Oh, I have no problem at all with dark shows. Some of my favourite Trek episodes are bleak ones like "In the Pale Moonlight" and "Mortal Coil," and I'm enjoying the hell out of the new Doctor Who series. Gene Roddenberry's vision is what separates Trek from most sf, but that doesn't automatically make it better than less optimistic concepts.
What bothers me about BSG is that it seems almost grown out of the basher mentality. "Let's not be Trek" is the closest thing it has to a guiding philosophy. Bashers loved B5 and Farscape too, but those shows didn't love them back the way BSG does. Consequently, the show can get away with things Trek couldn't. Picture for a moment a Trek series as glutted with sex as BSG is. Can there be
any doubt that it would be reviled as pandering to the lowest common denominator? But BSG gets to be "
Sci-Fi Sexuality Dealt With." I guess all it takes to deal with sexuality is show everybody screwing and never look at the consequences; it's not like sex
means anything, after all.
And what really gets to me is that everyone is buying it. Not just the bashers,
everyone. BSG is all over the net, nigh-inescapable. And it gets slack no other sf show gets. The complaints bashers had about VOY and ENT pale before the ones they
should have about BSG but don't. Moore is completely flying by the seat of his pants. The Cylons can do whatever's necessary for the plot because they're mysterious. Maybe "they have a plan," but no one has any idea what it is. And why should they? Their fans don't care.
Did you know that Kira used to be every bit the Trek defender I am? We felt just the same way about the basher mentality... and then, little by little, I watched it eat her. In the end she'd become a dyed-in-the-wool TWOP-type fan, agreeing with the mob, saying stuff like "squee," and ending sentences? Like this. By the time BSG came out, it fit her like a glove. So yeah, I have something of a personal investment here -- maybe too much. But I will do
anything I can to fight the basher mentality. And I'll watch BSG, sometimes enjoy it, but I'll never forget what it stands for.