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BSG 2.8-12
Sep. 17th, 2006 11:29 amUp to episode 12 now. These five episodes give the slight impression that the show is becoming more conventional in its pacing and in having definite A and B strands rather than several of equal significance weaving in and out of one another.
Final Cut
A good point after all the mythological shenanigans to use the film within a film trick to show the crew in day-to-day form. There’s a not so subtle message from the Hollywood media to those in political power that openness is the best way to go for all concerned but the almost syrupy (but mostly well earned) ending is deftly undercut by the reveal that Lucy Lawless’s reporter was a Cylon – the 6th model we’ve seen. I was reading that Ron Moore’s explanation for there being 12 models was that Cylon observations had convinced them that there were 12 basic types of human and that made me wonder if the reason they seem to be especially interested in Baltar and Starbuck destinywise is that both those characters are mavericks with off the scale talents (science and fighter pilot action) and as such might not be accounted for by the 12 type theory.
Flight of the Phoenix
Any episode named after a Jimmy Stewart movie is a good thing in my book. This was good in its own right too. As in the original film, the building of the Blackbird is a potent symbol of how humanity needs a goal, something concrete and productive, to rally around. I liked the way the Cylon virus with its ability to learn and adapt to its surroundings could also be taken as a metaphor for the captive Sharon’s behaviour. It gave more credence to the idea that she only made the final decision to turn the virus on her own fleet rather than somehow using it to get them to ‘rescue’ her when Adama put the gun to her head. Which I like because it rescues her character from being the proverbial Bond bad girl turned good for love.
Pegasus+Ressurection Ship(1+2)
Much to love in these three episodes about what happens when our heroes met another surviving Battlestar. Lee’s despair on finding no-one to upstand with him, Roslin being as much behind an assassination attempt as his father, was perfect and moving as was Baltar’s finding the love in his pampered walnut-shell of a heart and choosing the real battered and abused Six on Pegasus over the pristine fantasy woman in his head. Saved from the cheese by the way new improved Gaius could watch this Six snap a guard’s neck without even blinking, the old self-centred model would at least have been squeamish about it.
The Pegasus, is essentially a shadow version of Galactica, an indication of what might have happened had Adama not listened to Roslin and accepted that the war was lost and their mission to protect what was left of humanity not to destroy its enemies. Much care was obviously taken not to make the Pegasus the boo hiss villain. Commander Cain makes valid criticism of the cosy nepotism Adama and co seem to be moving towards, her ship has been more successful in identifying and exploiting Cylon weak points and the ‘atrocities’ that her more militaristic approach brings with it have direct counterparts in things Galatica has done (torture if not rape of Cylon prisoners and abandonment if not active execution of civilians). The bond between her and Starbuck, the sense of like meeting like (it was Kara who ordered the torture of Lebonen) was both unexpected and extremely effective at making Cain feel like a flawed human being rather than a generic opponent. It still didn’t quite work. I think three episodes was too short a time to flesh out Cain in a way that an audience really might begin to root for her rather then feel that that they could see why they should. But I think a deeper problem was the impression that Cain and Cain alone was the problem, with her death everything would be solved. There is of course still time for this to be shown not to be the case.
Final Cut
A good point after all the mythological shenanigans to use the film within a film trick to show the crew in day-to-day form. There’s a not so subtle message from the Hollywood media to those in political power that openness is the best way to go for all concerned but the almost syrupy (but mostly well earned) ending is deftly undercut by the reveal that Lucy Lawless’s reporter was a Cylon – the 6th model we’ve seen. I was reading that Ron Moore’s explanation for there being 12 models was that Cylon observations had convinced them that there were 12 basic types of human and that made me wonder if the reason they seem to be especially interested in Baltar and Starbuck destinywise is that both those characters are mavericks with off the scale talents (science and fighter pilot action) and as such might not be accounted for by the 12 type theory.
Flight of the Phoenix
Any episode named after a Jimmy Stewart movie is a good thing in my book. This was good in its own right too. As in the original film, the building of the Blackbird is a potent symbol of how humanity needs a goal, something concrete and productive, to rally around. I liked the way the Cylon virus with its ability to learn and adapt to its surroundings could also be taken as a metaphor for the captive Sharon’s behaviour. It gave more credence to the idea that she only made the final decision to turn the virus on her own fleet rather than somehow using it to get them to ‘rescue’ her when Adama put the gun to her head. Which I like because it rescues her character from being the proverbial Bond bad girl turned good for love.
Pegasus+Ressurection Ship(1+2)
Much to love in these three episodes about what happens when our heroes met another surviving Battlestar. Lee’s despair on finding no-one to upstand with him, Roslin being as much behind an assassination attempt as his father, was perfect and moving as was Baltar’s finding the love in his pampered walnut-shell of a heart and choosing the real battered and abused Six on Pegasus over the pristine fantasy woman in his head. Saved from the cheese by the way new improved Gaius could watch this Six snap a guard’s neck without even blinking, the old self-centred model would at least have been squeamish about it.
The Pegasus, is essentially a shadow version of Galactica, an indication of what might have happened had Adama not listened to Roslin and accepted that the war was lost and their mission to protect what was left of humanity not to destroy its enemies. Much care was obviously taken not to make the Pegasus the boo hiss villain. Commander Cain makes valid criticism of the cosy nepotism Adama and co seem to be moving towards, her ship has been more successful in identifying and exploiting Cylon weak points and the ‘atrocities’ that her more militaristic approach brings with it have direct counterparts in things Galatica has done (torture if not rape of Cylon prisoners and abandonment if not active execution of civilians). The bond between her and Starbuck, the sense of like meeting like (it was Kara who ordered the torture of Lebonen) was both unexpected and extremely effective at making Cain feel like a flawed human being rather than a generic opponent. It still didn’t quite work. I think three episodes was too short a time to flesh out Cain in a way that an audience really might begin to root for her rather then feel that that they could see why they should. But I think a deeper problem was the impression that Cain and Cain alone was the problem, with her death everything would be solved. There is of course still time for this to be shown not to be the case.