Battlestar Galactica 3x11

[coalescent]

1. Oh dear.

2. For a big cliffhanger, there was a remarkable lack of tension, perhaps because the situation was structurally too close to the standoff at the end of "Pegasus" last year.

3. I like the show when it's examining the social, ethical and personal consequences of religious belief. I like it much less when it starts leaning towards being a show where there is demonstrable evidence of divine intervention. TV SF typically deals with present-day issues in one of two ways: either they happen in a world sufficiently like ours that the issues can be transposed wholesale, or they happen in a world that is fundamentally unlike ours in some ways, so the issues get transformed into a form that will still resonate with us. Galactica's handling of social issues has been almost uniformly of the first kind; if it were to be established that this is a universe in which there is proof of higher power, it would have to switch to handling religion in the second way, and I'm not sure the writers could pull it off. Consequently, I wasn't a fan of the "hey, look at the coincidence in this setup!" lines, and not much of a fan of Chief Tyrol's possible religious awakening.

4. I've seen a couple of comments elsewhere to the effect that Lee/Kara isn't working because the viewer's sympathy is with Dee and Sam. My sympathy is also with Dee and Sam, but I don't think that's why the plotline isn't working; I think it isn't working because the writers are building the overall plotline around the personal plotline they want, not the other way around. I think they wanted the four of them in a pressured situation, and built the siege-setup on that basis, rather than coming up with the siege concept and asking how it would affect those four characters. I think this largely because of the way Kara is shoehorned onto the ground; the Lee/Sam material could have worked as well, and arguably better, with her elsewhere.

5. My biggest gripe with the episode, though, is the way it handled Sharon and Helo finding out that Hera is still alive. That didn't need to be the A-plot, but it needed better treatment than it got here. We most deserved to see Sharon asking Adama if Boomer's story was true; we also deserved to see Sharon telling Helo; and at the very least, we deserved to see Adama relaying that the story was true after his conversation with Roslin. We got none of those scenes, and it hurt the plotline.

Comments

[pyropyga.livejournal.com]

I saw this episode in a theater as part of a magazine promotion here in the states. Each of your criticisms seems entirely valid, but what I took away was pretty positive in the end. I got entirely too much joy out of hearing Baltar's voice ring out in Galactica's CiC, and I thought the Lee-Kara chemistry was actually working really well. I prefer episodes here where there's a sense that they've cut desperately needed elements to those where the show feels profoundly padded. See 3x10's sluggish montages or the third quarter of season 2 with the exception of Scar.

[applez.livejournal.com]

I broadly agree, but think it was a rather good cliffhanger (the bastids!). I feel the whole Lee/Sam/Kara/Apollo thing is really forced, and the characters aren't really presenting much for either subplot or mainplot.

Also, to echo pyropyga's statement - when Baltar's voice came on the comm-line ... that was just beautiful, and a fun homage to the original series too.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

My problem with the cliffhanger is I think there is a 100% that the sun will start to go supernova and they will all have to jump out before Adama launches (Wacky energy thing in the temple will save everyone on the planet so people can jump out later,) so the whole standoff bit of it doesn't feel tense to me at all.

[applez.livejournal.com]

Fair point, but I figured the tension of the people on the ground (including the Cylon deathsquad) quite good.

[applez.livejournal.com]

By the bye, I've friended you if that's alright.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

Sure.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what bit of the original series that scene might be referencing, but while it was a nice moment, it was rather thrown out by the all-too-personal reactions of Adam and Roslin in the pow-wow with the Cylons. "Definitely worth considering" letting the Cylons have the Eye of Jupiter in exchange for Baltar? Please.

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

Well it was worth saying just for the look on Baltar's face

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

OK, fair point.

re: F&SF: thanks, but I'll keep waiting. It's not like I don't have other things I should be reading, after all.

[applez.livejournal.com]

1. From the original series: the human, and perhaps "Baltar" himself, conspired with the Cylon fleet chasing Galactica...those one-on-one scenes became more common towards the end of the series.

2. re: personal reaction pow-wow - fair point, but in a meta sense, it's not a bad card to play. It reaffirms the internal relationship that Adama is trying to rebuild, carries the threat forward against Baltar, and let's the Cylons think you might be willing to play - and within a context of defending one's own interests too. Actually, fairly good negotiation tactic.