Battlestar Galactica 4.7 - "The Road Less Traveled" (spoilers aplenty)

Cafe Society
41

From the preview for next week’s episode:

[SPOILER] Who else thinks that Starbuck gets on board the baseship by getting shot, and then reincarnating there? I mean, how else would she do it? The only officer on her ship who’s still supporting her in Anders - they sure as hell aren’t jumping to that Baseship. I think it’s pretty clear that the reason Starbuck was willing to spend alone time with Leoben is that he had a package of freshly baked bread and bagels for her.

ETA: Wait, that’s stupid. You need a Resurrection Ship to reincarnate, and Leoben’s said there isn’t one nearby. Of course, he could be lying . . . [/SPOILER]

42

Oh yeah? Well, I think Starbuck is given a Viper (with its telltale nav data wiped) to go the basestar while Demetrius and the rest of her crew jump back to the fleet - like how the Bounty mutineers let Captain Bligh have a rowboat to go to Auistralia.

43

I enjoyed this episode, but it cut off at a very frustrating spot! We all said “Nooo!!!” when the “to be continued” words flashed on the screen :frowning:

44

Wouldn’t work.

Neat idea, but remember that Vipers don’t have jump drives. At sublight speeds, it’s gonna take Kara a long time to get anywhere. And by a wacky coincidence, “a long time” is almost exactly not the endurance of a Viper’s life-support system. Or, on the scales we’re talking about, the duration of a human life-span.

45

He’s a Cylon; maybe it takes more to damage him, or maybe he heals quickly.

Along the same lines, shortly after Leoben shows up on Demetrius, there’s a bit of a scuffle, and Anders decks him, sending him sprawling against the bulkhead. Given Tory’s Ivan-Drago-like walloping of Cally, and given Leoben’s presence at the many Cylon meetings where the presence of the Final Five among the fleet was being discussed, I seriously expected Leoben to react to the force of the punch, staring at Anders with uncertainty and private realization.

Also, re Tyrol’s demotion: He’s no longer the Chief of the Deck, and he’s no longer working on vipers. Doesn’t mean he can’t change filters or hoses or light bulbs elsewhere on Galactica.

46

Yeah it looked like he’d been demoted to maintenance man.

47

Yeeeeeaaaaah, that’s likely true, but I wanted it to be dealt with by the characters. But all we got from this episode was one comment from Tyrol about the scuttlebutt among the fleet: everyone knows that Tigh is visiting Six a lot. Now, of course, that’s a clear indication that the writers are aware of these questions, and will deal with them in due time. But the focus of this episode (on Galactica) was, basically, that Tyrol is still having troubles adjusting. I think there was plenty of room to deal with at least one of the consequences of Tigh’s new relationship with Six, and the deck crew’s reaction to their new boss.

I’m not sure that I can quite express what’s bothering me, but… it has to do with the emotional arcs of the characters versus the overall narrative of the show. Last week, I was completely content to see Tyrol and Tigh hit bottom. Not to sound too cliche, but I noticed that my ass was quite literally at the edge of my chair when Tyrol dared Adama to demote him. I was enthralled at his utter despair.

But this week just gave us… more despair. That is, they were playing a very similar emotional note with the same character in two consecutive episodes. I think that maybe that emotional arc has been nearly exhausted, and we need actual plot consequences now. If Tyrol had actually shot himself, that would be a real plot consequence of his emotional problems, rather than him just continuing to suffer emotionally with nothing happening.

It also seems like a rather large narrative oversight that we still have no idea who the new Chief is. Why not? Why couldn’t we have spent a few minutes with personnel issues? When Apollo mutinied in the first season, the Galactica had real problems finding a new CAG. Will the Admiral have similar problems finding a new Chief? It’s clear that Tyrol is a general maintenance man on Galactica now, but does he still stroll by the deck whenever the mood strikes him? Does the new Chief (whoever that is) ask him advice?

A “truce” between Tyrol and Baltar is just… it’s not… I dunno, it was just completely unsatisfying. I wanted the show to deal with the consequences of the demotion as they affected other characters, not as they affected just Tyrol. We already knew Tyrol has problems, and it would be more interesting to see his problems echo through the crew instead of still focusing on him alone.

I’m not sure if I’m making any sense here, but there it is.

One side note: if Tigh really has enhanced healing powers, it would be so utterly fantastic if the eyeball regenerated. Wouldn’t that be crazy?

48

Am I the only one who heard Starbuck say something like “Before I could hear it so clearly!” in reference to the Road to Earth?

-Joe

49

The Chief is just setting him up.

50

I heard her say something about how it used to be so clear.

carnivorousplant, I hope you’re right. Chief was utterly silent the scene where he and Baltar shake hands, so maybe Chief is plotting something.

51

For the love of God, Montressor!

Me, too.

52

Sure it would.The basestar Leoben invited her to visit is right around the next asteroid. And she has magical resurrection powers of her own - 2 months worth. At any rate she does get there, and to do so would have to either overpower or convince every other officer on Demetrius, and what are the chances of that?

I was sure Starbuck was referring to being able to *hear * the song of Earth calling to her (don’t know if it’s the Dylan or the Hendrix version, though). She could just be nuts, but that’s probably not going to be what we see.

53

Not to hijack, but the blackbird was FTL capable, so if they really wanted an FTL-able viper, I suspect that they could do it. The likely reasons that they do not involve supply and utility. Vipers operate from a big-assed FTL-able platform, and the FTL-capable ships generally are set up for extended missions.

54

My impression from the preview was that

Starbuck and Anders were going to shoot their way out/ extract themselves and Leoben at gunpoint. I thought I saw Anders shooting someone (looked like Gaeta but I’m not sure) in the leg, and I figured he’d side with Starbuck and help her go so she’d take him with her. Now THAT will be interesting, Anders on a Basestar.

55

May I respectfully request we ditch the spoiler boxes? Y’all aren’t discussing anything actually known, right?

Ooh, ooh. How does Starbuck get to the Basestar? If you don’t really know, please speculate about it in the open. Please.

56

I thought information in the previews was generally spoilered. That’s what I’m referring to, so I spoiler boxed it. Some people really freak out if you reveal that kind of stuff. So… not sure what to do.

57

In a viper. Maybe she leaves before they jump back to the fleet. Maybe she’s attacking a Cylon ship, maybe the damaged Basestar.

58

I’m not the OP so I can’t say. I can call for a consensus though. Should we spoiler speculation based on the previews?

It just seems like the thread is going all spoiler box, and IMHO, it’s unneeded.

59

I wish you wouldn’t. I avoid watching the previews because I don’t want to know anything about upcoming episodes.

60

You’d rather wade though an entirely spoiler boxed thread? Maybe we need two threads.