The Mormon underside of Battlestar Galactica

The original Battlestar Series was the first show to cost $1 million an episode and most of that was special effects.

Joseph Smith was a huckster who dealt in fake Egypt relics who invented a religion as a go around the Do not Commit Adultery Commandment. He was dragged from jail and shot dead in the street.

Anyway, Richard Hatch is a mormon, Dirk Benedict converted during the show to date Marie Osmond.

They incorporated the zodiac too to add to the mystical factors and the show mostly embodied humanity’s inability to manage technology.

In the original series, the Cylons were an organic species that built the robotic versions who eventually, replaced all Cyclons except for the small pool from which the Great Leader was chosen.

Baltar and Betrayal concepts were echos of biblical themes, not to mention the whole persecution complex.

In the reboot series, the cylons are our own invention which turn against us.

It also did a lot to make queer and bisexuality no issue and put polygamy/polyamory on the map.

Mind you, the reboot is the better cautionary tale of religious extremism.

Given the core of the cylon programming was an overly dramatic teenaged girl under undue influence of her school teacher.

 

Further reading:

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/the-secret-lives-of-saints/9780307355881-item.html