Sunday, March 11, 2007

The Son Also Rises

Tonight's Battlestar Galactica episode was clearly all about setting the stage for the season finale, and as such, it didn't really stand very well on its own as something to be reviewed in isolation. Not that that'll stop me from sharing a few thoughts.

Mark Sheppard was perfectly cast as Baltar's lawyer, Lampkin. This is exactly the sort of thing this actor has exceled at on Firefly, Medium, and more -- taking a small role and making it hugely memorable. Watching the way he manipulated Six and Baltar both, I'd almost say I cared more about watching him this week than I did about watching the show's regular characters.

Almost. Except that the scenes about the absence of Starbuck all landed very strongly. From Anders' drunken tumble off the Viper, to Adama's reading through her personal file (loaded with disciplinary actions, of course), to Lee's slip of her name in the pilots' briefing, to the moment where even Colonel Tigh acknowledges he misses her -- all these beats gave the appropriate magnitude to Starbuck's death that I felt was sort of missing from last week's episode where it actually happened.

But there was also a lot of shoe leathery material this week. Lots of exposition setting up how characters are going to be involved in the trial. A simple and boring plot about a bomber, just to offer some kind of element that tries to make this feel like a single episode and not act one of a three-act play. Not that it worked very well.

I guess that just leaves us all waiting for "act two."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the scene where Baltar's "stolen" pen was offered to Six was very slick stuff.

the episode on a whole really felt like a lot of stuff happened but nothing really happened. I'm cool with the slower pace it's all good.

the mole