Where we left off with September's "Pegasus": having rendezvoused with a second, surviving Battlestar, tensions between the two military crews quickly rise to a tension which snaps when Galactica's Tyrol & Helo kill a Pegasus officer in the course of preventing the rape of the Cylon prisoner, Sharon II. The episode ends with Adama scrambling his Vipers to attack Pegasus, and Pegasus' Vipers scrambling in response.
Resurrection Ship Pt. 1 opens as both ships' fighters close on each other. Galactica has a handful of old, obsolete Viper Mark IIs. Pegasus has squadrons of the new, top-of-the-line Mark VIIs. When both Adama and Cain refuse to give their pilots the go-ahead to fire, the Mark IIs get a sound thrashing by the much more manuverable Mark VIIs, whose pilots seem to enjoy playing chicken with their opponents. Thankfully, a little bit of deception on the part of Starbuck & Apollo defuses tensions -- "Can't we all ... be friendly?!" -- although, of course, neither Adama or Cain are quite willing to "forgive and forget."
I was actually reminded a bit of one of the last episodes of Deep Space Nine, where the Klingon Empire is all that stands between the Alpha Quadrant and the Dominion. The Klingon Chancellor, Gowron, more concerned with his own political future, is squandering the strained resources of the Empire, and it is Cmdr. Sisko who urges Worf to assassinate Gowron to preserve the future of the Quadrant. In an episode the prior season, Sisko wrestled with his inner-demons after being inadvertently involved in the assassination of a Romulan Senator -- an assassination which brough the Romulans into the war as an ally of the Federation. Over the course of a year I guess he recognized the benefits of assassination as a means to an end.
Similarly, I think most folks who've been watching BSG for the last year knew with the introduction of Admiral Cain that she would have to go. The fleet isn't big enough for both her and Adama, and over the course of the last two episodes we've seen enough to come to the unavoidable conclusion that she is absolutely bat-shit insane. She's executed her own officers, ordered gang-rapes, and abandoned defenseless civilians when they could not meet her needs. Her judgement took a one-way trip to the toilet, and her beating heart needs to take a one-way trip out an airlock.
Thankfully, both Roslin and Adama have come to the same conclusion by the end of "Resurrection Ship Pt. 1" ... Cain has to die. She's not interested in survival, she's interested in vengeance, and that will bring death to the 50,000 survivors of the fleet.
Of course, Cain isn't exactly cool with leaving Adama in command of Galactica -- she knows that although her own ship is more powerful, an armed conflict would leave Pegasus badly hurt.
Seriously, after the cliff-ending of the season break, I really didn't see how any ending could beat it -- turns out, having Cain plot Adama's assassination intercut with Adama planning Cain's works pretty well.
The episode doesn't move all that quickly at times -- time is spent reintroducing the main and supporting characters -- Dualla and Billy are not-so-noticeably absent, not because they're unimportant characters, but because there's just so much going on. I get the feeling the concluding episode of this chapter is going to be just as busy and frenetic.
I. Can't. Frakking. Wait.
Baseless Speculation for Next Episode:
*It's Gina who kills Cain (perhaps after she's already been relieved by Pegasus officers who are tired of her insanity). *Frisk is already plotting against Cain -- the Marines he handpicked are loyal to him, and won't act against Adama.
posted
I sure wish they'd cut down on "frak." Ugh.
Also, the whole assassination plot? Sure, the thematic connection to Boomer's attempt on Adama is nice enough, but, I don't know. There was a discussion missing, I think. Roslin technically has the authority to remove Cain from her post, surely, or to officially give command of the entire military to Adama. Or perhaps the Quorum does, but in either case, the legal (and, I think, ethical) choice is clear. But, of course, Roslin has absolutely no ability to enforce such an order. But if Cain were to refuse orders from the president or the Quorum, then it would cease to be a question of what Adama thinks is right. I mean, he'd be under a legal obligation to remove her at that point.
Of course, the irony of Adama acting to defend the civilian government from military usurpation ought not to pass unnoted.
But, anyway, they set things up as this big grey mess, with no right choice, when it seems to me that Roslin could have easily staked out the moral high ground. At the very least, it might get them some support among the Pegasus crew.
What I think would be really interesting is both Starbuck and the Pegasus' first officer refusing to carry out their orders.
(I also wish Cain was a little less full-bore eeeevil.)
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yeah, I agree. It'd be nice if they'd play her as an alternate Adama -- like a version of him we saw in the pilot, where it was only when he saw Dually and Billy talking that made him realize survival had to be the goal. If they'd written Cain as a very Adama-like figure who hadn't had the epiphany, sympathies would be torn and not everyone might support Adama.
posted
Hmm? I meant how much they appear to have in common.
So what's the deal with the resurrection ship? OK, so it's around to catch any Cylon uploads, fair enough. And it's filled with clones. And so what? Shelly Godfrey aside, replenishing the number of replicants in the fleet has never come up in the plot. The most important ship in the galaxy? Destroying the basestars and the raiders feels like the larger victory.
Registered: Mar 1999
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OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621
posted
I also think it's interesting that Starbuck sometimes submits to authority pretty easily, partly when it comes to things like literal missions of faith and now, Cain.
I was also very relieved when Resurrection Ship turned out to be what it was. From the glimpse in the previews, I was certain they were going to go with, "ship full of captured human survivors being used for hideous experiments" to typical cliche ends.
Also, I'm curious as to what the Cylons do for menial tasks now. Six hints at the older models still having their uses, but if the Cylons rebelled against the humans because of their status as second class beings, then how do they justify their same actions? Might be interesting thing for a Colonial to ask next time they see a Cylon.
EDIT: And I hope you will forgive me, Sol, for swapping bits of your gurgitated wit as my signature, but I've been meaning to change it for awhile now, and the ship-model thing is something I've been wondering about since "Hand of God."
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
What, Galactica doesn't have 3D printers? And didn't we go over that before?
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: So what's the deal with the resurrection ship? OK, so it's around to catch any Cylon uploads, fair enough. And it's filled with clones. And so what? Shelly Godfrey aside, replenishing the number of replicants in the fleet has never come up in the plot. The most important ship in the galaxy? Destroying the basestars and the raiders feels like the larger victory.
Now that you mention it, it is a very strange solution to the uploading problem. Haven't the Cylons ever heard of decentralization? What if there are hundred of these 'resurrection ships'? What if Basestars are capable of receiving uploads and rebuilding humanoid Cylons as well? In fact, didn't we see a whole series of Boomer-Cylons on a Basestar once?
posted
The equipment may require faciltiies that won't fit on a basestar and that are hard to reproduce. They don't have infinite resources. The ship is important because it's, as far as we know, the only one around, and destroying it could destroy the Cylon's will to fight.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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posted
The Resurrection looks to me like it's a gigantic flying antenna, set to receive the "signal" of the deceased Cylon's consciousness. So obviously the special importance of the ship is that it extends the range of the Cylon armada's reach... they don't have to send the signal all the way back to Caprica or whichever of the colonies is their main HQ. (It also means that Leoben Mk. II was faking his concern over being "executed". Surprise, surprise!)
Anyway, if there's one "resurrection ship", there can very easily be more of them. It's like that old political aphorism quoted in the movie Contact: "Why build just one, when you can have two at twice the price?" So while this attack will certainly be a major tactical victory for the Colonials, I somehow doubt that this will leave them home free.
That said, I was incredibly impressed by this episode. After all the problems of the infamous Trek two-parter let-downs, it's great to see a story that can continue building up the tension from the cliffhanger and continuing to surprise the audience. The best part, in my view, was Cain's decision to promote Kara and make her the Pegasus CAG. It's the kind of twist that you never see coming, but it makes perfect sense when you stop to think about it. I think that, barring the psycho factor, Kara is very similar to a young Cain. Which would also explain why Cain liked the gutsy move and that Kara "almost always" gets what she wants.
The little heart-to-heart between Helo and Tyrol in the brig was also pretty darn cool. It's good to see that Tyrol is starting to think of his situation from a more rational perspective -- i.e. thinking of Sharon more as a person and needing to forgive and move on.
I won't comment on the assassination aspect, other than the fact that Roslin came to the conclusion first is incredibly interesting, 'cause she's usually the one arguing for nonviolence and calm. But of course, considering the threat Cain poses, and Adama's mindset to adhere to the chain of authority, it makes sense that Roslin would be more likely to make that leap first.
More than that, I'm just not shocked anymore by Cain's insanity. It's just so over-the-top that I'd like to see some justification for her state of mind, and more so the fact that the crew is also going along with all this. Sure, Humans can be awful, brutal people, but what's the reasoning for everyone going along with this? Was it just the threatening of the civilian families and the shooting of her original XO? Was everyone (like the crew members who revealed the info about Thorne attacking Sharon, eagerly looking forward to their own opportunity) all on the same page, or is it a mob mentality kind of thing? I'd kinda hope it's the latter, because it would really suck if the Pegasus were supposed to be the only nutty ship in the fleet.
Also, it seems quite likely now, based on the story about the other civilian ships that the Pegasus found, that there might be other survivors out there, in small groups or even on their own, that might not have been found by the Cylons. It might be doubtful, that they survived this long without being hunted down, though, but you never know.
Regardless, I'm definitely looking forward to the conclusion. It'll definitely be a good one, methinks!
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Maybe it's just me, but I haven't found that Cain came off as over-the-top. I think it might have something to do with the fact that all her craziest moments have been related second-hand. We have't actually seen her execute someone or strand civilians. So, that seems to cut down somewhat on the whole Caligula-factor to her character.
Also, I agree that this whole "destruction of the resurrection ship will be the biggest victory ever" thing doesn't make a lot of sense. How many Cylons have infiltrated the fleet? A dozen or so? And they've killed, what, two of them? Plus, once they've found and killed a Cylon, that model can't come back without being identified, anyway. So, they really haven't been having a problem at all with dead Cylons coming back.
At best, they can stop the information in the Cylons' brains from being transmitted back to the Cylon fleet. But, as Xena already demonstrated, they don't have to die and resurrect in order to do that.
And how will destroying the resurrection ship make the Cylons less eager to attack? We don't even know if the raiders are sentient, much less being resurrected. As far as we know, the resurrection ship is only applicable to humanoid Cylons.
Oh, and I also agree that it was very jarring to see Roslin immediately conclude that Cain must be murdered ASAP, without even considering a way to remove her from command in one piece.
Registered: Mar 1999
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ScottKey
Ex-Member
posted
Concerning the ship, it could be shaped like that because it's some giant antenna, but I find it interesting that it looks similar to the US Air Force Academy Chapel. Is this a coincidence that it looks similar to a church or do the cylons believe the Resurrection Ship and others like it are a House of God, so to speak? If so, how will they react to the humans defiling the House of God?
I also found it interesting that Roslin came to the conclusion to kill Caine before Adama did. I think that it's not her first choice in what to do, but it is the only one that can be done. Remember, she believes she'll be dying within the month, which will already cause a lot of turmoil in the government. If she can take care of a major problem by somehow getting rid of Caine before she dies, she can take the blame for the assassination to the grave and leave the rest of the government blame free and with one less major headache.
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posted
We've already seen that Roslin is capable of cutting through the diplomacy and make a ruthless decision. Did she not effectively stab a friend in the back to install Baltar as vice president? She barely hesitated in ordering that cylon with the mind games to be thrown out an airlock and there was that whole bit about going toe to toe with Adama.
This may sound a little strange, but I was relieved to see that Adama acknowledged that what happened to Boomer was wrong. It's somehow comforting that they're starting to humanise the enemy. Big evil nasty unstoppable robots just aren't a very interesting adversary.
quote:Also, I'm curious as to what the Cylons do for menial tasks now. Six hints at the older models still having their uses, but if the Cylons rebelled against the humans because of their status as second class beings, then how do they justify their same actions? Might be interesting thing for a Colonial to ask next time they see a Cylon.
That reminds me of a thought I had a while back. It was triggered by the line "all this has happened before, all this will happen again." What if the human model cylon become so human that their mechanical inferiors rebel and start the whole thing all over again? Further to that, what if the Lords of Kobol were the original humans and the 13 tribes are the decendants of machines created by the lords?
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: Further to that, what if the Lords of Kobol were the original humans and the 13 tribes are the decendants of machines created by the lords?
That would be way cool. And quite twisted.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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I find the cathederal aspect of the ship to be interesting within the whole 'God' element.. it kinda makes me think of the Celestial Switchboard in FREEJACK.
The Cylon War was only.. what, 40 years ago? A Cylon Civilization would take a while to form.. the new models would take time to develope and grow.. the shipyards would have to be built.. and a ship like the Ressurection Ship would take a while to build. If it wasn't for the Galactica (and Pegasus), the Ressurection ship would be parked by Caprica instead. I don't think they planned to chase a rag-tag fleet around the galaxy. I think that there's only one and it's not a warship.
-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
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