Monday, April 28, 2008

You talk like we’re different…but you know we’re not.

Here is the full embed of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA S4x06 "Escape Velocity" which is up on Hulu and SciFi Rewind. FYI for any Hulu n00bs: on the full episode embed, you can click the Hulu screen to open vid in a separate window, where you can switch to full screen mode. But that won't work to watch the shorter clips below.




And now, for some of my favorite clips.

I had been looking forward to the Six/Tigh scenes that, based on all the pre-season advertising, were coming soon. Funny – until now, I never realized how much I miss Ellen. Six, clever as ever, subtly lets Tigh know right away that she understands what is going on...


When they are finally alone together, with the cameras off, things get even more interesting...


Poor Cally. It came as a complete - albeit kind of welcome - shock that this show would ever bring up Tyrol and Boomer again. And we thought he was over her! Or is this just the booze and pain talking? Any way you slice it, Tyrol's rawness here is intense…with a well-done moment of hallucination tucked in to boot (see Jane Espenson’s new blog entry for more on that).


This was another great ep for we members of the Callis/Baltar cult. There were plenty of fraktastic moments: Tory playing with him under the front credits...desecrating the temple and casting out the old gods...Roslin visiting him in the brig...his interaction with Lee and being "lifted by his faith" by HeadSix in the hallways of the ship...but for this clip reel, only the best will do: God loves us as we are. Perfect.


Baltar forgives his sins, the cylons' sins, humanity's sins, with one lovely speech. The scientist, who became the traitor, who became the politician, who became the puppet dictator...is now the messiah?

Pulling out for the bigger picture on this episode, I really enjoyed the parallels set up between Tory/Baltar discussing sin, guilt and perfection, with the Tigh/Six discussions of pain allowing cylons to gain the clarity needed to feel guilt/sin. One could interpret the religious parallels here in several ways -- not all of them particularly flattering to religion.

This certainly felt like one of those low-key eps that makes a lot more sense after some of the bigger season arcs unravel. You will watch it again on DVD a year from now and think, "OMG THIS EP WAS SO GOOD? Why didn't I see it back then?" I've had, erm, a lot of experiences like that with serialized shows.

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Since I missed running clips last week of S4x05, "The Ties That Bind," due to being at NY Comic Con, I've added them here.

RIP, Callandra Henderson Tyrol. This was such a great scene, Nicki Clyne. You will be missed.


Pretty much every woman on the show was giving me the creeps during this episode - even Roslin. Much of what gave Roslin her more sinister perspective was suggested by Zarek in this conversation with Lee as he prepares to join the Quorum.


The first Demetrius scene reminded me and a few friends of Moby Dick, Mutiny on the Bounty, etc. Starbuck continues to be disturbingly portrayed as a sinister mystery. I especially like that shot from Anders' perspective looking upwards...at Captain Bligh?


This scene gave me the chills, both its framing and content:


Several fan friends have mentioned the similarity between this Starbuck and the Buffy who has been unwillingly yanked out of heaven and returned to earth in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER season 6. An interesting and fitting comparison.

I’ve seen a lot of mixed and/or frustrated discussion and reviews of these two eps – not surprising since both are short on action and long on set-up/ground-laying. Character details and plot setup, without ships-n-splosions, can make the natives restless. Even BSG composer Bear McCreary felt the need to mention this in last week’s blog entry. This week brings a Mark Verheiden-penned episode that looks to be heavy on the Demetrius…and Leoben. *rubs hands together*

Meanwhile, as io9 points out, fandom speculation is moving along full throttle...and Verheiden has answered fan questions about last Friday's ep.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

hmm.. I would have really liked to have seen what you were referring to, but it's that Hulu issue again. I've seen the ep, so for most of the scenes I'm pretty sure I know what you're referring to, but as a courtesy to your international readers, would you consider putting a bit more of a description text wise when you embed Hulu links, because 'This scene gave me the chills, both in its framing and contents' has left me in the dark.

:)

ProgGrrl said...

Sure...I could do that.

Come back in a day or so and I'll put that up. To satisfy your curiosity for the moment, the scene that gave me the chills was post-coital Kara and Sam sitting in her rack on the Demetrius.

*points to my icon*

BTW have you global fans done a google search for "watch hulu outside USA" lately? Very interesting links tend to pop up. ;)

Unknown said...

ah you fraking GENIUS.. forget the text embeds, I can watch those clips :D

/me worships the Proggrrl alter of geniusness & general great BSG website-age

ProgGrrl said...

YAY!

OK well if anyone else needs me to be more descriptive during my clipspams, let me know. :D