I never saw Battlestar Gallactica when it was on TV 20 years ago, so I have used lockdown as a chance to catch up on this fantastic sci-fi show. I saw The Critical Drinker’s Youtube on The Expanse, another sci-fi show, and I noted that the Drinker said that one of the great things about The Expanse was it wasn’t woke. Race, sexual orientation and sex don’t matter. The Expanse just tells great stories. I wanted to see a similar show, and Battlestar did not disappoint.
Battlestar Gallactica is set thousands of years into the future, and sees the re-emergence of a war between humans and machines. The main character, Admiral Adama, is Hispanic. The communications officer Dewalle is Black – possibly a nod to Uhura from Star Trek, an expert pilot Sharon is Korean, the tactical officer Gaeta is Hispanic, and none of them ever refer to their racial backgrounds. They are simply fine officers doing an amazing job.
Several main characters are LGB but again, there is no reference to this because none of the characters would even think to refer to sexual orientation. The same is with the sex of the characters. Female officers must be able to physically do the same as male officers, including having the physical strength to pilot aircraft under 6G force.
Starbuck aka Kara Thrace is butch, she works out but is also curvy, she boxes, she plays cards, smokes cigars and loves men. She is an abuse survivor who has built up a career as the best pilot in the fleet. She is respected and she is loved. I can’t help but think that if many girls struggling with what it is to be a girl or woman see Starbuck, they would not struggle so much. Starbuck’s life as a woman is never questioned.
With identity politics not playing any part in Battlestar Gallactica, the series is free to explore true science fiction. True science fiction asks us what it means to be human. When the Cylons – the enemy robots – experiment with cloning and create Cylons that look like humans, we are then asked what is humanity. Does a Cylon think they can love, or can they really love? What is a Cylon’s life worth if they believe they are so similar in all ways to humans, if they believe they can love, they can have morality, they are very much alive? Do they feel and think and love as we do, or are they simply not the same as us? This question has been asked throughout human history and is still asked today.
When Helo falls in love with a Cylon – who has been a sleeper agent in the military for several years, and he loved her long before he realised she was a Cylon – Battlestar explores what it is to be in a mixed relationship, with someone who is from a different background to yourself. We see Helo’s girlfriend become the mother of his child. She is terrified for her life and for the life of her baby. She knows that she is not seen as equal, and she fears she never will be. She is an outsider in her husband’s world. No matter what she does to save humans and destroy other Cylons, she might never be seen as trustworthy.
When it is discovered that this Cylon is pregnant, the president decides the baby cannot live. We see the military take a woman to the hospital for the termination of the baby she wants and loves. We know that this has been done throughout history to women who weren’t deemed good enough to have children, or women from a hated minority.
It is not the love that normally abounds and directs all action aboard Battlestar Gallactica that saves the baby, but the baby’s use for medical science instead. Without an overt reference, we are pushed towards issues such as stem cell treatment, keeping life living because of its use to those who are already fully formed humans. The doctor, who is often the voice of reason in a straight-talking way, is the one who says that stem cell treatment from a human-Cylon baby is unnatural and he doesn’t like it.
Battlestar is not in your face. It explores many issues without directly referring to them. It uses the characters’ storylines to show, not tell, and provides a rich environment for storytelling. In Battlestar, the story is not about skin colour or sexual attraction. The story is the story, and it’s a very good story indeed.
catherinehume 
Bingo!! Summed it up perfectly, it is how Sci Fi should be written but sadly writers are now ideologues and cannot write this type of thought provoking sci fi.
Someone has made the point that there were gays etc in Battlestar. Yes there were. It just didn’t matter to the characters, just like the racial background did not matter to the characters, nor to the storyline. The story was the story, not immutable characteristics. And that is why Battlestar is not woke.