Friday, September 16, 2005
So I saw the second-to-last "Battlestar Galactica" tonight.
It was one of those "ship in a bottle" shows, one in which everything takes place aboard the Galactica and nowhere else. I like these shows because the script in them relies much more heavily on characterization rather than plot and narrative. For example, one of the best "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episodes was "Disaster" -- where the Enterprise hits a superstring, trapping the captain in a turbolift, a very pregnant Mrs. O'Brien on 10-forward, the engines ready to explode and the bridge in the hands of the woefully inexperienced Counselor Troi.
This episode was such a good change of pace. So many "Galactica" episodes have this three-stories-in-parallel structure. So many of them toss in episodes of Dr. Baltar's worsening psychosis without any relationship to the rest of the stories. And there's so much foreshadowing in this damn show, everything takes on a very dreary and very portentious atmosphere that can be very wearying for the viewer.
But this episode -- very nice! The use of a previous episode's incident (the Cylon computer virus attack) to directly link to this one worked very well. And it helped make the show a uniform whole. Too often, shows open with "previous on 'Battlestar Galactica'" without actually looking backward or resolving story lines or relying heavily on previous knowledge. It's like watching a 15-hour movie chopped up into pieces rather than a real, coherent mystery story. But this show didn't do that, and I liked that a lot.
I enjoyed the way that almost everyone has something to do in this episode. For example, the neo-fascist Lt. Gaeta slips and adds "Sharon," which adds a little depth to his character. And he is one of two people tasked with saving the ship from the virus. I liked how bit-players on the Chief's repair crew were given lines and tasks in the plot.
I also liked the way that the show is finally dealing with the fact that two crew members fell in love with Cylons. In truth, this should be a pretty major issue. Now, the Chief believed that he was in love with the human Sharon, not a Cylon. He had reason to suspect she was a traitor, definitely; he could maybe have suspected her of being a Cylon, but at the time no one knew that Cylons could take such deceptive human form. Helo was partly in the same boat. He thought he was fucking the real, human Sharon and not a Cylon. But he knew that Cylons could take near-human form. His reaction to seeing a second "Sharon" was the right one. It didn't matter that he loved Cylon-Sharon or not (he already did); he instantly rejected her.
The problem for the show is in explaining why Helo would change his mind. The show's never dealt with that. He just changed it, and fell back in love with Cylon-Sharon. (You have to wonder what sort of male doormat Helo is. In the past, what if a human woman had screwed his best friend? Would Helo have taken her back? You have to believe he would have, if his behavior regarding Cylon-Sharon is any guide.)
The greater problem for the show is Helo's wacky, super-dad response to "my baby." Now, just how ultra-fundamentalist is that? Pat Robertson and James Dobson must be loving this. "He won't abort his child!" "He wants to carry the baby to term and care for it like a real father should!" First, I'm about as offended and put-off by this reaction as I can be. It's not very enlightened at all. Second, why doesn't Helo see his "baby" as some sort of half-Cylon demon-spawn? Why see it as "my" baby? That response goes unexplained. Is there something in Helo's belief-system or past or religious beliefs that would make him take this path? We're not told. We just have to take it on faith, and I don't like doing that. It shows poorly thought-out characterization.
And let's back up a step here: Does anyone else think that the "Helo's Cylon baby" story-arc is reminiscent of the "Robin is having a Visitor baby" from "V"? Yeah, thought so. It's eerily similar. Way too similar. Of course, my mind can come up with all sorts of idiotic scenarious for this: Baltar kidnaps the half-Cylon child and raises it with the Cylons. Helo hunts Baltar down to save "my baby." The baby turns out to have a forked tongue (oops, that was "V"!). Sharon kills her baby because it's an obscene hybrid (oops, that was "V"!). Helo kills Sharon after seeing what a disgusting creature he's brought into the world (oops, that was "V"!).
By the way, I thought it was a sweet little touch to add naming the new Viper "Laura." It wasn't necessary, but it was neat. And it gave Mary McDonnell something to do. She's such a superb actress. I love how she just has to act with her face, eyes, hands and arms. No lines. Just acting. Pure and unadulterated acting. You believe that she is going to cry if she doesn't control herself. She's that good. (And the bit where she almost breaks the bottle is a neat little toss-in that made smile and laugh.)
I've got two little criticisms, though.
First, the show seems to take place over about 72 hours. It seems impossible that the crew would have been able to assemble an entire Viper in that amount of time.
Second, the budding attraction between Dualla and Apollo seems completely unnecessary. It's terribly out of character for Dualla. She's been deeply attracted to Billy Keikeya for months now. There have been no signs of trouble in that relationship. And yet, that physical spark during karate practice (which in itself is pretty trite) occurred.
Truth is, we know very little about Apollo's sex life. He seems almost asexual on the show. That's probably due to a conscious decision by the producers to minimize Jamie Bamber's attractiveness. The man is so stunningly handsome and in such astonishingly good shape that it's easy for the show (and viewers) to focus too much on him. (Tonight's show is an example. I almost had to whip out Mr. Timmy and give him a good flogging after seeing Bamber's biceps and shoulders naked and up-close in those training scenes.) Minimizing Apollo's sexuality is one way out. And it's worked so far. But the problem is that all of a sudden it's rearing it's big, swollen, moist, red head now. Just where does that come from? It makes little sense. The guy has been around naked chicks for the past four months. He's been around naked men for the past four months. And just now he gets the hots for a skinny, brainy, sensitive comm officer?
Overall, an excellent episode.
I can't wait until next week and the return of the Battlestar Pegasus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woo!
It was one of those "ship in a bottle" shows, one in which everything takes place aboard the Galactica and nowhere else. I like these shows because the script in them relies much more heavily on characterization rather than plot and narrative. For example, one of the best "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episodes was "Disaster" -- where the Enterprise hits a superstring, trapping the captain in a turbolift, a very pregnant Mrs. O'Brien on 10-forward, the engines ready to explode and the bridge in the hands of the woefully inexperienced Counselor Troi.
This episode was such a good change of pace. So many "Galactica" episodes have this three-stories-in-parallel structure. So many of them toss in episodes of Dr. Baltar's worsening psychosis without any relationship to the rest of the stories. And there's so much foreshadowing in this damn show, everything takes on a very dreary and very portentious atmosphere that can be very wearying for the viewer.
But this episode -- very nice! The use of a previous episode's incident (the Cylon computer virus attack) to directly link to this one worked very well. And it helped make the show a uniform whole. Too often, shows open with "previous on 'Battlestar Galactica'" without actually looking backward or resolving story lines or relying heavily on previous knowledge. It's like watching a 15-hour movie chopped up into pieces rather than a real, coherent mystery story. But this show didn't do that, and I liked that a lot.
I enjoyed the way that almost everyone has something to do in this episode. For example, the neo-fascist Lt. Gaeta slips and adds "Sharon," which adds a little depth to his character. And he is one of two people tasked with saving the ship from the virus. I liked how bit-players on the Chief's repair crew were given lines and tasks in the plot.
I also liked the way that the show is finally dealing with the fact that two crew members fell in love with Cylons. In truth, this should be a pretty major issue. Now, the Chief believed that he was in love with the human Sharon, not a Cylon. He had reason to suspect she was a traitor, definitely; he could maybe have suspected her of being a Cylon, but at the time no one knew that Cylons could take such deceptive human form. Helo was partly in the same boat. He thought he was fucking the real, human Sharon and not a Cylon. But he knew that Cylons could take near-human form. His reaction to seeing a second "Sharon" was the right one. It didn't matter that he loved Cylon-Sharon or not (he already did); he instantly rejected her.
The problem for the show is in explaining why Helo would change his mind. The show's never dealt with that. He just changed it, and fell back in love with Cylon-Sharon. (You have to wonder what sort of male doormat Helo is. In the past, what if a human woman had screwed his best friend? Would Helo have taken her back? You have to believe he would have, if his behavior regarding Cylon-Sharon is any guide.)
The greater problem for the show is Helo's wacky, super-dad response to "my baby." Now, just how ultra-fundamentalist is that? Pat Robertson and James Dobson must be loving this. "He won't abort his child!" "He wants to carry the baby to term and care for it like a real father should!" First, I'm about as offended and put-off by this reaction as I can be. It's not very enlightened at all. Second, why doesn't Helo see his "baby" as some sort of half-Cylon demon-spawn? Why see it as "my" baby? That response goes unexplained. Is there something in Helo's belief-system or past or religious beliefs that would make him take this path? We're not told. We just have to take it on faith, and I don't like doing that. It shows poorly thought-out characterization.
And let's back up a step here: Does anyone else think that the "Helo's Cylon baby" story-arc is reminiscent of the "Robin is having a Visitor baby" from "V"? Yeah, thought so. It's eerily similar. Way too similar. Of course, my mind can come up with all sorts of idiotic scenarious for this: Baltar kidnaps the half-Cylon child and raises it with the Cylons. Helo hunts Baltar down to save "my baby." The baby turns out to have a forked tongue (oops, that was "V"!). Sharon kills her baby because it's an obscene hybrid (oops, that was "V"!). Helo kills Sharon after seeing what a disgusting creature he's brought into the world (oops, that was "V"!).
By the way, I thought it was a sweet little touch to add naming the new Viper "Laura." It wasn't necessary, but it was neat. And it gave Mary McDonnell something to do. She's such a superb actress. I love how she just has to act with her face, eyes, hands and arms. No lines. Just acting. Pure and unadulterated acting. You believe that she is going to cry if she doesn't control herself. She's that good. (And the bit where she almost breaks the bottle is a neat little toss-in that made smile and laugh.)
I've got two little criticisms, though.
First, the show seems to take place over about 72 hours. It seems impossible that the crew would have been able to assemble an entire Viper in that amount of time.
Second, the budding attraction between Dualla and Apollo seems completely unnecessary. It's terribly out of character for Dualla. She's been deeply attracted to Billy Keikeya for months now. There have been no signs of trouble in that relationship. And yet, that physical spark during karate practice (which in itself is pretty trite) occurred.
Truth is, we know very little about Apollo's sex life. He seems almost asexual on the show. That's probably due to a conscious decision by the producers to minimize Jamie Bamber's attractiveness. The man is so stunningly handsome and in such astonishingly good shape that it's easy for the show (and viewers) to focus too much on him. (Tonight's show is an example. I almost had to whip out Mr. Timmy and give him a good flogging after seeing Bamber's biceps and shoulders naked and up-close in those training scenes.) Minimizing Apollo's sexuality is one way out. And it's worked so far. But the problem is that all of a sudden it's rearing it's big, swollen, moist, red head now. Just where does that come from? It makes little sense. The guy has been around naked chicks for the past four months. He's been around naked men for the past four months. And just now he gets the hots for a skinny, brainy, sensitive comm officer?
Overall, an excellent episode.
I can't wait until next week and the return of the Battlestar Pegasus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Woo!
Labels: Battlestar Galactica
# posted by Tim : 9/16/2005 11:50:00 PM
Comments:
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One thing about the Helo/Cylon-Sharon story-line:
When Helo fell in love with Sharon, he believed she and him were the only "people" left alive on Caprica. She basically kept him alive through most of that time, and they formed a pretty deep bond. Even though he had a negative reaction to finding out she was a Cylon, he still had a deep emotional attraction to her. I think it was a kind of Patty Hearst syndrome.
Why is he so crazy over protecting this child? Well, I have no idea about that one. Probably because he still is professing his love for Sharon. If he hasn't come to terms with her being a Cylon (and I don't think he really has), then he hasn't come to terms that his baby is part of some evil plot
When Helo fell in love with Sharon, he believed she and him were the only "people" left alive on Caprica. She basically kept him alive through most of that time, and they formed a pretty deep bond. Even though he had a negative reaction to finding out she was a Cylon, he still had a deep emotional attraction to her. I think it was a kind of Patty Hearst syndrome.
Why is he so crazy over protecting this child? Well, I have no idea about that one. Probably because he still is professing his love for Sharon. If he hasn't come to terms with her being a Cylon (and I don't think he really has), then he hasn't come to terms that his baby is part of some evil plot
Great review! I was totally thinking the same thing about the parallels to V with the Helo/Sharon baby. But, I have to say that it seems like the stakes are higher in this series. While, in V, the baby was more of a mistake, in BSG, it means so much to both parties.
A baby is what the Cylons seem to be living to produce while, and this kind of speaks to Joseph's question above, the humans, I'm sure, are needing babies to be born into the world to help keep the human race going. As we've seen on the last couple of episodes, fatigue and exhaustion are getting to the crew of Galactica. Helo, I believe, is holding on to this baby in the same way that Tyrol became obsessed with the Blackbird. It's the only thing they have.
Loren
www.adventuresofagaygeek.com
A baby is what the Cylons seem to be living to produce while, and this kind of speaks to Joseph's question above, the humans, I'm sure, are needing babies to be born into the world to help keep the human race going. As we've seen on the last couple of episodes, fatigue and exhaustion are getting to the crew of Galactica. Helo, I believe, is holding on to this baby in the same way that Tyrol became obsessed with the Blackbird. It's the only thing they have.
Loren
www.adventuresofagaygeek.com
Actually, I thought Helo was the one keeping Sharon alive (with the anti-radiation injections, etc.). True, she did things to keep him alive -- but without his knowledge. After all, she WAS a Cylon plot!
I just don't see anyone really wrestling with the idea that Sharon's pregnancy is a Cylon plot. Only Dr. Baltar knows for sure, true. But why make Cylons capable of breeding with a human being??????? That question goes completely unasked in the show. And even though we know there has had to have been medical intervention to save Sharon's "baby," no one is saying, "It's a cyborg" or "it's a clone" or "it's fake, it's just a midget Cylon robot." There's no discussion of it at all.
I just don't see anyone really wrestling with the idea that Sharon's pregnancy is a Cylon plot. Only Dr. Baltar knows for sure, true. But why make Cylons capable of breeding with a human being??????? That question goes completely unasked in the show. And even though we know there has had to have been medical intervention to save Sharon's "baby," no one is saying, "It's a cyborg" or "it's a clone" or "it's fake, it's just a midget Cylon robot." There's no discussion of it at all.
By the way:
The fatigue/exhaustion thing is what makes the arrival of the Pegasus so important. Notice how few Vipers there were to face the Cylons? Notice how so many Vipers are in ruins? It reminds of that "Voyager" episode where they find the other Federation starship -- only it wasn't as lucky as Voyager, and it had been committing crimes to stay alive.
The fatigue/exhaustion thing is what makes the arrival of the Pegasus so important. Notice how few Vipers there were to face the Cylons? Notice how so many Vipers are in ruins? It reminds of that "Voyager" episode where they find the other Federation starship -- only it wasn't as lucky as Voyager, and it had been committing crimes to stay alive.
I was under the impression that Sharon didn't need the shots, and was actually not taking them sometimes when Helo wasn't looking. I'll have to watch all the shows in a row when the season 2 DVDs come out.
What I think is weird is that the Galactica leadership is keeping Sharon alive KNOWING that she is pregnant with a half-human child. That, to me, is kind of sinister.
What I think is weird is that the Galactica leadership is keeping Sharon alive KNOWING that she is pregnant with a half-human child. That, to me, is kind of sinister.
Maybe it's that Helo just thinks he was keeping Sharon alive with anti-rad shots. Same thing: He was duped into believing she was human. (Although, I'm not clear on just when all other humans and people in the fleet realized that Cylons could take human form. I think that came later in the show, when the Galactica captured their first one in the fourth or fifth episode.)
You're right -- keeping Sharon alive with the demon-seed inside her makes no sense.
It might make sense if there'd been some sort of discussion about it among all the higher-ups. After all, this is a VBD (Very Big Deal). Do they think it has no import or meaning? I find that hard to believe. Do they think Sharon is lying? Maybe... so maybe they're taking a wait-and-see-if-she-gets-big-as-a-house attitude. Or are Colonial mores so conservative that abortion is considered out of the question? (I find this hard to believe, too, what with men and women showering together.)
And can I be a complete homosexual here and ask: Where're the gay boys on Galactica? How come Jamie Bamber isn't having men slobber all over him? (They are, just on this side of the TV.)
I wanna see an episode in which Apollo comes from behind a bunch of crates, zipping his fly, while another cute guy comes out a few minutes later wiping his mouth and rubbing his ass.
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You're right -- keeping Sharon alive with the demon-seed inside her makes no sense.
It might make sense if there'd been some sort of discussion about it among all the higher-ups. After all, this is a VBD (Very Big Deal). Do they think it has no import or meaning? I find that hard to believe. Do they think Sharon is lying? Maybe... so maybe they're taking a wait-and-see-if-she-gets-big-as-a-house attitude. Or are Colonial mores so conservative that abortion is considered out of the question? (I find this hard to believe, too, what with men and women showering together.)
And can I be a complete homosexual here and ask: Where're the gay boys on Galactica? How come Jamie Bamber isn't having men slobber all over him? (They are, just on this side of the TV.)
I wanna see an episode in which Apollo comes from behind a bunch of crates, zipping his fly, while another cute guy comes out a few minutes later wiping his mouth and rubbing his ass.
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