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June 2005

"7-Swords As A Trend"

For information on TV shows mentioned in this column that you can not view, see www.tvtome.com  where fans profile each episode and provide story-arc details.

We continue looking for the next Myth that will be generally expressed in international politics and mass social values. And we look mostly at sf/f for the clues because, though these fictional fields speak to a contemporary audience about contemporary issues, the thinking behind these shows is critical of the current situation.

The best sf/f is built around three questions simultaneously: "What if . . . " and "If only . . . " and "If this goes on . . . " These three idea generators unleash immense creativity. This is easily seen in three shows aired close together in January 2005 – Star Trek: Enterprise, and Stargate SG-1 and the new Battlestar Galactica.  It’s almost as if the production crews were talking to each other via their fiction just as writers often do via their novels.

In "Observer Effect" (a term taken from quantum mechanics), Enterprise encounters a virus based on a silicon lifeform. For whatever interstellar reason, this silicon lifeform proliferates quickly in a carbon-based host medium.

The silicon virus infected planet has become a trap for explorers, Klingons included. So some non-material beings have sent Observers to watch how carbon based creatures deal with this virus threat. The Klingons simply blasted their returning shuttle carrying a sick exploration team out of orbit and took off. Enterprise, needless to say, handles it differently.

Two non-material entities take over the bodies of various Enterprise crewmembers to watch how the humans react to the threat. The aliens didn’t plant the virus, but they do know how to cure it – and won’t. They take advantage of the virus and lurk to observe. They discuss what other species have done and ponder the odd responses of the humans.

In the end, Captain Archer and the Doctor are in the quarantine section with an infected crew member, and the Doctor has to take his isolation gloves off. Archer says that the ship needs a Doctor in this situation more than a Captain and takes his own glove off to manipulate the instruments thus exposing himself to the virus they can’t cure. Archer is certain that the Doctor won’t betray him by lack of trying, though he might not discover a cure in time. (OK, we all know instruments would be designed for use with gloves. It’s a writing error called "contrived" as is the idea that a silicon based virus would thrive in a carbon-based host.)

Archer’s act shocks the alien observers. One of them is a rookie and the other his trainer. The rookie betrays the confidence of the trainer and reveals them to the Enterprise crew.  The rookie cures the virus, against the orders of the trainer – thus betraying his oath (7-Swords) while in fact fulfilling it. This is Youth taking the reins from Age, bringing the dawn of a new era – from one point of view it is heroic and from another a Betrayal that reshapes history. (As Rebecca betrayed the confidence of Yitzchak to garner the inheritance for Jacob instead of Esau – a righteous betrayal is still a 7-Swords event from some perspective.)

In the end, the two aliens leave Enterprise, figuring it’ll take a few millennia to prepare for first contact with humanity. The aliens have been changed by the subject they are observing – which principle may be 7-Swords in action.

In "Gemini" (twins) of Stargate SG-1, the old arch-enemy of the Asgard, the Replicators, return in human form as a replica of Samantha Carter. RepliCarter convinces the Stargate team to trust her story that the Replicators are about to attack using a new method to get around Earth’s anti-Replicator weapon. Unknown to the Stargate team, RepliCarter is also in touch with the leader of the humaniform Replicators, Fifth. So Carter trusts RepliCarter and gives her access to Earth’s defense computer system.

In the end, RepliCarter pulls off a double-cross. The Replicators didn’t have the counter to Earth’s weapon – until RepliCarter got it from Earth’s computer system. Now that RepliCarter has it, she uses it to depose Fifth as head of the Replicators instead of helping him.  Then she runs off to rebuild the Replicators intending to conquer Earth, and probably the Asgard as well.

Samantha Carter says that RepliCarter learned betrayal from Fifth who learned it from her (in a previous episode where she betrayed Fifth). Sam takes responsibility for unleashing betrayal as a strategy for the AI’s.

Battlestar Galactica’s new original Sci Fi channel series starts with the episode where the AI’s (Cylons) return in human form and destroy Caprica and the outlying human colonies. It’s 40 years since the initial defeat of the Cylons, but population has not recovered.

A humaniform Cylon agent in beautiful-woman-form seduces the head computer tech for Caprica and the colonies – a genius inventor trusted by all. He gives her access to the computers because he trusts her. She betrays him by using that access to plant disabling routines that bring down the defenses when the Cylon fleet arrives to destroy humanity.  

He escapes because he’s recognized, trusted and given a place on the last ship to leave the planet, but, though she's gone, she haunts him. Her image appears to him with uncanny tactile reality at odd moments. We don’t know if this is guilty conscience or a computer chip she planted in his head, and neither does he. He keeps his torment a secret though, another incipient betrayal.

He is put in charge of identifying humaniform Cylons aboard Galactica. Will he do it? Will she let him? His first call against someone turns out to be correct. The man’s Cylon.

The tag end of the debut has the Captain of Galactica telling everyone he has knowledge kept secret all these years the Cylons were a threat. He and his military superiors have been guarding the mythical location of Earth. This gives everyone hope. But when confronted by the President, he admits he was lying. Was he? Perhaps this is another twist on the betrayal theme?

The manipulation of history by betrayal is classic. The Trojan Wars. How many Greek Myths are really stories of betrayal? It’s not like television invented it.

How many marriages today come apart over issues of trust and betrayal? Why do you suppose there’s a Tarot card for it? It is utterly classic and never far from center stage at turning points in history. (Benedict Arnold)

Some cultures in this world today still consider Betrayal a Heroic Act – smart, sharp, proper, laudable, and completely sanctioned by their sacred texts. Terrorists infiltrated the USA easily in the guise of ordinary people going about their lawful business, then betrayed our trust in their passports.

What did we learn from that experience? Are we a culture of Trust turning to a culture of Betrayal? Or are we a culture of Betrayal struggling to become a culture of Trust? Which Mythology will dominate the 21^st Century?

Study the 7 of Swords card in the Tarot. The 7^th Sepherah is associated with Venus and is all about personal values (2^nd House issues -- esthetics) – but it is also all about partnerships (trust/betrayal) – 7^th House issues.

The suit of Swords is often considered to represent actions – motivated by Philosophy (Wands) and Emotions (Cups). "Actions" are whatever causes manifestation (Pentacles) – decisions, rituals, buying a house instead of renting, suing a doctor for malpractice because you trusted him/her and he/she betrayed you, persisting in an exercise regimen, praying, hunting for a job – saying "I Do" at the altar – all actions are represented somewhere in Swords. Betrayal is likewise an action.

It could easily become the dominant Myth of the 21^st Century in the USA that Betrayal Is the Better Part of Valor because the rest of our culture rewards the pursuit not of liberty but of the trappings, the illusion, of power and success – Rogaine ads— with little attention paid to the inner, spiritual price of acquiring and exercising power.

Swords also represent psychological defenses, as well as actual material defenses. The 7’s represent "illusion" – or being so infatuated or enchanted that you fail to notice what’s really happening. The act depicted on the Waite deck 7-Swords is a man stealing swords – stealing a person’s psychological defenses right out of the camp where he’s trusted. Is there a better description of "Terrorism" as a tactic?

Will Betrayal Wins become the dominant Myth of the 21^st Century? Or will it be Trust Wins?