Reactions to Battlestar Galactica, Season One
I finished Battlestar Galactica, Season One on DVD. Holy cripes, they weren't kidding--this series is amazing. I can hardly wait for Season Two to arrive from Netflix.
(Actually, I fell for the series as soon as I heard the percussion background music over the main credit sequence. Or the secondary credit sequence. Whatever that was. Damn, that worked.)
Gaius: Gaius, how much do I love Gaius? Enough to start referring to him as Gaius rather than Baltar, which is significant, because I had a crush on the original Count Baltar fom the original series. (You know me--of course I go for the erudite bad guys.) So it cracked me up that he showed up young and hot and British-accented; totally Zaphod Beeblebroxed, the other kind of bad boy I fall for.
But I love the guy. --No, I don't just love to hate him; that isn't it at all. Gaius is the weasel in all of us. The side of us we pretend we don't have, that we wouldn't succumb to when the chips are down. Ha. I've been Gaius. I've lied by omission, decided to say nothing as long as we weren't talking about that one part for which I actually might have been responsible. Of course he doesn't deserve the moniker of traitor, he thinks, and we'd think that too. He was only doing something a little illegal; the white-collar sort of thing people do all the time in the name of insider trading or tax evasion. Treason's not treason if it's not intentional.
Of course I like to think that I'd have shared everything I knew about the Cylons, once it all came down. Made up an excuse as to why I knew all this info. But would I? Would I have thought I could pull it off? Or would the threat of being executed--worse, the fear of being labeled The Traitor Who Destroyed The Human Race--would it have held me back long enough, until, as it has Gaius, trapped me into being unable to explain why I didn't speak up earlier?
I wavered in my love for the character a little when the Cylon test first ID'd Boomer. Okay, sure, he was right not to tell her, but I couldn't understand why the next episode didn't commence with him sharing the info with the commander. Didn't become plain until he tested Helen Tigh and revealed that he's not going to out any Cylons, since it could lead to messy questions. It's all part of the Things Have Gone Too Far Now of him. Poor weaselly bastard. Yeah, I love him. Still holding out that in the end he'll have done enough on the side of good guys that it helps his karmic balance some (before he dies, as he's sure to).
Six: Heh, I like Six. I don't mind that she's the soft-porn eye-candy of the show; it feels integral for the story. I also don't think for a minute that she's any virus-program in Gaius's head; she's his subconscious. Nothing she's said or done couldn't be attributed to the workings of his own brain, so, nyah.
Boomer: Man, when that final shot of the miniseries stood on the screen, I wailed. I loved Boomer's sweetness right away. I love her romance with what's-his-face, hidden behind pretend public squabbles. I love her terror over her absence fugues. She's the character I invite myself to identify with. I didn't understand until her suicidal ponderings in her bunk just how expendable a character Sharon Prime is. It's like one of Bill Cosby's jokes: "I'll make another one, look just like you." Wah!
Am convinced she was under her sleeper program when she shot Adama. Can't imagine she just...suddenly decided she was a Cylon, and might as well assassinate the commander of the fleet. But I guess I have to see the next season.
Starbuck: I liked her, but now I love her. The episodes that came together for me were her juryrigging escapade with the Cylon Raider (man, had I opened that thing and saw it was one big organ, I would have sat down and cried), and even more, the tylium raid where she can't fly with her team but discovers what it's like to be in command, has to stay back and watch others follow her plan and die because of it. That rocked. Kara rocks.
Adama: He's so solid, it's fabulous. He IS a commander first, no matter how much they try to show us his softer side, which is why all those views of his softer side work. (Just so you know, I freaked so much when he was shot, I had to run to the 'net to learn whether or not he dies. I wasn't up enough on the current seasons to have any idea if he was still around. Won't say what I learned here, as I promised spoilers only for Season 1. ^_^ )
The President: I think I liked her best in the miniseries, when she looked sick as hell. She's a lot...healthier now, and I don't think it's anything to do with the Interferon-whatever she's on. Of course, now I understand that she learned of her diagnosis on the very day of the attack, so, naturally that was gonna have her looking a helluva worse than she felt physically. I guess I have a thing for the "dying leader," dragging herself through her duties despite being on her last legs.
Apollo: Eh. No real emotion for him. Ask me next season.
Oh, and I'm totally convinced "the Arrow of Apollo" doesn't have shit to do with any artifact back on Caprica. It'll mean something like, the viper ship of Lee Adama. Did any watchers think differently?
Don't spoil me for anything further, I beg!
(Actually, I fell for the series as soon as I heard the percussion background music over the main credit sequence. Or the secondary credit sequence. Whatever that was. Damn, that worked.)
Gaius: Gaius, how much do I love Gaius? Enough to start referring to him as Gaius rather than Baltar, which is significant, because I had a crush on the original Count Baltar fom the original series. (You know me--of course I go for the erudite bad guys.) So it cracked me up that he showed up young and hot and British-accented; totally Zaphod Beeblebroxed, the other kind of bad boy I fall for.
But I love the guy. --No, I don't just love to hate him; that isn't it at all. Gaius is the weasel in all of us. The side of us we pretend we don't have, that we wouldn't succumb to when the chips are down. Ha. I've been Gaius. I've lied by omission, decided to say nothing as long as we weren't talking about that one part for which I actually might have been responsible. Of course he doesn't deserve the moniker of traitor, he thinks, and we'd think that too. He was only doing something a little illegal; the white-collar sort of thing people do all the time in the name of insider trading or tax evasion. Treason's not treason if it's not intentional.
Of course I like to think that I'd have shared everything I knew about the Cylons, once it all came down. Made up an excuse as to why I knew all this info. But would I? Would I have thought I could pull it off? Or would the threat of being executed--worse, the fear of being labeled The Traitor Who Destroyed The Human Race--would it have held me back long enough, until, as it has Gaius, trapped me into being unable to explain why I didn't speak up earlier?
I wavered in my love for the character a little when the Cylon test first ID'd Boomer. Okay, sure, he was right not to tell her, but I couldn't understand why the next episode didn't commence with him sharing the info with the commander. Didn't become plain until he tested Helen Tigh and revealed that he's not going to out any Cylons, since it could lead to messy questions. It's all part of the Things Have Gone Too Far Now of him. Poor weaselly bastard. Yeah, I love him. Still holding out that in the end he'll have done enough on the side of good guys that it helps his karmic balance some (before he dies, as he's sure to).
Six: Heh, I like Six. I don't mind that she's the soft-porn eye-candy of the show; it feels integral for the story. I also don't think for a minute that she's any virus-program in Gaius's head; she's his subconscious. Nothing she's said or done couldn't be attributed to the workings of his own brain, so, nyah.
Boomer: Man, when that final shot of the miniseries stood on the screen, I wailed. I loved Boomer's sweetness right away. I love her romance with what's-his-face, hidden behind pretend public squabbles. I love her terror over her absence fugues. She's the character I invite myself to identify with. I didn't understand until her suicidal ponderings in her bunk just how expendable a character Sharon Prime is. It's like one of Bill Cosby's jokes: "I'll make another one, look just like you." Wah!
Am convinced she was under her sleeper program when she shot Adama. Can't imagine she just...suddenly decided she was a Cylon, and might as well assassinate the commander of the fleet. But I guess I have to see the next season.
Starbuck: I liked her, but now I love her. The episodes that came together for me were her juryrigging escapade with the Cylon Raider (man, had I opened that thing and saw it was one big organ, I would have sat down and cried), and even more, the tylium raid where she can't fly with her team but discovers what it's like to be in command, has to stay back and watch others follow her plan and die because of it. That rocked. Kara rocks.
Adama: He's so solid, it's fabulous. He IS a commander first, no matter how much they try to show us his softer side, which is why all those views of his softer side work. (Just so you know, I freaked so much when he was shot, I had to run to the 'net to learn whether or not he dies. I wasn't up enough on the current seasons to have any idea if he was still around. Won't say what I learned here, as I promised spoilers only for Season 1. ^_^ )
The President: I think I liked her best in the miniseries, when she looked sick as hell. She's a lot...healthier now, and I don't think it's anything to do with the Interferon-whatever she's on. Of course, now I understand that she learned of her diagnosis on the very day of the attack, so, naturally that was gonna have her looking a helluva worse than she felt physically. I guess I have a thing for the "dying leader," dragging herself through her duties despite being on her last legs.
Apollo: Eh. No real emotion for him. Ask me next season.
Oh, and I'm totally convinced "the Arrow of Apollo" doesn't have shit to do with any artifact back on Caprica. It'll mean something like, the viper ship of Lee Adama. Did any watchers think differently?
Don't spoil me for anything further, I beg!