‘Battlestar Galactica’ Was About Tech Bros Failing Upward This Whole Time

More than two decades ago, in December of 2003, a two-part “Battlestar Galactica” mini-series launched on the Sci-Fi Channel to critical success and a viewership that any basic cable exec would kill for these days. And, while it made plenty of nods toward its 1970s progenitor, it was a thoroughly modern science fiction show that was concerned with a post-9/11 world and the nascent middle-eastern conflicts that we would eventually dub “the forever wars.”

The mini-series (and the four seasons that followed it) had a lot to say about peoples feelings of fear and vulnerability when they get devastated by an external attack, and how that fundamentally alters society — often for the worse.

Fresh upon release, the series was appropriately read as a reflection of the current geopolitical situation of the time, but it turns out that it was also well-suited to prophesying the struggles we’d eventually face in the decades to come.

^{Image: “Battlestar Galactica”}

As a nerdy American millennial, I was obviously a huge fan of the show during its original run. But, beyond watching a few clips here and there on YouTube, I hadn’t returned to it since it went off the air in 2009.

Over the recent winter break, I sat down and watched the entirety of the mini-series out of a desire for nostalgia — only to find that it resonated even stronger this time around.

The cylons are presented as genocidal fanatics, sure, but the camera was much more interested in how Gaius Baltar, a narcissistic computer scientist and playboy, ushered in the near-extinction of humanity because of his willingness to break rules and disregard safeguards — as long as he got what he wanted in the short term.

^{Image: Google Trends}

We didn’t have the right words for it at the time, but Gaius Baltar is a tech bro, and the show absolutely loathes him and his desire to prosper at the expense of literally anyone and everything. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg weren’t household names back then, but the writers of “Battlestar Galactica” could see that archetype coming from a mile away.

The show ended up a bit long in the tooth by the end, and it did eventually give Gaius a redemption arc of sorts, but not before spending countless hours detailing how his overconfidence and incompetence caused unprecedented suffering while he remained broadly unscathed and exceedingly powerful.

I have no doubt that if any mainstream television program prominently featured a character like Gaius Baltar in the 2020s, it would be criticized for being too on the nose by some, and incessantly attacked by the average X user with a blue check mark.

It’s a shame; we need “Battlestar Galactica” more now than ever.

[Image: “Battlestar Galactica”]