Blake’s 7: my education begins
Because I have finished the Discovery of Bujold, I have decided to move on to the next franchise people have been raving at me about: Blake’s 7. This is a slightly different case from the Vorkosigan stories, though. For a start, it’s a TV show. For another, there are 4 seasons, not 14 novels… although there are 13 episodes in each season. And finally, it’s a TV show that came out of the BBC in 1978.
That year ought to give the non-Blake’s fans an idea of the costuming. Its origin in the BBC ought to tell you something about the budget and prop design.
I have watched the first two episodes now. When I announced this, certain people went TOTALLY gushy and fangirly and went wild at the idea that I might blog about this. So this is my response. I’m not sure I’ll write about every episode, and I’m not sure I’ll even watch all of them – apparently the format settles down after four or so eps, and I might find that gets boring (also my source of these discs is BigPondMovies, which is shutting down its service of actually sending discs in a fortnight, and iTunes doesn’t appear to have the show… so I don’t know how I’ll get them, now). Nonetheless, herewith find Alex’s Ruminations on Blake’s 7 (inc spoilers).
Going in, I had absolutely no idea what the show was about. I vaguely believed it was SF, because of Tansy’s unreasoning love for it, but that was all. So once I got over the hilarious costumes, and the fact that Blake is totally not good-looking, I was flabbergasted to discover that this was a political dystopia, with memory suppression and violent security forces and the mass murder of dissidents in the first 30 minutes or so. Seriously blown away. And then, to have the main character falsely accused and found guilty of child molestation, and his lawyer disposed when he got too nosy, while still in the first episode? That sort of thing doesn’t even happen in Spooks, let alone any other show today.
The first episode, perhaps needless to say, really impressed me. I liked that they didn’t make Blake remember everything immediately, I liked that the lawyer had to work for the information… it certainly starts out as a very tough show. With appalling fashion and terrible props, but you know – whatever. I couldn’t really pick up the character names in this ep, aside from Blake, so when various people started mooning over the favourite characters I was at a loss.
The second episode continues to punch as hard if not harder. Onboard the prison ship, probably bound for Cygnus Alpha but maybe about to be spaced to save the prison ship time and money, the prisoners hatch a plan to take over the ship – helped by having the world’s second-best hacker on board (who’s the first? The guy who caught him…). This plan is being cooked up while the crew are being distracted by a space battle around them, the protagonists of which are quite unknown. And for a while it looks like the prisoners might actually take the ship, until Raiker – the very very evil 2IC who would quite like to have the only female prisoner as his concubine for the duration – forces Blake, Avon, and Jenna to surrender by steadily shooting his way though the other prisoners. So in this, the second episode, we have several prisoners shot in cold blood, a young and eager prisoner dying when the crawlway is filled with foam after the hull is breached, the only woman look like she’s about to be made into a sex slave… and that’s maybe halfway through? I’m sitting there thinking, how the heck did this make four seasons? Surely it’s a mini-series! Or surely it jumps the shark and Tansy et al were either brainwashed or haven’t watched it in ages.
The rest of the second episode is taken up with the crew trying to salvage a probably derelict alien ship, which sends three of their crew mad or dead, at which point they send in Blake, Jenna, and Avon to check it out. They avoid en-maddening thanks to Blake, and make off with the ship – killing Raiker in the process (hooray!). They are apparently now going to follow the prison ship, rescue the other prisoners, and then Stick It To The Man.
One thing that really impressed me was the amount of time spent on the crew. It shows that they are not monsters (with the exception of Raiker): the young kid studying to get off the prison ship, the commander struggling to do the best he can with a pretty awful situation – they’re humanised, but not to the detriment of the prisoners’ characterisation. That’s a pretty impressive achievement.
I have to watch the third episode. I still can’t get over the fashion, although I am steadily developing those convenient blinkers that allow you to watch old Dr Who without being phased by bad SFX. I’m not yet sure whether I’ll turn into the fully fledged Blake’s tragic, but I can at least understand how that happens.
This chick digs time lords… although maybe not as much as them
I got sick, realised that I had this to read thanks to the Hugo voters’ pack, and read it in a day. Well, there were a couple of entries that I skipped over a bit because they weren’t that engaging for me and my experiences, but I swear I read almost all of it.
I love Doctor Who, but I do not LOVE it. I am a fan, but I am not a FAN. I don’t think I ever realised the difference between the two before meeting people like Tansy and other serious, mad FANS (in much the same way that I didn’t really know about or understand about SF fandom before attending conventions). That is, I will watch Doctor Who anytime it is on TV, and go out of my way to do so, but I don’t own any DVDs, and I’ve never read the books; I’ve not watched the entire history, although I watched a fair chunk of the First Doctor when the ABC put him on a few years ago. So… love, but not obsession, perhaps?
This book was written largely by women who are closer to the obsessed end of the spectrum. I don’t imagine that I would ever attend a Doctor Who convention, but it seems most of the women here have done so. That’s ok, though; I certainly don’t think any less of them for it! In fact it was really fascinating to see what it would be like to be fully in a fandom on which I am at best on the periphery. What many of the writers were writing about, at heart, was the sense of community that being in Who fandom allowed them to experience: the cosplay, the acceptance of a child with special needs, people who shared a wider range of interests than Who but which converged on that central point. The fact that frequently, the cast and crew of Doctor Who featured in these reminiscences adds to their overall appeal, too. (The fact that I too have been on the receiving end of the warmth of Rob Shearman’s generosity and boundless nuttiness made it all the more amusing.)
When they weren’t writing about that community aspect, writers tended to be dissecting aspects of the Who universe and their own love of it, despite its flaws: the role of companions was a particular topic. I remember one of my university tutors remarking once that there are some loves that can withstand ruthless and relentless examination, and that others just can’t (her example for the latter, I recall, was Home and Away…). Who clearly falls into the former category for these authors, and it was with great joy that I read critical (in the best sense) examinations of Donna, Martha, and Rose – often different from person to person.
The thing that I haven’t mentioned yet about this anthology, of course, is that it was entirely written by women. Not being a part of Who fandom either during the Wilderness Years or even with New Who, it had never really occurred to me to consider whether it was a boy thing or not; I guess I’ve always just read and watched whatever and not been fussed by it – and been lucky enough not to be told not to by anyone I met. So it was also very interesting to read a little about how female fans have been treated, and also about how people (especially women) coming to Who lately have been treated by old-school fans (badly, often). I am led to wonder just how different this book would be were it written by men. I think it probably exists, but honestly I have little interest in seeking it out. I may be wrong, but I harbour a suspicion that it would be more hung up on internal consistency (or lack thereof), and lavishing attention on gizmos. This is probably a dreadful generalisation, and I apologise to male fans to whom this is insulting, but….
BSG rewatch: Unlimited access
2.8: Final Cut
This episode interweaves the repercussions of what has become known to the Fleet as “the massacre on Gideon” – when Tigh sent marines in to get their supplies, and they opened fire on civilians – with the sort of episode I didn’t think we’d get on BSG: the behind-the-scenes, daily-life one. Both of these strands are made possible by a new character, D’Anna Biers, played by Lucy Lawless.
D’Anna is investigating the ‘massacre’, and will potentially put out a very damaging (for Tigh, and Galactica) report. To counter this, Roslin and Adama invite her on to Galactica, with unlimited access to the crew, so that she can get a sense of what it’s like for them – and report on that to the rest of the Fleet.
This is a very clever thing for Roslin and Adama to do, of course; the theory is that finding out that the pilots who protect you are human, and have their own fears and dreams, will make the Fleet more sympathetic towards them and more forgiving. It’s also a clever piece of writing for the show, because unless you introduced a psychologist character, or showed them having fairly uncharacteristic D&M conversations with each other, showing the sort of emotional turmoil we get here would have been very difficult indeed. As a result, we get to hear why Cat has been taking stims by the fistful, and we get to see Dee trying to put a brave face on everything, as well as a few other character insights. I love Felix Gaeta more and more with each episode – he’s so competent, and calm, and yet in this episode, he talks quite frankly about why he smokes and what his plans had been before the attack. Oh, and seeing Baltar so desperate to get interviewed is quite frankly.
Meanwhile, Ellen has been terrified by some graffiti in the cabin she shares with Tigh, and a shuttle Tigh was meant to fly on develops a problem that would have killed him and the crew if it had taken off. It turns out that the man who led the Gideon mission has been sent a little bit nuts by the event and its repercussions, and is seeking vengeance through Tigh. It’s an interesting insight into the ramifications of acting as a soldier, and the conversations had by various people about how to react to the events – from Adama, and Tigh, as well as others – show that the writers were not trying to paint anyone as wholly good or bad. I was a bit disappointed with just how patriotic and triumphalist the episode got in the end, though; it verged on nauseating.
The very, very end of this episode is chilling. A theatre, with the human-looking Cylon models watching D’Anna’s footage… and D’Anna there, reassuring them that yes Caprica-Sharon is doing well, and the baby is still alive.
CYLON!!
BSG stats:
- Starbuck in the brig: 1
- Baltar in the brig: 1
- Women Baltar shows interest in (not including Six): 4
- Women Baltar actually gets to sleep with: 2
- Baltar religious conversions: 2
- Different sexy dresses worn by Caprica-Six: 14 (and one sports outfit)
- Apollo sides with President against Dad: 4
- Number of Cylons viewers know about: 6
- Number of Cylons humans know about: 2 (and Starbuck an additional one)
- Roslin has a vision: 3
- People deliberately thrown out the airlock: 1 (+3 threats)
- Ships lost: 1
- Ellen gets suggestive: 3
- Starbuck and Apollo do fisticuffs: 1
- Starbuck and Apollo kiss: 1
BSG: Putting the band back together
2.6: Home, part 1
Starbuck, Helo and Caprica-Sharon make it back to Kobol and the 24 ships that have followed the President back there. Apollo, of course, goes slightly insane on seeing Sharon, his father only just recently coming around from being shot by the original. The President threatens to throw Sharon out of the airlock, to Helo’s obvious horror, and then she mentions that she knows where the Tomb of Athene is… which buys her some time. Things are not all hunky-dory among this rebel crew, of course: Mr Meier, Zarek’s off-sider (played by the same guy as played one of the nastier Jericho characters), keeps encouraging Zarek to consider what might happen out there to, say, Apollo and/or the President. Now that they have the Arrow, Roslin takes a crew down to Kobol to search for the Tomb and thus the way to Earth. Everyone is terribly suspicious of Sharon, of course… and the fact that she saves them from a Cylon ambush actually doesn’t help very much. It’s always possible to see something like that as still being self-serving.
Back at the main fleet, Adama seems to be losing it a bit. He’s back in charge but he is far more wounded than he would like to admit by Apollo’s desertion of him. He chooses a new CAG – one that Tigh is very much against, with good reason it turns out, since his inattention nearly gets Cat killed on a training op. Having been invited to speak with him frankly, Dee tries to encourage Adama to see that putting the Fleet back together should be of paramount importance. He dismisses her, but eventually realises he was right and announces their return to Kobol. Of course, the real question is just what will he do to Roslin, Apollo, and everyone else who ‘abandoned’ him?
This episode doesn’t sound like a particularly exciting one, but once again it’s the seemingly little moments of tension that really make this show amazing. Roslin’s duplicity in stopping Helo from threatening Apollo and then ordering Sharon’s death is a remarkable demonstration of her ruthlessness. Adama not immediately coming back to full strength and being visibly affected by the loss of people to Kobol is a slightly uncomfortable reminder that this man, who is in charge of the safety of humanity, is himself frail and flawed. Apollo is incredibly pleased to see Starbuck – perhaps more than he should be – and even gives her a kiss on the lips. Plus, it’s a two-parter, so you then have to go straight on to…
2.7: Home, part 2
Once again this episode has two narrative tracks. One is on Kobol, as Adama finds the President and they fulfil her mission; but the other is on Galactica and centres on Baltar.
Baltar is getting increasingly frustrated with Six; she has told him that their child will be born in Galactica’s brig, and Baltar just can’t stomach that. Six gets so frustrated with him, in turn, that she next appears to him looking completely different: hair straight and slicked back, little make up, and instead of her trademark slinky dress she looks like she’s just back from the gym. In this guise she laughs at him and tells him that he is indeed going nuts, and she is his sub-conscious mind playing tricks. The possibility of insanity is played up by the cinematography, because there are a number of shots of Baltar, mid-conversation, talking to an empty room. This has rarely happened in the past, except perhaps at the end of a conversation. Baltar then goes off to get his brain scanned, looking for a Cylon chip, but of course there isn’t one…
Meanwhile, on Kobol, Adama – and Billy, whom Adama decided was a good addition to the team looking for Roslin – do indeed find the Indiana-Jones-wannabes. Adama of course has a very bad reaction to Caprica-Sharon… and the Chief, who is also along, perhaps as bad. It’s all very fraught really. They spend a bit of time reconnecting, camping in the rain, and then tramp off looking for the Tomb. Meier is working on Sharon, getting her to agree to killing the old man (again). When they finally get to the tomb, Sharon double-crosses Meier – shooting him – and willingly surrenders to Adama, to prove that she is working of her own free will and not because she is programmed. No one much really believes her, although I think Adama is troubled by it.
The episode ends with entry into the tomb, and our heroes being shown how to reach Earth: it’s the place where all of the constellations representing the Twelve Colonies are visible in a certain way in the sky. Now, this is slightly problematic from an astronomical point of view, but it is beautifully done for the show. I love that the main pointer for them, from where they are, is the Lagoon Nebula – because I’ve seen that, through my telescope. So we conclude with hope: the President is reinstated, martial law is over, and we know (kinda) how to find Earth. Hurrah! … although Caprica-Sharon is in the brig, Helo and the Chief are going to have some serious issues, and Baltar is… well, Baltar. Good times.
BSG stats:
- Starbuck in the brig: 1
- Baltar in the brig: 1
- Women Baltar shows interest in (not including Six): 4
- Women Baltar actually gets to sleep with: 2
- Baltar religious conversions: 2
- Different sexy dresses worn by Caprica-Six: 13 (and one sports outfit)
- Apollo sides with President against Dad: 4
- Number of Cylons viewers know about: 5
- Number of Cylons humans know about: 2 (and Starbuck an additional one)
- Roslin has a vision: 3
- People deliberately thrown out the airlock: 1 (+3 threats)
- Ships lost: 1
- Ellen gets suggestive: 3
- Starbuck and Apollo do fisticuffs: 1
- Starbuck and Apollo kiss: 1
Meanwhile, back on Caprica…
2.4 Resistance
We get a serious amount of time on Caprica in this episode and the next, which is quite refreshing really because Tigh is just stuffing things up more and more back at the Fleet. When ships start to refuse to supply Galactica because of the declaration of martial law, Tigh – egged on by the ambitious Ellen – send marines to get their much-needed tylium. And there are shots fired, and civilians are killed. With this catalyst, Apollo decides to go the whole mutinous hog, and get Roslin off Galactica… and Billy decides he can’t, ultimately, countenance that, although he doesn’t stop them. This is, of course, a huge step for Apollo; his gut instinct for civilian, democratic government overrules his military training and his loyalty to his commander/father. I think his character, in these episodes, is at one of its most formative and interesting stages. So often in TV and movies we get unconflicted soldiers – or if they are conflicted, the agonies aren’t nearly as finely played out. The irony of relying on Zarek for refuge is, of course, delicious.
On Caprica, Starbuck and Helo have a shoot-out… with Caprican survivors, and resistors. When they finally agree neither side are Cylons, we finally meet Samuel Anders: top Pyramid player and all-round lovely man. Starbuck naturally agrees with me on that, by the way. Discovering there are still people on Caprica is an awesome revelation – it’s nice that the writers didn’t just ditch the planet. Of course, Sam is a good reason for it, but still it shows an holistic approach that is quite refreshing.
2.5 The Farm
This is one of my least favourite episodes in some ways because it deals with some very unpleasant topics. One, really: the issue of how repopulation might happen after an apocalypse, and how women might be treated in the aftermath. Starbuck is injured in a firefight with some Cylons,and she wakes up in a hospital. A pleasant young doctor tells her sympathetically that Sam is dead – sad! – and that she is lucky to be alive – yay, I guess? Anyway, he then gets around to telling Starbuck that basically her ovaries are her most valuable asset, childbearing her most valuable skill, now, to rebuild humanity. Can you guess how Starbuck reacted? Quite quietly, actually, probably at least partly because she’s still woozy from the drugs. But she’s certainly not very impressed. She gets more and more suspicious of the doctor… until finally she gets out of her room, and discovers that the hospital is being run by CYLONS!! and that there are other women hooked up as incubators. This short scene is horrific, and upset me quite a lot. I was so pleased when Starbuck got out and those women were put out of their misery… although terribly angry that there was no way, apparently, to actually save them. I know the idea of how women might be treated in this sort of situation has been dealt with by a few authors – Marion Zimmer Bradley and Joanna Russ, for two, neither of whose books on the issue I’ve read, although I certainly mean to. It’s not really something authors tend to deal with… male authors, especially, I think.
Also, almost as an aside we learn from Simon, the doctor, that Starbuck’s xrays show many, many old, healed fractures – especially on her fingers… Starbuck is incredibly angry at hearing this, and it goes no further, but it does hint at yet more dreadfulness in her history.
Back at the Fleet, Adama is awake again – hooray! But he doesn’t revoke martial law; instead he decides he wants to search every single damned ship to try and find the President and his son. Hello, bitter betrayal. Seriously not happy. Roslin decides to ‘play the religious card’, and makes an announcement to the Fleet declaring her intention to return to Kobol and thence find Earth. Adama decides to let her go, not expecting many to join her… but about a third of the Fleet do follow. This, of course, places Adama in an incredibly tricky position. Follow Roslin? Keep wandering around aimlessly? Oh the decisions. Plus, there’s quite a nice moment where Adama cries over the dead Boomer – shot by Cally, of all people – showing just how conflicted he is over this once-beloved and valued member of his crew. I really, really love the humanity of both Adama and Roslin, and the fact that both leaders can have this humanity and still be completely believable hard-asses.
BSG stats:
- Starbuck in the brig: 1
- Baltar in the brig: 1
- Women Baltar shows interest in (not including Six): 4
- Women Baltar actually gets to sleep with: 2
- Baltar religious conversions: 2
- Different sexy dresses worn by Caprica-Six: 12
- Apollo sides with President against Dad: 4
- Number of Cylons viewers know about: 5
- Number of Cylons humans know about: 2 (and Starbuck an additional one)
- Roslin has a vision: 3
- People deliberately thrown out the airlock: 1 (+1 threat)
- Ships lost: 1
- Ellen gets suggestive: 3
- Starbuck and Apollo do fisticuffs: 1
Let’s go toaster shopping
The start of season 2! Oh the excitement, the dread! Will Adama survive? What will happen on Caprica?
2.1 Scattered
The episode starts with a flashback to Adama and Tigh as rough young things, when they first join the Fleet. It then cuts very quickly to the present Fleet jumping away from the Cylon attack… but Galactica finds herself all alone. The Fleet is missing. Oh no!
Cut then to the downed Raptor on Kobol; the survivors are seriously not coping. The Lt is charge is totally out of his depth, and the Chief is too much a military man to try and go against a superior, although he does give advice when and how he can.
Yet another cut, and it’s Caprica: Starbuck and Sharon are at odds, and Helo is a bit helpless in figuring out what to do.
Back to Galactica, and Tigh is hitting the bottle hard. He beats up Boomer, at least partly to soothe his own feelings of helplessness at not being able to help Adama. Meanwhile, Gaeta comes up with the idea to network the Galactica’s computers so they can try and find the Fleet faster than otherwise possible, and Apollo is allowed out of the brig on parole, at least until the Fleet is back together again. The end is cliffhanger-y: trying to find the Fleet, Galactica gets attacked by Cylons and although they fight them off, a Cylon ship manages to crash into Galactica; we still have people on Kobol; and we still have people on Caprica. This is a Not Good Situation.
The most interesting part about this whole episode – aside from seriously earning the name ‘Scattered’, as we jump from one set of beloved characters to another – is the insight into Tigh’s soul, and his friendship with Adama. It’s not made entirely clear, but I think the suggestion is that both of them got out, or washed out, of the Fleet as young men; Tigh got bitter, but Adama refused to give up. He eventually got back in, and he then kept his promise to Tigh by bringing him back, too. So really, Tigh owes his entire career – and, probably, his life, since he seemed already about to drink himself to death – solely to Adama. This goes a long way towards explaining his ferocious loyalty and protection of the man. It’s dogged, it’s bloody annoying, but it’s also admirable.
2.2 Valley of Darkness
Having problems with your electricity? If you’re on board Galactica, that doesn’t mean Gremlins; it means enormous metal men with really scary guns. Yes, who would have guessed? The downed ship offloaded Cylons onto Galactica. Also, there’s a virus in the system, left by the nasty Cylons after they tried to penetrate all of Gaeta’s clever firewalls. The Cylons spend this episode attempting to take over the ship, or at least disable the important bits. Like life support. Roslin is freed by Apollo because the brig is in the way of the Cylons; he and various others attempt to hold off the Cylons. Which they do, although there are some casualties. Roslin ends up back in the brig at the end, though; Tigh is a hard, hard man. I love Roslin’s grace in this episode; she is a very proud woman and refuses to break under pressure.
Flick to Caprica: Helo and Starbuck are together, Sharon having nicked off somewhere. They find Starbuck’s old place: it’s filled with random art, piles of unpaid bills, and a very unsavoury frig. They listen to some music and then head out together in Starbuck’s army-surplus Hummer. I love this insight into Starbuck; we so rarely get a look back at what our people were like before the attack. She’s so quirky – the flat is nothing like I would have expected. Especially the art, which was done by her.
Meanwhile, down on Kobol, things are going very badly. They forgot some of their medication; the Chief takes a couple of people to retrieve it but they get ambushed, and one of them dies; and when they get back to the team, it’s too late to save the injured man. And they euthanase him. This vignette of the remaining humans is a stark depiction of attitudes and reactions while under pressure. The officer doesn’t cope; Baltar is next to useless, distracted by Six, and the vision he has of a baby – his baby, apparently; and the grunts are totally bewildered, which is understandable.
It’s a chaotic episode, but a good one.
2.3 Fragged
Much of this episode focusses on Kobol. The survivors discover that the Cylons are building an anti-aircraft battery, clearly to take down the expected search and rescue mission from Galactica. The Lt decides they need to attack it – which kinda makes sense, but yo, consider your people! A civvie, two grunt deckhands, and the Chief… not exactly brilliant military material. He really, really falters under pressure. What’s fascinating is that he’s shown going, step by step, through the things he’s been taught to do as an officer. But he doesn’t adapt them to the situation; he’s incapable of being innovative and flexible. When Cally balks, he pulls his gun on her… and Baltar shoots him. It’s a fascinating moment: has Baltar done it to save Cally? If so, why? Was it almost accidental, out of fright? I think it’s impossible to get a read on Baltar at this moment. It just further complex-ifies him. And as a result of the shooting, Six says she is proud of him, because killing makes you human. That’s one helluva bleak view on humanity. Then they get rescued, and everyone lies about the Lt’s death….
Meanwhile, Tigh is making more and more of a hash of things. I think he realises that things are going badly, but he just keeps on digging that hole. He declares martial law, insults the Quorum of Twelve, and is generally realising just how hard command is. Of course, he never wanted to be in command… not that Ellen wants to hear that. Dear Ellen goes to visit Roslin in the brig, where the President is having serious withdrawal issues – she hasn’t had her medication in a while. As a result, Ellen convinces Tigh to let the Quorum see the President, to get them off his back. Of course, because Billy is a resourceful young fellow, he gets her the drugs just in time so that Roslin is perfectly coherent when the politicians visit. Coherent enough, in fact, that she tells them about her visions. And that she is dying. This causes quite a stir – and most of the Quorum believe her. Tigh is left looking like an idiot.
This is one action-packed episode. Even the seemingly-quieter moments, with discussions of faith and politics, are incredibly tense.
BSG stats:
- Starbuck in the brig: 1
- Baltar in the brig: 1
- Women Baltar shows interest in (not including Six): 4
- Women Baltar actually gets to sleep with: 2
- Baltar religious conversions: 2
- Different sexy dresses worn by Caprica-Six: 11
- Apollo sides with President against Dad: 3
- Number of Cylons viewers know about: 4
- Number of Cylons humans know about: 2
- Roslin has a vision: 3
- People deliberately thrown out the airlock: 1 (+1 threat)
- Ships lost: 1
- Ellen gets suggestive: 3
- Starbuck and Apollo do fisticuffs: 1
BSG: not an update
I’m waaay behind in recapping BSG – which we have been watching, and I’ve even been taking notes, but the actually writing bit isn’t happening. In lieu of that, until I get my head together, I present BSG-as-romance: shipping Starbuck and Apollo.
It’s not really much of a secret any more that I am secretly a total sap at heart, is it?
Sanctuary: we give up
We’ve given Sanctuary the pilot and the first ep aaand… I think we give up.
I liked Amanda Tapping as Sam Carter in SG-1, so I didn’t think it unreasonable to chase up her next project (well, after Atlantis). But… this is not Stargate. For a start, Tapping has a ridiculous English accent which I just can’t take seriously. For seconds, even if the action in Stargate was sometimes a bit tacky – and I love it but I’ll grant that – at least they mostly built the sets. Here? It looks like every second shot is done against a blue screen and then the set added in later, because the production company was too cheap to figure out how to do a big-ass gothic pile other than via computer.
I didn’t mind the first episode; the getting-the-team-together thing is often quite interesting too me, and Tapping’s mysterious Dr Magnus clearly had A Past. The slightly-haunted-but-mostly-down-to-earth forensic pysch she recruits had some potential as the audience’s Everyman; I didn’t mind him. And Magnus’ daughter Ashley – Buffy crossed with Whistler from Blade 3, the one played by the Jessica – was humorous in a ham-kinda way. In fact, the best bit of the whole show has been the silly repartee between mother and daughter, where mother worries but only because she’s the one asking daughter to deliberately put herself in harm’s way. So I was willing to watch a few more… but then we watched the first proper ep. And it got my goat. Badly.
How badly? Well, apparently the last recorded mention of bubonic plague was in Scotland in the 800s (wah?). And the Morrigan are an ‘ancient’ myth first recorded in ‘medieval times’ – specifically in Arthur’s day. Yeh. From that point on I was just cranky and unwilling to give it any slack.
If you can tell me that halfway through the season it got better I will reconsider, but at the moment I am considering me and Sanctuary as officially Not Going To Happen.
The Last Gleaming of Kobol
BSG rewatch: 1.12 and 1.13 (Parts 1 and 2)
Part 1
This episode opens with a marvellous montage: Boomer contemplating suicide, Helo facing off with Caprica-Sharon knowing she is a Cylon, Starbuck and Baltar in bed together but she calls for Lee…. All very unpleasant things to confront our (anti-)heroes. Baltar kinda-sorta convinces Boomer to kill herself, but it doesn’t work, which is unpleasant. There’s a wonderful scene, too, where Baltar has an argument with both the President and Six, simultaneously. Very clever, and very funny too – telling the President not to think of him as a play-thing??
Then, of course, things get really serious when the President has another vision, and the planet that has recently been discovered is revealed as Kobol: the Garden of Eden-equivalent, where the Scriptures report that the gods and men lived together in harmony. Because of that, the President is adamant that Starbuck should jump back to Caprica and retrieve the Arrow of Apollo so they can find their way to Earth. Adama, nor unsurprisingly and not illegitimately, finds this an immensely hard sell. The President goes behind his back, requesting Starbuck do it without orders… which she does. This is more than just Starbuck being capricious and anti-authoritarian; our girl is deeply religious, in her own way, and the betrayal she feels when she discovers Adama doesn’t actually know where Earth is hits her hard. This has all sort of ramifications for the fleet, of course, as well as for the individuals as people and political agents. Which is why it’s a two-parter, I guess…
Part 2
Because Adama perceives the President as having interfered in military matters, he demands her resignation and when she refuses, he orders a boarding party onto Colonial One to take her into custody. This, of course, is a totally shocking move, given that he had initially said he had no interest in a military dictatorship; we like and admire Adama; and, as viewers, we are predisposed to assume that the President is right. And when the boarding party get to the President, and Apollo changes his mind and pulls his gun on Tigh? Outrageous. Putting the President in jail is almost an anticlimax after what was effectively a mutiny from the all-round good-military-guy Apollo. But that is of course where she ends up… and Apollo too.
At the same time as this drama is unfolding, there are four other narratives going on. One is that Caprica-Sharon, who is still with Helo although kinda his prisoner, reveals that she is pregnant. WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED. They end up meeting up with Starbuck, who has made it to Caprica, found the Arrow of Apollo, gets her ass seriously handed to her by a Six… and only isn’t killed because they fall off a ledge, and Six dies instead. So that’s all very exciting; it’s touching to see Helo and Starbuck reunited, as they’re clearly very good friends, but Starbuck’s reaction to Sharon is a bit overwrought.
Third, Boomer is well enough to undertake a very dangerous mission: blow up the baseship orbiting Kobol. She does so, but in the process ends up seeing her sisters and realises that she really is a Cylon. She has a great deal of difficulty with this discovery, of course, and is even more distraught when she gets back to Galactica aaaaand then she shoots the Commander. OOPS. Programming took over.
Lastly, we have the team that crashlanded on Kobol. This is all very stressful of course but the weirdest and most intriguing aspect is Baltar hallucinating the Forum as a complete building, and Six informing him that he will soon be looking after a baby. Baltar as a father?! Lords of Kobol, save us from our fate.
Thus ends season 1. I’m fairly sure that we didn’t have any time delay before getting to season 2 the first time around, and I’m awfully glad of that because this is SERIOUSLY a cliffhanger. Will Helo hate Caprica-Sharon forever? Can she actually have a baby? Is the Commander going to die of his wounds? How long will the President be in the brig? Will Starbuck get the Arrow back to Kobol? And will Starbuck and Apollo ever manage to get it on?!
BSG stats:
- Starbuck in the brig: 1
- Baltar in the brig: 1
- Women Baltar shows interest in (not including Six): 4
- Women Baltar actually gets to sleep with: 2
- Baltar religious conversions: 2
- Different sexy dresses worn by Caprica-Six: 9
- Apollo sides with President against Dad: 3
- Number of Cylons viewers know about: 4
- Number of Cylons humans know about: 2
- Roslin has a vision: 3
- People deliberately thrown out the airlock: 1 (+1 threat)
- Ships lost: 1
- Ellen gets suggestive: 3
- Starbuck and Apollo do fisticuffs: 1
Out of the box is where I live
BSG rewatch, 1.09 -1.11
Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down
Oh Ellen. Ellen Ellen Ellen… your return to Tigh’s life just makes things so much more complicated. And you are such a complicated character yourself. Of course, you don’t seem complicated at the start; you seem like a lush, and a bit of a nymphomaniac frankly. There is probably no other character in the entire show who makes me as uncomfortable as you, every single time I see you. It’s all very well and good for Saul to be overjoyed at your return… but to immediately start sowing dissent between him and Adama? Trying to crack on to Lee? Ew.
We also get the first real signs of the distrust sown by Leoben coming to fruition, in the suspicion between the President and the Commander. With the Cylon-detector finally on line, apparently, Baltar is made to go back and forth between determining whether Ellen or Adama is a Cylon. And he declares neither of them is, but whether that’s the truth is of course completely unknown. We certainly know Baltar is untrustworthy….
This is also the episode where Starbuck stumbles upon Baltar and Six having sex… although of course Six isn’t actually there… oops. Also, EW.
The Hand of God
This is the ‘searching for tylium’ episode. The fleet is desperately short of fuel, so – as with the search for water – we have raptors out looking for asteroids that are tylium-rich. They find one… and it’s crawling with Cylons. Of course. Starbuck (whose quote is the title of this post) is still recovering from her broken leg, so rather than leading the crazy-ass mission she gets to experience the joys of command; she does so because her crazy-ass thinking is exactly what’s required for this attack to succeed. They use ships as a decoy, and things look to be going badly… and then Starbuck and Adama pull out their Sekrit Plan, and hurrah! everything goes well. Apollo gets to act the outrageous one for a change, proving himself to himself and his father. And there’s a lovely Star Wars-esque moment with Apollo flying up a fairly narrow tunnel.
Oh, and back on Caprica, Sharon spews….
It’s a run of the mill episode, really, where “run of the mill” involves an exciting and tension-filled action sequence, some frisson between the President and the Commander, and a few flashes to poor old Helo and Caprica-Sharon hiding out from the big bad Cylons.
Colonial Day
Oooh, a political episode! The quorum of 12 get together, and Tom Zarek gazumps the Pres by demanding that there be an election for VP. Which makes sense, and of course it looks like Zarek will be the man… until the Pres does the dirty on her original candidate, and replaces him with Baltar, who ends up winning. URGH. I really like Zarek in this episode; I love that the writers gave him really attractive politics – well, to me anyway; basically he comes across as a socialist. It’s all about the good of the community, and that’s fun. It certainly complicates his relationship with the President no end, because you can’t really argue against those things; you have to argue against the man himself, and that just gets a bit messy and uncomfortable after a while. Meanwhile, Baltar actually gets a real-world outlet for his overdeveloped libido, and Ellen just keeps on being lewd.
Also meanwhile, back on Caprica… Cylon-Sharon is no longer spewing but starving – GOSH I wonder what THAT could mean – and then Helo discovers that she’s actually a Cylon. OH NOES! Whatever shall we do!
There’s also an assassination attempt, proving that even with fewer than 50,000 people in the population there are still utter nutters out there who are willing to murder for their beliefs… or money…
BSG stats:
- Starbuck in the brig: 1
- Baltar in the brig: 1
- Women Baltar shows interest in (not including Six): 3
- Women Baltar actually gets to sleep with: 1
- Baltar religious conversions: 2
- Different sexy dresses worn by Caprica-Six: 6
- Apollo sides with President against Dad: 2
- Number of Cylons viewers know about: 4
- Number of Cylons humans know about: 2
- Roslin has a vision: 2
- People deliberately thrown out the airlock: 1 (+1 threat)
- Ships lost: 1
- Ellen gets suggestive: 3
Randomly Yours, Alex 