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July 15, 2005
Battlestar Galactica - Scattered
BSG's first season ended with Starbuck on Caprica, Baltar and others crashed on Kobol, President Roslin under arrest, Lee Adama in handcuffs and, then in pure "oh SHIT!" moment, Sharon shoots Cmdr. Adama point blank in the chest.
Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for the humans, the second season starts and you find out ...
... it does.
The writers have done a masterful job of making this episode not only fulfilling for those of us that have faithfully followed the first season, but complete enough that newbies starting with season two can settle in without needing a roadmap to all the back stories. And the writers have done it without any boring exposition ... they don't talk to the audience, they show us.
This episode belongs to the ensemble. No one character is prominent and therefore all the storylines are exposed. Indeed, the usual dominating presence of Cmdr. Adama is more of a background experience as he spends the episode in the infirmary. The crashed Raptor crew is painfully unprepared as soldiers in enemy terrority (and they pay for it). Tyrol is evolving from the rather mookish jerk of the first season, who can actually step up to the plate and be capable of sincere emotion (rather than just lust). Col. Tigh struggles internally with having to assume a command he desparately doesn't want. Tigh's flashbacks are intriguing as they don't immediately reveal themselves, but build on each other through the episode. Nice deft touch with that one. We also get but brief glimpses of the story line of Baltar and Six on Kobol, and Starbuck, Helo & Sharon on Caprica.
And, for those who missed the shoot-em-up of ship-to-ship combat (yes, you know who you are ... grumbling that there was too much talking and not enough Things That Blow Up), we have the Battlestar having to jump back to Kobol and fight off Cylon ships and Cylon computer hacking.
Out of the gate, BSG again engenders a relentless pressure and mystery. Whatever you assume about a storyline can and probably will turn out to be wrong.
Looks like we are in for a bumpy ride this season.
I LOVE it!
Posted by Darleen at July 15, 2005 11:05 PM
Comments
I loved less-old Tigh's crazy alcoholic hair.
Question: Does Boomer want to die out of guilt and shame, or does she want to die so her consciousness gets uploaded somewhere else so she can squeal to the Cylons? Or is the guilt real but also part of smart Cylon engineering? In other words, they planned for her Cylon self to kill Adama, and kill herself out of remorse so they get her back. It explains that creepy "We love you, Sharon" scene from last episode--they want her to think they (the Cylons) are the only ones who really do want her. Which is pretty much true, at this point.
Posted by: Justin Slotman at July 16, 2005 01:10 PM
I was dying after they aired the last show!
And while the lead up shows SG1 and Atlantis were OK, BSG blew me away.
I would go into mre details, but it would turn into a book or a very long short novel.
On the SciFi page there is a link for the BSG podcast, it is a narrative by Ron Moore. It is very interesting. It is like the narration on DVDs.
Ray
Posted by: Ray at July 17, 2005 03:39 PM