Lay Down Your Burdens

RJL: We all knew Zarek would be right about Baltar's trial, but it is still exciting to see how the ensuing carnage would play out.

First, I'd like to point out that even though Galactica is loaded up with a ton of military personnel it is a security nightmare. In all honesty, I'm surprised that the brig isn't just a roped off area with a sign that says please don't leave. I bring this up because bombs go off everywhere, officers get shot, prisoners get shot and the list goes on. They can't even stop a prisoner from getting shot, so who's to prevent Baltar's lawyer from getting killed? I know that at the end we all learned that it was a Galactica officer who was the cause, but come on... what happened to officer ethics and simple security measures?

Second, I want to take a closer look at the father - son dynamic that comes back from time to time. This time, Adama and Lee are drifting apart again. It is really similar to the conflict between the two when the series started. What I don't understand is why Lee is so adamant on helping Lampkin. It can't be something as trivial like spiting his father, but it wouldn't be out of his character to do such a thing out of spite (marrying Dualla anyone?). I'm hoping that Lee has some close connection to his grandfather or deep inside he believes in the right of a fair trial.

Let's take a look at Romo Lampkin. This guy has got the looks, but does he have the skill to deliver Baltar from his horrible fate? If I found myself needing a public defender, I don't know if I'd want a sunglasses wearing kleptomaniac representing me. So far all we know is that he is very good at stealing, wants to be famous for being the public defender of the most hated person in the entire fleet and he wears sunglasses at night. Every one of his moves has been fairly calculated, but only so far as to make it look like he's playing a game. He is quite capable of getting what he wants, but when that fails to happen he remains unphased. I guess that's what being an exceptional people reader can do for you.

Baltar is starting to look like a caged animal. By the time his trial has begun he could probably be declared legally insane. He's already fairly shaken up by being in the brig for months, but when Lampkin took his pen I think that Balter became a little more insane. What was probably worse for him was the delivery of his pen and note from Lampkin. He ran up to that envelope like a timid squirrel would to a discarded apple core. I'm looking forward to how the Baltar trial plays out. What especially interests me is how Adama will vote in the proceedings. Will he listen to the evidence and give a fair verdict or will he condemn Baltar to the airlock no matter what?

Episode Awards:
Best Part: Anders drinking on the Viper. (Yes, I know it was depressing, but I thought it was well done.)
Worst Part: Adama being picked to be a member of Baltar's jury. (Can we please just once not have someone from Galactica be a part of important legal proceedings?)
Best Scene: Adama's quarters when he's talking to Lee. The smashed wooden ship is still around.

MCC: Bob's covered a lot of goodies, so I'm going to focus on one very mysterious part: Lee's motivation for helping Lampkin. The Lampkin character is very strange... jury's out until Crossroads, but he just feels like a bad Irish Neo named after a Cowboys QB with fumble-itis.

So, why would Lee help him? I point back to Season 1! Bastille Day, near the end, with Lee holding a gun to Zarek's head. What does Lee do? Execute him (which would have been justified, after all)? No... he promises Zarek elections, which Zarek almost swipes. Again, in Kobol's Last Gleaming, Lee sides with the legal president (much to Bob's disdain). Both incidences land him in hot water with the Old Man, but neither of those actions, nor Lee's involvement in the trial, are really out of line with his character. Lee obviously believes very strongly in the rule of law, which he will defend with all his heart. This is just the first time he's directly had to oppose his father (previously it was through a proxy, whether Starbuck or Tigh).
I've always had admiration for Lee's character, because, aside from the Black Market re-write travesty, his character has always been an interesting touch: he doesn't want to be there! He doesn't like the military. I think Jamie Bamber had once said that Lee is a reservist, and I'd like to see this come up more in the show. Lee wasn't meant to be a CAG, or even a pilot. He was forced to by his father, and even though he's good at it, he doesn't seem to enjoy it that much (to the point of suicide during Resurrection Ship, pt. 2).

So what does this all mean? I predict a major schism towards the end of Season 3 between Lee & Admr. Adama. I believe it will be qualitatively different than the split at the end of Season 1, and I might even predict that some major secret or conflict will emerge that will take a lot of repair (perhaps Starbuck-centered?). I guess we'll have to see!

Best part: Romo Lampkin pulling out all the stuff he's stolen.
Worst part: Adama yelling every line.
Best quote: "There is no greater ally, no force more powerful, no enemy more resolved, than a son who chooses to step from his father's shadow." - Romo Lampkin

Labels: Season 3

Let's face it. This is a fantastically done episode which needs very little endorsement from me. Now, there might be some (read: a lot) of complaints that Starbuck gets offed or whatever, so let's delve into that.

First, let me quickly gloss over the episode's excellence. This show restores some of the consistent mood (in this case, dread or foreboding) which drapes over the entire show. Recently, this mood has been funky, but the entire time you just knew something bad was going to happen.

The visual artistry in this episode, I think, was the best yet. The effects were impeccable, and just the contrast of Hotdog spinning to see the blue skies versus Kara diving into the rainy depths of the storm to chase her inner demons: fantastic. Acting, also excellent; Kara's mother does a good job, as does Kara, Lee, and especially Adama (I don't know if you've heard, but that model E.J. Olmos destroys in the end was a $100,000 model on loan from a museum-- fortunately insured). The music, too, was just gorgeous. I often replay the end cue over and over because it's just so gorgeous, and the entire scene just hits you on all levels.

Okay, that aside, let's move to Starbuck Speculation. There really only 3 things that could have happened.

1. Kara died. She is either dead or one of the Final Five who will come back.
2. Kara ejected. She was picked up by the Heavy Raider and will come back.
3. Kara survives. She somehow lives in some unimaginable fashion and will come back.

Note all these options have Starbuck coming back. I'm basing this off Katee Sackhoff's comments about her character. I can't wait for Son Also Rises to see the expressions of grief... sad? Yes, but moving nonetheless.

Best Part: Kara & Lee's final exchange.
Worst Part: Kara's visit with the stoned-out oracles. How many of these oracles are there? Was Chief's mom really an oracle? That might explain some things...
Best Line: "You come back!" - Lee, to Kara.
Worst ad-lib acting decision by a quality actor: Edward James Olmos destroy a very expensive model on an acting whim. Poignant touch-- bad for insurance premiums.

Labels: Season 3

Perspective, perspective, perspective.

Television and movies are all about perspective. In the case of BSG, it's always been the point that characters are moving targets through which we see a tragedy: the destruction of the colonies, the obliteration of human culture, and the near-enslavement of mankind. We see the political (Roslin), the military (Adama), the criminal (Zarek), and the civilian (Billy) all intermixing. Then there's an episode like Dirty Hands, in which the writers present a elegant powerful point... but through a very strange perspective. Let's delve...

The questions at hand are labor and education. The labor part is obvious; throughout the episode we are presented the exemplar case of the refinery ship which is manned by grunts in manual labor garb. Of course, to tell their story, the writers chose the main-character equivalent of this motif: Chief. This is reasonable, of course, given that Tyrol mainly labors away in the BSG hangar bays. The secondary reason given for his involvement was his previous experience on New Caprica as an union head.

I think this would have worked very well had the New Caprica storyline been fleshed out more (and, by extension, Chief's role in the unionization on the planet). However, the major blunder of Season 3 was fleeing New Caprica so quickly-- Exodus, the most powerful episode, should have been the mid-season finale! This would have given more time to develop Starbuck's imprisonment, Chief's new life, the Tighs, and in general the powerful allegory of enslavement and occupation. And, it would have allowed the weaker episodes to be rolled together into tighter stories, such as Torn and Collaborators.

This overall weakness aside, what were the strengths of the episode? For one, it addresses the powerful issue of social mobility which was first brought up by Tom Zarek in Colonial Day (I think Zarek should have had a role here...); why does the gardener still garden in this post-apocalypse? But one important thing, which R.D. Moore brought up while planning the show, is education. They showed education on New Caprica-- Roslin was a schoolteacher again! But in space, are there schools? The main force for social mobility in real-life is education, but there is no mention of this in the episode! Roslin & Adama take a rigid stance on social mobility, and admit the system is flawed, but offer no solutions. Why?

I beliefe it's a misstep in perspective. The episode is completely focused on Chief (like The Woman King was the "Helo" episode, The Passage was the "Kat" episode, etc.), which means it must engage the material from Chief's perspective. This perspective is a mid-level one: he's not a high-minded politikos, but not some lowly civilian nobody. It's also extremely narrow: Chief fixes thing and helps other people who fix things. On Kobol, his skills, loyalty, and strength were extremely effective as a direct counter to Brother Cavil. But here, as in Eye of Jupiter, the perspective is narrow and bizzare.

What are the implications of making this a "Chief" episode? Lack of long-term solutions. It's a manual labor problem with an education solution, but because Chief is used to fix it, the solution is manual labor based. This is a perfectly fine solution, but in the future it'd be informative to see the other side: education. This isn't as cinematically pleasing as men-at-work, but it is a huge issue in the fleet.

Now, I've been accused of excess negativity in this blog, which is partly due to my nature and partly due to the episodes. Long-term, I plan on returning to the first two seasons to review some of my favorite episodes. I foresee that readers will think these reviews to be sickly sweet. But I'd like to point out some great things about BSG that I think we take for granted.

The dynamic action choreography is simply stunning, and is on par with 24 and the other great "action" dramas on TV today. The opening sequence is mesmerizing and reminds me of great sequences in 33 and Exodus, where the simply physics of inertia is transformed into an engine of tension. Fantastic. The acting is also fantastic all around. I'm amazed that even though the writing is sometimes subpar (Adama's speeches?) the actors focuses the dialogue through the character lens and creates a perfect illusion. Not since Rome and The Office (BBC) have I seen actors work like this. Finally, the production values are still unmatched on TV today. The flaw of Star Trek, Stargate, etc. is that the explosion and laser are the coin of the realm. In BSG, a simple image of a lonely pile of tyllium tells a complete story of urgency, desperation, weariness, and labor.

Images like this, despite all my criticism, set BSG apart from 99% of the junk on TV. That one image contains more narrative than a whole season of Enterprise or Stargate Atlantis.

Best Part: Opening Raptor flight sequence.
Worst Part: Baltar's crappy Aerelon accent.
Best Quote: "This is a mistake... I'm not a farmer!" - Danny
Most awkward presidential interaction: The current president (Roslin) ordering a cavity search of the previous president (Baltar).

Labels: Season 3

Note the chatbox on the right sidebar where you can leave messages and chat.

RJL:

Is anyone sensing a theme? I've noticed that every single person on the show who is married has serious marital problems. I think the only people that have stable marriages are the extras who say things like "My wife needs medicine!" or "My husband is sick" and inevitably their marriage is shattered because a main character shoots them or lets them die.

So, on to Adama's marital strife and ensuing divorce. I find it slightly scary that Adama has internalized his former wife so well that he can have intimate conversations with her. His ritual of pulling out the wedding photo is kinda creepy, but it does show his love for his former wife. I like how through this dialog in his mind we see how Adama works internally. He memorizes his enlisted aides; he prides himself on being a good leader and decision maker. Again, we find out that he is human and not as untouchable as some people consistently see him. Another high point is that through these 'fights' with Caroline the audience learns that Adama is incredibly critical of himself. This entire portion of the show, while odd, was very informative about Adama's life and inner workings.


Now lets talk about how this episode sucked.

First, the airlock ordeal was so staged. None of that story line seemed convincing. Let's think about it for just one second. Two main characters are trapped in an airlock within the first three minutes of the episode. In order to save them, Adama comes up with a incredibly risky plot to save them. Through some fancy flying and a whole lot of magical luck for three other main characters, Chief and Cally get rescued. The two good parts about this section of the storyline were Chief's marriage was saved and the technical discussion about the problem was kept to a minimum. Other than that it was nothing but canned lines and magical plot devices to save them. Had this been BSG of seasons past, two of the five present main characters would have died in the rescue and some of the debris from the airlock would have destroyed a civilian ship.

Second, is the budding relationship between Adama and Roslin. If you know me then you know I can't stand our de-facto leader of the Colonies. Again, let us think about this. We have the President of the Colonies and the Admiral of the fleet who want to hook-up. Whatever happened to no workplace relationships when the human race is at stake? Also, this is beyond creepy. I know some people might argue that this is in fact 'cute' and 'inevitable' but no, it is completely avoidable. I have faith that Adama is strong and can avoid being caught in a relationship with that woman.

Third problem is the constant use of main characters in story defining moments. Specifically, is Roslin's choice of Lee for tribunal leader based simply on the fact that his Grandfather was a lawyer. Why can't BSG save money on hiring actors to play crappy doctors in previous episodes and put the money toward finding a temp actor to play this role. Or just put Gaeta in this role. He'd get the job done. Or Billy, yeah... resurrect Billy to do this. He'd be a phenom at this position.

Sigh, I guess onto the Episode Awards:

Best Part: Helo talking to Hotdog prior to Lee's CAG briefing.
Worst Part: Watching Adama and Roslin 'fall' in love.
Best Quote: "It would be easier to hate you" - Adama
Magical physics defying moment: Raptor getting hit by a blast door and still staying in relative position for a successful rescue.

Labels: Season 3

MCC:

The Woman King was one of those one-hitters that Sci-Fi orders up. This style of episode is not BSG's strong suit (see Black Market), and I think it's this trend that is giving weight to the idea that BSG has, if not jumped the shark, gone significantly downhill.

Frankly, I would agree. The third season, in my mind, has been an immense disappointment. Complicated character development and story arcs have been dumped in favor of the Star Trek "weird happening of the week": viruses (twice now!), probes, eyes, temples, nebulas, etc. What happened to that supremely moving New Caprica storyline? Was Ellen Tigh wasted so that we could see Helo bullying around the natives? And now I'm confused-- I thought the Sagittarons were political activists, but the writers have pigeon-holed them as the religious element-- wasn't that the Geminons? What's going on?

As for the actual episode... I have to say they did an okay job with the material at hand. I think the producers are realizing that Tahmoh Penikett, the actor who plays Capt. Karl "Helo" Agathon, has only two faces: seething martyr face and seething "Sharon" face. Therefore, he can only do things when they relate to arguing with his wife or staring down moral corruption. So, better retcon him into some moral corruption! The writers seem not to trust themselves or Tahmoh, and they thus artificially insert him into ridiculous positions. For instance, I'm disappointed that, several times this season, the "last time on Battlestar Galactica..." has featured material that never aired. They could have filmed those scenes specifically for the new episodes, for all we know.

The episode answers a few long-standing questions-- at least partially. We now know that there is another Doctor besides Cottle, although previous episodes imply that he had to work the entire fleet. Secondly, we know that Galactica has been miraculously resupplied since Black Market with things like medical supplies (perhaps by Cylons on New Caprica?). Finally, we know that refugees cramped into small spaces can catch diseases. I've noticed that, except for Farscape, no sci-fi show usually shows people with colds or the flu; they're either in perfect health or have some ridiculous disease that turns them into spiders.

Is it me or should this episode be renamed "A Measure of Salvation, pt. 2?" Disease strikes unfriendly group, someone wants to let the disease ravage that group, Helo steps in drastically to stop the disease. Replace "Cylon" with "Sagittaron" and "Adama/Roslin" with "Dr. Robert" and "Lymphocytic Encephalitis" with "Mellorak" and you pretty-much have the same episode. It's frankly pretty standard-fare stuff. A far more interesting result than expected would have been to have Dr. Robert not killing Sagittarons, despite his ethnic hate. That would force Helo to renegotiate his own moral standing in the face of failure. In other words-- have the good guy deal with losing for once and replay A Measure of Salvation but put Helo clearly in the wrong. Helo's interactions with Mrs. King were as standard as they get: grieving vengeful mother converts military guy to take her side and crusade for justice. I'm pretty sure I've seen about 90 Star Treks with this crappy storyline. But, as you know, this can't all be pinned on the writers and producers. Sci-Fi probably demands stand-alone episodes, which are hard to write.

Oh Billy! alert: Sadly, I think this would have been a great episode had Billy been around. I know that sounds ridiculous, but Billy's quiet righteousness plays much better than Helo's stomping. Billy would have been an ideal person to run the refugee camp as well as respond to a moral dilemma (can you tell I liked the Billy character?). Helo was written to survive on Caprica. Now that he's on Galactica, the writers better come up with something better to do with him.

A few amusing things about this otherwise ordinary episode:

1) Did they name the Dr. have Dr. Robert from that Beatles song?
2) Why did Dr. Cottle have Dr. Robert's medical files? For fun? For safekeeping? For Helo to have a standoff with Cottle?
3) Why did Dualla see Robert and not Cottle? Aren't there regulations for this sort of thing?
4) What kind of disease "starts in the kidneys and attacks the immune system?" None, as far as I can tell. Lympocytic Encephalitis also made no sense. The writers need a doctor.
5) Where did these refugees come from? Some other ship? A writer's convenience?
6) Why didn't Dualla have more to say about her own people? In Bastille Day she had some strong feelings... but now she just thinks her people are stupid? Zah?
7) What are people eating on Galactica? Algae, right? Can we show someone trying to eat some processed algae, please?
8) Where was Tom Zarek during all of this? He is Mr. Sagitarron, the Vice-President, and Sagitarron's Colonial Representative. And where did Zarek get that suit, by the way?
9) And where was Roslin during all of this? She's the President isn't she? An outbreak of deadly disease should be worth a visit to Galactica, no?
10) Can we please keep track of where we are in space? I can see it now-- four episodes from now, without any prior mention, the fleet will suddenly arrive at the next checkpoint to Earth. Tada! Oh and the Cylons will be there, and there will be confrontation, and someone will die/be seriously wounded. Check please.

I'm really hoping for something more creative here...

Labels: Season 3

Don't forget, due to the emergence of Evil Rex last Sunday, there was no BSG. Next week's episode, The Woman King, will air next Sunday per usual. See you then?

Labels: Organization