I'm sorry to say that this week's Battlestar Galactica wasn't really worth the extra day's wait it took me to get around to watching it. I simply had too many problems "believing" in this episode.
I had a hard time believing that all those people aboard the Demetrius would have gone along with Starbuck enough in the first place not to have mutinied long before the events of this episode. Sixty days all but lost in space following the orders of a captain many of them might very reasonably think is a Cylon? No way!
I had a hard time believing in the Starbuck-Leoben relationship. As Helo pointed out, he locked her up and tortured her (psychologically, if not physically) for months on New Caprica. In the absence of any context for what really happened to Starbuck during her missing time, we're just left to wonder what could possibly have happened to make her suddenly want to listen to Leoben now. I can't imagine what could have changed her that much, so I didn't believe her behavior now.
I had a hard time believing that Tyrol would come around to "take Baltar's hand" in such a short span of time. James Callis has been showing some incredible acting prowess these last few weeks, but I think even he couldn't inject that last speech in Tyrol's quarters with enough persuasion for me to understand how it turned Tyrol around to acceptance.
Faith-vs-hard-fact was the crux of tonight's episode. But this is a topic Galactica has dealt with on many occasions before, and usually in much stronger ways. Even during this season, really; I found the scene from the two-part opener in which Adama pleads with Roslin to trust Starbuck on faith to be a far more compelling scene than anything we saw tonight.
Still, at least it seemed that plot pieces were moving forward. If anything, that's part of why tonight's individual moments fell rather flat for me. Plot-wise, this episode had several very specific places it had to get to by hour's end. That's what this season's overall story demanded, even though it meant this one episode had to move unnaturally far and fast to get there.
Perhaps things will bounce back once again next week.
4 comments:
I will agree that this was probably the weekest episode of the season in terms of believability... But I think the problem is that Lost has been SO GOOD that in comparison it is hard for any show to stand up.
Maybe there is only so much "good" Sci-Fi that can be captured in TV episodes and some weeks Lost has it and some times Battlestar Galactica has it.
Maybe. =)
Bubba Joe
I bought the whole mutiny thing. sure they might have thought Starbuck was a crazy maybe-toaster, but they really didn't freak out until She started doing actually dangerous stuff, like threatening to continue past their deadline or inviting known cylons on board. but yeah I didn't get the whole "bring him to my quarters" thing. they really needed one more (good) scene to show Starbuck's desperation and willingness to try something really crazy (if I imagine that scene in my head, I can almost accept it)
and they also needed one more (good) scene to show Tyrol's progression as well. the whole episode reeked of "deleted scenes cut for time" I was more disappointed they didn't milk Chief's lament for a few more episodes. I thought it was a good contrast to the rest of the stuff going on.
so I didn't really find it unbeleivable, but I felt like I missed some scenes that should have been there...
the mole
Bubbajoe -- That theory would make me sad, if true. Yet it does seem to fit the "facts"...
Here's my beef with BSG this season. All of the actors are very capable. They take even the lamest writing and elevate beyond where it belongs. And the writing has been uneven of late -- simply marking time.
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