(I made the mistake of googling Gaius Baltar to find an image, and am now slightly scarred by the cosplay pics I found of Baltar and Six…)

1.6: Litmus

We get a bit of Helo on Caprica, but mostly it’s about a Cylon (the not-actually-a-PR-agent one) getting aboard Galactica and blowing himself up, and then the ensuing investigation and trial. The deck gang get into a tizz trying to protect the Chief, because he was off having forbidden nooky with Boomer at the time. I don’t remember whether I picked up on it last time, but of course it turns out that the bomber stole the explosives from Galactica itself, and almost certainly got to them via the hatch combing that Boomer left open. Given her previous experience of unwittingly planting explosives, this is clearly meant to indicate that Boomer’s Cylon-self has once again come to the fore. Ultimately, one of Tyrol’s gang cops the fall for him and winds up in the brig. Tyrol has a meltdown over this, tells Boomer it’s all over and tries to get Adama to change the sentence. Adama gives him a bit of a lecture on leadership and refuses, mostly because he needs Tyrol to keep the Raptors and Vipers running which is… in some ways a terribly weak excuse for allowing a travesty of justice to continue. I can understand why he did it, and perhaps allow that the circumstances might warrant it, but being in such a situation where justice takes a backseat is a harsh harsh thing.

Much of the episode is taken up with Sgt Hadrian interviewing people and then bringing them before the tribunal. I love Hadrian. She’s a total hard-ass, and I’m amazed to discover that she’s only in two eps – this, and Act of Contrition. I had it in my mind that she was there far more often, as Master of Arms! Sad that I don’t have more of her to look forward to. Anyway, she asks right off the bat that the inquiry not be subject to the commander’s oversight, and to his credit Adama barely blinks before granting it. Of course, when he himself gets dragged before it, things are a little different and he reacts very poorly. The viewer is, I think, put in quite a difficult position: do we side with Adama, that cuddly yet prickly military man we all love, because we know the truth about Boomer and Tyrol and we know Hadrian is barking up the wrong tree? Or do we side with Hadrian, who after all is running a very thorough, sensible inquiry, and the questions she is asking are important, and the Commander really shouldn’t be negating an independent tribunal anyway? Deep stuff. I love it.

1.7: Six Degree of Separation

Again we get a bit of Helo/Caprica-Boomer action, and this time they actually get it on!, the episode is really all about Baltar getting accused of being a Cylon-collaborator and destroying the defence mainframe on Caprica. This is a marvellously intricate piece of plotting for several reasons: he was, of course, responsible for that, just not in the way he’s accused; and the woman accusing him, Shelly, is none other than another Number Six, and therefore a Cylon. This viewer, at least, got a bit carried away and dizzy with all the delicious irony. It’s a great episode: Tricia Helfer gets a slightly different role, although she’s still a bit of a sex-goddess trying to seduce Adama – which naturally doesn’t work; we get to see Baltar totally melt down again, which is usually entertaining; and we get a wonderfully snarky conversation between Roslin and Baltar showing Roslin’s true feelings for the creepy little scientist.

This episode also really starts the ball rolling on one of the things I find most interesting about the whole show: the religious aspects. Now Baltar has had something of a conversion to Cylon monotheism before this, but even at that time it felt pretty forced. There has been some mention, but no real discussion, of the Lords of Kobol – the pantheon of the humans. Here, admittedly when he’s facing the death penalty, Baltar appears to undergo a genuine (at least for him) conversion to the Cylon God. There has been endless discussion about the religious nature of BSG, and I’m not going to get into the aspects of Mormonism that are or aren’t in here, because I’m not conversant enough in it to add anything relevant. But I find it fascinating and somewhat refreshing to watch a show where religion isn’t just for the savages and the backward; it’s a genuine part of the whole society – even if most of the characters seem functionally agnostic, perhaps like much of Western society. And that the Cylons have developed (had revealed to them??) monotheism is deeply intriguing, and Six’s devotion in particular likewise. There are things which are deeply problematic, of course, from Baltar’s conversion right up to the apparent idea that monotheism and pantheism are completely unable to coexist. Still, it adds a depth and philosophical nature to the show that I think helps make it some of the best TV of the last decade.

1.8 Flesh and Bone

Again with the little bit of Helo and Caprica-Boomer at the start, but really their narrative seems to be included just so we don’t forget about that little bit of human/Cylon action goin’ down. The focus in this episode is back to Starbuck, hooray! and her interrogation of Leoben, which gets particularly… um, heated… when he declares that he’s planted an atomic bomb somewhere in the fleet. This is a hard-hitting episode that really starts to ask the hard questions about the humanity, or sentience, or life-y-ness in general of the human-looking Cylons and what that means about how you can treat them. Because Starbuck has absolutely no compunctions about brutally torturing Leoben, and presumably neither do the guards; and while Roslin appears scandalised by this and attempts to communicate with him, she ultimately – and totally callously – has him sent out the airlock. I found the torture section quite hard to watch, which I guess it was meant to be, and of course it brings up the whole ‘how far to save lots of people’ argument. And on top of all of that you get Leoben messing with Starbuck’s mind, suggesting he knows a whole lot about her and making comments about her background that for the viewer put Starbuck in quite a different, and quite a wounded, light. It’s a masterful episode for one that – to a much greater extent than any other yet – largely takes place in just one room.

It’s a really, really good episode. Tough, and hard to watch, but good.

And now, something I meant to do at the start but forgot, and a blatant rip-off (I guess we could pretend it’s an homage) of Tansy’s Xena stats. Because it’s such an amusing idea.

BSG stats:

• Starbuck in the brig: 1
• Baltar in the brig: 1
• Women Baltar shows interest in (not including Six): 2
• Women Baltar actually gets to sleep with: 0
• Baltar religious conversions: 2
• Different sexy dresses worn by Caprica-Six: 2
• 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: 1
• People deliberately thrown out the airlock: 1
• Ships lost: 1

You know, where they do the “on this episode” flashes? Doesn’t matter that I’ve seen it all before; I still Will. Not. Watch. I hide my eyes and everything. Also, it annoys me a lot that they included that on the DVD versions.

1.3: Bastille Day

I don’t think I realised what the title of this episode was when I first watched it. It’s incredibly resonant, of course, and for me at the moment even more so – I’m teaching the French Rev this year, again, and I’ve been furiously reading books about it. Bastille Day, for those vague on the details, is popularly seen as the ‘official’ beginning of the French Revolution: a crowd of people in Paris stormed the Bastille, a prison regarded as a symbol of the king’s oppression in the middle of Paris. The irony, of course, is that when they got in there were only about 7 inmates – and none of them were in for political reasons. (If you follow Schama, it’s also indicative of the violence that escalated basically until Napoleon took control). Here, of course, although there are 1500 prisoners who have presumably committed a variety of crimes, the focus is entirely on one: Tom Zarek. (And when I discovered that he was Apollo in the original series, my mind nearly exploded.) Freedom fighter or terrorist, Zarek manages to capture (our) Apollo and friends when they come to ask the prisoners to do hard labour to get water for the fleet. And what he demands is elections across the fleet. The very fact that it was called Bastille Day is indicative, I think, of where the sympathies of the show’s creators lie; most people regard the day as a good thing in the progression towards democracy. And so, when this possibly evil man is demanding exactly the sorts of things that reasonable people have been demanding in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burma the last few years… well. The writers are not making this an easy show to watch.

Also, I love the ending, where Apollo has to face up to his father and the President and announce he has committed them to elections. It’s exactly like a kid being hauled up before his parents.

1.4: Act of Contrition

It’s all about Starbuck. She may get a bit annoying in places, over four seasons, but this show is just all about Starbuck here.

To start the episode with a flash of Starbuck falling through atmosphere is very clever – the fact that they don’t make it clear whether this is a flashback, or a dream, or what adds significantly to the tension. The further flashbacks to her with Zac, and then her first meeting with the Commanders – when we the viewers already know what she did and how guilty she feels – are superb and very effective. I really appreciate how conflicted they make Starbuck; it’s not overdone, and it doesn’t come out in every single action, but it’s clearly always there. As it would be. It also tells you something about the show that in the fourth episode they have one of the main characters possibly die. No punches pulled.

This episode also has Roslin chatting to the fleet doctor about her breast cancer. I’m still not entirely sure what I make of that particular plot point. Of course it leads to the whole ‘dying leader’ thing, and it has a slight side discussion of ‘alternative’ vs mainstream medicine, plus the whole ‘how to deal with terminal illness’ thing. It also makes her more vulnerable and human, which I like; it matches, I guess, with Adama’s grief over Zac.

So this one finishes as a cliffhanger; Starbuck has fallen on to the planet, oh nooo!! We had only planned to watch two episodes… but we couldn’t just LEAVE her there.

1.5: You Can’t go Home Again

Ah, the rescue of Starbuck. Which is awesome because she rescues herself; that’s my girl. I love, love, love that the Cylon raider is a genuine cyborg, and I am willing to overlook all of the issues of how Starbuck learns to control the thing for the very fact that she does, and it’s so very awesome.

The other fascinating aspect is how Starbuck’s absence affects both Adama men – they can’t handle it. Roslin suggests it’s because she’s their last connection to Zac; I think it’s also guilt, especially from Adama Sr, that he drove her to the point of having to be (more) rash. And for Apollo… yes well, we know where that particular relationship goes (if you’ve seen it that is. If you haven’t, why are you reading this?). Roslin also highlights the military vs civilian issue that is going to continue plaguing the fleet: the military (well, Adama) making decisions that affect everyone, but aren’t necessarily the right ones to make for everyone.

Finally, it totally freaks me out that they smoke onboard a spaceship. WTH??

I considered trying to have interesting titles for all of my posts, but… that’s a lotta titles.

33

I discovered on watching this just how much of the detail I have forgotten, which is quite pleasant actually – it makes rewatching it seem more worthwhile. In this episode – officially the first of the series – the Galactica and its ragtag band of civvie ships has made 287 ftl jumps, every 33 minutes, only just escaping the Cylons each time. They’re all on the ragged edge, and you just know something is going to happen. We also flash to Helo, on Caprica, and get a fair bit of Baltar being lovey-dovey and insane with Six.

Of course, forgetting details also means that you have to go through the agony of (re)discovering horrible things, like…

The Olympic Carrier. It wasn’t until Dee announces with surprise that the Carrier was back with the fleet, after being left behind on the last jump, that I remembered what happened. And oh boy, that’s unpleasant. Yet again we have the President and the Commander having to make dreadful, heart-wrenching decisions. (And as we find out in the next ep, it’s Apollo that seems to suffer most from doing it).

The crew after 100+ hours sans sleep is a fascinating study in character. Tigh just bulls on through, Starbuck gets wilder, Adama gets grittier, and everyone else does ragged and near-crazy exceptionally well.

And finally, we get Helo on Caprica, getting ‘rescued’ by a Sharon. Doesn’t that just put the cat amongst the pigeons, so to speak? Especially when she kills a Six in order to do so….

The thing I’ve paid closer attention to on this watch, aside from the plot, is the character relationships. The one I really noticed this time is that between the Chief and Callie: at this time, he’s involved with Boomer, but eventually of course these two get hitched. It’s interesting to see them at this point, where it’s very much a master/apprentice relationship. And, of course, Apollo and Adama continue to be a fascinating study in parent/child attitudes. I love them more this time than last.

Water

Oops. Boomer wakes up and discovers she doesn’t know where she’s been or what she’s done. And then there’s an explosion – oh no! – and lots and lots of water is lost. Then we go water hunting. We also get back to Helo and Boomer on Caprica.

Put like that, it sounds like a boring episode – and for the second in the series that seems quite weird. But it sets the scene: aside from battling Cylons, the point of the show really is the day to day minutiae, the little things that make it possible for not-quite-50,000 people to survive in space while being hunted down. And water is, of course, utterly essential to that survival. So I like that after the adrenaline rush of 33, we get an episode focussed on something no less vital, but way less sexy.

This episode makes me realise I am not a huge fan of Boomer. I think this is partly because I don’t really rate the actress, Grace Park, that highly, and also because I find this iteration of her a bit too whingy; curiously I think Athena – the one who is currently with Helo – is more interesting. On one level this makes no sense, while on another it’s a great tribute to the writers of the show in differentiating members of the same Cylon model.

We get more lovely moments of Roslin/Adama here: they bond over books, they have misunderstandings that at least this time are resolved quite gracefully, and in their individual interactions with Apollo they demonstrate fascinatingly different takes on leadership. Adama says ‘suck it up and take it like a man’; Roslin says in private, at least, learn from your mistakes and be honest with yourself.

Finally, we get more of Six banging on (heh heh) at Baltar about religion, which really started in 33. There are things here about monotheism vs polytheism, and attitudes towards God/the gods, that I still haven’t got my head around. Hopefully I’ll be able to do so over the course of the series.

We went back to the survivors of the Cylon attack just as the Chief and friends are getting into Ragnar Anchorage, to get the stored munitions… and they find someone there ahead of them. Surprise!

Spoilers

Again, this second half of the mini series reinforced the emotional power and extreme detail that I’d been reminded of in the first half. Roslyn impressed me this time around more than I remember from the first time; she is so self-contained – in public at least – and already we see the cost that she personally pays for making the hard decisions: leave thousands to certain death to ensure that some of them survive. Who would ever want to be responsible for that? But she takes it in her stride and just does it. And her encounter with Commander Adama is wonderful too. That she asks straight out whether he plans on a military coup, and then he seems to ignore her but only a few minutes later is repeating her words and realises she’s right… it really does set their relationship up for the rest of the series.

A couple of other things that struck me in this half: first, the aesthetic. Having recently been made aware of corridors in sf movies/tv, I was hyper aware of them here. Some are claustrophobic, some are large and airy, but on the Galactica at least they’re all – at this stage – very samey. This makes sense, of course, but it contributes to the feeling of being in a maze and being lost – much like the situation they find themselves in. The other thing is that in the beginning, everything was so controlled: it’s organised, and neat, and orderly, and everyone basically knows where they should be and what they’re doing. Over the mini series, things slowly get more chaotic and untidy, and from memory this is something that continues inexorably. It’s a really nice aspect and is indicative of the care given to details in the whole show.

What else? Starbuck being Starbuck – that awesome move to save Apollo really sets the tone for her character, even more than her biff with Tigh (do we ever learn his call sign? I don’t think we do). Baltar began to grate on me already in this section, the self-serving, arrogant, little twit, but I enjoyed Six more than last time: I think Helfer is actually a really good actress, and I’m looking forward to seeing her in her other roles – although that will also be painful. And Adama lying about Earth?? Outrageous, and yet… so noble, in an odd sort of way. The revelation of Earth as the thirteenth colony obviously didn’t do anything for me this time, but last time – what a clever, clever idea.

And there are the cylons. I love, love love the final scene, and the revelation that Boomer is a cylon. I don’t remember how I reacted when I first saw it, but what a gut-tearing discovery. There’s been so much effort to build Boomer up as a character: having to abandon Helo on Caprica, her illicit love affair with Chief, being nice to that annoying kid… and then BAM. Ow my heart. Damn you Larsen et al.

Spoilers

J has been at me for a good 18 months to do a Battlestar Galactica rewatch. I’ve been putting it off because… well… it just HURT the first time around. A lot. But he has proposed that we watch the entire thing over the whole year – so rather than watching a disk a night, which we may have been known to do (erm… a lot…), we’re going to treat it more like actual TV. Spread the load around. Rip the bandaid off slowly, you might say.

Anyway, we started by watching half of the mini series tonight, and the first thing that struck me was how young they all looked. The Chief was positively sveldt! Starbuck was mischievous and young! Above all, Adama and Roslin without four years of command? Not children by any means, but not haggard either.

The second thing that struck me was the familiarity of all those faces. Gaita! Tigh! Helo! Dee! Billy (whom I’d totally forgotten)!… and Baltar, Boomer, Apollo, Six, and *sigh* Starbuck. It felt just a little bit like a reunion. So silly, but true.

I’d forgotten a fair bit of the detail of what happens in the mini series. The actual start, with Six sauntering in and distracting the Colonial officer while he’s being blown up; Roslin being told about her cancer; the tension between Commander and Captain Adama. I had forgotten that ‘Head Six’ appears to Baltar almost immediately (in that dress), and the tension between civil and military rule already appearing – and Apollo siding with Roslin. I’m not sure I ever noticed before that spooling up the FTL was a dangerous move, and that Chief nearly KOs the XO because of the people who die in the decompression.

There is so much going on. So much that we decided to break the mini series when the Galactic arrives at Ragnok because we needed the breathing space. But, for all that I had visions of the deaths of most of these characters from later in the series, I’m glad we’re watching it again. I look forward to catching the hints I missed the first time, and focussing on detail because I won’t have to focus quite so much on plot.

I also enjoyed yelping “CYLON!” when I saw that nasty little PR type. Boo hiss.