A 'Battlestar Galactica' panel discussion at the United Nations

[TechMan]

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2009/03/battlestar-galactica-united-nations.html

Originally posted: March 10, 2009
A 'Battlestar Galactica' panel discussion at the United Nations

Unlogo Over the course of its four seasons, "Battlestar Galactica" has been lauded for its nuanced portrayal of war, faith and morality. Since it debuted six years ago, the Sci Fi drama about a rag-tag space fleet has offered challenging fictional depictions of problems afflicting our planet in the here and now.

And now a discussion of how those very issues have been handled on the show will take place at the United Nations.

On March 17, there will be a "Battlestar" retrospective at the U.N. in New York and a panel discussion of how the show examined issues such as "human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faith," according to Sci Fi.

The "Battlestar" contingent on the panel will consist of executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, as well as stars Mary McDonnell (who plays president Laura Roslin on the show) and Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Adama).

UN representatives on the panel are Radhika Coomaraswamy, special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict; Craig Mokhiber, deputy director of the New York office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Robert Orr, assistant secretary-general for policy planning, executive office of the Secretary-General.

The panel will be moderated by "Battlestar" fan Whoopi Goldberg.

The invitation-only panel will take place at 7 p.m. March 17 in the U.N.'s Economic and Social Council Chamber, three days before the Sci Fi show's series finale.

UPDATE: A Sci Fi representative says that the network will record the session and a transcript will be made. "Once the content becomes available, we will let the fans know," the representative said.

For extensive coverage of the final season of "Battlestar Galactica," look here.


Why should the UN be concerned about a fictional TV show and how it relates to "human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faith,"?  Shouldn't they be doing something else useful?

[Regolith]

Why should the UN be concerned about a fictional TV show and how it relates to "human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faith,"?  Shouldn't they be doing something else useful?

It's the UN.  If they ever did anything useful, the world would come to an end out of sheer shock.

[TommyGunn]

I guess the U.N. has finally realized it can't actually do anything right in this world and are trying their hand in fantasy-land. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Felgercarb!

[HankB]

So now the UN is taking it's cues from a TV show. ** 

And it never was a particularly good TV show, with dysfunctional characters veering between sheer idiocy and outright lunacy, flavored with a little backstabbing, treason, and alcohol abuse.

And now, during its (thankfully) final season, it's deteriorated into a crappy soap opera.

I still tune in from time to time . . . ("Fast Forward" on the VCR is my friend) but only out of a morbid sense of curiosity.

Babylon 5 was far better, even if one only limited the discussion to international (interstellar?) relations.


** - other than the Three Stooges.

[MechAg94]

I agree on the characters.  Almost every one of them seems to have heavy mental issues.  It looks like they will go out with a bang though. 

I liked Babylon 5 in that it had a lot of stand alone episodes that didn't all tie together into some grand conspiracy (at least until later after I was hooked).  I'd say the same about X-files.  I never liked all the alien conspiracy stuff, but I loved the stand alone episodes.

[grampster]

Life imitates Art.

[HankB]

I liked Babylon 5 in that it had a lot of stand alone episodes that didn't all tie together into some grand conspiracy (at least until later after I was hooked). 

I DID like the consistency and continuity in B5 . . . especially when Vir got his wish regarding Mr. Morden. 

[AJ Dual]

I agree on the characters.  Almost every one of them seems to have heavy mental issues.  It looks like they will go out with a bang though. 

I liked Babylon 5 in that it had a lot of stand alone episodes that didn't all tie together into some grand conspiracy (at least until later after I was hooked).  I'd say the same about X-files.  I never liked all the alien conspiracy stuff, but I loved the stand alone episodes.

Well, I would argue that if 99% of humanity was killed, and 20-40,000-odd people shoe-horned into crumbling ships, I suspect everyone having heavy mental issues would be pretty par for the course. It's difficult to see it at the time, but the original treatment of the subject matter with lots of brown suede, page-boy haircuts and feathered bangs, the old stand-by "future-disco with light rope", the robot dog, and King Tut fighter helmets...

Well, I'll take this over the weekly visits to "The Cowboy Planet", "The Medevial Planet", etc. etc. etc. They should have just had Mr. T as a tough-talking Crew Chief, who'd roll up his eyes and go catatonic each time he had to get on a shuttle.

I do agree Babylon 5 was some of the best Sci-Fi writing in terms of plot only, to hit the small screen. However, the other cheesey elements, from acting, to the over-saturated cartoon colors, the set design etc. the direction and filmography detracted from it. I think Babylon 5 dropped into the gritty quasi-realisim of the new Battlestar Galactica would have been the best Sci-Fi show ever.

[roo_ster]

Babylon 5 was far better, even if one only limited the discussion to international (interstellar?) relations.

Amen.

[AZRedhawk44]

Well, I would argue that if 99% of humanity was killed, and 20-40,000-odd people shoe-horned into crumbling ships, I suspect everyone having heavy mental issues would be pretty par for the course. It's difficult to see it at the time, but the original treatment of the subject matter with lots of brown suede, page-boy haircuts and feathered bangs, the old stand-by "future-disco with light rope", the robot dog, and King Tut fighter helmets...

Well, I'll take this over the weekly visits to "The Cowboy Planet", "The Medevial Planet", etc. etc. etc. They should have just had Mr. T as a tough-talking Crew Chief, who'd roll up his eyes and go catatonic each time he had to get on a shuttle.

I do agree Babylon 5 was some of the best Sci-Fi writing in terms of plot only, to hit the small screen. However, the other cheesey elements, from acting, to the over-saturated cartoon colors, the set design etc. the direction and filmography detracted from it. I think Babylon 5 dropped into the gritty quasi-realisim of the new Battlestar Galactica would have been the best Sci-Fi show ever.

lolz.  I'm watching the original BSG-1978 right now, and gonna continue to the 1980 followup series... Total discolightshow with visits to various cowboy planets, goofy wizard of oz planets et cetera.  The fact they wear flight helmets and no flight suits cracks me up.  Not even a face shield, let alone a sealed pressure suit.  Just a cool suede bomber jacket and a low slung blaster a la Han Solo.

B5 was awful in regards to technicolor overimagery and CG that was too cartooney.  I couldn't get past it and bite into the story.

The UN in BSG?  Someone has to be the idiotic council of 12.  Perhaps Tom Zarick will come along and do us a final favor...

[Scout26]

Well, at least their not reviewing Zardoz.......