ByYourCommand.net

Science fiction writer Christopher L. Bennett, on another forum, recently accused ABC of "introducing Sheba as a tough fighter jock and then promptly reducing her to a simpering love interest," which he imagined to be the result of network pressure to change her character. I actually liked Sheba's character arc and thought its development was all perfectly explained by events within "The Living Legend" and "War of the Gods."

Sheba learned at her father's knee to be a tough, ruthless warrior, but the story makes clear that she was very jealous over her father's affections and adopted this persona in a desperate effort to maintain his approval. During the course of "The Living Legend," she learns to question her father's judgment after seeing his occasional duplicity exposed and experiencing the saner, more other-directed leadership styles of Adama and Apollo. The Cain hero-worship is tempered and she learns to be gentler and more accepting of other people, particularly Cassiopeia.

Her strong affection for Cain never dies, though, and after she loses him, her easy manipulation by Count Iblis is largely the result of her yearning for a father substitute. When this proves a disappointment (to say the least), Apollo's self-sacrifice to save her life naturally leads her to focus on him as a partner in a more balanced relationship.

It all makes sense to me. There's a difference between arbitrarily changing a character and developing a character. Sorry if Mr. Bennett considers this a "reduction," but I disagree. The seasoned combat pilot was still there when needed, but Sheba became a more rounded, independent, well-adjusted character the more she left that one-note "tough fighter jock" personality behind.

Lastly but not leastly, Sheba may have whimpered on occasion, but she never simpered!

Obviously Mr. Bennett isn't cool enough to hang out here, or he would surely have argued with me by now.

Brilliant deduction again, I agree once more!

While speaking of Sheba, this particular art by Chris Scalf came to my mind:

That's beautiful. Do you own the original?

No, sadly not.

But here's a scan of the comic book cover where it was scanned from:

Is that supposed to be the nuBSG Battlestar on the left of the painting? Seems out of place if it is.

No, it's the original Big G.

The comic was released in 1999, when the RDM version wasn't even a brainchild...

Red Eye that is a awesome scan. I wonder if Anne would autograph it.

Thank you.

There are two more like this of Apollo and Starbuck:

http://www.byyourcommand.net/cylongalle ... play_media

http://www.byyourcommand.net/cylongalle ... play_media

An authographed Sheba photo would be AWESOME for sure!

Having recently started a rewatch of the original BG I have to say that I thought Sheba was ill-served by the scriptwriters who seemed to resort to sexism. Initially she was a tough fighter pilot, but does end up a more conventional female creation typical of the period. I have reached as far as Greetings from Earth and she hasn't really improved as yet.

Well, she was a character who from the start was given a lot of issues to work through. She wasn't simply "tough" in the beginning; she was a seriously deficient personality doing what she thought was needed to earn and keep her father's approval. And Cain wasn't exactly a well-balanced personality himself.

And it's probably true that by the time she had gone through her bout of dependency with Count Iblis, the writers were tired of dealing with her. Theoretically, in a second season they could have struck a balance and given her more fighter-pilot action but without the huge chip on her shoulder. Alas, however, their actual plan was to kill her off in the season opener as part of a budget-saving effort to shrink the regular cast.

As far as her being a fairly conventional Seventies TV character... well, who wasn't?

Anyway, I disagree with the common assumption these days that a "strong" female character has to be portrayed as angry. The strong people I know in real life are almost never angry.

I thought that Sheba was a character not well served by the writers; she start's off tough as nails and then becomes all teary and soft. Typically sexist '70s approach to female characters, and specifically adventure fiction created by and written by males.

I would disagree that she was really "tough as nails" in The Living Legend. It was clearly a facade put up by a needy little girl desperately seeking her father's approval. If you want to call that sexist writing, I have no reason to disagree, but that's who the character was.

Sheba was written with emotional deficiencies similar to Starbuck's. And I would maintain that she became a stronger and more mature human being when she finally worked through her dependency issues.

Strong characters can show vulnerability, as Apollo often did. Sheba was not turned into a character who cringed at danger.

I'd say the writing was flawed and jerked the character around acording to the needs of the plot and it did have a sexist bent. If you want to see how to write proper, fleshed out female characters see the new series in which the writing was far superior. Boomer, Starbuck, Roslin et al. The Number Six character was exceptionally well written and performed. Don't misunderstand me, I love the old show bit it was a tad cardboard and formulaic in terms of it's approach to the characters. The fine cast did their best within the limitations of the time however. Richard Hatch is a first rate actor and he did a good job in the old show, but his performance really sang in his role in the new show.

Oh well, I'm afraid I still love the original series too much to watch the reimagined business. Even though Hatch finally made peace with it. Ron Moore can brood on his own time. I'm a Sixties/Seventies sci-fi guy who doesn't go to the genre looking for dark seriousness or well-rounded character writing.