Battlestar Galactica, encore

Thanks to the good and glorious hmpf, my next batch of Battlestar Galactica episodes have arrived. Am more in love than ever. This is definitely my new show. Watch it, American citizens, when it starts to be broadcast on your shows now. andrastewhite has just written a wonderful introduction to it.

Impressions of episodes 3 - 8, which is what I watched in one greedy gulp:

- Great Maker, I love the intelligent writing. Bastille Day had me afraid at one point that we were going the route of fourth season Garibaldi (i.e. good points made are dismissed because the person who has made them turns out to have been working for the bad guys), but no, Ron Moore came through with flying colours. When Apollo said "you were right", I was stunned and happy in a really good way. Btw, even absolute purists and fanaticis of the old BSG should at least watch this episode, because their guy Richard Hatch has a really good role, and delivers a good performance which frankly from my dim memories of the pilot and two or so eps of the original I had not believed him to be capable of. I apologize, Mr. Hatch. Plus the casting of Hatch as the guest star of the week isn't just a gimmik and nod to the original, it's really clever meta due to what his role consists of. Not to mention that Ron Moore also proves me wrong when saying that DS9 could not be made today as it was then, because of the terrorism/freedom fighter ambiguity around Kira's character. Bastille Day doesn't just use the word "terrorist" but is unafraid of plunging full into said ambiguity.

- When I in my original ravings about the miniseries and first two episodes compared Adama to Theoden, somewhat pointed out that he has a Theoden and Eowyn relationship with Kara (aka Starbuck). Which I can see now, after having watched Act of Contrition and You can't go home again. (What I can't see are Apollo/Starbuck vibes; Lee and Kara strike me more as having a brother and sister type of relationship.) I like that they gave Kara her guilt issues re: Zack, as this takes her beyond the swashbuckling persona. And yes, there is something of Eowyn there in her scenes with Adama, which are painful and beautiful at the same time.

- I maintain my Laura Roslin love. As Andraste said, female warriors are great, but it's a beautiful thing to see a female civilian presented as strong, with strength not meaning she has to win every argument; her ability to keep an open mind and respect when someone else is right, as in Bastille Day, is something I admire as well. To quote Lee, she has my vote. Also? She belonges to that incrediblly rare tribe on tv, a woman over 40 who isn't someone's mother but simply one of the main characters. Probably Moore's most original contribution to the Galactica set-up.

- As opposed to Firefly, BSG is a very serious show, but you can tell the writers are having fun with Gaius Baltar. Six Degrees of Separation was among other things a very black comedy, and James Callis delivers such lines as "no more Mr. Nice Gaius" with relish. And am I the only one who gets a Braca vibe from Gaeta?

- Meanwhile, Chief Tyrol is definitely the successor of O'Brien as the honest working class everyman of the show, and you feel for him as Moore & Co. love to torture him every bit as much as they loved to torture O'Brien. The actor isn't quite Colm Meany, but he's good.

- The Cylon ships being pilot-less because they are in effect Cylons themselves: makes sense, and is neat.

- So: what do the Cylons want with Helo and Boomer, if these two were supposed to have sex and settle down? And again the question of whether "I love you" was spoken. Was this perhaps meant to be an experiment in Cylon/human relationships?

- Callum Keith Rennie was excellent in the episode which I can't help but think of as the Abu Ghraib episode, and DueSouth fans will be thrilled to see him again. Again with the reverse of the cliché: the usual pattern would be to have a human being interrogated and tortured by a Cylon. By having a Cylon interrogated and tortured by a human being, you deepen the shades of grey and disturb the viewer. (I'm still disturbed.) Starbuck starts with regarding the Cylon as a toaster and ends up praying for his soul. In between are eight hours of mind games on the Cylon's part and torture on her part. When she tells Roslin "it's a machine, so any tactics are justified", you can see she doesn't quite believe it any longer. And the question isn't solved by the show itself. "Can humans uphold their ethics even in a desperate situation" was a question the last two seasons of DS9 asked, and this new show asks even more urgently. If the Cylons are sentient beings, then it was torture. And the show refuses to justify it by letting Starbuck find out some crucial information this way. Which reminds me of my post a while ago on the tendency of genre shows to make up enemies one can kill without compuncture. This show could have done that with the Cylons due to their artificial nature, but no, it avoided that easy way. Ave, Moore.

And now I'm off to watch episode 9...