Downloading Doppelgängers: New Media Anxieties and Transnational Ironies in Battlestar Galactica

Abstract

This essay reads the re-made Battlestar Galactica series—-a 21st-century Frankenstein—-according to the Canadian contexts of its production and the globalized contexts of its distribution, both formal (on cable TV) and informal (on the Internet). Contextualized by the history of media imperialism in Canada, the British Columbia sets and Canadian star casting of the series ironically articulate US-Canadian border and security concerns. Among these articulations, Battlestar focuses particular attention on new media issues, at a moment when the Canadian government responds to pressure from US entertainment interests to align its intellectual property laws with their more punitive American counterparts.