A note on BSG 2.09, "Pegasus"
I originally posted this in a comment on kimbari's journal, but she suggested I also post it elsewhere because "My blog is hardly the crossroads of the Internet." 8^D
(Kim) Some people said it was derivative and/or phony and/or formulaic... hey, whatever, I guess my standards aren't very high.
Actually, it wasn't any of those ... but it was somewhat rushed/compressed, so there wasn't much room to show many of the subtleties in what RDM was trying to do. Or at least what I think he was trying to do. He wasn't just "painting the baddies in really bad, broad strokes to set them upfor a fall next ep", as I read in one post. Though a fall there may be ... but I digress.
As we mentioned in chat, Cain is doing what Adama wanted to do before Roslin set him straight in the mini, that is, carrying on the fight. Pegasus started their post-apocalypse in much the same place and situation as Galactica, with one critical difference: They had no fleet to look after, no civilian government to look toward, in fact the few civilians they picked up were incorporated into the crew.
Even in "Flight of the Phoenix", we see Galactica's crew feeling beaten down and showing signs of despair at what their lives have become. Now try to picture what even our beloved crew would be thinking and doing if they didn't have civilians to protect and a truly altruistic mission to carry out. What would happen to them if their entire lives had been reduced to "The universe is destroyed, and all we can do is take as many Cylon bastards with us as we can before we die"?
You can see the answer in the Pegasus. I don't doubt that most of the crew started as good people, but many of their minds and hearts have been damaged by a psychosis that has only frayed the edges of most of the folks on Galactica. The strongest still cling to their humanity, but others have become harder, colder, less civilized ... in short, bastards. And I'm betting that Cain herself has a death wish. I spoke to an ex-military friend of mine who'd seen the ep, and she said (in reference to Cain shooting her XO), "You don't pull a stunt like that unless you're looking to get fragged."
So Ron and Co. were not just setting the people of Pegasus up for a fall.
He was showing what happens to the military when the true concepts of service and duty go by the wayside.
ETA since original comment: I REALLY want to see the deleted scenes from this ep! According to the podcast, there's tons of stuff they had to cut, and I'm betting it's choice! I guess that's one guaranteed purchaser for the S2 DVDs! ^_^
If anyone else has ideas about other good places to post this, feel free to either suggest them or quote me yourself. After all, my blog is hardly the crossroads of the Internet either. ;^D
(Kim) Some people said it was derivative and/or phony and/or formulaic... hey, whatever, I guess my standards aren't very high.
Actually, it wasn't any of those ... but it was somewhat rushed/compressed, so there wasn't much room to show many of the subtleties in what RDM was trying to do. Or at least what I think he was trying to do. He wasn't just "painting the baddies in really bad, broad strokes to set them upfor a fall next ep", as I read in one post. Though a fall there may be ... but I digress.
As we mentioned in chat, Cain is doing what Adama wanted to do before Roslin set him straight in the mini, that is, carrying on the fight. Pegasus started their post-apocalypse in much the same place and situation as Galactica, with one critical difference: They had no fleet to look after, no civilian government to look toward, in fact the few civilians they picked up were incorporated into the crew.
Even in "Flight of the Phoenix", we see Galactica's crew feeling beaten down and showing signs of despair at what their lives have become. Now try to picture what even our beloved crew would be thinking and doing if they didn't have civilians to protect and a truly altruistic mission to carry out. What would happen to them if their entire lives had been reduced to "The universe is destroyed, and all we can do is take as many Cylon bastards with us as we can before we die"?
You can see the answer in the Pegasus. I don't doubt that most of the crew started as good people, but many of their minds and hearts have been damaged by a psychosis that has only frayed the edges of most of the folks on Galactica. The strongest still cling to their humanity, but others have become harder, colder, less civilized ... in short, bastards. And I'm betting that Cain herself has a death wish. I spoke to an ex-military friend of mine who'd seen the ep, and she said (in reference to Cain shooting her XO), "You don't pull a stunt like that unless you're looking to get fragged."
So Ron and Co. were not just setting the people of Pegasus up for a fall.
He was showing what happens to the military when the true concepts of service and duty go by the wayside.
ETA since original comment: I REALLY want to see the deleted scenes from this ep! According to the podcast, there's tons of stuff they had to cut, and I'm betting it's choice! I guess that's one guaranteed purchaser for the S2 DVDs! ^_^
If anyone else has ideas about other good places to post this, feel free to either suggest them or quote me yourself. After all, my blog is hardly the crossroads of the Internet either. ;^D