Belated BSG 2.17: "The Captain's Hand"

[annathepiper]

As previously mentioned, OH MY. A bit of shakiness for me in certain aspects of this episode, but by and large, OH MY.


Well, as of this episode it looks pretty official that Lee/Dualla are ON as a couple. I still don't entirely approve. Part of it is that I'm still all Apollo/Starbucky, but at least in the last couple of episodes as well there's been a sense that Dualla has nothing to do as a character except be Lee's girlfriend. Which may well be an enviable position, except that I'd like to see her doing other things as well, you know? To date she's been just fine as the Galactica's communications officer, and I thought she was totally cute with Billy, but if she's trading up to get a relationship going with one of the most major characters I'd like to see her have some more depth than that. And so far I'm just not seeing it yet.

Second quibble... bringing up abortion as an issue in this episode went a little too far into Trekkian issue-of-the-week land for my liking, unfortunately. Half of me totally accepted that this is a vital issue for the Fleet to consider if they want to have any hope of long-term survival, but on the other hand the rest of me was thinking that we're seeing enough of this debate in real life for me to really want to see it pursued on TV. Especially given how it was brought up in the context of Roslin having to make a call on what to do about that because she couldn't alienate the Gemenon contigent that had given her such support, no matter what her personal beliefs on the issue were. Yep, just a touch too uncomfortably close to real life there. I remember Ron Moore saying that part of what they want to accomplish with this show is to get people talking about such uncomfortable issues, sure... but for me, at least, it's possible to do this without being quite so... issue-of-the-week about it.

At the same time, I can't quite lay my finger on why this felt issue-of-the-week-ish to me, when other uncomfortable issues the show has tackled did not (e.g., the torture/rape of Cylon prisoners). Perhaps it was just a certain... I don't know... diminished finesse in handling it. It's hard for me to articulate. I can't say I'm annoyed that they dealt with the abortion issue in general, just because it is a vital question for the Fleet to have to think about and because it gave us such a great scene at the end of the episode (which I'll get to in a minute). But the handling of it mostly lacked a certain... finesse, for me. It may be part and parcel of the loss of edge I think we've seen in the show since "Epiphanies".

Also--what's with the sudden shift to using "Cylon" as both a singular and plural noun, anyway? Anyone else noticing this? It's very jarring to my ears every time I hear it, since "Cylons" has always been the plural through most of the series. It's even still in the text blurbs in the opening credits: "The Cylons were created by man. They evolved...", etc. It's a small thing to suddenly start changing, but it's annoying that this change would happen at all for no apparent reason.

Now, all that out of the way, let's talk about what I liked.

First up... HAH, the position of "Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher"--er, uh, "Commander of the Pegasus" curse strikes again. Bwahaha. I rather liked the conflict of having to stick a chief engineer into the command slot on this battlestar, even if I wanted to smack Garner around for his relentless laying-upon of the shit on Kara. I can totally understand why he'd be so hostile to her, since he was an engineer and was therefore used to having his world be controlled and orderly, and the last thing Kara is about is order. But I still wanted to smack him around. For that, and for his behavior to Lee as well. He certainly seemed less than interested in relying upon any advice Lee had to offer him.

solarbird says she's seen people posting on 13th_colony about Lee's "failed mutiny", but I agree with her that what Lee tried to do wasn't a mutiny at all. It was him seeing Garner flagrantly disobey a direct order from an admiral, and never mind that that admiral is Lee's father. You're a military officer, you see your superior not only disobeying a direct order but doing so in a manner that's likely to jeopardize the entire fucking ship, your beholden duty is to relieve that officer of command and take over. That's not mutiny, that's following regulations. Lee pulling a gun on Tigh when they tried to go take out Roslin first season, that was mutiny. ;)

And I liked seeing the locking of horns there between Lee and Garner, and that poor sergeant having to make the call on which of them he was going to escort out of C&C. And Garner actually realizing, when the shit hit the fan, that he really needed to be down in Engineering if they were to get the FTL drive back online--and having the sense to turn command over to Lee.

Lee's moment of having that sink in, too, was priceless. I loved that shocked little mutter of "I... have the conn". HEE.

And in the end, Garner actually proved that in the right environment, he damn well knew what he was doing, and moreover had the honor and guts to sacrifice himself for the good of the ship. Sniff. Even if I wanted to smack him around for most of the episode, I had to respect him for doing that. And this is as it should be, with Battlestar--to set up that kind of multi-layered reaction to a character. Well done there.

Good scenes between Lee and Kara as well. I liked the argument they had, and how they almost started ripping into one another about her having shot him, and how Kara backed off from the argument as soon as she realized where they were going with that--because she knew she had nowhere good that she could go with that. So she went right back to business instead--and it worked. I loved their bit at the end as well with "are we good?" and Lee's wry little comeback "You have a brain?"

It will be fun to see Kara as Galactica's CAG.

And OH MY, Lee now has the Pegasus. AND he is a commander now. Dara triumphantly declared that she totally called that, how you just can't have Battlestar Galactica without a Commander Adama, and she was right. Guess this means that we're going to have the Pegasus around at least for a while longer, if she's got a primary character in charge of her now.

Meanwhile, over in politics land, we got a scene with Zarek and Baltar dancing around the issue of whether ol' Tom might support Gaius as President. Well done there. We had some amusing discussion about whether Zarek might weasel his way into being Baltar's Veep, though I'm not convinced he'd try to pull that off a second time. Zarek's a crafty guy, and at this point I think it might suit him better to be more under-the-table in his support if it means he'll have Baltar in his pocket later.

And my quibbles about the abortion issue aside, that last scene where Baltar stepped up to announce himself as a Presidential candidate... very well done. Baltar is scary when he actually focuses and gets his shit together. He was amazingly deft in taking his supportive words about Roslin's decision being made in "good faith"--and turning them on their ear as he went on without a beat that he could not in good conscience support it. No wonder the room went wild. And best of all, Six was impressed as well. I loved that last shot of her standing back there behind the press corps, a little wide-eyed, a little smiling, slowly clapping her approval.

So, to wrap up... a little shakiness for me, but by and large, OH MY. It will be very fun to see where this goes next.

Comments

[firni.livejournal.com]

They got all "Wrath of Khan" with Garner. puhLEEZE.

At least have him tell the guy on the other end that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the fat guy from Engineering.

[annathepiper]

I think it was in fact Dara who was muttering, "Ship... out of... danger?" during that scene, I must admit. ;)

[firni.livejournal.com]

P told me to shut up because I shouted "THEY'RE TOTALLY RIPPING OFF STAR TREK!" and then I started doing the same thing Dara did.

I also think Apollo's girlfriend is a Cylon. That would fit in nicely, I think. BY YOUR COMMAND

[annathepiper]

We're getting a Cylon POV episode next week, I saw. Which led me to wonder about our chances of seeing yet another of the humanoid models. PLACE YER BETS!

[firni.livejournal.com]

APOLLO'S GIRLFRIEND FOR 500 QUATLOOS!

[annathepiper]

Hee. It'd be funny... though I'm not quite convinced that Dualla is really strategically interesting as a Cylon. Besides, we're already doing the "human male of the Galactica crew hooks up with hot Cylon chick" plot, with Helo and G-Boomer.

Who used to be C-Boomer, except now the original G-Boomer is about to be resurrected on Caprica so now SHE is C-Boomer. Yip! *head explodes*

Ahem. Anyway, I'm still a member of the Gaeta As Sekrit Ninja C&C Cylon Spy Club. ;)

[firni.livejournal.com]

This whole multi-Boomer thing is giving me a headache.

[annathepiper]

And we only have to keep track of TWO of them, too! Let's not even think about how difficult it would be to keep track of more.

Though the blurb for next week's episode up on scifi.com/battlestar sez that there will be two "celebrities" that the Cylons will be dealing with. If G-Boomer-turned-C-Boomer is one, I wonder who the other will be....

[firni.livejournal.com]

so anyway

I want a pony.

[annathepiper]

The Cylons can probably help you out with that, except the pony will have an engine and shoot lasers out of its eyes!

[firni.livejournal.com]

Now I REALLY want a pony.

[annathepiper]

Heh, Dara sez it was spazzkat saying that, not her. I stand corrected. STILL! ;)

[firni.livejournal.com]

I AM, AND WILL ALWAYS BE, YOUR *COUGH COUGH COUGH* /dies

[annathepiper]

"... asshole CO!"
"... source for all your Starbuck-shit-giving needs!"
"... lousy Fisk stand-in who has neither his warmth, his charm, nor his stash of Caprican cigars!"

[spazzkat.livejournal.com]

that was me

[annathepiper]

As I posted further down the thread. Dara already told me. :)

[wrog]

AND he is a commander now

Actually, this kindof struck me as wrong (shades of M*A*S*H Syndrome). I mean he was only promoted to major last week.

And I'll grant that Tigh probably isn't up to it, but have they really run out of colonels over in Pegasus land?

I also get the impression they're showing episodes out of order since I don't recall seeing a couple of the "previously on BSG" scenes -- particularly the one where Adama chooses Garner in the first place.

[annathepiper]

Nah, the episodes are in order--I think what may have happened, though, is that a deleted scene somehow showed up in the "previously on..." sequence. I saw this get complained about on 13th_colony, too. And that's another little detail that worries me, a bit. It's sloppy. Between that and the sudden shift from "Cylons" to "Cylon" as the plural, it makes me a bit concerned about the writers keeping their collective act together.

Lee's ascension up the ranks is, I agree, awfully... swift. And that bump up to major? That didn't even happen last week, that didn't show up at all until this episode. I was wondering about that, myself. Dara thought it was because he was going to act as Garner's XO that he needed to be bumped up to major.

One does wonder about whether or not there are more high-ranking officers on the Beast, yeah. Or whether the crew is going to be so shell-shocked at this point by losing three, count 'em, THREE commanders in a row that Adama really does need to put Lee over there.

[firni.livejournal.com]

THERE'S A REASON I HATE THIS SHOW

oh sorry, didn't mean to SHOUT OMFG CAN YOU SAY FIREFLY?

[annathepiper]

Er... what? How does this even begin to relate to Firefly? :)

[firni.livejournal.com]

Leaving shit out (in that case, it was WHOLE EPISODES) such that things make no sense/are disjointed.

Like Rog said... COMMANDER? AND WHEN DID HE MAKE MAJOR? AND AND AND GARNER? Who the hell is THAT?

"Last time on Battlestar Galactica..." HELLO, I DON'T RECALL SEEING THAT

Kill the editors. now.

shriek

Tell Dara that when she reads the email I sent her, soliciting her opinon on something, that I would like both of you to give your ideas.

shriek

it's becoming one of those days

Firni out

[annathepiper]

*blink blink* Okay, I'm genuinely confused, because I have watched all of the episodes of Firefly repeatedly, and when watched in order, they make perfect sense to me. If you're drawing on the experience of watching them when they were aired, that's FOX's fault, not the fault of the actual show--FOX DID air the episodes out of order, and should have broadcast "Serenity" first. Instead they broadcast "Train Job". Just a huge example of how badly the network handled the show.

But I digress. :)

Message relayed to Dara, anyway!

[firni.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm just annoyed with Sci-Fi for saying "last time on BSG", and it's shit that wasn't ON last time.

And yeah, I meant when Firefly was on Fox and made no sense out of order.

[annathepiper]

*nodnod* In BSG's case I think we can actually blame that on the show editors. There have been interesting comments about this on posts linked to off of 13th_colony... one poster said that they actually liked it, because it gave them a sense of the universe being bigger than just what we see on camera. While I can accept that as a POV, I don't buy it myself. The whole point of a "previously on..." sequence is to show you stuff that was previously shown ON THE SHOW, and that stuff wasn't. Showing us stuff that hasn't actually happened on camera and yet which we apparently need to know to make the episode make sense is a different sort of thing, and they should call it something different. It's just... sloppy.

But in Firefly's case... yeah, I blame that squarely on FOX. ;)

[grian-ruadh.livejournal.com]

Besides, Tolkein did that sort of thing all the time.

"When last we left our elven heroes, it was 2500 years ago and Elrond was chasing Isildur up a rocky crag..."

*laugh* I subscribe to the "larger universe" theory and take it in stride unless they get really stupid with it and use it to "cheat" storylines.

[annathepiper]

*nodnod* It's a minor nitpick with me at best. I just wish maybe they'd start it off with something besides "previously on..." if they're occasionally going to show us stuff that wasn't actually AIRED. :)

[solarbird]

Lee was handed command of Pegasus in a desperate situation by its previous Commander, and ran with it to survival in the face of very poor odds. He just saved their bacon. That means the crew is already favouribly inclined to him, and it's the first time they've had the opportunity to feel that way about a Galactica officer. Now's the best time to get someone over there from the Bucket to see if you can improve the culture a bit on the Beast. So I think it's a pretty reasonable call.

I am terrified of Starbuck as CAG - again! - tho'. Man, I hope she's learned a few things.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

The abortion thing was both issue of the week, and out of character. Banning abortions does not stop abortions; it makes them illegal. Illegal abortions are more likely to result in the death of the pregnant woman. Therefore, a policy of illegal abortions is likely to LOWER the population in the long run.

To increase the population, the fleet could use incentives and a commitment to childcare over other priorities to encourage people to have more children, and to carry as many pregnancies to term voluntarily as possible. That would be more effective. What's more, *Roslin* is the kind of person who would get this without having to have it explained to her.

I can see her doing this as a Machiavellian move to stay in power, but when she made the decision, she didn't know she needed the support of the Geminons, because Baltar hadn't betrayed her yet. I'd rather they just avoid the issue altogether, but if they do revisit it, I hope they have Roslin explaining that she's doing it for political reasons, even though she realizes it's not the least bit pragmatic.

[annathepiper]

I don't know if I quite agree that Roslin didn't know yet that she needed the Gemenon support--I mean, that was clearly already on the table with that scene where she dismisses the Gemenon leader with saying that the girl's application for asylum was "under review". And certainly she's had enough experience with them by this point to realize that this was going to be a hot button with them regardless of what Baltar's doing.

And we already know she's capable of doing some hardassed Machiavellian things--witness her casual shunting aside of that aide of hers, the guy who had supported her for years, when she thought making Baltar her Veep was politically expedient. At least this time around we get to see her showing some signs of having a moral dilemma about the question at hand, which I actually prefer.

But by and large, yeah, I'm with you on this whole thing.

[risu.livejournal.com]

I am with llachglin.

The problem with their bringing the abortion issue in is that it felt like they didn't understand the issue---and I don't just mean from my perspective, I mean from the perspective of the story they were telling. It felt . . . unmotivated. Like it didn't touch any deeper emotions on either side.

Told, not shown.

Maybe that's the difference between 'gripping' and 'issue of the week'?

[annathepiper]

I think you might be on to something, here. It felt a lot more like a "told not shown" thing for me, I think, because it was presented as an Issue, rather than a story being told about that poor Gemenon girl who was driven to stow away on the Galactica and what pushed her to such a desperate decision. We know nothing of how she got pregnant, whether she was seduced or raped or what. We know nothing of the father of her child. We didn't even get her name. She was almost peripheral to the story, and I think that it would have had a lot more gripping meaning to me if they had gone to the trouble to get us invested in what was going on in that girl's life.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i found the whole storyline on the pegasus exceedingly "crimson tide". this was partly redeemed by lee's freaking out at actually having the con.

also, it was obvious the moment the commander went into the engineering department that he was going to die. i thought it was a little too obvious and a little too much of a rip off of way too many sub films (plus star trek).

the abortion stuff was a bit issue of the week, yeah.

[annathepiper]

Huh, I didn't get as much of a sub film vibe, possibly because I've never watched all that many sub films. I have watched a lot of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but that's NOT the same thing. ;)

As for the commander... heh. Hell, it was obvious he was going to die the minute we got a guy we'd never heard of stepping up to the plate, being a general asshole, and making what was clearly a very bad choice about what to do with his battlestar against both the direct order of his admiral AND the advice of Lee. I didn't even need him heading down to engineering for that!

risu had a good point up the thread about how they did too much "tell rather than show" with the abortion storyline, and I think I agree with that. If the pregnant girl had been more than just a barely seen character, if we'd actually gotten to know her and find out what was going on in her life, I think that would have made it a bit more up close and personal.