Most of you know I'm a big fan of the new Battlestar Galactica. I've been somewhat disappointed with the second half of this season, particularly the stand alone episodes as it seems to me the series is losing a little bit of it's focus. Of course much of the story has focused on characters other than Commander Adama as Edward James Olmos really adds a dimension to the drama that none of the other characters can meet.
I just got through watching the season finale and have a few thoughts on the show and whether it'll be worth watching next year.
******** SPOILERS SPOILERS*********
- I really enjoyed the election storyline. It exemplified so much of why this show is just great. We were put in the position of rooting for a democratic election to be stollen because the man who actually betrayed humanity to begin with was about to take over the presidency. If you think about it in those terms you can gain some insight into how some justify election hanky-panky in Florida and Ohio. That's how they see the world.
- Having said that I'm not sure I bought Adama's actions after Rosilin told him Baltar was working with the Cylons. Here is a man to which the survival of the fleet has become the primary motivator and, to that end, already moved once against a democratically elected leader. It seems a little out of character for him to just roll over as Baltar took power.
- Starbuck's behavior towards Apollo seemed out of character as well. She may have been trying to hurt him on purpose for some reason but it really sucked. It also seemed something that happened between them may have hit the cutting room floor or be slated for flashbacks next season. It's hard to see how they got to the point where they arrived at the point where they were at the end of the episode.
- The BIG CHANGE. Wow. At first I thought we were in a Baltar dream sequence. It almost seemed he was dreaming he was Lincoln during the Civil War. Somebody in the foreground wearing what looked like a Union uniform was talking about the union. It was really disorienting and my first gut reaction was very negative towards the change in tone and leap forward in time..
- This move was gutsy. I can't think of a gutsier direction taken by a television show. They have fundamentally reshuffled the deck and started over with characters the audience has already identified with. For that reason alone I'm inclined to be supportive.
- On a minor note one of the things I like that the new show does is take episodes of the old show and put a real world spin on them. This episode seemed an extended version of the original series episode about the casino planet where the government, against the advice of the military, forces the fleet to stop and winds up putting humanity at risk (again.)
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It also reminds me of old testament biblical stories. The Isrealites stopping on their journey and worshipping the golden calf. But I have to agree with you - my first reaction was "Where the hell are they going with this!" "What the?" "Huh?" I like the change, mostly because it gives us an opportunity to learn more about the Cylons - which in the first series were just generic evil guys. The new Cylons are downright scary. I might even say scarier than the Borg, one of the best "evil race" creations in sci-fi of late. Actually, the Cylons are very Borg-like, but I feel somehow more intelligent and sneakier, and yet still very powerfull. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if the Cylons fought the Borg, the Cylons would totally win.
Go Cylons! Hugh would be eaten alive by Cylon #6 although a 7 of 9 vs. Cylon #6 matchup would break all television viewing records for millenia to come.
Battlestar Galactica and Daily Show are my two sorest regrets about not having full cable TV here at Snabulus Ranch.
Don-
There's cable and there's CABLE. As in: the wire from one's wall to one's modem.
I use the latter to watch Galactica as I no longer have DISH.
And the thought of #6 vs. 7 of 9 is making my head explode. Could slave Leia referee?
Seph,
Yeah we're going to see some evil stuff next year and more Cylons. The New Caprica storyline is going to be close to Vichy France if Ron Moore is to believed. Baltar will now be closer to what he was in the old series.
But since you like Cylons I think you might like this from Ron:
“We do eventually plan on getting them back out into space, and also another major thing that’s going to happen in the third season is we’re going to do an ongoing Cylon story where we’re going to be cutting over to the Cylon world for the first time and running a complete arc within the Cylon,” reveals Moore. “It’s still coming together, but [the occupation arc] will probably be three or four or five episodes… probably four episodes. We’re still kind of stroking out exactly how these kinds of things will fall, but I don’t think it will take quite as long as it took us to wrap up the arc at the beginning of the second season.”
Whole interview here:
http://www.nowplayingmag.com/content/view/3300/2/
Seph,
Another couple of things...
I've been thinking about the episode some more and thought the character of Col. Tigh was interesting. He started the season pointing a gun at the President while arresting her and ended the season attempting to cheat and throw the election her way.
Also- I was trying to make sense of Adama's wimpiness at the end and thinking about the originial series episode about the casino planet I referred to in the post and it occurs to me that there are probably Viper fighters hidden on the planet just like in that episode. The guy that showed up at Starbuck's tent looking for her was probably one of the guys that was supposed to put Adama's plan in motion.
This makes much of the Adama stuff make more sense. When Adama tells Baltar "You're not listening" and Baltar says "I don't have to listen" the usual reaction of Adama would have been to make him listen with his fists.
Adama just decided to protect the fleet anyway, on his own.
The guy in the tent was a toaster. You just didn't recognize him. Watch it again. Starbuck's sick boyfriend is screwed.
I would take Adama one step further - he's not just protecting his fleet, he set a trap for the toasters. He's a military man to the core. He knew they'd come. Expect a calvary is coming (surprise!) moment in the new season.
But then again, maybe the toaster that's looking for Starbuck is part of the toaster rebellion, started by the War Heroes. Maybe there will be a Cylon Schindler.
Interesting...
Of course the villains are generally pretty clever about what's going on so I wouldn't be surprised if they were rounding up the military types in order to seperate them out in anticipation of trouble.
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