Random Thoughts about BSG (Webisode and Non-Webisode!)

[beccatoria]

I know it's Christmas Eve/Christmas Day (depending on time zones) so no one will be around. But on the offchance that you are online and bored:

Can anyone answer the following questions?

- In the latest webisode, even though it will cost them a small amount of precious air, they need to dump the body so that it doesn't start contaminating their atmosphere with methane, etc. I have no understanding of biology but that sounds good and plausible (even if I suspect it's setting up someone to die of a faulty pressure suit). But, why not just put the body in a spacesuit? I mean, it's airtight, right? Sure it'd be kinda creepy having a dead body sat there, but they wouldn't lose any air. Which seemed to be worrying them.

- Why is there no toilet in Athena/Caprica's cell? I mean, it's built to be like, frakking indestructible and mostly they wouldn't even take Athena out of it without a dog collar and a million chains and a whole PLATOON of marines. Yet they build a cell where they're going to have to let her out several times a day to use the bathroom?

- Is abortion still illegal in the Fleet? It was the platform Baltar used to launch his campaign but that got completely subsumed by the New Caprican issue. I think it would be darkly wonderful if he just never did anything about the abortion issue and it's still illegal. That would just sum up Baltar. I'm also morbidly disappointed we never saw the fallout of that executive order. Like, you know, all the dead women.

- Not so much a question as an observation. I think I'm far too attached to this show because when I discover people I really respect and love reading the work of think that BSG squandered its potential and became a confused mess, it makes me really, really sad. Like someone just kicked my puppy, and now the only sound I want to make is meep sad. I think because I find it so wonderful and the idea that there's someone out there who doesn't see that and who I now couldn't hypothetically have awesome discussions about it with makes me all...wibbly. Not like angry or anything. People can have their own opinions and lord knows that I think a bunch of shows other people have tried to assure me are genius are actually complete and utter bollocks, so this is just the flip side of that. But...dude. I'm so sad. Which is a little "sad". :(

- The final cylon. I'm almost resigned to disappointment. I hope to the lords of kobol and the cylon god that the stupid "it's one of these five!" list that SciFi Portal released is bogus because dude, yuck. And damn, what is this fucking ridiculous obsession people have with making it Gaeta? I apologise if anyone on my flist is someone who wants it to be Gaeta but it seems to my very biased eyes that it's this really weird obsession that started in S1 because he liked computers and back when being a cylon was about shock factor and back when yet another third string character would be a shock maybe he would have been a good choice. But now?

The final cylon can't just be a "by the way, it's this guy," reveal. It has to be bigger than that. It has to answer the question of why that person didn't join the other four. Either because s/he's more important or different or already knew his/her identity? Whatever. It can't just be Gaeta/Dualla/Zarek/Whoever unless there's a freaking massive reveal that goes along with that that turns everything we know about them on their heads. And that in itself would be difficult to pull of without it feeling, well, lame.

I genuinely want the writers' reassurance that it'll affect the way we rewatch the series to mean something more than, "OMG maybe in that instant when Gaeta let the cylon virus onto the Galactica it WASN'T AN ACCIDENT!"

So. My choices for Final Five Reveals that Won't Suck are:

- Laura Roslin
- One of Kara Thrace's parents, preferably her father even though I want the final cylon to be a girl.
- Maybe they could pull off Kendra Shaw
- A new character

The other tricky issue is that if it's a shock to the character who is revealed to be the fifth, then it'll be tricky not to run over the ground we already covered with the crises experienced by the four. Which makes me think it'd be better to cast the Fifth as cognizant of his/her nature. Although in the Roslin situation, I'd recant that because I think the manner in which her character would handle the reveal and the huge part of the show she represents would warrant something of a retread, because it would be different enough to be compelling.

Comments

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

He wrote an article for Dreamwatch years ago now; right after the series started, that claimed the problem was that it was too dark and depressing, but really was just a front for him to bitch about the fact he's no longer allowed to slap office girls on the ass.

http://www.dirkbenedictcentral.com/home/articles-readarticle.php?nid=5

Highlights include:

There was a time – I know I was there – when men were men, women were women and sometimes a cigar was just a good smoke. But 40 years of feminism have taken their toll. The war against masculinity has been won. Everything has turned into its opposite, so that what was once flirting and smoking is now sexual harassment and criminal. And everyone is more lonely and miserable as a result.

and

For the re-imagined terrorists (Cylons) are not mechanical robots void of soul, of sexuality, but rather humanoid six-foot-tall former lingerie models who f**k you to death. (Poor old Starbuck, you were imagined to early. Think of the fun you could have had `fighting' with these thong-clad aliens! In the spirit of such soft-core sci-fi porn I think a more re-imaginative title would have been F**cked by A Cylon. (Apologies to Touched by An Angel.)

and

Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. Hamlet does not scan as Hamletta. Nor does Han Solo as Han Sally. Faceman is not the same as Facewoman. Nor does a Stardoe a Starbuck make. Men hand out cigars. Women `hand out' babies. And thus the world, for thousands of years, has gone round.

He is a bitter, bitter old man.

And yeah, it was four years ago, but it still makes me twitchy and angry. *sigh*

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Oh lord, how amazing. what a dinosaur. He does seem to have gone insane. Ah well. Pretty much a certainty that he'll never appaer in BSG though. :)

Merry christmas!