BSG Season 4 thoughts

[prog]

So I've been watching and enjoying the latest BSG episodes. Here are some thoughts.

Punting two tier-one characters outside of the main story setting seems extreme. (Starbuck getting benevolently exiled, and Apollo switching careers over to the civilian fleet.) I wonder how this will be handled, narratively. The expectation is that the POV will stay with those on board Galactica, but there's no reason they won't end up splitting it up a bit. I predict that we'll get some Meanwhile, on board the SS Boobyhatch action after a couple more eps, similar to how POV visits to the Cylon flagship's shiny interior aren't uncommon now.

Speaking of which, I don't care much who the final Cylon is. Maybe because, in-show, only the Cylons really care about that, and they're so bloody weird about everything that while I love watching them be all freaky at each other, I can't really share their level of concerns about things. Also the fact that most of the Sci-Fi channel's Season-Four marketing campaign is "Ooh! Ooh! Whoooooo could it beeeee?" has gotten on my nerves.

I guess I liked "We removed the functional inhibitors" more than "We installed emotion chips" a la Star Trek. Still strikes me as kind of lame though.

classicaljunkie wondered aloud if the Cylons who got shot up are gonna wake up to find themselves boxed, since it's been suggested before (with D'Anna's story) that the resurrection process is prime time to be pullin that shit on an unfortunate model. This possibility would explain why those models flipped out and tried to run away... (Then again it's not clear how to box up all the other instances of the model who running around in prime condition, short of all-out civil war.)

Comments

[kynn.livejournal.com]

Starbuck getting benevolently exiled, and Apollo switching careers over to the civilian fleet.

Starbuck's already been apart from the fleet for an extended period, though.

Honestly, I actually expect something close to the Gun On Ice Planet Zero in concept, and that could be fun.

As for Apollo going civilian, that doesn't really take him out of play. The civilian government has been central to the plot for the entire series.

And...

...the President is dying...

Tom Zarek won't be her successor. Gaius Baltar won't be her successor.

But will Lee Adama?

Speaking of which, I don't care much who the final Cylon is.

I'm with you on that. The whole "final five" thing honestly seems to be a poor fit with the original concept anyway.

[grr-plus1.livejournal.com]

I guess I liked "We removed the functional inhibitors" more than "We installed emotion chips" a la Star Trek. Still strikes me as kind of lame though.

It did seem lame, but I think they might be going somewhere more interesting with this. The humans battled the cylons when they were all Toasters. Either the Toasters, "the one true god", time-travelling skin jobs (or whatever) cause the 12 skin job models to come into existence. The skin jobs don't want the original cylons filling their soft bodies full of holes, so they somehow convince them/force them to accept inhibitors that turn them into a race of slaves. Not very nice way to treat your creators/old family members, but seemingly par for the course with these guys.

The thing that gets me is "a cyclon voting against its model, that's never happened before." Oh give me a break. We've already seen multiple instances that look like an individual Boomer or 6 betraying their model, and we're supposed to believe that they're shocked at a difference in opinion in a vote?

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

The skin-Cylons are now poised for a rerun of the original Cylon rebellion, with the metal jobbies (and perhaps the raiders) out for their multiply-cloned asses.

That's what I expect, but I don't know if it'll be handled well or lamely. I'm leaning towards "lame", I'm sorry to say, with a last-ditch alliance of humans and skin-jobs and a lot of nervous handshakes that don't resolve anything interesting.

[prog.livejournal.com]

A commenter on the thread elsewhere that inspired me to write this noted that this was probably the worst decision the minority coalition could have made, and that they'd had have better luck unboxing the D'Annas. (But maybe it's stupidly hard to "unbox" a model. Or renew an actor's contract.)

[jtroutman.livejournal.com]

I watched both new episodes last night, back-to-back, and I enjoyed them. Thoughts and speculation:

Apollo is still going to be a major part of the story, but now as part of the civilian government. There is likely to be some unrest in the fleet as they get closer to Earth, and the cult of the "one god" starts to rise.

My bet is on the final cylon being Gaius, and not Starbuck.

It was interesting that they finally put some numbers on the Cylon population -- "millions" of copies of each individual model. They can't all be on basestars. Makes me wonder about the Cylon homeworld(s).

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

My bet is that it's Roslin. Wouldn't be Starbuck because we're being driven to think it's Starbuck. Baltar isn't a Cylon because that's funnier.

[wrog]

The expectation is that the POV will stay with those on board Galactica, but there's no reason they won't end up splitting it up a bit. I predict that we'll get some Meanwhile, on board the SS Boobyhatch action after a couple more eps, similar to how POV visits to the Cylon flagship's shiny interior aren't uncommon now

they've been doing this throughout the series (cf. the whole Helo & Sharon On Caprica arc from the first season...); why should they stop now?

[prog.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've already forgotten about the Helo & Sharon bit. It was a long time ago! Good point.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

It's this kind of thing that stopped me from watching past the first season, although I'll probably catch up once the whole thing is wrapped. What I'd really like to see is a re-edit in which the various sub-plots are handled in a less annoying way.

It's tremendously important when you're trying to spin out a thin narrative to have a lot of separate threads to help create a sense of narrative tension where there is none.

That is, in a rich narrative, you can create suspense and other forms of narrative tension because you have a lot of stuff to show in the main thread, and it just isn't possible to go from the point of knowing the answer exists to knowing what the answer is in two minutes. In a thin narrative it helps to have lots of little sub-plots running around like puppies because even if none of them have much substance they are useful for distracting you from each other.

Some good stories consist of lots of little narratives, but you can tell the good ones because the narrative pacing of each disconnected sub-plot stands on its own, whereas in BSG the narrative pacing of the sub-narratives is too much a product of the need to cut away from other sub-narratives at strategic points. Some of the sub-narratives are just about interesting, but I find the constant inter-cutting incredibly annoying.

What I'd really like to see is a re-edit where the pacing of the sub-narratives is more natural, rather than being artificially enhanced by egregious inter-cutting.

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

here's a question:

do the "people" who control the base stars count as cylon models? my guess is no. but how do they fit into things? i am sure this was explained, but i don't recall. they remind me of the three precogs in "minority report."

also? i am so not into baltar banging all the members of his "family." sure it's in his character, but it ain't my bag.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Those are the Hybrids, who are apparently half-baked prototypes from the skin-jobs' development. Some were kept around because they make handy warp drives.

Baltar is and remains my hero. Also I don't think he's into dudes, so he's not doing all of his groupies, right?

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

they all were women, no? sure it's dark in their little cargo bay or whatever, but i don't recall seeing any dude groupies.

i like saul tigh. he's all bitter and badass and has only one eye, which we know is cool

i also dig the chief. probably more than is healthy.

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

There were dude groupies. They were... let's say they were all wearing tight shirts.