BSG 3.08: Heroes

[hazelk]

When the legend becomes fact, print the legend

Did anyone else find the resolution to this one reminiscent of the famous line from The Man who shot Liberty Valence? Still if they can have Laura Roslin transform into Nelson Mandela for the resolution to Collaborators aping John Ford is no big deal. There is a problem, as with the earlier episode, of whether the TV series really has the weight to carry the themes of its illustrious predecessors. Collaborators made me wish they’d spent longer on New Caprica. If only to give the audience time to appreciate how the Circle members might have had feelings towards Felix Gaeta to match those of Holocaust sufferers to a supposed Martin Boorman. In Heroes too the ending felt just a little over neat, especially with respect to Tigh coming around. Some of this is a problem with watching in real time as opposed to on DVD, being forced to wait generates less confidence that the series will follow everything up than when you can gorge on 3-4 episodes in one run.

The main controversy about the episode seems to be about retconning Adama’s pre-series history by having him assigned to Galactica only a years before retiring. It’s rather like the arguments over whether Buffy could have been institutionalised. In both cases fans can point out several items of dialogue that appear to refute the new history but Buffy never flat out says she wasn’t and Adama talks about people have been with him or on ‘this ship’ but doesn’t name it. In both cases I’m happy to go with the new version of history because, whether or not it contradicts the precise details of previous dialogue, it explains something important about the character much better than previous assumptions. It’s emotionally truer. Adama’s doubts about the worthiness of humanity make one hell of a lot more sense in the light of the possibility that he and the military might have precipitated the war and that works best if he felt himself part of the military hierarchy at that time not someone living out their retirement on some old bucket. It also makes far more sense of the respect nay deference that the crew show him right from the beginning.

It is true that the problem might have been made much easier had the infamous black ops mission been supposed to take place three or four years before the bombs. I assume the writers didn’t do that because it would have made Adama’s fear that he started the war much harder for the audience to argue against. I like it as they’ve left it. Adama really has no call to play matyr and blame himself alone although one can see why as a military man he might feel that he broke the military rules and deserves to. But what he did was more like the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand than the invasion of Poland. It may have precipitated a war but only because one or both sides were spoiling for one.

Then there’s the basestar and D’Anna getting interesting. Around the beginning of S2 when Laura Roslin was at her most devout-seeming I wondered if there might be intentional parallels between her and Six but I can definitely see the potential for them with Three the way things are going. Admittedly this feeling began by trying to think of archetypal teenagers to go with each cylon, with Ron Moore talking about their emotional adolescence. Brother “and they tried to hurt me” Cavil is Harry Enfield’s “Kevin,” Lebonen is Neil from The Young Ones and D’Anna has a definite air of the head girl Heather from Heathers. One day she’ll make a fine Minister of Education. There’s the faith thing, both of them are ready to believe but neither has Six’s certainty. And the dreams and the Hera obsession and now the brush with death. OK maybe the head girl analogy is more to the point. Three’s trying to be Caprica cool and going all kablooey and self harming to prove it.

Comments

[c-mantix.livejournal.com]

I like your take on why the primary drama was diverted and shall adopt it wholesale (hee). I do hope that it will serve the greater good/history for the rest of the season and that this plot point rears its head again.

Regarding the raider, as it was approaching Galactica and then landing, I was thinking about all the destruction that one small beacon did to the Cylon basestar in the previous episodes! I was completely expecting the Cylons to reciprocate with their own viral Trojan Horse and was surprised that Bulldog wasn't infected with bubonic plague or some such disease.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

You know as I was writng that I was just thinking "I'm not going to get away with this one." *g* Although the possibility that occurred to me was that it might have been a suicide nuke rather than a biological weapon. It's a TV convention I suppose that stories accquire temporary immunity to recently used plot points. And why is it only on TV that vaccines are something you give people to cure diseases after they get them? I mean surely even writers know you don't treat measles with MMR injections.