How come SciFi always recycles the 'false gods' premise yet never has the balls to use a 'real God'?
Actually there's a fair amount of genre programming that at least hints at the existence of an actual deity.
Quantum Leap strongly implied that the hand of God was behind Sam Beckett's journeys. George Pal's
War of the Worlds implies divine intervention as the means of humanity's salvation, and M. Night Shyamalan's
Signs makes it more explicit (though far more contrived and awkward).
I'm getting really sick of just about every SciFi show in existence, and often movies too, recycling the premise of 'false gods'. Star Trek: TOS has episodes that deal with this. Star Trek V was pretty much nothing other than this.
Well, see, the problem there isn't SF, it's TV and movies. As
Silvercrest hinted, TV and movie executives are generally quite reluctant to air programming with overtly religious themes, for fear of stirring up controversy and driving away advertisers. Even when a show does revolve around, say, angels as in
Touched by an Angel or the afterlife as in
Dead Like Me, the theology tends to be sanitized and vague, and the big questions are avoided. Whenever Buffy or Angel experienced Hell or Heaven, it was described in terms of being a hell-like or heaven-like "dimension," skirting the question of exactly what religion's interpretation of the afterlife was being referenced. And you'll find more shows featuring the Devil (such as
Reaper) than God, not because networks are satanic (although they often seem to be), but because a depiction of God is more likely to be seen as blasphemous, disrespectful, etc. The only time you ever seen God as an actual onscreen character is when it's a comedy, and even then people can be easily offended, especially if they're on the religious right (note the 4-week run of the animated sitcom
God, the Devil and Bob). Ironically, the conservative Christian movement has done more than anyone to keep God off the airwaves, since they're so intolerant of any interpretation of God other than their own.
Star Trek V is a classic example of this. Shatner wanted the movie to be about the crew actually meeting God, but there was no way the studio would ever go for that, because it would be far too controversial. So it had to be toned down to "the crew meets a false God." Not because it was what the storytellers wanted, but because it was all the studio executives would permit them to do.
Babylon 5, DS9, the Stargate shows, nuBSG etc. etc. all seem to have recycled the 'false gods' idea ad nauseaum. Enough is enough already.
That's a fallacious argument. You're taking things that are only vaguely similar and reinterpreting them as the same thing. DS9 never proposed that the false gods were from any Earth religion; rather, it depicted an alien race that had programmed its servant races to worship it. And yet at the same time, it increasingly implied that the Bajoran Prophets might be genuine gods. DS9 was one of the few SFTV shows that's been daring enough to embrace an exploration of religious ideas, so you're being unfairly hard on it.
And the same goes for BSG. Although there are differing beliefs among the characters over whose gods are genuine, those are merely the personal beliefs of the characters, not a confirmed truth within the show. If anything, BSG has consistently embraced a magic-realist approach to storytelling, with destiny, prophecy, miracles, and apparently divine guidance/intervention being integral parts of the storyline. They are definitely embracing religion more fully than just about any show on TV -- and part of exploring religion is exploring difference in belief, different factions disputing whose gods are real. So you've totally misread BSG if you think it's avoiding religious issues.
As for B5, it did imply that the Vorlons had meddled in various races' histories and programmed those races to perceive the Vorlons in the form of their own deities. But that was a minor element of the saga.
So really, it's only
Stargate SG-1 that's made a central issue of the "false gods" idea. You're imagining this to be far more ubiquitous than it actually is, and overlooking instances where religious ideas are being sincerely explored.
Why do you think no SciFi (at least that I'm aware of, correct me if I'm wrong) has the balls to present a real God or gods who are exactly what they say they are and that's that? DS9 sort of came close to doing this with it's portrayal of the Prophets, but even so they stopped short since they are ultimately just mortal wormhole aliens, not real gods.
Ahh, but are they? That's what Starfleet believes, but the Bajorans believe differently, and the producers refused to take a definitive stance on who was right. The intelligent scholar of religion doesn't claim there's only one truth, but acknowledges that there can be merit in multiple interpretations of the universe. The Hindus used the analogy of the blind men feeling different parts of an elephant -- each one perceived a different thing, but they all grasped only part of the greater truth.
Thanks for posting that.
