Now I don't pay any mind to this show, because I see it as nothing more than a sad attempt at remaking what was once a great sci-fi show back in 1978 when the original was at the top of the viewing charts. Back then, the character of Starbuck was played by Dirk Benedict, and he literally made the show because his Starbuck was so upbeat and fun to watch. It was a lot different than the dour, bitter chick that Starbuck has morphed into in this new copy-cat show. And when I was researching the old show, I stumbled across Dirk Benedict's website. There's lots of material there about his roles on the original Galactica and on the A-Team, but I also found a column he wrote about the remaking of his Galactica character, and when I finished reading, I was surprised at both his candor, his disdain for political correctness, and his accuracy. He sums up the shows changes as they relate to society today and he presents it very well indeed. I've taken some of the more relevant parts out of a longer piece, and all I can say is "Kudos, Dirk!"
Dirk Benedict writes:
Starbuck was meant to be a loveable rogue. It was best for the show,
best for the character and the best that I could do. The Suits didn't
think so. "One more cigar and he's fired,"they told Glen Larson, the
creator of the show. "We want Starbuck to appeal to the female
audience for crying out loud!" You see, the Suits knew women were
turned off by men who smoked cigars. Especially young men. (How
they "knew" this was never revealed.) And they didn't stop there. "If
Dirk doesn't quit playing every scene with a girl like he wants to
get her in bed, he's fired!" This was, well, it was blatant
heterosexuality. Treating women like "sex objects". I thought it was
flirting. Never mind. They wouldn't have it.
I wouldn't have it any other way, or rather Starbuck wouldn't. So we
persevered, Starbuck and I. The show, as the saying goes, went on and
the rest is history – for, lo and behold, women from all over the
world sent me boxes of cigars, phone numbers, dinner requests,
marriage proposals... The Suits were not impressed. They would have
there way, which is what Suits do best, and after one season of
puffing and flirting and gambling, Starbuck, that loveable scoundrel,
was indeed fired. Which is to say Battlestar Galactica was cancelled.
Starbuck however, would not stay cancelled, but simply morphed into
another flirting, cigar-smoking, blatant heterosexual called Faceman
Another show, another set of Suits and, of course, if the A-Team
movie rumours prove correct, another remake.
There was a time – I know I was there – when men were men, women were women and sometimes a cigar was just a good smoke. But 40 years of feminism have taken their toll. The war against masculinity has been won. Everything has turned into its opposite, so that what was once flirting and smoking is now sexual harassment and criminal. And everyone is more lonely and miserable as a result.
He goes on to describe the reinventing of the show from a light-hearted show where good faced off against evil into one where there is no clear-cut good guys or bad ones; a show where moral relativity and ambiguity is the central theme.
"Re-imagining", they call it. "un-imagining" is more accurate. To
take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that
a television show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family is
unimagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and
family dysfunction. To better reflect the times of ambiguous morality
in which we live, one would assume. A show in which the aliens
(Cylons) are justified in their desire to destroy our civilisation.
One would assume. Indeed, let us not say who are he guys and who are
the bad. That is being "judgemental". And that kind of (simplistic)
thinking went out with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and
Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne and, well the original Battlestar
Galactica.
Dirk Benedict cites Thatcher and Reagan and John Wayne while talking about spiritual faith and family? Faceman, we never knew ye.
I love it. And then he goes on to comment specifically on his character's revision into a bitter and angry man-hating alcoholic feminist--the complete opposite of the fun-loving, admirable hero that he once portrayed.
One thing is certain. In the new un-imagined, re-imagined world of
Battlestar Galactica everything is female driven. The male
characters, from Adama on down, are confused, weak, and wracked with
indecision while the female characters are decisive, bold, angry as
hell, puffing cigars (gasp) and not about to take it any more.
One can quickly surmise what a problem the original Starbuck created
for the re-imaginators. Starbuck was all charm and humour and
flirting without an angry bone in his womanising body. Yes, he was
definitely `female driven', but not in the politically correct ways
of Re-imagined Television. What to do, wondered the Re-imaginators?
Keep him as he was, with a twinkle in his eye, a stogie in his mouth,
a girl in every galaxy? This could not be. He would stick out like,
well like a jock strap in a drawer of thongs. Starbuck refused to be
re-imagined. It became the Great Dilemma. How to have your Starbuck
and delete him too?
The best minds in the world of un-imagination doubled their intake of
Double Soy Lattes as they gathered in their smoke-free offices to
curse the day this chauvinistic Viper Pilot was allowed to be. But
never under estimate the power of the un-imaginative mind when it
encounters an obstacle (character) it subconsciously loathes. "Re-
inspiration" struck. Starbuck would go the way of most men in today's
society. Starbuck would become "Stardoe". What the Suits of
yesteryear had been incapable of doing to Starbuck 25 years ago was
accomplished quicker than you can say orchiectomy. Much quicker. As
in, "Frak! Gonads Gone!" And the word went out to all the Suits in
all the smoke-free offices throughout the land of Un-
imagination, "Starbuck is dead. Long live Stardoe!"
I'm not sure if a cigar in the mouth of Stardoe resonates in the same
way it did in the mouth of Starbuck. Perhaps. Perhaps it "resonates"
more. Perhaps that's the point. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is
this…
Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as
Hamletta. Nor does Han Solo as Han Sally. Faceman is not the same as
Facewoman. Nor does a Stardoe a Starbuck make. Men hand out cigars.
Women `hand out' babies. And thus the world, for thousands of years,
has gone round.
Damn, that's refreshing to hear from someone in the midst of today's Hollywood culture. I mean you'd expect it from the movie heroes of the 1950's, men like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Clint Eastwood, or Humphrey Bogart. But you'd never expect it from any of today's effeminate leading "men" such as George Clooney, Matt Damon, or any of the other glamorous sissies that pretend to stand for what real men are supposedly like today.
Dirk, my hat's off to you. You're on the money politically and philosophically and what's more, you made TV fun to watch and sadly it's rarely like that today.
The one--and only--Galactica's Starbuck.
Excellent and well written.
ReplyDelete