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Battlestar Galactica SciFi Channel Fridays, 10/9c

Evolve or die—that is humanity's dilemma as Battlestar Galactica enters its final season. It's a familiar concept to those who devoured Eckhart Tolle's Oprah-baptized The New Earth, a compelling, winsome song of freedom that appeals to our inner survivor. If we marshal our resources, we can leave all our cares behind. We may even transcend death itself. But Galactica dares to suggest that freedom isn't what we might think it is.

Last season, a small remnant of humans followed President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) to Earth; they were promised a solid home after years of fleeing the relentless Cylons through space. Instead, they landed on a radioactive wasteland, their hope shattered by the caprice of the gods who led them there.

Despite tenacity, resilience, and spirit, mankind has failed. Humans are just too weak, too vulnerable, and too mortal to endure. By contrast, the Cylons have superhuman strength, a boundless army, and, most importantly, the power to resurrect. Upon death, a Cylon's consciousness simply downloads into one of the many bodies housed in the resurrection ship.

The Cylons achieved their power by evolving from robot slaves into sentient beings. Now, in this season, it seems that the humans' only chance for survival is to mimic their enemies and evolve out of their frail humanity. If possible, they will become Cylons themselves.

But a small faction of Cylons has chosen a different path, siding with the humans against their own kind. They destroyed their own resurrection ship, rendering themselves powerless to download into new bodies. Their Cylon cohorts can't fathom such a senseless de-evolution—nor can the humans.

"To live meaningful lives, we must die and not return," explains Cylon Natalie (Tricia Helfer). "Mortality is the one thing that makes you whole." She is half right. Despite Tolle's promises, it is not evolution that yields salvation; instead, in God's redemptive purposes, new life is impossible without death.

There's hope for the humans of Battlestar Galactica buried in Earth's radioactive ashes, and a potent reminder for believers: Only by becoming more, not less, mortal can we find irreversible resurrection.

Annie Frisbie, a bsg freak and devoted mom, blogs at superfastreader.com

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Battlestar Galactica is on the SciFi Channel on Fridays at 10/9 Central.

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January 2009, Vol. 53, No. 1