# Battlestar Galactica 2.15 — "Scar" (rampant spoilage) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 3, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898 "2006-02-03T21:01:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/41 "2006-02-04T17:57:15Z")
I think Starbuck’s behavior is right in character. You’ve got a rough 'n tumble, love 'em and leave 'em guy type chick who fell for someone a lot harder than she thought she would, then had to break a promise to come back, which doesn’t go well with her self image as the “I can always pull victory outta my ass somehow, and the worse the odds are the better I like 'em” hotshot. Then she has to deal with the whole Pegasus thing, the initial uncertainty and unease about the changes to the fleet and personnel–gets promoted to a job that’s so perfect for her and so much up her alley it isn’t funny, and by a CO who with slightly different circumstances could be the one person she could look up to more than Adama, then her father figure tells her to A) go against everything a soldier IS by fragging a superior officer–and on the bridge no less; and B) KILL that person who with slightly different circumstances could be her perfect mentor. Okay, so that doesn’t happen, the pressure is off. Unfortunately for the tightly wound, risk loving personality, having the pressure taken off is often the very worst thing that could happen. Suddenly there’s all this time to THINK and REMEMBER and HATE YOURSELF FOR FUCKING UP, and this type of person is SO not good at regulating her own behavior from inside–that’s what risk and pressure are for, to keep her from flying apart. So she goes for what she knows, drink until your head shuts up, get laid a bunch to take care of those nagging little urges (it couldn’t possibly be that she only wants to get laid by one certain guy, oh no, that would be too much like mushy love or something!) and shoot some bad guys. Problem is, she can’t drink enough to shut up her head, she IS grieving over losing someone, and there’s a part of her that hates herself for being willing to frag her CO and for being so damned relieved she didn’t have to do it, and part of her kinda sorta thinks how nice it would be if she just kinda lost it for JUUUUUST long enough for that legendary Cylon raider Scar to take her out–it’s a hero’s death, right? Nobody would look down on her if she got taken out that way–when she was naming the list at the end, she was accepting the fact that she herself wasn’t on that list and it’s maybe okay to keep living. This ep is all about redemption. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/42 "2006-02-04T18:03:38Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > With two battlestars, can’t we have some storylines involving the humans fighting back or something similar to the first season with battles? Seems this season revolves around how much humans suck. “We’re not machines!! Well, ok, we sell our kids for money and booze it up but we ain’t toasters!!”. I have a bad feeling that we will only get to Pegasus when we are watching it get blown up by the rebel’s nuke. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/43 "2006-02-04T18:46:45Z")
> [@AerynSun](#): > > Chiggy von Richthofen - sure, SAAB did it, but they were forthrightly stealing the story from history, and hell, it’s a good story. > . I kept thinking of that the entire episode. It worked well, but It would have worked better if Chiggy had been metioned a few time over the last episode or two. Some throwaway line like “We lost another viper, but nobody saw what happened” ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/44 "2006-02-04T20:43:32Z")
Could be worse, the crew of Galactica _could_ find the U.S.S. Voyager’s “Magical Shuttlecraft Replicator” and modify it to replicate Vipers… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/45 "2006-02-04T20:49:18Z")
I could use more flashbacks of Starbuck getting her panties pulled down. I’m starting to believe that the last episode was supposed to confirm Apollo as straight but his pulling away from Starbuck makes me wonder. Sexy woman jumps you and you get all upset because she comes on too strong. Damn you man! ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/46 "2006-02-04T21:44:03Z")
My blood pressure was going up during the first 15 minutes. What? The fleet’s been hanging out for four weeks, the Cylons have known where there were the whole and all they’ve sent is one Raider?? Thankfully, they later gave us semi-plausible explanations. Whew. So now we’re getting some good info on the fleet. They can mine an asteroid for “ore” and turn it into new vipers. With magic Viper-building ore! But that answers that question anyway. And some juicy details about Raiders! They reincarnate, and they ain’t happy about getting killed over and over. Scar’s first appearance was great, I thought. He just looked evil & malevolent & dangerous. About the 3D flying. It _is_ cool and all, but I have to wonder how smart it is flying through a dense asteroid field, turning around and flying backwards at high speeds. Starbuck’s drinking binge is understandable, but for crying out loud. It looked like she & Apollo polished off a liter while they were talking and then after their almost-sex she downed another liter. Unless their liquor is only about 6% alcohol, that’s got to be just about a lethal dose. And all she needs is a couple extra hours of sleep to be ready to fly? I thought pilots these days required 12 hours of no alcohol before flying. Don’t know how it is with military pilots. speaking of military pilots, anyone know who the little red-headed male pilot was? I liked him. Kat was bugging me too, has for awhile. But the scene in the briefing room was well done. I liked how Kat got in Starbuck’s face, but when Starbuck stepped forward into Kat’s face, she tried to be all tough, “what’re you gonna do, hit me?” But she was backing up anyway. Starbuck was right, Kat was being a little shit to cover her own fear, as well as her disappointment with her hero not acting like her hero. I also agree that really was Starbuck’s kill. Starbuck has grown and knew she couldn’t take Scar on her own and was willing to give the kill to Kat. Realized she _had_ to actually, if she really wanted Scar dead. I was really impressed with Helo this ep. About damn time Ron Moore did something with besides shout “Sharon!” He’s such an all around nice guy and seems very sage. The guy you go to for some old fashioned good advice, no games. His relationship with Starbuck is great. Honest good buddies with no sexual tension drama and all that crap. The final scene was just about as perfect a feel-good ending I could want. I almost got a little misty there. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/47 "2006-02-05T00:15:30Z")
> [@Grossbottom](#): > > \*Maybe Starbuck will be a loud abusive drunk, and start spouting off about how Adama doesn’t know the way to Earth. That could be interesting. I thought the way she actually did something similar: with a sarcastic/knowing smirk and gleam in her eye was well played (acted). \*\* ronciycyberpunk\*\*'s noting the tendency to introduce a bad guy and kill 'em by the end worries me too: I think it may be because BSG is now a certified hit. Whereas before it was a miniseries and each episode was intended to be viewed as a piece of a whole, that doesn’t sell as well in syndication – where something more episodic makes a show easier to sell [and more profitable] I hope I am wrong - but that is partially what I think we may be seeing: the development away from a miniseries format to a more episodic format. LOL \*\* Elvisl1ves\*\* for the USC crack ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/48 "2006-02-05T02:07:32Z")
_Posted by **Finagle** _: > [@](#): > > I hated the flashback in the cockpit when Starbuck is thinking about the guy back on Caprica. It was supposed to take place in an instant – it’s not like you have time for extended reverie in a dogfight. But we could see a long series of explosions reflected in Starbuck’s face which means that she was spending five or ten seconds daydreaming. I’m pretty sure that you don’t become the top pilot in the fleet by mooning around during battles. That’s a cinematic technique; I wouldn’t take it literally. Boomer did a good job of describing what a huge advantage Cylon resurrection is – turning death into a learning experience rather than the wasteful loss of a person. I guess for Cylons, even what _does_ kill you makes you stronger. (Until they lost their resurrection ship; now they’re learning about mortality.) When the original series was on, one of its many silly aspects was that the Cylon raiders were flown by humanoid Cylon robots, who sat in cockpits and manipulated controls. At the time I thought, “why isn’t the whole ship a robot?” So that’s something I like about the new show. Technical question: why doesn’t the trail of exhaust left behind by the Vipers expand and dissipate rapidly in space? Assuming there’s a reason, I’d have to guess that it’s particulate matter and not gaseous; do we know what the Viper engines actually run on? (And they always seem to be burning; apparently Viper pilots don’t like to coast. If a Viper heads out at top acceleration, say 6 gs, with the intention of going no further out than, say, 10,000 clicks, it’s going to have to do a 180 at the 5,000 click point and decelerate at 6 gs the rest of the way. You can’t continually accelerate in one direction and then just head back the other way – you’ve got to cancel the tremendous speed you’ve built up, which takes as much energy to get rid of as it did to attain.) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/49 "2006-02-05T02:20:15Z")
For that matter ships and missiles shouldn’t leave a smoke trail at all, unless they’re accellerating. The smoke should retain the same relative velocity as it’s source. It’s only in atmosphere that smoke more or less instantly loses it’s velocity relative to the air. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/50 "2006-02-05T03:02:46Z")
Bleah. I still love this show, just not last week or this week. I can forgive a bunch of story cliches, but when the character development gets cliched (Kat vs. Starbuck), I eventually start to groan. And don’t forget: **Lee** : What about us? **Kara** : There is no us! Thank you, Dawson’s Creek Writers. I can’t wait until next week. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/51 "2006-02-05T05:51:31Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > Cat’s the Ana-Lucia of Galactica for me. Except she’s, you know, a stim junkie. She’s still a insubordinate bitch. Damn, I was late watching and thought I’d be the one to point that out. She is sooooo Ana-Lucia it’s scary! Good ep, though. I feel like the writers are back in gear. The flashback gig is getting tired, but at least we saw some good action and some devlopment of the story line. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/52 "2006-02-05T07:26:01Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > Ok, I’ll throw myself to the Cylons and say it was a horrible episode. The CONSTANT flashbacks, the xxx hours earlier, etc. Yeesh. I concur. This was the worst use of flashbacks since Robert Jordan abused the hell out of them in the Wheel of Time books. Starbuck’s climactic chicken duel with Scar was completely robbed of tension and impact. The show cut to commercial at the last instant before collision, then showed more flashbacks, then showed the run-up sequence to the duel _again_, then slowed down time so Starbuck could have _still more flashbacks_. At that point I stopped giving a damn what the outcome was. Even besides the egregious flashbacks, the story wasn’t all that compelling. Here’s a named Raider we never heard of before and will never hear of again, here’s some dead pilots with the same status, here’s a flashback with some of them, here’s a one dimensional Starbuck wannabe who grates me like I was a block of cheese. Bleah. Too many more episodes like this will remind me why I don’t watch a lot of TV. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/53 "2006-02-05T23:15:31Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Stolen from a _Space Above and Beyond_ story. Come now, it’s not like the “Enemy Ace” story hasn’t been around since WWI. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > No, her not being able to hold her liquor is out of character. I can hold mine. That’s not to say I can’t still get shitfaced when I try hard enough. Like when I’m depressed… I hope Michelle Rodriguez from “Lost” guest stars on BSG. Then she and Kat can touch and the whole matter/antimatter thing will make a big explosion and take both of them out… **jkirkman** - I think the photo Kat put in there was Reilly’s girlfriend. The one whose name she couldn’t remember. When Lee and Starbuck were going at it…did it occur to anyone besides me that the universe of BSG seems to almost exclusively consist of male brunettes pairing with female blondes? Boomerbot being the exception, of course. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![bitwise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@bitwise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bitwise)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/54 "2006-02-06T04:07:48Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > When Lee and Starbuck were going at it…did it occur to anyone besides me that the universe of BSG seems to almost exclusively consist of male brunettes pairing with female blondes? Boomerbot being the exception, of course. > > -Joe Dualla and Billy. Adama and Rosalyn. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/55 "2006-02-06T08:22:37Z")
You know the last couple of times I’ve watched this show, I did so while quaffing a few (too many) beers. Those damn flash back scenes when you’ve got a buzz going on are confussing as hell!! Not to mention, I’m pretty sure, I damn near went into epileptic shock a couple of times! Over all I liked the show though. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/56 "2006-02-06T16:38:22Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > For that matter ships and missiles shouldn’t leave a smoke trail at all, unless they’re accellerating. The smoke should retain the same relative velocity as it’s source. It’s only in atmosphere that smoke more or less instantly loses it’s velocity relative to the air. It was my impression from watching the episode that the area of space in the asteroid field being mined by the mining ship was filled with some sort of gas or particulate matter. The trails being left by the Vipers was a result of their passage through this “cloud.” In the more traditional space scenes of Viper flight in past episodes, they did not leave a trail of debris/contrails unless they were damaged and venting something (hydraulic fluid, air, etc…) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/57 "2006-02-06T17:21:37Z")
The contrails of the Vipers are there for the same reason the contrails of the Raiders’ missiles are there. So your TV screen won’t look like just a blank black space with a few dots on it, and so you can follow the action. Not \*every \* production detail has to have a technobabble explanation backfilled under it, people. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/58 "2006-02-06T17:23:19Z")
> [@bitwise](#): > > Dualla and Billy. Adama and Rosalyn. Ah…but not squelchy squelchy, yet! -Joe, defending his theory to the last ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/59 "2006-02-06T19:19:13Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > It was my impression from watching the episode that the area of space in the asteroid field being mined by the mining ship was filled with some sort of gas or particulate matter. And, by the way, the inclusion of an asteroid field that looked like that was horrible, horrible science, but it’s strongly established sci-fi fodder at this point. Oh, well. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898/60 "2006-02-06T20:07:52Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > And, by the way, the inclusion of an asteroid field that looked like that was horrible, horrible science, but it’s strongly established sci-fi fodder at this point. Oh, well. I wonder what the relative velocity of an asteroid would be to a ship navigating the field. Would it come shooting out of the empty darkness faster than you could avoid it, or do they move slowly with respect to each other hundreds of miles away? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/battlestar-galactica-2-15-scar-rampant-spoilage/342898.md?page=4)