I'm OK with depressing character studies but in this episode they seem to have hit the same problem as mid S6 Buffy - they're running on character rather than plot arcs but all their arcs have peaked. This episode only had Kara, Galen and Gaius in focus and none of them were doing much we hadn't already seen. On the other hand it could be first-half-of-a-twofer syndrome and everything will look better next week.
As for Kara, being less self-involved is rising from a low base but I took her calm acceptance of the mutiny to show that she had been quite aware it was brewing. Much as at the end of Scar she showed that she did remember all the dead pilots' names. She knew but she hadn't the leadership skills to win a skeptical crew over to trusting her blind intuition -but I think that pitch would be difficult even for a natural politician. I also don't see her obsession with re-finding earth as inherently self-centred, certainly not in the same way as her previous self-destructive streak. I get the sense of her wanting to find Earth as a mission, something much bigger than she is.
This episode only had Kara, Galen and Gaius in focus and none of them were doing much we hadn't already seen.
Yeah - though I have to say I don't see why Chief suddenly decided, after New Caprica, that Baltar was not so bad after all. So Baltar first crosses the line with him, trying to exploit him, then makes a sincere apology - which is somewhat new territory for Baltar, except that in the interim Chief has gotten no less useful - and all of a sudden Chief reconciles and shakes his hand.
One can't even say that Baltar is the first person to reach out to Chief, since Adama did in the previous episode, but Chief was intent on alienating him because he didn't want to be put in a position to wreck equipment subconsciously anymore. Still, this is not enough, IMO, to turn him into an acolyte. Though I suppose chief and Callie and Baltar did share that moment down on whichever planet where Baltar shot Crashdown and saved Callie's life.
However, it seems like the writers are relying on a really short attention span of the audience to forget the horror that was New Caprica and the fact that Chief plotted over and over to help kill Baltar by suicide bombs and other ways.
As far Kara, oh I think the project of finding earth is important to her. I just don't think that brooding in her room while letting the crew continue to feel mutinous for days and weeks is such an intelligent way to go about command. I can't recall if we have seen her in command before unsupported by the military structure and away from Galactica. I'm not remembering it if we have. She seems far more of an effective lone operative to me than a command leader. She and Helo were on Caprica together - but she wasn't in command. I think she is not so effective at leading.
-but I think that pitch would be difficult even for a natural politician
Well, Adama did it in the mini-series, didn't he. Claimed Earth as the destination.
She knew but she hadn't the leadership skills to win a skeptical crew over to trusting her blind intuition -but I think that pitch would be difficult even for a natural politician.
I think the problem is the thread of the intuition is lost - so there's nothing to lead them with - she has to wait, passively, until it resumes. Though I don't understand why she didn't jump backwards, duplicating the pathway that Galactica took to places where she had felt it more strongly. All that shrieking and hollering about going the wrong way, and now her internal compass has become demagnetized, so to speak.
I never got the impression that Chief blames New Caprica on Baltar in the way Tigh or Roslin does. As far as I remember there was just one suicide bombing that Baltar was the target of. After all Baltar was a puppet, the real enemy were the Cylons. Chief also had the benefit of watching Gaius fall apart on Kobol. I think he despises him but doesn't hate him, he thinks he's a slippery two-faced wanker but basically more of a prat than an evil genius. Prat or not Gaius didn't just reach out to Tyrol with platitudes about Cally being a good woman - he admitted he didn't know her from Eve and left it to Tyrol to define her.
All that shrieking and hollering about going the wrong way, and now her internal compass has become demagnetized, so to speak. I wonder if it works more like chemosensitivity than magnetism - it can tell her if she's 'warmer' or 'colder' by trial and error but can't compute a direction from a single point. Also the target may not be Earth but her infamous Destiny- it lead her to Lebonen not to the Solar system.
As for Kara, being less self-involved is rising from a low base but I took her calm acceptance of the mutiny to show that she had been quite aware it was brewing. Much as at the end of Scar she showed that she did remember all the dead pilots' names. She knew but she hadn't the leadership skills to win a skeptical crew over to trusting her blind intuition -but I think that pitch would be difficult even for a natural politician. I also don't see her obsession with re-finding earth as inherently self-centred, certainly not in the same way as her previous self-destructive streak. I get the sense of her wanting to find Earth as a mission, something much bigger than she is.
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Yeah - though I have to say I don't see why Chief suddenly decided, after New Caprica, that Baltar was not so bad after all. So Baltar first crosses the line with him, trying to exploit him, then makes a sincere apology - which is somewhat new territory for Baltar, except that in the interim Chief has gotten no less useful - and all of a sudden
Chief reconciles and shakes his hand.
One can't even say that Baltar is the first person to reach out to Chief, since Adama did in the previous episode, but Chief was intent on alienating him because he didn't want to be put in a position to wreck equipment subconsciously anymore. Still, this is not enough, IMO, to turn him into an acolyte. Though I suppose chief and Callie and Baltar did share that moment down on whichever planet where Baltar shot Crashdown and saved Callie's life.
However, it seems like the writers are relying on a really short attention span of the audience to forget the horror that was New Caprica and the fact that Chief plotted over and over to help kill Baltar by suicide bombs and other ways.
As far Kara, oh I think the project of finding earth is important to her. I just don't think that brooding in her room while letting the crew continue to feel mutinous for days and weeks is such an intelligent way to go about command. I can't recall if we have seen her in command before unsupported by the military structure and away from Galactica. I'm not remembering it if we have. She seems far more of an effective lone operative to me than a command leader. She and Helo were on Caprica together - but she wasn't in command. I think she is not so effective at leading.
-but I think that pitch would be difficult even for a natural politician
Well, Adama did it in the mini-series, didn't he. Claimed Earth as the destination.
She knew but she hadn't the leadership skills to win a skeptical crew over to trusting her blind intuition -but I think that pitch would be difficult even for a natural politician.
I think the problem is the thread of the intuition is lost - so there's nothing to lead them with - she has to wait,
passively, until it resumes. Though I don't understand why she didn't jump backwards, duplicating the pathway that Galactica took to places where she had felt it more strongly. All that shrieking and hollering about going the wrong way, and now her internal compass has become demagnetized, so to speak.
Reply
All that shrieking and hollering about going the wrong way, and now her internal compass has become demagnetized, so to speak.
I wonder if it works more like chemosensitivity than magnetism - it can tell her if she's 'warmer' or 'colder' by trial and error but can't compute a direction from a single point. Also the target may not be Earth but her infamous Destiny- it lead her to Lebonen not to the Solar system.
Reply
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