BSG gripe

I mentioned previously that I had a low suspension of disbelief threshold. With shows I like, such as 24, I'm prepared grant quite a bit of leeway and I do like Battlestar Galactica a lot (so much so that I'm probably not going to wait until Sky shows the controversial denouement of the current series here). But, I have to confess that there's one thing that bugs me a lot about BSG and it probably bugs me a lot more than some of the more notable gaping chasms in the plot (like, for instance, if they've been travelling for so long, how come they're still within a sufficiently easy jump distance from Caprica that Starbuck can pop home and back on a quick errand stopping by her flat to cancel the milk?) and that is the depiction of the media: in particular, the President's Whitehouse press room style briefings.

Now, the entire population travelling amounts to about 50,000. This is barely more than the population of my home town and less than that in the North Louth area served by Dundalk which has two newspapers, a half a radio station and no TV channel sustaining probably two or three political correspondents. It's just unthinkable that there would be enough people among BSG's 50,000 sufficiently interested in the minutiae of politics to make it worthwhile for a whole roomful of political hacks to devote their time to covering President Roslin's every uttering. What irks me the most about this is that it's a lazy way of inducing a bit of empathy - "See: Their president is like our President " - when BSG generally makes a decent attempt at portraying exactly how different things might be for people trying to maintain their civilisation and traditions in such a precarious existence compared to how things were back on Caprica before the attack.

Comments

[Andrew]

I'm not sure if the correct comparison is the number of papers your hometown has, but rather the number of people in your hometown who subscribe to national papers - since the reason Dundalk has so few local journalists is that people's appetite for news is mostly satisfied by the national media. Whereas if Dundalk was coterminous with the entire world, I imagine people would care more about local news. Now I agree that this would probably not sustain White House-style press conferences but I wouldn't think BSG's media would be as tiny as small town local newspapers. (Of course I say this never having seen BSG...)

[Frank McGahon]

But I don't think that's quite right Andrew, after all scaling it to BSG, there is no extra-fleet nation or world(s), everyone else has been wiped out. All there is is the 50,000 on the fleet. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to compare with local media, given that they have nothing else to cover other than what happens "locally". If the rest of the world suddenly imploded and sank into the sea, leaving the North Louth region as the only inhabited island on the planet, you still wouldn't see more than a handful of reporters covering political events in "the world" which would suddenly have become coterminous with (greater) Dundalk.

[Frank McGahon]

Also, as I said, I'm prepared to grant some leeway and of course, you would imagine BSG's media to be somwhat more sophisticated than Dundalk's local media. Suspension of disbelief (which, by the way could have been "bought" more cheaply by simply increasing the number of people travelling with the fleet) would allow something like a rudimentary television station, a radio station, one or two newspapers and probably a bit of CB/internet chat type of communications. It's pushing it a bit too far to portray the type of "media frenzy" with attendant clichés - flashbulbs, thrusting microphones, interruptions, "you didn't answer my question" etc. - they would like to include.

[Fence]

Wasn't there a whole load of press on Galactica at the start of the series, because it was a big deal that it got decommissioned?

I may be mis-remembering, haven't rewatched since I caught bits of the mini-series on tv so very long ago.

[Frank McGahon]

That might explain where the press guys came from in the first place but not why they are still all doing the same job for a tiny fraction of their old audience

[Abiola]

"but not why they are still all doing the same job for a tiny fraction of their old audience"

Easy - they're spiritually French, so a job is for life.

[Ciarán]

Now the population of Dundalk wandering through space would most certainly be worth watching!!! The passion! The politics! The mullets!

[potato]

I'm not really being one given to making excuses for TV shows made for entertainment, but for the sake of argument. You couldn't compare the number of people interested in politics when you are in a nice peaceful country. If it was the case that most of our world got wiped out, you can bet that the population of people of people devouring as much media coverage as they can would reach close to 100% of that 50,000.

Besides, as a tv show it would look shite if you just had Vincent Browne there going "look, this whole Caprica thing is just shite right right?"

[Frank McGahon]

If it was the case that most of our world got wiped out, you can bet that the population of people of people devouring as much media coverage as they can would reach close to 100% of that 50,000.

Well, you know that's half the point, how many media sources do you think would serve that 50,000? You're still looking at a handful of hacks and I doubt that a Caprican Browne would get a gig!

[Conor Griffin]

A low suspension of disbelief threshold can be a problem when reading some of the "opinion pieces" in the Dundalk newspapers.

On the other hand, the court reports bring to mind the scene in This is Spinal Tap where the band visit Elvis' grave in Graceland. Nigel Tufnell says that "it really puts perspective on things, though, doesn't it?" David St. Hubbins responds grimly "too much fucking perspective"