Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica

With its fourth season due to air in January 2008, the award-winning Battlestar Galactica continues to be exceptionally popular for non-network television, combining the familiar features of science fiction with direct commentary on life in mainstream America. Cylons in America is the first collection of critical studies of Battlestar Galactica (its 2003 miniseries, and the ongoing 2004 television series), examining its place within popular culture and its engagement with contemporary American society.

Battlestar Galactica depicts the remnants of the human race fleeing across space from a robotic enemy called the Cylons. The fleet is protected by a single warship, the Battlestar, and is searching for a ＂lost colony＂ that settled on the legendary planet ＂Earth.＂ Originally a television series in the 1970s, the current series maintains the mythic sense established with the earlier quest narrative, but adds elements of hard science and aggressive engagement with post-9/11 American politics. Cylons In America casts a critical eye on the revived series and is sure to appeal to fans of the show, as well as to scholars and researchers of contemporary television.

Tiffany Potter, teaching in the Department of English, University of British Columbia, and holding a PhD in English Literature, focuses her research on cultural studies, with emphases on colonial and post-colonialism, feminism, the history of sexuality, and the historical literatures of anthropology and race. She has published extensively in many journals, including Early American Literature. C.W. Marshall is an Associate Professor of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, with a PhD in Classics and a post-graduate diploma in Christian Studies, in the Department of English at the University of British Columbia. Having published on the conventions of heroism from Greek tragedy to Buffy the Vampire Slayer,＂ he brings to this project an understanding of the foundations of Western mythic and narrative patterns