Ongoing Battlestar Galactica thread of doom.

[Volpone]

I mean basic stuff like the Final Five--no, even before that, unless... (I'm only up to where they're on the way to unbox Xena)....If Saul Tigh is a Cylon and has been the whole time, why does he have no memories. What about all the other Saul Tigh models through the years? Do Cylons not age unless something kills them? Caville, Six, they all get reborn at whatever age they are. How does it all jibe with humans creating the Cylons? Unless skinjob sleepers "created" the mechanical Cylons. We saw Starbuck's ship explode--no chance of survival. But then Starbuck comes back mysteriously. BUT! Then Starbuck finds ANOTHER Starbuck and her ship on some planet. It's a mess. It's a good thing the dialog and the acting and all the production values are so engaging.

Well, I guess I'd better figure out how I'm going to watch Monday's episodes. The back of my AV stuff and the cable routing aren't fun to get to. I'm really not looking forward to cobbling more hardware into the equipment string. Hmm. I suppose I *could* remove the VCR and stick it up in the attic. Then I could put a splitter on the antenna, run an extension cord from the attic outlet and a cable from the antenna and hook the VCR to the digital tuner and the old 19" Zenith... The idea of sitting in my attic 4 hours a week, watching Battlestar Galactica is mildly entertaining.

 

[Volpone]

...You might have better luck with peacock.tv, since it's a free option. And the eps are probably more intact. Free as in all it takes is a throwaway email account and a password.

[checks to confirm it is still on there] Peacock TV it is. Because otherwise I either need to buy a DVR and figure out how to integrate that into the A/V stack I already have or find a blank tape and wire my digital tuner into the VCR (either within the rest of the equipment stack or pull the VCR and set it up in my attic, where I can splice into the antenna and use the old 19" CRT Zenith.) Both are far messier than getting more spam in my mailbox and putting up with the smaller monitor on my laptop. :techman:

 

[Volpone]

Apropos of nothing, I almost got to watch the series finale with Katee Sackhoff. While technically true, this is much less impressive than it sounds.

I'd just moved back to Portland and one of the theaters in the McMenamin's pub chain was showing it and had lined her up to be a guest and do a Q&A (IIRC) beforehand. So I showed up at what I considered an appropriate time to pick up a ticket to a 2 block long line that I was at the end of shortly before someone came out and said they were at capacity. So I went and chilled out in the adjoining pub (it was a converted theatre, so the movie theater was the theater and lobby and the backstage had been converted into a kind of pool hall). The show was on a few TVs, but the environment really wasn't conducive to watching it.

Still, I guess technically I can truthfully say I was in the same building as Katee Sackhoff when the series finale aired.

 

[Volpone]

Watching Trek. The BSG ship hauling criminal Tom Zarak is the Astral Queen. The ship scheduled to haul actor Anton Caridian/Governor Kodos in "Conscience of the King" is the Astral Queen.

 

[Volpone]

Whatever gripes you might have about CometTV, butchering the show with stupid and unnecessary edits, I gotta admit I like their redone opening credits:

 

[CaptainWacky]

Did they show Razor, The Plan and...were there any other tv movies I can't remember...

 

[Volpone]

Nope. They skip over "Razor." And it doesn't look like Peacock has that. But maybe I'm not looking in the right place. Don't know if they do the miniseries either. Peacock *does* have that.

 

[Volpone]

Peacock does have Razor. They stuck it at the end of Season 3 instead of the beginning of Season 4. They have The Plan too.

 

[Volpone]

Well shit. Comet just restarted with the miniseries, halfway through Season 4. Good thing I signed up for PeacockTV.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

Yeah, Comet decided to finish off s4 with a 12-13 hour marathon on Sunday I guess. Thanks for telling us in advance, Comet!

 

[Volpone]

Well I guess I'll have to binge on Peacock to get caught up for S1, which I haven't seen yet and starts tomorrow.

It's a bit like the fuckery RetroTV did with "Dr. Who." Dr. Who is a bastion of PBS in the USA, so imagine my shock around 8 years ago, channel surfing, to see a subliminally familiar black & white feedback flare that transitioned into the 1963 "Howlaround" as the audio channel cut into "DUN-DA-DUN-DA-DUN-DA-DUN-DA-DUN-DAH-DUN-DAH-DUN, NUN..." baseline of the theme and we launched into "The Keys of Marinus"

I gorged on Who for years. Even better when I started working days so I could catch the nightly episode instead of having to wait for the weekend rotation. It was awesome. Oh, not perfect. The BBC licensing deal was fishy. They cut out some of the great (and not so great episodes): The Dalek serial where Susan leaves. The 2nd Doctor's last story, "War Games." The 3rd's first, "Spearhead from Space." My personal favorite, "Pyramids of Mars." Then, about the time I moved (disclosure, whether or not the city I was moving to had RetroTV was not an insignificant factor in the decision of where to move,) they ballyhooed putting great stories like "The Brain of Morbius" "into the vault" in exchange for new episodes.

Still no Susan exit or "Spearhead from Space." Or "Pyramids of Mars" (which you can't even watch on YouTube) but we did get a few more Troughton stories. At the cost of about half the Tom Baker stories.

To make matters worse, the local station that was "RetroTV" was really just an overglorified public access station. If they couldn't fill up a bloc with a half hour infomercial from the local used car dealer they *might* air "Dr. Who," but you could never be sure.

Well, back on topic, as I watch, I think the magic of the show is the "negative spaces." The story for Season 4 is contrived and falls apart under the barest scrutiny, but it is the pauses and the tension that makes it so compelling. In art what isn't there is almost important as what is. And in the "Sometimes a Great Notion" episode, the scene where Adama and Roslin are at the door of the raptor with everyone on baited breath and all they can say is "Sorry, it was a wild goose chase" is so powerful. Or when Starbuck and Leoben find Starbuck's body and Leoben's like "Maybe we should just leave" and later she's like "WTF?!" and he's like "Sorry, babe, I don't have all the answers. Any of those moments. Adama finding out Tigh is a Cylon. Finding out Starbuck died. Powerful stuff.

I had something else, but I forget. Oh, also there's the moments where you see the Film School 101 but you don't mind it because it is so well done. The scenes of reactions to finding Earth. Very strong.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

Oh actually I think it all hangs together a lot better than it should, story-wise. A lot of things are explained later on, some are left up to interpretation. But I think what really makes it work is the cast, direction, cinematography, and especially Bear McCreary's amazing score.

 

[Volpone]

OH! Now I remember! Having just read the Wiki articles, I was a bit in the dark, but now I'm watching them, I can almost explain it. A bit.

When they were at the Eye of Jupiter (or whatever--where they lost Starbuck), that was some kind of stable wormhole. So Starbuck's ship breaks up as it goes through, and the wreckage gets deposited on "Earth." When they get to the...Hub?... it triggers whatever is behind all this to release the Starbuck angel, which is tied to the original Starbuck. Who may or may not have had Starbuck's at Starbuck's with Starbuck.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

OH! Now I remember! Having just read the Wiki articles, I was a bit in the dark, but now I'm watching them, I can almost explain it. A bit.

When they were at the Eye of Jupiter (or whatever--where they lost Starbuck), that was some kind of stable wormhole. So Starbuck's ship breaks up as it goes through, and the wreckage gets deposited on "Earth." When they get to the...Hub?... it triggers whatever is behind all this to release the Starbuck angel, which is tied to the original Starbuck. Who may or may not have had Starbuck's at Starbuck's with Starbuck.

Close enough. By the way, are you getting ads on free Peacock? I am not, so I'm wondering if uBlock Origin is getting rid of them.

 

[Volpone]

I am.

 

[Volpone]

OK. So the writing on this is fairly clever. I just really realized there's very often a parallel plotline. Tonight was the Colonel Tigh love triangle and trying to keep the baby alive while Adama is in love with Galactica and doing whatever it takes to keep her alive. Or "Sometimes a Great Notion" where you have the human Dee commit suicide because she can't cope with the idea of finally getting to Earth and finding it uninhabitable--while cylon Dee[ana] choses to remain behind and die on Earth because she can't cope with the idea of finally getting to Earth and finding it uninhabitable.

And then you have the other stuff. After knowing Ellen Tigh as a miserable shrew, they spent over an hour making her a compassionate likeable person--only to have her turn into a miserable shrew within a day of being reunited with Saul. And you just realize that's their dynamic. Or finding out Cavil knew about the Final Five all along--while pretending it was so important to keep it quiet etc. More to the point, his relationship with Ellen and how he used Ellen on New Caprica. Or, coming back to the..."No Exit"[?] episode, and you have to wonder if, when she's saying the things to ostensibly help save the baby, secretly she knows that, because they're coming from her instead of Saul, they're actually hurtful and causing Caprica to lose the baby.

Or for that matter, why Caprica doesn't have a name like Leoben and Cavil and Simon and D'ana etc... Was she really that good in bed that Baltar gave her the TOP SECRET security codes without even knowing her first name? It seems like she should've had a first name by Season 4. Didi. Susan. Something. Instead she's named after the planet she helped destroy.

Oh, and yes, I bawled like a little bitch when Kira and Laura Roslin are on the boat to Heaven. Or Bill is consoling Saul for losing Liam. Such good acting.

And the pauses. The "negative space." That's important to a competent visual artist--as important as the things that ARE is the things that AREN'T--the gaps and spaces around things. Or the musician--where you're expecting something so the player pauses just long enough to make you really want it before giving it to you. The pauses are amazing on BSG. Where you're expecting someone to say something and you know what they need to say. But instead you just get a shot of them, processing things. And they hold it just the right time that when they actually say the line it is far more rewarding than if they just rattled it off.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

That's the ticket, laddie. I like your term, "negative spaces". That sums it up perfectly. The show is so layered outside of the main plot and there's a whole lot of shit going on in the background. Love it.

 

[Volpone]

And, I didn't dig in too extensively, but I get the impression the show had a budget similar to a Star Trek show. So it's amazing how much more expensive it looks. I mean, to be fair, it is more contemporary to "ENT" than "ST:VOY", and ENT looks a lot more expensive than VOY, but geez, the sets are so much more convincing. The effects feel so much more realistic.

And then you get the fucked up dichotomies, where Adama and Tigh hate the Cylons so much, but Adama makes Athena a Colonial officer and keeps Tigh as his XO and reinstates Tyrol. So fun to watch.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

I remember really enjoying it when it first aired anyway, but it took me a few more viewings to catch the subtext, the nuance. Even now when I watch it again I always catch something new in it. To me, that makes it timeless. And I'm not exactly a dolt, but there is a shit ton of subtext throughout.

One of the interesting things to me is that all the way through I engaged with a love/hate relationship with a lot of the characters. In the beginning, Bill was a clear hawk while Laura was a dove. Then suddenly she became the hardass and he softened a little. It works with all of them, really. Tigh was a drunk asshat who couldn't take command, then after New Caprica, whole different story with him. All the way down the line. It's very human.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

And, I didn't dig in too extensively, but I get the impression the show had a budget similar to a Star Trek show. So it's amazing how much more expensive it looks. I mean, to be fair, it is more contemporary to "ENT" than "ST:VOY", and ENT looks a lot more expensive than VOY, but geez, the sets are so much more convincing. The effects feel so much more realistic.

And then you get the fucked up dichotomies, where Adama and Tigh hate the Cylons so much, but Adama makes Athena a Colonial officer and keeps Tigh as his XO and reinstates Tyrol. So fun to watch.

I reckon the sets and effects hold up still to anything even today. And it's a nearly 20 year old show. Okay, 10-15 by the end, but still.