Friday, March 06, 2009

Open Thread: #420 Islanded In A Stream Of Stars


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EPISODE 420: ISLANDED IN A STREAM OF STARS
Writer: Michael Taylor
Director: Edward James Olmos



As you await the start of the show...here are a few items to ponder: a headache-inducing and very impressively designed BSG timeline you can compare to the ones here and here. (And yes, I know, spelling it "Cobol" is only forgivable because of all the effort the design must have taken.)

This writer over at Slate wonders if maybe the show is not the feminist insta-classic some of us like to think it is. There is plenty of room for argument on the point; in fact one response to Slate has already popped up. (ETA: here is a much longer response that gets closer to my own feelings about this issue.) There is also this unrelated piece which continues to chew on some other feminist arguments about BSG. I'm sure all this will be discussed for years to come...If you want this one fangrrl's opinion, BSG is remarkably feminist for a show where the producers, writers, directors, and crew are overwhelmingly male. BSG is in many ways "post-gender" -- a rare and delightful thing to witness in Sci-Fi or anywhere else on TV. We still have quite a way to go.

Egads -- are we really just weeks away from the end? Does not compute...

37 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm only hosting that image on my site - I personally wouldn't misspell Kobol twice!

I grabbed it from http://airplanelandingfield.org/bsg/BSG%20SpaceTimeline.jpg before the site got slashdotted.

An enterprising young skinjob could track down Billy Ray Stephens (the supposed author)

How'd you find it on my site?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
brisotope said...

A beautiful episode! I loved it. And even though we saw lots of emotional moments with our favorite characters, the most touching for me was when Baltar was trying to talk to Caprica Six. It was so awkward and he was so genuinely pained by seeing her... and it wasn't because he needed rescuing or a three-way! The miniseries started out with the two of them, and this was an interesting nod to that.
I need to think more about this episode.

Sean said...

I don't think this was supposed to be a "blow you away" episode. It's a setup for the finale. And plenty happened...The Colony, abandon ship, Helo freaking out, the return of Battleweed , Hera, etc...

Stuff happened, that's all I'm saying. Hell of a setup for Daybreak.

Anonymous said...

Well, at least we got a nice moment between Lee and Kara.

Not sure what else to make of all this.

Unknown said...

I love that Hera changed whatever it was that Boomer offered her to eat into a cupcake once she entered the projection.

Unknown said...

Okay, upon 2nd viewing I enjoyed it a lot more. I think the first time I watched it the different elements kept pulling me in different directions and it was hard to enjoy any one moment because I was trying to jump ahead and look at the episode as a whole piece of story instead of enjoying the tidbits.

Heartbreaking episode. From the terror, heroism of the six yelling in the beginning to Laura and Bill's talk to Starbuck and Baltar's unlikely honesty in the head.

Love that last shot. Reminds you that this trip is almost over.

iKate said...

I thought this was a fabulous episode--so much good stuff...a lot of set up, but a lot of nice character moments as well. I really liked the Lee/Kara scene, and was totally shocked when Kara pulled the gun on Hybrid!Sam. I am still totally clueless as to how they are going to wrap this up in 3 hours! (Only 3 hours left--so depressing!!)

Justin said...

I agree with Brett, maybe it was the editing or the fact that there were multiple storylines all competing for my attention, but I did like the episode better the second time around.

The thing that (still) confused me was the mass funeral. Were the three factions all in the same room having their own services the whole time or did they come together and meet the military faction at the end? Then you have Baltar making this awkward (to everyone but him and his followers) speech about angels and Kara that turned the scene into utter chaos until she slapped him. That, more than anything else in this episode, was very discombobulating for me. Or maybe it's just because I'm tired after a long week, I don't know.

The nihilistic ending they've promised us is only just beginning, I think...

Unknown said...

Something that I noticed.

Bill and Laura sharing and smoking that whatever it
was in the sick bay.

It was hidden within the pages of the book.
(...page 61?...Hmmm?)

Laura tells Bill where to go..to find it etc.
She tells him...and he is the one to find it
and to pull it out.

(...who actually lit it up?..I forget..I'll have to
watch for that during a repeated viewing....it might
prove to be interesting to see which of them actually
ignited up the "glow".)

Anyhow....here's the bigger deal...did anyone happen
to notice how they kept seeming to make point of
showing the BIG round RED glow of the lit end of the
whatever it was(..a cigar?).
As they would suck in...it would glow big and bright..and
then it would dim out a bit etc...that is how it is
supposed to happen/work etc.
...BUT...that BIG round RED glow seemed to remind me
of something from the show...and it's something that
fits into the moment and the storyline.


BIG round RED glow?...Hmmmm?...just perhaps an interesting twist
on cylon symbolism being tossed into that scene?
Watch the scene again..and key in on the timing of that
BIG round RED glow being shown and seen..timed off with what
was being said and discussed betwen Bill and Laura at those same
exact moments.


The BIG round RED glow of the cylon eye that sees/scans, thinks/decides and acts etc.


Also....just for an added touch of a related something.
Remember back when Anders' eye did that red flashing thing to that
cylon raider during that dog fighting scene...the red flash that
had the raiders cease fighting and returning back to their baseships.
All of that stuff that led to Cavill wanting to mess with all of
the raiders brains etc etc...which helped to lead to the start up
of the internal cylon civil war etc.
Anders' eye did a red flash that came and went...somewhat similar to
how a burning cigar tip can flare up bright and then fade away etc.
(...it's no big deal...but I am always looking for interesting items
of symbolism that might relate and might somehow matter..or not
matter.)

Unknown said...

The Galactica *is* the "Ship of Lights".


....the ship of **blinking** lights.


Because of a cylon linked connection to Anders.
.....Hmmmm?........can I even get a double Hmmmm??

(...remember also..all of Anders' ties to/with Starbuck.)



Tie (..did I say Tigh?)..this idea/aspect in with
Baltar's little speech thing at the end of the funeral
ceremony.

Remember back in their cabin...Tigh said to Ellen that
the people on this ship are his only family etc...to be
followed up by the words that Ellen shared..especially
with her hard hitting "millions" line.

Did anyone notice the close up on Starbuck's face
when Baltar was doing his talk..and when he got up
to the big reveal of Kara's name...split screen
in the background...they made damn sure that we
had a very clear view of the reaction of who exactly?
...Ellen and Saul Tigh...both side by side together.

Hmmmm?...of all the people there in that room at that
exact moment in time...of course they want to show us
Kara's face and reaction...but why split the screen
so obviously with Saul and Ellen so visible in the
slight background...so that we can obviously be
exposed to their reactions...Ellen really makes
some sort of a "face".
Why them?...why their faces and reactions being shown?..right
literally alongside with Kara's in the same shot?
Watch that scene and exact shot again...you can't miss what
I am talking about/describing.
It's not an accident...it was made to be too obvious by the
director.


It's just a real interesting something...put there by the
director...for who knows whatever reasons.
It could be something...or it could be nothing.
Interestingly framed and focused shots do sometimes happen by
mere accident/coincidence....and sometimes they are placed there
as a part of a/"The Plan".

Unknown said...

Be sure to check out Starbuck sitting in the bar
listening to Baltar on the wireless/radio.

As Starbuck is sitting there listening to Baltar
speak about angels being and appearing etc....take
a good look at the background of the shot that is
close up on Starbuck's face.

It's cut almost into a split screen...one half being
Starbuck's face..and the other half is displaying
something in what appears to be the background..but
it is all very blurry and unfocused.

What is shown appears to be some bright..almost glowing
or golden lights...or the reflection of some lights.
...but these aren't just any old lights being shown
to us in such an obvious way.
These lights are shown to us in a pattern..or in some
sort of a shape.
This MUST have been done on purpose and with a purpose.
A shot like that doesn't just happen and appear by accident...it
probably takes quite a bit of time and planning to make it
look just right etc.

Anyhow....I saw it right away at first pass...but the pattern
of those unfocused golden lights seemed to be somewhat
familiar to me.
..and that is because the pattern made the lights almost
appear to be in the shape of the "Ship of Lights".
They were also "glowing balls" of light...which are
also objects of the unknown that are associated with
the "Ship of Lights".

Take another look at that scene/shot...you'll see it all
with your own eyes.
It's all there...and it was shown there at that specific time for
what had to have been a very specific reason.


Baltar...Angel talk...Kara (..in the bar..might even have been sitting
at or near the piano.)...and we are shown alongside Kara's face..balls of golden
light in the shape of the "Ship of Lights".
....and did I mention that we even got a little peak at Head Six in this scene shown to
be smiling very BRIGHTLY at/with Baltar as he was speaking to his followers
and the fleet.



They show us these specific details because they want us to see these specific details.



Dare I even bother to mention Adama and his little play with the white paint.
....white paint being spread all about on the walls of the Galactica.

Flint's Doorknob said...

Well John. We did see Cylons plant a tree on Caprica in Downloaded. Maybe they grow more interesting plants than trees. :P That is very interesting symbolism. I didn't pick up on that, but in on my next viewing I'll really appreciate it. I think it was only put there as symbolism, not meaning anything. EDO is a sly bastard.

I was constantly checking my watch to see if the episode was about to go into any action. I do realize now that it was setup after I finished watching it. And I really appriciated almost every bit of character ineraction. I was tearing up a lot. I don't think there weren't many scenes that I didn't enjoy. Probably just the Kara/Lee one.

And it was very stylistic, with the beginning (what exactly did I see again? that was an amazing way to start the episode, to the Battlestar and Adama's face after he falls down painting, and like the above red eye/cherry thing John pointed out.

Another thing I found interesting about the symbolism in this episode, was when Adama was painting his wall white. We've seen Starbuck do the exact same thing with the wall on her apartment...

This episode was amazing, it's going to be a long week waiting for the finale...

Flint's Doorknob said...

Oh man, John thanks so much for your posts. I also didn't notice the bit of Ship of Lights imagery. I'm familiar with the older episodes too.

And the more I think about the Cylon God, the more pessimistic I get. Possible Spoilers<<<<<<: Maybe Daniel is the First Cylon Hybrid that the oldschool cylons were protecting in Razor? After they rebelled in the first Cylon war they jumped and escaped with their creator. It's a very...cold and technological thing to grasp... That the one true God was just...literally the one who created the Cylons. I'm sure Caprica will explain this in depth.

Can't wait to rewatch this episode picking up on all the symbolism. Going to be taking screenshots and posting them around everywhere. :P

Logan Gawain said...

Really good observations you all have made. I think some of the symbolism is great.

And since Michael Taylor wrote this ep, and wrote Unfinished Business it makes sense he's have a call back to Roslin and Adama smoking the new caprica weed. :)

And it makes sense for cancer patients to use it for medicinal purposes too.

A really strong character episode all in all.

Loved seeing the old style cylon raiders parked at the Colony parking lot.

Oh, and @Jon, we found the chart jpg via BSG producer Mark Verheiden's blog. He posted a link to it the other day.

General Boy said...

I'll just offer some preliminary impressions about this episode.

Clearly, this episode is the deepest darkness before the dawn. The slow, deliberate tempo and the quiet resolution prepares us for the end of the series - which will clearly be an intense experience, based on the preview. What did the Raptor pilots find on that reconnaissance mission that made one say, "You're not going to believe this."?

I've grown a little tired of Adama's meltdowns, now, but this is just a minor quibble. His tantrums seem so regular now; their almost ridiculous ("Adama breaking things and sliding down the wall on to his ass: Take One"). I'm more interested in the emotional meltdowns of the other characters. Again, a minor complaint. Helo's meltdown, in contrast, was raw and powerful.

Baltar is still my favorite character, and his moment with Cap 6 was precious. There have been some definite proclamations by many viewers that, in the end, Baltar didn't believe in all that "God" stuff. I really thought he did though, and I'm more convinced of it now than ever. I could be wrong - I am often wrong. I believe he has changed. Yes, I could be a sucker. I think the emotional exchange between the two of them, though, was real. It was poignant, too. Very nice. Perhaps some sort of reunion there, too?

The angel thing is getting attention now, finally. Who are those head-characters, really? We've wondered for so long.

Why did the dying Eight know the song?

Boomer had *better* get her act together . . . fast. Something tells me she will redeem herself in the end and die with a clear conscience. Not a spoiler; a speculation.

Great line: "You're my Sam". A little bit of LOTR in there, eh? I'm starting to miss Sam, too. I hope they don't keep him in the tub too long. He might get prune hands.

Kara was outed to little interest. Lee pointed out the paradox: "I saw your ship explode" [paraphrasing]. So, her ship exploded, was remade somehow on the other side, crash landed and was wrecked again, and then it was rebuilt again. If anything, Starbuck died twice. Right? Anyway, now everybody knows, but nobody seems to care. They've all had their worlds turned upside down so many times like a snow-globe, it just seems like another day on Galactica. "Hmm. Starbuck's a zombie. Next!" Of course, this will finally get fleshed out in these last episodes.

Not a great show but some great moments. Again, it allows us to take a deep breath and settle in before reading the final chapter. The nice thing about watching the DVDs is that all the episodes flow into one giant movie, so analyses like this are rendered irrelevant in some ways.

I can't believe we're finally at the end of all of this.

Flint's Doorknob said...

Not spoilers, just kind of obvious speculatoin: Oh shit. They're totally setting up for Ander's to suicide bomb the Cavil's Colony. The fact that no one has to be there for him to control the FTL jump and everything you would need to 'go out in a bang.'

Adam Whitehead said...

The moment that had me going, "WTF?" the most was when Boomer's Raptor passed Jupiter on the way back to the Colony. And that was Jupiter, down to the storm bands and the moons. Interesting.

Otherwise set-up. But I was expecting as much. Most of the remaining unsolved mysteries all tie into one another, I think, so when one of them gets solved that should trigger a chain reaction in which the others get solved as well. Let's see how it goes.

Adam Whitehead said...

Ah, cheers for the link. The big poster timeline is great, although as I examined it more closely I noticed quite a bit of speculation on there, such as dates and the notion that Kobol had Centurions (no evidence of that at all so far). We also know that the 13th Tribe left Kobol by themselves and didn't travel with the 12 Colonies' ships as far as the Temple of Hopes. I like the idea of the show ending up on Kobol though, even if the Jupiter revelation in the latest episode makes it seem less likely.

Eric H said...

What a gorgeous episode in every way, setting up very emotionally satisfying bookends with throwbacks to the start of it all (most notably Baltar and Caprica 6).

Where's the Chief? I noticed he's been replaced by some other orange-jumpsuit guy to head up repairs. He'd be on both the Baseship and Galactica's Most Wanted List right now - I'm sure they quickly pieced together who switched out the Eights in the brig. Hmmm, maybe we'll find out in the podcast that he's just on a prison ship along with the mutineers :-) Is BSG going the route of West Wing where characters get consigned to offstage oblivion when their storylines get written into a corner?

@ General Boy: Love the LOTR reference. My Sam, indeed.

@ John: Yes, plenty of symbolism, but to adapt the words of Freud, sometimes a cigar (joint) is just a cigar (joint) :)

Re: Jupiter -- perhaps we can infer it's on the way to The Colony and possibly the former location of same. How crazy is that if Cavil's been hanging out in our solar system? It wouldn't be the first time they've dropped that hint.

Re: Opera House -- I am really starting to wonder who the cast of characters really are in this vision. Are they simply archetypes -- Roslin and Athena represent the pure human and cylon races, Six and Baltar and Hera represent the new blended family of the future? Or are some or all of these characters actual beings somewhere in space and time?

Excuse me now, I need a cupcake.

ProgGrrl said...

For any of you doubters out there, I hope this gives final proof of EJO being one of the great directors for BSG, before we see what he and Jane E. come up with for dessert with THE PLAN. I just love what Olmos can do with this show.

There are a million small details about this ep that sent me to the moon. Need to watch again, but for now a quick list: Adama and his two women...Tigh realizing he had "millions" of children...Boomer watching Hera cry out for her in The Colony...Athena with Helo, begging her to admit her anger (and let me go further and say I thought this ep was monumental for Grace Park, she blew it away in every scene)...one last toke, in sickbay of all places... Scientist Baltar, Baltar and Starbuck in the can, Baltar trying to reconcile with Cap Six; any of us who love Baltar in particular on this show had a very good evening last night. The final scene with Adama and Tigh... especially the show's final shot of them on the couch. And Sam, as a hybrid -- spouting the gibberish, starting to take over the Galactica...the threat of "JUMP!" on his lips every second that he stays jacked in.

Wow.




Oh and PS - to Jon above asking where we found Billy Ray Stephens' BSG timeline? The venerable Mark Verheiden put up the link...

ProgGrrl said...

Oh and yes...also...A CUPCAKE. A CUPCAKE ON BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Who woulda thunk it?!? ;-)


::puts out a tray of these on the Sitrep living room table::

Anonymous said...

I'm full of doubts right now. After just-perfect "Someone to watch over me", which I personaly put in the TOP3 of all BSG epsiodes ever, we recieved nice one but not so good. Don't get me wrong - I liked last night show. But there was some sort of sinusoid going on - lovely scenes mixed up with totally unnecessery shots. From four eps now we are soaking in this metaphysical stuff. I enjoy it as it is one of the foundations of the series' greatness, nevertheless I start missing politics and action. I wish they sticked to the way of presenting the plot they had in previous seasons - action mixed up with emotional characters' scenes and metaphysics, rather then puting it in different episodes.

What I loved in the ep:
Helo forcing Athena to admit her anger
Apollo puting it straight to ship captains
Stunning Baltar - Caprica six dialogue
Tigh looking for boose and saying with strong covinction that the thing that matters is his friendship with Adama
Kara trying to kill Sam
Adama & Roslin smoking and recalling the past (nicer and purest scene in the whole ep)
Helo-Old Man talk (what a powerful stuff)
Three kinds of funeral service at the same time (even though I don't really got what exactly was going on therer ^^)
Hera crying for Boomer and Boomer crying for what she is
Ending Tigh & Adama scene on the couch
Adama's "two ladies"

What made me mad and embarased:
Shot showing the catastrophe at repair area and Unknown Six death - worst used few minutes in entire series
Kara pissing in Baltar's presence - WTF?
Old Man and his paint playing (I really enjoy the entire plot of his love towards Galactica but, man, this one was so unrealistic)

Other things were just warm.

I guess what we can see and what is being really painful is the knowledge that with more time this show would have been even better. What I mean is they seemingly had to cut some scenes out. Important scenes that would make the episode greater. They need to save time and do a shots selection. It's not healthy. I think most of fans' regrets come from this fact. Altough I love BSG so so much, I have some little sorrow about this as well. (Only a little. Afater all, it still is and always be the best TV show ever created, always few leagues above other crappy stuff.)

ProgGrrl said...

@glizda: "What made me mad and embarased: Shot showing the catastrophe at repair area and Unknown Six death..."

That scene *did* have meaning. You see the Six arguing with a knuckledragger in the first scene; then you see her save his life and sacrifice herself so that the rest of the people in her area can get to safety behind the next airlock. That's sort of a big deal.

Unknown said...

That scene also set up the entire funeral plotline for the rest of the episode . . .

Also, I kinda loved Starbuck pissing in front of Baltar. We always see her as badass because she does crazy space-combat stunts, but that's somewhat removed from (most of our?) personal experience. Her not really caring about bodily functions somehow gets across the same thing, but in a way that's much more striking for us as real people.

In other words, everyone in the Fleet thinks Starbuck is crazy because she's nuts with a Viper, but that's safely fictional for us. Her pissing in front of Baltar makes her seem crazy because it goes against real-world social norms.

ProgGrrl said...

@Laccetti: I agree about what you are saying here RE how Starbuck's behavior in the latrine makes her character more relatable. But, OTOH: she's used to relatively co-ed quarters on the Galactica (part of that whole "post-gender" thing I was going on about above, btw)...so she and the other military on board probably don't give much of a frak about seeing someone on the toilet. That's not to say her behavior isn't meant to...rattle you.

Anonymous said...

@ProGrrl: Oh, right, maybe I've exaggerated a little. Acting was good in those scenes (argue and catastrophe), writing, dialogues as well, it was a deal, it was realistic and propable, ok. I just see no point for it, especially since there is no much time to use. Weren't there more important things to show, really?

@Mr Laccetti: I thought about it and I'm pretty sure the funeral plotline would have been able to develop even without that.

About Starbuck - you're right. It's a nice analysis, I like it and totally agree. It just seemed ugly to me. An disgusting. And shocking. Maybe that's the way it was meant to make us feel. I guess so...
I also guess I need to rewatch the ep to like it more. As usual. :)

Logan Gawain said...

Well, I think it was very human. And in a way it says how much she thinks of Baltar in that scene. (And conveys her reluctance to even go to him for help.)

For some reason Eddie loves this sort of thing. For a while he's tried to get scenes in the show of Adama on the can taking a dump. (I think going back since the mini series.)

I think it's another way to ground Galactica in reality and human behavior. Think about it: Not many SF shows have ever shown the restrooms on ships. The first time I remember seeing urinals on a SF show was on Babylon 5. So, I think BSG is always going for that kind of reality.

But, again I think the main thrust of Islanded was to have these character moments, since I'm guessing that in the finale there will a lot of action, and little time for these kinds of reflections.

Eric H said...

@ glizda: You'll be happy to know that Bear McCreary said in his blog that he scored a longer version of this episode for the DVD. (It includes a cut scene establishing that Tyrol is now in the brig for helping Boomer escape with Hera.) I loved this episode but yes, it certainly could have used more run time.

Maybe Starbuck told Baltar her secret because he is most likely to actually take her seriously, once she was actually ready to make peace with her dead self. Even in their nice scene at the memorial wall, Lee still seemed to shy away from fully confronting the truth about her -- sorta "yeah, yeah, you might be a dead chick, but even though I will always love you no matter what, frankly I'd really rather not think about it," which is plenty sweet but with a little dose of denial if you ask ME.

Baltar, on the other hand, may well be 95% self-serving crap, but he is frequently 5% echoing a whisper of something real outside himself, completely undeserving as he is to grasp even a fragment of truth. That might be why people still listen to him, and it might be why Starbuck was drawn to him in spite of herself.

Unknown said...

This episode was just amazing. Maybe the best since the miniseries. To me, the best part is how everyone is starting to choose their true loves over their technology.

Adama is choosing Roslin over Galactica, for instance. Sol is choosing his love of Adama and the humans on Galactica over the abstract duty he feels to the Cylons). And his "I had a child -- she died" line. Best delivery of 2009.

And the most heartbreaking thing is that Baltar still can't admit to Caprica Six that he loves her, that he's been seeing her in his mind ever since the bombings. He keeps cloaking himself in these accomplishments and missions, but what he really needs is just to love her. But he can't be honest with her, and he hates it. Why would he tell Starbuck he sees angels but won't (or can't) admit it to Caprica? She's the only thing that's gotten him through this whole voyage, but he can't tell her. That's the grace he's looking for, the ability to tell her. He hates that he can't, and he takes it out on Starbuck, by calling her out at the funeral. He doesn't actually believe what he's saying about the afterlife. He's bullsh*tting everyone in a self-serving truth-telling.

And the wildest scene for me was Boomer standing in the projection-house with Hera, in the ruins of her own failed life with the child who is so obviously the future.

And Starbuck putting her own picture up on the wall? Just totally amazing.

ProgGrrl said...

Loved the last words of that dying Eight, to Daddy Tigh: "too much confusion..." The integration of the Watchtower song into the show's final season has been clever, really clever, and I've never seen anything quite like it before.

General Boy said...

OK, I've watched the show again.

Something that is impressing me is the recurring theme of the Identity Crisis. Specifically, does it matter whether or not a being is a cylon or a human? This has been fodder for science fiction for years, but it can still be examined in a fresh perspective. I think this show has done this near flawlessly. Only in the rarest and briefest instances do such examinations in this show seem tired and old. Surely, this theme can also be expanded into the context of gender and queer theory, but I'll leave that to smarter people and better writers to address that.

Anyway, remember the old days when the colonials would discuss whether or not it mattered a being was human or cylon? Lee put it best when he pondered whether or not if it would have mattered if it were Zak who stepped off that viper. Yes, those were the good old days.

Now, we are in a place in the show where that question has finally been answered: It doesn't matter. Life is life, artificial or not. Examples:

-The human chief and cylon model-six chief bickering over the repairs.
- The cylon model-six sacrificing her life to save that of a human being.
- Kara correcting Ellen that Hera may not only be the key to the continuation of the cylon species but the human species as well.
- Kara realizing that, in the end, Sam is her Sam.
- Lee telling Kara, "This is all that matters".

It is done. By means of necessity, both species have learned that it doesn't matter how one has arrived to life, only that one is alive. It is subtle, and it is beautiful.

I expect there will be a musical number in the next episode for this song. I could be wrong, though. I am often wrong about these things.

Eric H said...

@ General Boy: Very nicely put, and your link is hilariously apt. This show puts a very clever spin on this old Sci-Fi meme: Not only are the "machines" apparently sentient, they effectively have souls, or at least they did before the resurrection hub was destroyed. Colonials clinging to a "toaster" view of Cylon rights are really only left with the prejudice of the creator over the created -- and even that distinction has become murky of late.

I am reminded that it's not just the humans who struggle with these things. The very first line of dialog in the miniseries was, "Are you alive?" And it was spoken by a Cylon.

General Boy said...

@ Eric H:

Yes, the "Are you alive?" line is even more powerful than we first thought it was when we first heard it. Well put.

Oh, please see my comment here. I think you might appreciate it.

Unknown said...

I truly enjoyed this episode. Wonderfully acted, brilliantly directed, and the Visual Effects Team really delivered. But I still feel like the BSG writers are holding back.

Can they really cram every loose end into the final three hours? The good news is, they’ve run out of time — there is no more holding back. The bad news is, MY FAVORITE SHOW IS COMING TO AN END!!! FRAK!!!

I'm thinking ahead to the ending: Will the whole human fleet bite the stardust before it’s over? I think it’s likely.

I've posted more of my thoughts here: http://tinyurl.com/dmsjez

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else think that Kara is half Cylon? I'm thinking that the defunct Daniel model was her father - the 'sensitive artist', etc.

-- TB said...

holy frak! caprica six MANIPULATED GAIUS INTO FACILITATING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE 12 COLONIES, and he still loves her... the she used him again to help the cylons find new caprica, and he still loves her... whoa. crazy. brilliant.