Downloading doppelgängers: New media anxieties and transnational ironies in Battlestar Galactica

This essay reads the re-made Battlestar Galactica series according to the Canadian contexts of its production and the globalised contexts of its distribution, both formal (on cable TV) and informal (on the Internet). Contextualised within the history of media imperialism in Canada, the British Columbia sets and Canadian star casting of the series ironically articulate US–Canadian border and security concerns. Battlestar Galactica focuses particular attention on new media issues at a moment when the Canadian government is responding to pressure from US entertainment interests to align its intellectual property laws with their more punitive American counterparts.