Battlestar Galactica &Philosophy

New York, NY (January 20 , 2008) In advance of the 4th and as announced final season of this exciting, thought provoking television series, Wiley-Blackwell’s latest installment of its Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy, goes, to quote an earlier Sci-Fi series, “where no man has gone before” “How To Be Happy After the End of the World” emphasizes that humanity is continuing to evolve and that the human need to strive for something better is a defining quality. “Resistance vs. Collaboration” touches on the very real, incendiary issue of terrorist tactics: under what circumstances are they justified? “The Search for Starbuck: The Needs of the Many vs. the Few” makes a couple of points that raise alarm bells in today’s society. That Starbuck is femaleas is the presidentmakes a strike against gender stereotyping and shows that whether one is male or female is really a non-issue, so long as the job gets done. In fact the whole notion of gender stereotyping is assaulted and demolished when you consider that Starbuck’ real last name is ‘Thrace’. This was taken from ‘Thrax’ the son of Ares, the Grecian God of War. The character of Starbuck is not only a hotshot, a gambler, and sexually voracious, but is described as being the best Viper pilot ever! So much for the gentler sex. As editor Jason Eberl puts it, “The Cylons and the humans are all just playing their roles in a cosmic story that repeats again and again.” “There are polytheists, monotheists, atheists, Buddhists and Hindus those who believe in the cyclical nature of time all those different viewpoints are represented. You get to see things through different perspectives. It takes the best of what’s been done in the past and then expands and twists it,” Eberl explains. Battlestar Galactica is a great story. “I absolutely love the show,” he continued. “It’s the most expensive and most successful show the Sci-Fi Channel has ever produced.” Dating from the original series in 1978 through the present, at least 5 comic book publishers, including Marvel, have issued numerous series of Battlestar Galactica adaptations. There have been a minimum of five video games, one board game, one role playing game, a space-flight simulator game and a community related strategy game developed and in development. Time, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and National Review all raved about the current series.