Religion or Racism?

Got around to watching Sunday night's Battlestar Galactica... I love this show for the evolving plot and character development, but what always gets me is their take on "the issues". In the past we've dealt with genocide, womens' rights, election tampering, closed war-trials... and the writers/producers have always done a great job on making us examine the issue in context. It is so easy to stand by our opinons on the hot topics, but BSG helps us view things from a completely different side (don't worry though, I have not changed my mind on any of the aforementioned issues - but I might reconsider some of my stances should the apocolypse arrive and only several thousand humans survived.)

This week's episode dealth with religious bigotry (or was it racism?) I'm not sure - depends how the humans from the 12 planets view themselves. Are Capricans, Taurons, Sageterons... etc considered different races? Different nationalities? Or do they just have different cultures? Or religious sects? (i.e. Christian Scientist vs. Catholics?) Anyway, that's beside that point. Apparently evil Dr. Roberts was poisoning the Sageterons because they didn't "deserve" the medicine they needed, (if they asked for it, that is.) And he had been doing this since New Caprica, and likely before that, if he had a chance. Well, the show examined two viewpoints: On one hand - doctors should not be killing patients - I'm sure the hippocratic oath still stands in the world of BSG. On the other hand - the audience was asked if it was fair to use limited medical supplies on people who don't use it until the very end (and perhaps didn't need to waste the limited medication if they had just popped an aspirin early on in their illness?) Ponder that for awhile!

This episode was pretty much a standalone - not really advancing any plot unless you count the dialougue between Rosslyn and Varick on Baltar's trial. But I didn't mind the Helo episode - he's pretty good looking, and how can a girl resist a rebel? I still desperately want to understand the meaning behind Kara's prophetic graffiti. Well, next week promises to deliver - and even if not in ongoing plot, I doubt I'll be disappointed.