BSGBlogging Returns!
That was a lot of plot, no? For better or for worse, it looks like the final season will be very science-fictional. By which I mean, we won’t be dealing with just “life during wartime” stories where the setting functions as color. Instead the show is going to be foregrounding the questions of identity and theology that have bubbled up and under since early in the series. The first few episodes of Season One made me think that Cylon monotheism would be more central to the show than it ended up being, more than something Cylon characters say now and then. And from a vantage point three years in the future, it still stuns me how little lasting impact the events of “Flesh and Bone” had on Kara Thrace.
Regardless, here we are, apparently, about to achieve big things. Probably find Earth. If we’re lucky, understand something big about faith and fanaticism and – who knows? original sin. It may be great, though it probably won’t be brilliant. The whole Baltar “take me” sequence from breakdown to miracle felt too off-the-shelf. There’s probably a plot justification – the boy’s a Cylon, or the dishy cult-leader chick is, or whatever. Starbuck going berserker at the end is also Over the Top – it feels like it can only be explained by science fiction, not by character. Some thing was done to Kara somewhere to make her act like this.
But I’m intrigued. And the scenes among the little family – Adama; Lee; Starbuck – had some force. Starbuck trying to figure out where she might have been turned into something else; Lee telling Dad he’s going for a job in the civilian government (President)?
I think most metaplots end badly. If this one does too, I won’t be shocked. But I’m hoping.
UPDATE: Karin Kathode writes
Man, they went to town on the budget for this one, what with the epic space battle at the beginning there. Bruce fears this may mean three boxing episodes later in the season.
Comment by Eric Scharf —
April 4, 2008 @ 11:43 pm
When we got DirecTV last June, I made sure we got the SciFi East feed just so I could make timely comments on BSG posts. I hope it’s worth it.
I don’t think I was terribly surprised by anything they did, although I liked the way they resolved of Kara’s “death” better than I thought I would. Still, the I-saw-Earth-and-then-I-blacked-out device is pretty juvenile writing.
Sam’s “retinal scan” seemed awfully kludgy, but I suppose he (in particular) needed an accentuated Moment of Doubt this episode. Until they started marveling at Kara’s viper’s new paint job, I had been suspecting Tyrol of having somnambulistically wiped her nav-computer.
Good to see Lee still thinking about his career; I’m sure Zarek is willing to be a mentor.
Baltar’s faith-healing seemed kind of rote, but I’m hoping it signals a return to a more rigorous exploration of the theological themes raised in the first season. As to Baltar’s cult, what’s with all the chicks? Surely some boys in the fleet fancy Gaius; I’d do him if he quit smoking. I guess that seraglio is where Grandpa Adama’s law library was previously stored.
Re: Kara’s rampage, I failed to suspend disbelief when she decked Sam. Sumthin’s not right.
Comment by Justin Slotman —
April 5, 2008 @ 1:15 am
Awwww…I knew there was something I was forgetting when I dropped my DirecTV package to the lowest level because I wasn’t watching anything besides Bloomberg anymore. Ah well.
Comment by Brett Peters —
April 5, 2008 @ 7:52 am
I think I’m just going to experience the UO version of BSG this year.
Comment by Derek Copold —
April 5, 2008 @ 11:23 am
Good to see Lee still thinking about his career…
That’s about as bright an indicator as one needs to see that the writers aren’t serious about their priciple premise. We’re talking about the species facing extinction, and one of the best fighter pilots is looking at his career options?
Comment by Jim Henley —
April 5, 2008 @ 11:58 am
For half a second I thought that, but Lee says it’s a position in government. Clearly the RTF remains committed to the idea of civilian government as integral to staving off extinction. It’s not like Lee is talking about retiring to write his memoirs.
Also, I’m pretty sure there remains a tradition of accepting officer resignations even during wartime.
Comment by Derek Copold —
April 5, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
Yes, for non-critical positions. But Lee Adama is hardly filling an uncritical position. According to the story, he’s one of the few people who can not only lead a fighter squadron, but can also command the flag ship. It’s the height of irresponsibility for him to go off pursuing a government job.
There’s no way around it, the writers want to use Lee Adama’s character as a wooden ventroloquist for whatever bee happens to be in their bonnet. And he’s not the first. They did it to Helo in that awful virus episode. Starbuck, Adama and Roslin have all had their turns, too. I mean, hey, all this has happened before and all this will happen again. Just tune in next Friday.
This strain of unseriousness infects the whole story. Baltar is led to a cult of almost exclusively beautiful women? Three out of four characters turn out to be cylons, despite their entire story background? (I make an exception for the Tori chick, who always fit the profile from her introduction). The magic cylon eye scans Anders, and they pack it in? Why didn’t this happen on Caprica when he was playing the Finnian? Then you’ve got the completely unbelievable character that is Starbuck.
You know, back in Season One, I thought I’d never say this: The old series was actually a more coherent and serious production than the new one. We ridicule (rightly) a lot of the Mormonish gibberish that Lorne Greene mouthed, but that series was still LESS mystical than this one. Lorne didn’t exactly send the fleet hither-thither because he had powerful hallucinations.
They even provided evolutionary explanations for the annoying angelic figures on the ship of lights. For all their 70s cliches and hamminess, not to mention the clunky Cold War allegories, the Starbuck, Apollo and other characters were more consistent and believable than their more “sophisticated” counterparts from the 2000s.
Comment by ctes —
April 5, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
Re the effects: an excellent interview with Moore (minor spoilers, but carefully blocked off at the end so you can avoid them with more willpower than I) says:
Re the last Cylon: for maximum fan cred, I think it’s like a March Madness pool, where for victory your upset picks have to be unlikely and also uncommon. So let me pass over the clear favorite Dualla, the mid-major champion Gaeta, and the surprising Cinderella of Cally and be the first to stake out that the final Cylon will be… Billy.
Comment by Eric Scharf —
April 5, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
Just before the fourth season premiere, I watched Lee’s monologue from Baltar’s trial again, just to remind myself of what this show is capable. The theme of “improvisation” clearly applies to anyone wishing to charge Lee with desertion. Anyway, whatever the Colonials make of the Cylons’ recent refusal to annihilate them when they had the chance, it’s clear that military prowess alone won’t save them.
Lee’s trial monologue basically launched his political career; it’s hard to square that kind of philosophic complexity with ready-room discipline. Now that Lee’s sufficiently defied Bill, it’s time for him to complete the Oedipal circle and defeat Roslin, who faces the choice between tragedy and farce (no, contemporary politics would never influence the BSG writer’s room!).
I share (some of) Derek’s dissatisfaction; there have been enough insulting character breaks that I would have dropped the show last season had I had any other pressing viewing options, which I don’t. Like Jim (I suppose), I hope the fact that Moore & Co. have known for a while this will be the final season will, um, focus the writing.
Re the last Cylon: for maximum fan cred, I think it’s like a March Madness pool, where for victory your upset picks have to be unlikely and also uncommon.
As little use as I have for “The Final Cylon,” I can’t resist the nerd points that accrue to my nomination of the late President Richard Adar.
Comment by Jennifer —
April 5, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
Considering how long it’s been now since the Colonies were attacked, I’m just amazed that the Baltar cultists were able to find, in addition to such a huge unused space on a crowded battleship, such an enormous supply of candles.
Comment by Avram —
April 5, 2008 @ 7:03 pm
Not just that, Jennifer, but Cult Anthrax apparently also found and lit the Earth-shaped beacon. Next week: Spankings all around!
Comment by Donald Johnson —
April 6, 2008 @ 1:19 pm
“The magic cylon eye scans Anders, and they pack it in? Why didn’t this happen on Caprica when he was playing the Finnian? ”
His Cylonishness wasn’t activated then–the Cylons couldn’t have told he was a Cylon any more than he knew he was. What triggered them, of course, isn’t clear, and we’ll find out if the show answers that question this season, among others.
I’m still a fan myself, but I have doubts that they’ll be able to wrap things up this season in a way that’ll be totally satisfying. That’s okay–if they fail the series will have been very good, even great at times, but not consistently great.
Comment by Donald Johnson —
April 6, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
My own favorite gripe, and maybe this has been explained on some fan site, is what is Baltar’s internal Six? In the first season she appears in the flesh, and though that could have just been one of the real sixes appearing there for reasons involving Cylon plotting, the timing would be miraculous. I’ve given up on any naturalistic explanation at the moment–so far as you can tell from the show, she appears to be the supernatural creature she claims to be (an angel from God, though one with carnal desires).
Unless they come up with some really ingenious explanations for various events so far, I think it’s safe to say the show’s writers aren’t sticking to a strictly material universe and that some of the mystical stuff is supposed to be accepted as real. Which is fine with me, but obviously it’s going to bother people who want the show to be free of any supernaturalism.
Comment by Jim Henley —
April 6, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
A cascading rampage would be:
1. The Cylons do something to genuine-article Kara Thrace while they have her.
2. Magic Cylon Eye transmits some signal to Anders. The signal does NOT remove his volition.
3. Anders retransmits the signal the MCE implanted in him to Kara during their eye-to-eye heart-to-heart by the memory wall.
4. The retransmitted signal berserkifies Kara.
Why? Any of a number of good or bad reasons.
Comment by Avram —
April 7, 2008 @ 12:59 am
Eric: Kara’s rampage, I failed to suspend disbelief when she decked Sam.
Hell, I was expecting her to deck him for most of last season.
Comment by Derek Copold —
April 7, 2008 @ 10:44 am
His Cylonishness wasn’t activated then–the Cylons couldn’t have told he was a Cylon any more than he knew he was.
Have you seen the Star Wars parody sketch on Robot Chicken where Darth Vader reveals all the stuff we learn from Return of the Jedi to Revenge of the Sith? With each twist, Luke goes from screaming “THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!” to “THAT’S…very improbable.” to “If you’re not going to be serious I’m going.”
That’s the feeling I get with these explanations. At least RDM had the good taste to take the “They have a plan” line out of the opening sequence.
I agree with Eric about the speech. It was good, and that’s what gives me so much grief about the show. I’ve watched the first season and a half time and again. We’re talking incredible TV. And it all could have been really great. Now it’s…meh. I’m invested in the series, so I’m going to finish it off, but that’s about it.
As far as Lee mustering himself out, it really wouldn’t take much to give him a solid reason. He could have been grievously wounded and then been taken off flight status. Sure, it would have seemed convenient, but that kind of dramatic improbability is allowable. But the writers just won’t pull that trigger because they want to have their cake and eat it. They want their fighter jock and civilian leader. This sort of thing smothers the franchise’s credibility.
As for the biggest plot hole, the Shelly Godfrey is a HUGE one, but the one that still bugs me most is the way Baltar was able to pass off the nuke to the psycho, lesbian Six. Anyone passingly familiar with nuclear protocols knows how very, very improbable something like that is.
Comment by Leonard —
April 7, 2008 @ 11:24 am
I agree with others that having high hopes at this point is too much. There are plenty already-existing holes that we know will never be filled (like the thing with Baltar’s nuke). Idiot plots are particularly egregious in scifi, because part of the point of it is completeness.
But a more radical suspension of disbelief is appropriate here, than is appropriate for books. There’s a million books, so you can demand hard scifi and get it, or a reasonable approximation. Not so with TV series. So we just have to overlook the swiss-cheesiness and focus on the good.
Even so, I very much doubt they can tie up all the dangling ends in a fully satisfying way. I suspect, rather, that it will end up feeling a bit like Star Wars did after episode 3: a fairly decent job of putting it together, at least on the most major details (i.e., wonder-twins are born w/o Sithy baddies knowing it, Jedi are killed off, Empire declared, etc.) But a lot of stuff won’t make sense or will be left hangin.
Comment by Leonard —
April 7, 2008 @ 11:30 am
My theory on the nature of the “final 5″ is that they are people that started human and were “chipped” or copied at some point. Note that all four of the ones we know were Cylon captives, at least insofar as being on New Caprica. This would explain the otherwise puzzling detail of how Tigh, who was born before the first Cylon war and who was known by Adama then, could be an advanced model. (The other three are young hotties.) It would also explain how they were not detected as Cylons by Baltar’s detector.
Comment by Derek Copold —
April 7, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
Maybe Moore should give Leonard a job, or at least pay him hush money for figuring out the game. That is a good point about the four being on New Caprica.
Comment by Mr. Obscura —
April 7, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
We’re talking incredible TV. And it all could have been really great. Now it’s…meh. I’m invested in the series, so I’m going to finish it off, but that’s about it.
My feelings exactly
Comment by Glen Raphael —
April 8, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
I thought Kara’s turn at the end was almost too-obviously “pulling a Sharon”. When Sharon was known to be a Cylon, considered dangerous, and therefore continuously held under armed guard, she pulled a gun on the commander to prove that she didn’t have to fire it. To say: Hey, here’s that worst-case scenario you’ve been worried about. See, it wasn’t as bad as you thought, was it? So in the next episode Kara will have a speech along similar lines as “I’m Sharon, but I’m a different Sharon…I make my own decisions.”
Kara decked Sam to ensure he can’t be punished for her escape/misbehavior.
Comment by Glen Raphael —
April 8, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
Speaking of loose ends, I miss 6’s virtual Baltar.