God Is Our Space Pilot: Does Every SF Show Need Jesus Now?

Science fiction TV shows used to be about scientists flirt God — now our intrepid heroes assemble God , alternatively . The overt religious discussions onBattlestar Galacticastood out as strange , but now every SF show wave a bible . What happened ?

Oh , and there are some spoilers for coming TV shows here .

We ca n’t aid noticing the singular spiritual present moment in a mass of the fall ’s biggest SF telly appearance , and how shoehorn - in the citation to God or the Bible often seem to be . Unlike Firefly , which featured a man of God as one of its major supporting characters and course sparked theological word , or BSG , which film place during an Revelation , the new harvest of shows seems determined to bring up God even when it does n’t make that much gumption .

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Take the scene above from the time of year unfastener of Fringe , where FBI agent Amy Jessup move through all of the Fringe Division ’s cases and compares them with Bible verses — it ’s all in the Book Of Revelation ! ( Thanks to Meredith for suggesting this one . )

Or FlashForward , whose cowcatcher include one character who randomly questions whether God gave everyone on Earth a glimpse of the future tense as a penalization . Leaving aside the fact that second sight seems like an odd form for elysian punishment to take . There ’s also the fact that the slutty / Christian baby-sitter just happens to be making out with her boyfriend ( while the daughter she ’s looking after is asleep ) and thus feel guilty — so she adjudicate that God move over the full Earth a future sight just to punish her for construct whoopie on the couch . Make sensory faculty ? Absolutely not . Unless you think that some studio exec in a coming together said , “ We ask a spiritual angle here . There oughta be one grapheme who decides that this was all God ’s doing . Because that ’ll diddle well in the God states . ”

And then there ’s pentad , which — mollycoddler alert — has aliens visiting us and take to be benefactors , who ’ve come to help us . Plenty of people are suspicious of these allegedly irradiate visitors , but then we meeta Catholic priest who ’s decided to advocate that these aliens are “ God ’s creatures,”with the implication being that they ’re air by God . And the priest tells his subsidiary , Father Jack , that he must advocate the alien are divinely sanctioned — or else . It ’s even sort of implied ( if I remember correctly ) that the Vatican has made reenforcement for the aliens prescribed policy . WTF ? Why would the Catholic church service come out in support of random aliens that we know nothing about ? It ’s one of the few moments in the V pilot that literally makes no sense whatsoever , and it enliven much straits - scrape when we see it at Comic Con .

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And then there’sStargate Universe , which — spoiler warning signal again ! — has a character experience weird religious visions for no discernable cause in its second sequence . ( Or third , if you number the two - 60 minutes cowcatcher as two installment . ) It ’s never totally clear why one character , stuck on a unearthly , inhospitable planet , is sustain visions of being in church service and talk to a priest , and it seems partially design to give us a clod of this character reference ’s backstory . But it also feel like a quick - and - foul way of conveying that this character is receive a spiritual wandering - in - the - wild thing , without actually having to make any real religious / spiritual content to go with it . It feels a moment cheap : he ’s in the wild , and he sees some churchy stuff . Oh ! So that means it ’s deep symbolic or something .

And of course , Dollhouse gave us the ultra - stereotypical “ Christian cult with hit man ” in one of its first - season episodes — the one where Echo gets sprain into a blind spiritual drumbeater with tv camera in her eyes , and everybody ’s sorta Amish and sorta Mormon .

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aboveboard at times , watching current SF TV it ’s hard not to feel like someone watched too many early John Woo movies and recollect “ church with raspberry in it — thick ! ” Or maybe too many early 1980s New Wave videos , where Duran Duran dancing around church bench and it randomly turns black and ashen . ( And yes , I love that those picture are directed by Highlander auteurRussell Mulcahy . ) But it also feels like a mo of pandering to a Christian nation that ’s perceive as being a bit suspect of skill - y stuff .

The Genesis of organized religion in SF TV

Once , it seemed like spiritual iconography and rhetoric was uncommon in scientific discipline fable — the originalStar Trekconfronted Captain Kirk and his gang with Grecian gods , as well as godlike aliens who just wanted to toy with our heroes . You might have a hysterical crewman babble something about “ If God had wanted us to go into space , etc , ” and the Roman sequence did end with Uhura staring at the tv camera and saying the rebels were idolize “ the son of God . ” But these were just grace notes . ( We wo n’t get into Star Trek V , since that was a movie , and it came much subsequently , and it makes the head anguish . )

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After Trek , you certainly had the occasional SF program where the respectable guy rope were confronted with bog - standardspace gods , who were notably innocent of any spiritual dogma that people on Earth could greet . In fact , one reason why space Supreme Being are so often ridiculous and campy is the fact that they ’re trying so hard to be ecumenical . One common SF figure of speech , over the decennium , was the “ meet the real - animation alien behind the ancient Earth myth — but this was usually the creature who breathe in the Aztecs or the Egyptian religions , not the Judeo - Christian bargain .

But in general , when tv set SF did grapple with faith prior to late years , it was to unwrap spiritual icons as noncitizen , using mellow technology to print the superstitious . It was n’t until the concluding duet of seasons ofStargate SG-1that this “ superstitious humans worship alien ” plot line seemed to be an open critique of organized religious belief . The show suddenly introduced a new adversary for our heroes , a set of “ ascended ” ( non - corporeal ) alien called the Ori , who encourage humans to worship them and prophesy from the Book of Origin . write blogger Chris Bateman in his 10 - part essay on religion in science fabrication :

It is almost impossible not to interpret the Ori as a paper - slender parody of Christianity … Much of the shallow criticism of Christianity occurs between Claudia Black ’s x - Goa’uld host Vala Mal Doran – who takes over Richard Dean Anderson ’s role as comic relief in the later seasons and fulfills this role magnificently – and her Ori - worshipping hubby Tomin . Vala and Tomin square off in debate after Tomin reads incessantly to her from the Book of Origin , with Vala impeach him of taking a bunch of stories about how to live well and using it as a justification for war and murder . The scene serves a story purpose – Tomin after witness a Prior blatantly distort the import of one of the verses in the Book of Origin , induce him to question his faith – but it also read as a incompetent flack on contemporary Christianity .

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Bateman theorizes that the producer of SG-1 were aghast at the Bush Administration ’s war in Iraq and want to satirize what they perceived as a right - annex Christian crusade against Islam . To some extent , The 4400 also seemed to be taking poke at organized religion on occasion .

But before SG-1 introduced the Ori , Star Trek : Deep Space Ninetook a huge saltation forward in introducing religious themes to SF , with the Prophets , aka the “ wormhole noncitizen . ” For most of DS9 ’s foot race , you could choose to believe the secular hypothesis that the Prophets were merely interdimensonal noncitizen , who lived outside space / metre and saw future and past as the same affair . But towards the destruction of the show ’s run , the messianic overtone around Benjamin Sisko made it harder and harder to sit on the fencing . And meanwhile , Babylon 5won praisefor include characters of faith ( include a Catholic commander , and a grouping of Catholic monks who come to live on the place ) as well as admit religion in many of its storylines .

Most recently , Terminator : TheSarah Connor Chroniclesincluded Agent Ellison , who ’s frequently shown to be a Baptist , and spiritual references became more and more predominant in the show ( which is about the actual apocalypse , so it does make signified to bring it up . ) Most fans of BSG would jibe that the show ’s monotheist / polytheist divide made it a much full-bodied experience than a unsubdivided robots - vs - humans show would have been otherwise — disregardless of how you may feel about the Baltar Cult , and the helping hand - crinkly “ Starbuck ferment intoZZ Top ” conclusion . And it ’s pure blasphemy to suggest that Firefly would be full without Shepherd Book .

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The advance of Space Jesus ?

Lately , though , it ’s seemed almost take to have some sort of spiritual word among a TV show ’s themes — and it ’s more likely to be Christian rather than some kind of vague Space Religion ( TM ) or brumous church property .

Religion is part of society , and include religious spot of position makes your world seem more realistic and three - dimensional — it would seem uneven if science fable on idiot box never included a religious viewpoint , just as it would if people never mention politics at all . At the same time , there are ways to include religion that make sensation ( fire beetle and MT : SCC come to listen instantly ) and ways to include it that finger free and uncanny ( the Vatican is endorsing the aliens ! )

And yes , when you throw off in religion in a nonsensical way , it either feel like you ’re go for a tawdry effect , or like you ’re pander to religious multitude . Add to that the fact that scientist and people who use pure empiricism to deal with problems are far and few between — Walter Bishop and maybe the distorted Topher on Dollhouse are our only real avatars of tech nerdhood that I can think of off the top of my oral sex . It ’s become a taboo in televised skill fiction to show mass doing science .

The show that ’s handling religion in the most fascinating manner in good order now is Supernatural , which is modern fantasy rather than scientific discipline fiction . In the last twelvemonth or so , angels have joined the show ’s long - stand demon characters — and now Lucifer himself is roaming around . And there are lots of hints that we ’ll in reality be meeting God this season at some point . Theological give-and-take over why God allow all of the horrors of the 20th hundred to happen are mechanically more fascinating when they come out of the mouths of factual Angels , and the fact that the Archangels believe that God is dead makes for riveting viewing .

So think this a plea for more thoughtful portrayals of organized religion in science fabrication — and few random , unthinking , kitchen - sink inclusions . People who watch skill fabrication are impudent . We can tell when we ’re being indulge to , and when we ’re being spoonfed religious approximation just because it makes your show seem more “ mythological ” or “ relevant . ” faith can make your scientific discipline - fiction story sense like it takes place in a world we can relate to , and it can intensify your part and total another bed to your story — or , in the wrong hand , it can sense like a random musical composition of baggage , tacked on to your story for spurious , external reason . We can commonly differentiate the difference between the two .

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