PHILOSOPHY/POP CULTURE “The contributors to Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy strive to make things relevant to fans of the show, and they put their information out in a way that is accessible to folks who wouldn't know Heidegger from Heineken.” Green Man Review, Spring 2009 "The writers are well versed in their subjects...The book is most effective at making the reader rethink what they thought they knew." Neo-opsis What’s the point of living after your world has been destroyed? This is one of many questions raised by the Sci-Fi Channel’s critically acclaimed series Battlestar Galactica. More than just an action-packed “space opera,” each episode offers a dramatic character study of the human survivors and their Cylon pursuers as they confront existential, moral, metaphysical, theological, and political crises. This volume addresses some of the key questions to which the Colonials won’t find easy answers, even when they reach Earth: Are Cylons persons? Is Baltar’s scientific worldview superior to Six’s religious faith? Can Starbuck be free if she has a special destiny? Is it ethical to cut one’s losses and leave people behind? Is collaboration with the enemy ever the right move? Is humanity a “flawed creation?” Should we share the Cylon goal of “transhumanism?” Is it really a big deal that Starbuck’s a woman?

Battlestar Galactica, recognized as one of the most provocative, and socially relevant series of the new millennium, earned its status as a classic American drama series after its very first, Peabody Award-winning season. Here, for the first time in one volume, are all three original Battlestar Galactica novels--based on the highly-lauded TV series that took the country by storm. In The Cylons' Secret, by Craig Shaw Gardner, a ship, scavenging the outer settlements for valuable Cylon technologies after the first human-Cylon war, stumbles on a super-secret scientific outpost beyond charted space. Mere hours later, Battlestar Galactica receives a one-word distress call from the scavenging ship: "Cylons," causing the young Colonel William Adama to investigate. Sagittarius Is Bleeding, by Peter David, concerns President Laura Roslin, whose prophetic dreams have infused her people with hope that they will find Earth, humanity's cradle. But her new dreams of a galaxy overrun by the Cylons disturb her even as they energize an extremist political group. The threat of violent revolt puts Roslin at personal risk and endangers the fleet. In Unity by Steven Harper, Peter Attis, a rock star adored by all the fleet, including Starbuck, has recently been rescued from a Cylon prison ship. But after his first post-return concert, crewmembers are stricken by a strange malady that threatens to lay the fleet open to Cylon attack. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The first novel based on the SCI FI Channel's biggest hit series ever!

Looking at a television franchise like Battlestar Galactica (BSG) is no longer news within the discipline of International Relations. A growing number of scholars in and out of IR are studying the importance of cultural artifacts – popular or otherwise – for the phenomena that make up the core of our discipline. The genre of science fiction offers the analyst an opportunity that cannot be matched by more mimetic genres, namely the chance to look at how sets of widely-circulating expectations of the social serve to constrain authors as they work to introduce as yet unexplored problematiques, the fantasy aspect in much of science fiction storytelling is premised simply on a material difference. As such, while the physical setting of a science fiction tale might appear novel, its imaginative life world will likely retain many elements of the world we already live in and which we can readily recognize as similar to our own. For Critical IR scholarship then, BSG presents an opportunity to examine how these purported homologies or elements of redundancy between the fantastic and the real have been drawn and perhaps to consider, too, whether the show can teach us things about world politics, its various logics and structures, which we might not otherwise be sensitive to. Tackling some of the key contemporary issues in IR, the writers of BSG have taken on a range of important political themes and issues, including the legitimacy of military government, the tactical utility of genocide, and even the philosophical implications of artificial intelligence technologies for the very category of what it means to be 'human'. The contributors in this book explore in depth the argument that one of the most important aspects of popular culture is to naturalize or normalise a certain social order by further entrenching the expectations of social behaviour upon which our mentalities of rule are founded. This work will be of interest to student and scholars of international relations, popular culture and security studies.

This new book goes behind the scenes on the award-winning TV series Battlestar Galactica to discover the concepts behind the designs of dozens of spaceships! Battlestar Galactica debuted on TV in 1978 and acquired a phenomenal following, breaking new ground for TV drama and winning several awards. It returned to TV screens in 2003 in a critically acclaimed reimagined series, with Time Magazine naming it one of the 100 Best TV Shows of All Time. This behind-the-scenes guide looks at the creation of the ships in both the original and the reimagined series, including vessels of the ragtag fleet and those of the Cylon enemy. Featuring artwork from the groundbreaking first series and the 2004 reimagined series, this volume explores the art of ship creation from the first sketches to the finished designs of the modelmakers. Covering 18 key ships from the two shows, including the Galactica itself, the Vipers and the Cylon Raiders, the pages are packed with original concept art from designers Eric Chu, Andrew Probert and legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie.

Apollo and Starbuck test the new SuperViper, while a secret traitor plots the destruction of the fleet