Friday, October 06, 2006

Galactica's Back

They sure didn't take their happy pills in the interim. Nothing like a little light TV to help unwind after a stressful work week.

Insurgents, suicide bombings, detainees, torture... I thought maybe I was watching the news right up to the point where they trucked the insurgents out to the countryside and lined them up for a firing squad. At least I hope it wasn't the news.

It was nice to see Rosilyn in the preview for next week. Otherwise that last scene would be a little bit bleak to have to wait until next Friday to resolve.

One thing is for sure. The writers for this show have some serious nads.

I did especially like the tip of the hat to Seinfeld:

"but you didn't do the twist at the end, what was that this time?"
"that was a swirl."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gritty, relevant, revealing, and kept things moving. I was afraid that the Caprica Occupation arc was going to be slow and dull, but the two hours of tonights premiere just zoomed by and left me wanting more. My only complaint was the cliffhanger ending which was completely undermined by showing Roslyn alive and well in the previews for next week. I may have to stop watching the previews. This is the second time they've given away something key like that. I'm betting Tom Zarek is the only "main cast" casualty of the massacre, which is disappointing. I kinda liked having the original Apollo on the show.

Hard to list everything right with this episode. Starbuck turning chopsticks into murder weapons. Baltar's wallowing in self-pity, guilt, and impotence. The priest-Cylon's cynical hatred for humanity. Caprica-6's lone insistence on trying to achieve peace.

I was surprised at the extent of the internal debate of the Cylons. Obviously the Cylons don't have "a" plan, but rather have different ideas of what their goals are.

Has the Cylon baby won Starbuck over or is she just pretending to be moved by it to lull her captor into letting his guard down? And is the kid really hers, or did they just pluck some blonde from the camps and lie? The Cylons love to frack with your head...

I didn't understand the Cylon reasoning when they forced Baltar to sign the execution order. If they would feel guilty in God's eyes for committing murder unless they had official sanction, then they should feel just as guilty for coercing that sanction out of Baltar. And why didn't Baltar just refuse to sign? If they won't kill people freely out of 'fear of God', they logically wouldn't kill him, either. Their threat was meaningless.

Minor points off for the writers trying a little too hard to make the comparison between the Cylon occupation and the Iraq war.

While I hope they eventually get back into space and resume the quest for Earth, I also hope this arc takes the time it needs to be properly resolved.

Anonymous said...

Found this on one of the Galactica sites. Don't know how much truth there is to it but I really hope it stays on SciFi. These days, if a show doesn't explode in the ratings right out of the box, it gets canceled immediately. And once it's canceled, it's unlikely to move *back* to SciFi again.

Not to mention the fact that once it moves to network TV, it has to start obeying all the FCC rules regarding nudity, violence and profanity. Given the hysterical overreaction in that regard in recent years, I wouldn't be surprised if the FCC made them stop saying "frak" on the air.

--B


Word has begun to circulate that NBC's acquisition of 'Battlestar Galactica' is in the "waiting for the ink to dry" phase at this moment, and an official announcement could be days away. The program, which returned for its third season last friday, continues to delight fans and critics alike. With Universal's involvement in the big reimagining, it
was always a possibility that the program could be pulled to the network if it proved successful enough, and with the lashing NBC is taking over its fall line-up so far an ace-in-the-hole couldn't come at a better time.

The show will make the move to NBC as a mid-season replacement, possibly taking the slot currently occupied by "Studio 60" which would make sense given the genre-centric lead-in of heroes.

The question is: will NBC be tolerant of the quasi-political themes that BSG seems to take from the most controversial page of world events? In recent episodes, BSG has examined the flip side of insurgency, terrorists as freedom-fighters, and any number of edgy themes. In the small arena of cable, it is easy to get away with forays into these troubled waters; cable shows are expected to push the envelope to maintain any kind of viewership. On the big network, however, it may be seen as a statement of NBC's political alignment and in polarizing times such as these the concern may be that these themes could bring about the kind of controversy that drives viewers away.

http://www.battlestargalacticasite.com/2006/10/bsg_to_nbc_can_it_survive.php