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BSG musings
I recently noticed that the front cover of my BSG DVDs is a hologram. Twist it and Six's dress turns blue, a peculiar shade of turquoisey blue satin, which recalls the jumpsuits the blonde woman in Abba used to wear. I think the red suits her better but for the last two episodes in Baltar's dreams of her, Six has been undressed in blue.
Litmus test
One thing that's been notable about this series so far is a sense that although things are very serious nothing much happens. Or rather nothing gets resolved. It's the anti-24 in terms of plot pacing, most of the action feels like part of a very long slow arc. It is compelling, however, in the way the X-files myth-arc episodes used to be, with the main interest being in getting to know the characters and the building mystery of what the Cylon plan might actually be.
In this episode what looks like a failure to blow up the lab containing Baltar's detector forces a public admission of the fact that Cylons now resemble humans and sets in train a McCarthyesque witchhunt that in the longer term might have more damaging consequences than any physical destruction would have done. Tyrol becomes the chief suspect but he's actually covering for Boomer and her affair with him. He doesn't betray her but does lose faith in her, suspecting that it was she who left the hatch open that let in the Cylon suicide bomber. In any case, as the higher-ranking officer, it would have been her responsibility to admit to the affair that might have cleared the Chief's name and take the punishment for that admission.
Meanwhile on Caprica the other Boomer, the one who knows she's a Cylon, does take her punishment, letting herself be brutally beaten by Six in order to make her capture and escape from the centurions convincing to Helo. Who in turn justifies her belief in his goodness by returning to rescue her.
Back on the Battlestar Adama calls off the tribunal, seeing the damage caused by the climate of suspicion it creates. When the tribunal members refuse to disband it comes down to a matter of his men keeping faith with him by choosing their commander over military law
Six degrees of separation
This episode also deals with issues of faith but is both more fun and more cynical. It begins with a bedroom argument between Baltar and the Six in his head. Driven to exasperation he mocks her faith in God and She abandons him. Cue real life Baltar being confronted by Six in military garb who turns out not to be a private hallucination but a woman calling herself Shelly Godfree. She's come to Galatica bringing photographic evidence of Baltar's complicity in the original Cylon attack. Cue Gaius's near psychotic breakdown to gibbering cowardly mess. I really should be more offended by this portrayal of the scientific rationalist but it's so different from the usual emotionless cliché. Also there's the feeling that faith would make him not a better man but a more dangerous one. Although he's already all but destroyed humanity.
Faith and politics: one brief meeting between an incarcerated Baltar and Roslin is quite chilling. She tells him that although she's supported him in the past, when she saw the photos she knew in her gut that he was involved in the security break somehow. Which is true and yet it's hard not to agree with Baltar that he shouldn't be condemned on a gut feeling alone. I'm thinking there may be hidden parallels between Roslin and Six - both are believers. Also politicians who 'know' that they're right are scary.
Speaking of which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rozk pointed out that James Callus bases a lot of his mannerisms for Baltar on Tony Blair. I've not had the misfortune to ever see Blair that strung out but it's plausible and as she says raises the possibility of our Tony being haunted by fantasies of a revanant Mrs T. Or Baltar by Six=Roslin, mother, lover, president in one psychotic threesome.
In the episode Baltar recants and Six returns to his dreams pointing out that this ordeal has only made him stronger.
The sub plots deal more with issues of identity, of things not being what they seem. Galatica!Boomer responds to the Cylon ship as a pet, like to like unknowing. Later she finds the accusation "Cylon" written on her locker mirror just as her Caprica counterpart appears to discover human love. And Roslin overdoses on anti-cancer drugs in an attempt to keep up her appearances.
Litmus test
One thing that's been notable about this series so far is a sense that although things are very serious nothing much happens. Or rather nothing gets resolved. It's the anti-24 in terms of plot pacing, most of the action feels like part of a very long slow arc. It is compelling, however, in the way the X-files myth-arc episodes used to be, with the main interest being in getting to know the characters and the building mystery of what the Cylon plan might actually be.
In this episode what looks like a failure to blow up the lab containing Baltar's detector forces a public admission of the fact that Cylons now resemble humans and sets in train a McCarthyesque witchhunt that in the longer term might have more damaging consequences than any physical destruction would have done. Tyrol becomes the chief suspect but he's actually covering for Boomer and her affair with him. He doesn't betray her but does lose faith in her, suspecting that it was she who left the hatch open that let in the Cylon suicide bomber. In any case, as the higher-ranking officer, it would have been her responsibility to admit to the affair that might have cleared the Chief's name and take the punishment for that admission.
Meanwhile on Caprica the other Boomer, the one who knows she's a Cylon, does take her punishment, letting herself be brutally beaten by Six in order to make her capture and escape from the centurions convincing to Helo. Who in turn justifies her belief in his goodness by returning to rescue her.
Back on the Battlestar Adama calls off the tribunal, seeing the damage caused by the climate of suspicion it creates. When the tribunal members refuse to disband it comes down to a matter of his men keeping faith with him by choosing their commander over military law
Six degrees of separation
This episode also deals with issues of faith but is both more fun and more cynical. It begins with a bedroom argument between Baltar and the Six in his head. Driven to exasperation he mocks her faith in God and She abandons him. Cue real life Baltar being confronted by Six in military garb who turns out not to be a private hallucination but a woman calling herself Shelly Godfree. She's come to Galatica bringing photographic evidence of Baltar's complicity in the original Cylon attack. Cue Gaius's near psychotic breakdown to gibbering cowardly mess. I really should be more offended by this portrayal of the scientific rationalist but it's so different from the usual emotionless cliché. Also there's the feeling that faith would make him not a better man but a more dangerous one. Although he's already all but destroyed humanity.
Faith and politics: one brief meeting between an incarcerated Baltar and Roslin is quite chilling. She tells him that although she's supported him in the past, when she saw the photos she knew in her gut that he was involved in the security break somehow. Which is true and yet it's hard not to agree with Baltar that he shouldn't be condemned on a gut feeling alone. I'm thinking there may be hidden parallels between Roslin and Six - both are believers. Also politicians who 'know' that they're right are scary.
Speaking of which
rozk pointed out that James Callus bases a lot of his mannerisms for Baltar on Tony Blair. I've not had the misfortune to ever see Blair that strung out but it's plausible and as she says raises the possibility of our Tony being haunted by fantasies of a revanant Mrs T. Or Baltar by Six=Roslin, mother, lover, president in one psychotic threesome.In the episode Baltar recants and Six returns to his dreams pointing out that this ordeal has only made him stronger.
The sub plots deal more with issues of identity, of things not being what they seem. Galatica!Boomer responds to the Cylon ship as a pet, like to like unknowing. Later she finds the accusation "Cylon" written on her locker mirror just as her Caprica counterpart appears to discover human love. And Roslin overdoses on anti-cancer drugs in an attempt to keep up her appearances.
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