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  • Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica
  • Graham J. Murphy (bio)
Tiffany Potter and C.W. Marshall, eds, Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica. New York: Continuum, 2008. 278 pp. US$24.95 (pbk).

I open this review by addressing (and dispensing with) the chief problem of this collection. One of the earliest sustained anthologies analysing the revamped Battlestar Galactica (2003, 2004-9), including the three-hour mini-series, the series, the webisodes and the television movie, Battlestar Galactica: Razor (Alcalá 2007), it was published (perhaps prematurely) upon completion of the third season, and therein is the issue. As an indispensable touchstone for [End Page 127] nascent (and what promises to be ongoing) BSG studies, Cylons in America is a timely volume, but appearing before the fourth and final season, it is also a victim of its timeliness. For example, Rikk Mulligan's analysis of Admiral Cain (Michelle Forbes) and the Pegasus in 'The Cain Mutiny: Reflecting the Faces of Military Leadership in a Time of Fear' is engaging . . . but what about Admiral William Adama's (Edward James Olmos) gradual, albeit temporary, abdication of military leadership early in season four when he and President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) become lovers? And how does Felix Gaeta's (Alessandro Juliani) attempted mutiny on Galactica parallel the leadership discussion of Cain and Pegasus? Mulligan obviously could not have addressed these season four plot developments. Similarly, Carla Kungl's '"Long Live Stardoe!": Can a Female Starbuck Survive?' scrutinises the gender coding of Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), concluding that 'her early death [in season three] could mean that television is still not sure what to do with the tough girl. One hopes that this plot twist won't undermine the trail Starbuck has blazed' (209). Yes, but what are the implications of Thrace's gender coding now that she is an angel? How does this beatific revelation affect the trail she has blazed? And so on. The publication timeframe leaves valuable arguments stunted and showcases the limitations of what is otherwise a very enjoyable, informative and ambitious collection.

The central thesis Potter and Marshall offer is that BSG 'comments on contemporary culture by imagining dystopic alternatives, and by doing so it invites the viewer to interrogate notions of self, nation, and belief that are often taken to be nonnegotiable both on television and in our living rooms' (6). Cylons in America, in spite of its limitations, invites its readers to join in that interrogation of the nonnegotiable and generally succeeds in showcasing the ability of this series to provide a 'level of social commentary that cannot be achieved anywhere else on modern television' (5).

There is a workable symmetry to the collection with eighteen essays divided among three sections: Part I, 'Life in the Fleet, American Life' is organised around the premise that 'life in the fleet is a coded microcosm of the concerns and infatuations of modern America, and its influence, both domestic and abroad'; Part II, 'Cylon/Human Interface', 'extends these questions to the series' fictional universe as a whole, and shows how interrogating the Cylons helps us understand what is essential about being human'; Part III, 'Form and Content in Twenty-First-Century Television', 'broadens the perspective again, and shows how BSG raises central questions about genre, episodic television, and the role of media in popular culture' (8-9).

Although BSG is obviously the chief focus for this collection, the stronger essays typically offer a sustained attempt to move beyond BSG solipsism to [End Page 128] a broader cultural sphere. For example, Carl Silvio and Elizabeth Johnston's 'Alienation and the Limits of the Utopian Impulse' 'explores the series in terms of its ideological relationship to economics and suggests that the show foregrounds certain cultural contradictions fundamental to capitalism that may have become even more salient with the widespread recognition of global capitalism' (40). This essay is particularly effective in applying Marxist techniques to address surplus labour, market alienation and the objectification of women's bodies, issues that extend beyond BSG and prompt 'us to ask difficult questions about our relationship to capitalism, our complicity with our own and others' alienation and exploitation, and the assumptions we...

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