Will somebody please tell me where the writers of Battlestar Galactica have gone? I am told that the same people writing the episodes airing this year were writing the episodes last year, but I find that hard to believe. It's like the writers fell in love with the success of their show and have forgotten what makes it good. Instead of a coherent story, we are taken through a bunch of character vignettes. This sort of break from the action is often necessary when you have a season that is more than twenty episodes long, but we got our break in the action when they delayed the airing of the second half of this season for three months in order to soak up some more DVD sales and whatnot. Oh, and for the love of god, enough with this stupid flashback trick that you use every week; I think most of us realize that we'll see what happens by the end of the hour.
So, my introduction is a little angry, and I am sorry if you liked this episode and were expecting something else, but there is only so much one guy can take. After we had an episode dealing with Apollo's demons, it was time to deal with what Starbuck was thinking. Like Apollo, Starbuck is dealing with the loss of somebody she left behind. When she returned to Caprica to get the Arrow of Apollo for Roslin, she and Helo found a bunch of humans who have formed a resistance to the Cylons. She had strong feelings for one of them, and promised him she would come back. Unfortunately, both the President and now Admiral Adama don't think that is such a good idea. Admiral Cain liked the idea, but she's not in the position to be making any demands at this point, being dead and all.
One of the most difficult things about being on the run without a planet to call home is the lack of resources, both human and natural. Although there are ships that can grow food and whatnot, there are certain things that they need to go out and get from time to time, including water. One of the biggest areas where the lack of human and natural resources is evident is the colonial fleet. There have been many battles with the Cylons, and there have been many Vipers lost. They have been able to get more ships working by piecing together the parts of older ships, but they are so low on spare parts, they barely had enough to get the Blackbird together at first. Luckily, Pegasus is capable of building new Vipers, as long as they have the metal ore to do it.
The fleet happened upon an asteroid belt with a large amount of minerals, but it's difficult and dangerous work. The Pegasus was left with the main fleet to protect it while the Galactica stayed behind to protect the mining operations. The sensors aren't able to determine the difference between a rock and a Cylon raider, so the Air Group has had to do manual patrols, and they have lost a lot of pilots. As difficult as it is to get new minerals, it is just as difficult to find new pilots. And even if they forced all the women to start having babies, it would be another eighteen years before they got any more help.
Starbuck has been well known as the best pilot in the fleet, and as one of the veterans she is in charge of preparing new recruits, but things are starting to take their toll. Kara has always been known as a heavy drinker, and she has only become worse since her return from Caprica. She can't get her mind off of that Anders guy and the promise that she made to him, and it has started to affect her performance. To make matters worse, there is a new hotshot in town looking to take Starbuck's place as the best in the fleet. Yes, you remember Kat, don't you? She was the pilot that was addicted to stimulants because she couldn't handle the pressure of being a pilot. It looks like she is over her addiction, and her number one goal is to put Starbuck in her place.
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Comments (8)
This ep was HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE!! Who let Ana Lucia onto galactica!?!? That little twerp is completely annoying and it is unbelieveable that starbuck, even a depressed starbuck, would stand for that crap. i also have trouble buying this undying love for old dude. we didn't see them interact all that much. i was hopeful when her and lee started to get it on, but then she messed it up. maybe that kiss on the way out will save things. more dee love triangles please.
also, is scar starbuck's raider that she got from that planet? i remember boomer took off with it but i dont know what happened to it.
1 of 8 | Posted by Leah3t
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Posted on February 8, 2006 11:23 AM
It's true, I am the hot young thing on the fleet.
2 of 8 | Posted by Kat
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Posted on February 8, 2006 12:21 PM
Totally agree about the flashblacks. I groaned when I saw "48 hours earlier" pop up on the screen.
That being said, it was a huge improvement over the previous week's episode.
3 of 8 | Posted by skiffy
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Posted on February 8, 2006 12:47 PM
Yeah it wasnt as good as other episodes. The show needs to touch on all the storylines, not some silly shoot em up with a cylon. And starbucks constant "drunken surliness hiding real pain" bit got old real fast. I ca grimace and do shots too, you dont see me starring in a SCi-Fi series (that 2 year stint on playing the wacky private on Stargate Atlantis notwithstanding)
And I find it funny that they can make a whole new bunch of ships from mining ore. Really? So they have facilities to process the raw ore, mold it, build new electronics equipment from scratch, wiring, transistors, etc? Man I didn’t know they had that many ships. It was like playing a video game. Click to process ore to order new ships.
4 of 8 | Posted by EdHill
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Posted on February 8, 2006 1:06 PM
speakin of the other, very crappy, shows on sci fi, how bout a live blog of one of their original movies? like, "what's worse than being in the dark with a bunch of man eating bugs.......[leah waits for some clever punchline]....NOTHING".
i got a feeling this show is not going to bring the crossover and stay for more audience Sci Fi may home BSG will bring.
5 of 8 | Posted by Leah3t
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Posted on February 8, 2006 2:25 PM
I agree with your sentiment. After a great 10 episodes in the first half of season 2, the second half has been a real dud with the exception of the "Resurrection Ship" episodes. I'm also tired of the time skip episodes; although with Scar it worked much better than with the previous Apollo-centric episode. After watching several of the David Eick's video blog episodes, I would say the writers are well aware of the drop in quality. Ronald Moore referred to this week's episode as the "shit episode" at one point. Oh, well, it's still one of the best dramas on television. They'll have to get a heck of lot worse than this before I stop watching.
6 of 8 | Posted by jdt67
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Posted on February 8, 2006 5:35 PM
I think the problem is that the writers have lost their balance. They've always had these character centric episodes and they are needed to really explore and develop these people that we the viewers care about. The difference before was that the writers mixed it up. There'd be a character ep, then an action ep, then a plot discovery ep, then maybe a combo or one off ep. It's more noticible though if all you get is a string of character eps and the plot goes nowhere; makes the story feel lost (kind of like Lost).
The beauty of this show is that its not all one thing (action, soap opera, sci-fi, etc.) but a little of each. Hopefully they get back to a good mix of all or this show is headed right into the fraking toilet.
7 of 8 | Posted by MODULUS
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Posted on February 9, 2006 6:54 AM
Jolly was a character in the original series.
Starbuck went back to Caprica for about a week. She cannot have been that into Anders. This is survivor's guilt or something. Funny watching Starbuck be Col. Tigh for awhile. She hates him for being a messy drunk.
I wasn't too interested in this either. Especially the part where Starbuck's friends let her spiral out of control like that.
I kept waiting for Adama to walk in and slam her up against a wall. Give her that low voice, "This ends now, little girl." Or something like that.
The characters are in a perpetual state of calvary. We get it.
Was there no Gaius this week?
8 of 8 | Posted by Lady J
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Posted on February 9, 2006 11:08 AM