Battlestar Galactica- 1/21 "Bastille Day"(Spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

Since nobody else has gotten around to it(shame on you), I’ve started a thread for the new BSG episode.

Picking up from last weeks episode, They’ve found water. Now they need to get it out. That requires manpower, and luckily, they have a transport full of prisoners(mentioned in the pilot) who can be induced to do the job. As usual, this isn’t as easy as it seems.

My thoughts:

-I know that Apollo had no authority to make the deal at the end, and it does smack of giving into terrorists, but it did seem appropriate. Actually, it does make me wonder if they were planning to have elections once the president’s term expired, though, I suspect Adama and Roslin were more upset by Apollo making that deal then anything else.

I also wonder: What happens if they happen to pick up the secratary of defense or something like that? Somebody who survived the destruction and has been trying to follow the fleet for a little while(It’s only been about a week or so, so it’s still plasuible such a thing could happen). Likewise, what if one of Adams’s superiors shows up?(Though I’m not sure if remaking “The Living Legend” is a good idea).

-I was wondering how they were going to justify sending Starbuck into the ship with the marines, but they did a decent enough job justifying it. If she starts showing up on all the commando teams, I’m going to be less amused unless they can justify her being cross-trained as a marine.

-I’m glad that at least Adama is starting to notice that Batler seems to be going a bit loopy, and made it rather obvious he puts up with him just because they have no one better.

Though I sure as hell would be very reluntant to let Balter anywhere near a nuke in his state, and I personally wondered “Okay, you want to expose cylons to radiation to detect them. I just hope you know how to do this without giving regular humans cancer”

-Apparently the colonies, or at least Kobol, currently have, or once had, Hellnetic Pantheon. I’ve heard at least one person say in previous episodes “Thank the Gods”, which suggests worship of Zeus and Apollo(as well as the others) never died in this universe. That or those are the “Old gods” and that at least one Monotheistic relgion is popular. We don’t have enough information to tell.

But interestingly, all of the Cylons seem to believe in merely “God”. I can’t rememebr if any of the Humans do, though none of them seem to find the concept of “God” rather then “Gods” to unusual.

-The Terrorist leader reminded me of “Che Guevara”, from what little I know about both. Both have written at least one book, both seem to be somewhat big with segments of the college crowd, while most others feel he is a terrorist. However, I don’t think Che went to Prison.

I could be wrong, though, and if anyone can think of a comparison, feel free to correct me.

I’m glad he was smart enough to realized that Adama was just stalling with his “negoiations”.

-Is it just me, or does Roslin seem like she’s trying to prove her balls are bigger then Adama’s? I’m glad she’s not a naive peacenik and can make the tought decisions, but at times it seems she’s trying a little too hard.

2

In my view, Apollo wildly overstepped his authority - even if there were going to be elections, the convicts now think they got their way, and saying that there would be elections anyway would not carry water (pun intended). So now the government does deal - in fact give in - to terrorists. Any military organization would immediately discipline severly someone like Apollo, but this is TV.

The humans in the original series were supposedly the source of Egyptian and I guess, Greek mythology. The dopey book “Charriots of the Gods” was quite popular at the time. (Come to think of it, it is also the basis for Stargate). Although I don’t understand how the first mate in Moby Dick got there, unless it is in the “man versus god” mode.

3

What exactly did Tom Zarek do to be condemned as a terrorist? If they said, I missed it. It puzzled me because they alternately speak of him as being guilty of terrorism and as having gone to prison as a “matter of principle”. It also makes a huge difference how we empathize with the character. Did he:[ul][li]carry out, or order a terrorist action personally?[]was a “card carrying member” of an organization that commited terrorist actions?[]was the leader of a “political arm” branch of a terrorist organization?was convicted of something like sedition for publicly praising terrorist actions?[/ul][/li]
BTW: As I see it, the boarding party could have slaughtered the prisoners at that point, so what Lee Adama made was a promise, not a bargain. A fine distinction to be sure, but I think it’s there.

4

I believe he blew up some regular folks with explosives.

5

Another solid episode. This one worked well as something of a “stand-alone” episode while still tying in strongly with the previous episode’s story of needing to obtain water. I am so thankful that science fiction shows nowadays are utilizing story arcs that last several episodes or even the whole season, rather than the “planet-of-the-week” episodes ala the first few Star Trek series.

I’m interested to see where the writers go with Boxey. He was tagging along with Starbuck this week–maybe not the best role model–and he came across as pretty snotty when the XO asked where Boomer was. He’s played by the same actor that played him in the mini-series and it’s funny because he looks like he’s grown a foot or so since they made the mini-series, but only a couple of weeks or so have passed in “show time.”

Speaking of Starbuck, I like that they are maintaining her hot-shot, obnoxious attitude and not trying to make her completely sympathetic.

I really, really like Edward James Almos as Adama. Great casting all around, actually, and the overall quality of the acting on this show is one of the things that really sets BSG apart from other current science fiction shows.

Looking forward to next week!

6

I remember that. It seems here that they merely have/had a religion very much like the ancient greek one in their civilization as well.

7

My take on Appllo’s “deal making” was that he didn’t have much of a choice. Sure the Marines (and I like that they have marines for marine-type duties) could have slaughtered the prisoners, and gotten the hostages out, but who would then extract the water.

Remember: part of the deal was that Zarek would send one thousand men to extract the water.

8

We’re not told a lot about Zarek’s backstory in this episode (saving that for later, perhaps?) but from the conversation between Billy and PO2 Dualla we learn that he lived on Saggitarian, which was apparently treated by the Colonial government as a second-class state. Zarek was apparently a member of a militant separatist group that blew up a government building. IIRC, the producers said when Hatch signed on for the show that he was playing a “Nelson Mandela” type character.

9

Re: Greek god pantheon.
Zarek goes into great detail describing the things that the god Apollo was responsible for. And when Galactica called for him, Zarek says something like “Zues is calling.” I’d say that’s more than a passing similarity to the Greek structure. So do they do it to keep things familiar (and not have some goofy god system that falls apart because of continuity errors with different writers each week), or does it tie-in down the road?

10

I missed the first 20 minutes of the episode, so I may have missed something. But why does everyone refer to “all the Cylons believe in a God”? AFAIK, only Number 6 has said anything similar. I think it may be a bit of a stretch to apply that to all Cylons - I think people may be trying to “borgify” them. They seem much more independent here.

Solid episode. But I think Adama and President Stands-With-Fist need to hammer out some regulation revisions - particularly the fraternization rule. Adama mentioned in the mini that people need to start having babies. Thus, Boomer needs to be having more sex, not less. And preferably on camera. (I wonder if Cylon sleepers can have children. They’re fully biological.)

11

To reiterate what someone said earlier, the original BSG series borrowed from the “Chariots of the Gods” idea that early man was visited by aliens he saw as gods - in that series, we are meant to assume that the ancient Greek and Egyptian civilizations were founded by the 13th tribe of Kobol, who brought their religion along with them. The “Lords of Kobol” are then, ostensibly, the same 12 gods we think of as the “Olympians” - Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Athena, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares, and Hephestos (IIRC).

Given that, in the new series, Earth and the 13th tribe don’t exist at all (at least as far as Adama and Roslyn know), there’s no telling how this’ll play out in the new version.

12

Was anyone else bothered a little by the fact the city Boomer(Methinks Cylon) and Helo were walking through seemed suprisingly intact for a planet that recently got nuked? Was this the one city they decided not to nuke?

13

My wife and I discussed that. We conjectured that perhaps the bombs were neutron bombs, which are supposed to leave the infrastructure intact.

Of course, if they weren’t then shouldn’t Baltar be dead? That bomb went off awful close to his home. As the the intro says “Some [cylons] even think they’re human.”

14

That doesn’t bother me too much, it’s just the whole Helo sub-story that bothers me. I like Helo, but I don’t see how he can survive. Where are they going with it?

15

I suspect that Boomer Cylon is using him to ferret out any human resistance groups on Caprica. How that effects the fleet I haven’t the faintest idea. Perhaps he manages to get a message to the fleet before the snuffs it?

16

City Boomer is definitely a Cylon, and this one probably knows it. She was shown with other Cylons just before coming upon Helo. The one on the Galactica is the only one who doesn’t know she’s a Cylon.

17

I didn’t notice that, but I did notice how the other cylons saw them and let them go without attempting to capture them. That’s enough for me.

18

Anyone else notice the similarities between this and the orignal series episode “Gun on Ice Planet Zero”?

In that one, a group of convicts are sent down to a frozen planet to destroy a gun that would destroy the Galactica. Ok, only the ice planet and convicts, but still it seems intended. (This isn’t a complaint, just an observation)

One thing I like about this series is you really get claustraphobic. It conveys the cramped quarters these people are living with. The President conducting all her business in that little Colonial One ship (called something else in the mini and renamed due to the President being on it). They showed her going to bed and I assume that was on the same ship.

19

I haven’t seen “Gun on Ice Planet Zero” but it does seem to be an inspiration for “Bastille Day”.

Though “Gun on Ice Planet Zero” itself sounds like it was drawing from “The Guns of Navarone” and “The Dirtry Dozen”.

20

I wonder if Helo could be one of those Cylons who believe they’re human? That could explain why they haven’t killed him.

I think by now Boomer would know whether there was some sort of underground resistance movement. Since there apparently isn’t one, what’s the point of keeping Helo alive? Do they really need Helo to find the remaining humans?

Question about Boomer 2.0, does she share knowledge with her counterparts? Otherwise, she’d be missing knowledge of events that she & Helo experienced together after the initial attack, right? Wouldn’t Helo get on to her?

"Remember that George guy I gave up my seat for?
“Sure, I got him to safety, then came back for you.”
“Ha! His name wasn’t George, you sneaky Cylon bitch! Why are you keeping me alive?”