BSG 3.01 (briefly)

[solarbird]

Copied and very slightly expanded from a comment left elsewhere...

It was good. It was, even, very good. But I have some issues.

First, what's with the Cylons getting all uppity about suicide bombings? Aside from the whole genocide thing, one of theirs ran a suicide bombing on Galactica first season! So what the hell? This one bothers me, particularly because of the whole "crossed a line" discussion. The Colonials having that discussion is good. The Cylons having it - or rather, just jumping straight to the conclusion... not so much.

So I'm left wondering whether it's bad - at least, inattentive - writing, or massive, massive in-character hypocrisy? Before shooting the cancer out of President Roslyn, I'd have been willing to assume hypocrisy. But right now, they don't have my trust like they once did, so I'm left wondering. It bothered me.

Secondly, while that kid can be Kara's, it had damned well better not be Creepy Obsessive Cylon's, or I will be pissed the fuck off, if for no other reason than that breaks everything we've been told as viewers about how this whole Cylon reproductive obsession works.

Thirdly, I'm quite irritated at Kara-falling-for-the-baby thing. There had better be a better reason for that which we haven't yet seen. Maybe she's drugged - but that's cheap. I want a much better explanation than we've been given.

On the other hand, Tigh as the one-eyed terrorist cleric bombing leader? That's nicely fucked up. And I am so happy that Caprica Boomer is now uniformed Colonial forces. I ♥ that so much - I've even been waiting for the story to get there, and now it has.

Comments

[wrog]

massive, massive in-character hypocrisy

I figure some combination of

• "They Have A Plan"
  
• Caprica Six and OriginalSharon are being played and this has been the case from the beginning
  
• Machines pretending to be like humans and Not Quite Getting It.
  

Also, that trick with the strap-on bomb that Kevin Spacey did in the first season probably doesn't qualify as a "suicide bombing" given the whole given the download-and-ressurect thing.

And I'm pretty sure that's not Leoben's kid, or at worst if it is it's going to spectacularly fall apart in some way (i.e., they can do hybrids but if they're not done Right, they don't last long).

Best theory at this point is that the hybrids are what they actually care about, that a major part of the reason they're there is they're pretty sure or at least strongly suspect that Helo!Sharon's baby survived.

[solarbird]

I forgot to mention that one of the reasons I love CapricaBoomer being a Colonial officer is that I kinda want to see a Boomer v. Boomer Mexican standoff. ^_^

I acknowledge the difference with the download thing, but given that the idea was "how many humans can we will," I don't see how the +/- one makes it philosophically different.

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

Is it just me, or is that kid so not a one year old? It seems like what? Four? I'm so bad with judging the age of children.

[solarbird]

Shouldn't be one. Should be two or so. The question is: how much time elapsed between The Farm and the Presidential election? We know that after the election, we skipped ahead one year on New Caprica (finale, season 2), then another four and a half months to the beginning of episode 3.01. I don't know offhand how much time there was between The Farm and the start of the election campaign, but I think it was a few months. Then we skipped a lot of the campaign itself - we went from Baltar's announcement to some number of months later where he's losing badly and needs to come up with something, and fast, to give his campaign a last-second boost.

So I figure the kid should be between two and two and a half years old, rather than one year old. I should have said "toddler" instead of "baby," I suppose. ^_^

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Aside from the whole genocide thing, one of theirs ran a suicide bombing on Galactica first season! So what the hell?

well, they did one back when they were trying to exterminate humans. but now, the direction has changed. the rules are different. deciding that god's plan involves keeping the humans alive has changed everything. *poof* and why the hell can't the humans keep up? and why don't they just accept our fine new way of life?

so... that part makes sense as hypocrisy on the part of the cylons.

i'm a little weirded out that the building on new caprica has a sprinkler system. (you can see the exposed pipe and sprinkler head in one or two shots.) i hadn't watched most of the web episodes yet, so i was trying to figure out where they were and i initially figured they were back on old caprica because the building looked so developed -- sprinklers, art, etc. which goes against the whole "people living in tents, rationing going on" kind of environment. yes, i'm a freak.

[solarbird]

Hell, I thought they were back in Sharon Valeri's old apartment the first time I saw the interiour of the Starbuck Jail. Only with different furniture.

Was that near the central building? That core building is something that I would presume the Cylons built for themselves, probably as the local "embassy," or green zone, or whatever you want to call it.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

I don't think we've ever gotten a clear idea of how cylon reproduction works. In Boomer and Helo's case, it appeared to be very similar to human reproduction. But "The Farm" suggested a lot more was going on. It might be that hybrids are made in the human fashion, but the creation of new pure cylon models requires more trickery. I don't think we know enough yet to say that the writers are being consistent, though I might be missing something.

As for Kara wanting to protect the baby after her initial reaction and the baby's resulting injury, that makes sense to me. It's a baby, even if it's half cylon. Obviously she feels guilt for the injury that occurred. Most importantly, it's clearly genetically HER baby. It doesn't make sense that she would transfer any feelings to Leoben, but I don't think she has. I think she's plotting a way to get herself and the baby away from him. Probably, she's still holding out hope that Adama will rescue her.

I was too busy reveling in the writer's complete refusal to pull any punches to examine the suicide bombing comments as closely as you did. I agree that this seems hypocritical or inconsistent. But humans and cylons are often hypocritical, and the cylon motives seem to be constantly shifting.

Basically, I loved these two hours of BSG. This show rules.