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06 October 2006

Battlestar Galactica [More:]

The Lost writers could learn a few things from the Battlestar folks on how to start a season.
Off to a good start indeed.
posted by birdherder 06 October | 22:08
What's with all the Lost hatin' lately? I loved the 3rd season premiere, and am sitting here tapping my foot for BSG to hit Usenet come on. Sure Lost raises more questions than it answers, but I'm still enjoying the ride. Why can't we ride BOTH merry-go-rounds??
posted by WolfDaddy 06 October | 22:43
I just thought the first few minutes of Lost were great and then the rest of the episode was boring. *shrugs*

I didn't think any of the 2 hours of new Battlestar were boring though.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs 06 October | 22:47
What's going on with Starbuck and the cylon? I must have missed something last season what is the context of thier relationship?
posted by bigmusic 06 October | 23:59
HOLY SHIT!

The humans are the "insurgency: which "didn't greet us [the Cytlons] with -- oh frak it"

The Cylons detain and torture, the humans use suicide bombers.

OH MY GOD. ylons detain and torture, the humans use suicide bombers.

OH MY GOD.

The Iraq war just came home.
posted by orthogonality 07 October | 00:00
I am not sure what the deal with Starbuck and the Cylon are. I don't even remember that from last season. I should have watched the repeats leading up to the new show.

Yeah, the Iraq parallels couldn't have been more obvious. I will probably hang out in the newsgroups a bit just to see how right-leaning BSG fans react.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs 07 October | 00:15
My eyes are wide. My jaw is literally hanging open.

I mean I live to be imperturbable, it's like my religion.

I haven't been this dumbfounded since Election Night 2004.

WOW, JUST WOW. WHAT AN EPISODE.

I'm just blown away.
posted by orthogonality 07 October | 00:17
It was a great episode. My problem with the show stem from this: Why aren't the Cylons a little less like us?
The very thing that would give them great power is a lack of emotion. Their very alieness would be the result of them evolving a culture totally unlike ours, with motives that would seem incomprehensible to humans.
I think the writers wanted to add a mystical edge to the story and avoid comparisons to The Borg.
But imagine going against creatures (of our own making and in our own image!) that would be utterly ruthless, efficient and vastly more intelligent than us.
posted by black8 07 October | 03:33
Oh I can't wait to download this! will have to watch the webisodes first.
posted by By the Grace of God 07 October | 04:24
As someone who only remembers the original 70's show and avoids any sci-fi apart from Star Wars (and even then, only 4,5 and 6 are worth watching), is it actually really good or is it just for sad, lonely trekie-type people?

Sush about Lost - season 2 only finished in the UK a couple of weeks ago, so there's no chance of season 3 before next year.
posted by TheDonF 07 October | 09:12
(We're only a litle over halfway through on tivo, so I haven't read any of this thread for fear of spoilers, but I must say: TOTALLY FUCKIN AWESOME.)
posted by danostuporstar 07 October | 09:28
I watched the first half last night. Lost whowhuh? TOTALLY FUCKIN AWESOME Ron D. Moore! :-)
posted by WolfDaddy 07 October | 09:33
There is a free file called BSG - The story of far, at Itunes right now in the television section.
posted by getoffmylawn 07 October | 09:34
There's no TV or films in the UK iTMS store :(
posted by TheDonF 07 October | 09:39
As someone who only remembers the original 70's show and avoids any sci-fi apart from Star Wars (and even then, only 4,5 and 6 are worth watching), is it actually really good or is it just for sad, lonely trekie-type people?

The old one was a cheesy goofball show. This is a well-written serious drama. It is a very dark show and a good portion of the episodes keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. There are not new aliens popping up every week, it is just the human survivors and the Cylons.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs 07 October | 10:40
Ah, it sounds good. Now all I need is the ability to watch it. In the UK it's only on non-terristrial TV, which means either: getting a Sky subscription (and I refuse to give money to Murdoch), a Freeview box (not available in my area yet) or cable (there's one provider, I used them once, and never again).


So, it looks like Bit Torrent, which I've never used before. Anyone got a n00bs guide for a Mac user?
posted by TheDonF 07 October | 11:23
I currently have access to no cable tv or nearby friends to gush over the awesomeness with. Cry. Bittorrent.
posted by casarkos 07 October | 11:27
*Possible Spoiler*

So was the black guy in the Gaius threatening scene the 7th cylon? I don't think he had made an apperaence before.

Anyone?
posted by miles 07 October | 12:35
I was thinking about it, I believe he was the doctor when the Cylons had Kara in the hospital. But I think this was only the second time we saw him.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs 07 October | 12:38
Yeah, he was the Doc. I'm a bit unclear on the other blonde, though. Was she the reporter? Or not? And had she been previously revealed to be a Cylon?

And so the pro-human Six is the pre-nuke Caprica Six? Is it significant that that the mental Six appeared to Baltar just after CapSix was shot?

Reading the TVWoP forums last night, I noticed at least one viewer who I'm assuming is righwing who exasperatedly claimed that the analogy is to the Nazi occupation of Poland, not Iraq. Which annoyed me.

There's a lot of things which make the analogy seem to be Cylon as the US and the Humans as the Iraqis. First, the occupation was supposedly "humanitarian". In the Cylons' case, it's a religious war. In the Americans', it's "spreading democracy". Of course, that rationale is really only true for the neocons—the realists who really decide policy, like Cheney and Rumsfeld, have other motives. Anyway, it's an occupying military that claims to be benign. But they detain people willy-nilly and indefinitely, they torture people, and they co-op natives to do much of the dirty work. The natives respond with an insurgency including suicide bombings. So all that is very allusary to the Iraq war.

On the other hand, the US hasn't had an official policy of arresting troublemakers and summarily executing them. This is the "out", I think, for the rightwingers who will claim this isn't an analogy to the Iraq war. But aside from the fact that I think the writers and producers want to keep this ambiguous, I think this plot development exists mostly because it's in character for the Cylons even if it messes up the Iraq war analogy.

Anyway, I think RM doesn't want an exact analogy but probably wants something more ambiguous so the message can be more general. Even so, I hope this challenges some viewers' conceptions about the Iraq war.
posted by kmellis 07 October | 14:19
Oops I missed this thread... sorry for the dupe up top :\
posted by scarabic 07 October | 16:05
actually really good or is it just for sad, lonely trekie-type people?


Thanks, DonF, for that characterization.
posted by orthogonality 07 October | 17:43
DonF, I am not particulary sad or lonely and while I loved DS9, I wouldn't never describe myself as a trekkie.


So...No. It's actually really good.
posted by black8 08 October | 06:07
Very dark, quite violent, like when Kara stabs the Cylon, then just keeps stabbing him. And very, very political.
It's quite telling when the only real political discourse (in the US) is faux-news show, a sci-fi show and 2 comicbooks (Ultimates and Civil War, natch).
posted by signal 09 October | 11:17
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