Andromeda as a parable of Christianity?

[susanne]

First of all, if this is the wrong board to publish this thread,please forgive me, I am brand new to this forum.
Recently I've indulged myself and watched Andromeda, the series with Kevin Sorbo, back to back again. It struck me how much it could be interpreted as a parable of Christianity. For example:
Dylan Hunt is seen as the only possible saviour of the universe. He alone can defeat the darkness.
The Spirit of the Abyss is obviously the devil, keen to enslave everyone. The Magog are the servants of the Abyss, ie demonic creatures.
Telemachus Rade reminds me strongly of doubting Thomas the apostle.
At the end of the whole series an Armageddon-like scenario occurs.
Does anyone know whether Gene Roddenberry was a Christian? Or am I just imagining this? Any replies would be welcome.

[tris]

Susanne,
welcome to our little corner of the universe. As far as I know Roddenberry wasn't a Christian, but he was fond of using biblical themes in a lot of his work. Star Trek is rife with biblical references (at least the original series was).

Most great science fiction tends to have biblical overtones whether the writer intended it or not. I think because life itself is inherent with the good versus evil theme.

I do hate to see Thomas getting a bum rap though. As my husband is fond of pointing out Thomas' only flaw was not being present at the first Sunday night church meeting. The other disciples didn't believe any more than Thomas did, until they saw Jesus in the locked room that first Sunday evening. Thomas just wanted the same experience the others had had. I do agree though, that Telemachus is a good representative of our struggle with faith and belief. Nice insights.

[susanne]

Yes, I also think that we should notice that Jesus returned to show Himself to Thomas. He loved him that much. Later on, as far as church history goes, Thomas did become an outstanding missionary for Christ.
I do find Telemachus Rade's character very interesting. He finds hope in Dylan, the idea of a Commonwealth and wants to defeat the darkness. But then, due to the adverse circumstances around him and fresh grief, he almost gives up on Dylan and loses all respect for himself and those around him. However, in the end he realizes, he has to make a choice:stand against the darkness, or be devoured by it.
Funny, how Sci-Fi can really make you think.

[waldenwriter]

May 25, 2011 17:02:40 GMT -5 tris said:

Most great science fiction tends to have biblical overtones whether the writer intended it or not. I think because life itself is inherent with the good versus evil theme.

That is definitely true. One example of that which I can think of Is the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's a post-apocalyptic story and it has tons of Christian references, one of which is that the big robots, the Evangelions or Evas, are named after Eve (and based on a robot named Adam). Also a soundtrack I own for the series has a verse from Genesis on the back of the CD jacket.

That series wasn't meant to be Christian though. The show's assistant director explained in an Otaku USA interview: "There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we wanted our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan, we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just think the symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice."

I suppose this reasoning makes sense - the religious stuff in Evangelion is really a backdrop to everything else. And for the most part the Christian elements are more Jewish mysticism-based, similar to the Christianity in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. And Christian symbols get used in anime a lot, without any real significance tied to them - you often see crosses, for example, as well as rosaries ("Rosario" in Japanese; I think the word entered Japanese through Portuguese, like many other Christian terms, due to Portuguese missionaries). They mix Christian symbols with other religious ideas, too, as in the Christianity/reincarnation mix in the series Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (which features a reincarnation of Joan of Arc who fights as a divine warrior against the devil) and Wedding Peach (which features "love angels," reborn as humans, who fight against demons).

So while it's true that Biblical overtones get used everywhere, their use doesn't mean the work or its creators are Christian, I guess.

[Bainespal]

I've been watching Babylon 5 with my father on Netflix (we're almost through the first season), and that show also has themes of transcendence and religious mystery. Previously, we watched all of the episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica series from 1978, which deliberately uses religion and at its best contains redemption themes, although its suggestion that humans need to evolve to become like the angelic race may be problematic, even though I know that evolution can be used as a metaphor of the new birth for secular people. Even Firefly includes some spirituality. Some day, I'll have to watch Andromeda; it sounds good.

Space-opera shows naturally deal with ultimate and with man's search for a destiny. Therefore, I suppose that when they are most honest, themes of redemption and transcendence naturally come to the surface. I think space-opera television series perform a great role in making the public more aware of their existential crisis.

[susanne]

I do like space opera Sci-Fi . I enjoy Sci-fi which is character-driven, and in space operas the writers have the time to develop characters.
Andromeda is certainly a good example, because it stretched over 5 series, so you do see the characters develop.
Another good example are the books by the late, great David Feintuch. His 'Hope' saga has been described as Hornblower in space. But his characters certainly develop throughout the books. He has a strong religious element in his books, too. His universe is ruled by a legalistic hierarchy of religious rulers. His main character offends against those strict rules more than ones, and is deemed lost by the bishops. But in fact, he behaved with more love, compassion and lack of self-interest than they did. It reminds me of Jesus and the Pharisees.

[susanne]

Sorry, re my previous post. Read:'once', not ones.