Battlestar Galactica -- Season Four

sometime in March apparently. i spoilered myself a little last night out of impatience.

so Lee isn't the final Cylon, then. hmm.

Season 3 isn't even out on DVD yet, is it?

http://triciahelfer.com/blog/?page_id=256

Tricia & Katee ride hogs thru wine country(w/ photos)

Tremendously boring photos.

Is it still going to be sometime in March???

New episodes start April 4th (here in the USA at least).

Ridiculous final cylon speculation begins here!

It's so gonna be that cat that belongs to Romo Lampkin (Baltar's lawyer).

the cast is on letterman this week, aren't they?

just the cat.

haa

i'm pretty excited abt battlestar new season i don't care what anyone says
i heard actors (starbuck & boomer) on the radio a few days ago and they were saying that things will wrap up, that there is an end and it is both surprising and satisfying. but who knows. and maybe this is old news. i haven't been paying attn :/

hope this is better than season 3

i hope they end it like the sopranos.

with Baltar as Tony...altho i guess whatever happens the very last shot will be a Starbuck zing

right after the big musical number

I just hope they wrap up everything in a way that makes sense with what's gone before. If they don't, then I hope they at least go as bunkers as possible (and as a result, there being dinosaurs). I definitely don't want it to end like the Matrix movies.

Somehow the final five cylons have to be tied in to Earth and Kobol. I'm guessing that the people of the colonies are actually a humanoid race evolved from the original cylons, which were created by humans on earth. After some big war or being exiled they left to settle on Kobol, and from there the colonies. Maybe the process has repeated many times as time has gone on, as the "this has happened before and it will happen again" line indicates.

bonkers as possible

i am going to make a bet that when the season is over everyone will hate it and i will play capn save a ho while secretly knowing that the ending sucked

yeah probably. has any show like this ever ended truly satisfactorily?

sopranos ended well. what other series has been like this tho, really.

space operas with a continuous storyline?

well every other series I can think of that meets that criteria (ST from TNG on, Babylon 5, Stargate, etc.) are all nigh unwatchable so I wouldn't know

(TNG is good - didn't mean to lump it in there really - but they "ended" on the bigscreen so I dunno if that counts)

lol

xp

the last TNG episode was pretty good, i think?

I honestly don't remember!

i'm still 50/50 on whether Sopranos end was really that satisfying

the last Buffy was probably OK

the lsat tng was pretty cool

the last buffy was so-so... the whole last season was pretty weak

<a href="http://io9.com/369909/why-battlestar-galactica-is-the-best-political-drama-on-tv";>new preview!</a>

Last TNG was grebt~ It had 2.5 Enterprises blowing up! and tvff nvts if that's a spoiler for you.

Also DS9 was much more space opera w/ continuous storyline -- run-up to finale was awesome but the finale itself = wtf.

god this show makes absolutely no sense anymore. what am i watching?

Got me. I got five minutes into the one from week prior and just reached a "fuck it" moment when callie started freaking out with baby; turned it off and removed from tivo queue.
Then put it back for girl... but now I think she's ready to dump this sucker as well.

No love for levitating Baltar, then, eh? Shame.

what doesn't make sense? do you mean leaps in logic, basic narrative coherence, editing or what?

i mean, regardless of what you think of the show's current quality, i don't see how anyone who's been paying attention couldn't follow what was going on. whether or not the show compels you to care to is another matter.

I dig Baltar's sexin' cult. I'm wondering exactly how specific they'll get with mentions to their monotheistic God. They've named Mithras and other greek pantheon members outright, so are they going to invoke Abraham's God more specifically, or are they just going to land on Kolob/"Kobol" and meet Dirk Benedict?

Where the hell is that baby and why can't it cure my President again??

No, I follow everything just fine; I've just really ceased to care.

i should have clarified that i was addressing cutty's post there

anyway, i am enjoying baltar's descent into narcissistic Oprah self-love shit. very sinister, like he's becoming a new age antichrist or something.

Self-love, but pushed by the "revelationss through pain of Toby and Six (who's also schooling Tighe, in her cell).

Episode needed more Starbuck doing her Captain Ahab shtick, but Tyrol's rant to Adama about how much he hated his wife made up for it.

The actor's wife in real life died recently, I believe. In which case - holy fuck.

"..those dull vacant eyes and her stench of cabbage."

hahahaha yes that was totally wtf

i doubt anyone in the fleet is really smelling all that great though. aren't they subsisting mainly on a diet of processed algae?

can't understand why that episode would be the last straw for anyone

yeah, i liked it

also lee's republican hair lol

http://nickdouglas.googlepages.com/we-will-defeat-the-cylons.jpg

bootlestar galacti-blah

[is more like it]

still needs more explosions tho

Okay, this is pretty goony, but here's what I think is going on.

Last week when Tigh started seeing his wife while he was talking to Six, he wasn't just crazy. He's having a revelation. His wife was indeed an older version of Six. We haven't seen any indication that the skinjobs exist at different ages, but I think they do. Furthermore, I figure that skinjobs have been walking around thinking they're human for a long, time, back before the first cylon war. They've been out there making hybrids, actually, and the first one, and the first one to start to realize what's up is Baltar - that's why he has the cylon capacity for insight/revelation at moments of extreme agony.

Tigh and Tyrol are also the same model of skinjob, with about 20 or 30 years age difference between 'em.

mock me at your leisure

Nothing, huh?

thx for reminding me

the wackness is setting in again on BSG....the mutiny is so BORING! I feel like this should've just been a few scenes with a swift resolution, not a damn whole episode. i actually couldn't wait for this last episode to end.

they're definitely stretching this shit out too much to make it fit into 20 episodes. liked the scene with chief and baltar, though.

Yeah, I like the Tyrol stuff.

thought this episode was the best so far. leonid rules.

(this season, obvs)

leoben, you mean?

i guess?

totally liked this episode!
and the mutiny! and return of leo
and all the creaking ship sounds, very pirate ship way out at sea. or yknow, a whaling ship... i think we've talked abt that reference seasons ago tho.
i think they've started to get back into the stuff that drew me in in the first place: the true complexity of any decision, political and/or personal, in a time of survival; the struggle to have faith/hope/go on with it all; the capacity for anyone to actually change and be trusted. and explosions.

the moral questions and religious stuff are so utterly without MEANING CONTENT though. there aren't any issues here that have any larger resonance outside of the show. and it's not action-packed/revelatory/well-acted enough to compel me otherwise.

ya totally.

hate nu-starbuck so much :(

When dude gets shot, Moore's WW2 instincts are kicking in. She pours sulfa on the wound, same as in Band of Brothers.

Also, God in Heaven but Rekha Sharma is fucking hott.

^

lot of stuff happened in this episode!

yeah, but WHAT?? having such a hard timing following things. baby watching at same time doesn't help. i always have to re-watch it later.

I like that (like they did with the Pegasus episode) like Adama's decision to give Starbuck her own ship, in these conflict resolutions they keep opting for an awkward non-violent compromise, with the mutiny in this case. They love those countdown clocks in this show! But anyway, that seems to be a running theme this year, with the Cylon civil war and what's probably gonna be some craziness when the beat up basestar jumps to the fleet in an episode or two...

That Centurion freaking out when they unplugged the Hybrid continues the obvious foreshadowing, but it didn't totally make sense (like did it not realize at all what was going on while it was standing there?) but it's forgivable I suppose.

Also: Hey, Nana Visitor, where ya been? Nice to see.

"That Centurion freaking out when they unplugged the Hybrid continues the obvious foreshadowing"

in the podcast RDM has talked about the possibility of a centurion rebellion, and how it was a dead end story for them. it got as far as some extra CGI work that was then cut out.

Really? Damn, that's a little disappointing. I feel like that's happened before in BSG (a storyline is clearly built up, but then they drop it before anything happens) earlier, but I can't remember right now which angles (besides the Billy to Tory shift, but that was necessary because the actor wanted to leave the show).

this was a really good episode after all the setting-up they've been doing so far. one of the hazards of heavily serialized television i guess.

the f/x were great in this one. the raptor traveling through the organic-metallic debris, the big red planet (Jupiter?), the membranes on the hangar inside the baseship, all very nice.

also mega lols at the red shirts they've been introducing and killing off this season

Haha, I know - when that chick came up re-"volunteering" it was so great, you knew right then and there she wasn't coming back alive.

Ceelix has been in the show since season one, I'm pretty sure.

Or was that not Ceelix? It wasn't, was it? My bad.

first decent episode this season...

Disagree, I thought it was almost unwatchable except for the discovery of the planet/cylon remains.

shall we take a vote

I think it was the best episode this season. But I don't think it had a lot of competition.

thought it was great, well-paced - starbuck re-engaging slightly, cylons & humans still scary war/killing machines despite all the emo of late, i like how everyone is basically frazzed to the max and trying to hold their shit together whatever way they can, strangely felt no pity for gaeta being shot tho whoa brutal wound, wanted to see more of the cylon ship bio parts, looking fwd to xena's return, and maybe baltar trying to unite evryone through 'god's love' omg

Are they getting too manipulative with the cancer victims? We've all got some personal experience, know somebody who's had or know somebody who knows somebody etc--not that the conversation between Rosalyn and the other lady or, Rosalyn and Bill Adama later weren't affecting, but set pieces, place holders? (Starting thinking that with the seeing departed loved ones on the shore,while approaching by boat--of course they're on the Battleship, but---noway I'm going Over There in a frakking boat, not if I can help it--whatta cliche, anyway)

(but overall yeah, great episode, incl the death stuff, mostly, and the "execution" of the Six by the Final[?]Six!)

i mean it might just seem extra-decent because of last week's episode, with all its baltar sermonizing and starbuck hemming and hawing. way to ruin the 2 best characters.

Also, wtf at Gaeta's openly bleeding wound; Jesus Christ, you're a regular colonial ship, don't you have a decent first-aid kit with hydrogen peroxide and decent bandaging aboard?! Towel the shit off once in a while, whydoncha.

there's not on a colonial ship, though, aren't they on a garbage truck or something?

and yeah, this ep was killer. glad to see it didn't get bogged down by the stupid mutiny. LOVED Boomer brushing off the other 8s!

although cancer plotline is a little too ham-fisted methinks

Yeah, they're on a garbage scow, but still. The cancer bits are okay with me, b/c they reveal a different flavor of the show to me. On the one hand, you have the most vivacious examples of life in term of the skinjobs, on the other, you have folks slowly dying from their own bodies.

It's kinda like replicants; they were the most human and alive of all of them; the real ones had long ago given up

LOVED Boomer brushing off the other 8s!

athena, you mean. boomer's with the cavils.

god i'm such a nerd.

never, EVER, use that as a personal, self-directed insult.

Insults should be directed at others, preferably those who don't fall within the reach of the narcissism of small differences.

Still, I'm hoping that both Dean Stockwell AND Dirk Benedict are involved in the series finale in some onscreen way.

Perhaps they could play chess on a beach, and Dirk could distract Dead with knocking over certain chess pieces why the Galacitica slips away.

Dean, rather.

Still, I'm hoping that both Dean Stockwell AND Dirk Benedict are involved in the series finale in some onscreen way.

lol not likely to happen

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1434920/posts

Enh. Those are posts from 3 years ago on a freeper board. We'll see what turns out.

Surprised by tonight's ending, on both conclusions. Those last 10 minutes were some of the most dramatic marching-through-corridors montage since The West Wing... very good. Plot seemed to move a lot faster than usual tonight!

So now Athena and that brushhead guy and everybody frakking else in the known universe are down to their last Six, Gaius's Mental Babe?

Great olde Euro-Indian ballad from Gaea (not "Indo-European" as in "Aryan" as in--o shit I just thought of that)

It was kind of savagely funny, tho.

I mean, Nu-Six gave her speech about mortality giving life meaning and ten minutes later she's all dead and shit.

There are a bunch of sixes left on that basestar, right?

A quality episode, and obviously it would happen when I have to wait 2 weeks for the next one.

HE SINGS

man, was that episode a hot pocket stuffed with plot or what

look on tory and tigh's faces when the six leader says the final five know the way to earth=priceless.

the guy who plays Gaeta has an opera/theater background, i wonder if the writers will incorporate any of the other actors' skills? like maybe james callis is an expert juggler and unicycle rider or something.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Watching those two great episodes last night almost make me forget about all the terrible ones that preceeded them. Almost.

they're trying to set up gaeta in the viewer's head as the final cylon but it's totally dualla.

If Gaeta is the final Cylon, the agony of his leg being amputated probably revealed the location of Earth to him.

Also, it makes his actions during the occupation of NuCaprica all the more ironing.

for some reason i've always gone with gaeta as the last cylon but now that they're not so subtly hinting at it, it feels like a deliberate red herring.

"'s totally dualla"

you read that mad fan theory too, eh? it's clearly going to be boxy.

but yeah, when she made the briefest of cameos in this ep - i was thinking, hmm, they ARE keeping her around for something then :-/

i actually said "FUCKING YES" quite loudly to nobody, somewhere near the end of this episode.

I know it's far from the only idea they've reused, but the whole leg amputee thing really reminded me of that arc in the last season of DS9.

Who wants to bet that CapricaSix becomes the stand-in for Natalie, now? Or not, looks like she's got her own craziness popping out next week...

Also when remember way back in Season 1 and 2, Dualla was supposed to get married to Billy, who got replaced by Tory as one of the Final Five. Then they sort of paired Dualla up with Apollo instead. So she probably had some kind of role that got shifted, somehow (I'm guessing in the vein of Callie's).

Wait--guy who plays Gaeta has opera background--the opera house in Roslyn and Sharon's vision (doesn't mean he's a Cylon, but something).Hybrid's delightedly assuring Starbuck that she is "the harbinger of death": after the Six's speech about mortality as a *good* thing (yes, savage irony), I started thinking, "Well maybe that's the way the Hybrid meant it, as a goood, Earth-finding etc. gift"--but then, considering the ending...

as i did not get to half-drunkenly or even soberly ramble re: battlestar to anyone tonight, i'm just gonna say that yeah 'death' in this case is as in say, tarot, and end and a new beginning. and a mystery, of course. so to be the harbinger of death is to also be, if not necessarily the bringer, then the instigator of new life.

and then there's the whole reincarnation issue + 'life here began out there', where maybe resurrection gets transposed or diminished or something on earth and still works but in unpredictable ways.

also i am v into how the strategizing for war has developed over the course of the show and how "gut feelings" play this pretty big role in decision making. where's the war logic in a gut feeling? but no one can be fully logical in war, as it is all emotional turmoil. i just like that the show is spending time on 'boring' background kinds of stuff that in fact does all build up to crazy events. i don't know, while i love space battles and fast-pacing, i have a lot of love for a show that risks losing all kinds of viewers b/c it's trying to unpack a few of modern globalized society's major self-destructive issues.

So true. And the polytheistic humans' belief that everything has already happened, many times, and will continue to do so--does that/will that have some congruence/convergence with the Cylons' resurrections, now perhaps coming to an end (at least the latest dead Six desired it so fervently, more vocally than Brushhead or Athena) Oh yeah, and I remembered after prev query that at least one Six(other than Gaius's mental guide)is still around: Tighe's own afterhours instructor.

I like the mystical bits, and the melding of their weird ancient history with their mythos. I hope that they'll have more with the hybrid next ep.

as long as things are actually happening i guess i'm ok with it!

lol we're ahead of the US now haha take that ameriKKKa

And the polytheistic humans' belief that everything has already happened, many times, and will continue to do so

Hasn't that been the Cylon refrain since S1, and the polytheists and non-religious humans pretty much roll their eyes?

i have to say i'm quite enjoying this season though not much really happens

last two episodes have been practically nothing but shit happening

taken long enough

lolz @ mithras references

sobz @ there only being like 2 episodes left for this year :(

oh shit. cannot find a torrent yet.

was there an episode on friday or not? wtf?

In Britain there was??

I'm not sure though oh god i don't understand.

def. not in US

it's up on torrents for all, if you can't wait until friday

sweet

i found it on mininova too

i cant believe there's only two left till 2009. it's like they're actively working against the idea of momentum.

yeah it's fucked.

This is the writer's strike's fault though, right?

This isn't the last season?

2009? what?

Apparently they've split Season 4 so ten episodes are going to be shown this year and the final ten will begin the end of this year to end (possibly) in early 2009. At least that's what I've read.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33862

it's annoying how hard it is to be a fan of this show nowadays.

what other shows have jumped the shark at the exact moment they get wide critical acclaim?

Didn't the wide critical acclaim come last season?

that's pretty much when it went into free-fall

2009? what?
srsly
just finish it, show

LELAND?

My mind was more blown by Lampkin's cat being a hallucination.

next week looks crazy.

C'mon, who didn't love OLD MAN FIGHT!

i was pretty drunk by the time I got around to watching it, and it was really late as well, so the whole Romo Lampkin holding a gun cat thing made absolutely no sense to me. Drunken me just thought they were creating some bullshit to pad out an episode so they can justify making Lee president. wasicrazy?

i am THIS close to taking this show off my facebook "favourite tv shows" list. THIS CLOSE, RON MOORE. sadly i do not think i have much leverage.

i liked this episode!

Not to spoil it if you haven't seen it, but the ending was not at all what I was expecting--I'll bet that damn book will lead somewhere--(yeah the old man fight was gold too)

Oh yeah, sorry if anybody already mentioned it, but Ron Moore (The Original Romo?) has been recruited by Tom Cruise--to write movies, anyway. At least three, maybe four.

Fave Adama line this entire season: "Do you have any idea how many times I've had to fix this thing?"

Also, I think this episode has the first reference to artificial gravity in the entire series.

Ha, you're right, I didn't even think about that artificial gravity thing. You'd have thought it would come into play earlier.

One detail I remember liking now, was how as Adama was leaving, a bunch of crewmen salute him, but in particular there's this one guy who's just kind of like go fuck yourself, adama and pretends like he doesn't see him, right next so someone who is saluting! Nice reminder that not everybody on the Galactica loves him.

what a schizo episode - old man fight was AWESOME, but the appearance of Romo is always a downer - you know you're in for a bullshit cod-philosophy episode that has been shoehorned into a certain spot so as to have maximum current-affairs relevance. we LOL'd super hard at Tighe when Adama promotes him to Admiral and says something like 'Saul, you've learned a lot about yourself' and Tighe's eyebrow arched so high i thought it would jump off his face! LOL'd super hard again when model ship was crushed for the tenth time, that was hilarious...

I liked that they used Romo for this ep; he gives a weird x-factor to everything involved.

Also, the "WHY IS SHE PREGNANT" reaction from Saul reminded me of a Davros shot; trying to heavily emote using very limited external body movements.

Nice to finally know they have cats & dogs in the fleet. WWII ships always had their mascot animals, they did.

god this show has become all pompous speeches and characters doing random boring bullshit

it's just awful now. an awful, awful show.

so depressing.

this episode didn't even make sense. didn't anyone go uh, if adama is stepping down who cares if he approves of the president anyway??

The naysayers make me think about Buffy fans and how, with every season, they'd be like, Oh man, this season SUCKS and then, of course, next season they'd be all about how last season was great but man, does THIS season suck

i don't think the show on the whole is just "awful, awful" but this is by far the worst episode this season, especially coming after the last few episodes which i thought were pretty good.

The naysayers make me think about Buffy fans and how, with every season, they'd be like, Oh man, this season SUCKS and then, of course, next season they'd be all about how last season was great but man, does THIS season suck

-- i, grey, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 7:14 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

nah, slocki at least has been clear and consistent about where feels the show's gone wrong since the previous season. i don't completely agree with him, but a terrible episode like this makes me understand his frustration.

Granted that I am a neophyte viewer (I watched a few late episodes last season, and I've seen the pilot and s1e1), but I thought it was the first genuinely bad episode, especially the first two-thirds. Which is too bad, because I really enjoyed the previous episode.

this episode was a such a clunky attempt to do the kind of politically charged power-struggle plotlines they used to do really well.

but the engine driving the show has really moved on from that to the religious-mythic earth cylon-human origins stuff so they might as well just focus on that instead of spinning their wheels with all this twaddle about interim presidents and shit.

i just didn't get the cat thing at all.

sorry but the last thing this season needed was another really terrible episode.

i, grey i don't know why you think that. do you think that every time somebody doesn't like something?

incidentally i loved buffy!

the only reason i'm not depressed about battlestar these past couple of seasons is because i've been willing myself against it. so, i still hold on to the good scenes, loving them too much, and am merely disappointed by everything else that exists around them :/

why battlestar-making people why

It just sorta reminded me of the Buffy syndrome.

I think most of the episodes have been problematic even though all of them have brilliant bits.

The problem for the writers is to come up with a certain amount of new conflicts that can be somewhat resolved in one season while also guiding the known conflicts to some sort of satisfying ending, while also upping the ante on all fronts while also setting the stage for the show's final resolution so that whatever's resolved doesn't seem cheaply gained and all within the parameters of the amount of episodes they have.

Could get incredibly difficult.

Not coincidentally, Buffy's Jane Espenson is the new BSG co-producer and a writer, which probably explains some of the jokes we've gotten in this very jokeless show.

Then again, Romo's sudden urge to let humanity bite it because we suck so bad is alot like Willow's urge to do the same in season 6 of Buffy, so there's an up and down aspect.

I think the last few episodes will be awesome.

shame we have to wait another year though :(

i am so confused abt when shows are actually airing - like do we get 4 more eps and then this year-long o_O break or ?

more like 2 eps then o_O

unless dom gets it banned for being dangerous

romo is the worst character on teh show. shades mccool.

I think the last few episodes will be awesome.

-- i, grey, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 2:58 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

people have been saying that (replace "last" with "next") since the beginning of last season. i think i've given up any faith that this show is going to magically get better because i've lost all confidence these people know how to tell a story anymore... or worse, that they have one to tell.

oh hai new episode tonight on sky one haha

sigh we no longer care v much...

also yeah wtf with romo and all this 'intriguing character' camera angles and music and the shades when he turns out to underneath it all be totally boring!!

did they expect ppl would treat the cat thing like a sixth sense style reveal and go back and watch the episode again knowing the awful truth?

i feel like battlestar is like a start-up that has like an espresso machine in every department and mini-golf in the parking lot at first and then 2 years later there's a black&decker 12-cup in the utility room and everyone just takes the bus to work

and everyone's talking about prophecies and visions

seriously, is there anything less interesting on a tv show than every character spouting prophecy and having visions

and is it just me or did they lose half their fighters and their president and respond by uh... sending an old man out in a raptor?

oh hai new episode tonight on sky one haha

I thought there wasn't a new one tonight?

Last I heard Sky had moved this week's episode to next Tuesday and the finale to next Friday as the US networks bods were miffed after all the viewers bittorrented last week's show?

oh noes you are right! it has been replaced with the televisual gooey ass-discharge known as 'Lost' (which as much as BSG may now suck it is still leagues ahead of that shit)

also yeah wtf with romo and all this 'intriguing character' camera angles and music and the shades when he turns out to underneath it all be totally boring!!

-- rrrobyn, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 6:29 PM (29 minutes ago)

see also House MD

lost is just DESTROYING bsg this season.

even less happens! NB i stopped watching it half way through season one

stuff happens now

the last/next few episodes will be awesome

stuff happens now

-- s1ocki, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 7:15 PM (7 minutes ago)

too late

he last/next few episodes will be awesome

-- jeff, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 7:19 PM (4 minutes ago)

this isn't really season four though i reckon. this is like season 3.75 and the real season 4 will be the last batch next year, though feel free to dig this up and put it in italics when they turn out to be shit

i was making a joke about lost.

i think this "season" of bsg is fine. the real people in denial are the ones who think this show ever had good consistent story telling.

oh i thought you were talking about bsg!

fuck a season 3.75

i mean who does that

ok well it could be like season 3.15 then we're really in trouble

bsg used to be show #1 for me out of the 3 shows i watch right now and now it is show #3 :/ and lost went from #3 to #1 dr who is consistent at #2 on avg

by 'right now' i guess i mean the last 3 years

the real people in denial are the ones who think this show ever had good consistent story telling.

-- jeff, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 6:28 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

dude are you really pulling out the "it was always bad" argument... that's like the nuclear option

i think i'd rather be disappointed by BSG than be one of those slack-jawed mouthbreathers still enjoying doctor who

don't take it personally that i don't like battlestar anymore

i wasn't talking about you, though i suppose now i could be

dr who is at least fun even when it's bad

dr who is bad even when it's bad

weak

let's argue about which is better, dr who or battlestar galactica

that'd be a really cool thing to do

lolzzzzzzzzz
zzz
z

there's a thread for that

most boring kinds of arguments in the universe

to me

I'm just so on a different world than the people who are liking big beats of these recent eps. Adama falling into the ship was such a hyuk-hyuk low-stakes gag, made me roll my fucking eyes. Everything that happens seems motivated not by a sense of reality or character but rather what convoluted set-ups can result in "cool stuff happening". This show was used to often be SMART, FASTIDIOUS and URGENT.

it's like this weird guy who used to wait at the same bus stop as me when i lived in victoria years ago who wld try to engage me in Van Halen vs Motley Cru arguments
for some reason

xpost

Oh yeah sorry about that rrrobyn

I was in my 'phase'

hahahahaaaa

Now I realize it was actually Dokken that was best all along.

enlightenment

this last episode was terrible, but frankly i don't think the season's been that bad for the most part. if one feels the show is unrecoverable at this point, why bother? just move on.

i'm finally ready to move on.

is anybody excited abotu CAPRICA

no

do you think it'll be more like CRAPRICA

xx-post

about as excited as i was for lone gunman, meaning not at all.

gunmEn*

lol like it matters

for future generations

prequels always suck!

it's always kinda hard to commit to a prequel

and their endless winks to the audience

"i shall call it a dylon! no, wait, that's not right..."

"that's a clever son you have there, shmaius baltar!"

ohgod i'm not ready to move on and laugh yet

maybe after this week's ep

the good times were so good

next week looks pretty juicy, though i hate that we had to sit through an episode about dead cats and finding interim presidents to find out where the hell that baseship went.

then we only have to wait another year!

do you think every character is going to take a turn to go off alone in a ship and look for something vague?

and talk endlessly to themselves about it

maybe go a little 'crazy'

and paint

Stop filming documentaries about me.

hahahahahaha

I like the idea of BSG as reality TV series.

What would be the 'wacky' title.

Last week's episode was hands-down the worst episode ever. I think the show is pretty inconsistent with lots of mid-season filler episodes, but usually the good outweighs the bad and makes it worth watching. Last week was bad simply for being incoherent as a narrative. There were no scene transitions, it was just: JUMP!! Adama is doing something crazy now. JUMP!! Annoying lawyer dude is pontificating on the self-deceptiveness of human nature. Yawn.

I had decided half-way through that if they had Felix singing to himself and annoying lawyer dude in the same episode then I would stop watching altogether.

the more i think abt the romo thing the more i realize that what i was really wanting when watching this episode was for him or his cat or someone to turn inside out and grow 10 insectile arms and go on a ship-wide rampage

i always know an episode is going to honk when the super-exciting preview montage at the beginning is all secondary characters looking stern and whipping their heads around

^^^^^^

dude are you really pulling out the "it was always bad" argument... that's like the nuclear option

not really saying that... instead, i'm saying that this show has always been very very poorly paced and maybe it seems worse now since they're trying to fit all these important developments in

what?? the show's pacing was awesome at the beginning... that 33 minutes episode f'rinstance

wasn't that the very first episode?

i always know an episode is going to honk when the super-exciting preview montage at the beginning is all secondary characters looking stern and whipping their heads around

Oh, right

i'm mostly bitter about season three where they burned through new caprica only to give us that ridiculous boxing episode

final 5th cylon
xpost

hahahaha

i'm mostly bitter about season three where they burned through new caprica only to give us that ridiculous boxing episode

-- jeff, Tuesday, June 3, 2008 8:06 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

ya i think it's basically been downhill from the new caprica rescue. though i still maintain the show jumped the shark the moment you saw cylons bickering

the spark comes back every time a cylon kicks someone's ass cylon strength style again
but that hasn't happened v often at all this season :(

another thing about watching this show is that viewing it a season at a time on dvd or whatever is really a whole different thing than watching it as it airs.

with the latter it's much more torturous if the episode is crappy.

you can't just skip to the next episode with the juicy plot points.

you have to sit through the dead cats and squabbling about who's gonna be hall monitor or whatever

on the next BSG: Lee and the Quorum lock horns over the removal of Funyuns from the Colonial One snack machine...

Boxing episode wasn't nearly as bad as the one where Chief starts a strike, Adama threatens to have Callie shot and then smiles at the end making everything OK. The fuck? There were a lot of episodes where some interesting aspect of the fleet would be raised, and then completely glossed over never to be mentioned again. That's just bad storytelling.

so, the last two episodes are called "the hub" and "revelations." i guess they're going to go out on the final cylon?

i'm hoping it turns out to be hot dog.

i hope it turns out to be a hot dog.

i still maintain the show jumped the shark the moment you saw cylons bickering

certainly it wasn't quite the same :(

i dunno, if they had kept to the cylons as this unstoppable/impenetrable enemy it probably would have gotten even more stale and cartoon-ish after a while. endless chasing a la roadrunner and wile e. coyote.

jumping every 33 seconds

i'm not saying i want less cyclon complex emotional situations and conflict i'm just saying i want more robot fighting

o no it would be exciting and suspenseful

xxp

there's really nothing that can't be improved by robo conflict, true

it is a basic tenant of the medium

A tenant in your SKULL

endless chasing a la roadrunner and wile e. coyote.

never did warner bros any harm

Adama's only lines are loud beeps, Cylons fall off cliffs into the distance with a puff of hypersmoke...

Full-on Macross flashbacks with all the missile trails flyin' thru space

Much better episode. Shit blowin' up, weird-ass mysticism, the odd interplay of cutting back & forth between the battle & Baltar trying to proselytize to a Centurion.

only good thing was Baltar and the Centurion

i always like the weird mystical stuff

I cracked up real good at the fake-out musical cue with closeup of Rozzie.

baltar in this episode was lolsome

Baltar has been the show's saving grace ever since he got ditched by the Cylons.

Holy shit, this was a damn fine episode. Amazin' performance by Roslin. Probably the best of the season as of yet.

i was glad that baltar's guilt came up in this episode... that was always so central to his character and when they got away from it i thought he was a lot less compelling.

only good thing was Baltar and the Centurion

it was really great this part

if this ep had been truly crappy i wld possibly really have given up on the show. i will admit that the 'i love you' + 'it's about time' at the end got me in the heart zone.

O but "The moment I realized my guilt, I realized God loves me, as he loves you..." and he brought the Flood (ov blood) to wash man clean (looping Rev. John Hagee on Dark Angel Adolph, hastening nationstate of Israel- Armageddon-Rapture)(and certain ancient apochrypha re St.Judas as key)

next week really looks crazy

Best of the season by a country mile. Loved the bits where Roslin and Baltar were squabbling beside the hybrid's pool, the inter-jump visions were nicely done (really hair vs. chemo wig was a cool touch), and the firefight and the resurrection hub geting nuked was suitably eye-popping. Final Roslin/Adama reunion brung strong misty eye too.

next week really looks crazy

Maybe the Cylons will finally get to that damned plan. (signifier of dubious episode: when the opening credits do not say "And they have a plan")

Everyone ^^^^ about this episode. Finally season 4 is picking up.

ok since this WASNT the last ep of the year. is next week's?

yep.

is it gonna be a good one?

that's up to the viewers at home. thanks foir playing, americaaa!

pshaa!

^
too much space beer

ooh

yeah i keep hearing it's gonna be uber-crazy.

i bet they find earth, it sure looked that way from the sci-fi channel preview.

they're about to film the series finale, and we have to wait a year after this episode airs.

so fucked up.

interesting interview with james callis:

http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/battlestar_galacticas_james

surely not. if they film the finale now, and don't xmit til next year the internet will explode with spoilaz spoilaz spoilaz

i spoilered the next episode for myself :(

sci-fi's streaming it, for those in the USA.

just watched it.

whoa is there some way to cheat the system for those in the rest of the world?

http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/stream

not working :(

A friend forwarded me this picture. I had no idea EJO was a Throbbing Gristle fan!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3138/2568425363_8514112536.jpg

<3 EJO

WHAT

btw this plays big part in tonights episode. think "hamburger lady" instead of "all along the watchtower"

lol

OK, I'm totally floored by that Chris & Cosey picture

far out

at least i am now excited for this show to come back

Last scene with all the major characters is my fave shot of the season (if not the series so far). Adama losing it was extremely unsettling - at least he didn't smash the ship up again.

Lots of space exterior eye candy too

so, theories?

earth has gotta be the true origin of the colonists. and the five have to be remnants of a previous race of cylons created by the earthlings.

anyway, here's the teaser for season 4.5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5WPM_obGic

well that was amusingly grim

i really like how quietly bitter and sarcastic tyrol has become. he's been through so much shit he's just greeting every crazy new development with a smirk.

Anybody else think "Damn you all to HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" in the final scene last night?

jokes, bruv, I thought that final shot practically redeemed all the boring parts of this season.

made me think of hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

I was handed the movie that started off the first series recently and watched it today, suffice to say i won't be reading this thread as i haven't even started on season 1. But i will because the movie was great! And it's that guy from miami vice who plays the commander, and he plays almost the same character.

But i really enjoyed it, and have now got hold of the season 1 box ready to view. yay.

well we all knew that was a possibility... the ending i mean... and i think i'm glad they went with that.

also nice in this episode to see cylons actually being evil and stuff again

THERE IS NO SANCTUARRYYYYYYYYY

oh wow yay now we get a show where nobody knows anything and nothing really matters any more!

but at least they all get on and shit

still dont understand why adama ditched the fleet... glad they undid that right away but what a stupid plot development that was!

Anybody else think "Damn you all to HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" in the final scene last night?

cosign

a great last episode, but earth being a desolate wasteland kinda raises more questions than it answers

it's not the last ep of the show, just the mid-season cliffhanger (why they don't just call next year's last batch of episodes season 5 is beyond me).

well yeah I meant "last" as in "this batch of episodes - which in normal parlance we would call a season"

and by questions I mean that earth being a wasteland implies that a) all the humans' various visions (Roslin, Starbuck, etc.) and their accompanying theology are wrong, and b) by extension the cylons' programming re: earth is also wrong (unless earth was only recently laid waste cuz the anti-human cylons got there first...?)

also, where is the cylon homeworld? do they have one?

ya they never really explained where they were all hanging out for 40 years. maybe just in basestars?

yeah, i think they were basically regrouping/and updating their technology.

I really love how that soul-crushing ending comes after the most positive, jubilant moment in the entire series. You just felt that HORRIBLE, awesome ironic letdown coming. When I saw that fistful of dirt next to the beeping radiation counter.... Greatest Show Ever!

Man, what are they gonna do now? I can't wait...

GREAT ep.

My nagging questions: How did Starbuck's viper get all spiffied? Is there a viper-repair 'verse?

Obviously, nobody on this Earth was in shape for that, unless there's
some Beneath the Planet of the Apes action, which I know Moore wouldn't
pull. And of course, all the prophecy shit, and the Red-Dress-Six,
what was up with that. (Whatever happened to red-glowy-spine-Cylon sex?)

Of course--there's the non-revealed Final Fifth, although it's to the
ep's credit that I really didn't care by ep's end.

Then there's the 800lb gorilla of the show: what led the Cylons to
exterminate humankind on the first place?

Plus, will Gaeta, he of the over-determined name and tendancy to sing
what sound like Caprica show tunes while bleeding, finally meet a nice
young fella? (Note that he was hugging on in the happy scene.)

Whatever--it's just astounding how Moore re-sets/defines the show
every season. This was the assimilation season. Everyone's pretty much
stuck with each other--I don't think D'yanna is right about humans not
forgiving. Or rather, with so many loved ones now outed as Cylons, it
would be hard to find a moral rationale for killing them.

So I figure we've got another 12 eps of people falling to pieces,
Roslin dying horribly, Tigh coming to terms with his knocked up
toaster, Poppa Adama losing it big time, Starbuck blaming herself for
sins real and imagined and acting out in some hideous new way.

In other words, BSG at its toe-tapping best.

(I keep thinking there will be an ON THE BEACH moment, where someone finds the thing that supplied the locater signal and it'll be a fried corpse with a Pepsi bottle fallen on a toggle switch.)

10 more. 2 eps were taken up by the Razor telefilm, weren't they?

yeah. supposedly the last episode is gonna be 3 hours long!

Did D'Anna say that the fifth wasn't in the fleet, or just that it wasn't on Galactica? I thought the latter, but everyone online seems to have heard it was the former

fleet

Yeah, she said the fifth wasn't in the fleet. And oddly enough she only demanded four of the remaining final five, so she knows something about the fifth and its whereabouts, I'm assuming. And if the fifth isn't in the fleet, that leaves us with one of the previously dead people (Billy, Ellen Tight, Cally) somehow resurrecting in a location other than one of the communal bathtubs (maybe somewhere on Earth, since these last five seem to be something special somehow)...or it leaves us with some ridiculous choice like one of the spaceships.

Either that or it's Baltar (disappointing) or Roslin (also disappointing) and she only said that they weren't in the fleet because she already had them hostage on the base ship at that point.

It also could be one of the models (i.e. a "special Six") which I am beginning to think is the most likely possibility at this point.

For what it's worth, my money was on either Doc Coddle or Tom Zarek because of how either one of them could really cause serious shit to unfold from a dramatic perspective -- you gotta stretch this out ten more eps after all...but her comments about the fifth not being in the fleet seem to rule out both of them, too.

I dunno, I am thinking now it's probably gonna be Ellen Tigh. The trailer for season 4.5 seems to have Saul Tigh anguished about the fifth Cylon...and after noticing that the action figures for Number Six look a whole lot more like Ellen Tigh than Tricia Helfer, I think that clinches it. Ha.

@Alex - So maybe Ellen Tigh was the "special Six".

My friends theory was that it was Helo and the big revelation was that HERA was actually a Cylon-g on Cylon-g baby, but I think that theory is now blown.

Which is good cuz he would have been insufferable if he was right!

So now the question is: now that the Chief is outed as a Cylon, will the Cylons make as big a friggin' deal out of his baby as they did about Hera? Sure, Hera was in the vision, which would lend credence to her being something special I suppose (and just how DID Helo survive for so long on Caprica, huh?)

There are still plot holes that need to be patched up or woven into the story, obviously.

>and just how DID Helo survive for so long on Caprica, huh?

ding! ding! ding!

pretty much every marriage in the show has been human-on-cylon right?? except apollo & d?

...yessss...funny, that.

except apollo & d?

Ha, funny, the marriage thing seems so obvious now (well, uh if I was smart I would've seen it from last year's season finale), but I never made that connection.

kinda get the feeling it might be a coincidence.

yeah, seeing as Tyrol didn't become a cylon until the "reveal" episode was rewritten before shooting, there was def no grand plan from the beginning re marriages.

Wasn't it implied that the Six in captivity is pregnant as a result of sexual Tigh-jinks? Nobody has mentioned that, so maybe I'm misreading it. But it would be a pure cylon baby.

My other thought on the final five would be Adama's first son, what's-his-name, whose death was a much bigger deal in earlier seasons. It would make for some good emo EJO arc. Speaking of which, I thought the Tigh reveal to Adama scene was chopped all to hell in the broadcast. Looking forward to the extended scene when this is released on DVD.

Wasn't it implied that the Six in captivity is pregnant as a result of sexual Tigh-jinks? Nobody has mentioned that, so maybe I'm misreading it. But it would be a pure cylon baby.

Yeah, I saw that too and quickly came to the conclusion that it was someone else watching her who had done the deed, not Tigh. If it IS a pure Cylon baby, all bets are off as to the identity of the fifth.

i watched the 'episode 0' feature length pilot again last night for the second time - SO good (particularly amazing to compare the Chief then and now)

"why can't we use the starboard deck?"
"it's a gift shop now"
"frak me!"

After my initial excitement of season 1, I ended up being so bored by season 2 that i stopped watching before the last few episodes. and now i don't care.

i was hoping someone knew when this was back on :(((((((((

in retrospect the miniseries was the series high point... or maybe the first handful of episodes.

yeah, guess so

makes Lost seem more impressive in a way - how they started so high but then managed to match that further on

I still think the rebellion on New Caprica is the high mark so far.

ya lost is an example of a show that kinda fumbled it but got it back... rare

Was there anyone left alive on Caprica who could be the last of the Five? I will be *really* disappointed if Ellen Tighe is the last one. I hated her, and some kind of saintly resurrection is only going to make me hate her more. (Although her Judas behavior would fit in with the empty seat in the Last Supper photo.)

My theory is that Ellen Tigh is a cylon, but an older version of six, not a seperate model.

oh there's no way Ellen is a cylon. that would make Tigh's hallucinations/conflations "supernatural" (aka super dumb and superficial), instead of them suggesting (understandable, complicated) psychological trauma. i am v certain it will not be thus.

my money would be on the "last" cylon being a new actor.

nope

SciFi Channel's Mark Stern describes the reveal of the Final Cylon as "organic and satisfying. It won't be some day player from Season 1." From TV Guide

uh, that still means it could be a new actor.

between the "won't be some day player from Season 1" and "isn't someone in the fleet" comments, there aren't very many people left. Billy/Adama's dead son/etc don't exactly seem "organic and satisfying".

when she said said they weren't in the fleet she could have meant on the baseship with all those hostages.

I'm trying to recall now if there was any clear explanation as to the origin of the "skin jobs" -- surely they weren't created by the toasters. I've just started watching the series again, and even after the first episode it seems there were strong strong indications that the new faux-human Cylons were created by the humans before the Cylons declared war.

One thought that just came to me is that the final Cylon has to have some difference between it an the other four -- it's the first prototype maybe. And while there's certainly a lot to be said for Ellen Tigh as the first, and as an older version of Number 6, I'm now thinking that maybe, just maybe, the remaining Cylon model is a replica of its creator, ala Data resembling Noonian Singh in the the Star Trek series, or the Emergency Medical Hologram being patterned after its creator. (Creators are vain, egotistical creatures, after all, and they all have themselves as face models.)

This is pushing me back to thinking that the final Cylon is Doc Coddle -- he's a doctor/scientist. So he definitely could have been reponsible for the creation of this new life.

Then again, using that logic, maybe the original creator was the template for the Simon Cylon. So who the hell knows.

http://battlestarrevealed.wordpress.com/

^^^some people need to get out more

the final cylon is Baltar and I collect my five dollars

even after the first episode it seems there were strong strong indications that the new faux-human Cylons were created by the humans before the Cylons declared war.

Please explain. This doesn't make any sense to me - so much of the series is premised on the humans being surprised by the fact that Cylons could walk among them. Surely after what - 50 years? of war, at least among high-ranking fleet and government officials people would know about the existence of skin jobs.

(This doesn't necessarily answer the question of the origin of the skin jobs.)

As far as I understand, Moore said at some point that the final Cylon will definitely be someone that we've known since Season 1. That doesn't preclude the dead people, obviously but it is a further strike against the "new actor" theory.

I'm trying to recall now if there was any clear explanation as to the origin of the "skin jobs" -- surely they weren't created by the toasters. I've just started watching the series again, and even after the first episode it seems there were strong strong indications that the new faux-human Cylons were created by the humans before the Cylons declared war.

in Razor they made it clear the skin jobs were created by reverse engineering their own humanoids based on what they learned from the humans they captured and experimented upon. the first hybrids were the result.

!! guess I should watch Razor.

that doesn't explain how skinjobs made it to the top of the cylon hierarchy tho, while Toasters remain mindless slaves...?

I mean what kind of mindless robot can create a master race to boss it around that is also a) smarter and b) completely different from itself

i hope billy comes back. he was so cute

Did anyone else see those spoiler photos of (what is supposedly) the crew shooting the finale episode?

I want one of those Men In Black mind wipes. GAAAAH.

seriously, tigh's wrinkly cylon wang is the last thing my eyes needed

Trailer for Caprica!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/07/tca-caprica-the.html

caprica is starting to seem somewhat more interesting.

that doesn't explain how skinjobs made it to the top of the cylon hierarchy tho, while Toasters remain mindless slaves...?

children are destined to surpass their parents, the next generation is supposed to rise up and rule, this is how progress happens, etc

i will watch caprica
i hope it has at least some sense of humour somewhere in it tho...
lol eric stoltz!

Did anyone else see those spoiler photos of (what is supposedly) the crew shooting the finale episode?

Um, since this season is over and they probably haven't even written the episodes that will start airing in 2009, I'm not what this is all about.

According to this, it's all shot now, and in post-production. So, uh, yeah, everything is written, the finale is shot, and we gotta wait a while to see how it turns out.

Polly Walker in Caprica! I wasn't excited about it until now.