Mark here... damn this was a good one, but a slow burner. The episode was called "Litmus" and the premise is that a Cylon agent blew himself up aboard Galactica. An independent tribunal is formed. The real drama, however, is character based. Adama and Roslin struggling with the need for a judicial solution versus a witch hunt. In the end Adama shuts down the tribunal, but we also feel like the tribunal was going after the salacious versus the real truth.
One a side note, we catch up with Helo on Caprica, who has been separated from his version of Sharon. She is seen with the Cylons who proceed to beat her up so that it will be believable when she meets up with Helo again.
Laurel here...not much happened during this episode yet it was really interesting to watch. I think the purpose in the grand scheme of things is to let us know that everyone on board Galactica is living a life of uncertainty even though their position and honorable intentions have well been established in the eyes of the viewer. Everyone on board is in question and no one is secure, no many how many people may come to bat for them, and despite their intentions and history..All's fair in love and war.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
You Can't Go Home Again
Mark here... Laurel and I are sitting down for some fried calamari, courtesy of Chuck Hughes' recipe, aioli from Mark Bittman and Nigella Lawson's Capery Salad. This episode is called "You Can't Go Home" again and picks up right where last episode left off. Starbuck is stranded on a Mars-like planet with a limited supply of oxygen (having crash landed in combat with a Cylon raider last episode). It sounds like a really basic episode but it plays out with lots of drama. Starbuck comes across the downed Cylon raider, which turns out to be a biological-mechanical hybrid, and she must find its oxygen supply and make it fly again.
Meanwhile, back on Galactica, the Adamas are expending every resource to find her. The Galactica crew is slowly becoming discouraged at the prospects of finding Starbuck and worried about the Adamas willingness to risk the fleet to do so. It is ultimately President Roslin who comes onboard to tell the boys to shake it off. While she is ultimately relieved when Starbuck shows up, she shows her resolve to make tough decisions even when the boys aren't willing too.
Laurel here...I can't tell you how relieved I was while watching this episode. Finally Starbuck seems to fit the role that she was meant to, being a tough woman who is skilled at her job but who doesn't need to act like a man in order to get the point across. She saves herself from the barren planet she has crashed on by reappropriating a Cylon fighter plane (which as it turns out she had shot down in the first place) with total resourcefulness and limited bravado. I have been so insulted by her character in the past episodes because they have all implied that she needs to act like "a man" in order to be tough and resourceful, but in this episode she displayed that by just being a PERSON who is tough and good at her job she has saved her own day.
This episode was also interesting because of a role reversal between president Roslin and Commander Adama. President Roslin had to be the one who was practical and considered the practical military implications of expending a ton of resources to save one pilot versus both of the Adamas putting their military training aside and indulging their emotional feelings about Starbuck and expending a bunch of fleet resources to save her.
Mark here... I totally agree and it was good to see a little bit of why Roslin is a good President, and why Adama shouldn't be the leader. Adama is a good military leader, but like Roslin said in the mini-series, there needs to be a civilian government. In this case it's the civilian government that really shows leadership.
Laurel here..I think it is also worth noting that when Roslin comes to talk to the Adamas about how they are being unreasonable by risking the whole fleet to save this one person, instead of giving a direct order for them to give up the search, she appeals to their better sense of reason by suggesting to them that they are being irrational, then leaving it up to them. Showing true leadership (perhaps in a more feminine style than the military is used to) by convincing them that she is right versus ordering them to do what she wants.
Meanwhile, back on Galactica, the Adamas are expending every resource to find her. The Galactica crew is slowly becoming discouraged at the prospects of finding Starbuck and worried about the Adamas willingness to risk the fleet to do so. It is ultimately President Roslin who comes onboard to tell the boys to shake it off. While she is ultimately relieved when Starbuck shows up, she shows her resolve to make tough decisions even when the boys aren't willing too.
Laurel here...I can't tell you how relieved I was while watching this episode. Finally Starbuck seems to fit the role that she was meant to, being a tough woman who is skilled at her job but who doesn't need to act like a man in order to get the point across. She saves herself from the barren planet she has crashed on by reappropriating a Cylon fighter plane (which as it turns out she had shot down in the first place) with total resourcefulness and limited bravado. I have been so insulted by her character in the past episodes because they have all implied that she needs to act like "a man" in order to be tough and resourceful, but in this episode she displayed that by just being a PERSON who is tough and good at her job she has saved her own day.
This episode was also interesting because of a role reversal between president Roslin and Commander Adama. President Roslin had to be the one who was practical and considered the practical military implications of expending a ton of resources to save one pilot versus both of the Adamas putting their military training aside and indulging their emotional feelings about Starbuck and expending a bunch of fleet resources to save her.
Mark here... I totally agree and it was good to see a little bit of why Roslin is a good President, and why Adama shouldn't be the leader. Adama is a good military leader, but like Roslin said in the mini-series, there needs to be a civilian government. In this case it's the civilian government that really shows leadership.
Laurel here..I think it is also worth noting that when Roslin comes to talk to the Adamas about how they are being unreasonable by risking the whole fleet to save this one person, instead of giving a direct order for them to give up the search, she appeals to their better sense of reason by suggesting to them that they are being irrational, then leaving it up to them. Showing true leadership (perhaps in a more feminine style than the military is used to) by convincing them that she is right versus ordering them to do what she wants.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Act of Contrition
Mark here... this episode is called "Act of Contrition" and it starts out with the Galactica crew celebrating a pilot's 1000 flight, but an accident on the flight deck lets a missile loose and takes out several pilots. Thus, they're forced to search the flight for potential Viper pilots. Adama assigns Starbuck with training the new pilots. He is not aware that Starbuck passed his deceased son (and Apollo's younger brother) in flight school when he had failed. So we see that Starbuck works through her guilt in this episode...it's not quite as exciting as last episode although it's interesting to see the relationship between the Adamas and Starbuck. The episode ends on a cliffhanger. After Commander Adama learns the truth about his son (Zack)'s death he gets angry at Starbuck and tells her to do her job, reassigning the flight trainees to her. During training they are attacked by Cylons and Starbuck takes the lead in attack, resulting in her and a Cylon ship being damaged. She ejects her ship into the atmosphere of a foreign planet...
Laurel here..not much to add, true to form I fell asleep for a few minutes of this episode but Mark filled me in on what I missed. I'm excited to see what happens next episode tho.
Laurel here..not much to add, true to form I fell asleep for a few minutes of this episode but Mark filled me in on what I missed. I'm excited to see what happens next episode tho.
Bastille Day
Laurel here...So Mark and I are settling in for another night of Battlestar Gallactica. Still so relieved to be watching a show about grownups with a plot...
Mark made an amazing Eggplant Parmesan from Mark Bittman's book "How to Cook Everything", and I made an Arugula Salad from Ina Garten.
I really enjoyed this episode, while it takes on an episode specific situation we also learn a lot about the overall relationships between characters and you can see a lot interpersonal dynamics coming to life.
In this episode the Galactica is dealing with a water shortage that we learned about in the last episode. They come across a planet that has a lot of ice that could be utilized to solve their water situation. In order to mine the water from the newly discovered ice planet they need 1000 men...the supply of which can only be met by utilizing prison labor from the prison ship, the Astral Queen. Adama wants to force them to do the labor, Roslin is reluctant to use the prisoners as slave labor. So with Apollo, they come up with an idea to get the prisoners to volunteer to do the labor in exchange for points that will count towards their freedom.
Things go awry when Apollo visits the prison ship to serve as an ambassador to get the prisoners to agree to the proposal. A political prisoner (played by the actor who played Apollo in the original series) organizes a prison revolt. He takes Apollo and his team as hostages in order to satisfy his agenda to force an election for president, instead of accepting Roslin's authority.
Apollo's negotiating really shines through here, he treats the leader of the revolt with a lot of respect, offering a middle ground solution where the prisoners get to control their own ship and he promises elections within the next year, in exchange for their cooperation with mining the newly discovered planet for water.
Mark here...Laurel did a good job of summing up the events of this episode. The actual plot line of the prisoners isn't super riveting as much as the outcome. The interplay between the characters is very interesting as we get a little more development in Roslin and Adama's relationship with each other, which is still quite uneasy. There's respect but both are still suspicious of the other. Apollo seems to serve as a bridge between the two. This dynamic is upended by the end though as his solution to the prisoner revolt on the Astral Queen pleases neither of them. His call for an eventual election makes sense, although Roslin takes him into her confidence to reveal she has cancer (which we learned in the mini-series) and she's afraid knowledge of this will jeopardize her leadership.
Separately, Adama gives a very unstable Baltar a nuclear warhead with the goal of using the plutonium inside to create a Cylon detector. Adama clearly has reservations in trusting Baltar, but has no choice as he is the only scientist they have found in the fleet. We see though that Baltar is still having visions (and internal conversations) with Cylon Number 6...
Laurel again...I just wanted to add that Mark and I have been talking about how much we appreciate the diversity of the show. It's the future so it's easier for them to portray complete diversity without the complexity of the social contructs of the present day, a la Star Trek. Women seem to be on completely equal footing to the men...not to say that the women on the show don't have a feminine side, but femininity is treated as an asset and not a weakness (outside of Starbuck's denial of her femininity, which I still don't understand). Also many races and lots of mixed race people seem to be represented as well. We haven't seen any gay stuff yet but Mark assures me that comes later. I would like to see a person or two with a disability as well but you can't have it all I guess. Anyway it's super refreshing to watch a show that can just put all this stuff out there and not have to deal with any of the politics that a show would have to address if set in the present day. Although I guess they are pretty racist against robots at this point...
Mark made an amazing Eggplant Parmesan from Mark Bittman's book "How to Cook Everything", and I made an Arugula Salad from Ina Garten.
I really enjoyed this episode, while it takes on an episode specific situation we also learn a lot about the overall relationships between characters and you can see a lot interpersonal dynamics coming to life.
In this episode the Galactica is dealing with a water shortage that we learned about in the last episode. They come across a planet that has a lot of ice that could be utilized to solve their water situation. In order to mine the water from the newly discovered ice planet they need 1000 men...the supply of which can only be met by utilizing prison labor from the prison ship, the Astral Queen. Adama wants to force them to do the labor, Roslin is reluctant to use the prisoners as slave labor. So with Apollo, they come up with an idea to get the prisoners to volunteer to do the labor in exchange for points that will count towards their freedom.
Things go awry when Apollo visits the prison ship to serve as an ambassador to get the prisoners to agree to the proposal. A political prisoner (played by the actor who played Apollo in the original series) organizes a prison revolt. He takes Apollo and his team as hostages in order to satisfy his agenda to force an election for president, instead of accepting Roslin's authority.
Apollo's negotiating really shines through here, he treats the leader of the revolt with a lot of respect, offering a middle ground solution where the prisoners get to control their own ship and he promises elections within the next year, in exchange for their cooperation with mining the newly discovered planet for water.
Mark here...Laurel did a good job of summing up the events of this episode. The actual plot line of the prisoners isn't super riveting as much as the outcome. The interplay between the characters is very interesting as we get a little more development in Roslin and Adama's relationship with each other, which is still quite uneasy. There's respect but both are still suspicious of the other. Apollo seems to serve as a bridge between the two. This dynamic is upended by the end though as his solution to the prisoner revolt on the Astral Queen pleases neither of them. His call for an eventual election makes sense, although Roslin takes him into her confidence to reveal she has cancer (which we learned in the mini-series) and she's afraid knowledge of this will jeopardize her leadership.
Separately, Adama gives a very unstable Baltar a nuclear warhead with the goal of using the plutonium inside to create a Cylon detector. Adama clearly has reservations in trusting Baltar, but has no choice as he is the only scientist they have found in the fleet. We see though that Baltar is still having visions (and internal conversations) with Cylon Number 6...
Laurel again...I just wanted to add that Mark and I have been talking about how much we appreciate the diversity of the show. It's the future so it's easier for them to portray complete diversity without the complexity of the social contructs of the present day, a la Star Trek. Women seem to be on completely equal footing to the men...not to say that the women on the show don't have a feminine side, but femininity is treated as an asset and not a weakness (outside of Starbuck's denial of her femininity, which I still don't understand). Also many races and lots of mixed race people seem to be represented as well. We haven't seen any gay stuff yet but Mark assures me that comes later. I would like to see a person or two with a disability as well but you can't have it all I guess. Anyway it's super refreshing to watch a show that can just put all this stuff out there and not have to deal with any of the politics that a show would have to address if set in the present day. Although I guess they are pretty racist against robots at this point...
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