Frak You! The Ultimate Unauthorized Guide to Battlestar Galactica by Jo Storm
ECW Press, $17.95, 251pp, tp, 9781550227895. Non-fiction television tie-in.
Jo Storm almost threw me out of the book in her introduction, when I thought she was trying very hard to say “Battlestar Galactica isn’t science fiction, because it’s so good.” Fortunately, that was mostly a misreading on my part. She obviously is a big fan of science fiction, and of this television series.
What follows that perhaps misleading introduction is, first, a discussion of the original television series, from whence the current one came, along with the fandom that grew up around it. So far so good. Then she an essay on apocalypses, since this BSG is entirely about surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. And then there are short essays on each of the main cast members. All well and good.
Then, finally, we get to the meat of the book: an episode-by-episode guide to the two-part miniseries and the first three seasons of the new BSG. But she isn’t simply recapping what happens in each episode; indeed, many times she gives very short shrift to what we actually saw on screen (and if you didn’t see the episode, this book is not going to go very far in telling you what you missed). Instead, she discusses the greater themes, the inner meanings, the stories behind the stories both as they relate to the mythology of Battlestar Galacitca and to our own world of the here and now. When I was in high school English classes, my biggest problem was always “what did the author mean when he wrote this? What was he trying to say?” because I always assumed the author wrote what he did in hopes of the audience liking it enough for him to be able to buy dinner and pay the rent. But Storm goes into those “what did they really mean” with a much greater clarity, far better reliance on the source material, and a much clearer explanation of what she sees behind the photons on the screen. She makes it really seem as if Ron Moore and company have planned out the entire four-season story arc, down to the minutest details, and are telling us a vast, multi-layered package of stories. I don’t know how much of what Storm found is really there to be found, but she has turned it all into a compelling read.
Storm has picked out certain facets of the series that she sees as recurring and important, including the character of Baltar, numbers, and so on. For each episode, after she lists the original air date, the writer(s) and director, and then goes through her two-page analysis of what we were supposed to take away from the hour of television watching. She follows up those discussions with several recurring sections:
a “Headcount” of how many survivors are left (based on what we see on screen)
“Are You There, God? It’s Me, Gaius” wherein she discusses the evolution of Baltar’s character from scientist through agnostic, religious zealot, prophet, and perhaps god himself
“All of This Has Happened Before” frequently refers back to mythology, but occasionally to the original series
“Numbers” discusses the important numbers in the episodes (and we see them recurring throughout the series)
“Interesting Facts” which sometimes are and sometimes aren’t
“What’s in a Name?” relating the characters names to mythology or other source material
“Did You Notice?” for the “a-ha!” features of the episodes you may have missed
“Classic Battlestar Galactica” when the episode really is a retread or a reimagining
“So Say We All” which is usually a quote from an episode to sum it all up
This book reads like source material for a thesis on how BSG and the tales of the apocalypse come into being, but if you’re a truly devoted fan of the series, this book will give you an extra dimension to think about while you’re waiting for the next episode to air.