I am into "Battlestar Galactica" because we are living in Battlestar. That cataclysm in the opening credits?: arguably, the world's financial system exploding last fall. In Battlestar's universe, our collective dream of bigger yards, wider pastures and ever-rising prosperity has collapsed in large part to the survivors confined to a few tin cans hurtling through space. So much for the notion we used to hold dear, namely, that standards of living will always be better for our children than they were for us.
There are further grim parallels between our economy and the "BSG" universe. We human like to create technology we think will help us. In "BSG," that technology evolves into Cylons who turn on us and nearly obliterate us. Here on the real Earth, we have created financial technology (credit default swaps and other derivatives) that have evolved beyond human understanding, turned into financial weapons of mass destructions -- and now look at us.
The series also answers an economic question that has been nagging at me in the wake of our present financial meltdown. With prospects so bleak, why are all these people with me on the commuter train headed toward Wall Street each weekday still doing it? It is not likely the profit motive, if you have seen your latest quarterly investment statement. Again, think of "Battlestar Galactica": all these people in desperate straits, still doing their jobs, even the civilians.
As a reporter myself, I had to wonder why those "journalists" in those news-conference scenes in the show continue to do their jobs. It is probably not for the paychecks, which may not exist in the "BSG" world. The answer has to be we continue to do what we do post-apocalypse because it is part of our identities, part of who we are. The implication for those of us here in fiscal first-quarter 2009 is that we will continue to slog through, doing what we do here on the real Earth. If there is anything that can begin to pull us out of our economic mess, it is this human feature.
So even with the radical economic contraction, "Battlestar Galactica" argues there is hope we can keep a hold of our essential humanity. That is, if we can find out which Federal Reserve and Treasury Department officials are Cylons.
David Brancaccio is host and senior editor of public television's weekly news program "Now on PBS." For a decade, he hosted public radio's business show, "Marketplace."
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com