The Five That Remain
Versions of the Messianic in Battlestar Galactica
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v3i2/3.3.162Keywords:
Battlestar Galactica, messianism, Benjamin, AgambenAbstract
The re-imagined television series Battlestar Galactica engages issues of contemporary significance throughout its four-season run. This paper, drawing upon Benjamin, Derrida, Agamben and other theorists, explores a number of significant messianic motifs and messiah figures (or groups of figures) in the series. Although each instance of the messianic moves Battlestar Galactica’s narrative forward, the consistency with which the series undermines any and all messianic pretensions provides an intriguing critical opportunity to reflect upon the theo-political. The series clearly seems to take issue with the messianic discourse of the Bush years. But reading the insufficiency of its messianic moments in theoretical terms may also allow for a nuanced critique of theory’s recent fascination with the idea of the messianic itself.
References
Agamben, Giorgio. 2005. The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans, trans. Patricia Dailey. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Badiou, Alain. 2003. Saint Paul: The Foundations of Universalism, trans. Ray Brassier. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Benjamin, Walter. 1968. Illuminations: Essays and Re_ections, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books.
———. 1978. Re_ections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, ed. Peter Demetz, trans. Edmund Jephcott. New York: Schocken Books.
Butler, Judith. 2006. “Critique, Coercion, and Sacred Life in Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence.’ ” In Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World, ed. Hent de Vries and Lawrence Sullivan, 201–19. New York: Fordham University Press.
Casey, Jim. 2008. “ ’All This Has Happened Before’: Repetition, Reimagination and Eternal Return.” In Potter and Marshall 2008, 237–50.
Collins, John J. 1998. The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 2d ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Derrida, Jacques. 1998. “Faith and Knowledge: The Two Sources of ‘Religion’ at the Limits of Reason Alone,” trans. Samuel Weber. In Religion, ed. Jacques Derrida and Gianni Vattimo, 1-78. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Douthat, Ross. 2007. “Lost and Saved on Television.” First Things 173: 22–26.
Ford, James. 1983. “Battlestar Galactica and Mormon Theology.” Journal of Popular Culture 17/2: 83–87. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1983.1702_83.x.
Gibbs, Robert. 2005. “Messianic Epistemology.” In Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments, ed. Yvonne Sherwood an Kevin Hart, 119-29. New York: Routledge.
Gottlieb, Susannah Young-ah. 2003. Regions of Sorrow: Anxiety and Messianism in Hannah Arendt and W. H. Auden. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gumpert, Matthew. 2008. “Hybridity’s End.” In Potter and Marshall 2008, 143-55.
Hamacher, Werner. 2005. “ ’Now’: Walter Benjamin on Historical Time.” In Walter Benjamin and History, ed. Andrew Benjamin, 38-68. New York: Continuum.
Hawkins, Beth. 2003. Reluctant Theologians: Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, Edmond Jabès. New York: Fordham University Press.
Kafka, Franz. 1991. The Blue Octavo Notebooks, ed. Max Brod, trans. Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. Cambridge, MA: Exact Change.
Kalyvas, Andreas. 2005. “The Sovereign Weaver: Beyond the Camp.” In Politics, Metaphysics and Death: Essays on Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer, ed. Andrew Norris, 107–34. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Keller, Catherine. 2005. God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Lapidos, Juliet. 2009. “Chauvinist Pigs in Space: Why Battlestar Galactica is Not So Frakking Feminist After All.” Slate (5 March). Online: http://www.slate.com/id/2213006 (accessed 24 May 2009).
Leventry, Ellen. 2005. “The Souls of Cylons.” BeliefNet (July). Online: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/166/story_16650_1.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Martin, Dan. 2007. “The Final Frontier.” The Guardian (13 January). Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/features/story/0,,1987999,00.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Osborne, Peter. 2005. “Quasi-Messianic Interruption.” In Osborne 2005, 318–34. New York: Routledge.
———. ed. 2005. Walter Benjamin: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory, Vol. 1. New York: Routledge.
Papastergiadis, Nikos. 2000. The Turbulence of Migration: Globalization, Deterritorialization and Hybridity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Peirse, Alison. 2008. “Uncanny Cylons: Resurrection and Bodies of Horror.” In Potter and Marshall 2008, 118–30.
Pil and Galia Kollectiv. 2007. “The Political Theology of Battlestar Galactica.” Online: http://www.kollectiv.co.uk/Galactica.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Potter, Tiffany, and C. W. Marshall, eds. 2008. Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica. New York: Continuum.
Rabinbach, Anson. 1997. In The Shadow of Catastrophe: German Intellectuals Between Apocalypse and Enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ryan, Maureen. 2008. “Battlestar Galactica’s’ Fourth Season.” The Chicago Tribune (2 April). Online: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/04/ron-moore-on-ba.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Saramago, José. 1994. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, trans. Giovanni Pontiero. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Scholem, Gershom. 1971. The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality, trans. Michael Meyer and Hillel Halkin. New York: Schocken Books.
Solove, Daniel, David Hoffman, and Deven Desai. 2008. “Battlestar Galactica Interview.” Concurring Opinions (2 March). Online: http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/battlestar_gala_4.html (accessed 24 August 2009).
Tranter, Kieran M. 2007. “ ’Frakking Toasters’ and Jurisprudences of Technology: The Exception, the Subject and Techné in Battlestar Galactica.” Law and Literature 19/1: 45–75. doi:10.1525/lal.2007.19.1.45.
Zamora, Lois Parkinson. 1989. Writing the Apocalypse: Historical Vision in Contemporary U. S. and Latin American Fiction. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Badiou, Alain. 2003. Saint Paul: The Foundations of Universalism, trans. Ray Brassier. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Benjamin, Walter. 1968. Illuminations: Essays and Re_ections, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books.
———. 1978. Re_ections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, ed. Peter Demetz, trans. Edmund Jephcott. New York: Schocken Books.
Butler, Judith. 2006. “Critique, Coercion, and Sacred Life in Benjamin’s ‘Critique of Violence.’ ” In Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World, ed. Hent de Vries and Lawrence Sullivan, 201–19. New York: Fordham University Press.
Casey, Jim. 2008. “ ’All This Has Happened Before’: Repetition, Reimagination and Eternal Return.” In Potter and Marshall 2008, 237–50.
Collins, John J. 1998. The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 2d ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Derrida, Jacques. 1998. “Faith and Knowledge: The Two Sources of ‘Religion’ at the Limits of Reason Alone,” trans. Samuel Weber. In Religion, ed. Jacques Derrida and Gianni Vattimo, 1-78. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Douthat, Ross. 2007. “Lost and Saved on Television.” First Things 173: 22–26.
Ford, James. 1983. “Battlestar Galactica and Mormon Theology.” Journal of Popular Culture 17/2: 83–87. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1983.1702_83.x.
Gibbs, Robert. 2005. “Messianic Epistemology.” In Derrida and Religion: Other Testaments, ed. Yvonne Sherwood an Kevin Hart, 119-29. New York: Routledge.
Gottlieb, Susannah Young-ah. 2003. Regions of Sorrow: Anxiety and Messianism in Hannah Arendt and W. H. Auden. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gumpert, Matthew. 2008. “Hybridity’s End.” In Potter and Marshall 2008, 143-55.
Hamacher, Werner. 2005. “ ’Now’: Walter Benjamin on Historical Time.” In Walter Benjamin and History, ed. Andrew Benjamin, 38-68. New York: Continuum.
Hawkins, Beth. 2003. Reluctant Theologians: Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, Edmond Jabès. New York: Fordham University Press.
Kafka, Franz. 1991. The Blue Octavo Notebooks, ed. Max Brod, trans. Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser. Cambridge, MA: Exact Change.
Kalyvas, Andreas. 2005. “The Sovereign Weaver: Beyond the Camp.” In Politics, Metaphysics and Death: Essays on Giorgio Agamben’s Homo Sacer, ed. Andrew Norris, 107–34. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Keller, Catherine. 2005. God and Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Lapidos, Juliet. 2009. “Chauvinist Pigs in Space: Why Battlestar Galactica is Not So Frakking Feminist After All.” Slate (5 March). Online: http://www.slate.com/id/2213006 (accessed 24 May 2009).
Leventry, Ellen. 2005. “The Souls of Cylons.” BeliefNet (July). Online: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/166/story_16650_1.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Martin, Dan. 2007. “The Final Frontier.” The Guardian (13 January). Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/features/story/0,,1987999,00.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Osborne, Peter. 2005. “Quasi-Messianic Interruption.” In Osborne 2005, 318–34. New York: Routledge.
———. ed. 2005. Walter Benjamin: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory, Vol. 1. New York: Routledge.
Papastergiadis, Nikos. 2000. The Turbulence of Migration: Globalization, Deterritorialization and Hybridity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Peirse, Alison. 2008. “Uncanny Cylons: Resurrection and Bodies of Horror.” In Potter and Marshall 2008, 118–30.
Pil and Galia Kollectiv. 2007. “The Political Theology of Battlestar Galactica.” Online: http://www.kollectiv.co.uk/Galactica.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Potter, Tiffany, and C. W. Marshall, eds. 2008. Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica. New York: Continuum.
Rabinbach, Anson. 1997. In The Shadow of Catastrophe: German Intellectuals Between Apocalypse and Enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ryan, Maureen. 2008. “Battlestar Galactica’s’ Fourth Season.” The Chicago Tribune (2 April). Online: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/04/ron-moore-on-ba.html (accessed 24 May 2009).
Saramago, José. 1994. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, trans. Giovanni Pontiero. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Scholem, Gershom. 1971. The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality, trans. Michael Meyer and Hillel Halkin. New York: Schocken Books.
Solove, Daniel, David Hoffman, and Deven Desai. 2008. “Battlestar Galactica Interview.” Concurring Opinions (2 March). Online: http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/03/battlestar_gala_4.html (accessed 24 August 2009).
Tranter, Kieran M. 2007. “ ’Frakking Toasters’ and Jurisprudences of Technology: The Exception, the Subject and Techné in Battlestar Galactica.” Law and Literature 19/1: 45–75. doi:10.1525/lal.2007.19.1.45.
Zamora, Lois Parkinson. 1989. Writing the Apocalypse: Historical Vision in Contemporary U. S. and Latin American Fiction. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Published
2010-02-26
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Twomey, J. (2010). The Five That Remain: Versions of the Messianic in Battlestar Galactica. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 3(2-3), 162-185. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v3i2/3.3.162
