Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 Premiere “Occupation / Precipice”
posted by JediSheltie @ 11:42 PM
Okay, this is my bid to get fired. This concludes our cryptic opening statement for the day.
I'm not sure when exactly I started to really enjoy feeling like my face had just been smashed into a counter-top after spending an hour watching TV. Okay, perhaps that's veering into hyperbole, but suffice to say, the grueling experience of making it through the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica brings with it a personal sense of accomplishment. Some might say, “Isn't that a bad thing?” No, it's a very good thing. Eliciting visceral emotion from something as passive as sitting on a couch and watching TV is a very good thing.
I love My Name is Earl, huge Doctor Who fan from a while back and the new episodes are like visiting an old friend with a very nice new suit, I like Monk and Pych for the humor and mystery, and Heroes is still promising, but it's only after watching Battlestar Galactica that I think, “Best damn show on TV.”
Well, after far too long an absence, Galactica came roaring back, and there's no lack of the sharp, pointy edges that make you bleed for wanting to hug it when it shows up on your front door.
The 2 hour season opener begins roughly 4 months after the season finale. The Cylons have found humanity's new home thanks to the nuclear detonation aboard the Rising Sun over a year ago. They showed up feeling kind of bad about that whole “genocide thing” and wanting to forge a new era in human-Cylon relations.
The phrase, “Too soon,” seems to sum it up. Much like Gilbert Godfrey's audience at the Hefner Roast, humanity did not warm to the idea of the Cylon's self-appointed stewardship so soon after the whole “we're going to exterminate you” episode. Leading the charge is Col. Tigh, who was not known as the most upbeat, conciliatory of individuals prior to spending a few weeks in Cylon detention where his eye is removed, forcibly. Now he's seen the bend and rowed very far around it.
In his absence, Chief Tyrol and Anders have been keeping the resistance warm. Tyrol leaves his wife, Cally (whom I totally dig, it's the red hair), and kid each night to go blow things up. Tigh's release signals a ratcheting up of the “insurgency,” as the Cylon's refer to it, wherein people strap on explosives and enter crowded places in which they... explode.
I mentioned the pointy bits, right?
You're not here to agree or disagree with a certain country's foreign policy. You weren't there to agree or disagree the same country's foreign policy when Doctor Leonard H. McCoy complained about the "brush wars of the 20th Century" in A Private Little War. You're here to think. That's good sci-fi, it's always been good sci-fi. The new Galactica is smart enough keep the edges dimly defined. There's no completely obvious road map for comparison to real world events, but the events of the show have relevance to the events in our own world.
Somewhere in nearby space, the Galactica, Pegasus, and the remaining fleet lay in wait, as Admiral Adama pushes every member of the fleet to the breaking point and beyond in preparation for the rescue attempt he must stage. Ever the pragmatist, he knows a rescue isn't in the best interests of the space faring survivors, so he plans to split the fleet. The Galactica will lead the rescue of the inhabitants of New Caprica, while Lee Adama will take the Pegasus and the remainder of the fleet on in the search for Earth.
Starbuck, sporting a far more fetching long cut, has spent the last four months since the inception of the occupation killing Cylons. Well, the same Cylon. Leoben, who seems representative of the greater Cylon problem of wishful thinking, is trying the “personal touch” in the crusade for monotheism and true love. Inhabiting a cozy cell built for two, Leoben tries to get Kara to see things his way. She kills him. Five times, so far. Everything is generally going swimmingly for Kara until the Leohen the Sixth shows up with, well... she's shorter, just as blond, named Kacey, and supposedly the fruits of Starbuck's purloined ovaries.
C'mon, this is the only review of this show that will use the term “purloined ovaries.”
Finally we have our respective leaders. Former President Roslin has settled into her previous career as a school teacher, with a little insurgency on the side. She expresses a bit of displeasure with Tigh's most recent “explody” course of action. She and the Cylons both, for that matter. Baltar, on the other hand, is wallowing in his misery as the human puppet President of the Cylon regime.
I love this version of Baltar. In a way, it's emblematic of the entire “re-imagining” of the original series. The first Baltar was little more than a Snidely Whiplash, mustache twirling cartoon villain who willfully sold out his entire race for his own survival and gain. Complexity to this character, there was not... His crime was the attempted murder of the human race. The Gaius Baltar of this series is a self serving egomaniac whose own tragic failings are preyed upon by the Cylons. This Baltar is guilty, at most, of the criminally negligent homicide of the human race.
The episodes weren't complete perfection. Tigh's human bombs are curiously ineffective when it is plot convenient, and, as I've alluded to a couple times here, the Cylons seemed way too optimistic about "forging a new era of human-Cylon relations." Someone was thinking they'd be greeted as liberators, maybe... I'll allow a couple plot contrivances to tell a compelling story, and that is certainly the case here.
So that's where we begin, and god only knows where it will end. I will be glued to the tube every Friday, nails buried in the arm of the couch, waiting to find out.
Run, Cally, run.
A few words in closing...
I will state, unequivocally, that Ronald D. Moore perpetrated one of the worst offenses in the history of science fiction by his pointless portrayal of the demise of one of the greatest characters in all of sci-fi history. It will remain forever inexcusable.
As far as penance goes, I don't think you could do much better than this show.
I know, if you haven't watched the show, it's harder than most episodic television to hop on board. It's one of the catch22s of serialized dramas that their most compelling aspect can also be their most forbidding. Grit your teeth and jump in. Find kindred geeks who will explain what's going on to you. It shouldn't be too hard.
Oh, and if you're one of those really stubborn people who only dig their heels in harder whenever “everyone” tells them something is good. Well, sorry. But it really is good. Very, very good.
I'm not sure when exactly I started to really enjoy feeling like my face had just been smashed into a counter-top after spending an hour watching TV. Okay, perhaps that's veering into hyperbole, but suffice to say, the grueling experience of making it through the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica brings with it a personal sense of accomplishment. Some might say, “Isn't that a bad thing?” No, it's a very good thing. Eliciting visceral emotion from something as passive as sitting on a couch and watching TV is a very good thing.
I love My Name is Earl, huge Doctor Who fan from a while back and the new episodes are like visiting an old friend with a very nice new suit, I like Monk and Pych for the humor and mystery, and Heroes is still promising, but it's only after watching Battlestar Galactica that I think, “Best damn show on TV.”
Well, after far too long an absence, Galactica came roaring back, and there's no lack of the sharp, pointy edges that make you bleed for wanting to hug it when it shows up on your front door.
The 2 hour season opener begins roughly 4 months after the season finale. The Cylons have found humanity's new home thanks to the nuclear detonation aboard the Rising Sun over a year ago. They showed up feeling kind of bad about that whole “genocide thing” and wanting to forge a new era in human-Cylon relations.
The phrase, “Too soon,” seems to sum it up. Much like Gilbert Godfrey's audience at the Hefner Roast, humanity did not warm to the idea of the Cylon's self-appointed stewardship so soon after the whole “we're going to exterminate you” episode. Leading the charge is Col. Tigh, who was not known as the most upbeat, conciliatory of individuals prior to spending a few weeks in Cylon detention where his eye is removed, forcibly. Now he's seen the bend and rowed very far around it.
In his absence, Chief Tyrol and Anders have been keeping the resistance warm. Tyrol leaves his wife, Cally (whom I totally dig, it's the red hair), and kid each night to go blow things up. Tigh's release signals a ratcheting up of the “insurgency,” as the Cylon's refer to it, wherein people strap on explosives and enter crowded places in which they... explode.
I mentioned the pointy bits, right?
You're not here to agree or disagree with a certain country's foreign policy. You weren't there to agree or disagree the same country's foreign policy when Doctor Leonard H. McCoy complained about the "brush wars of the 20th Century" in A Private Little War. You're here to think. That's good sci-fi, it's always been good sci-fi. The new Galactica is smart enough keep the edges dimly defined. There's no completely obvious road map for comparison to real world events, but the events of the show have relevance to the events in our own world.
Somewhere in nearby space, the Galactica, Pegasus, and the remaining fleet lay in wait, as Admiral Adama pushes every member of the fleet to the breaking point and beyond in preparation for the rescue attempt he must stage. Ever the pragmatist, he knows a rescue isn't in the best interests of the space faring survivors, so he plans to split the fleet. The Galactica will lead the rescue of the inhabitants of New Caprica, while Lee Adama will take the Pegasus and the remainder of the fleet on in the search for Earth.
Starbuck, sporting a far more fetching long cut, has spent the last four months since the inception of the occupation killing Cylons. Well, the same Cylon. Leoben, who seems representative of the greater Cylon problem of wishful thinking, is trying the “personal touch” in the crusade for monotheism and true love. Inhabiting a cozy cell built for two, Leoben tries to get Kara to see things his way. She kills him. Five times, so far. Everything is generally going swimmingly for Kara until the Leohen the Sixth shows up with, well... she's shorter, just as blond, named Kacey, and supposedly the fruits of Starbuck's purloined ovaries.
C'mon, this is the only review of this show that will use the term “purloined ovaries.”
Finally we have our respective leaders. Former President Roslin has settled into her previous career as a school teacher, with a little insurgency on the side. She expresses a bit of displeasure with Tigh's most recent “explody” course of action. She and the Cylons both, for that matter. Baltar, on the other hand, is wallowing in his misery as the human puppet President of the Cylon regime.
I love this version of Baltar. In a way, it's emblematic of the entire “re-imagining” of the original series. The first Baltar was little more than a Snidely Whiplash, mustache twirling cartoon villain who willfully sold out his entire race for his own survival and gain. Complexity to this character, there was not... His crime was the attempted murder of the human race. The Gaius Baltar of this series is a self serving egomaniac whose own tragic failings are preyed upon by the Cylons. This Baltar is guilty, at most, of the criminally negligent homicide of the human race.
The episodes weren't complete perfection. Tigh's human bombs are curiously ineffective when it is plot convenient, and, as I've alluded to a couple times here, the Cylons seemed way too optimistic about "forging a new era of human-Cylon relations." Someone was thinking they'd be greeted as liberators, maybe... I'll allow a couple plot contrivances to tell a compelling story, and that is certainly the case here.
So that's where we begin, and god only knows where it will end. I will be glued to the tube every Friday, nails buried in the arm of the couch, waiting to find out.
Run, Cally, run.
A few words in closing...
I will state, unequivocally, that Ronald D. Moore perpetrated one of the worst offenses in the history of science fiction by his pointless portrayal of the demise of one of the greatest characters in all of sci-fi history. It will remain forever inexcusable.
As far as penance goes, I don't think you could do much better than this show.
I know, if you haven't watched the show, it's harder than most episodic television to hop on board. It's one of the catch22s of serialized dramas that their most compelling aspect can also be their most forbidding. Grit your teeth and jump in. Find kindred geeks who will explain what's going on to you. It shouldn't be too hard.
Oh, and if you're one of those really stubborn people who only dig their heels in harder whenever “everyone” tells them something is good. Well, sorry. But it really is good. Very, very good.
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