Battlestar Galactica Rewatch ( Part 11 )

Battlestar Galactica Rewatch ( Part 11 )

"Baltar's Escape"

IMDB

After way too long and gap I'm back to the original BSG rewatch and first up

is Baltar's Escape in which the fleets nemesis well doesn't escape, yeah that 

could be deemed a spoiler:)

So once again the council of elders who are a entirely different bunch to the last

council are flexing their muscles and moving to end martial law and with the threat

of the Cylons seemingly a thing of the past they believe that the Eastern Alliance 

can be handled with diplomacy and good will.

Adama is resistant but accepts their decision and of course it back fires when 

Baltar and the Nomens along with the crew of the Alliance ship hijack the shuttle

and capture the council members. They rig the landing bay with explosives and 

trade the lives of the council for their freedom but things don't go 100% according

to their plans and while the Alliance ship escapes the shuttle and Cylon fighter are

recovered and Baltar captured before he can trigger the explosives.

This wasn't a bad episode despite a lot happening that simply really didn't make that

much sense in the context of the story and situation the fleet was in. We know the 

council members have their positions thanks to the loss of the original council during

the exodus but it seems they are being written as total idiots. The Alliance are without

doubt a military entity with an agenda easily proved and no amount of polite small talk

with one commander should pull the wool over a member of the fleet one who not that

long ago saw their worlds burn thanks to trusting words from a known threat.

The upside is that at least one when faced with the obvious truth didn't beg for forgiveness

or understanding but was willing to get in harms way to facilitate a rescue, Siress Tinia

played by Ina Bolin was worth of a position on the council and well matched to Adama

even if that troubled Colonel Tigh:)

Ina Bolin as Siress Tinia

As for the little nitpicks then prison doors with big holes in them and key pads within

easy reach, command staff talking openly in front of prisoners, lacky council security who

should have joined the military if they had any backbone and well the list could go on.

The Centurions in pieces was funny though and quite acceptable, you would want to 

examine the latest models and look for exploits and their part in the rescue plan was

unexpected but made sense. The final point for this episode was clearly indicating that

Baltar is a coward, the Nomens and Alliance were prepared to die and gave a good

analysis of the hostage situation while Baltar went to pieces. It's an interesting character

we've been given, sold out his race for power over the survivors and talked himself

into a position within the Cylons yet at heart a pale shadow of the best the Colonials

had to offer.

I'm in charge, really I am.

Experiment In Terra

IMDB

The vipers are tracking the escaping Alliance ship and when Apollo is drawn away the

ship of lights takes him on board and gives him a mission by John ( Edward Mulhare )

to save the people of the planet Terra the homeworld of the Alliance and it's opponents.

The beings on the ship are advanced energy based entities and as such have limited

abilities in the physical world hence working through Apollo who the kinda disguise as 

a native of Terra and they insert him back into the life of one Charlie Watts a military

officer captured and detained on an Alliance world.

Charlie aka Apollo with help from John (unseen by everyone else) tries to convince 

those who recognise the threat of the Alliance that they are going to launch a pre-emptive

nuclear strike but the President is convinced a peace treaty will save them all despite

knowing of the destruction of their colony worlds. Eventually the Alliance launch their

attack but the Galactica flying at light speed arrives in time to destroy all the ICBM's

in flight which brings about what we assume will be a genuine peace treaty.

Terra has forcefields, Galactica doesn't...

I like this episode but like the previous story it really does rely on having at least

one character act really stupid, in this case it's the President who is actively covering

up the slaughter of colony worlds, imprisoning his own people but seems to think

the Alliance will deal honestly and openly with him. Mr President they are not only

winning this war but have got you to aid in their propaganda campaign, yes shades

of Baltar and the cylons but without the selfish agenda.

My biggest issue is why with a plentiful supply of ships capable of long range space

travel and the resources that would bring them are the Alliance bothering with a 

nuclear war on Terra and sticking around. Why not get all the important people to

a colony world, no real need to hide the fact then nuke the planet from orbit, let the

nuclear winter do it's thing and no risk to the higher ups at all. I think in an effort to 

make the story resonate with an audience at that time the MAD scenario and Cold War 

were front and center.

I'd trust him no matter what he said.

Aside from that, I still love the light ship and the snazzy white uniforms. Starbuck

and his wide field stun blaster would have solved situations in dozens of episodes

of any series of Star Trek you care to mention and hey didn't the advanced technology

of Terra look so 70's but Melody Anderson as Amnesia (yet an oldie but a goodie)

was a lot of fun as was Edward as John.

Maybe it was me but it did seem BSG was pulling a little bit of Star Wars with the 

costuming on the light ship and maybe Stargate echoing the same ship with it's 

base line for the city of Atlantis and the Ancients. Either way the light ship is one

of the stand out elements of the original Battlestar Galactica and the simply change

in costuming worked perfectly.

Battlestar Galactica Rewatch ( Part 10 )

Battlestar Galactica Rewatch ( Part 10 )

Greetings From Earth

This story is feature length on the DVD, not sure if it was broadcast as such on
American or British TV since I certainly recall it being two episodes when I
watched yet on telly so long ago.
So another long range patrol which has Starbuck taking a nap, life sure has got
boring since leaving the Cylons far behind but hey the scanners pick up
a sub-light vessel with six life forms aboard. The Vipers take it in tow and as they
return the gossip washes through the fleet in expecatation of meeting people
from the planet Earth.
On arrival they find two adults and four children in suspended animation and
thus begins the political back and forth and power play between Adama and
the council with the warriors and security men as the pawns.
The issues surrounding opening the pods despite the risk of death has
Apollo championing their release to continue their journey unmoloested, the male
awakes and being confused and under pressure stuns a security officer.
The council demands action which allows a small window of opportunity to remove
the ship and it's passengers from the Galactica and send it on it's way.
Apollo and Starbuck escort the ship to the planet Paradeen where they find an
almost empty world but a ranch built for the group over seen by two humanoid
robots.  The history of the world and the conflict with the ominous Eastern Alliance
is then revealed and indeed a warship of this powerful entity is heading for
Paradeen as it has detected unidentifed vessels (the Vipers).  After a little angst and
family drama which leaves the Vipers badly damaged the colonials capture the
Eastern Alliance ship and return to the Galactica leaving this new family behind and
hopefully safe from reprisals.

Ok then a feature length episode which actually went by pretty quickly which is always
a good thing but the episode did feel a little different with the introduction of these
new humans and the power play on board the Galactica. The Eastern Alliance with it's
political overtones of the later 70's and the Cold War mixed with Nazi vibes was certainly
different to the Cylon menace but works pretty well. I'm not sure if someone born after
the fall of the wall and the Cold War ended will get as much out of this as is being offered
but you can never go wrong with a call back to the Nazi regime.
Lets begin with the little nitpicks and they are, you don't get so far into a series from
this era without being able to accept some of the limitations and choices made in television
production back then.
So why such a long patrol, I'm pretty sure having single seater fighters with sleeping pilots
is not a good thing especially given long range sensors the Galactica can deploy and when
they find the lower tech ship I didn't quite understand why they automatically assumed they
were from Earth and not just another remnant of the original exodus.
I did of course love the disco lighting on the sleeper units, very much of the era and speaking
of the social standards of the time Athena a bridge officer is now the school teacher, granted a
hot school teacher but the kids are too young to appreciate her in that respect:)

Party Time

It's strange this is perhaps only the second time the colonial security have made their presence
felt, granted they were needed to enforce the council's decision but it all seemed rather petty
and perhaps indicitive of the time they have for such things with the belief the Cylons are not
a problem anymore.
There were some good laughs with the hide the alien and Jolly got his time in the spotlight but
it all seemed forced especially the callous disregard for the lives of the people on the ship but
then again the powers that be have ignored their own people in steerage for so long so maybe
not that much of a surprise.
The biggest issue with this episode is the manipulation of time, speed and distance when dealing
with all the ships and their journeys, the small shuttle like vessel (repainted for Buck Rogers)
was sublight so really couldn't go anywhere significant in the time scale the story was set in
but we've ignored the issues with  light speed and flank speed etc so shut up Michael:)
So we have the Alliance, great look ship and the uniforms well black and shiny so they much be
bad guys even with when wearing a helmet visor indoors. The ship unlike any other also gave us
the cramped submarine feeling often attempted on other shows but rarely achieved and we get a
very definite dialogue as to how nasty these people really are, no confusion at all.

It was interesting that Terra has given birth to at least two political factions who have achieved
interstellar flight yet someone co-existed for so long to reach that point, not quite sure that is
a reasonable situation unless there is a lot more backstory we are not privy too.
When we finally get to Paradeen we meet the two androids (Hector and Vector) who were awful
in terms of the story, the hunour they were supposed to bring has not aged well and we also have
the issue that sentient androids exist but the rest of the technology seems a little lagging right
down to the appearence of a Laserdisc.
However the use of the Expo 67 building in Quebec was genius and production gold, like many
developments built for exhibition they have an impractical look which is easily substituted for
an alien asthetic. The ravages of the Canadian weather also gave the structures more of an
abandoned look to them so in this respect BSG were blessed to have access to them.

Give they guy a break

The romantic or angst element of the story brought forth by Sarah ( Kelly Harmon ) and aimed
at Apollo seemed a little quick and was resolved just as quickly but the studios love a happy
ending and a group on a frontier world banding together as a family is very American.
The episode closes with the Alliance destroyer landing on the Galactica and the crew being
awed at the size of the Battlestar setting the scene for the inevitable conflict as the fleet could
not and would not avoid getting involved with the humans on Terra who are the next step in
their journey to Earth.

Grettings from Earth IMDB
Greetings from Earth Wiki
Battlestar Wiki