BSG 2.06 Home (Part One)
Aug. 21st, 2005 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakTwo posts in a row, because I have just seen Home and adored it. Made more than up for the not so good parts of The Farm.
Before I get to the big stuff, let me point out one little detail that I appreciated for entirely selfish reasons - Playa the Reporter is back, and got to be the one asking Adama the first question, and pointing out he didn't answer them. As I picked her for my one and only BSG fanfic so far, this was great to see.
Speaking of the press conference, yes, Tigh, Roslin could do this, and you and Adama can't. In fact, Adama really sucks at it. He still hasn't said anything about how long martial law will be in place, one of the two important questions he doesn't anwer at all and the other with a threat, which isn't exactly inspiring confidence about his restoriation of civilian leadership. Oh, and press conference aside, he still hasn't faced the fact that the entire situation isn't all Roslin's fault but just as much, if not more so, his own.
Otoh, if he had faced it on his own, we wouldn't have gotten the scene with Dee. Which was great. Dualla as the voice of the ship was inspired. I really couldn't guess whom Adama was talking to before the camera showed her - I thought maybe to the photos on his desk. And her not playing the silent and sympathetic listener but saying "you let us down" was one of these moments you don't expect but which feel completely logical in retrospect. Petty Officer Dualla, you rock.
Poor George the temporary CAG suffered from early Star Trek syndrome. I refer to that tendency in classic Trek to let Kirk be replaced by a temporary commander who of course then is shown to be utterly incompetent or screwing things up, so James T. saves the day. You got the impression he was the only competent Captain in Starfleet. The one saving grace of Star Trek: The Slow Motion Picture was that this cliché was reversed by letting Decker Junior safe the day and Kirk screw up early on because he wasn't familiar with the refitted Enterprise anymore. But the trend wasn't really broken until the TNG two-parter Chain of Command wherein Picard was temporarily replaced due to being on a covert mission, and lo and behold, the replacement didn't screw up. He had a very different style from Picard, but he was shown to be competent and clever, and one of his renewals (ordering Troi to wear a uniform like everyone else) was kept in subsequent episodes. Anyway, back to BSG: the sole reason why George's screwing up didn't feel entirely artificial for me is that they really have a limited supply of pilots, and none of them would have had the jobs they did if humanity hadn't nearly been wiped out.
Meanwhile, on the Bounty (come on, it's the obvious comparison - because of Tigh/Bligh and the fact that the mutineers were pretty soon divided among themselves) and on Kobol. It was an excellent episode for Laura Roslin, showcasing her strength, her cold ruthlessness (Sharon and the airlock), ability to adapt and use (also Sharon, and Sharon's commitment to Helo) and her vulnerability (when Elosha dies). Also her continued priorities - this is about saving humanity to her. The relationship between Lee and her continues to be strong; not that her expression of utter confidence in him wasn't good politics and necessary in that particular argument, but she also means it, and I loved how he touched her shoulders and then put his arm around her when she cried for Elosha at the end. Not because I see it as a romantic moment (because you know, romance is really the very last thing on anyone's mind right then), but because it's such a tender gesture, a physical expression of affection and tenderness which I don't think we've seen between the two of them before.
Speaking of Lee: he had a good episode, too, showcasing the various aspects of his personality. The rage against C!Boomer reminded me of his behaviour in Colonial Day, whereas his reality check to Zarek's henchman regarding the likelihood of any of the ships winning a fight against Galactica was Lee at his intelligent and cool best. And the scenes with Kara were Lee the friend. Now I don't 'ship anyone on Galactica in the sexual OTP sense, not Lee/Laura and certainly not Lee/Kara, so my impression of the Starbuck and Apollo scenes might be a bit different than the 'shippers. Because I thought they highlighted why Lee and Kara work much better as friends than they do as a romantic couple, not that we've ever seen them as the later. Instead of delivering an immature jealousy scene, as he did in Kobol's Last Gleaming, or letting himself be provoked into an argument, Lee does the friend thing, offering to be there if she wants to talk, and at the end, they're back to their buddy banter. (No, I didn't see "I love you" as romantic, either, and if Kara had done, she wouldn't have teased him the way she did.) This augurs well for the future.
Meanwhile, we get it spelled out that no, Zarek doesn't believe in Roslin, but no, he doesn't want to get rid of her, either; he knows she's what's keeping this part of the fleet together, and like Adama (in the miniseries) and Roslin herself, he knows the importance of hope and symbolism. That said, he also wants to be the second in command, and the one who has the actual power. Also not surprising. Even less so after Adama and Tigh have demonstrated that yes, the President serves only as long as the one who has the guns lets her. And we get to assume he's plotting Lee's demise, and that Lee handing him over a gun so he can defend himself is meant to be heavily ironic.
Except for one thing. I might be utterly wrong, but I'm having DS9 flashbacks again. Specifically to the episode wherein Damar has to choose between his second in command and Kira, his old enemy, and to everyone's surprise in a showdown saves Kira's life by shooting his friend and second in command, thereby saying goodbye to the past and paving the way for a new Cardassia. So my own pesonal speculation: someone else is indeed going to die on Kobol, but it's going to be Zarek's sidekick, killed by Zarek.
While I'm speculating: Elosha's death serves another purpose than causing Roslin angst and showing her the terrible price. (So far, Laura had to make some tough decisions about sacrificing people for the greater good, but it hadn't been anyone she had a personal relationship with before.) The fleet is now without a priestess. And Laura Roslin has committed herself publically to the role of prophecy woman. She's going to have to do what she definitely doesn't want, function as sole religious leader, and as opposed to President, that's not going to be a natural role for her. In fact, it might be as unnatural as being the man in sole charge was to Tigh. I see two possibilities: either after some missteps Laura does learn how to be a priestess but gives up the role of President (she's grooming Lee as her successor anyway, if you ask me), or after a few missteps she finds another priest/ priestess but that person will declare Laura is in fact not the prophecied leader (possibly because as I speculated in my last review, Laura can't deliver miracles), making her "only" President again.
Lastly: Baltar's scene. I'd qualify Six' assessment - that he's starting to see humans as the Cylons do - to "he's starting see no difference between Cylons and humans". Which in fact started earlier, on Kobol, with his "we kill them, they kill us, what's the point of it all?" question. Can't wait till he gets to interact with the other Sharon, both because asking her that question about who the remaining eight models are is the obvious thing to do and because this other Sharon has the trump card of the child, news that will have a very different impact on Baltar than on the rest of the humans.
Before I get to the big stuff, let me point out one little detail that I appreciated for entirely selfish reasons - Playa the Reporter is back, and got to be the one asking Adama the first question, and pointing out he didn't answer them. As I picked her for my one and only BSG fanfic so far, this was great to see.
Speaking of the press conference, yes, Tigh, Roslin could do this, and you and Adama can't. In fact, Adama really sucks at it. He still hasn't said anything about how long martial law will be in place, one of the two important questions he doesn't anwer at all and the other with a threat, which isn't exactly inspiring confidence about his restoriation of civilian leadership. Oh, and press conference aside, he still hasn't faced the fact that the entire situation isn't all Roslin's fault but just as much, if not more so, his own.
Otoh, if he had faced it on his own, we wouldn't have gotten the scene with Dee. Which was great. Dualla as the voice of the ship was inspired. I really couldn't guess whom Adama was talking to before the camera showed her - I thought maybe to the photos on his desk. And her not playing the silent and sympathetic listener but saying "you let us down" was one of these moments you don't expect but which feel completely logical in retrospect. Petty Officer Dualla, you rock.
Poor George the temporary CAG suffered from early Star Trek syndrome. I refer to that tendency in classic Trek to let Kirk be replaced by a temporary commander who of course then is shown to be utterly incompetent or screwing things up, so James T. saves the day. You got the impression he was the only competent Captain in Starfleet. The one saving grace of Star Trek: The Slow Motion Picture was that this cliché was reversed by letting Decker Junior safe the day and Kirk screw up early on because he wasn't familiar with the refitted Enterprise anymore. But the trend wasn't really broken until the TNG two-parter Chain of Command wherein Picard was temporarily replaced due to being on a covert mission, and lo and behold, the replacement didn't screw up. He had a very different style from Picard, but he was shown to be competent and clever, and one of his renewals (ordering Troi to wear a uniform like everyone else) was kept in subsequent episodes. Anyway, back to BSG: the sole reason why George's screwing up didn't feel entirely artificial for me is that they really have a limited supply of pilots, and none of them would have had the jobs they did if humanity hadn't nearly been wiped out.
Meanwhile, on the Bounty (come on, it's the obvious comparison - because of Tigh/Bligh and the fact that the mutineers were pretty soon divided among themselves) and on Kobol. It was an excellent episode for Laura Roslin, showcasing her strength, her cold ruthlessness (Sharon and the airlock), ability to adapt and use (also Sharon, and Sharon's commitment to Helo) and her vulnerability (when Elosha dies). Also her continued priorities - this is about saving humanity to her. The relationship between Lee and her continues to be strong; not that her expression of utter confidence in him wasn't good politics and necessary in that particular argument, but she also means it, and I loved how he touched her shoulders and then put his arm around her when she cried for Elosha at the end. Not because I see it as a romantic moment (because you know, romance is really the very last thing on anyone's mind right then), but because it's such a tender gesture, a physical expression of affection and tenderness which I don't think we've seen between the two of them before.
Speaking of Lee: he had a good episode, too, showcasing the various aspects of his personality. The rage against C!Boomer reminded me of his behaviour in Colonial Day, whereas his reality check to Zarek's henchman regarding the likelihood of any of the ships winning a fight against Galactica was Lee at his intelligent and cool best. And the scenes with Kara were Lee the friend. Now I don't 'ship anyone on Galactica in the sexual OTP sense, not Lee/Laura and certainly not Lee/Kara, so my impression of the Starbuck and Apollo scenes might be a bit different than the 'shippers. Because I thought they highlighted why Lee and Kara work much better as friends than they do as a romantic couple, not that we've ever seen them as the later. Instead of delivering an immature jealousy scene, as he did in Kobol's Last Gleaming, or letting himself be provoked into an argument, Lee does the friend thing, offering to be there if she wants to talk, and at the end, they're back to their buddy banter. (No, I didn't see "I love you" as romantic, either, and if Kara had done, she wouldn't have teased him the way she did.) This augurs well for the future.
Meanwhile, we get it spelled out that no, Zarek doesn't believe in Roslin, but no, he doesn't want to get rid of her, either; he knows she's what's keeping this part of the fleet together, and like Adama (in the miniseries) and Roslin herself, he knows the importance of hope and symbolism. That said, he also wants to be the second in command, and the one who has the actual power. Also not surprising. Even less so after Adama and Tigh have demonstrated that yes, the President serves only as long as the one who has the guns lets her. And we get to assume he's plotting Lee's demise, and that Lee handing him over a gun so he can defend himself is meant to be heavily ironic.
Except for one thing. I might be utterly wrong, but I'm having DS9 flashbacks again. Specifically to the episode wherein Damar has to choose between his second in command and Kira, his old enemy, and to everyone's surprise in a showdown saves Kira's life by shooting his friend and second in command, thereby saying goodbye to the past and paving the way for a new Cardassia. So my own pesonal speculation: someone else is indeed going to die on Kobol, but it's going to be Zarek's sidekick, killed by Zarek.
While I'm speculating: Elosha's death serves another purpose than causing Roslin angst and showing her the terrible price. (So far, Laura had to make some tough decisions about sacrificing people for the greater good, but it hadn't been anyone she had a personal relationship with before.) The fleet is now without a priestess. And Laura Roslin has committed herself publically to the role of prophecy woman. She's going to have to do what she definitely doesn't want, function as sole religious leader, and as opposed to President, that's not going to be a natural role for her. In fact, it might be as unnatural as being the man in sole charge was to Tigh. I see two possibilities: either after some missteps Laura does learn how to be a priestess but gives up the role of President (she's grooming Lee as her successor anyway, if you ask me), or after a few missteps she finds another priest/ priestess but that person will declare Laura is in fact not the prophecied leader (possibly because as I speculated in my last review, Laura can't deliver miracles), making her "only" President again.
Lastly: Baltar's scene. I'd qualify Six' assessment - that he's starting to see humans as the Cylons do - to "he's starting see no difference between Cylons and humans". Which in fact started earlier, on Kobol, with his "we kill them, they kill us, what's the point of it all?" question. Can't wait till he gets to interact with the other Sharon, both because asking her that question about who the remaining eight models are is the obvious thing to do and because this other Sharon has the trump card of the child, news that will have a very different impact on Baltar than on the rest of the humans.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 08:48 am (UTC)After the end of season 1, I wrote a lengthy post on Roslin which included a lot of Sisko comparisons, and some Winn ones, too.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 09:19 am (UTC)Now I'm really trying not to wonder whether this makes Baltar Dukat...
no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 10:17 am (UTC)You're not the only one. I was starting to get the feeling that Zarek thought Henchman (what is his name, anyway?) was getting a little too trigger-happy and stupid, jeopardizing Zarek's long-term chance of getting himself into a powerful position.
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Date: 2005-08-21 12:11 pm (UTC)I've looked up other reviews and it seems Henchman's name is Remor.
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Date: 2005-08-21 06:38 pm (UTC)And both possibilities annoy the heck out of me. This is just my religious tastes, but the idea that someone with no religious training whatsoever is now going to become top religious leader because she gets visions does not make me happy. And possibility #2 sets up a power struggle in which Roslin plays Sisko and the new priest (who would probably be a fundamentalist from Gemanon) plays Winn, once again putting us in a position where we're supposed to root for the religious illiterate who has visions. Roslin working with Elosha was perfect for me, because it was a separation of powers between priest and prophet - Elosha could defer to Roslin's visions, while Roslin could defer to Elosha's textual knowledge, thus giving respect to both aspects of religious experience. Without Elosha that nice balance is shot to hell, and I'm really worried about what's going to replace it.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 07:32 pm (UTC)Another reason why I think Elosha's death was important dramatically - it had to be Elosha, Billy or Lee. Roslin had to lose someone close to her, someone she had a relationship with. Because otherwise when she demands of others to be willing to pay terrible prices, as a someone in her position (President, I mean, not religious icon) has to, the audience would start to get the feeling "yes, but whom did you ever lose?"
Billy: the actor was unavailable at the time, but even if he had been available, he and Dee are the future of the fleet, symbolically. So no. Lee can't die because he's a main character.*g* So it had to be Elosha.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 08:58 pm (UTC)Hm, I do think we are. Isn't that part of the original series arc, that the visions are what's going to lead them to Earth? I can certainly see her overreaching, though. And wouldn't it be neat if the new priest was Winn-like in being fundamentalist and manipulative - but still managed to call Roslin on her overreaching, and was right? If Roslin can have a good working relasionship with a new priest, I can see how a conflicted-but-respectuf relationship might be better dramatically than the maybe-too-simple relationship she had with Elosha.
That assumes a new priest can be found, though.
Roslin had to lose someone close to her, someone she had a relationship with.
That didn't hit, though. Elosha has had few enough lines that I didn't feel the loss as personal.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 09:45 pm (UTC)I've been looking forward to Tyrol's reaction to the new Sharon of course, (I really hope we get to see it when he finds out about her, especially since we didn't get to see him learn about her shooting Adama.), then realized yesterday that Cally's reaction will be very interesting to see to. *eg*
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 01:14 am (UTC)This makes sense. While I was watching the scene between Zarek and the henchman, I found it hard to believe that Zarek hadn't already considered getting rid of Apollo and putting himself in Apollo's place -- that whole "why hadn't I thought of it?" seemed very unlikely, but it would make sense if he was thinking of setting Henchman up.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 04:11 am (UTC)No, we really haven't. It's representative of how their relationship continues to grow and evolve. This season their relationship seems to be one of equals rather than superior/subordinate. And Lee, especially, seems much more comfortable inhabiting her personal space. (I also think back to 'Scattered' when Lee informed Laura of what happened to his father and Laura wanted to reach out to him, but couldn't.)
Instead of delivering an immature jealousy scene, as he did in Kobol's Last Gleaming, or letting himself be provoked into an argument, Lee does the friend thing, offering to be there if she wants to talk, and at the end, they're back to their buddy banter. (No, I didn't see "I love you" as romantic, either, and if Kara had done, she wouldn't have teased him the way she did.)
I don't feel the "I love you" is as big of a deal as some would make it out to be. Lee said it very casually. Had it been a declaration of romantic love I think it would have been played as being more significant or, had it been a slip up, we would have seen him quite upset with himself. I don't think it's easy or Lee to express his emotions, but deep down they both know they love each other and he felt she needed to be reminded of it. And because of that love, no matter what terrible things they may say to each other in the heat of the moment, he'll always be there for her should she need him.
I don't want to delve too much into the podcast because I don't know how much information you want to know beyond what we see on screen, but whether we get a sibling vibe or repressed lovers vibe is up to us.
(she's grooming Lee as her successor anyway, if you ask me)
I agree. And considering how little time has passed between events in the mini and now that presidential election could take place in season 4 or 5. And do we even have another viable candidate? Lee has the military and political smarts as well as the respect of many on the fleet. Plus, he's hot. ;-)
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Date: 2005-08-22 05:17 am (UTC)Another thing that's great about the relationship: they really respect each other, and understand that "respect" doesn't mean "thinking the other is always right". So you know that if Lee feels Laura is utterly wrong about something, he'll tell her so, and she won't go "oh, you disloyal traitor" on him.
Lee has the military and political smarts as well as the respect of many on the fleet. Plus, he's hot. ;-)
Lee for next President!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 01:35 am (UTC)Like his father would? ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 04:22 pm (UTC)hahaha. that is my favorite part of that episode.
I adored that Starbuck threw the "I love you" in Lee's face, and then he tried to pretend he never said it. And I also loved Kara not breaking down and confiding to Lee about what happened on Caprica.
So my own pesonal speculation: someone else is indeed going to die on Kobol, but it's going to be Zarek's sidekick, killed by Zarek.
I'm glad you said that, because I was wondering if it was just me and if I was falling into Zarek-woobification, just because I like him so much. I didn't know the DS9 parallel, but there was something about the way Zarek reacted in that scene that seemed off, if he had really been in on the plan. Personally, I think Tom can look at henchman, and look at Lee, and decide who he would rather have on his side.
The whole Zarek+henchman scene interested me because when he was talking about wanting to be commander, I was thinking "this is his first soliloquy; this is the first time we've seen Zarek when he wasn't 'public Zarek.'" But of course henchman is part of his public, just a different part than the people watching the newscast. the real Tom is still a mystery. . .(and did you notice Laura still doesn't call him Tom?)
as for Playa, I was watching the ep with
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 07:42 pm (UTC)hahaha. that is my favorite part of that episode.
What, you didn't like the Picard torture? Patrick Stewart and David Warner?
Yes, Henchman is just a different audience, and true, we still don't have the equivalent of a Shakespearean soliloquy.
Yes, I noticed.*g*
Now that's most gratifying to hear!
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Date: 2005-08-23 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-24 06:27 am (UTC)