Battlestar Galactica

[Shinji103]

First off, I think this was a good episode. What I am about to say is not against the episode, but about how I hate the "good guys'" attitude towards Balthar. Now then:


I had thought that Adama would be the voice of reason and intelligence in Balthar's interrogation. But then he suggests a dangerous and potentially deadly interrogation method with little or no hindrance. And at the end, he starts talking about making Balthar "dissappear." Oh, how lovely. -10 points for Adama.

Naturally, Laura is being an emo b**** about this and is ready to throw him out a 'lock at a moment's notice.

Tigh, of course, is also being a bast***. Although i felt that he was actually pretty in control of his Balthar hate compared to Laura and even Adama.

Heh, I so went "HAH!!! SUCK ON THAT!!!" when Balthar said he knew Gaeta was a spy. But of course, Gaeta's Balthar hate has pushed his head so far up his a** that he doesn't acknowledge that there's no way Balthar was dumb enough not to realize Gaeta was an informant. Why do you think Balthar stayed home instead of going to the Graduation Ceremony that the insugence sent a suicide bomber to, just to off Balthar? There's a reason he was Doctor Balthar.

Sheesh, these guys don't even accept the possibility that Balthar may damn well not know what the Cylons are planning past finding earth. They're all so freaking "Oh, he has to be guilty. Why? 'Cause he has to!!!!111"

-10 for Laura, -10 for Adama, -50 for Gaeta, and +/-0 for Tigh.

Laura: "These are the people you had killed!"
Me: "Omfg, do you honestly think Balthar was running the show?! Freaking emo dumba**!!!"

To be honest, all my attention was on the Balthar interrogation and I couldn't pay enough attention to the marriage problems. ^^b

[Antares]

Yeah, back on the horse here as well. BSG keeps on delivering the good stuff. Personally I also like the relationship-messes, but I was really worried there for a moment that a drunk-for-one-episode-Lee will crawl back to Kara, but the man has a spine, good for him. After the stunt she pulled I'd say that bridge ought've gone up like it was made of napalm.

Obviously Laura and Adama have to real tough on Baltar, and yeah, I admit the guy has both received and given the shaft collectively so much that he isn't exactly innocent, but I can sympathize with him. I like the idea that by brain-molesting him they actually made him a more tranquil person (less prone to zone off and ramble), and I am really looking forward for the trial and let Baltar have his say. I agree with Shinji103 that using Gaeta was kinda unimaginative.

Good going all around, again waiting for the next episode to pop out.

[Antares]

Where is my fix, dammit? Come on man, don't hold out on me...

Just because of the Superbowl I must wait another week? (I can't recall why they postponed it, anyone feel free to enlighten me).

[Anonymous]

It was pretty much the Superbowl and perhaps also gives people a chance to catch up a little bit.

[Laevatein]

*skims through topic to avoid spoilers*

I'm barely through the first season, and already loving this series. Also, as testament to how good this series is, my younger brother who's not really into sci-fi, is blown away by the series.

[Anonymous]

Is it me or else this show is starting to go down really fast.

From what I've seen, Season 3 has had a lot of well disappointing episodes (each episode in the series has its superb moments and all) but right now it seems that the show will be back on the slide once again.


I have to admit, while I still am somewhat distrustful of Helo, I have to admit that I feel sorry for him getting all the flak he has had especially considering that compared to most of the humans, he tries really hard to go for the better angels of our own nature. Though he still has his faults, this episode made me sympathetic to his plight and I have to admit that maybe a little that I wanted Tigh to apologize to Helo for his behavior earlier.

[The Big Zabowski]

IMO, it's not TOO fast of a drop, but it is getting there, kinda like last season. I guess the formula might start out where either they find a clue to earth or a place to stop for a long while when they end each season, with many character driven episodes to fill in the gaps per season. I think it's too early for them to throw in earth, but if things like this keep up, they might run the plot well dry and HAVE to bring up earth.

Tonight's episode was good as far as an explanation of what life was like before the Colonial Holocaust. Things like the dislike of Sagattarians by the Capricans is a nice treat, showing that even though your world is gone, you can still hate the guy that believes in something different than you, even if you're both human.

Same thing was brought up in the episode introducing Lt Novachek with his mission to "Stop those mangy Taurons" and their mining opperation.

Is it me, or are the producers trying to flesh the 12 colonies out to be a bigger version of our world, racial tensions and all?

[G.Squirrel]

Sooooooo...is anyone hear a fan of the original 1970's Battlestar Galactica? I'm secure enough in my nerd-dom to say that I am.

[The Big Zabowski]

Many moons ago before the new BSG came out, I watched it as a kid during one of it's reruns back in the mid 90s. I actually thought it was Star Wars at first, having watched Return of the Jedi a year prior.

To this day I think the best part of the show were the Viper fighters and the jocks that flew them. Same went for ROTJ.. I think there might have been some sort of correlation there.

Still, I kinda prefer the 1970's Raiders to the 2000's ones.. I have no idea why, but yeah. OH!, and I can never stop laughing at the 1970's Cylons..sooooo cheezy and hard to not watch.

[Antares]

The Big Zabowski said:

and I can never stop laughing at the 1970's Cylons..sooooo cheezy and hard to not watch.

You and me both. The new Toaster Mk.II is less funny.

For me this episode was nice in the sense that Helo finally got some long-awaited vindication for "being the lone voice in the wilderness". I frequent two other forums where BSG is also talked about, and three quarters of the population is willing to "put a cap in Helo's..." butt. I have never been one of them. Even though I might not agree with him totally, but his focus on certain aspects that make us human is commendable.
I also concur with TBZ about fleshing out the Colonial realities before nuke season; that place was certainly no utopia. I was slightly disappointed by the easy answer of having both Cottle and Tigh conveniently recant and support Helo, and then the hidden mengele was suddenly unveiled, making the situation a little too black & white. That is a shame, since it feels like the thematics of this episode were dealt with now and they will never be brought up again. But still, as I said, good to see Helo get some minor vindication.

The third season seems to be suffering more of a episode-by-episode storytelling, with the emphasis shifted on the human (or skin-job) cast. Battles are rare and almost meaningless, and there is certainly no sense of constantly impending doom as it was with the first season. It's not bad writing though as such, but the "hook" is less effective now. As sci-fi series go, BSG makes a good effort in giving a tiny window into the (albeit in this case fictional) human nature. I expect this shift in storytelling might not be as interesting to some others as it is (so far) to me.

[solid snake]

I too watched the original BSG. I wish the the Centurions would talk. I miss hearing that robotic "By your command."

[Deacon Blues]

I wasn't a fan of the previous night's episode at all. It was an unnecessary filler that didn't really do anything for the show. While I hate to say this, I sincerly hope that they wrap this show up in 4 seasons. They still have the remaining Cylons to crank out, which I don't think is going to be quick, so we'll probably have 5 seasons :/! That, and Baltar's trial is probably going to take up a pretty huge chunk of time... but I really wanna see that.

SPOILER!!
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Did anyone think it was really stupid how Six sees Baltar as her subconscious? When I saw that I was kinda pissed off. :/

[Ravager]

Well,Six and Baltar have a very close bond,so it's possible they both have their own subconscious.I really enjoyed the alternate-Baltar in "Downloaded"

[Antares]

Ravager said:

Well,Six and Baltar have a very close bond,so it's possible they both have their own subconscious.I really enjoyed the alternate-Baltar in "Downloaded"

Yeah, me too. I felt it was only fair given how much Six-in-the-head abuses Baltar.

The latest ep was kind of boring; I was 90% sure they would waste Tyrol or Callie, which if they had, would made the episode a more interesting "characters die in routine circumstances" a bit more appealing, but since the whole situation seemed a bit contrivied, well, not a very good ep. Again, if problems like the Galactica falling apart on them would be as prevalent is in the first season, it would've been more consistent and thus interesting.

In general it had a distinct filleresque taste to it, especially since Adama's issues with his wife and Lee's mother were also basically just dumped in front of us and then again buried, assumingly never to return. That is bad consistency again. And Roslin's scenes were just plain weird, in a way. Plus if Baltar has a Six in his head, Adama is periodically in need of exorcism by the looks of it as well. Then again Galactica has sometimes had very concrete manifestations of the psyche, or whatever you might want to call it, so maybe not too weird.

[Saikuba]

The latest ep was kind of boring; I was 90% sure they would waste Tyrol or Callie, which if they had, would made the episode a more interesting "characters die in routine circumstances" a bit more appealing, but since the whole situation seemed a bit contrivied, well, not a very good ep. Again, if problems like the Galactica falling apart on them would be as prevalent is in the first season, it would've been more consistent and thus interesting.

Well Galactica didn't nearly destroy itself by taking on four basestars and jumping into and out of a planet's atmosphere in the first season (and in fact all the non-military systems were probably in good working order because even if it was going to be a museum it would be a very bad thing for something like the life support to suddenly go out) so it's not like it's a huge inconsistency that Galactica is having more problems now.

But overall yeah, I agree that this episode was too fillerish. At the end of the day very little happened and we didn't learn that much about any of the characters. It felt like the story should have been able to fit into half an hour and I'm not quite sure how they padded it out into the full hour looking back on it.

[solid snake]

Well you can't have the Cylons hounding them every episode can you? There are every day activities and crises througout the fleet.

[Shinji103]

I go by a 95% accurate law of television programming:

American shows are generally episodic. That is to say, they don't go by overall-series plot every episode, i.e. like Law and Order where there's no overall series plot. Many episodes of many TV series-es are self-contained story & plots.

[Ravager]

I actually mourned when Sci Fi pulled the brains behind Andromeda halfway through the second season...and before that Andromeda had a great,overall plot throughout the first season

[Antares]

Okay the latest ep was much better. The problems of the fleet were now more concrete to me somehow, and Tyrol found a bit of unionist in himself. Good for him, because I like that BSG addresses issues like that too, especially when it fits the demographics of the fleet. And I also liked that Adama was quite clear on what is considered okay striking, making a point, and what is considered a security risk, because those aren't automatically the same thing. Roslin also did better in this episode, I think.

I just felt that Baltar's little inner socialist came out in a slightly curious phase, given how little of that thought he had shown previously, and that on New Caprica before the Cylons came he was living like an aristocrat.

But it's good to see we're not completely dredging the bottom of the barrel yet.

[Ravager]

I hope they set this into a new plot into the end of the season...fleet gets into a civil war perhaps?