A well-intentioned episode of Battlestar Galactica tonight, I thought, but not a well-executed one.
The notion that these people, in this apocalyptic tragedy, would be forced into near-slave labor, and also forced to pass their trades on to their descendants, is a perfectly logical outgrowth of the show's premise. Frankly, I think the biggest flaws in this idea are:
1) That it didn't come sooner. This is as obvious a story thread for this premise as, say, "running out of food and water." But it doesn't play quite so realistically because it's well into season three before it was introduced.
2) That it appeared to all be wrapped up in a single episode. This was a serious issue, one that seemed far too thorny to have everything end "happily ever after." Especially on a show where nothing ever ends "happily ever after" for the characters. Roslin and Tyrol negotiating, and her basically giving him everything he wanted (and when earlier in the hour, she was slapping down everything anyone said in the most draconian manner)? Seelix getting her shot at pilot? All too trite. Too perfect. Not Galactica.
There were good things about the episode. Mainly, it was nice to have a Tyrol-centric story. The secondary characters on Galactica are great, and I enjoy seeing episodes that feature them more. The scene of Adama threatening to execute Cally was particularly chilling. And the idea that Baltar has written his own version of "Mein Kampf" was an interesting one. (Although the scene would have played stronger, I think, had his "Arilon accent" not been so obvious re-recorded after principal photography. Apparently the creators had a change of heart and later decided to make Arilons sound Cockney?)
We seem to be at that same lull as we were in season two in the "middle of the last half" of the season. Of course, last year, just when it seemed things wouldn't get interesting again until the season finale, the fantastic episode Downloaded popped up in there. So maybe there's still some good installments ahead, and we're not just marking time until the season three finale.
6 comments:
What? No post on the Academy Awards? What kind of a stinkin' blog is this?!?
I'm outta here.
FKL
yeah I, too, thought it had a bit of goody-goody-ness endings to the whole episode and the problem/resolutions. your review was pretty spot-on :) but I think it was another mechanism to get the Chief some screen time with different character too (now he can be seen talking politics with Roslyn)
Adama's speech was the highlight of course but I also liked Roslyn crushing Baltar's hopes when she told him she was the only person to read his book before she destroyed it. that was sooo cold!
the mole
I couldn't agree with Evan more. This episode was sorely misplaced and mishandled. I would have liked the episode more had they played it more neutral, which is how BSG had previously handled modern powderkeg issues like abortion. Instead, we're treated to a Roddenberrian take on labor and class inequality.
The only highlight was Baltar betraying his true origins and self-disdain. As Evan has said about Lost, the characters should be more compelling than the story, and this was the only way the episode worked.
And how badly telegraphed was that scene with the kid getting into an industrial accident? They could have accomplished the same thing with less drama and more gravity by simply showing the occasional worker with a missing eye, ear, nose, fingers, or arm. How about a scene from an onboard sickbay that quickly does what it can to keep the injured workers on the line? For some reason, they showed a prosthetic arm on the hangar deck in the first scene, but didn't do this on the processing ship. WTF?
Note: I watched this in a marathon "catch up" session along with the previous two episodes. In all, I'm pretty disappointed with the writing of late. It smells of the most pat of episodic Star Trek. At times, I can't believe this is the same show that produced "33" -- a brilliant self-contained episode that showed how mature and smart science fiction television can become.
Perhaps this series is suffering from the same malady as so many other American series -- a glut of ordered episodes.
Nice moments for Tyrol and (gasp) Seelix, but otherwise I'm not impressed.
No complaints here with all the Seelix screen time of late though it was odd to have two episodes featuring her and the Tyrols heavily in a row.
This was the best of the three recent stand-alones but not a patch on Collaborators or Unfinished Business. If you listen to the podcast you'll know that the production crew are frustrated with this second half of season lull too, which gives me hope.
I hate it when people respond to their own comments yet here I am... I forgot to nitpick you:)
Baltar's Aerilon accent wasn't Cockney - that's the London (city) accent that Dick Van Dyke attempted in Mary Poppins. James Callis did Yorkshire - a Northern (non-city) accent. The easiest reference I can think of for you guys is Sean Bean. Hope that helps!
P.S. My word veri was "havtv". How appropriate!
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