Battlestar Galactica Review/Recap

The Captain's Hand
I was looking forward to watching this week's Galactica. See, Friday evening I babysat my neice and nephew. My brother-in-law just got a brand new, 50 inch high def plasma TV and the thought of seeing BSG on a plasma set in high def just sent my inner geek into orbit. So, after a couple of hours of having fun playing with my neice and nephew and then wrangling them into bed, I sat down to watch BSG in what I hoped would be all of its HD glory. Alas, it seems that Sci-Fi doesn't have an HD signal or if they do, it's not available in Nashville (believe me, I spent 20 minutes surfing the HD menu looking for it). So, while I did get to see Galactica on the giant TV of doom, it was just the standard signal and not the HD that I'd hoped for all week.

But while the picture wasn't in HD, the story sure was.

The arcs are back boys and girls--and it's about time.

Let me echo Sarcastro's comment earlier about how it doesn't pay to be the commander of the Pegasus. First of all, it's a pretty thankless jobs and second of all, it seems as though everyone who takes command of the ship gets a complimentary red shirt. At least the latest commander got to run things for about a month before he went to the great Pegasus in the sky. Though I do wonder how the promotion of Lee from major to commander in a little over a month is going to sit with the fleet as a whole. Also the fact that he's Aadma's son and gets this huge promotion to command the Pegasus could lead to some questions being asked in the upcoming election. We also have to consider the fact that Tom Zerick knows some of Lee's struggles from "Black Market" a few weeks ago, which I think we can all agree he'll use against Lee. You know, they can redeem the suckitude of that episode by having Zerick use that against Lee or as a political stepping stone in the upcoming election. It would almost make that hour wasted worth it all if we get something like that.

All that said, I still am not sure Lee is exactly the best option for taking command of the Pegasus. He's less than six months removed from wanting to not be rescued and having a death wish. Seems to me that he's not exactly the most solid or stable commander for the ship--not that any of the other Pegasus commanders have been exactly model commanders either. I think Lee still has some issues and those could rear their ugly head when it comes to being in command of the ship.

I did find it interesting that being the commander of a ship gives you the right to be obsessive about getting your men back. I found it really compelling that the new Pegasus commander was doing nothing different than what Adama did last year in the search for Starbuck, but here we were seeing the other side of it. Last season, we all knew Adama was right becuase Starbuck can't die, dammit! This year, we're on the other side where it's a lot more people in danger but we don't know any of them. It's a lot easier as an audience to go--well, let's not fall into the trap or endanger the fleet. I found myself agreeing with Adama that the fleet's safety should be put first, whereas last year I wanted them to find Starbuck no matter what the cost or consequences. Good job to Ron Moore and the writing staff for that little twist.

Speaking of twists--anyone else's jaw drop at the end?

That thud you heard from Smyrna was my jaw hitting the floor. Baltar played Roslin like a violin. He sets her up to come out on against abortion, despite her own personal convictions and political history and then completely undermines her, coming out as a candidate in his own right. The best thing I can say about this moment is that I should have seen it coming a mile away, but when we got there, I was totally shocked by it. Roslin traded on her political clout and the thought that she was safe--aliennate one group but since there's not really another good choice, you're (for the most part) safe. Then, in comes Baltar, who's not had much to do these past few weeks. He sweeps in, undermines her in front of everyone and takes a stand to win power so he can gain favor with Six. That, my friends, is how you pull off a jaw dropper. I mean, that is seriously from the Joss Whedon school of unexpected twists that are completely set up and looking back there's no other way the events could have played out.

About the only part I didn't like was the Lee and Dualla scenes. Man, that Lee Adama, he's quite the male slut of the fleet. In the last couple of months, he's hooked up Dualla and the prostitute girl from "Black Market" and then there was the aborted hook-up with Starbuck. Man, I have no idea what this man has to be depressed about because apparently if you're exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide and are female in the fleet, you'll hook up with Lee Adama. You've got to think some of the other pilots are going to get a bit bitter since Lee is lowering the odds of them finding true lust since Lee is taking the hearts and beds of all these women....

So, I got an HD story. I'll take that any time over the cool bells and whistles of an HD picture with no story behind it.