"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations

"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy

I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti


[Note - If any article requires updating or correction please notate this in the comment section. Thank you. - res]


Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Remembering Battlestar Galactica





BattleStar Galactica Theme




In a distant part of the universe, a human civilization has extended to a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies, to which they have migrated from their ancestral homeworld of Kobol. The Twelve Colonies have been engaged in a lengthy war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons, whose goal is the extermination of the human race. The Cylons offer peace to the humans, which proves to be a ruse. With the aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons carry out a massive attack on the Twelve Colonies and on the Colonial Fleet of starships that protected them. These attacks devastate the Colonial Fleet, lay waste to the Colonies, and virtually destroy their populations. Scattered survivors flee into outer space aboard a ragtag array of available spaceships. Of the entire Colonial battle fleet, only the Battlestar Galactica, a gigantic battleship and spacecraft carrier, now retired as a fifty year old museum artifact of Colonial War Days, appears to have survived the Cylon attack. Under the leadership of Commander William Adama, the Galactica and the pilots of "Viper fighters" lead a fugitive fleet of survivors in search of the fabled thirteenth colony known as Earth.






From the darkness you must fall

Failed and weak, to darkness all.






Virtual Six: "It is what makes you human."

Baltar: "Is it? Not conscious thought?
Not poetry, or art, or music, literature?
Murder. Murder is my heritage?"

[Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis),
Battlestar Galactica, Season 2: Fragged]


---


Number Six: "You, your race, invented murder.
Invented killing for sport, greed, envy.
Its man's one true art form."

[Number Six (Tricia Helfer),
Battlestar Galactica, Season 2: Fragged]


---


When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies,
the crew of the aged Galactica protect a small civilian fleet - the last of
humanity - as they journey toward the fabled 13th colony, Earth.



Battlestar Galactica



All This Happened Before
by R.E. Slater [adapted]


"All this has happened before
and will happen again,"
thought the Admiral;
What do you hear, Starbuck?
"Nothing but the rain."

"And it will happen again,"
thought Adama, fleet commander,
of decommissioned warship Galactica,
following "the rain across galaxies,
with fleeing maiden ship's in tow.

Remnants of the Colonies,
led by haunted tones echoing
Galactica's steeled chambers,
where Tyrol, among the five,
lied the enemy they've created.

Awakening from slumber, Kara,
war goddess, harbinger of death,
rises its music, hearing its call,
reliving a time before time began,
remembering distant lands.

She, who led lost colonies,
to homelands far and distant, before
time had begun, lost to memory;
whose grand cities mirrored
their many mistakes to be made.

Leading her lost colonies, to
a distant place; Earth, say some.
"What do you hear, Starbuck?"
"As in the beginning, so in the end,
this has happened before and will again."

- R.E. Slater

*Adapted with gratitude from Poem Link;
original poem by Pop Culture











Dreams of Earth

-Lysandros of Caprica

Beloved of the Gods, the happiest mortal I seem,
Sitting before thee, rapt at thy sight, hearing
Thy soft laughter and thy voice most gentle,
Speaking so passionately.

Them in my chest, my heart wildly flutters,
And, when on thee I gaze ever so ardently,
Bereft am I of all power of utterance,
My tongue [lies utterly] useless.

There rushes at once through my flesh, a tingling, fire,
My eyes are deprived of all power of vision,
My ears hear nothing but sounds of winds roaring,
And all is blackness.

And then, like as with Ambrosia, sweetly green,
Fire burns racing beneath my skin, intoxicating,
And Love, the ineluctable, with bitter sweetness,
Shakes my being.

Down courses in streams the sweat of emotion,
A deep trembling overwhelms me, leaves me,
From all sense and reason bereft,
Mad in your eyes.

Come to me then, Beloved, loosen me from my torment,
And wrap me sweetly in thy limbs, dewed in passion,
Consummate a mortal's yearning, and Love,
From aching flesh, set free.

And like a God, I shall die within thy lap,
Content to fall before thee, trembling,
All my heart's fullment found,
[Full within] thy [adored] grace.




ThĂ©odore GĂ©ricault - The Raft of the Medusa, Sketch [1818]… | Flickr



The raft was not as seaworthy,
as I had hoped. The waves
repeatedly threatened
to swamp it.
I wasn't afraid to die.
I was afraid of the
emptiness
I felt inside.
I couldn't feel anything.
And that's what scared me.
You came into my thoughts.
I felt them.
It felt good.






Stay Safe.
Because I like
being alive
at the same time
as you.






The Cylons were created by man.

They evolved.

They rebelled.

They look and feel human.

Some are programmed
to think they are human.

There are many copies.

And...

They have a PLAN....












REFERENCES








To Be Played with Poem Below:
"Caprica in Autumn" by Pat Harkin



"Caprica in Autumn"
by Pat Harkin


My fondest memory of home
Is of Caprica in autumn,
When the frost first came,
And in the mornings,
The trees were red and silver
And the grass was diamonds
And the water was a glass mirror
To the flocks above
And the air was crisp
and smelled of harvest.

My fondest memory of home
Is of Caprica in autumn
With the still-strong sun
Warming the days
And we'd run in the light
And roll through the leaves
And watch the bright birds
Who made homes in the branches
And flew through the last days of glory.

My fondest memory of home
Is of Caprica in autumn,
When the evening chill came on
As the sun went down
And the shadows crept over
The thornforest hills
And the flower colors faded
As the stars above
Came out in the sky
from a bottomless well.

My fondest memory of home
Is of Caprica in autumn...




ACTORS DISCUSS ROLES &
SERIES-ENDING THOUGHTS


Battlestar Galactica's James Callis
on How HE Wanted Baltar's Story to End 





Tricia Helfer on the end of Battlestar Galactica





Battlestar Galactica Final Episode Thoughts
"The Frackin' Best Job I Ever Had!"




Farewell Battlestar Galactica. The Journey Is Over






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