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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Battlestar Galactica Season Three

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STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:54 / 16.10.06

I took "Download City" to be a figure of speech, rather than an actual place. Kind of like "blowing someone to Palookaville". Or when you say (not that I say it that often) "I'm gonna send you to the morgue", and you don't mean any particular specific morgue.

00:39 / 17.10.06

I find myself admiring Grace Park more with every episode. Not only because she got to kneecap osmeone, but because Galactica Boomer (sorry, Sharon Agathon *puke* how this show's gender politics need work)

I'm a little curious about the fact that you'd say the show's gender politics need work. There's certainly some issues, but on the whole, the women are the most complex, interesting characters on the series.

The issue I do take with this season is that so many of the women are caught up in storylines revolving motherhood. I'm not sure how it'll play out, but the introduction of Casey could wind up dulling a lot of what's unique about the character. However, I think the storyline works because it confronts Kara with the thing she most fears. So, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Keith, like a scientist

02:13 / 17.10.06

I sort of predict that Casey will get killed off, which will add some hard edged hijinks to Kara again....that's based on nothing at all, but I'd be surprised if they would soften Starbuck too far. Who knows, though, this show continues to confound expectations in regards to where they take characters.

The one thing I've never seen mentioned, and it's neither here nor there, but I'm very intrigued by the seeming "marriage tattoos" that Kara and Anders have on opposite arms. Is this a Colonies thing? I don't think I remember seeing rings on anyone, but I don't recall those tattoos on anyone else either. Something to do with a particular faith?

Disco is My Class War

02:52 / 17.10.06

Oh that's what the tattoos are! Better than rings, then.

Patrick, I was bitching more about the representation of sexuality than the gender politics, in retrospect. No less than four couples have just gotten married, and now we have the Cally-Tyrols, the Thrace-Anders, the Agathon-Valeriis and the Adama-Duallas. Sure, it's nice that they're all kinda content in their relationships -- we think they are, anyhow. And with the exception of Baltar/Six, romance has never been Battlestar's strong point. But the heteronormativity is so excessive, I'm tempted to believe it's deliberately so, to make us wonder what else is going on. At least we weren't subjected to watching a quadruple wedding in full regalia, Adama presiding, with Roslin hovering in the wings. But c'mon, would it kill the writers to write one or two explicitly queer characters? Would it kill them to go beyond the most homo moments thus far -- Gaeta's evident crush on Baltar, and Cain and Starbuck's weird intense eye contact just before Cain was assassinated? It's like the writers are pretending they have to use the Hayes Code. I know some people who are fans of Hayes Code creativity with Freudian signifiers, but christ. This is post Buffy. I expect better.

07:33 / 17.10.06

I've noticed that a lot of writers in comics and genre fiction seem very uncomfortable writing in gay characters or characters with same-sex attraction simply because they find it hard to do so convincingly. We should be honest, it's clear that writing such characters in makes a show feel more 'edgy' but also that it leaves you almost more open to crticism from the gay community than if you'd left them out. I wouldn't be at all surprised for them to play or hint around it but never actually come out and do anything with same-sex attraction. And not through cowardice as much as through indolence. It's not a good excuse, but I suspect it's a real phenomenon.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:07 / 17.10.06

But I also think - without having seen past the end of season 2 - that all these marriages might be symptomatic of a kind of brink-of-extinction collective hysteria. This is also why the whole motherhood thing is so foregrounded - it all goes back to the miniseries/pilot when Adama decides that humanity better start making babies...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

11:59 / 17.10.06

I think it's a bit of a shame if Galactica manages to evacuate everyone off-planet by the end of episode four as I think at least a half-season of exciting stories could be made of it, and quite how a mass-evacuation of the planet will be achieved when there are several Base Stars in orbit and Galactica doesn't have the Pegasus backing it up this time.

And Starbuck has been shipped back to Caprica for some reason hasn't she?

And that was a real rather than imaginary Six that Baltar was in bed with in the middle of this episode wasn't it?

Disco is My Class War

12:16 / 17.10.06

And Starbuck has been shipped back to Caprica for some reason hasn't she?

Where did you get that idea? I gathered that Starbuck is in the detention centre in New Caprica City, just in a special 'home facade' section.

Keith, like a scientist

12:37 / 17.10.06

Yeah, she's on New Caprica...Leoben sees the smoke from Anders and Tyrols bombing from their apartment window.

It was indeed a real Six in Baltar's bed, but as we saw last week, he still sees the 'imaginary' Six in his head. It's really weird. The live Six is a reincarnated version of the one he knew on the original Caprica in the mini-series. And the 'imaginary' one is some sort of representation of that same Six...and they've never mentioned each other as far I remember...I don't think real Six knows about imaginary Six...

Baltar has the oddest life.

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

14:35 / 17.10.06

I just rewatched the first three episodes last night in case I missed anything cool (was doing other things while watching the first time) and man, the Fat Apollo makeup looks lame.

It reminds me of a Saturday Night Live skit where someone like Martin Short is done up to look fat. Big fake jowles and the second trimester pregnant stomache just dont cut it. Never mind that EVERY TIME they cut to his room the zoomed in on food. It just felt tacked on.

16:47 / 17.10.06

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there has been anything definitive to shoe that Head Six and Head Baltar are in any way related to any of the real Sixes or Baltar... I have a nagging suspicion that Head Six and Head Baltar might well turn out to be "god" (or somesuch) communicating to his creations...

I really hope I'm wrong here...

Keith, like a scientist

17:25 / 17.10.06

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there has been anything definitive to shoe that Head Six and Head Baltar are in any way related to any of the real Sixes or Baltar... I have a nagging suspicion that Head Six and Head Baltar might well turn out to be "god" (or somesuch) communicating to his creations...

I really hope I'm wrong here...

There was the sequence where Head Six tells Baltar how she would buy tickets to pyramid games on Caprica...

19:26 / 17.10.06

Which Baltar then re-quotes to Pegasus Six...who doesn't seem aware of its provenance. I think it's certainly safe to say the real ones don't know about the imaginary ones, but the imaginary ones do know about the real ones...Baltar's Head Six gets jealous of Pegasus Six, for example...

19:45 / 17.10.06

I've got a feeling they might swap the Boomers again, by having Adama Assassin Boomer who is a full-on sympathiser pretend to be Baby Boomer when Baby Boomer goes off the deep end when she finds out about Dinky Agathon is still alive. Baby Boomer then becomes Vengeful Persuing Boomer and this returns to being a chase show. Assassin Sympathiser Boomer then has to pull off being in love with married Chief while pretending to be married to Agathon.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:14 / 18.10.06

Although I suspect Helo might be a little less passive if he finds out that his Daughter is alive also.

And also, I'm not sure where I got that Starbuck was on a different planet from. Sorry about that. Well, it'll make rescuing her easier then.

The Six in Baltars head is just a delusion, or that's what it was supposed to be by somewhere mid-s2. Similarly the Baltar in Caprica Six's head is also a delusion. In both cases apparently brought on by their guilt over starting the destruction of the Colonies.

I wonder whether Gina-Six was able to resurrect when she committed suicide at the end of season 2?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:58 / 18.10.06

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:51 / 18.10.06

I would imagine that she couldn't come back after the suicide bombing. She knew the Ressurection Ship was gone, so was commiting a true act of suicide, rather then just wasting an easily replaced body.

Also I would imagine the electromagnetic pulse released by a nuke would scramble whatever magic signal the cylons transmit their brains with.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:57 / 19.10.06

The heavy atmosphere of New Caprica (which was one of the arguments in favour of settling there in the first place) may be the factor affecting the Human-Cylons ability to download smoothly.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

11:47 / 20.10.06

Of course, considering that Caprican society, and especially the Colonies military, is pretty conservative (no inter-rank relationships, president seems to be a sort of elected dictator, &c), I wouldn't be entirely surprised if homosexuality was forbidden in the military and it just hasn't come up yet. Which would be an interesting thing to deal with, and I hope they do, because there's only so much one can take of everyone being straight in space.

Also: who else reckons the Cylon God's a massive alien AI? and is animating both Baltar's Imaginary Six and Caprica-Six's Imaginary Baltar? It doesn't look like either one of them shares much with the original (Imaginary Six dresses nothing like Caprica-Six, although this may just be Baltar's dirty mind) in behaviour, and it would explain the way these characters seem to be able to predict the future &c...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

05:18 / 21.10.06

How many times has Six-in-Baltar's-head actually predicted something that's happened? The closest I think we've got is in the first season when Six-in-Baltar's-head and Baltar have a row and then a real Six comes along to accuse Baltar of being responsible for the fall of the Colonies. It's tricky, as I believe Moore and Co thought Six IBH was a chip right up to the point where she wasn't any more.

Keith, like a scientist

15:06 / 21.10.06

Holy crap. I think that was the best episode ever last night. Maybe not, but, right now, in my head, it certainly blew me away. Some of it might have been predictable, like Lee showing up, but Gods know I still got a rush when he did.

Kara's story had a very interesting end, as well. I wonder how this going to effect her from now on...

And One Eye Tigh and Tyrol are the best characters ever from this point on.

Phex: Dorset Doom

16:05 / 21.10.06

So, anybody else's Cylon-dar go off when Kaycee's real mother arrived? It seemed a little too convinient.
Also, I'm a little confused about Gaeta letting Balthar go- so Lucy-Lawless-Cylon was going to set off a nuke (everybody but the Colonial One crew had left by that time anyway, so why bother?), but instead went to knock things over in the oracle's tent. Balthar, apparently, had to stop Lucy-Lawless-Cylon, but Gaeta couldn't? Seems to me like Gaeta could have capped Balthar and Caprica Six then went to stop Lucy Lawless- earning himself some major props when he got back to Galactica (I'm guessing he'll say he carried out the hit on Balthar, which I'm also guessing was an order from Tigh).
Speaking of Tigh- that scene with his wife? Genius. It's a shame she's gone though, I'll miss the dynamic they had.
And, not to sound shallow, but the spaceship battles in BSG are consistently excellent- since they're few and far between the animators must have quite a lot of time to devote to them, which means that when they happen there's typically a billion things happening on the screen at any one time and it all looks like a gorgeous, gorgeous mess.

20:43 / 21.10.06

I love Gaeta, but the poor chap is screwed when we get to the tribunals. Agreed about the episode though, that was one hell of a blast. Absolutely stunning and extraordinary and the kind of television where I find myself checking my watch every so often desperate for it not to be near to the end of the episode. And they passed over the question I really wanted an answer to - how many humans are left!?

00:49 / 22.10.06

About homosexuality, I saw an interview with Ron Moore where he mentioned it's something he'd want to explore, but that they didn't want to just have the 'gay character.' I think it's more difficult to fit a gay character in than, say, a black character, because you can't just have them there, you have to point it out in some way, and I guess they're afraid that will come off as just throwing in a gay character.

But, I don't think it would be that tough to do, and they should go for it when it fits with the story.

Disco is My Class War

13:18 / 26.10.06

I haven't had much time to post on last weeks' episode, but have been watching Read Less, More BSG on Youtube a lot in procrastinatory moments. It's recorded by this dyke fandom-obsessed grad student (I think) who has posted around 40 minutes of BSG commentary per episode on a whole range of topics. She also has fluffy-toy and puppet friends who hang out with her and talk very eruditely about BSG. They're into slash a lot: actually,one whole episode is called Girlslash Goggles, and it's like a primer on how to read slashy moments beteen the female characters. Ie, Starbuck/Cain, Roslin/Maya.... And of course, Gaeta/Baltar. It's just awesome -- what more can I say.

14:06 / 28.10.06

All I can say is wow for last night's episode. Vague Spoilers follow:

I couldn't believe what happened with Jammer. I thought he would stick around this season with the build up he got from the webisodes and the first few episodes. He screwed up for sure but he also realized this and tried to make up for it. Nice that Gaeta pretty much said the same thing is Jammer when he walked away. "What else could I have done." Only he didn't get blown out an airlock. This episode really kicked season 3 into gear for me. Good stuff!

Keith, like a scientist

15:51 / 28.10.06

there's something that's been bugging me about Jammer.

when Duck did the suicide bombing at the NCP graduation ceremony, wasn't Jammer in the room? I have a hard time believing that he survived the explosion in such proximity to Duck. I was truthfully shocked to see him the next day with no injuries, no scratches on his face, nothing.

I never go in for the rampant suspecting people of being a Cylon, but I'm starting to think there is something funny about Jammer.

Anyway, yeah, "Collaborators" was really good. Dark as hell. I'm not sure how I feel about the Basestar interior scenes yet... a little too "techno" style, but I guess the idea is that they are all just big computers in one form or another.

It keeps freaking me out to see the timid never-fired-a-gun medic woman (has she ever been given a name?) from the Kobol episodes turned into a hardened resistance leader. took them a year to bring her back and she's drastically different from her first appearances.

Phex: Dorset Doom

18:08 / 28.10.06

It's nice to see Zarek back being evil- though I suppose, like he said, he ordered the Guantanamo Bay stuff so Roslyn wouldn't have to deal with it, even though she did.
I dug the reference to, of all things, High School drama in the Galactica canteen.
The only aspect of the recent episodes I haven't liked is Balthar. Now that he's not with the fleet there doesn't seem to be a whole lot he can do- sitting on a chair looking miserable has replaced that whole scheming, sweaty thing where half the time he's cooler than the Antarctic with a Miles Davis soundtrack and the other half he's terrified of everybody finding out he takes orders from a voice in his head. I would have much preferred to see 'The Trial of Gaius Balthar' than a season of him trying to convince the Cylons that they shouldn't just boot him out of the airlock or have his silvery room-mate put a bullet in him.

18:22 / 28.10.06

While I love he urgency of this season, and think that last episode (Was that Exodus?) might have been the best yet in terms of the utter geekgasm brought on by the Galactica's launching fighters in the atmosphere, I miss the metaphyscs of earlier seasons.

When I talked to my friends about the show, before this season started, we all had questions about the metaphysics of the Galactica universe. What is that thing in Baltar's head? What does it mean that the Cylons have a God? Can the Cylons really see the future? Stuff like that.

And the show's sort of veered away from the heady questions to suddenly become uncomfortably topical. Which, while yeah it's great and all, still leaves me whishing they'd pull some more of the mindfuck stuff.

Also: How was the council split 3 to 3 with 1 abstaining? I thought there were 12 models.

18:38 / 28.10.06

I dunno about that - I'm fascinated by the weirdness of him being one human confused on a world of Cylon and what that's going to be like. I quite like the idea of him being gradually driven more and more insane and getting more and more twisted by the extreme circumstances in which he finds himself, particularly in being the weird one in an environment where Cylon ways are normal. Of course, in some ways his circumstances are increasingly like that of the Baltar of the original series.And of course I'm fascinated by the Cylon environment itself and desperately want to see more of it.

The most obvious question now is are the Cylon following them any more, or are they bruised and battered and ready to step away from the pursuit. Or more specifically, is the series now comfortable with the idea of stepping back from direct human / cylon conflict for a few weeks to see what happens between humans on the fleet. I'm now almost looking for a significant trick to be performed. I'm expecting some kind of enormous trap one way or another - something that keeps things seeming to be going one way only for two strands to join up in something quite ridiculous in three months time.

One thing I'm anxious about is whether the reset button has just been hit. Kara's not talking to her husband, Apollo's losing weight, Laura's in charge and there will be no tribunals. There's been no sense of how circumstances on board the fleet have changed, no reappearance of the mysterious oracle from the planet and - one assumes - little or no likelihood of ongoing reprisals forming a core part of the plot. So are we now back where we were a year ago?

18:51 / 28.10.06

I'm not sure about the reset and going back to the way it was. Something tells me Tigh isn't going to just drop it. He killed his own wife and she did less than many on the list he has. Plus, mouthing off to Adama and being told "to sleep it off" only to mouth of at that. I'll be surprised if they just drop that.

21:40 / 28.10.06

Yeah, I see illegal tribunals, headed by Tigh & Connor, leading to Tigh losing his XO spot, going back to being Osama Bin Tigh, and occupying a place similar to Tom Sarak (?) in the previous seasons - the leader of a populist anti-Roslyn, anti-Adama campaign in the fleet.

I'm also curious what's to become of Anders. Someone suggested he could be trained as a pilot, presumably by Starbuck, and let us all relive the Zach Adama drama all over again. He seems too good a character to waste, but there really isn't much for a Pyramid player to do in the fleet. Unless they need someone to get Jaime Bamber out of his fatsuit. Do fleets have Gym teachers?

Phex: Dorset Doom

21:42 / 28.10.06

He's not going to be happy with Roslyn's decision, and knowing that Zarek ordered the 'trials' that Tigh and his little club so enjoyed there's potential for Tigh bringing the muscle (former Insurgents all over the fleet) for a coup d'etat to put Zarek in power. What, are we on like our third coup now? Fourth?

Disco is My Class War

12:43 / 29.10.06

Oddly, I feel that this episode wasn't quite dark enough. I was surprised that Zarek, rather than Roslin, ordered the 'illegal trials' -- weren't she and Tori drawing up lists of collaborators back on New Caprica? It seems a little too easy for her to waltz into the Presidency declaring the start of a truth and reconciliation commission. I'm not surprised to see Jammer go (someone familiar had to die, to make the point) and I'm glad Gaeta was saved. But I think the implication was, in that interrogation scene with Gaeta, that rather than continuing to seek revenge, the members of the Circle are going to have to deal with their issues in more, um, 'mature' ways. With a bad taste in their mouths. Starbuck said it -- the executions were more about hitting out at whoever than justice, no matter how many rules they made up to pretend not. Isn't it enough for the fleet to just have go return to 'normality'? And isn't that 'normality' weird enough already without another coup?

My question is, what do they do with Sharon now? She's been sworn in as an officer... If Tigh is already mouthing off about Helo being the new XO, how is he going to take working with Sharon on the Galactica? And how is everyone else going to take it? Mmmm, drama.

And yeah, it'd be great to see some more metaphysical stuff. I think we're going to get it, though, just not right now. The whole Hera story (and D'Anna arc) seems very important to the Big Questions. At least, RDM seems to think so -- he said it in a commentary.

15:46 / 29.10.06

Also: How was the council split 3 to 3 with 1 abstaining? I thought there were 12 models.

I notice this has come up on a couple of occasions and they just act like - since the humans only know these 7 models, they are all that exist. Not really a logically defensible take by any stretch.

Anyway, thank god they finally had a great episode. This whole season has been filled with good moments, but also too many "you gotta be kidding me" moments (Adama! Adama! Adama! comes to mind). I agree with a previous post that they could have saved five minutes of screen time to actually give up more plot or action, rather than some ultrachessy rah-rah moment that I don't for one second believe these people would actually engage in (you just get off planet from a horrific occupation and you act like it's a frakkin' football game??? huh?).

And, although I agree that Baltar on a basestar could be boring, I was laughing my ass off with geekish glee when it happened.

all in all, I'll still be watching but I've got BSG on a short leash. any more stupidity or complete filler episodes (like the second half of season 2), and I'm done with it.

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