By now you've all had time to have watched the season 4.5 premiere of Battlestar Galatica and I want to talk about it. Spoilers will abound, so DO NOT READ THIS UNTIL YOU'VE WATCHED IT.
*Spoilers*
Sci-Fi ran a marathon of season 4.0 all day Friday leading up to the premiere. I watched most of it and I have to say I enjoyed it a bit more than the first time I watched it when it originally aired. My biggest complaints were with the pacing and characterizations. Maybe knowing what happens and watching them all together was a different experience than watching them once a week. I think there are a number of shows that are better on second viewing. If that's the case, the real trick is still making them good the first time through. I can see that being difficult for a creator who's so immersed in the product. Still, I found the cylon stuff in 4.0 to be much more interesting than the human stuff and found the episodes were limited to telling just one part of the story and wished more things were shown simultaneously. That really would have done better to pull out the similarities and contrasts between the stories.
This story was again pretty straight forward. They've found earth was nuked and everyone is depressed. With one exception, I was pretty happy with what they showed; and unlike the first half of the season, this episode had some interesting revelations in the ongoing story.
The fact that's we've had months to come to terms with a nuked earth I think hurt the story telling. I'd long ago realized that fine, this is bad, but they'll move on and have to find another habitable world to repopulate. We know they're out there because they had found New Caprica. But of course the characters haven't had a few months to deal with it so we have to watch them be depressed as their dreams come to a crashing halt.
I really liked the revelation that earth was populated by cylons and nuked 2000 years ago. I also liked the final four seeing glimpses of their former lives and realizing they (or copies of them) populated earth. Is this happening 2000 years from now? Are we in fact cylons? Does the book of Pythia have it reversed? Did cylons from earth populate the 12 colonies after earth was destroyed? Maybe the humanoid cylons made the humans and the humans made the mechanized cylons. That could be the part that all this happened before. It does fit that the cylons are monotheistic and we are too. Then again, our spines don't glow during sex. Then again it seems the Book of Pythia was written 3,600 years ago and earth was nuked 2,000 years ago. But the book talks of the great exodus which happened 1,600 years after it was written, or about 2,000 years ago. Maybe the final five are from the previous iteration of things happening. Perhaps they followed humanity to earth and caused the destruction. Lots of posibilities, so I think it's a good mystery.
The Kara story was good. Once Leoben found part of her viper, it was clear where things were going. Still her finding it is significant and mysterious. Assuming that is the real Kara's body and viper (and we have little reason to suspect it isn't), then what she told Lee on her return was accurate. She had been to earth. So Lee didn't see her ship explode, so what happened? How did she get to earth, why did she crash, and what recreated her and the viper? Anything that scares Leoben, scares me. I'm thinking it has something to do with the Ship of Lights from the original series.
I also really liked the Dualla story. Dee was always in the background and optimistic in her faith in her leaders. You saw that when she was working on the bridge, that Adama made her feel safe. While with Lee, she was his backbone and support, giving him the strength to do what he needed to. If that wasn't obvious, they repeated that here. Earth's destruction would weigh hard on her. Her faith not only in their future, but in her leaders would have been horribly shaken. We saw her trying to hold it together in the raptor on the return from earth. And apparently, even babysitting Hera and going out on a date with Lee wasn't enough to change that. Her suicide shocked me and I'll miss her. It might be because of those gorgeous green eyes, but that scene worked for me.
I didn't follow how their separation happened. I thought the goodbye scene when Lee resigned his commission was bizarre but apparently they broke up over him defending Baltar. Ok. I also didn't buy Lee's reaction. He'll never know why she did it? I do. Did he really not know her that well? He doesn't know what they'll do now? They'll look for another planet. It doesn't have to be earth. They found a habitable one in New Caprica. The cylons are no longer immortal so they are more defeatable and half of them are their allies.
I also had problems with Laura reaction. When the door of the raptor opened on Galactica and no one said anything it was too extreme. Ok, they're distraught, but one of these leaders would have led. We see her find out about the cylons on earth and then burn her book and then curled up in a fetal position. You've dealt with cancer and destruction of the colonies. This isn't much different.
The one scene I really had a problem with as a broken suicidal Adama. He's privately had problems with dealing with things but has always found a way, through the destruction of the colonies various cylon encounters, dealing with Cain, coping with the New Caprica situation, etc. Ok, he recently came to terms with his love of Laura and left command to stay back to find her, but that was just a more responsible way to do that than he did when holding the whole fleet waiting for Starbuck. I didn't buy him falling apart that badly after finding out Tigh was a cylon, he's had problems with Tigh after New Caprica. Maybe he now believed in earth, but it was a recent concession for him. This should have been a situation where he could be the strength for others. And I don't remember ever seeing him care so much about Dee, even though she was his daughter-in-law.
The final reveal that Ellen Tigh was the last of the final five was a good one. I hadn't thought of her or of the possibility that the fifth was dead. The fact that Tigh killed her is somehow fitting. He screws up everything he touches. What this means for prophesies or the future, I have no idea.
Overall I liked it a lot. I was also happy to get some answers and new mysteries. I wish there was a bit less melodrama and some more from others. I want to know about Baltar's reaction and that of the other cylons.
2 comments:
Since the five showed up after they got killed 2000 years ago, I fully expect to see Ellen Tigh again before the end of the series. Having her be the last of the five could have been crazy and a let down, except for the way they did it in the flashback. Still she is my least favorite character by far.
It is too bad that everyone didn't all gather their data from Earth, pool it together and try to figure out what is going on around them. Cylon bones, the five (four) remember being there, Kara is not Kara. it might have helped the mood to figure out the problem instead of be crushingly depressed. Of course characters not talking to each other and generally doing erratic things is the hallmark of the characterization on the show so I shouldn't expect logic to happen. I suppose as omniscient observers, we viewers are spoiled.
All that being said, of course I watched it and will watch it to the end. I waited so long for it to reappear.
Interesting point. I'd say characters not talking to each other is really a hallmark of Lost. At first in BSG they definitely talked to each other aside from a few big secrets (Baltar and the six, Boomer being a cylon). But with regards to missions and politics, they definitely communicated and fought. Many of those scenes had great dialog.
But I think you're right, as seasons have progressed there's less communication. Ok Lee and Kara have issues, but now they're all just not communicating with anyone (Bill, Laura, Lee, Dee, Kara, all of the 4, etc.) I hadn't really noticed it in those terms.
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