Last night’s episode threw abortion into the mix. I’d rather the writers kept it out. But at least the handling of it was interesting and I suppose if the human race was knocked down to 50,000 people, abortion would take on a new salience.
My basic problem with introducing the topic is twofold. First, I simply don’t trust Hollywood not to make a mockery of the issues. They came close last night, but didn’t quite go all the way. Second, I just don’t find the framing of the thing plausible. In a society scientifically so much more advanced, it seems to me that the issue would no longer be controversial one way or the other. Either contraceptive technology would have “solved” the problem. Or moral dogma about abortion’s acceptable parameters would have been long established. But in last night’s episode, we learn that abortion remains a wedge issue even in the 12 Colonies. The president says she’s been fighting for reproductive freedom throughout her entire career (this in a society where the military observes no distinction whatsoever between the sexes). Even more annoying is that the fight has to be between religious fundamentalists and lovers of freedom. This displays a profound lack of imagination in one of TVs most imaginative shows. Law & Order is “ripped from the headlines” in this way, BSG doesn’t need to be.