And Now. . . Another Geeky Post About TV

See if this sounds like a familiar scenario to you: Important presidential election on the horizon. At least one of the candidates believes he is being guided by a higher power and, indeed, believes that higher power will take steps to insure his victory. There is a controversy over the electoral ballots and the election is thrown. Many people feel that one of the candidates is the worst possible person to lead. This person is elected. Shortly thereafter, a massive explosion kills thousands of people, persuading the newly-elected president to rush his plans for leading his people down a hopelessly misguided path.

Jump ahead about a year. The military has abandoned the president. The president has become a narcissistic asshole who lets his staff do the important work for him. The labor unions are disgruntled, but largely powerless. Many people are living in squalid conditions and the economy is tanked. Sounds like a great time for a full-scale attack from your enemies, who have decided that the president will most likely cave in the face of a true threat. And cave he does. The president surrenders and his nation becomes occupied.

This is the scenario of Battlestar Galactica, one of the most politically prescient shows I have ever seen. Last Friday, the finale of the second season aired, and the entire premise of the show was turned inside out. I have seen few programs with the balls to risk reinvention on such a scale. I have seen fewer programs so cleverly exploit my fears and misgivings about the current state of our republic without coming across as preachy or hoplessly partisan. Galactica is not afraid of featuring lead characters who fuck up on a massive scale or of having its lead characters face the disturbing and ugly consequences of their fuck-ups, or someone else's.

Not only did this season's finale leave me barking profanities at the television, it served the far more important purpose of showing a completely feasible consequence of our current national endeavours, one which I have had recurring nightmares about for several years now.

This nightmare scenario involves a nuclear weapon, a destroyed city, and a country returned to pre-industrialization standards. More or less the exact scenario of this TV show I have come to admire. I've had reoccuring nightmares before, though. They do not come up often, but they are usually quite persistent until some real-world event flushes them from my sub-conscious. The last two reoccuring nightmares I had involved an exploding space shuttle and airliners falling from the sky and/or crashing into the landscape. I had dreams about each of those events for months. I don't have them anymore. Now I dream about massive explosions and burning cities, at least once or twice a month.

So when I say that seeing a similar scenario acted out on Battlestar Galactica scared the bejeezus out of me, I'm not just being hyperbolic (although I think it's a great show that non-geeks could appreciate and that more people should be watching). It had the metallic taste of truth to it, like blood in the mouth. And because this is a blog read by only a handful of friends, I can risk sounding portentous when I say with only the conviction of my repeating nightmares and the images in my mind from a science-fiction program that speaks more truth to power than any cable news channel would ever dare: We are going to be hit again.