Why is there no race wank for BSG?

[elspethdixon]

Fandom, it seems, never gets tired of wanking about race (and is it just me, or does SGA fandom seem particularly prone to it?). It's the wank that will not die, almost as never-ending as the warnings-vs.-no-warnings debate, but with a higher potential for defriending and personal insults.

And yet... you know, though the SGA race discussions keep on coming, I have yet to see any for Battlestar Galactica, fandom's other currently popular sci-fi show.

(Obviously, I feel compelled to start wanking on race, too--it's contagious, kind of like the plague).

I'll be fair, and admit up front that I don't like and don't watch New BSG--mostly because back when it first came on, I heard one too many people going on about how it "wasn't really sci-fi" because it was "serious drama," which filled me with an irrational resentment. Also, remakes that aren't a loving homage to the spirit of the original generally don't do much for me, especially if I happen to have fond feelings towards characters from the original version.

That said, many other people in fandom and on my flist like and watch it, and produce meta about it: meta on the gender implications of someone named Kara, meta on the ethical implications of humans trying to wipe out Cylons, meta on whether Roslin was justified in shoving Girl!Cylon!Boomer out the airlock... and yet I haven't seen any race meta for it yet. Which is curious, because I've been expecting for a while now to see someone bring up the fact that most of New BSG's cast, and all of their non-Cylon main characters, are white.

To be fair, I didn't notice the all-white-ness either, until seanchai pulled up the imdb page on it in an attempt to find out who the hell this Kara person people on lj kept talking about was (she's apparently someone pretending to be Starbuck, just as "Lee Adama" is Lt. Kennedy pretending to be Apollo) and said, "Hey, where did the black actors go? Is it just me, or did this show have a lot more diversity in the cast back during the '70s?"

"Good point," I said. "Why is Admiral Tigh white now? And where did Boomer go?"

"Oh," she said, "Boomer turned into an Asian woman who was secretly an evil robot."

"The robots aren't all clunky and silver anymore?"

"No," she said. "Now all the Cylons now look like hot women."

And we rolled our eyes and returned to watching downloads of original BSG, because it is full of glorious space-opera cheesiness, and entertainly bad late-70s hair.

Obviously, I'm not qualified to do serious meta on the new show, but it seems to me that someone who actually watches it could write something interesting about the implications of Boomer's transition from black, male pilot to female, Asian (Evil!Robot) pilot, about Tigh's transition from competant (black) admiral to apparently evil (white) colonel, and about the fact that the writers chose to cut Sheba (the female pilot who serves as Apollo's love interest in the original) and replace Starbuck with... a female pilot who could be a love interest for Apollo (so, what was wrong with the one they already had?).

After all, people meta on SGA, which is basically fluff posing as military sci-fi, and New BSG, from what I hear, is actually trying to be a serious show.

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, honestly I think that most of new BSG fandom isn't particularly familiar with the original series. I bet if you polled the majority of fans they wouldn't be able to tell you that Tigh and Boomer were originally black men. Also:

Tigh's transition from competant (black) admiral to apparently evil (white) colonel,

Tigh may be evil in the same mentality that has Tony Stark up for "best comics villain" in some poll I just saw. I'm willing to bet if you watched the show, he'd be your favorite (except maybe Tom Zarek -- *points to icon*, fans self with Richard Hatch love)

and about the fact that the writers chose to cut Sheba (the female pilot who serves as Apollo's love interest in the original) and replace Starbuck with... a female pilot who could be a love interest for Apollo (so, what was wrong with the one they already had?)

Most fans (or, cough, most people who watch the show for the stories and not for their beloved ship) will tell that Starbuck and Apollo are far more compelling when NOT framed as each other's love interests. In fact, Apollo had his first major romance -- and current marriage --with a different (and, incidentally, non-white) character. Seeing Starbuck as primarily "Apollo's love interest" seems to be baggage that fandom brought to the show but not part of the show itself from the beginning. Kara is actually introduced as the former fiancee of his dead brother, which (if fandom wasn't crazy) one would think would actually mitigate against shipping them.

The race wank definitely HAS happened in BSG, though -- it just mostly happened in 2003 when the show was initially cast. If the wank is not going on now, it's because (a) it's been gone over before and (b) there have been a lot of recent developments in that fandom that are keeping people busy.

I would agree that the casting of major roles, as with almost all television shows (is there a current exception besides Grey's Anatomy?) could be more diverse. (Though Edward James Olmos is so heavily identified as a Latino actor -- even while not playing a Latino character -- that it's hard to view even the major cast as lily-white).

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

See, this is what I get for not, you know, actually ever having watched an episode of the show ^_~. My knowledge of New BSG is based entirely upon the titles and blurbs of stuff that shows up on metafandom, plus the odd bit of semi-coherant rant or squee. (Kind of like basing one's knowledge of comics off s_d and the meta titles on comicstore_news--I should ahve known better).

The "Not really sci-fi 'cause it's good" attitude I saw in a couple of places in the mainstream press, plus the fact that Original!Starbuck was my favorite character (from old BSG re-runs), has, as I said, poisoned me against it sight-unseen. I watched the old show for the buddy vibe between Apollo and Starbuck, and so that I could drool over Starbuck in his flight uniform--and I have a much harder time drooling over female military pilots because my sister is one.

I'm glad to hear that they kept Apollo's marriage in the plot (is the kid still around, too?).

The race wank definitely HAS happened in BSG, though -- it just mostly happened in 2003 when the show was initially cast.

My faith in fandom's ability to deconstruct absolutely everything ever looking for implicit or explicit racism is restored.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

You know, we all do that sometimes, just because fannish space is so BIG, there's no way to follow everything. I often go out of my way to form irrational judgments about fandom just so I don't have to bother to keep up with them!

Anyway, I assure you that BSG does not lack for male OR female eye candy (steers you to hotcupofanders, for starters). And Apollo's love live is. . .complicated, to say the least. And usually the least interesting part of his character, just as the quasi-sibling rivals relationship between Apollo and Starbuck is more interesting than their occasional flirtation.

As for the racial changes in the original characters, I do think it's kind of tricky -- if they had kept Tigh as African-American and made him the darker character he is in the new series, you would have gotten "the black guy is a drunk!"; if they had kept his race and made him a purely virtuous character, he would have been accused of being a "Magical black person" -- etc, etc. Fandom needs to breathe sometimes.

And partly because I'm pimping this left and white, but also because it's a great introduction to Kara-as-a-character, and because it's about the joy and pain of reading comics, I need to rec Hellfire, which is a BSG/Xmen crossover, of sorts.
And just because (http://community.livejournal.com/summers_fling/4753.html)

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

*goes. reads* On evaluation--still not as much fun as real Starbuck, but at least she still has a Childhood of Victorian Angst (tm), and the pretending-to-be-Cyclops was a really nice touch.

And the re-working of the X-Men into Kobolian terms was awesome! (also, mention of the shrimp boat!) Though for the life of me, I couldn't figure out who Shade was, which makes me feel stupid, since I know I ought to know.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I *think* that Shade is meant to be Kitty Pryde (for the walking through things, and also Shade = Shadowcat) with a touch of Nightcrawler (strange appearance), but I haven't asked the author.

I didn't know that original-Starbuck had the victorian angst childhood going too, so that's an interesting parallel between the series. I've honestly only seen enough of the original show to know (a) there's lots of weird subtext and (b) I want to eat young Richard Hatch with a spoon. Not that, you know, Starbuck ISN'T cool. But I still think Apollo's prettier, and am pre-disposed to like RH because of his (decidedly unpretty) role on the new series.

Nothing is awesomer than the shrimp boat, nothing ever.

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

He was the only survivor of a Cylon attack, and had no memory of his parents or anything that happened to him before the age of about four, including his real name--"Starbuck" was the name of the officer who led the rescue mission.

He was then raised in an orphanage, and nobody ever loved him until he met Apollo and his family. Classic Victorian waif angst.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

o-O

That is fantastic backstory. And yet another 'verse in which to ship Cyclops/Starbuck, as they could clearly have orphan-emo together.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I'm pimping this left and white

*rereads what I wrote. blinks*

I have no words; don't know where my brain was!