Well, I wouldn't say Battlestar Galactica is quite back to "firing on all cylinders." But the show did redeem itself from the last couple of weaker episodes tonight.
On the down side, the "XX hours earlier" gimmick needs to be officially retired from television for at least a year. It was used a little differently here than it had been used in two of the last four BSG episodes, but it still wasn't entirely effective to me. Three times, three times, we got to hear about how "it's a machine, it's not gonna turn." I'm over it.
But, on the upside, the Starbuck/Apollo and Starbuck/Helo scenes were great. Edward James Olmos once again delivered a hell of a punch with the "so say we all" line. More good than not this week, I feel.
6 comments:
I am also getting annoyed with the "XX hours earlier" thing. it's like they are putting spoilers in thier own episode by showing things out of order.
poor Apollo. sure they were both toasted, but I guess he's just got no luck with the women. good scene though... for a while it was like "what?! I can't believe they are going there!" tease the audience as much as Apollo.
they are building up Helo as such a great guy, I'm nervous they will tragically kill him at any moment. and I enjoyed the Boomer scene where Starbuck wished she had her friend back. every time it seems like Boomer knows more than she thinks. where's Jack Bauer when you need him? he'd make her talk...(though that would really suck for Boomer!)
the mole
Yeah... when I saw the "XX hours earlier" last night I was thinking - 'This again?!?'
Come on, if you can't tell a good story chronologically 99% of the time then it's not worth telling.
The one best part of the episode for me was Starbuck saying all she can't remember the names of the dead pilots... yet, she's lying and in the end she's tortured herself by reliving all their deaths in her head over-and-over again... and is finally able to overcome that with the toast to them all by saying each and every dead pilot's name.
Also, did I see right that the "survivor" count fell (correctly) by three from the previous week?
Jono,
Yup, the "survivor count" accurately updates with each new episode.
As for an example of a story told out of chronological order that works phenomenally, I offer the movie Memento. (Guess that would be in the other 1% you were referring to.)
I'm not saying a story told not in choronological order can't work (my example would be Pulp Fiction)... I'm just saying it's often an easy way out.
In fact, a person on the Trekweb message boards wrote this about BSG's use of flashbacks:
"SOL STEIN'S ON WRITING and he has a chapter on Flashbacks and he says don't use them. He calls it lazy writing and says there is nothing you can't convey in the present moment in a scene through dialogue or character action without having to use a flashback -- and then, if you have to use them he gives a number of ways of making them more interesting, a number of ways so that they enhance the story rather than detract from it."
One of the symptoms of problem with Alias was the overuse of flashbacks. Once in a while is acceptable, but several times in a span of six or seven episodes takes away any sense of style associated with the this storytelling trick.
Nothing about "Scar" couldn't have been told in chronological order. Plus, Starbuck's flashbacks to Caprica within the flashbacks were just plain damn sloppy.
Also sloppy were the use of subtitles. A film professor once told my class that subtitles are lazy and assume the audience is lazy. If the audience can't handle a change in context, or a sudden disjointing of context, and pick up the sequence of events on their own, then something is wrong with the actual material.
Perhaps Moore will consider re-editing these episodes. I'd start by changing the opening of "Resurrection Ship" to just showing Apollo in the lake. Then delete all the fade-to-white-to-flashbacks from "Epiphanies." Here they could take a cue from Lost.
And, are we supposed to believe Kat is a lesbian? Was Riley's photo really hers?
Before this episode aired, a friend and I were joking that they should start this episode with a scene, and then flash to "48 hours later" because *that* would be original!
Anyway, I felt the same about this episode as I did about the previous one. They were both entertaining, but really only above average. Last week was a nice film noir in space, but failed to have much deeper meaning. This episode got into the character of Starbuck, but distracted from the point with the flashback-ness and how annoying Kat was.
Then again, I may be being too harsh. I watched last week's episode with a friend who had never seen Battlestar Galactica before and afterwards, she decided she liked it and would rent the first season.
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