I was trying to think of a good introductory sentence for this post.
First it was "Gaeta's uniform isn't prim & proper!"
Then it was, "Gaeta smokes!"
Then how could I resist, "Gaeta has a tatoo!"
But then I was like, "Aw shit, Starbuck's back in the cockpit!" (For those of you paying attention, Starbuck's character, a fighter pilot, hasn't been in a cockpit since the fourth episode of the 1st season -- in other words, sixteen episodes ago).
And then, how could I resist, "Aw shit, we know another Cylon!"
Hell, she played everybody. Xena was always going to put out a fluff piece (regardless of how accurate) to engraciate herself to the Galactica's crew. Gain their trust, become a regular pipeline of information to the Cylon command on Caprica. Surprising? Hey, I didn't see it coming, so let that inform your judgement.
There's a lot to like about this episode -- it's sort of like "a day in the life". I particularly enjoyed seeing the operations of Tyrol's crews aboard the flight deck. One thing I never liked about Star Trek Voyager was that no matter how many years it'd been since the ship had last seen a starbase's "Merry Maid" detachment, the ship always looked brand new. Like, when you first see the Colonial Viper Mk II in the miniseries, they've got sparkling paint jobs and they're gleaming in their white and red paint schemes. Here, several scenes focuses on Kat's Viper, which is burned, blackened, the paint is peeling, it looks like me after six rounds with Mista' T. I commented in another post that the Galactica's hanger deck was similarly scarred. THAT'S AWESOME! It reinforces the illusion that the ship has been away from maintence for close to a year, and just those little details makes it all so much more real.
There's not a whole lot else I can say about the episode. Captain Kelly makes a rare appearance -- I guess he's the "Boss" of the flight pattern. Looks like Lee's back as CAG (not surprising), I'm a little curious about one thing - Hot Dog chases Kat into the pilot's rack, and Lee chases him back out chiding him for coming into senior officers' bunks. Maybe its just a misunderstanding, but Hot Dog and Kat were both enlisted from the fleet and trained together -- shouldn't they be the same rank? On the other hand, maybe Lee intended the chide for both of them. Whatever - you'd think as CAG, Lee would rate his own cabin.
Lee and Starbuck are the leaders of the flight squadron, and Starbuck demonstrates her leadership clearly in several instances -- first, breaking up a fight between Kat and Tyrol, and then trying to assist a drug-addled Kat into a not-so-non-crashy landing. We haven't seen a lot of Starbuck in her job on Galactica lately (obvious reasons why), and it's great to see her getting into the swing of things.
The Corridor of Photos, last seen I think in the first season opener, is back. It's particularly resonating what with the upcoming four-year anniversary of September 11th (from which the producers admit they got the idea), plus photos I saw briefly on CNN of a similar wall in New Orleans, with photos and notes of and to family and friends, from the victims of Katrina.
A big deal is made about the "Massacre at Gideon", during which Galactica Marines, in an attempt to retrieve supplies neccessary for the ship, opened fire on a hostile mob and killed four. Lt. Palladino, a pilot who led the mission, apparently is a bit unhinged about the whole incident and finally snaps, ready to take out the man who ordered it - Tigh. "Snapping under stress" seems to be a recurring theme of the episode, but one I hope the show revisits. This brings up something else: Galactica has a rather large Marine detachment aboard, yet earlier in the season the point was made that there weren't enough Marine NCOs to command the number of raiding parties Tigh ordered (this is why Palladino was in command on Gideon). Ok. So the Marines don't have a lot of NCOs, and apparently, they don't have any Marine officers, either? Something fishy, there ...
What was wrong with Sharon? I mean, besides the blood on her hands.
One complaint -- two episodes ago, everyone was at each other's throats. Now they're all buddy-buddy again. I would've liked to see some conflict between Starbuck and Tigh or something, y'know, something along the lines of, "Meh, I still don't trust you."
Did Billy even get a line this episode? I think he was in the background of the teaser. Oh, yes -- this is also the first time I can remember seeing Colonial One this season.
Well, that's it for me. Two weeks until the mid-season break, and then no more Galactica until January.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Billy was there during the viewing of the story, at the end.
I thought this one was OK. I mean, it was nice to see some quieter moments from various people, like Gaeta. (Felix. And for that matter, Anastacia Dualla.) But I guess I wasn't blown away or anything.
The ending changes things up, though. I mean, we still don't know how hard the Cylons were trying to blow up Galactica before, but they now seem agreed not to try that now. (Despite what the preview for next week suggests, I guess.) [On the other hand, Leoban and Simon weren't in the theater.] So, assuming that their attempts to track Sharon down earlier were genuine, are they going to allow her to give birth on Galactica, or will they try to retrieve her before then?
Oh, and that reminds me: the Cylons used this opportunity to find out whether Sharon had made it to the fleet. So either Baltar's Six couldn't tell them or chose not to.
Survivors: 47,853.
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
I think the virus thing might be a smoke screen for the episode - think I read somewhere Tyrol's gotta build a Viper from scratch.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Fun subtitle facts (decoded only with the help of those downloadable commentaries): Lee Adama is (or I guess was, at this point) in the Reserves.
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
See, so what, Fleet called him out of Reserve to fly a fighter at his dad's retirement ceremony? I don't really get that ...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Again from the commentary:
quote:Interestingly enough there are people like Lee Adama, who has an R after his, uh, name. Quite often the Navy, the ROTC program, is a reserve program. The idea is you go into the service and serve active duty for four years, six years, whatever you commit to, depending on the program you're in, and then after that you take a commission in the reserves unless you're offered a commission as a regular serving officer. And so I thought that someone like Lee Adama essentially went in like that, and was heading for the reserves at some point . . . but the point was that Lee was not somebody who was on the full career path . . . in the show bible I stroked out Lee's backstory saying that he was a test pilot; he was going a different route from his father in that his father wanted to command a battlestar and Lee didn't want to do that . . . always liked the idea that Lee very much did not want to follow in his father's footsteps . . . at some point he did not want to make this his life
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Something I saw mentioned elsewhere that is now gnawing at me: The Cylons are watching the film at the end, which was transmitted to them under cover of a raider attack, which happened while the story was still being filmed.
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
Ah. So he was regular duty when the miniseries happened then.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
One thing I've been feeling in recent years is that the various plot "twists" in various sci-fi stories are easily predictable, ones that I can see coming at least ten or twenty minutes in advance. Certainly every show has both its obvious and not-so-obvious plot twists, like SG-1 last night (I could see that what's-his-name was going to turn out to be the not-dead guy's brother, and would be fighting Mitchell). But this week's episode (I just finished watching it now, had to work late last night) was incredibly mind-blowing at the end. It was that rare plot twist that was not telegraphed in any way ahead of time, but still made absolutely perfect sense, regardless. Kudos to the BSG writers for such an awesome story!
Sol: I don't think the raider attack was supposed to be the transmission period. When I was watching the show, and the raiders popped up, I thought, "How convenient that Reporter Lady gets the perfect shot to film the Galactica crew doing their most critical job -- protecting the fleet from the Cylons." Yeah, it was a plot device... but it was a plot device that the Cylons created for their own purposes. That's what I love about the whole surprise most of all. I expected that the raider attack would be just written off as random -- but instead, the Cylons deliberately staged the attack for their own purposes!
Concerning the problem of fighter pilot burnout, I guess it's a good thing that the Pegasus will be showing up in a couple of weeks...
Oh, one other really neat nuance that caught my eye: In the first seconds of seeing Number Six react to the cut footage of Sharon in Sickbay, for a split moment I thought she was reacting in disgust (at the commotion and apparent possible cruelty towards Sharon). Then that expression became a smile. A very nice touch there, very good acting.
Snay: Concerning Galactica's well-worn appearance... considering that Moore worked with the Voyager staff for a few weeks, and that multiple comments that he's made in the podcasts have been subtly-phrased but very pointed criticisms of Trek, and Voyager in particular, I'm not surprised in the least that they're taking the time to make sure all the sets look beat-up. After they've started placing the survivor tally from the President's "Whiteboard of Doom" in the opening credits, I think it's the least they can do...
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Oh, and one more important bit: We've now got the identity of six out of the twelve models of Cylon. (I've been assuming that the "twelve models" that they referenced in the miniseries were just the Human-type ones... am I misremembering that?)
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote:Concerning the problem of fighter pilot burnout, I guess it's a good thing that the Pegasus will be showing up in a couple of weeks...
I think I read somewhere that Pegasus is worse off on Vipers than Galactica!
quote:Oh, and one more important bit: We've now got the identity of six out of the twelve models of Cylon. (I've been assuming that the "twelve models" that they referenced in the miniseries were just the Human-type ones... am I misremembering that?)
No, I think you're right ... of course, it's always possible that the Cylons have since created more models. We're meeting a lot of the new Cylons this season -- the Doctor a few episodes ago, now Xena, and as I understand it, another Cylon is on Pegasus.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
As a result of Home Part 2, I now conjecture that BSG is actually set in our distant future. The reference the 'ancient names' of the Twelve Colonies, which are the names of the constellations as we know them.
My conjecture is solidified by a far more thrown away line from this episode. When Kat and the other pilot run into the pilots' quarters, what's-his-name calls them Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, a reference to contemporary Earth literature.
Now, sure, it could be a slip up of improv, but the actual dialogue is actually integral to the whole B-Plot of Tigh's death threats, so it was almost certainly more carefully planned and written than it appears.
Also...
HOLY CRAP THE ORIGINAL THEME! OMG WTF BBQ AWESOME!
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
OntoMars:
Re: the Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum references ... I wouldn't read much into them, paticularly since Caprica and the other colonies have apparently had a considerable amount of parallel development - Starbuck's Humvee? The P90 the Marines often carry?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"What was wrong with Sharon? I mean, besides the blood on her hands."
Well, given all the concern about saving her baby, I'll give you one guess as to where that blood was coming out of her.
As for the attack, I never got the impression that it had anything to do with the transmission of the story. Has there ever been any indication that the crew has a means of detecting Cylon brain-to-brain (B2B?) downloads?
And the survivor count was the same in the opening credits as in Roslin's office. So I guess we now know for certain that the credits count is "as far as the characters know", i.e. it doesn't discount the remaining undiscovered Cylons.
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote:Well, given all the concern about saving her baby, I'll give you one guess as to where that blood was coming out of her.
Well, I'd imagine if you shoot a pregnant woman anywhere, Doctors would be worried about saving the baby one way or the other. Did the Cylons - when they designed the human Cylons - purposely build flaws to try to replicate the human experience of child-carrying as closely as possible?
quote:As for the attack, I never got the impression that it had anything to do with the transmission of the story.
At the end, the Cylon-brain-trust mentions that the whole purpose for the Cylon attack was to recieve and transmit either the story or the Sharon footage.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
What he said. They explicitly say they had to sacrifice two raiders to get the footage, but that it was worth it.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Or I guess that isn't explicit enough, as reported by me, but I am sure the Cylons back on Caprica (or, I suppose, somewhere else, but back at Cylon HQ) say that they received the film under cover of the attack.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Hmmm there's supposed to be TWELVE models of New Improved Cylons with Retsin? One for each colony perhaps?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Of course, now that I think about it, it could be that only the secret footage of Sharon was transmitted, and they picked up on the broadcast the same as the rest of the fleet. But if that was the intention, I don't think it clear.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Ok, so is the entire press corps composed of Cylons, or is it just these two?
For me this episode highlights exactly why (with all respect to Richard Hatch) a restart of the franchise was a better idea than a continuation. I don't think there's anyway a continuation would have managed this level of realisum and drama, while still remaining true to the romantisisums of the old show. Having said that, there is a clear note of respect for the source material with that "warriors of the fleet" march at the end, during which I couldn't help but smile.
Oh yeah and Xena's a Cylon; didn't see that coming. Although in all honesty a little red flag did go up when she palmed the tape and we saw no more of it, but I just assumed it was going to be something they'd re-visit later on in the series.
I thought the scene where we get to see a dogfight from the bridge crew's perspective was a standout moment for me (and easy on the budget I assume), it shows how helpless they must all feel while the viper pilots are in an engagement.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Okay, the exact dialogue was:
Six: "And the baby?" Biers: "It was saved. We lost two raiders relaying the images back to the fleet, but, uh, I think the sacrifice was worth it."
So, it can only be said with certainty that she was talking about the footage of Cylon Sharon.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Of course, now that I think about it, it could be that only the secret footage of Sharon was transmitted, and they picked up on the broadcast the same as the rest of the fleet. But if that was the intention, I don't think it clear.
Seamed pretty clear to me.
Posted by machf (Member # 1233) on :
quote:Originally posted by OnToMars: Also...
HOLY CRAP THE ORIGINAL THEME! OMG WTF BBQ AWESOME!
Yes, it was nice hearing it once again, slowly fading in at first, then at its full... Was it played sometime during the first season, or is this the first time since the miniseries?
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
It was used very briefly in the miniseries during the decommisioning ceremony as the Twelve Colonies national anthem. I was dissapointed when they had the elections in the first season and didn't use it.
But having the guy sweeping the floor (which itself is a OMG WTF AWESOME moment, having a science fiction show that depicts a guy sweeping the floor) whistling it at first, then fading into the full theme was just a wonderful touch of writing brought to life.
Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
quote:Originally posted by TSN: Okay, the exact dialogue was:
Six: "And the baby?" Biers: "It was saved. We lost two raiders relaying the images back to the fleet, but, uh, I think the sacrifice was worth it."
So, it can only be said with certainty that she was talking about the footage of Cylon Sharon.
No. I can see how that could apply to all the footage, not just the deleted scenes. All that is clear to me is they needed to use raiders to retransmit the images back to the fleet.
Which begs the question "what fleet?" Do the Cylons call all their ships "the fleet" too? Are the Cylons calling Caprica "the fleet"?
That would be a mighty advanced comm system if they could transmit back all the way to Caprica. And I doubt the Colonial Fleet would transmit that signal in such a way that they could be homed-in on. If Caprica picked up the transmission the same as the rest of the Colonial Fleet, then they could track the signal back to the source.
That'd be sloppy and a security risk. More than likely the Colonial Fleet transmits via tight beam communication or they distributed the newsreal on tape to all the ships in the flee
I had to smile too when they were playing the original theme. I'm sure the purists will complain this is a smack in the face while others will feel it's a nice homage.
I knew she was going to palm the tape, but I didn't know she was a Cylon. Interesting twist or a plot device that's going to be overused?
quote:Ok, so is the entire press corps composed of Cylons, or is it just these two?
No. The only one that was revealed to be a Cylon was Biers. Her cameraman/tech guy can still be a human.
If Biers makes guest appearances in later episodes it's going to raise the question why haven't we seen the other models on Caprica already? It's a convenient plot device/story telling method that they can't reveal the other Cylons to us until it becomes part of the story. We never see any of the other models wandering around in the background until after they are revealed to us as being Cylon.
I would love to see the Cylon doctor show up as a character on the Fleet or just in the background somewhere.
Or, I'd love to see a new model blatantly revealed to US first and then show up later in some scene aboard the Galactica. Normally we've only found out at the end of the episode "Oh! she's a Cylon!" Let's see an episode where we see the new Cylon first.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
quote:Originally posted by HerbShrump: ...all the ships in the flee Nice little slip there. It actually kind of fits!
quote:Ok, so is the entire press corps composed of Cylons, or is it just these two?
No. The only one that was revealed to be a Cylon was Biers. Her cameraman/tech guy can still be a human.
He wasn't referring to the camera man. He was talking about the guy (can't remember his name) that was left behind on Ragnar Station in the mini.
This episode also kind of backs up pregnant Boomer's claim that she is not in contact with the rest of the Cylons. Whether she's there because she want to be or whether she's part of a covert plan for the Cylons remains to be seen.
B.J.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Something I just realised; if the Cylons needed to smuggle that footage of Boomer off of Galactic to know that she and the baby are still alive, then it would indicate that there's no contact between Baltar's Six and Caprica Six, because Baltar's Six knows all about Boomer and the baby. The Mystery deepens.
As for how the Cylons got the public broadcast, didn't Boomer mk1 reveal that there were several (8?) Cylon agents in the fleet. We know One was Xena, but one of the others could have found a way to get the footage back to Caprica, either by narrow band transmission from one of the rearguard ships or by quietly dropping a probe in their wake.
On the other hand the whole thing could have been taken directly from her memory, since she obviously must have uploaded/copied/synchronised herself with her Caprica counterpart. But then it's still unclear exactly how a Cylon's memory storage and transmission works, or even if it's transferable into anything other than a Cylon brain, instead of say a Cylon computer.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Right. It also makes me wonder even more about Baltar's Six's claim that she's just a figment of his imagination. If that's true, how did he come by various bits of information that only the Cylons would know?
B.J.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Random thought; what if she really is a vision from 'God' (aka Dirk Benedict) and not a Cylon image/transmission after all?
There could be a third party at work here.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Count Iblis?
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Count who?
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
I wonder if when Six whispered in Baltar's ear "this one can be useful to us" she was really talking to Xena. . ? Which would mean other Cylons can detect/interact with whatever it is that Baltar-Six is.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Count who?
Chocula.
Posted by HerbShrump (Member # 1230) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lee: I wonder if when Six whispered in Baltar's ear "this one can be useful to us" she was really talking to Xena. . ? Which would mean other Cylons can detect/interact with whatever it is that Baltar-Six is.
Detect? Depends on what you mean by detect. Do they detect as in some "other" sense where they just know "hey, this is a Cylon" or does the Six program/transmission simply know what the Biers model looks like and simply recognized her?
Posted by machf (Member # 1233) on :
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: As for how the Cylons got the public broadcast, didn't Boomer mk1 reveal that there were several (8?) Cylon agents in the fleet. We know One was Xena,
Hmmm... this has lead me to do some math. There are supposed to be 12 humanoid Cylon models, right? And we have seen 6 different ones? That means, there are 6 we haven't seen, then...
If there are 8 Cylons hiding in the fleet, they must be ones that remain unknown to the Colonials, right? Very likely, the 6 we (as audience) haven't seen, plus another two.
Of the 6 we have seen, "Xena" is one they haven't discovered. That leaves another one. The doctor, maybe? At that point (when Boomer 1 said there were 8), he remained unknown, I believe. I wonder if Starbuck has described him to Adama to be on guard against him.
There's also the possibility that there might be two (or more) identical ones, but they would have to avoid been seen together, or at the same time at different places, or something... not that they wouldn't invent an explanation (or kill the witnesses).
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"No. I can see how that could apply to all the footage, not just the deleted scenes."
Who said it couldn't? It doesn't have to, is the point.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Personally, I didn't like this episode. The using-reporters-to-give-an-outisde-perspective-on-the-characters routine has been done to death, and better.
And it was pretty obvious Xena was going to turn out to be a Cylon. The Laws of Guest Casting demanded it. You have this character played by a known genre actor, whose only significant role since her own personal meal ticket ended its run was in an X-Files episode and that was about 4 years ago. What she woiuld get paid for a recurring role like this would set her up for life in New Zeakand (if she isn't already thanks to X:WP). Of course, by the same logic, the James Remar character should have been a Cylon as well. . .
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Maybe Baltar is really a Six that has undergone some surgery.
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
James Remar = RoX!
And in a series of this type, I think even a recurring "reporter" character would find ways to be utilized in various episodes, regardless of whether she was a cylon or not.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
I felt that while the "inside scoop" gimmick has been done to death, it did give them a chance to do some fun stuff. I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I just started laughing as soon as I saw Gaeta. Before he even said anything.
So Helo's/Boomer's baby is alive and I guess we'll see what that entails tomorrow night. But with her "complications" how is Boomer faring?
Xenacylon? Ok, so that's two CILFs. Will there be any ugly Cylons? What about older cylons?
It did seem strange to me that they get attacked by two stray Cylon raiders for no apparent reason. Which one might presume (were one unaware of their real motives) that the Cylons know the location of the fleet. Incidentally it would seem that the fleet is no longer in orbit of Kobol. I guess they've gathered all the information they felt they needed from the Tomb of Athena. (I've probably ranted enough about them not taking enough time with information gathering given the importance of their quest.) Anyway, I don't know if this means they've commenced their long journey to Earth, but wherever they are, the Cylons evidently know. Were I Adama or any other strategist among the fleet, this would be cause for great concern.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Who's to say that whatever information they found on Kobol wasn't planted there by the Cylons to begin with? I say its all apart of the big herding "plan".
Posted by MrNeutron (Member # 524) on :
quote:Originally posted by WizArtist II: Maybe Baltar is really a Six that has undergone some surgery.
That would give a new twist to "go F*** yourself"...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
In the light of this episode it seems that maybe every time some random raiders showed up they were actually downloading intel from the Cylons in the fleet, among whatever other tasks they were doing.
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: In the light of this episode it seems that maybe every time some random raiders showed up they were actually downloading intel from the Cylons in the fleet, among whatever other tasks they were doing.
Which further solidifies to me that the Cylons know EXACTLY where the fleet is. At the beginning of each show it says "...and they have a plan". Everything seems to be orchestrated. It reminds me of one of the Killer B's Foundation novels where R. Daneel Olivaw basicly engineers all these events to happen to Hari Seldon to bring him to the place where he can create "psychohistory". They are herding the humans along a pre-chosen path to fulfill whatever purpose they are wanting to achieve.
Other than at FTL, aren't the cylon vessels typically faster than the human ships? What is then preventing them from assembling one good size task force and going all Surigao Strait on the ragtag fleet?
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Dang double posts. Though I am now 1 post closer to acheiving Tim-like status.
Posted by Kazeite (Member # 970) on :
Presumably, they are waiting for the baby. Which wasn't supposed to be there in the first place
(Damn... could this show get any better? I genuinely have no idea what writers prepared for us, and unlike in Enterprise, I'm pretty sure they aren't making it up as they go )
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote: Other than at FTL, aren't the cylon vessels typically faster than the human ships? What is then preventing them from assembling one good size task force and going all Surigao Strait on the ragtag fleet?
Locating it.
The Cylons don't have reliable communication with their agents in the fleet -- they seem to be constantly sending out scouting parties, and every now and then, one actually locates Galactica. Of course, Galactica usually does an emergency FTL jump and the Cylons are back to base one.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Yeah, I don't think there's any reason to assume that the Cylons always know where the fleet is.
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