BSG no-idea-what-episode-number: "Razor"

[annathepiper]

As previously promised, here's my detailed reaction to Razor now that the thing's actually aired on the Sci-Fi channel! It held up well for solarbird and me on a second viewing, too.


First and foremost: half of me is delighted that we've finally got an on-camera queer couple in the BSG universe. The other half of me is shaking her tiny fists and whining, "But why'd it have to be Admiral Batshit and a Cylon, for frak's sake?!" Sigh.

And at the same time, I must admit that solarbird and I snickered quite a bit over wondering exactly how many models of Six were stationed in strategic positions seducing high-ranking Colonials. I also was amused by Gina's last name, Inviere--and how it's apparently Old Gemonese for "resurrection". Muahaha. (Side note: hurrah for a sign of lingual drift in Colonial culture. ^_^) And, HAR, of course Gina was the network engineer on the Pegasus. Just goes to show you, never piss off the network engineers. They might be Cylons.

Second: Kendra Shaw, a.k.a. Lieutenant Captain Major Splody, kicked serious ass. Granted that it was a bit of a stretch for her to be the prominent Pegasus character in this storyline when we'd seen no sign of her in the small handful of pre-Cain-assassination episodes, but I'm willing to cut some slack on that on the grounds of her general awesomeness. I loved her and Starbuck going at it. Adama had it right with that crack about wanting to sell tickets.

And speaking of Adama, very neat flashback to the days of the First Cylon War and a mission with young "Husker" Adama there. The guy they got playing young Adama did a spookily good job channeling Edward James Olmos, right down to that craggy look to his face and the gravelly rasp to his voice. For extra special goodness with that sequence, I watched the flashbacks that they'd posted on the Razor page up on scifi.com, which fleshed that scene out nicely, and I expect that extra footage will be on the DVD.

As long as we're on the topic of Adamas, very nice mileage with Apollo all around. Really liked his little chat with Kendra when he offered her the XO job: "Don't hold back just because I have a pulse." Also, later, the reaction he has when Kendra thinks he's going to make her resign now that he knows about her involvement in the incident on the Scylla--and spazzkat pointed out that that scene has all the more meaning when you remember that it was Apollo who, way back in the second episode in Season One, was the one who shot up the Olympic Carrier. I had totally forgotten that, and it really does add some punch to Apollo's half of that scene.

All the flashbacks with Kendra's story as well as Cain's were very, very cool. I very much liked the progression of Cain from a reasonable if workaholic-inclined type with an XO gently reining her in to a revenge-driven harridan who didn't blink twice at shooting that same XO. And while the sequence of events seems to indicate that discovering Gina was a Cylon wasn't the trigger that tipped her across that line, I'd certainly buy that it was the thing that shoved her in that direction. I'm a little sad that we didn't get the extended bits of Cain background that I glimped in the ad we saw for the DVD during the sneak preview showing--it's that stuff I'm most interested in seeing now.

Howsabout that bit with the hybrid with that prediction about Starbuck being the Herald of the Apocalypse, the Harbinger of Death? Very, very amusing little clue there about how Season Four is going to go, especially taken in conjunction with the teaser trailer we got for future episodes.

Last but not least, raise your hand if you let out a gleeful shriek when the old-school Cylons came on screen! That "BY YOUR COMMAND" line made the audience at our sneak preview showing go absolutely NUTS. :D

Comments

[wrog]

it was a bit of a stretch for her to be the prominent Pegasus character in this storyline when we'd seen no sign of her in the small handful of pre-Cain-assassination episodes

this was how I knew she was going to die. On the other hand, knowing this in advance didn't actually take anything away --- she kicked that much ass.

very neat flashback to the days of the First Cylon War and a mission with young "Husker" Adama there

I don't know. We're treading dangerously close to the Main Characters Doing Too Much Shit Syndrome a.k.a. Department of One Too Many Fantastically Convenient Coincidences a.k.a. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital With Only Five Actual People In It a.k.a. No Dammit Franklin and Sheridan and Garibaldi did NOT NOT NOT Play A Fucking Major Role in the Earth-Minbari War And I Don't Care If The Actor Budget Wasn't Big Enough To Do It Right Sorry But This is Totally Trashing My Suspension of Disbelief Syndrome.

raise your hand if you let out a gleeful shriek when the old-school Cylons came on screen

dingdingdingdingding.

[annathepiper]

*giggle* So your disbelief is stretched a teensy bit, you're telling us? ;)

And oh yeah, sure, "doomed" was branded all over Kendra's forehead the instant she stepped on screen. But as you say... she kicked that much ass that it was okay.

[annathepiper]

Part of the entire point of that scene was they weren't at all sure that it was empty. So Apollo and Starbuck both were freaked over the idea of nuking it.

Also, Roslin knocked the passenger count of the Olympic Carrier off the total of survivors, at least according its page on the Battlestar Wiki.

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

I was a bit surprised that Cain was as much of a crazy asshole from the beginning as she was. The Cylon attack put her over the edge, but she seemed ready to snap anyway.

The old-school Cylon bit was a delight. It took me completely by surprise.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, it didn't seem really to take much to shove her over the edge. That little bit of ragging into Kendra in CIC, for example. I really want to see her background flashbacks on the DVD now to see if she was that much of an asshole before she was an Admiral.

[alinsa.livejournal.com]

I believe that technically, Razor is episodes 401 and 402.

(Rest of posting gleefully ignored until we finish season 3 here... :)

*snuggles*

[annathepiper]

*snugs!* Thank you. And good to hear from you. :)

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

not sure if you read this community or not, but there was an interesting review and comment thread of this in whileaway a couple of days ago.

Interesting seeing the different takes on it.

[annathepiper]

I do not read that community, so thanks for the link. :)

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

/manages not to read.

My cable provider ran it as Razor: Battlestar Galactica, so the DVR didn't pick it up. *sigh* I'm hoping they will rerun it.

[annathepiper]

Doh! Sorry you missed it! But I'm sure they'll rerun it sooner or later. It's the only BSG we'll have until March!