Sci Fi Saturday: Watchmen and Battlestar Galactica

Today I saw both the Watchmen movie and the final episode of Battlestar Galactica. Both were amazing, well done, noteworthy in their own ways.

A lot of my friends had read the Watchmen graphic novel when we were in college. For a literature class. Cool, no? I remember them being fascinated by it, but I never read it myself. Today I went with a couple of them to see the movie, and I really liked it.

While its 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sure didn’t seem like it was that long. I really liked the interaction of the characters, and the overarching idea of what people will do to obtain world Peace. Does the end justify the means? If we really had enough resources, would wars stop?

Then when I got home, I watched the final episode of BSG. I’ve been a fan since the mini-series, and I have to say it is one of the finest shows I’ve ever seen. The show also left us with a lot to think about on Peace.

I was especially struck by the themes around Hera, who is the daughter of a human father and cylon mother. Both humans and cylon insist that Hera is the key to their future, and in the last episode a unified team of humans and cylons go to rescue Hera from a cylon ship. The imagery around this is lovely; its reminiscent of the Good Shepherd. The effort of a group to save their future, to keep looking for hope and love in the face of adversity, all of it is breath taking.

And strangely, both stories leave us with the notion that “Nothing ever ends” and that cycles are more or less pre-determined to repeat themselves. Interesting fodder.