Is the BSG universe bland ?

[Sarevok]

First of all this is a positive attempt at critiqueing BSG. Like many I was let down by the finals. But I enjoyed BSG as a whole immensely. So don't get me wrong here. This about something I had a problem with in a series I followed religiously from the start. This is not an attempt at complaining why BSG did not follow a course I had in mind. I noticed this problem right from the pilot.

My issue is that BSG has to be one of the most ill defined settings in scifi. Colonial society is 21st century america in space. There are no attempts at world building to create a believable parallel human civilization beyond using frak inplace of fuck. In short Colonials are basically today's americans+ battlestars who use worship gods and say frak. In a sense this is advantageous since it builds a sense of relevance. On the other hand it feels fake especially when they tried the hamfisted Iraq analogy with New Caprica storyline.

Do you like this sort of writting or would you have preferred BSG to have construct it's own universe ? Or would you preferred what an ancient greek society displaced in another planet with high technology would evolve toward ?

What about becoming dated ? I feel BSG is going to become cornier than that 1960s Adam West Batman show. In 20-30 years people won't get or recognize many things about 20th century America in space. Many classics of scifi like Frank Herberts Dune and original star wars is timeless because of their alien setting. If the galaxy in original trilogy looked like 1970s America surely stars wars would be cheesiest classic movie of all time. Do you think inventing a make belief culture with it's own customs,clothing and tradition would be better than a short term attempt at seeming relevant ?

[Nephtys]

BSG was quite good in 'not trying' to explain anything beyond their scope, because the story was the scope of the fleet, and the characters. To make everything hit harder, and seem more important, it was key not to really detail everything out. That focuses you on the past, on how things were... and that's exactly what the show was not about.

The last season and a half really was when everything fell apart for other reasons. Network interference and stupid BS killed the show that was really shaping up from the first two seasons to be a wonderful show.

I don't see how on earth it could be 'dated' like the Adam West batman. Quite frankly, that's what the 1970s Galactica was, with it's robot monkey, cheesy effects and repeated use of the same battle footage, silly terminology (Crashing Asteroids Apollo! Cylons at twelve centons!) and such. BSG's setting isn't really 'modern' as it is the product of modern storytelling style, focusing on darker, more personally flawed characters and settings, which wasn't as popularly explored in the prior decades for TV.

[Kingmaker]

Do you like this sort of writting or would you have preferred BSG to have construct it's own universe ? Or would you preferred what an ancient greek society displaced in another planet with high technology would evolve toward ?

I think that would have been interesting, but I'm not sure how well it would have translated into a visual medium. For one, the aesthetics would be very different (and probably not a way that most would think were cool). For another, I think it would be, by necessity, much more exposition heavy. A lot of interesting SF ideas work well in writing but look kind of silly when you try to do them live action.

What about becoming dated ? I feel BSG is going to become cornier than that 1960s Adam West Batman show. In 20-30 years people won't get or recognize many things about 20th century America in space. Many classics of scifi like Frank Herberts Dune and original star wars is timeless because of their alien setting. If the galaxy in original trilogy looked like 1970s America surely stars wars would be cheesiest classic movie of all time. Do you think inventing a make belief culture with it's own customs,clothing and tradition would be better than a short term attempt at seeming relevant ?

I suspect it will become, not because it will feel "cheesy" but because it is firmly rooted in a specific cultural context (early 21st century Americans). Your typical spaceviewer from the spacefuture probably just won't get many of the things today's viewers and writers took for granted.

This issue I take with nBSG is that in attempting to be "relevant", it asked questions and then provided answers that were either ham-fisted or not terribly relevant. And frankly, they weren't even terribly thoughtful questions, just hidden behind a thin veneer of pseudo-philosophy.

That said, I loved nBSG, and I'm not ashamed to admit that on one occasion I did build a shrine to William Adama and leave sacrifices of crushed walnuts.

[Anguirus]

Isn't this in totally the wrong forum?

Anyway, I personally don't think the show would have been enhanced by your suggestions. They did try to weave aspects of Colonial society in there (the differences between the colonies) but this took a back seat, as it should have, to the conflict between humanity and its creation. On the other hand, Caprica delves much deeper into Colonial society, so there's that.

I will say they got a bit lazy with the costuming at times, but if that budgetary savings let them do the rest of the show then I think it was money well saved.

I also disagree, strongly, that New Caprica was a simple or hamfisted invocation of Iraq, but that's sort of a tangent. All I will say on the topic is that it must be frustrating to be a television writer who wants to use science fiction to make a commentary on the real world (which is sort of what it's for) who takes elements of a current situation and blends them in a new and different way, only to then be accused of being didactic because viewers can't stomach anything relevant in their escapism.

To answer your final question, frankly, make-believe cultures often seem more dated, not less. Compare the relative cheesiness of Star Trek: TNG costuming and that of Babylon 5 (made-up military uniforms, tweaked 20th century civilian clothing). Star Trek SCREAMS late '80s "spacey" (just as its predecessor is a product of the '60s), while B5 doesn't seem quite as punch-you-in-the-gut '90s (except in VFX scenes, but that has nothing to do with costuming). BSG manages to throw in enough tweaks so that it never looks exactly like "21st century American" but doesn't throw "woo woo future alien" in our faces, either, so we immediately comprehend the role and stature of given characters at a glance.

[NecronLord]

Isn't this in totally the wrong forum?

Yes. Moving...

[Uraniun235]

Network interference and stupid BS killed the show that was really shaping up from the first two seasons to be a wonderful show.

What did the network push for that the producers and writers didn't want to do?

[Johonebesus]

It would have helped my suspension of disbelief if they had used different costumes and props. It was distracting when we saw a real guitar or piano. And of course that lead directly to the "God did it" ending. I probably could have swallowed it a bit more easily if "God" had only made Earth and Kobol evolve the same life. The cultural and technical similarities were just too much, and frankly reeked if laziness. It was as if Moore just couldn't be bothered to try to create a different and believable culture, and then was unable or unwilling to come up with a plausible explanation as to why they had the same fashions and tools and instruments et cetera as us.

[Stark]

I would say that's probably very close to the truth. There is very little background information because (as others have said) it's not relevant to the story. So rather than spend time in mastubatory 'world building' Moore stuck with what was 'relevant'.

[RedImperator]

I would say that's probably very close to the truth. There is very little background information because (as others have said) it's not relevant to the story. So rather than spend time in mastubatory 'world building' Moore stuck with what was 'relevant'.

Adding to this, I think it was a smart decision to default to early-21st-century American details when they didn't have something specifically "alien" they had in mind. They did a good job creating a world that was obviously different, without distracting the audience with irrelevant details like silly Woo!FUTURE! clothes.

Of course, I'm speaking as an early-21st-century American here. Who knows what a mid-21st-century American will think. And I can see how a non-American, especially a non-Westerner, might see it differently.

[Stark]

Especially for the accessibility they wanted; they didn't spend an episode talking about the space forks or three shells or their eight-chamber political system; it was all familiar to viewers allowing the focus to be on the drama and characters. Given the massive presence of standard American law, politics and culture in other Western nations this makes it pretty accessible.

[Thirdfain]

I don't think you can just shrug off the massive differences between Colonial and modern American society. One scene in particular stands out- when the Federal agent was questioning the schoolmistress about religion at the Athenian Academy; and launches into a tirade against the evils of absolutist monotheism. This society has a completely different view of religion than contemporary America's. In fact, it seems to me that the areas in which no changes have been made are the completely unimportant areas like clothing and architecture, which really have no bearing on how the plot actually develops.

[Anguirus]

It was as if Moore just couldn't be bothered to try to create a different and believable culture, and then was unable or unwilling to come up with a plausible explanation as to why they had the same fashions and tools and instruments et cetera as us.

Do remember that when the miniseries was made there was no guarantee that they would go to series. Going to the considerable expense of making a "different to be different" culture would have only diluted the very intense impact of the miniseries, which was constructed to hurl you into the complete destruction of a society that you could instantly comprehend and identify with. In addition, at this time there was no real thought put into the nature of Earth, because they were just making the miniseries.

After that, of course, it was continuity.

[Johonebesus]

They didn't need to invent silly words or have long descriptions of alien customs and laws or "spacey" costumes and sets. They did have their alien sport, and somehow managed to keep it from being a distraction. But a little bit more effort in the costuming and props could have made the whole thing more belivable. That wouldn't require complex world building, just an extra bit of creativity and work. I disagree that having suits that were not identifiable as contemporary western clothing and no props that looked like they came from Wal-Mart would have "diluted the very intense impact of the miniseries." To the contrary, as I said, it was a distraction to me that they looked just like contemporary Americans. And this wasn't just a matter of continuity. Moore made the decision in the fourth season to have the characters playing ordinary musical instruments.

I'm not talking about going to great lengths to make a truly alien culture, just a little bit more effort to make them look different than us. We don't have to have extremes. Giving them a different look would not require robot dogs or made up words or random flashing lights and shiny things as in the original series. It isn't a choice between distracting cheesiness or mundane twentieth century costumes and sets.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I don't see how on earth it could be 'dated' like the Adam West batman. ...(snip)... BSG's setting isn't really 'modern' as it is the product of modern storytelling style, focusing on darker, more personally flawed characters and settings, which wasn't as popularly explored in the prior decades for TV.

This is actually why it already feels dated and tired. It's got the same feeling that all those "gritty" cop shows that came out after NYPD Blue have; it feels like the follower of trend that could never last.

It's impossible (at least for me and my friends) to watch more than an episode or two past season 2, which is when the series really started to focus on the drama rather than balancing drama with some sort of plot advancement or exposition, and not come away with the feeling that the characters' flaws were being needlessly exaggerated to the point where they were dysfunctional. The series tried too hard to be DEEP DRAMA, and it shows more now than it did when the show was still airing. The goofy writing didn't help much either.

[neoolong]

This is actually why it already feels dated and tired. It's got the same feeling that all those "gritty" cop shows that came out after NYPD Blue have; it feels like the follower of trend that could never last.

Wait, The Wire and The Shield are dated and tired? Because those are the gritty cop shows from after NYPD Blue.

If it's done well, it doesn't feel tired or dated. BSG ended up losing its quality because it felt, to me at least, that it was treading water and replaying the "gritty" character points.

[Junghalli]

I didn't mind the "just like us" nature of Colonial society, I personally always thought of it as if I was watching a historical drama about an alien culture that used a ton of cultural translation to get modern viewers to focus on the important stuff instead of being distracted by the fact they're dumped in a totally unfamiliar culture. In my mind I very much doubt the Colonials actually smoked cigars, wore clothes and drove cars that looked just like ours etc., I always just wrote that up as the writers and props people taking liberties with what they "really" wore, used as recreational drugs etc. so they'd seem more familiar to a modern audience.

Personally, the area where I was disappointed in nBSG was the Cylons. At the start what we know about them is that they're a culture of former war robots who rebelled against their masters and have come to believe that they have replaced humans as the favored children of God. I find this concept implausible, yet also fascinating. We then found out that the Cylons consist of robot mooks who take orders from a dysfunctional family of marginally transhuman clones with a generic Crystal Dragon Yahweh religion. I think the initial concept ... could have been taken to more interesting places.

The thing that probably best sums up my problems with their approach to the Cylons is the idea that their religion considers physical suicide a sin. When they can resurrect. They have absolutely no reason to think of the body as anything but a disposable vehicle for their minds. They logically wouldn't even think of destroying their own body as dying; it would just be abandoning a tool to them. It's blatantly obvious the writers made that up because Christianity considers suicide a sin, and so they unimaginatively incorporated this feature into the Cylon's generic Crystal Dragon Yahweh religion without bothering to really think about whether it made any sense from the Cylon's point of view.

Hell, if you must draw parallels to current conflicts what about exploring the idea of what it'd be like to have to deal with enemy infiltrators who treat themselves as totally disposable, because they know they actually really will get an afterlife and a promotion* after they blow up.

* Said promotion might consist of being transferred from their present limited meat body to some superior mechanical form. I'm sick of AIs with Pinnochio Syndrome.

[fgalkin]

The problem is that most writers, RDM included are complete and utter grots when it comes to worldbuilding. Star Trek is terrible worldbuilding, for example, and B5 sucks at everything that's not grounded in human history or culture, Firefly is Cowboys vs Fascists in SPAACE, etc. By avoiding worldbuilding into divergent societies as much as possible, RDM was able to keep the society plausible.

By contrast, look at the way he handled the Cylons- they worked just as long as they remained off-screen, or as the scary fighter swarm launching missiles at the fleet and getting blown to bits by Starbuck & Co. As soon as their society was explored in detail, we discovered that RDM is still very much a Trek writer, and he brought the worst aspects of the 80s Pajama Party writing to the toasters.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Shroom Man 777]

My issue is that BSG has to be one of the most ill defined settings in scifi. Colonial society is 21st century america in space. There are no attempts at world building to create a believable parallel human civilization beyond using frak inplace of fuck. In short Colonials are basically today's americans+ battlestars who use worship gods and say frak. In a sense this is advantageous since it builds a sense of relevance. On the other hand it feels fake especially when they tried the hamfisted Iraq analogy with New Caprica storyline.

Do you like this sort of writting or would you have preferred BSG to have construct it's own universe ? Or would you preferred what an ancient greek society displaced in another planet with high technology would evolve toward ?

The basic premise of the story, as far as I know, is that a bunch of military guys on a military ship and a bunch of hapless civilians on civilian ships are on the run from a bunch of robots. In space.

Unless we get time to delve into much of these fictional space people's space culture, what's the point of world building a fictional space culture of "displaced ancient greeks" anyway? The whole polytheism, and praying while holding tiny figurines ala Russel Crowe in Gladiator, and gods stuff was one of the hokier bits of Galactica IMO (totally subjective here), particularly when they started having space quests for Space Athena's Space Crossbow Space Spear. Tee-hee!

Yeah, I'm one of STRAK's much-maligned "world builders" and I'm a total fatty nerd, but world building should be done on a world building medium and a story that's being done in a TV medium is really an inappropriate place to do much "in depth" worldbuilding. At most, a series can give us superficial trappings of culture and stuff - ala how Firefly tried to appear multicultural and anachronistic by having space geishas and shit, or by Star Wars having a cantina full of musical aliens and deathsticks - but you're not going to do much "in depth" stuff there due to the medium's limitations.

There's no real space for "in depth" worldbuilding. I mean, how much "world building" do you see in the OT Star Wars? Not much. It showed us lots of fantastic stuff, but it didn't really tell us much. I assume the visually trippy Dune movie didn't tell us much either, and much of the exposition came from the books.

As for the Iraq analogy, in the future America's probably going to keep on invading small countries and kill some racial minorities and commit a whole bunch of atrocities and do drowning-simulations on some ambiguously detained prisoners every few decades, so I think it won't get too old.

What about becoming dated ? I feel BSG is going to become cornier than that 1960s Adam West Batman show. In 20-30 years people won't get or recognize many things about 20th century America in space. Many classics of scifi like Frank Herberts Dune and original star wars is timeless because of their alien setting. If the galaxy in original trilogy looked like 1970s America surely stars wars would be cheesiest classic movie of all time. Do you think inventing a make belief culture with it's own customs,clothing and tradition would be better than a short term attempt at seeming relevant ?

What's wrong with becoming "dated"? Adam West's Batman show is bad kinda dated because, well, it's a silly comedy show. But dated things like Leone's cowboy movies, or Arnold and co.'s Ruthless 80s Action Movies, are pretty dated but they aren't necessarily bad per se. Hell, I find a lot of 80s sci-fi way more enjoyable than their modern 2000s counterparts.

Star Wars didn't invent make belief cultures, with customs, clothings and traditions anyway. When in the OT did we see any of that, besides from seeing a bunch of aliens playing musical instruments, and a fat slug who liked multicolored whores and fed them to monsters? Aside from that, all we saw were a middle-aged couple living in some mud huts in the desert.

Maybe by "world building" you don't really mean inventing make-believe new cultures and traditions for future space people and going "in depth" in describing them, but presenting the future in a visually distinct way that's different from the present (ala Star Wars, Dune movie). I see your point when it comes to presentation, yeah.

Yeah... nBSG probably didn't indulge in too much "creative stuff" in its futuristic depictions, not even like Firefly's bizarro anachronistic cultural mishmash, and you could say that it's pretty bland compared to the more colorful other sci-fi shows out there. But from what little I saw of nBSG (the mini-series, plus a few eps), its depiction of the future really isn't any more "bland" than say James Cameron's depiction in Aliens. There's no real artifacts of the 2000s in that show, I think, since it's depiction is too similar to the 90s and even the 80s, and not distinctly 2000s.

I also kinda think that nBSG's depiction was intentionally not too "imaginative" or "colorful" when it came to the "worldbuilding" precisely BECAUSE its creators wanted to make a topical show for the "post 9/11" world or some shit like that - didn't they state exactly that in the interviews, that they had the intention to make the show somewhat allegorical and more "down to Earth" and with parallels to current events and shit?

[Coyote]

If you devote a lot of attention to "world building", then you end up with a "setting" story. RDM didn't want a "setting" story, he wanted a character drama. So to keep things simple, accessable, and relevent, he didn't waste time making spacey things for the hell of it. That's why we have ordinary guns instead of pew-pew lasers, and ordinary cars instead of hovercars.

To be honest, I think just using a stock Humvee in some shots (like on Caprica with Anders's plot arc) is fine and doesn't jar the audience out of the important stuff. It actually would have been more silly and distracting, IMO, to add a bunch of cardboard and fiberglass to the Humvee to make it a "spaaace Humvee!" We'd still know what it was, but the attempt to make it spacey would have come off as rediculous.

There are ways in which this philosophy creates flaws. Sometimes I had to ask myself why a culture that had hip-pocket FTL also still needed to use internal-combustion engines for their cars, but then you start over-thinking the stuff that usn't important to the story. Once you introduce a outer spaaace element to a story, you have to go back and re-evaluate everything that would be effected by that. Star Trek was notorious for ignoring this attention to detail, especially with regards to things like the Transporter, and the "super invention of the week" that would revolutionize science but is completly forgotten by next week's episode.

For example, if the Colonials had cool anti-gravity cars, why would they make robots that walked? Why not just have hoverbots? Fewer moving parts, all sorts of advantages, etc. Having combat hoverbots changes the way battles are fought, and it becomes "flying war drones vs. humans", which introduces a whole new dynamic to the story that makes it harder for viewers to identify with. The Cylons become more like those funky bugs in Pitch Black.

[Sarevok]

Well my main problem with is that sometimes it gets too difficult to convince yourself you are not watching Americans in space. The scenes set onboard the Galactica itself have no problem as they occur inside a spaceship. But each time the series visited the Colonies it gets difficult to make up excuses. The mind is constantly asking why does this planet look like Canada or USA and without an plausible answer in sight it gets jarring.

[Shroom Man 777]

Thank god you don't watch and/or critique Stargate.

I didn't really think it was their intention to be too alien or too different in their worldmaking. The interviews had them state, with their own mouths and in their own words, that they fully intended the show to be topical and to relate to current familiar American issues so that it would be "relevant" in this "post-9/11" (LULZ) world.

Besides, that's a common failure of TV series. They're on a budget, aside from their openly stated intention to be totally not alien/different/whatever. nBSG never really meant to depict a radically different alien future.

To be honest, I think just using a stock Humvee in some shots (like on Caprica with Anders's plot arc) is fine and doesn't jar the audience out of the important stuff. It actually would have been more silly and distracting, IMO, to add a bunch of cardboard and fiberglass to the Humvee to make it a "spaaace Humvee!" We'd still know what it was, but the attempt to make it spacey would have come off as rediculous.

Sure beats a Federation Dune Spaaaace Buggy. Would've been cool to see Picard, Worf and Data on a Humvee with a Mk.19 tho.

Man. In Firefly, what did they use as a ground vehicle? It was a farming tractor thing, wasn't it? A frickin' tractor. Joss Whedon is a genius.

[Ghost Rider]

World building matters more to the writer, then audience. If your characters do not notice, and the audience aren't drawn to it, the audience suspension of disbelief are held. In things like space fighters, weaponry, even language people will accept the familiar a great deal easier then the unique. But nBSG does fail on two parts in any construction and world building are in it's bizarre religion and the Cylons.

The religion and even astronomical studies are far too Earth centric. It's one thing to just rip a basic culture and go "Alien", because we do not know the nuances. But to literally use a dead Greek school of thought and have the constellations be relevant is just plain lazy. It also tends to draw real notice. Also they really went too much into it to have it passed off as just crazed women.

The cylons though are the greatest failure. He assembles this foe that makes no sense in structure, heiarchy, and in the final season falls apart with a completely asinine scenario. This is a failure of world building because the audience is drawn to this aspect but the story just goes "Deal.".

[Stofsk]

Thank god you don't watch and/or critique Stargate.

Sarevok's got a point. RDM's desire to make things 'relevant' and 'topical' did more harm than good to the story IMO. That's why the earlier seasons are my favourite examples of the show - it began to lose me after season 3 and the New Caprica storyline. As far as Stargate is concerned, although I recognise you're making a joke, part of the reason why I couldn't get into Stargate is because every planet they visited looked like a forest out in the middle of North-west America or Canada. It didn't help when the locals spoke english with an American accent.

World building matters more to the writer, then audience. If your characters do not notice, and the audience aren't drawn to it, the audience suspension of disbelief are held. In things like space fighters, weaponry, even language people will accept the familiar a great deal easier then the unique. But nBSG does fail on two parts in any construction and world building are in it's bizarre religion and the Cylons.

The religion and even astronomical studies are far too Earth centric. It's one thing to just rip a basic culture and go "Alien", because we do not know the nuances. But to literally use a dead Greek school of thought and have the constellations be relevant is just plain lazy. It also tends to draw real notice. Also they really went too much into it to have it passed off as just crazed women.

The religion being based off of the ancient Greek pantheon and the names of the colonies being roughly the same as the names of the 12 zodiac signs was what I originally thought was going to be part of a big revelation that much of if not the entirety of Colonial history was false, and that they originally came from earth but forgot the details and lost a lot of records (due to a series of cataclysms of some sort - IIRC they originally settled on Kobol before having to fuck off out of there as well) and so don't remember why or how they left earth nor what happened to it. The '13th colony' would end up being revealed to be an early return expedition that never came back. All of this seemed to be implied a little bit when they had Kara recover the Arrow of Apollo and finding Kobol and finding that old probe and so on. Even the Temple on the Algae planet hinted at something deeper. The ultimate twist in this would be the Colonials weren't trying to find a new home, they would be returning to the old one... and discovering in reality what Head-Six had said to Baltar - all of this has happened before and will happen again (unless the Colonials removed their heads from their asses).

Then it turned out Earth was actually FakeEarth and RealEarth was populated by early homo sapiens which miraculously had developed parallel evolution to the Colonial society all because a wizard God did it and lol 'topical'.

The cylons though are the greatest failure. He assembles this foe that makes no sense in structure, heiarchy, and in the final season falls apart with a completely asinine scenario. This is a failure of world building because the audience is drawn to this aspect but the story just goes "Deal.".

The problem with the Cylons is that once they were 'explained' they ceased being a mysterious and relentless threat - and just became retarded. Having it all be because Dean Stockwell had mummy issues took a hell of a lot of the wind out of my sails as far as liking the show goes.

[Shroom Man 777]

Thank god you don't watch and/or critique Stargate.

Sarevok's got a point. RDM's desire to make things 'relevant' and 'topical' did more harm than good to the story IMO. That's why the earlier seasons are my favourite examples of the show - it began to lose me after season 3 and the New Caprica storyline.

He has a point in that nBSG isn't really visually distinct or "unique" or "creative" when compared to the likes of Star Wars or Dune. But the fact that the nBSG guys used telephones with cords, fossil-fueled cars, guns with bullets, to me kinda seemed authentic... more so than those hokey pajama dudes in Trek. I didn't really mind the fact that they had G-36s or used whiteboard markers to tally their mass deaths from genocide. But I never really saw season 3, I think. What suddenly changed in season 3 and afterwards? The fact that they started playing around outside of their ships, and more in the woods and cities that just screamed "urban America" or something?

Was it just the aesthetic? I really didn't mind the aesthetic at all (again, the "gritty" modern-but-future thing was a draw to me and I also liked Aliens aesthetic very much). Was it more than that, with this "relevant" "topical" storyline stuff? Or was it just the fact that they started using actual-factual American/Canadian cities as background setting aside from their starship sets?

Which part became really unbearable?

As far as Stargate is concerned, although I recognise you're making a joke, part of the reason why I couldn't get into Stargate is because every planet they visited looked like a forest out in the middle of North-west America or Canada. It didn't help when the locals spoke english with an American accent.

It was a joke, because it was off-topic. But, yes, Stargate is very infamous for being very Jedi in the Woods. Or, should I say, Goa'uld in the woods. For, like, more than twice the time as nBSG... and in three-times the serieses!

[Coyote]

Well, I didn't think that Colonial religion was a case of "parallel development" that just happened to coincide with the exact same names and beliefs of Grecian myths; I thought that the Greeks of our time had decided to canonize and venerate the "old tribal tales" left over from millenia of oral tradition and retelling.

Remember, the Colonals came to Real Earth 150,000 years ago, so their passed-on legends and worship of the Zeus/Apollo/Athena pantheon eventually became Greek religion... not that they "just happed" to invent a mirror image of Greek religion.

In that, the only thing to swallow is... inter-breedable humans developing across the Galaxy... and, the names of the gods not changing at all in about, what, 145,000 years. Unless you are willing to accept that the Colonal languages are "automatically translated" in the telling of the story and that they weren't actually speaking English (which is acceptable, I suppose. After all, it's not like the people in Star Wars are speaking actual English, or in the case of the Hutts, a blurred form of Aztec Nahuatl ).