BSG 4.16, SCC 2.15, and in non-DW-news, Paul Cornell ships Doctor/Master
Doctor Who:
If you've watched Scream of the Shalka, this is not news, but it's still nice that Paul Cornell told the world (i.e. a con) that
the Doctor and the Master were doing it.
Marvelverse:
Fascinating article about Sue Storm and the way female characters were and are written through the decades.
Now, about the two shows with robots and humans.
Battlestar Galactica
This was one of the episodes where I really wished I still liked Bill Adama instead of wanting to yell "go away" on my screen every time he shows up, because if I still liked him, I'd have been all over the True Love of Saul and Bill. As it was, and even though Bill did not do anything to tick me off in this episode, I still was torn between wishing he'd disssappear for ever and ever and enjoying what he brings to the Who's Afraid Of The Final Five? show. For verily, the Edward Albee-ness of Ellen's and Saul's marriage was alive and thriving. I found that somewhat reassuring, for as much as I had enjoyed Cylon Creator!Ellen last week, I was still missing the immensely flawed woman who had died on New Caprica whom I had loved with all her flaws, and this week showed she's just as present as Ellen's Cylon--ness is, and of course it would be Saul who'd bring it out in her. Oh my intergalactic George and Martha, I have missed you.
(Also, I was amused that as much as Ellen resents the Bill Adama love, Bill is jealous of her as well. Just watch that expression of his in all the scenes she was in.)
What didn't quite work for me, as ever, was Tigh/Caprica. Not the child (incidentally, Jane E., naming the kid Liam - was that a shout-out to Angel?) and the shared joy and grief for same, but the two actually feeling something for each other and having a bond of their own. Tigh hardly ever saw Caprica with all the Ellen projecting, he doesn't really know her. And while for us, the audience, Saul Tigh is a rich and fascinating character, the few scenes he and Caprica shared in the first part of s4 didn't exactly show something to her she could fall in love with, either, other than he was a masochist who wanted to be punished for killing Ellen. So BSG does that thing again where they use a never before seen scene in the previouslies and have Caprica talk of "our love", I'm going "what are you talking about?"
All this being said: I did like the Ellen and Caprica scene, with Ellen wavering between being manipulative and bitchy on the one hand and on the other having flashes of genuine empathy and revealing vulnerability of her own, switching between treating Caprica as a rival and as a daughter. I also like that the show, continuing with last week's incest theme, has Ellen basically go "you slept with our daughter?!?" in addition to "how come she's pregnant and I never was" on Saul. I just wish the show had been able to make Caprica/Tigh credible to me as well.
One more Ellen thing: until she pointed it out to Adama and Roslin it hadn't occured to me but: the Final Five being the last survivors of the original 13th tribe, of the genocide on Earth, makes them a miniversion of the colonials in the fleet and another story of survival after an apocalypse in themselves.
And speaking of Final Five/ Significant Seven relationships: season 1 and early s2 must have left me with a soft spot for Tyrol/Boomer, because I went "aw" at him recognising her, at Starbuck advising him to go and see her in the brig, and later at him being there when she slept. Presumably we'll get more next week. I'm in two minds about Boomer being thrown in the brig at all; on the one hand, that shooting was so long and several amnesties ago, on the other, she has become part of the Cylon war effort since then (i.e. the shooting wasn't Boomer's fault, but her actions on New Caprica and after certainly were her own responsibility and no one else's), on the third, if you let all these other Cylons, all of whom used fight Colonials as well, walk around your ship, Bill, this really looks like another case of double standard. And then there's the pragmatic aspect - how do they know Boomer isn't programmed to betray them yet again? Which would make the brig sensible. In conclusion, I can't make up my mind on that one.
Many of the Cylons wanting to call it quits with the humans as long as they have the possibility of biological procreation among themselves, after the recent mutiny and being aware of the general mood on Galactica: makes sense from their pov, but is still wrong-headed, as yes, Cylon/Human mingling is the only way to prevent more repetition of all that happened before and the next genocide.
The Baltar subplot: at first I was in two minds about this as well as it seemed a step back after Blood on the Scales, but then we got the Baltar/Head!Six (for the return of same much thanks, show) conversation about whether he really wanted to help, and the fact he did, that it might have started as a ploy to outmaneouvre Paula but became more, and this made it a continuation of previous events. Callis is funny as ever with the expressions, of course, and it's good the sons of Ares are back if only because otherwise they would have been an entirely pointless plot device in s4.1. The subplot also addressed the fact that just because the mutineers were defeated, the general population at large hadn't magically become pro-Adama and accepting of all his orders. Now obviously that last shot with the guns was deliberately ominous to cause suspense, but I doubt they'll do another mutiny - sorry, Gaius, revolution - story again directly after the last one, so no, I don't expect the former cult girls to storm CiC or to massacre the next bunch of civilians. (I've no idea where this will go, though, and am willing to be surprised.) I also think it's significant that this time Adama didn't dismiss the points Baltar brought up but actually listened.
Lastly: Roslin's conversation with Caprica about the opera house vision is an obvious reminder to the audience, so I'm assuming SOMEONE will visit the opera in their dreams again soon, but that something will have changed from the previous visions.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles
This is so my favourite running show, with its density and richness and character interaction and - everything. Structuring the episode around the funerals of the factory workers not only served in terms of moving the plot forward - i.e. letting Sarah & Co. find out more about the factory - but brought home that these were human beings, each with their own story. It underscores how deeply humane this show is; no "stuff happens" or "colleteral damage" attitude here, as Sarah interacts with the widow of the first human being she killed. She had to, to save her own life, and it was self defense, but the man wasn't a machine but had a life, family, and story of his own. I love you, show.
The way grief affects you, or not, shows up in all the different plot threads; Sarah and Derek each accuse the other of being unable to let Kyle Reese go, Cameron and John interact with a girl who supposedly lost her father, but is really faking it as he survived. Meanwhile, the late Logan Weaver is really dead but his widow isn't really his widow, and as opposed to Cameron, who spots the teenage girl's non-reactions, doesn't know there is a need to fake grief until the conversation with Ellison alerts her to it. Now, on a lesser show, all the Catherine and Ellison subplot would have served for was to give Ellison reason to suspect Catherine Weaver is not who she says she is. On this show, the pay-off scene at the end of the episode isn't Ellison going "hmmmm...." but Catherine Weaver interacting with "her" daughter Savannah, and this scene fascinated me as much as their earlier ones several episodes ago did. Because T-Catherine doesn't really need to do the grief interaction with Savannah; after all, she's not doing it in front of Ellison or anyone else she could impress with it, which would have been the logical thing if it it's all about maintaining her cover. Instead, she first recites Ellison's memory which he had meant as comfort like a student does a lesson of one's teacher, and then tries to understand Savannah's reactions and respond to them very much like Cameron did in early s1 when that student in her and John's class had committed suicide.
Now, the next mystery is that if Quark's brother Rom, err, Catherine Weaver's agent as played by Max Perlich, was in pursuit of Long Hair Guy (and eventually died of his hands), and Long Hair Guy was able to recall the Skynet Probe and store it in his truck, it means that there are two different agendas going on there, neither of them good for Our Heroes, of course. But it lends support to londonkds' Catherine-Weaver-is-Saruman thesis: her agenda with current Skynet is not necessarily current Skynet's agenda, and most likely she wants to change its nature for her own purposes by the whole John Henry project.
If you've watched Scream of the Shalka, this is not news, but it's still nice that Paul Cornell told the world (i.e. a con) that
the Doctor and the Master were doing it.
Marvelverse:
Fascinating article about Sue Storm and the way female characters were and are written through the decades.
Now, about the two shows with robots and humans.
Battlestar Galactica
This was one of the episodes where I really wished I still liked Bill Adama instead of wanting to yell "go away" on my screen every time he shows up, because if I still liked him, I'd have been all over the True Love of Saul and Bill. As it was, and even though Bill did not do anything to tick me off in this episode, I still was torn between wishing he'd disssappear for ever and ever and enjoying what he brings to the Who's Afraid Of The Final Five? show. For verily, the Edward Albee-ness of Ellen's and Saul's marriage was alive and thriving. I found that somewhat reassuring, for as much as I had enjoyed Cylon Creator!Ellen last week, I was still missing the immensely flawed woman who had died on New Caprica whom I had loved with all her flaws, and this week showed she's just as present as Ellen's Cylon--ness is, and of course it would be Saul who'd bring it out in her. Oh my intergalactic George and Martha, I have missed you.
(Also, I was amused that as much as Ellen resents the Bill Adama love, Bill is jealous of her as well. Just watch that expression of his in all the scenes she was in.)
What didn't quite work for me, as ever, was Tigh/Caprica. Not the child (incidentally, Jane E., naming the kid Liam - was that a shout-out to Angel?) and the shared joy and grief for same, but the two actually feeling something for each other and having a bond of their own. Tigh hardly ever saw Caprica with all the Ellen projecting, he doesn't really know her. And while for us, the audience, Saul Tigh is a rich and fascinating character, the few scenes he and Caprica shared in the first part of s4 didn't exactly show something to her she could fall in love with, either, other than he was a masochist who wanted to be punished for killing Ellen. So BSG does that thing again where they use a never before seen scene in the previouslies and have Caprica talk of "our love", I'm going "what are you talking about?"
All this being said: I did like the Ellen and Caprica scene, with Ellen wavering between being manipulative and bitchy on the one hand and on the other having flashes of genuine empathy and revealing vulnerability of her own, switching between treating Caprica as a rival and as a daughter. I also like that the show, continuing with last week's incest theme, has Ellen basically go "you slept with our daughter?!?" in addition to "how come she's pregnant and I never was" on Saul. I just wish the show had been able to make Caprica/Tigh credible to me as well.
One more Ellen thing: until she pointed it out to Adama and Roslin it hadn't occured to me but: the Final Five being the last survivors of the original 13th tribe, of the genocide on Earth, makes them a miniversion of the colonials in the fleet and another story of survival after an apocalypse in themselves.
And speaking of Final Five/ Significant Seven relationships: season 1 and early s2 must have left me with a soft spot for Tyrol/Boomer, because I went "aw" at him recognising her, at Starbuck advising him to go and see her in the brig, and later at him being there when she slept. Presumably we'll get more next week. I'm in two minds about Boomer being thrown in the brig at all; on the one hand, that shooting was so long and several amnesties ago, on the other, she has become part of the Cylon war effort since then (i.e. the shooting wasn't Boomer's fault, but her actions on New Caprica and after certainly were her own responsibility and no one else's), on the third, if you let all these other Cylons, all of whom used fight Colonials as well, walk around your ship, Bill, this really looks like another case of double standard. And then there's the pragmatic aspect - how do they know Boomer isn't programmed to betray them yet again? Which would make the brig sensible. In conclusion, I can't make up my mind on that one.
Many of the Cylons wanting to call it quits with the humans as long as they have the possibility of biological procreation among themselves, after the recent mutiny and being aware of the general mood on Galactica: makes sense from their pov, but is still wrong-headed, as yes, Cylon/Human mingling is the only way to prevent more repetition of all that happened before and the next genocide.
The Baltar subplot: at first I was in two minds about this as well as it seemed a step back after Blood on the Scales, but then we got the Baltar/Head!Six (for the return of same much thanks, show) conversation about whether he really wanted to help, and the fact he did, that it might have started as a ploy to outmaneouvre Paula but became more, and this made it a continuation of previous events. Callis is funny as ever with the expressions, of course, and it's good the sons of Ares are back if only because otherwise they would have been an entirely pointless plot device in s4.1. The subplot also addressed the fact that just because the mutineers were defeated, the general population at large hadn't magically become pro-Adama and accepting of all his orders. Now obviously that last shot with the guns was deliberately ominous to cause suspense, but I doubt they'll do another mutiny - sorry, Gaius, revolution - story again directly after the last one, so no, I don't expect the former cult girls to storm CiC or to massacre the next bunch of civilians. (I've no idea where this will go, though, and am willing to be surprised.) I also think it's significant that this time Adama didn't dismiss the points Baltar brought up but actually listened.
Lastly: Roslin's conversation with Caprica about the opera house vision is an obvious reminder to the audience, so I'm assuming SOMEONE will visit the opera in their dreams again soon, but that something will have changed from the previous visions.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles
This is so my favourite running show, with its density and richness and character interaction and - everything. Structuring the episode around the funerals of the factory workers not only served in terms of moving the plot forward - i.e. letting Sarah & Co. find out more about the factory - but brought home that these were human beings, each with their own story. It underscores how deeply humane this show is; no "stuff happens" or "colleteral damage" attitude here, as Sarah interacts with the widow of the first human being she killed. She had to, to save her own life, and it was self defense, but the man wasn't a machine but had a life, family, and story of his own. I love you, show.
The way grief affects you, or not, shows up in all the different plot threads; Sarah and Derek each accuse the other of being unable to let Kyle Reese go, Cameron and John interact with a girl who supposedly lost her father, but is really faking it as he survived. Meanwhile, the late Logan Weaver is really dead but his widow isn't really his widow, and as opposed to Cameron, who spots the teenage girl's non-reactions, doesn't know there is a need to fake grief until the conversation with Ellison alerts her to it. Now, on a lesser show, all the Catherine and Ellison subplot would have served for was to give Ellison reason to suspect Catherine Weaver is not who she says she is. On this show, the pay-off scene at the end of the episode isn't Ellison going "hmmmm...." but Catherine Weaver interacting with "her" daughter Savannah, and this scene fascinated me as much as their earlier ones several episodes ago did. Because T-Catherine doesn't really need to do the grief interaction with Savannah; after all, she's not doing it in front of Ellison or anyone else she could impress with it, which would have been the logical thing if it it's all about maintaining her cover. Instead, she first recites Ellison's memory which he had meant as comfort like a student does a lesson of one's teacher, and then tries to understand Savannah's reactions and respond to them very much like Cameron did in early s1 when that student in her and John's class had committed suicide.
Now, the next mystery is that if Quark's brother Rom, err, Catherine Weaver's agent as played by Max Perlich, was in pursuit of Long Hair Guy (and eventually died of his hands), and Long Hair Guy was able to recall the Skynet Probe and store it in his truck, it means that there are two different agendas going on there, neither of them good for Our Heroes, of course. But it lends support to londonkds' Catherine-Weaver-is-Saruman thesis: her agenda with current Skynet is not necessarily current Skynet's agenda, and most likely she wants to change its nature for her own purposes by the whole John Henry project.