For this show, we venture into the fascinating intersection of mythology and science fiction through the lens of Battlestar Galactica. From the original 1970s series to the 2000s reboot, we uncover how certain pagan and celestial references are ingeniously woven into the storyline with names like Pegasus, Commander Adama, and Lieutenant Athena aren't just characters—they're symbols of a grander narrative that tie the drama into the premises of the ancient astronaut theory.
We also focus on Caprica, the prequel series that adds further depth to this rich universe and also on how the human survivors of a millennia-long war with the Cylons seek out the elusive 13th Colony, which is here on planet Earth. You'll find intriguing connections to the Hebrew Bible's creation story and the reptilian attributes of the Cylons. Mormon cosmology is also significant, particularly the parallels between planet names of Kolob and Kobol, showcasing creator Glenn Larson's intent to infuse the narrative with elements of Mormonism.
As we round out our discussion, the thematic richness comes to light with love, betrayal, vengeance, and theology and forms a complex web that mirrors real-world advancements in AI. We delve into the series' depiction of the android robot Cylons integrating into their society, drawing parallels to actual automation, and show how there are religious undertones to it, such as creation and resurrection. The story reminds us of the poignancy to what the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan had once said about us being made of "star stuff" and helps us ponder the possibility of our origins from the out there in the cosmos.
*The content of this podcast is based only on the views of the hosts and are not those of the motion picture corporations, franchises, or guilds; nor does it imply any endorsements from them.*
For this show, we venture into the fascinating intersection of mythology and science fiction through the lens of Battlestar Galactica. From the original 1970s series to the 2000s reboot, we uncover how certain pagan and celestial references are ingeniously woven into the storyline with names like Pegasus, Commander Adama, and Lieutenant Athena aren't just characters—they're symbols of a grander narrative that tie the drama into the premises of the ancient astronaut theory.
We also focus on Caprica, the prequel series that adds further depth to this rich universe and also on how the human survivors of a millennia-long war with the Cylons seek out the elusive 13th Colony, which is here on planet Earth. You'll find intriguing connections to the Hebrew Bible's creation story and the reptilian attributes of the Cylons. Mormon cosmology is also significant, particularly the parallels between planet names of Kolob and Kobol, showcasing creator Glenn Larson's intent to infuse the narrative with elements of Mormonism.
As we round out our discussion, the thematic richness comes to light with love, betrayal, vengeance, and theology and forms a complex web that mirrors real-world advancements in AI. We delve into the series' depiction of the android robot Cylons integrating into their society, drawing parallels to actual automation, and show how there are religious undertones to it, such as creation and resurrection. The story reminds us of the poignancy to what the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan had once said about us being made of "star stuff" and helps us ponder the possibility of our origins from the out there in the cosmos.
*The content of this podcast is based only on the views of the hosts and are not those of the motion picture corporations, franchises, or guilds; nor does it imply any endorsements from them.*
Hello everybody, thank you for joining us on Alien Talk Podcast. This is a show where we discuss all things about aliens and UFOs and, as always, where we push the limits of our understanding. We are, joe and Lori, here once again to seek the truth and find the facts pertaining to the highly discussed issues about extraterrestrial life and the existence of UFOs. Before we dive in, stay tuned for a message from our special friends over at Technically a Conversation an intriguing and exciting podcast about true crimes. When we return, we're going to get into the second part of our series, the Mythology and Sci-Fi. We'll be right back.
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Thank you, we do things just a little bit different.
Speaker 3:
Every week we share a new topic and the other hosts have no idea what the topic will be.
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Our topics are all over the place, from light and funny to dark and sometimes spooky.
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We've covered everything from true crime, historical events and people, the supernatural and the occult.
Speaker 3:
I like that.
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Urban legends and folklore my favorite.
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No matter what we cover, we try to make the episodes interesting and funny.
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Don't mean to be the bad guy but our lawyer said we legally couldn't call our show funny.
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We have a lawyer. Let me tell you what I told our lawyer.
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Come here so I can show you how far I can legally stick my high heeled boot up your Check us out at technicallyaconversationcom Apple Podcasts, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Technically a conversation.
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We're like a lifestyle brand, yeah.
Joe:
All right. So this is the second show in our series covering the mythology of sci-fi, where we closely examine the so-called truth and fiction to find what lies in the substrate of our imaginations, which reveals intuitive knowledge about our actual universe. So we are selecting several sci-fi movies or television series to explore the meaning of the mythology behind them and asking if there are any nuggets of truth to be found in the telling of the fiction.
Laurie:
Yeah, that's right. So last time we looked at Star Trek not only the movie, but the entire theme and the storyline behind its whole creation. With that we pointed out how there is a synergy between the telling of fiction and the discoveries we were prominent in the 1990s and the next generation became inventions that we actually have at our disposal right now, and we discussed how the Star Trek civilization may be an example of humanity's future, and this is where we talked about how it may be attainable, like either by our own doing or by an outside helper, mainly that of extraterrestrials, and whether this be by, you know, giving us the calculations to a future warp drive so we can travel about the galaxy, or if they provide us with how to sustain food and water better. You know, perhaps even show us how to prolong our lifespans by decades, or even a century or two. But today we're going to discuss the influence and the significance of another iconic science fiction story that was made for television and that is Battlestar Galactica.
Laurie:
Now, the first series, the original series, started back in the late 70s and then there was a reboot that went from 2004 to 2009, which was based on that, with some variations. Some might say that the plot is a little darker in that one than the original show, and that is. You know well that it has better cinematography. But like with most movies, that very first episode seems to hold the core of what becomes the canon of the entire saga. So if you haven't seen the original 1970s series, I recommend that you give them a watch, at least the pilot episode.
Joe:
Indeed, and for those who are old enough to remember the 1978 airing of Battlestar Galactica as you and I are, L laurie you remember that it really hit the mark on presenting the idea of the ancient astronaut theory in a pretty vivid way. That's the way I recall it. The names of the characters of the spaceships and the actors had mythological and celestial references. There was the ship the Battlestar Pegasus, you had Medtech, cassiopeia, lieutenants Athena and Sheba, count Baltar, commander Adama, who was played by Lorne Green, a very famous actor known for his role in Bonanza, which was a 1960s cowboy western TV show, and actually one of the actors in that series also appears in a newer one. It's Richard Hatch. He plays the character Tom Zarek in the new one. In the old one he is Captain Apollo. So you can see how those names really put the symbolic imagery right into the forefront of the story in a very dramatic way.
Laurie:
And there was even a Lieutenant Starbuck, reminiscent of the Starbucks coffee, or that name might be used to sound like Buck Rogers, I don't know. The character on the show is played by Dirk Benedict. He kind of was like a buck, a young buck, you might say. I think he was, wasn't he face in the A-Team too? He?
Joe:
was, he was, and that is that's when he jumped the shark after that.
Joe:
He hasn't seen many other movies since then, at least none that I remember, and that was from back in the early 80s. But yeah, and you know, Battlestar Galactica was actually made even more memorable to me, and probably others as well, because it was during that pilot show on September 17th 1978. It was aired on ABC as a Sunday night special and we watched the news interruption of the Cantabria Accord, with then President Jimmy Carter meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for a peace treaty. And it was a historic event and this roused my parents' attention. They became very excited because of how that was seen at that time to be a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and thus a major sign that Jesus' second coming is near. So the whole thing had a rather ethereal and surreal hammer to it. You have this storyline with elements of paganism sort of juxtaposed within something of a mood of Christian belief and Christian eschatology you said it was a Sunday night.
Laurie:
Was it really a Sunday night or are you sure it wasn't on a Friday?
Joe:
Yeah, I remember I was not allowed to stay up and watch the whole thing because it was on a school night. My parents let me stay up pretty late, but not too late. I was in fourth grade and I think they let me stay up to about 11 o'clock. That was it. Of course, the Camp David interruption made the show get dragged on to a later time, so it probably went to about midnight and I did not get the cdn. I just ran too late.
Laurie:
So that was a bummer yeah, that that is a bummer.
Laurie:
So the whole show was just absolutely steeped in ancient alien allegory and symbolism and it really painted a good picture, especially for that time, of the full concept of that whole idea.
Laurie:
And it was done through cinematic means on a television show.
Laurie:
And think of the start of the intro with the narrator saying there are those who believe that life here began out there, with tribes of humans far across the universe who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians or the Toltecs or the Mayans.
Laurie:
And that's almost dead on to the basic premise of Chariots of the Gods and the Earth Chronicles series, the books by Eric Von Daniken and Zachariah Sitchin that we've brought up so many times and that many people know of them through the whole ancient alien theory many times, and that many people know of them through the whole ancient alien theory. And that's what we want to do here on Alien Talk Podcast is show how the ancient alien theory is woven into the fabric of our society and has been from the earliest of times. We can see its importance in the movies and how it affects us and how it will continue to influence us well into the future of our space exploration and perhaps one day humans will travel to other planets and become the ancient aliens to the possible indigenous life forms that live on them. And one day we may become the sky people who descend from the heavens to instill the laws of civilization.
Joe:
Well, that is a very profound sentiment, ari, and we have to understand that. The ancient alien theory is a different perspective on the religious beliefs and religious texts that were handed down to us. It's a modern perspective on what could have happened in ancient times, with the stories of miracles and the stories of the divine that allow us to focus on a possible extraterrestrial answer a tangible answer, as opposed to merely deferring to spiritual and supernatural ones, which are intangible answers. So a film like Battlestar Galactica can really solidify the thought processes that make us ponder such things. I mean, heck, even the helmets used by the pilots of those slick fighter ships, the Vipers they looked like the Egyptian Nims the headpieces that we see in all those ancient hieroglyphs and artwork.
Joe:
So the producers were definitely trying to create the impression of ancient aliens in the telling of the whole saga and you get that sense as you watch all the episodes, all the way up to the end.
Laurie:
Yeah, so in Battlestar Galactica, the spaceship of the same name, as the story goes, is carrying surviving humans from a thousand year war, with the Cylons on their search to find the 13th colony of humans living on a planet called Earth. Now, we don't believe that humans, in the form we are now, came from another planet to this one. However, our ancestors, in somewhat of a different form or appearance, may have Our genealogy, may have descended from the stars. Hence we are created in their image and after their likeness, just as it says in the Hebrew Bible right.
Joe:
Yeah, and we also find that there is a reptilian attribute to it as well, particularly with that character known as the Imperious Leader. From the very first few showings. These are the Cylons, who are the creators of those scary-looking android robots that are also called Cylons. Now, in the original series, the reptilian species of Cylons are mostly extinct, but it is apparent that they saw humans as a nuisance and that they needed to get rid of them, and the androids made by them are on that very mission.
Laurie:
So to really shed light on the ancient alien connection that is part of Battlestar Galactica, we need to bring up another series, which is called Caprica. It is the prequel to the main story and it is set 58 years before the fall of civilization in the extended saga. So planet Caprica is one of the 12 colonies of humanity, and we must warn you, though, if you haven't seen any of these shows, there are spoilers, so spoiler alert, but for sure it is definitely worth watching if you haven't already. And we must do this in order for you know, we want you guys to get a grasp on what we are attempting to teach to you about the ancient alien theories influence on these sci-fi stories. Again, even though they are fictitious, we are wanting to reveal the truths within them that may one day become our very own reality.
Joe:
Right. Caprica became part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise in 2010, and it is definitely worth watching. The style is different, especially with how the characters are dressed. It begins with a rebellious teenager named Zoe, who is the daughter of a wealthy Caprican computer engineer named Daniel Greystone, and she leaves Caprica, with her boyfriend and his best friend, for the neighboring planet of Gaminon. However, all three of the friends belong to a monotheistic cult that is called the Soldiers of the One, and this is a religion that does not honor the polytheistic beliefs of the colonies, who worship the lords of Kobol.
Laurie:
Yeah. So, as you can see, this is a storyline that is loaded with stuff from the ancient alien theory. It tells of our ancestors originating on a whole different planet, from across the stars, and this is set in a time from probably millions of years ago, and it is full of drama and politics of any advanced civilization. And what's interesting to note is that the creators were sure to insert the constant strife between religious beliefs. The 12 colonies worship different gods, while the one labeled as a cult worships the one, true god. It is this cult, the monotheistic one, that uses suicide bombers to promote their agenda. Yet notice the name of the polyistic one it's called the Lords of Kobol, again a plurality that we have become acquainted with from learning about the Sumerian Anunnaki, where we get a pantheon of a council of 12 gods or lords.
Joe:
And if this outline sounds familiar, it's because it is found in the cosmology of the Mormon religion, in which the heaven planet where God is at, is called Kolob, as it is the creator of Battlestar Galactica. Glenn Larson was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and he meant to dramatize on that. He just transposed the L and the B to make Kolob Kobol. Now Kolob is mentioned in a verse hymn found in the Mormon scripture, known as the Pearl of Great Price, and Kolob is a place, is a star, or a planet, or a star with its planet that is somewhere in our galaxy and that is where God dwells.
Joe:
So Larson had been a writer and a screen director since the 1950s and had worked on many successful TV shows, some of them you may remember, like Knight Rider, the Fall Guy and the Six Million Dollar man. He worked on the script for about 10 years with the help of Gene Kuhn, another big-time script writer. Interestingly, the title Larson wanted to use initially was Adam's Ark, which again really delivers the message about humanity's extraterrestrial origin, and Battlestar Galactica to get the word star in there as a way to capitalize on the popularity of other contemporary movies that used it, namely Star Trek and Star Wars. Of course, the influence of Mormonism is evident in Kobol being the name of the home planet from which 13 tribes of humans depart, and it is meant to sound very much like Kolob, considered by the LDS church as to be the heavenly seat somewhere out there, possibly in the very center of the Milky Way galaxy.
Laurie:
Well, I guess the Mormons are divided as to the exact meaning. Some have tried to explain that Kolob is not so much a literal star or planet, but that it is metaphorically represented that way, and this is to put God in a more transcendental way that is more consistent with the traditional view of him. God can't just exist on a simple planet. That is supposed to be heaven, right, but that's just what heaven may truly be Another planet out there where our consciousness is uploaded, like into an avatar of some type on a new world.
Joe:
And if you recall, laurie, that almost three years ago, close to the time we started this podcast program, we did two episodes that covered the extraterrestrial aspects to the Mormon religion with our guests Ryan and Mike, who are both former Latter-day Saints. That was one of the things brought up is how God and humans exist as both body and spirit, and how God can exist as we traditionally think of him, as spirit, but also exist on a planet.
Laurie:
Right. We traditionally think of them as spirit, but also exist on a planet Right, and if you want to know more about the whole Mormonism connection to the ancient alien theory, we encourage you to go back and listen to those, as well as the one called Planet Heaven. We explain it all pretty thoroughly in those episodes. So anyway, in Caprica, which, along with the Battlestar Galactica reboot of the 2000s, does differ in some ways from the original series, we have the character Zoe getting killed, but she had visited some sort of teenage club where she was able to create a sentient digital representation of herself. And Greystone meets with another grieving parent named Joseph Adama.
Laurie:
Greystone meets with another grieving parent named Joseph Adama Daniel. Greystone offers to create a clone of Joseph's daughter and wife if he is able to steal a processor. Adama agrees and the stolen chip allows Greystone to construct a robot called a Cylon with great strength and agility. He then tries to resurrect his daughter, zoe, by downloading her into the Cylon's artificial body. After all is said and done, the Caprican government orders a mass production of Cylons for military use, and the prototype was not designed to be sentient, but it did obtain a unique AI, and no one is aware that Zoe's avatar survived, except for her friend Lacey, who Zoe called from a lab.
Joe:
And you're right about those newer shows. They are not quite in line with the story that we get from the original.
Joe:
But regarding something like AI, artificial intelligence we must ask will humans one day create an android that will look and feel just like a human? Well, we see that it is already being done. However, we haven't created at least not right now one that looks like us. It may look like us I should say it does look like us but does not have our essence, which is consciousness. But what if we are able to create such android robots that can become sentient Ones, that somehow find a way to learn, or, more accurately, learn to upload human consciousness into their brains and have it interconnect with all the sensory data? This may be the way we'll end up prolonging our lifespans into the centuries, and without the need for things like food or water. Think about that.
Joe:
There have been movies that do depict this. There is the one from 2014 called Transcendence, with Johnny Depp, and it shows a man of great knowledge, a software engineer, who has advanced knowledge about this, being able to upload his conscious into a large quantum computer. So can something like this be done? Clearly, at this point, we can only formulate it in our imaginations. Consider what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4, 16-17, in which he says Jesus Christ will one day return to take his believers home to heaven. However, in doing so, according to the scripture verse, the bodies of the believers are to change. They are to put off the mortal garment and put on the immortal ones.
Laurie:
Yeah, and this could mean one of two things Either the bodies become spiritual, where we float around like ghosts, or is the consciousness of the person uploaded into a sentient replica of themselves. Taking what Jesus said in John 14, 4-6, that he is going away to prepare a place for his believers and will one day return for them to live where he is, could this be another planet like Kolob? And could it be people living in sentient avatars of themselves, living forever with no more tears and no more need for water, as it said in Revelation 21.6? The only two conceivable possibilities for this to occur are either spiritual or artificial intelligence. So, based on what we know now from how ancients perceived technology and how they understood events back then, I'm inclined to lean more towards the latter, unless our consciousness is in some way linked to another flesh and blood body on another planet that is better suited to live on it, much like what was depicted in the James Cameron movie Avatar, and maybe that's what humans are right now sentient and conscious beings born or linked into the body of its avatar here on Earth, and these bodies that we're living in now are suited for this planet. Is this why we are the only species that ponders about its purpose and why it is here.
Laurie:
So the whole series of Caprica. It's full of love, it's betrayal, it's revenge, it's hate, violence, politics and religion, and the series has a slew of assassinations in order to obtain an agenda. And all the drama in our earthly civilization. The creators of the series were sure to incorporate it all into the fiction story. As the series ends, the future of Caprica is seen where Cylons have been accepted into society and working jobs that humans do not want. Sound familiar.
Joe:
It makes me think of the Styx song and video, mr Roboto. Thank you very much, mr Roboto, for doing a job that no one wanted to. Just thought when you said that, but yeah, eventually in the story, a character known as the Blessed Mother begins to teach the Cylons to worship God. She teaches them that they are God's children and are equal to humans, and that they can become more than that. She preaches of the one that loves them and that their belief in God will give them the power to destroy their creators. A virtual copy of Zoe is then seen in the audience. Finally, a scene has Daniel and Amada Greystone completing a human-looking skin-jaw body for their daughter's avatar, giving it a fleshy appearance as opposed to looking like a robot, and the Zou Greystone is seen rising from a small pool, similar to the Cylon resurrection tanks that were seen in the series of Battlestar Galactica, essentially having been reborn into the real world.
Laurie:
Yeah, has a religious theme. It's like Jesus preached being born again.
Joe:
Yes, through a pool through a liquid, through water. I think that was water that they used, but it gave the same impression, right?
Laurie:
That's what we get with these religious stories, and we know that Cylons have been accepted into our society and have been working jobs that we do not want, and even before the 2010 television prophecy of Caprica the prophecy of Caprica we had computers and robots taking over human jobs.
Laurie:
Now we have computers doing this in manufacturing. Now, we had computers doing this in the manufacturing companies for many years, but, however, we now have robots bringing you your food in some restaurants, and they have limited the need for cashiers and stores like Walmart and Target and grocery stores, et cetera, and anytime you call a place of business, it's usually an automated teller walking you through the options process. And so the original series has these Cylons being created by an ancient reptilian race that may have been destroyed by the Cylons, which sounds like the typical creation, destroys the creator scenario. So, while humans eventually defeat the Anylons, which sounds like the typical creation, destroys the creator scenario. So, while humans eventually defeat the Anunnaki, when they return to enslave us or whatever, and if it is determined that they, the Anunnaki, did create humans, then well, we end up warring against our gods someday A scary thought when you really think about it.
Joe:
Yeah, and so, as you can see, battlestar Galactica certainly has an ancient alien theme going on. The Homo sapiens hybrid may well have come from out there in the cosmos. As Carl Sagan used to say, we are made of star stuff. Could we be the aliens on this planet? So, even though this is science fiction, could there have been something to it, like a race of beings like us, living on this planet millions of years ago, that had once descended in spaceships to Earth to call it their new home? Maybe that's the way it was with the Atlanteans, who are now gone but who brought forth here the genesis of human existence as we know it. It's hard to say what all there is, maybe hidden below us or up above us, like on the moon or on Mars, just waiting to be discovered, something that will change the course of our history.
Laurie:
Exactly, and we are eventually going to solve many more mysteries about our planet and about the civilizations that have come and gone. So in our next episode we're going to talk about a television miniseries that became another cult classic from the 80s, and it went from 1983 to 1985. And I wish it could have been longer, and it is quite eerie, to say the least. And that is the show that is known uh, none other than v yes, it.
Joe:
It's definitely one of the more distinctive ones from my youth. Um, it did have a reboot for two seasons from 2009 to 2011. It didn't quite take off like the original one. Um, and some of you out there do remember the miniseries that ran back in the day. Others are probably too young, but it is a pretty cool alien story and the special effects were pretty good for that time especially. It was state-of-the-art special effects for miniseries on TV and we will be discussing how the reptilian agenda ties in with that story and what we can take from that one. So that will do it for today's show. We hope we piqued your interest and hope you continue to follow us through this series, as we have many in-depth discussions to come. So until next time, stay safe and stay curious.
