Eastern Alliance

This article is about the Battlestar Galactica state. For other uses, see Eastern Alliance (disambiguation).

The Eastern Alliance is a militaristic and totalitarian human interstellar state in the original Battlestar Galactica television series. The Alliance is opposed by the Western Coalition. It is primarily located on the planet Terra.

Depiction

The Eastern Alliance appears in "Greetings from Earth", "Baltar's Escape" and "Experiment in Terra".[1]

"Greetings from Earth" reveals the Alliance uses neutron (nuclear) weapons to clear habitable planets of Western population. "Experiment in Terra" reveals the Alliance has been wiping out the populations of every Western satellite. Later in the episode, the Alliance launches a surprise nuclear strike to wipe out the West after having maneuvered the Western Coalition president into a questionable peace treaty. They attack during the President's speech about the worthless peace treaty, and move the "critical and loyal" part of their population into bomb shelters. The Commandant refuses to warn the general population of the Alliance, saying that losses will be acceptable and that overpopulation is one of their biggest problems.[2]

The Eastern Alliance has space-faring ships, force fields, laser guns and cryogenics. They use wheeled vehicles, lack ships capable of light speed, and cannot defend themselves against nuclear warfare. The Alliance favors a large laser rifle with a red pulsing strobe light.[2]

The standard Alliance ship is the destroyer. Destroyers are numbered and patrol areas in and around Terra and the various satellites. The destroyer is small enough to land in the Galactica's landing bay and is crewed by approximately six men and an officer. While questioning Commandant Leiter in "Baltar's Escape", Adama states that the Alliance "would need a thousand such destroyers to attack the Galactica".

The uniform worn by Commandant Leiter is a mix of Soviet and National Socialist influences. The shoulder boards are almost exactly the same as those used by Soviet officers. The unit marking above the right cuff is from the Nazi practice of an identical type of band that denoted named Wehrmacht divisions, such as "Panzer Lehr." Other items such as the hat are hybrids of the Soviet's officer's cap and the Nazi schirmutze. Apparently the idea of the Eastern Alliance officer's uniform was to hybridize the uniforms used by Fascist/Socialist states; the National Socialists of Germany and the Communists of the Soviet Union are the two most obvious influences on the uniform.

Reception

Josef Steiff identifies the "Eastern Alliance" as a stand in "for the 'Eastern Bloc' countries of the Soviet Union",[3] while John Kenneth Muir sees this "enemy as ruthless as the Cylons" as "fascistic."[1]

Josef Steiff argues that the show "suggests that Evil is universal (existing in...the Eastern Alliance, per 'Experiment in Terra') and that its agenda is to lead humanity astray, away from the light and the universe of the spirit."[3] John Kenneth Muir writes that Eastern Alliance forces have "little impact" and that "in execution, the Eastern Alliance baddies were not really much more interesting than the faceless Cylons".[1]

Characters

References

  1. 1 2 3 Muir, John Kenneth (1999). An analytical guide to television's Battlestar Galactica. pp. 102, 104.
  2. 1 2 "Experiment in Terra" Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)
  3. 1 2 Steiff, Josef (2008). Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy. p. 242.
  4. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0675490/
  5. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001957/
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0523142/
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