Galactica Tonight
Dean
Before tonight's episode, here are my comments. After the episode I may have more.
I still love the show but I begin to sense the creators getting a little lax. This may be inevitable, and no show is perfect of course. One thing I noticed was that in the season opener they had the humans attacking the firing squad, and we heard gunshots fired as Cally ran. Then in the next episode (last week) the Colonials do not fire until the Chief knocks her to the ground.
Cheap guys. Cheap. I understand that all shows are imperfect and that suspension of disbelief is a contract the audience implicitely has with the producers. But that was a little much to me. Not quite as bad as the "Cylon baby blood" sin (still unforgiven on this blog) but come on. You guys weren't even trying on that one.
Also: I notice that the interesting plot thread last season of the pacifists/anti-war protestors who sympathized with the Cylons seems to have been utterly dropped. Bad move in my view. That thread should be tied up somewhere. It could be wrapped up pretty easily but just leaving it dangling would be a mistake in my view. (Of course they may tie up that loose thread at some point. It just seems odd to me that it's still dangling there.)
I'll also say in advance: the idea that they're going to evacuate tens of thousands of people in a rush job off New Caprica? Seems like a stretch to me. I haven't seen how they've done it in this episode (it hasn't aired yet as I write this) but I'm wondering if they're going to make it all a little too convenient.
Well we'll see. Those are my thoughts so far.
---
By the way, if you're thinking about starting to watch the show, you can go right here for a quick primer. It may seem a complex show at first--and it is in a lot of ways--but it's really not that hard to figure out.
Note: As always, spoilers are welcome in the comments once the episode has aired. Which means, after 10pm Eastern. No whining if you spot a spoiler after that time.
Update: Wow, what an episode eh?
Regards the peacenik plot thread. I see no reason to deal with that. The Cylons are obviously not good stewards and any that were not on Cloud 9 when 6-P commited suicide (it was their base of operations IIRC) have likely cooled towards the cylons, particularly if they were among the peace activists who knew about the bomb.
OTOH, they could deal with them tomnight as still being collaborators.
The gunfire continuity error is no worse than any of the old Republic serials and I liked the "3hours earlier bit" which made it less of a deux ex machina.
Herding the people onto the ships is going to be pandemonium. I'd be suprised if LOTS didn't get left behind/ kiled, but this is to save as many as possible.
The best is the enemy of good enough.
If just a few thousand people get off then the genetic diversity of the species is that much more secure. That is the rational reason for this mission. The real reason is the concience of Adama and likely many of the fleet.
They HAVE to try.
But HOLY CRAP TIGH WTF!!!!
End of last episode:
-Cally is grabbed by Jammer and basically shoved down a hill, she rolls, lands in a wooded area, runs, we hear gunfire, and then see her go down
Start of the subsequent episode:
-Cally is seen, alone, she runs UP a hill into a NON wooded area, the soldiers explicitly say that they canno start firing until shes out of the way, and she's then tackled.
That's are pretty crappy bunch of plot holes right there!
I have to say though, that the plot of Galatica is a lot less completist than many shows, and perhaps intentionally. Plot threads that dont get tied up seem common. We get pieces of things and basically are expected to fill in the rest.
Ummmm... I think they all got blowed up by the nuke. And isn't it a bit early to be calling the thread "dropped?" Besides, the experience on New Caprica should make anyone with friendly Cylon feelings think differently.
-Is that the first time we've seen the internal Six when the real six is right there? There goes that theory...
-best way to resolve the Kara toaster storyline: fits with that lying bastard's character, and tears Starbuck up without saddling her with an annoying kid
-Note that, like the original series: Pegasus is destroyed. Baltar now runs with the Cylons. Interesting.
There has never been, in the history of television, such amazing Science Fiction television. It exceeds the best of Rod Serling. It's not perfect (nothing is) but holy cow. Holy cow.
Vic: I noticed the same thing. now we can get back to being Battlestar Galactica, not the Galactica and Pegasus show...
I wonder how many humans got off New Caprica? I wouldn't be shocked if it was less than 40,000...
Towards the end of the episode Balatar and Six find baby Hera all bundled up in her dead 'mother's' arms...
BZZZZZZZTTTTTTT!
Hera was born before the election that put Baltar in the presidency. At least 16 months have passed, probably more like 18 months, and Hera is still an infant?
Makes the Cally Paradox seem tame.
Hera was born before the election that put Baltar in the presidency. At least 16 months have passed, probably more like 18 months, and Hera is still an infant?
Hey, you're right. A lot of TV shows play fast and loose with children's ages but I'd expect better here. Maybe Cylon/Human hybrids actually are supposed to mature more slowly than humans? With that wacky mystery baby blood you never know.
There's plenty to ding the writers for, but the casting of Hera is fine.
It also keeps "wow Hera is so unique and important... wait nope here's another one" from being a plot hole.
I noticed that a few episodes ago. And I have to disagree with JoanH, Hera didn't look near old enough to me.
But Galactica's atmo jump had me saying "Holy $#!t" and thinking, somebody oughta do a theme park ride. After that, having Pegasus ride over the hill was kind of ho-hum.
I would have written Apollo's arrival on Galactica a little different.
"Son, where's your battlestar?"
"Um, I'm sorry, Dad. I broke it."
"(sigh) This is why we can never have nice things."
And as much as I thought the whole skip-a-year idea was bad at the end of last season, after the webeps and the first couple of season 3 full episodes, it was actually starting to grow on me... just in time Ergo,to have it end, very abruptly, losing the Pegasus, losing Hera, Casey was a lie and will disappear, etc.
It's getting to the point that there isn't enough continuity to have any continuity errors.
I will say this: I was overjoyed to see Ellen pick up that cup, and I actually cheered when Tigh started crying. Do we have confirmation the actress is really leaving the series? If the nuke isn't going off, how do we know she's really dead? I've heard cylon baby blood can work wonders, heh.
1) The bit with Tigh and his wife arguably out-Straczynski'd Straczynski. It's just the sort of thing he would have done, he just never thought of it.
2) Katee Sackhoff is a mighty fine actress. Her bewilderment at the end was incredibly well played.
3) Yeah, the continuity in this show just sucks. I'm going to just have to find a way to ignore that, I guess.
4) It occurs to me that, now that Baltar's with the Cylons, all that's happened so far in the series could almost be backstory for the original series.
I've got one: they have yet to receive a signal from Earth, confirming it's existance. (Though the original-series Colonials never actually saw it.)
Anything else?
I think that's a little unfair. Was the Cally thing kinda dumb? Yes. But that's the only time I remember something like that happening.
The show is generally excellent with continuity.
But plot threads are only "left dangling" if they aren't resolved by the end of the series.