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BSG Mid-Season Finale (spoiler warnings)
Rick
Sector 14 Studios
in Zocalo v2.0
Brilliant.
But I expected the "Special message from SciFi Friday" after the show ended to be Bonnie Hammer pointing at you through the camera and saying "HA-HA!"
Damn 3-month seasons! :)
-R.
PS [spoiler] KICK HER ASS, ADAMA!!! ;) [/spoiler]
But I expected the "Special message from SciFi Friday" after the show ended to be Bonnie Hammer pointing at you through the camera and saying "HA-HA!"
Damn 3-month seasons! :)
-R.
PS [spoiler] KICK HER ASS, ADAMA!!! ;) [/spoiler]
Comments
I'm not a violent person, by nature. But that scene with Boomer... I was ready to reach through the television and throttle that son of a bitch. At the very end Cain said something about how Adama had crossed the line, and left her with no choice. Well, when you keep your ship together by executing any (ANY!) officer who questions your orders, by having your crew glorify in the death and destruction of the enemy, and by letting your crewmen line up to gang-rape a prisoner of war, honey, you didn't just cross the line, you pissed all over it. It'd surprise me if Cain didn't use a copy of the Colonial constitution as toilet paper. Of course, after she met up with Roslin, she probably started exclusively using the section dealing with the line of succession ("Stupid founders with their stupid laws preventing a military dictatorship.").
Science fiction has had a lot of stories about the importance of holding on to morality and ethics in difficult situations, and not letting yourself become savage and inhuman when faced by the enemy. "When you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy." "How can I save humanity, while sacrificing what makes me human?" "I do the job. I get paid. And that's all." But this one, by not exalting those whose values endure, but instead showing so unflinchingly exactly what that kind of degradation of moral fiber can lead to, was the most effective of all. I suspect it'll be a while before I can hear about any sort of abuse by those I would consider "the good guys" upon those in a position of powerlessness without seeing a certain pregnant young woman being held across a table.
Lord, that was a powerful hour.
Adama and crew have maintained their humanity by virtue of the fact that they are travelling with civillians, and Adama never enjoyed unquestioned authority.
Cain, on the other hand, fought through the months since the attack in a military dictatorship, believing her battlestar to be the only survivors; and during that unbridled time, her authority went uncheked, leading to a downward spiral of the humanity of her crew.
What I find so compelling about tonight's story is the backstory: one that we, as a race, are remarkably close to having to answer:
"When does a machine become more than a machine?"
Now, the cylons, originally, were machines. Somewhere during their "banishment" they engineered biological cylons, then they returned.
"When does a machine become more than a machine?"
Here we are, humans, with machines that are smart enough to beat us at any tactical game, and on the cusp of cloning a human (and yes, it will happen--pat Robertson and GW will NOT be able to stop it). This leaves us with a dillema: does an engineered duplicate of yourself have rightr? Do they have a soul? Do you have a right to "grow a spare" to harvest parts from should you need them in the future?
"When does a machine become more than a machine?"
And that is what Ron Moore is asking every person in Galactica's audience; that fiber optic cable thing from last week was just a tool-- Ron Moore was reminding the audience of the genesis of the cylons: machines of metal and silicon, and begging that question:
"When does a machine become more than a machine?"
Does it require flesh? Or can silicon have a soul?
Were the Cyclons exacting retribution for murder when they attacked Caprica and the other colonies, or following lines of code that emulated the combative nature of humans?
When cains crew raped their cylon, were they committing a crime, or just having sex with a high tech robot that looked like a human?
Did they rationalize a crime, or have they become savages?
Or does it really matter?
What does this really tell us about ourselves as a race?
-R.
There are 20 episodes in Season 2. Sci-Fi are idiots, that's all.
That's all, frakking nice ep.
There are 20 episodes in Season 2. Sci-Fi are idiots, that's all. [/B][/QUOTE]
Well, they always called this one the "summer finale" or "midseason finale" before. I'll bet some bright spark in marketing wanted to see if they could use the "season finale" hype to boost their ratings slightly.
This is IMO the most powerful episode so far. I'm not sure it did very much to advance the plot but it brought in one of the most controversial and interesting elements so far. The thing is Cain is Adama. That is precisely what he was struggling with at first. They are now only different by circumstances. One thought they were the only ones left and now know nothing but war with absolutely nothing to look forward to or remind them of home. Just painting cylon kill marks on their Vipers. Nothing else really matters to them. The other has had to learn they have a greater responsability now than just blowing up Cylons. Adama was struggling with just the same isues at first. In his view he saw the government and let it go on just as a charade as long as it didn't get in his way. When push came to shove he always thought he knew best and since they are at war it was ok for him to rule with a heavy hand and do what he deemed necessary. He's learned better now but they are both very much alike. Cain doesn't comprehend everything the fleet has been through.
I like the idea of the controversy whether they cylons should be treated as prisoners of war. After all are they just really convincingly human looking machines or sentient beings? Six's rape could be seen as nothing more than the crew getting to have a good time with a really sophistacated blow up doll. Certainly nothing wrong with that. They are masters of deception. Playing into human emotions is one of their tactics. Lets not forget Adama and Roslin tortured a cylon and then blew it out an airlock... after promising he/it it would be safe. I'm still not to critical of Cain's actions with the cylon. If you take a step back and look at the grand scheme of things its easy to see that her hardline might be the right thing to do. Getting to close to them could be their undoing.
Oh and Starbuck disobeys orders and steals another tactically high value aircraft. Where did we see that one before :D
It also looks like its a prerequisite for a battlestar XO to be a drunk.
From Ensign to Admiral, not bad.
Worf
[B]Did anyone else notice that Admiral Cain used to be Ensign Ro in TNG?
[/B][/QUOTE]
She also played Lynne Kresge in the 2nd season of 24...
Now.......that episode absolutely rocked! Rick is right. NBC would never have aired this episode without it being heavily edited.
The show is very realistic and that's probably its best selling point. No light and fluffy endings where everyone goes home happy. It's uncut and raw. :cool:
[B]The original episode was intended to be 90 minutes long! But they didn't have enough footage to meet that, which is a shame. Apparently though the DVD release will include about 15 minutes of extra footage from the episode as part of the episode itself. [/B][/QUOTE]
Want. Now.
Worf
[B]RDM has stated in the past that cut content is basically non-canon content, and as such is quite likely to be obsoleted or written over in the future, so wouldn't such content be pointless to release, as it likely won't remain accurate to the story as it progresses? [/B][/QUOTE] AFAIK he talks about the extended DVD Cut in the Pod-cast (haven't listened to it myself)
Which brings me to a different topic. Does Galactica have nuke missile launchers? Just curious as we haven't seen Galactica take on a Base Star. Sure the Base Stars are much bigger and Galactica needs to avoid direct engagement in order to survive and protect the fleet. Just wondering if we're gonna see a big fight between the capital ships at some point. I suppose we'll have to wait and see if the next episode will bring that. Damn its going to be a long wait!
[B]RDM has stated in the past that cut content is basically non-canon content, and as such is quite likely to be obsoleted or written over in the future, so wouldn't such content be pointless to release, as it likely won't remain accurate to the story as it progresses? [/B][/QUOTE]
Seems he is making an exception for this episode. From the podcast it sounds like there's a lot of material he really wants to put in their and bring it into the show somehow. It will make it inot the DVD's as the complete episode. According to the podcast they were originally going to try to make it a 90 minute episode but then they would have to stuff it with more junk because it wasn't quite long enough so they had to simply go with the short version. It would be awesome if they could replay the extended version in Juanuary just before the premiere combined with extra footage for the next episode and make a special 2.5 - 3 hour event.
[B]
Which brings me to a different topic. Does Galactica have nuke missile launchers? Just curious as we haven't seen Galactica take on a Base Star. Sure the Base Stars are much bigger and Galactica needs to avoid direct engagement in order to survive and protect the fleet. Just wondering if we're gonna see a big fight between the capital ships at some point. I suppose we'll have to wait and see if the next episode will bring that. Damn its going to be a long wait! [/B][/QUOTE]
This was addressed very early in the first season. Adama says they have six nukes left. One Gaius had to strip to use the uranium for his cyclon detector which test how the cylon cells react to radiation. A second one was used to destroy the basestar in the season 1 finale. That leaves them with four plus whatever the Pegasus can supply them with.
[B]I'd like to point out that while Cylon ships are superior to caprican craft, they're far from impervous. One nuke would likely take out a base star, whether from inside or out. It's a freakin' nuclear bomb, after all. [/B][/QUOTE]
Galactica survived a nuke in the mini....
[B]Galactica survived a nuke in the mini.... [/B][/QUOTE]
This was *far* from a direct hit. Even with that, it caused a reasonable amount of damage.
Now they just use those white missiles... Which you gotta love.
Cain is a one bitch. She killed her first Officer in front of the crew. shit!