Ten of My Favourite Lee Adama Season One Scenes
Created for scifiland:
Battlestar Galactica has some fabulous female characters: strong, tough, competent women who are allowed to be great and stupid, and whose decisions frequently drive the plot.
All of which means that I feel just a little guilty when I confess that in the face of all these fabulous, powerful women, my favourite character is Lee Adama, but there it is. I fell in love with the character who's always determined to do the right thing, whatever the cost, during the early days of the first season, and never changed my mind.
I'm not calling this my ten favourite scenes, because if I do, then as soon as I post it, I'll come up with another scene I love more. But these are definitely ten of my favourite Apollo scenes from the first season.
1. Apollo and the President (Mini-Series)
Lee: "How far down?"
I love what this scene represents: Lee's knowledge of and interest in the civilian-political side, his early alliance with Roslin against his father, and the foreshadowing of his own ascension to the presidency. But mostly I love the kindness and courage that lead him to try to comfort Roslin, after she's spent the entire pilot trying to comfort everyone else on Colonial One. His relationship with Roslin is one of my favourite aspects of the series, and I wish they'd gotten into it more, especially in the later seasons.
2. Captain Apollo, Hero of the Fleet (Mini-Series)
Apollo: "That was fun."
My reasons for loving this scene are entirely straightforward: he backs the President and saves the civilian fleet through a clever trick.
3. CAG!Lee (33)
Apollo: "You know what to do. No mistakes, and let's make it to 2-3-8. And good luck, and be careful out there."
I love Lee's speech here--as much as Kara doesn't--because I love his concern for his pilots, and I love the fact that he is telling them to be careful. I especially love it because we know--even though the show never really mentions it--that this ship and these people are all new to him. A few days earlier, he didn't know any of them, and here he steps up and does a job that he never asked for and never expected to have.
4. Action!Apollo (Bastille Day)
Apollo: "He's gonna kill her, do something."
Action!Lee takes the a weapon from the man holding him prisoner, and saves Cally and a ship full of prisoners. We'd don't get a whole lot of badass!Lee, so it's fun when we do.
5. Defiant!Lee, Defender of Democracy (Bastille Day)
Lee: "Now, if you're telling me we're throwing out the law, then I'm not a Captain, you're not a Commander and you are not the President. And I don't owe either of you a damned explanation for anything."
This is the episode where Lee really steps up as his own man, with his own values that are separate from those of both his father and Roslin, and I love the way he forces them to acknowledge that he's right.
6. Therapist!CAG (Act of Contrition)
Kara: "You know what, Lee? I think that it is great that you are able to get the other pilots to talk about their feelings and express their grief and analyze their dreams or whatever it is that you get them to do, but I don't do that, OK?"
Okay, yes, a deleted scene, which is kind of cheating, but I love that this scene makes explicit that which is already implicit in the series: that Lee does the emotional labour of taking care of his pilots as well as scheduling and training.
7. Dinner Party! (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down)
Ellen: "Bill, you must be so proud of your sons. Lee here has grown into such a handsome man."
I mostly love this scene because Lee's expression on realizing that his XO's wife is hitting on him--and his rapid avoidance of her advances--is highly entertaining. But I also love his interaction with his father and the president afterward--one of the first times when the three of them are clearly on the same side and working together.
8. Captain Apollo, Hotshot Pilot (Hand of God)
Apollo: "Galactica. Mission...accomplished."
Apollo steps up after Starbuck is injured and pulls off the crazy, daring, heroic flying stunt that destroys the Cylon base and secures several years worth of fuel for the Fleet. I love this scene for the same reason I love all of the Action!Apollo scenes--because it demonstrates that Lee is, in fact, the great soldier we're told he is, and because it rounds out the character.
9. Play Time (Colonial Day)
Lee: "Toasters aren't our only problem. Don't you play any attention to politics?"
Political!Lee, always paying attention to what's going on in the Fleet. Plus, Playful!pilots! What's not to love?
10. Kobol's Last Gleaming Part II
Lee: "But you can tell my father that I'm listening to my instincts and my instincts tell me that we cannot sacrifice our democracy just because the President makes a bad decision."
This episode features Lee's second big stand for democracy, and this one costs him a lot more than his previous stand. I really like the fact that he disagrees with what the President has done, but defies his father's attempt a military coup anyway, on the grounds that a bad decision isn't sufficient reason to throw over their entire system of government.
Battlestar Galactica has some fabulous female characters: strong, tough, competent women who are allowed to be great and stupid, and whose decisions frequently drive the plot.
All of which means that I feel just a little guilty when I confess that in the face of all these fabulous, powerful women, my favourite character is Lee Adama, but there it is. I fell in love with the character who's always determined to do the right thing, whatever the cost, during the early days of the first season, and never changed my mind.
I'm not calling this my ten favourite scenes, because if I do, then as soon as I post it, I'll come up with another scene I love more. But these are definitely ten of my favourite Apollo scenes from the first season.
1. Apollo and the President (Mini-Series)
Lee: "How far down?"
I love what this scene represents: Lee's knowledge of and interest in the civilian-political side, his early alliance with Roslin against his father, and the foreshadowing of his own ascension to the presidency. But mostly I love the kindness and courage that lead him to try to comfort Roslin, after she's spent the entire pilot trying to comfort everyone else on Colonial One. His relationship with Roslin is one of my favourite aspects of the series, and I wish they'd gotten into it more, especially in the later seasons.
2. Captain Apollo, Hero of the Fleet (Mini-Series)
Apollo: "That was fun."
My reasons for loving this scene are entirely straightforward: he backs the President and saves the civilian fleet through a clever trick.
3. CAG!Lee (33)
Apollo: "You know what to do. No mistakes, and let's make it to 2-3-8. And good luck, and be careful out there."
I love Lee's speech here--as much as Kara doesn't--because I love his concern for his pilots, and I love the fact that he is telling them to be careful. I especially love it because we know--even though the show never really mentions it--that this ship and these people are all new to him. A few days earlier, he didn't know any of them, and here he steps up and does a job that he never asked for and never expected to have.
4. Action!Apollo (Bastille Day)
Apollo: "He's gonna kill her, do something."
Action!Lee takes the a weapon from the man holding him prisoner, and saves Cally and a ship full of prisoners. We'd don't get a whole lot of badass!Lee, so it's fun when we do.
5. Defiant!Lee, Defender of Democracy (Bastille Day)
Lee: "Now, if you're telling me we're throwing out the law, then I'm not a Captain, you're not a Commander and you are not the President. And I don't owe either of you a damned explanation for anything."
This is the episode where Lee really steps up as his own man, with his own values that are separate from those of both his father and Roslin, and I love the way he forces them to acknowledge that he's right.
6. Therapist!CAG (Act of Contrition)
Kara: "You know what, Lee? I think that it is great that you are able to get the other pilots to talk about their feelings and express their grief and analyze their dreams or whatever it is that you get them to do, but I don't do that, OK?"
Okay, yes, a deleted scene, which is kind of cheating, but I love that this scene makes explicit that which is already implicit in the series: that Lee does the emotional labour of taking care of his pilots as well as scheduling and training.
7. Dinner Party! (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down)
Ellen: "Bill, you must be so proud of your sons. Lee here has grown into such a handsome man."
I mostly love this scene because Lee's expression on realizing that his XO's wife is hitting on him--and his rapid avoidance of her advances--is highly entertaining. But I also love his interaction with his father and the president afterward--one of the first times when the three of them are clearly on the same side and working together.
8. Captain Apollo, Hotshot Pilot (Hand of God)
Apollo: "Galactica. Mission...accomplished."
Apollo steps up after Starbuck is injured and pulls off the crazy, daring, heroic flying stunt that destroys the Cylon base and secures several years worth of fuel for the Fleet. I love this scene for the same reason I love all of the Action!Apollo scenes--because it demonstrates that Lee is, in fact, the great soldier we're told he is, and because it rounds out the character.
9. Play Time (Colonial Day)
Lee: "Toasters aren't our only problem. Don't you play any attention to politics?"
Political!Lee, always paying attention to what's going on in the Fleet. Plus, Playful!pilots! What's not to love?
10. Kobol's Last Gleaming Part II
Lee: "But you can tell my father that I'm listening to my instincts and my instincts tell me that we cannot sacrifice our democracy just because the President makes a bad decision."
This episode features Lee's second big stand for democracy, and this one costs him a lot more than his previous stand. I really like the fact that he disagrees with what the President has done, but defies his father's attempt a military coup anyway, on the grounds that a bad decision isn't sufficient reason to throw over their entire system of government.