cylon ships, determined to finish off the rest of the human race.

The 1970s version of the series was great fun and certainly had its moments. The 21st Century version has risen to the level of an epic, with its depiction of humanity just on the edge of destruction, if not by the Cylons, then by their deep, human flaws. But along with the flaws has been nobility and honor, a determination to fight on even in the face of certain annihilation.

Season Three of Battlestar Galactica finds the fugitive humans in very dire straits indeed. At the end of Season Two, the humans aboard the fugitive fleet held an election for their President. The statesmanlike President Laura Roslyn, who had been Secretary of Education before the destruction of the Twelve Colonies, was voted out of office in favor of Gaius Baltar, a man who can best be described as a combination of Carl Sagan and Bill Clinton. 

Glib, morally flexible, probably insane, certainly an inadvertent traitor to the human race, Baltar has ascended to office with the promise of ending the long flight across the stars and settling the last of the human race on a newly discovered planet now named New Caprica, after the largest of the destroyed colonies.

This has proven to be a huge mistake, perhaps a fatal one. A year after the arrival of the fleet at New Caprica, the humans are discovered by the Cylons. The Cylons, instead of finishing the job of the total annihilation of humanity, decides instead to occupy and to take control of the colony. The Cylons, who look but do not act as humans, are backed up by an army of Terminator-like Centurions.

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