BSG and other thoughts
First, last night's BSG (1x07, but I didn't catch the title). Gaius Baltar needs to do something useful, and he needs to do it soon. I remain unconvinced that he should not simply be knocked on the head and shoved out an airlock. I think I would tolerate him better if I could see him as a genius as well as a dangerous whackjob. I might even be interested in his mental breakdown under those circumstances.
Actually, I suspect that the fact that I find this character so disturbing--and so completely unfunny, even when he does something that ought to be funny, like that whole bathroom scene, or his first meeting with Shelley Godfrey/Six--is a sign that the show's creators are doing a good job with him. He's a bomb, and the only question is when he'll go off and how much damage he'll do, and I find that I can never forget that. I get tense whenever he comes onscreen. I should say that I don't think Gaius is inevitable dangerous, but every decision he makes seems to me to make that outcome more likely. He could turn his situation around, but I've seen nothing in his character to suggest that he will.
As for Six (or Shelley), I'm confused, but in a good way. Was that Six in material form? Was she a separate Cylon? And if so, where did she disappear to, and did she know what she was? At the moment, I'm going to hypothesize that Shelley is not just a material form of Baltar's Six, but a separate individual; we've seen Cylons managing to get around Galactica security before this, although the information that they need to breathe may limit the number of her hiding places (if the ships need oxygen, the human models ought to as well). But if I could handwave the laws of physics, the notion that she's the material form of Baltar's Six would make more sense of her appearances and disappearances. It's also a good deal more disturbing, of course.
I still love Apollo and Starbuck, and am growing more fond of Tigh by the episode. Tigh is an interesting character, because he's not immediately sympathetic, but he's usually right, especially in his interactions with Starbuck; it would have been all too easy to leave him a caricature, but instead he's a person. I do worry about the "wrong but romantic" vs. "right but repulsive" dichotomy.
I am hoping, incidentally, that Starbuck's ability to fly the Cylon ship is a sign that she's a good pilot rather than a sign that she's a Cylon as well. (I'm not spoiled, but it seems likely to me that we'll have another major character revealed to be a Cylon at some point in the series.) Did no one else think to inspect the wires at the back of the cockpit, though? And wouldn't it be really dangerous to turn that thing on while everyone else is just sitting around it?
All in all, I wasn't thrilled by this episode, but that's because of my giant Gaius Baltar issues, and because it had insufficient Lee, Kara and Tigh. I did like Adama's response to Shelley's attempt at seduction, of course, and i wish I had more to say about Roslin.
That was a lot more than I thought I'd have to say.
In other news, the debate over authorial intent and the limits of canon can bite me. I've been thinking that it's time for a re-read of Cicero's De Officiis, because I keep worrying at the question of whether an action can be useful but not good. This is because I've been reading far, far too much X-Men fanfiction (comic and movie). I can already see where this whole train of thought is going, and I'm not happy about that. I do not want a new fandom with decades of contradictory canon, thank you very much.
I will probably update again today, as I'm leaving for Oxford this evening, and livejournal is an acceptable procrastination technique.
Actually, I suspect that the fact that I find this character so disturbing--and so completely unfunny, even when he does something that ought to be funny, like that whole bathroom scene, or his first meeting with Shelley Godfrey/Six--is a sign that the show's creators are doing a good job with him. He's a bomb, and the only question is when he'll go off and how much damage he'll do, and I find that I can never forget that. I get tense whenever he comes onscreen. I should say that I don't think Gaius is inevitable dangerous, but every decision he makes seems to me to make that outcome more likely. He could turn his situation around, but I've seen nothing in his character to suggest that he will.
As for Six (or Shelley), I'm confused, but in a good way. Was that Six in material form? Was she a separate Cylon? And if so, where did she disappear to, and did she know what she was? At the moment, I'm going to hypothesize that Shelley is not just a material form of Baltar's Six, but a separate individual; we've seen Cylons managing to get around Galactica security before this, although the information that they need to breathe may limit the number of her hiding places (if the ships need oxygen, the human models ought to as well). But if I could handwave the laws of physics, the notion that she's the material form of Baltar's Six would make more sense of her appearances and disappearances. It's also a good deal more disturbing, of course.
I still love Apollo and Starbuck, and am growing more fond of Tigh by the episode. Tigh is an interesting character, because he's not immediately sympathetic, but he's usually right, especially in his interactions with Starbuck; it would have been all too easy to leave him a caricature, but instead he's a person. I do worry about the "wrong but romantic" vs. "right but repulsive" dichotomy.
I am hoping, incidentally, that Starbuck's ability to fly the Cylon ship is a sign that she's a good pilot rather than a sign that she's a Cylon as well. (I'm not spoiled, but it seems likely to me that we'll have another major character revealed to be a Cylon at some point in the series.) Did no one else think to inspect the wires at the back of the cockpit, though? And wouldn't it be really dangerous to turn that thing on while everyone else is just sitting around it?
All in all, I wasn't thrilled by this episode, but that's because of my giant Gaius Baltar issues, and because it had insufficient Lee, Kara and Tigh. I did like Adama's response to Shelley's attempt at seduction, of course, and i wish I had more to say about Roslin.
That was a lot more than I thought I'd have to say.
In other news, the debate over authorial intent and the limits of canon can bite me. I've been thinking that it's time for a re-read of Cicero's De Officiis, because I keep worrying at the question of whether an action can be useful but not good. This is because I've been reading far, far too much X-Men fanfiction (comic and movie). I can already see where this whole train of thought is going, and I'm not happy about that. I do not want a new fandom with decades of contradictory canon, thank you very much.
I will probably update again today, as I'm leaving for Oxford this evening, and livejournal is an acceptable procrastination technique.