Is It October Yet?
I've been asking myself that for several months now, and now it's finally happening. One Friday from now will be the premiere of season three.
I have been rewatching old episodes (but haven't posted on them...until now), and I have a couple comments on the webisodes for you.
First off, I'd like to say that a review of Epiphanies from season 2 made me remember that the writers drew up a shark on the storyboard over the previous seasons, then made a very obvious jump over it. It's nice that the Cylon-Human hybrid child (who I'd like to think of as Cyman, in a delicious pun) has magical restorative properties in its blood, but really. Just as the president is taking her final breaths, these people write in an escape. At first, I thought that this show would be willing to kill off main characters, a sign of real courage and flexibility in writing, but they have proven that theory wrong. Instead, they did what the likes of, no offense, Stargate would do. They bring in some kind of foreign device to save our heroes at the very last moment (after the last commercial break is always a plus, gets better ratings and makes us stay tuned in for the next show on Sci-fi). That way, the key big-name actors like EJO and Mary can stay on for the whole run of the show, look really cool in the promo shots, and bring in more viewership. I don't have anything against the show getting good ratings. It's a very fine show, fine enough to blog about, but I think the scripts are going to suffer.
That said, the two episodes previous (Resurrection Ship Parts 1 and 2) were phenomenal. I was reminded several times why I believe Lee is a Cylon. Those wonderful little lines such as:
Lee (to Starbuck): Go and get some pictures of our pretty Cylon ship.
Helo: I thought the Cylons were the enemy.
Lee: Yeah, now it's us.
Helo (to Cmdr Adama): I'm a father, just like you, sir.
Then, of course, the floating in a stream part of his near-death experience in Part 2, entirely too much like the reincarnation pods we saw in the episode Downloaded and in Leobon's vision of his consciousness.
Onto the webisodes. Perhaps these are put there as a tactic to ease the second shark-jump with the caricatured Baltar and the flashback 'stached Adama into a somewhat sensical move by the writers. Whatever the intent, these 2-minute glimpses at the Battlestar world have most certainly been worth the watch. One of my favorite features is that we get to see the old Tigh again. I'm pretty sure that his life revolves around disaster. When we first saw the character, he was a grizzly old man that needed some excitement in his life. He gambled and drank, and he provoked Starbuck into getting herself in trouble. Then the big attack happens, the Cylons nuke a few billion people, and he is in his element. He gets rid of the hard liquor, forgets his adulterous wife, and focuses on the fight. The war starts getting into a routine way of life, his wife returns, and he slips back into his original disaster mode, but this time with assistance from Ellen. In the webisodes, we see the Colonel without Ellen, fighting a war again. He will always be seeing carnage. The choice is whether it be in his own life, or in fighting against others. This version of Tigh is certainly more heroic than the drunkard, but he is still Tigh. This is especially apparent in his conversations with Jammer about the ethics of hiding their weapons in the temple, on sacred ground. After the temple massacre he says they got lucky, that, "we're at war. War is messy. People get killed. Nice people. Get that through your head or get out. We don't need any crybabies at this outfit." Saul is cold, calculating, and seems to have no room for human emotions. If this mechanical nature wasn't exactly the opposite of all the Cylons in the show, I might suspect him of being a human model.
I look forward to reading your comments for the season to come. Hopefully, the New Caprica diversion will turn out to be something great.
I have been rewatching old episodes (but haven't posted on them...until now), and I have a couple comments on the webisodes for you.
First off, I'd like to say that a review of Epiphanies from season 2 made me remember that the writers drew up a shark on the storyboard over the previous seasons, then made a very obvious jump over it. It's nice that the Cylon-Human hybrid child (who I'd like to think of as Cyman, in a delicious pun) has magical restorative properties in its blood, but really. Just as the president is taking her final breaths, these people write in an escape. At first, I thought that this show would be willing to kill off main characters, a sign of real courage and flexibility in writing, but they have proven that theory wrong. Instead, they did what the likes of, no offense, Stargate would do. They bring in some kind of foreign device to save our heroes at the very last moment (after the last commercial break is always a plus, gets better ratings and makes us stay tuned in for the next show on Sci-fi). That way, the key big-name actors like EJO and Mary can stay on for the whole run of the show, look really cool in the promo shots, and bring in more viewership. I don't have anything against the show getting good ratings. It's a very fine show, fine enough to blog about, but I think the scripts are going to suffer.
That said, the two episodes previous (Resurrection Ship Parts 1 and 2) were phenomenal. I was reminded several times why I believe Lee is a Cylon. Those wonderful little lines such as:
Lee (to Starbuck): Go and get some pictures of our pretty Cylon ship.
Helo: I thought the Cylons were the enemy.
Lee: Yeah, now it's us.
Helo (to Cmdr Adama): I'm a father, just like you, sir.
Then, of course, the floating in a stream part of his near-death experience in Part 2, entirely too much like the reincarnation pods we saw in the episode Downloaded and in Leobon's vision of his consciousness.
Onto the webisodes. Perhaps these are put there as a tactic to ease the second shark-jump with the caricatured Baltar and the flashback 'stached Adama into a somewhat sensical move by the writers. Whatever the intent, these 2-minute glimpses at the Battlestar world have most certainly been worth the watch. One of my favorite features is that we get to see the old Tigh again. I'm pretty sure that his life revolves around disaster. When we first saw the character, he was a grizzly old man that needed some excitement in his life. He gambled and drank, and he provoked Starbuck into getting herself in trouble. Then the big attack happens, the Cylons nuke a few billion people, and he is in his element. He gets rid of the hard liquor, forgets his adulterous wife, and focuses on the fight. The war starts getting into a routine way of life, his wife returns, and he slips back into his original disaster mode, but this time with assistance from Ellen. In the webisodes, we see the Colonel without Ellen, fighting a war again. He will always be seeing carnage. The choice is whether it be in his own life, or in fighting against others. This version of Tigh is certainly more heroic than the drunkard, but he is still Tigh. This is especially apparent in his conversations with Jammer about the ethics of hiding their weapons in the temple, on sacred ground. After the temple massacre he says they got lucky, that, "we're at war. War is messy. People get killed. Nice people. Get that through your head or get out. We don't need any crybabies at this outfit." Saul is cold, calculating, and seems to have no room for human emotions. If this mechanical nature wasn't exactly the opposite of all the Cylons in the show, I might suspect him of being a human model.
I look forward to reading your comments for the season to come. Hopefully, the New Caprica diversion will turn out to be something great.
posted by (and Ernie) at 1:20 PM
3 Comments:
I really like your observations about Tigh. It started reminding me of Patton... not just the "crybabies" line, but all of the "in his element" heroic Tigh scenes. The attitude that sure we loose people, maybe lots of people, but that's a lot fewer people than what happens if we loose the war.
That's the exact same decision making process Tigh uses to put out the fire on Galactica a while back. He sacrifices dozens of lives rather than take the chance of loosing the whole ship.
Patton is portrayed that way, sacrificing troups to speed victory because he knows being careful and going slow in the end costs even more lives. Patton didn't have the other carnage to deal with when war wasn't occupying him, the alcohol or the scheming wife.
Which made me wonder who did.... and so how bout this.... Tigh is Ulysses S. Grant!
After becoming captain during the Mexican War Grant is relieved of duty at Ft Vancouver (Oregon) for drinking... and has the "historical" reputation of being a drunk, though there's a controversy over a lot of details. In the civil war Lincoln is told Grant drinks whiskey while serving in the field, and responds: "Find out the name of the brand so I can give it to my other generals".
Patton & Grant were both criticized by the media of their time for using tactics that resulted in very heavy casualties among their own troups. They were both of the never retreat.... always move forward variety.
hmmmmm.... Grant's also a very heavy cigar smoker.
His wife julia, it's said once or twice, should be brought to encampments because he stops drinking when she's around. Okay... that's not Helen. However.... his first wife.... Polly, actually blows him off and marries his brother while he's at west point or soldering at a fort. Could be Helen?
Anyway.... one quote from an aging Grant that might fit Tigh... though he wouldn't be quite as philosophical:
"The fact is I think I am a verb instead of a personal pronoun. A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; or to suffer. I signify all three."
Slightly Off-topic: The deleted scenes for Downloaded from the DVD set are great.
Doral was was so earnest today... I almost believed him myself.
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