Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica took a couple of episodes to tie things up from the first season, and so while it has been good, there were a lot of people who said that it could be better, that something was missing. In general, I was not part of the faction that was out to complain about everything that was going on with the show. Big Brother, Galactica and The 4400 are what I care about this summer, so it would have to really suck for me to complain. Well, it turns out that I was wrong, Battlestar Galactica could get a whole lot better, and we saw an example in this latest episode.
When I said they had finished clearing up a lot of what happened in season one, that did not mean there wasn't any stuff left from this episode. After all, we still don't know what the hell Helo and Starbuck are doing on Caprica, and the Cylons were still doing a little search and destroy for the human survivors on Kobol. It's Kobol where we start the episode. There are now five survivors left - Chief, Cally (these two will surely hook up at some point this season), Gaius, Lt. Crashdown, and some other random medical trainee.
Their main goal is to evade the Cylons for as long as possible, but while on some routine surveillance, they see something that is going to make them alter their plans. It looks like the Cylons are deploying a missile battery from their ship. Why hunt down the humans when you can nuke everything within fifty miles and get the same result? Obviously, they are going to need a plan of action, because it really is no use to hope for a rescue when the only thing left over is going to be your shadow on some rock after you were vaporized.
We do have to take a little step back, of course; this whole hope of rescue thing depends on people from Galactica taking a chance at a rescue. There was no guarantee of that happening, because since the command of what is effectively the remainder of the human race has fallen into the hands of Colonel Tigh, he hasn't exactly been lights out with the whole leadership thing. He is basically trying to hold down the fort until Commander Adam can get healthy, which is still a long shot, and he is facing hours of surgery. It just so happens that the only person qualified to do this smokes more than a nineteen-year-old starlet after a couple of Vicodin and some tequila shots.
Luckily, there are a bunch of people out there that still haven't completely freaked out since Commander Adama was shot, and that includes his son Lee Adama, or Apollo as we like to call him. Lee is technically supposed to be locked up for supporting President Roslin and her apparently insane idea that she is going to bring salvation on the people because it was written in a prophecy. She did compromise the safety of the entire fleet, but she saw it as a necessary action to save the human race. Although Apollo was supposed to be in jail, Tigh realized that he is going to need him for his skill as a pilot and a military leader. Apollo is working on a rescue plan for the survivors on Kobol (if there are any, because they don't know), and although Tigh yells at Apollo to assert some authority, he wisely lets him continue with his plan.
It's better that Tigh wasn't bothered with the search and rescue, because he does have a lot of other things to worry about. For one, he has locked up most of the press, and they are starting to wonder what is going on. Secondly, the Quorum of 12, the body that is acting as a legislative branch in the current colonial government, wants to know what their president is doing, and who exactly is in charge.
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Comments (2)
I am a little concerned that they seem to be concentrating more on the few over reaching plot lines/themes of religion, god, politics, fate and the cylons still unknown master plan. Shows like 24, Babylon-5, and yes even Desperate Housewives (I know, I know) are good because each episode can stand on its own but furthers those season/series points little by little until you reach a climax.
The first season was packed with little things like need to find and get water, need to find and get fuel, need to put down a prison rebellion, need to carefully handle tense political issues, need to make tough decisions about fleet safety. Each episode however brought some new though usually cryptic details to the bigger questions: What is the purpose the sleeper Cylon Boomer? What is Six pushing Baltar to do (other than masturbation)? What are the prophecies and are/will they come true? What is the Cylons master plan and can the humans figure it out? When will Six start haunting Starbuck’s sex dreams?
Seems to me that this second season is pushing the side stories way off the radar and going right at the main points all the time. Maybe now that the main plots are established we can get back to that light handed story telling that keeps viewers interested for long periods of time instead of heavy handed epic tales that deal with the big issues but get there much to quickly.
Also, while I know this is a reinvention so I shouldn’t be comparing, but in the original series the fleet sometimes came across outpost planets where the Cylons had not attacked yet (or did not know about). Just wondering if they’ll come across something like that. Could be a source for some interesting story lines and conflicts.
1 of 2 | Posted by MODULUS | Posted on August 2, 2005 2:50 PM
Another good episode. Watching Tigh's slow meltdown is fascianting. HEs turned out to be one of my favorite characters. Hes not just a cardboard villain, hes an alcoholic being manipulated by his bitch power hungry wife. And its nice to have the original apollo come back once and a while.
One danger I see is they may drag out their storylines too long so it turns into another Xfiles. You know, the show that kept teasing you with answers until it got to the point where you didnt care anymore.
I always laugh when I see midget gauis standing next to that 6-5 hot blonde cylon.
2 of 2 | Posted by Eddiebosox | Posted on August 3, 2005 6:30 AM