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By Your Command
By Your Command Vol 1: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Battlestar Galactica Original Series
‘The opposite of war isn’t always peace…’
Battlestar Galactica was one of the most impressive American telefantasy series of the 1970s, facing down competition from the Star Wars franchise and antipathy from its own network to gain high ratings, a devoted fan following and a spin-off commissioned less than a year after the original had ended.
In this book, Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore use behind- the-scenes material and in-depth analyses of both screened episodes and unmade stories to explore how Battlestar Galactica interwove relevant political and religious themes into the traditional space-opera format to produce a television programme that is never less than entertaining and frequently thought-provoking. Like the reimagined series it inspired, the original Battlestar Galactica poses difficult questions about the legitimacy of war, the value of love, the perils of leadership and, ultimately, what it means to be human.
276 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 5, 2015
21 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Alan Stevens
18 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Alan Stevens is a British writer and producer who is based in the Southeast of England, where he runs his own audio production company, Magic Bullet Productions.
Stevens has produced a number of documentaries, serials and dramas for radio and independent audio release, including the Blake's 7/Doctor Who' spinoff series Kaldor City and the second Faction Paradox audio series, and has co-written two guidebooks for Telos Publishing, Liberation: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Blake's 7 and Fall Out: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner, with Fiona Moore. He writes articles for Celestial Toyroom, the magazine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, and has written in the past for Doctor Who Magazine and DWB.
Alan Stevens is a British writer and producer who is based in the Southeast of England, where he runs his own audio production company, Magic Bullet Productions.
Stevens has produced a number of documentaries, serials and dramas for radio and independent audio release, including the Blake's 7/Doctor Who' spinoff series Kaldor City and the second Faction Paradox audio series, and has co-written two guidebooks for Telos Publishing, Liberation: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Blake's 7 and Fall Out: the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner, with Fiona Moore. He writes articles for Celestial Toyroom, the magazine of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, and has written in the past for Doctor Who Magazine and DWB.
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April 27, 2017
Please allow me to preface my review of this book by freely admitting from the get go that I have been thoroughly enamored with Battlestar Galactica since my then eleven year old eyes first beheld its spectacular glory on that now legendary, mist and nostalgia enshrouded Sunday evening of September 17th, 1978. I have been a HUGE fan of the show ever since, so as one might imagine, I was really, really looking forward to reading this "Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide." Unfortunately however, although I did enjoy some aspects of the book, the experience really has left me with a decidedly bad taste in my mouth. Explaining just exactly why that is in a normally brief book review format has truly proved to be quite a challenge (given how truly exasperating I found this book to be in at least one respect), so be forewarned that the following review is almost certainly my longest to date.
To be fair, however, for the most part, 'By Your Command' is a very interesting and entertaining book. After all, it contains a good deal of more or less relevant and reasonably well researched analysis of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series (and its short-lived followup "train wreck" of a sequel show, Galactica: 1980), plus lots and lots of delectable tidbits of information about each and every individual classic episode. Even more fascinating are the chapters that summarize scripts that were never actually filmed. Yet aside from the well written (but also quite brief) forward by iconic Battlestar Galactica alumni Richard Hatch, this first volume in a two part series unfortunately does not offer much in the way of interviews with the original cast and crew of the show.
Instead, what we actually end up getting is an often startlingly biased and clearly nationalistic personal analysis of the original Galactica saga, and from what one might very well call a decidedly Anglocentric point of view, no less. For yes, curiously enough, authors Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore seem to have deemed it appropriate (or at the very least, in some way relevant) to repeatedly point out, again and again AND again, which totally fictional characters in the classic American science fiction TV saga speak with a British (or otherwise affected English or Mid-Atlantic) accent.
And speaking with an English accent (something that is actually, more often than not, considered a mark of high culture, good education, and superior intelligence in the United States) is apparently not supposed to be a good thing in this particular case; given that the authors seem to think that most of the Battlestar Galactica characters that emote with a British or non-North American accent are either not particularly likable, "weak," duplicitous, or are downright villainous - as clearly indicated by the following quote taken directly from the book:
"The Planner who actually speaks during the cut sequence where Apollo seeks their help appears to be trying to affect an English accent, in keeping with the trend in the series to use British accents as a sign of treacherousness or at least corruption (for instance casting Ray Milland as Sire Uri and Patrick Macnee as the voice of the Imperious Leader, and having Jonathan Harris voice Lucifer with an English accent)."
Hmm. And here I thought that that was just the way American actor Jonathan Harris spoke in pretty much every part he ever played! Sure, he often came across as being quite irascible and even snooty, especially when playing the infamous Dr. Smith in Lost in Space, but that certainly didn't stop him from becoming an extremely popular character during the original run of the classic Irwin Allen series (and to such a degree that his notoriety quickly eclipsed that of intended series star, Guy Williams, aka family patriarch John Robinson).
Nor did the way Mr. Harris spoke stop him from becoming one of my all time favorite boyhood heroes. Yes, HEROES. As a result, I was absolutely thrilled when that familiar and wonderfully evocative voice showed up as the Cylon character Lucifer in Battlestar Galactica. And what about Alec Guinness's Ben Kenobi? Speaking with a distinctly English accent never stopped him from being a major hero of the Star Wars saga. Even and especially when the younger version of the character was eventually played by Scottish actor, Ewan McGregor.
What's more, my absolute favorite actor from the 1970s was Englishman Roddy McDowall, who played four different major protagonists in the Planet of the Apes films and television series. Being of primarily British (Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English, and even German) American heritage myself, as a kid, I learned to not only admire and emulate Mr. McDowall's accent, but I was often told that I seriously reminded people of the man himself! Back then, it was usually some woman in her twenties or thirties (thus, older than I was, who had obviously once had a major childhood crush on McDowall) who would come up and say, "You probably don't even know who he is, but you remind me so much of a young Roddy McDowall."
Oh, believe me, I knew. I sincerely and totally, 1000% knew. And if I ever did speak with something even vaguely similar to a Mid-Atlantic accent, I most likely came by it quite honestly, via my mother's British American side of the family. My grandfather on the maternal side spoke with a mild Scottish brogue, and my mother still gets accused of having a "British accent" every now then. But that's probably because my family were eastern American transplants to the Southern accent speaking Midwest, where I grew up. In any case, Roddy McDowall, despite his English (or Mid-Atlantic) accent often played good guy characters in American cinema, and given that he was THE preeminent hero of the Planet of the Apes saga, I really cannot say that I find the authors' views about the portrayal of the British accent in Battlestar Galactica to hold much water at all, whatsoever.
And come on, dear friends from across ye old pond, Americans really do speak with a number of different accents, you know! Just like how our closely related brethren in the British Isles tend to pronounce English in a variety of different ways. And Americans who live in northern states, such as Wisconsin, often sound pretty similar to Canadians! What's more, beyond the often stereotyped (and much maligned) accent often heard in our southern states, some Americans actually still do speak in various forms of what is usually referred to as a "Mid-Atlantic" dialect. Heck, George Washington, the father of our country himself (AND most of our founding fathers, who were predominantly either English or Scottish), most likely spoke that way too. And uh... psst! We still like all of those old, predominantly British white guys a lot, you know. A whole lot, in fact.
But to get back to the actual review, I'd say that 'By Your Command' is still a book worth reading. In fact, all I'm really unfortunately having to say is that if you're a British national, you'll most likely enjoy reading it a whole lot more than say, one of us "yanks." Despite the clear and all too present Anglocentric bias throughout, the writers are, in most respects, more than competent in their craft. I just think that they get unnecessarily sidelined, nay... PREOCCUPIED with this whole English accent issue for their own damn good, and much is the pity. Especially since they are much more charitable about many aspects of the original Battlestar Galactica series than many folks who, over the years, have curiously labeled some of the episodes "sexist." Or... whatever other ever-popular, shaming "ist" labels happen to be spreading like the plague within various societal circles these days.
Okay, there are probably a few too many run on sentences in the book, and not much in the way of badly needed paragraph breaks, unfortunately, but on the plus side, there really aren't all that many typos to contend with. And thank the Lords of Kobol for that, eh? But then again... if I were prolific Australian musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and author Rick Springfield, I might just be inclined to disagree, given the fact that he is credited in 'By Your Command' as "Rock Springfield." Which may actually be just a wee bit of an all too amusing Freudian slip. Or maybe it's just what he would have been called if he'd appeared in the Flintstones cartoon series!
So if you love the classic original Battlestar Galactica TV series, by all means, read the book! I mean, in Western (mostly Anglo American) society everybody is definitely entitled to their own opinion, right? No matter how truly biased, ethnocentric, or obliviously obsessive that opinion may in fact be. After all, it's THEIR book, and their own damn personal perspective. But then again, all this complaining about who should or shouldn't have been using an English accent in the original Battlestar Galactica series (talk about "whinging"), is something that might be pretty easy to overlook, if... it was only mentioned once or twice. That unfortunately is not the case in this particular book that's supposed to be about Battlestar Galactica. Oh no. Uh-uh. Nope.
Also of particular note is the fact that one of the 'good guys,' John (played by Edward Mulhare), who's actually the classic BSG Universe's version of a guiding, sympathetic angel (much like Clarence in the classic Christmas movie, 'It's a Wonderful Life'), actually does speak with a British accent. John is of course one of the main protagonists of the episode 'Experiment in Terra,' but even though he is very much a likable character that speaks with a pronounced English accent, this is, curiously enough, summarily dismissed by the authors, because the actor who played the part was actually Irish....
Hmm. And yet, these same authors, the notably English Mr. Stevens, and his frequent writing partner Ms. Moore (a Canadian who just happens to reside in "dear old Blighty") feel it somehow necessary to harshly criticize the "Irish" accents used by the prison population of the planetoid Proteus (seen in the episode, 'The Long Patrol'). In fact, the authors quite scathingly judge the use of something admittedly pretty close to a classic Gallic accent as being "heavy-handed" and "highly defamatory to the Irish and all their various cultural, social and political achievements."
Well, I guess things "across the pond" really have changed quite a bit since "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century, have they not! Naturally, the authors do not mention the "guerrilla" or "low-level war" that raged between the Irish and the British government up until very recently in their analysis of the original run of Battlestar Galactica. And again, we really must thank the Lords of Kobol for that, must we not?
And here I thought I was shelling out my hard earned cash to read a book that was merely meant to examine my all time favorite science fiction/fantasy TV series from the late 1970s. "Au contraire!" to quote the French. If I may, that is. In any case, the authors of 'By Your Command' also frequently use shamelessly political terms to describe the original Battlestar Galactica series, such as "right wing" and "neoconservative." They even go so far as to compare Commander Cain, "The Living Legend" (an overwhelmingly popular character in the BSG universe, played to perfection by Lloyd Bridges), to former U.S. President George W. Bush, accusing the fictional Cain of being a "folksy" sort of guy who frequently tries to "cover up underlying problems with bluff charm."
Whoa....
Anyway... aside from the seemingly never ending running commentary about which original series characters speak with a genuine (or affected) English accent (and what this may or may not actually mean from a casting standpoint), the authors also seem to have been more than a little preoccupied with why certain not so nice or particularly likable Galactica denizens (aka "Galacticans") were dressed in white. Crikey, people! Who the heck knows? Maybe we should ask the French guy, the marvelously talented Jean-Pierre Dorléac, who designed most of the original BSG universe costumes! But then, why DO the villainous Stormtrooper henchman of the Star Wars saga wear white armor? And does that also mean that Luke Skywalker (whose Tattooine "farm boy" outfit was predominantly white in the first film) and his white clad, royal sister, Princess Leia were also not really the goody two-space boots type of heroes they were cracked up to be?
My God! Could the entire Battlestar Galactica franchise REALLY be part of a gigantic American conspiracy to defame the poor, ever-disrespected British? Hmm. Well, I don't think anybody in the United States has actually burned the King or Queen of England in effigy since the War of 1812 (or thereabouts), but one really never knows, of course. I suppose there might be somebody somewhere in a big country like America (with our population of 318.9 million) who presumably has nothing better to do than sit around and poke pins into a Voodoo doll of Queen Elizabeth. Somehow I doubt it though, given that the world's most famous monarch recently celebrated her 90th birthday! Yet I hear that, by comparison, poor Guy Fawkes ain't had a single yearly break for quite a few centuries running now. Hmm.
One way or another, I certainly hope that, despite the perceived Hollywood iniquities of us darned Americans, all us native English speakers of the world at large are still on relatively good terms. Especially since I'm also a major Doctor Who fan. And incidentally, Tom Baker's 4th Doctor (to whom I, like millions of other American kids, was first introduced to back in the 1970s, when the show was repeatedly run on PBS, along with lots and lots and LOTS of other quality BBC programming), was yet another one of my boyhood heroes who just happened to be very, very BRITISH. Or need I mention James Bond, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes (and quite a few others that really are too numerous to mention here) who have always sounded just fine speaking with a proper English accent. Even the actors who've played Doctor Who down through the years who were actually Scottish or Irish, no less!
Hmm.
But you know what? Call me a party pooping conspiracy theory dasher, but I sincerely do not give a big flying CRAP who speaks with whatever accent in English language cinema! Nor do I particularly care why they predominantly wear this, that, or some other chroma, hue, or shade of whatever freaking color! And I honestly doubt that most fans of any of the various incarnations of Battlestar Galactica care all that much either.
Oh yes. I said it. So feel free to go back up and read it again, people! Will has spoken. 'Cause it's my review, see. Just like it's their overly dramatized opinion in their own damn book. So there!
So yeah, in the final analysis, all this fretting about who does or doesn't speak with a proper English accent just seems like an ego driven personal problem to me. "Much ado about nothing," indeed. Now, granted, all this hyper-consciousness about how the British may or may not be portrayed in classic Battlestar Galactica (a story that is actually supposed to take place in a galaxy, "far, far across the universe"), and what color their clothes are, probably really is important to some folks, but seriously now, why get so damn hung up on stuff like that? Unless... one happens to have some sort of needlessly prideful or nationalistic personal agenda, of course.
What's more, in a day and age when highly successful TV shows like Rome, Game of Thrones (a show chock full of actors who speak with British accents, even though the author of the book series it's based on is American!), Spartacus (which takes place in Ancient Rome, when as yet to be founded "Londinium," England was little more than a back water province of the Roman Empire), and a whole slew of other popular programs that feature entire casts of actors that almost exclusively speak with some form of British accent, one would think that this entire topic is not only pathetically pedantic, but in this day and age (when English, in all its variously accented forms, is ever increasingly a global language), it really ought to be totally and completely FREAKING IRRELEVANT.
And seriously, what does speaking with an English or Mid-Atlantic accent really, honestly have to do with a classic American TV show like Battlestar Galactica? Probably not a whole helluva a lot, in the final analysis. But don't tell the authors of 'By Your Command' that. We wouldn't want them to think that this clearly nationalistic obsession with such things might just make their book any less entertaining or viable, now would we? Lastly, I really must say that, despite being a pesky "yank," I really, sincerely and truly do like the United Kingdom and all the common wealth countries. Always have. Always will. And believe me, most of my fellow countrymen feel pretty much the same. And Battlestar Galactica... I still love that too! So PLEASE, don't spoil my enthusiasm for the British or my all time favorite sci-fi series with all this damnable "whinging" about accents. Pretty please. With sugar on top. Or in your tea, if that'd make ya happy.
Bottom line: Doctor Who and Red Dwarf (among others) weren't created with an American audience in mind, so I really don't see why Battlestar Galactica (a product of the late 1970s), or ANY other from of American pop culture entertainment, should be expected to cater to any excessively prideful, easily offended, or decidedly ethnocentric audience outside of North America. So watch or don't watch. Like or don't like, but shut the hell up, so you don't spoil it for anybody else. After all, if I wrote a book listing all the sh*t I've seen in Doctor Who over the years that seemed even a just a tad irreverent or critical of America or Americans in general, it would most likely be a relatively long volume. Good thing I don't believe in getting all nationalistic and just plain snide towards compatriots and fellow English speakers like that though.
To be fair, however, for the most part, 'By Your Command' is a very interesting and entertaining book. After all, it contains a good deal of more or less relevant and reasonably well researched analysis of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series (and its short-lived followup "train wreck" of a sequel show, Galactica: 1980), plus lots and lots of delectable tidbits of information about each and every individual classic episode. Even more fascinating are the chapters that summarize scripts that were never actually filmed. Yet aside from the well written (but also quite brief) forward by iconic Battlestar Galactica alumni Richard Hatch, this first volume in a two part series unfortunately does not offer much in the way of interviews with the original cast and crew of the show.
Instead, what we actually end up getting is an often startlingly biased and clearly nationalistic personal analysis of the original Galactica saga, and from what one might very well call a decidedly Anglocentric point of view, no less. For yes, curiously enough, authors Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore seem to have deemed it appropriate (or at the very least, in some way relevant) to repeatedly point out, again and again AND again, which totally fictional characters in the classic American science fiction TV saga speak with a British (or otherwise affected English or Mid-Atlantic) accent.
And speaking with an English accent (something that is actually, more often than not, considered a mark of high culture, good education, and superior intelligence in the United States) is apparently not supposed to be a good thing in this particular case; given that the authors seem to think that most of the Battlestar Galactica characters that emote with a British or non-North American accent are either not particularly likable, "weak," duplicitous, or are downright villainous - as clearly indicated by the following quote taken directly from the book:
"The Planner who actually speaks during the cut sequence where Apollo seeks their help appears to be trying to affect an English accent, in keeping with the trend in the series to use British accents as a sign of treacherousness or at least corruption (for instance casting Ray Milland as Sire Uri and Patrick Macnee as the voice of the Imperious Leader, and having Jonathan Harris voice Lucifer with an English accent)."
Hmm. And here I thought that that was just the way American actor Jonathan Harris spoke in pretty much every part he ever played! Sure, he often came across as being quite irascible and even snooty, especially when playing the infamous Dr. Smith in Lost in Space, but that certainly didn't stop him from becoming an extremely popular character during the original run of the classic Irwin Allen series (and to such a degree that his notoriety quickly eclipsed that of intended series star, Guy Williams, aka family patriarch John Robinson).
Nor did the way Mr. Harris spoke stop him from becoming one of my all time favorite boyhood heroes. Yes, HEROES. As a result, I was absolutely thrilled when that familiar and wonderfully evocative voice showed up as the Cylon character Lucifer in Battlestar Galactica. And what about Alec Guinness's Ben Kenobi? Speaking with a distinctly English accent never stopped him from being a major hero of the Star Wars saga. Even and especially when the younger version of the character was eventually played by Scottish actor, Ewan McGregor.
What's more, my absolute favorite actor from the 1970s was Englishman Roddy McDowall, who played four different major protagonists in the Planet of the Apes films and television series. Being of primarily British (Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English, and even German) American heritage myself, as a kid, I learned to not only admire and emulate Mr. McDowall's accent, but I was often told that I seriously reminded people of the man himself! Back then, it was usually some woman in her twenties or thirties (thus, older than I was, who had obviously once had a major childhood crush on McDowall) who would come up and say, "You probably don't even know who he is, but you remind me so much of a young Roddy McDowall."
Oh, believe me, I knew. I sincerely and totally, 1000% knew. And if I ever did speak with something even vaguely similar to a Mid-Atlantic accent, I most likely came by it quite honestly, via my mother's British American side of the family. My grandfather on the maternal side spoke with a mild Scottish brogue, and my mother still gets accused of having a "British accent" every now then. But that's probably because my family were eastern American transplants to the Southern accent speaking Midwest, where I grew up. In any case, Roddy McDowall, despite his English (or Mid-Atlantic) accent often played good guy characters in American cinema, and given that he was THE preeminent hero of the Planet of the Apes saga, I really cannot say that I find the authors' views about the portrayal of the British accent in Battlestar Galactica to hold much water at all, whatsoever.
And come on, dear friends from across ye old pond, Americans really do speak with a number of different accents, you know! Just like how our closely related brethren in the British Isles tend to pronounce English in a variety of different ways. And Americans who live in northern states, such as Wisconsin, often sound pretty similar to Canadians! What's more, beyond the often stereotyped (and much maligned) accent often heard in our southern states, some Americans actually still do speak in various forms of what is usually referred to as a "Mid-Atlantic" dialect. Heck, George Washington, the father of our country himself (AND most of our founding fathers, who were predominantly either English or Scottish), most likely spoke that way too. And uh... psst! We still like all of those old, predominantly British white guys a lot, you know. A whole lot, in fact.
But to get back to the actual review, I'd say that 'By Your Command' is still a book worth reading. In fact, all I'm really unfortunately having to say is that if you're a British national, you'll most likely enjoy reading it a whole lot more than say, one of us "yanks." Despite the clear and all too present Anglocentric bias throughout, the writers are, in most respects, more than competent in their craft. I just think that they get unnecessarily sidelined, nay... PREOCCUPIED with this whole English accent issue for their own damn good, and much is the pity. Especially since they are much more charitable about many aspects of the original Battlestar Galactica series than many folks who, over the years, have curiously labeled some of the episodes "sexist." Or... whatever other ever-popular, shaming "ist" labels happen to be spreading like the plague within various societal circles these days.
Okay, there are probably a few too many run on sentences in the book, and not much in the way of badly needed paragraph breaks, unfortunately, but on the plus side, there really aren't all that many typos to contend with. And thank the Lords of Kobol for that, eh? But then again... if I were prolific Australian musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and author Rick Springfield, I might just be inclined to disagree, given the fact that he is credited in 'By Your Command' as "Rock Springfield." Which may actually be just a wee bit of an all too amusing Freudian slip. Or maybe it's just what he would have been called if he'd appeared in the Flintstones cartoon series!
So if you love the classic original Battlestar Galactica TV series, by all means, read the book! I mean, in Western (mostly Anglo American) society everybody is definitely entitled to their own opinion, right? No matter how truly biased, ethnocentric, or obliviously obsessive that opinion may in fact be. After all, it's THEIR book, and their own damn personal perspective. But then again, all this complaining about who should or shouldn't have been using an English accent in the original Battlestar Galactica series (talk about "whinging"), is something that might be pretty easy to overlook, if... it was only mentioned once or twice. That unfortunately is not the case in this particular book that's supposed to be about Battlestar Galactica. Oh no. Uh-uh. Nope.
Also of particular note is the fact that one of the 'good guys,' John (played by Edward Mulhare), who's actually the classic BSG Universe's version of a guiding, sympathetic angel (much like Clarence in the classic Christmas movie, 'It's a Wonderful Life'), actually does speak with a British accent. John is of course one of the main protagonists of the episode 'Experiment in Terra,' but even though he is very much a likable character that speaks with a pronounced English accent, this is, curiously enough, summarily dismissed by the authors, because the actor who played the part was actually Irish....
Hmm. And yet, these same authors, the notably English Mr. Stevens, and his frequent writing partner Ms. Moore (a Canadian who just happens to reside in "dear old Blighty") feel it somehow necessary to harshly criticize the "Irish" accents used by the prison population of the planetoid Proteus (seen in the episode, 'The Long Patrol'). In fact, the authors quite scathingly judge the use of something admittedly pretty close to a classic Gallic accent as being "heavy-handed" and "highly defamatory to the Irish and all their various cultural, social and political achievements."
Well, I guess things "across the pond" really have changed quite a bit since "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century, have they not! Naturally, the authors do not mention the "guerrilla" or "low-level war" that raged between the Irish and the British government up until very recently in their analysis of the original run of Battlestar Galactica. And again, we really must thank the Lords of Kobol for that, must we not?
And here I thought I was shelling out my hard earned cash to read a book that was merely meant to examine my all time favorite science fiction/fantasy TV series from the late 1970s. "Au contraire!" to quote the French. If I may, that is. In any case, the authors of 'By Your Command' also frequently use shamelessly political terms to describe the original Battlestar Galactica series, such as "right wing" and "neoconservative." They even go so far as to compare Commander Cain, "The Living Legend" (an overwhelmingly popular character in the BSG universe, played to perfection by Lloyd Bridges), to former U.S. President George W. Bush, accusing the fictional Cain of being a "folksy" sort of guy who frequently tries to "cover up underlying problems with bluff charm."
Whoa....
Anyway... aside from the seemingly never ending running commentary about which original series characters speak with a genuine (or affected) English accent (and what this may or may not actually mean from a casting standpoint), the authors also seem to have been more than a little preoccupied with why certain not so nice or particularly likable Galactica denizens (aka "Galacticans") were dressed in white. Crikey, people! Who the heck knows? Maybe we should ask the French guy, the marvelously talented Jean-Pierre Dorléac, who designed most of the original BSG universe costumes! But then, why DO the villainous Stormtrooper henchman of the Star Wars saga wear white armor? And does that also mean that Luke Skywalker (whose Tattooine "farm boy" outfit was predominantly white in the first film) and his white clad, royal sister, Princess Leia were also not really the goody two-space boots type of heroes they were cracked up to be?
My God! Could the entire Battlestar Galactica franchise REALLY be part of a gigantic American conspiracy to defame the poor, ever-disrespected British? Hmm. Well, I don't think anybody in the United States has actually burned the King or Queen of England in effigy since the War of 1812 (or thereabouts), but one really never knows, of course. I suppose there might be somebody somewhere in a big country like America (with our population of 318.9 million) who presumably has nothing better to do than sit around and poke pins into a Voodoo doll of Queen Elizabeth. Somehow I doubt it though, given that the world's most famous monarch recently celebrated her 90th birthday! Yet I hear that, by comparison, poor Guy Fawkes ain't had a single yearly break for quite a few centuries running now. Hmm.
One way or another, I certainly hope that, despite the perceived Hollywood iniquities of us darned Americans, all us native English speakers of the world at large are still on relatively good terms. Especially since I'm also a major Doctor Who fan. And incidentally, Tom Baker's 4th Doctor (to whom I, like millions of other American kids, was first introduced to back in the 1970s, when the show was repeatedly run on PBS, along with lots and lots and LOTS of other quality BBC programming), was yet another one of my boyhood heroes who just happened to be very, very BRITISH. Or need I mention James Bond, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes (and quite a few others that really are too numerous to mention here) who have always sounded just fine speaking with a proper English accent. Even the actors who've played Doctor Who down through the years who were actually Scottish or Irish, no less!
Hmm.
But you know what? Call me a party pooping conspiracy theory dasher, but I sincerely do not give a big flying CRAP who speaks with whatever accent in English language cinema! Nor do I particularly care why they predominantly wear this, that, or some other chroma, hue, or shade of whatever freaking color! And I honestly doubt that most fans of any of the various incarnations of Battlestar Galactica care all that much either.
Oh yes. I said it. So feel free to go back up and read it again, people! Will has spoken. 'Cause it's my review, see. Just like it's their overly dramatized opinion in their own damn book. So there!
So yeah, in the final analysis, all this fretting about who does or doesn't speak with a proper English accent just seems like an ego driven personal problem to me. "Much ado about nothing," indeed. Now, granted, all this hyper-consciousness about how the British may or may not be portrayed in classic Battlestar Galactica (a story that is actually supposed to take place in a galaxy, "far, far across the universe"), and what color their clothes are, probably really is important to some folks, but seriously now, why get so damn hung up on stuff like that? Unless... one happens to have some sort of needlessly prideful or nationalistic personal agenda, of course.
What's more, in a day and age when highly successful TV shows like Rome, Game of Thrones (a show chock full of actors who speak with British accents, even though the author of the book series it's based on is American!), Spartacus (which takes place in Ancient Rome, when as yet to be founded "Londinium," England was little more than a back water province of the Roman Empire), and a whole slew of other popular programs that feature entire casts of actors that almost exclusively speak with some form of British accent, one would think that this entire topic is not only pathetically pedantic, but in this day and age (when English, in all its variously accented forms, is ever increasingly a global language), it really ought to be totally and completely FREAKING IRRELEVANT.
And seriously, what does speaking with an English or Mid-Atlantic accent really, honestly have to do with a classic American TV show like Battlestar Galactica? Probably not a whole helluva a lot, in the final analysis. But don't tell the authors of 'By Your Command' that. We wouldn't want them to think that this clearly nationalistic obsession with such things might just make their book any less entertaining or viable, now would we? Lastly, I really must say that, despite being a pesky "yank," I really, sincerely and truly do like the United Kingdom and all the common wealth countries. Always have. Always will. And believe me, most of my fellow countrymen feel pretty much the same. And Battlestar Galactica... I still love that too! So PLEASE, don't spoil my enthusiasm for the British or my all time favorite sci-fi series with all this damnable "whinging" about accents. Pretty please. With sugar on top. Or in your tea, if that'd make ya happy.
Bottom line: Doctor Who and Red Dwarf (among others) weren't created with an American audience in mind, so I really don't see why Battlestar Galactica (a product of the late 1970s), or ANY other from of American pop culture entertainment, should be expected to cater to any excessively prideful, easily offended, or decidedly ethnocentric audience outside of North America. So watch or don't watch. Like or don't like, but shut the hell up, so you don't spoil it for anybody else. After all, if I wrote a book listing all the sh*t I've seen in Doctor Who over the years that seemed even a just a tad irreverent or critical of America or Americans in general, it would most likely be a relatively long volume. Good thing I don't believe in getting all nationalistic and just plain snide towards compatriots and fellow English speakers like that though.
November 21, 2017
Sigh. I really can't understand why there is such a dedicated following to what was a terrible, barely could be called Science Fiction show. The stories were lame enough to be on the third season of Lost in Space and the writers understanding of even simple Astronomy was lacking. The ships had no FTL and the characters constantly confused galaxy with solar system. Let's ignore the unbelievable use of stupid ideas like Yahrns, Yarens, microns etc. This book is far too apologetic to what was a terrible show with a terrible sequel (Galactica 1980). An OK read, but really how this show carries an audience even today is beyond me.
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