Battlestar Galactica 2.17
Feb. 18th, 2006 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaSo, uh, I guess this is what you do with these things, right? So, expansive friends list (hello ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hmpf, who probably hasn't even seen this), here is what I thought of The Captain's Hand.
Behind a cut because I've learned how to use them. I think.
Wow, this is more like it!
I really, *really* like this episode.
Complex moral issues, with surprising resolutions! Great acting! Good guest star actors! Making the Pegasus crew seem more three-dimensional without making them less creepy, and adding women! Scenes which aren't afraid of long silences!
Quick week-to-week comparison:
Last week was pretty good, but just not a patch on this week. Despite the fact that she was potentially more interesting (in that she was actually *right*) Sesha just wasn't as well drawn as Garner (who was a straight cliche, but played very well by the actor and well-written and therefore instead helped us understand the insular Pegasus mentality.)
Last week tried to be all morally complicated, what with the hot-button terrorist issue, but there really weren't any shocking decisions - we didn't expect them to negotiate, and they didn't. They relied on it "all going bloodily wrong" and Billy's death to provide the shock factor, and neither tragic pointless violence nor minor character death is really all that original.
On top of that, the character interactions last week suffered a little because (while it didn't ring false) we hadn't seen much of Billy and Dee lately, and we were as confused about the whole triangle thing as Dee was. Similarly, Ellen hasn't been around for a while, and therefore three of the four cast hostages aren't major characters. There were wonderful moments, like Kara talking to Adama about Lee's shooting, but in general, it was much more action, much less subtle character stuff.
This week, we got action aplenty, but we also got those wonderful Kara and Lee scenes, which I found endlessly interesting, despite the fact that neither is a favourite character of mine. The expressions of the actors spoke volumes (is that what was missing last week? Expressions?) just the right amount was said and not said.
I'm actually finding the Apollo and Dee relationship interesting. Despite the lack of build-up, I get the impression that Dee is invested in some way *because* Billy died and she lost so much, like she *has* to throw herself into this, or she'll actually have to think about what happened. And Lee, I'm liking his exhaustion. Not so much the idea that he's going to kill himself, but the return of the pissiness that was evident in him in the Mini Series, magnified by an increasing tendency not to care. His willingness to say to Kara that he's pissed off that she gets away with stuff. Like he wants that too. I noticed it last week when he basically didn't apologise, or even seem to feel too guilty, for stealing Billy's girl (or Billy thinking he had). I'm not sure how invested he is in his relationship with Dee, but I like that I can't tell. Like maybe he really isn't very serious about her (or isn't sure), or is just dating her because she's *someone*, *anyone*, and knows that, and lets himself behave that way anyway. We'll see where it goes.
And finally, of course, Roslin and the abortion issue.
Most impressive part of the episode. It's great the way the episode comes down on the pro-choice side, but has the good guy choose the pro-life side and the bad guy champion the choice option.
Once again, Mary McDonnell's acting really sells President Roslin's unwillingness and actual *fear* of introducing this order.
I kind of believe what Baltar says about the population predictions, although I also wonder if he was lying for his own ends.
It's a gutsy move. I love Roslin. Seriously, there's actual love, she's awesome and brave and I'd vote for her in a heartbeat. At least...I would have. Because...woah. In real life, I honestly don't think I could *ever* vote for someone who would take away the right to an abortion, and I'm not even a militant pro-choice activist or anything. It's a real deal-breaker, and now my favourite character on the show has done this, and I STILL love her... *That's* a good show.
And, of course, Baltar's double-cross. The way he does it is excellent. It frightens me that if I were in the fleet, I'd probably be on Baltar's side right now. Oy.
But I do have a few questions that I would have liked to see addressed. They are all questions with answers, but I'd still like to have heard those answers.
Firstly, the fact that by criminalising abortion, you don't get rid of it. You get coat hangers, and you get dead women as well as dead babies. You feed the black market, which it's already been established they cannot (or will not) control. I suppose, since I'm not familiar with statistics, that the per centage of women who would be so desperate not to have children they would a) seek a back street abortionist, and b) end up either dead or infertile because of it, might not outweight the extra children that would be born due to the recent executive order.
Second issue is less a moral issue, more a *practical* issue. I understand that they are worried about the survival of the human species, but is *now* really the time for a baby boom? They live in very cramped conditions, with limited resources and no way of knowing when they'll be able to either restock or find another planet to live on.
I know that maybe the answer to this is, *none* of them will survive unless they find these things, so they might as well carry on as if they will, and get on with repopulation. But if conditions are already cramped, I do wonder about the wisdom of this move.
Surely it would be better to wait until the population were at a more critical low before they enforced something like this? Like, say, when they actually had more space to accommodate such a boom?
I really wish the space issue had been brought up. Even if it was just to say that they'd lost so many people (but not entire ships) that there *was* space.
I also think that a carrot rather than a stick might have been the better option. Like working on no-questions-asked adoption, or extra rations for new mothers, or better accommodation.
Still, it's *so* *good* to see the return of genuinely surprising moral discussions, like we had in Flesh and Bone, rather than the pseudo-ambiguous moralising of Black Market (which again, was not a *bad* episode, just not a particularly shocking or stellar one.)
Wow, I had a lot to say. If you got down this far - I'm impressed!
And, uh, that's it!
Maybe I'll do this again next week. We'll see. :)
Cariad,
Becka.
hmpf, who probably hasn't even seen this), here is what I thought of The Captain's Hand. Behind a cut because I've learned how to use them. I think.
Wow, this is more like it!
I really, *really* like this episode.
Complex moral issues, with surprising resolutions! Great acting! Good guest star actors! Making the Pegasus crew seem more three-dimensional without making them less creepy, and adding women! Scenes which aren't afraid of long silences!
Quick week-to-week comparison:
Last week was pretty good, but just not a patch on this week. Despite the fact that she was potentially more interesting (in that she was actually *right*) Sesha just wasn't as well drawn as Garner (who was a straight cliche, but played very well by the actor and well-written and therefore instead helped us understand the insular Pegasus mentality.)
Last week tried to be all morally complicated, what with the hot-button terrorist issue, but there really weren't any shocking decisions - we didn't expect them to negotiate, and they didn't. They relied on it "all going bloodily wrong" and Billy's death to provide the shock factor, and neither tragic pointless violence nor minor character death is really all that original.
On top of that, the character interactions last week suffered a little because (while it didn't ring false) we hadn't seen much of Billy and Dee lately, and we were as confused about the whole triangle thing as Dee was. Similarly, Ellen hasn't been around for a while, and therefore three of the four cast hostages aren't major characters. There were wonderful moments, like Kara talking to Adama about Lee's shooting, but in general, it was much more action, much less subtle character stuff.
This week, we got action aplenty, but we also got those wonderful Kara and Lee scenes, which I found endlessly interesting, despite the fact that neither is a favourite character of mine. The expressions of the actors spoke volumes (is that what was missing last week? Expressions?) just the right amount was said and not said.
I'm actually finding the Apollo and Dee relationship interesting. Despite the lack of build-up, I get the impression that Dee is invested in some way *because* Billy died and she lost so much, like she *has* to throw herself into this, or she'll actually have to think about what happened. And Lee, I'm liking his exhaustion. Not so much the idea that he's going to kill himself, but the return of the pissiness that was evident in him in the Mini Series, magnified by an increasing tendency not to care. His willingness to say to Kara that he's pissed off that she gets away with stuff. Like he wants that too. I noticed it last week when he basically didn't apologise, or even seem to feel too guilty, for stealing Billy's girl (or Billy thinking he had). I'm not sure how invested he is in his relationship with Dee, but I like that I can't tell. Like maybe he really isn't very serious about her (or isn't sure), or is just dating her because she's *someone*, *anyone*, and knows that, and lets himself behave that way anyway. We'll see where it goes.
And finally, of course, Roslin and the abortion issue.
Most impressive part of the episode. It's great the way the episode comes down on the pro-choice side, but has the good guy choose the pro-life side and the bad guy champion the choice option.
Once again, Mary McDonnell's acting really sells President Roslin's unwillingness and actual *fear* of introducing this order.
I kind of believe what Baltar says about the population predictions, although I also wonder if he was lying for his own ends.
It's a gutsy move. I love Roslin. Seriously, there's actual love, she's awesome and brave and I'd vote for her in a heartbeat. At least...I would have. Because...woah. In real life, I honestly don't think I could *ever* vote for someone who would take away the right to an abortion, and I'm not even a militant pro-choice activist or anything. It's a real deal-breaker, and now my favourite character on the show has done this, and I STILL love her... *That's* a good show.
And, of course, Baltar's double-cross. The way he does it is excellent. It frightens me that if I were in the fleet, I'd probably be on Baltar's side right now. Oy.
But I do have a few questions that I would have liked to see addressed. They are all questions with answers, but I'd still like to have heard those answers.
Firstly, the fact that by criminalising abortion, you don't get rid of it. You get coat hangers, and you get dead women as well as dead babies. You feed the black market, which it's already been established they cannot (or will not) control. I suppose, since I'm not familiar with statistics, that the per centage of women who would be so desperate not to have children they would a) seek a back street abortionist, and b) end up either dead or infertile because of it, might not outweight the extra children that would be born due to the recent executive order.
Second issue is less a moral issue, more a *practical* issue. I understand that they are worried about the survival of the human species, but is *now* really the time for a baby boom? They live in very cramped conditions, with limited resources and no way of knowing when they'll be able to either restock or find another planet to live on.
I know that maybe the answer to this is, *none* of them will survive unless they find these things, so they might as well carry on as if they will, and get on with repopulation. But if conditions are already cramped, I do wonder about the wisdom of this move.
Surely it would be better to wait until the population were at a more critical low before they enforced something like this? Like, say, when they actually had more space to accommodate such a boom?
I really wish the space issue had been brought up. Even if it was just to say that they'd lost so many people (but not entire ships) that there *was* space.
I also think that a carrot rather than a stick might have been the better option. Like working on no-questions-asked adoption, or extra rations for new mothers, or better accommodation.
Still, it's *so* *good* to see the return of genuinely surprising moral discussions, like we had in Flesh and Bone, rather than the pseudo-ambiguous moralising of Black Market (which again, was not a *bad* episode, just not a particularly shocking or stellar one.)
Wow, I had a lot to say. If you got down this far - I'm impressed!
And, uh, that's it!
Maybe I'll do this again next week. We'll see. :)
Cariad,
Becka.
