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Battlestar Galactica [SPOILERS] (Page 91)
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Wiskedjak
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Feb 17, 2009, 11:17 PM
 
In the case of a story like BSG, I don't know about each episode being equivalent to a book; maybe more like chapters with the season being equivalent to a book in a multi-volume set more like Lord of the Rings than the Bourne series.

The Bourne stories are more comparable to something like 24, where they're in the same universe with the same characters but are mostly able to stand on their own. The Lord of the Rings books, like the BSG seasons, require all of the other books/seasons in the series to make any sense.

My point is still that BSG is a story, and like any story it needs a good beginning, middle and an end that cleanly ties it all together. I'm with ThinkInsane in feeling that the BSG ending isn't doing a very good job of tying it all together and that it's probably due to the writers not having a defined 'End' to work towards.
     
Don Pickett
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Feb 18, 2009, 12:19 AM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
The logistics of creating a TV show don't really matter to me. The expectations I have for a story (engaging introduction, satisfying ending, and suspenseful build to the ending) don't change from medium to medium. A story is a story, regardless of the medium.
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goMac
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Feb 18, 2009, 02:24 AM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
Involved, yes, but it's pretty clear that he's been manipulating them. Even back when they boxed Diana, it was apparent the he knew more about the Final Five than the other models knew.
We know the attack was being lined up for at least two years, 40 if we count the final five being sent to the colonies as part of the "destroying humans" plan. It doesn't seem like Caval randomly boiled over at all.

I can see a general sentiment of not trusting humans as to why the Cylons attacked. One could argue they probably never intended to let the humans go if the humans never actually won in the first place.
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ThinkInsane
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Feb 18, 2009, 10:50 AM
 
Here's a prime example of what I was talking about continuity wise:

Some stuff from last week's "No Exit," which could have some bearing on upcoming episodes, cleared up by the show's writers. Humans probably originated on Kobol, then spread to the colonies. Earth was destroyed because the skinjob-style Cylons living there built their own Centurions, who then rose up against them. Cavil is the only "skinjob" model to know the Final Five's identities, because he corrupted the other six models' programming so they'd never speak of the Final Five or search for their identities. (So he had to box D'Anna when she learned the truth, or it would destroy his "house of cards.") The Cylon events summarized by Cavil in "No Exit" may be seen more fully in "The Plan" TV movie.
I've been kicking around how the other skin jobs didn't know who they final 5 were, although they must have known them as number 7 was Ellen's favorite. I knew this wasn't going to be explained in the show, just glossed over. It's part of the story and should be included. I shouldn't have to look through blogs for an answer that should be in the show. And the writers know it too, or they wouldn't be explaining it. So many loose ends to tie up, and things are going to get missed.
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Wiskedjak
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Feb 18, 2009, 11:08 AM
 
Originally Posted by Don Pickett View Post
Never mind: deaf ears.
Are you saying that television shows with multi-season story arcs are exempt from creating stories with endings that cleanly tie together all of the plots developed during the course of the story?
     
Wiskedjak
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Feb 18, 2009, 11:15 AM
 
Originally Posted by ThinkInsane View Post
I've been kicking around how the other skin jobs didn't know who they final 5 were, although they must have known them as number 7 was Ellen's favorite. I knew this wasn't going to be explained in the show, just glossed over. It's part of the story and should be included. I shouldn't have to look through blogs for an answer that should be in the show. And the writers know it too, or they wouldn't be explaining it. So many loose ends to tie up, and things are going to get missed.
If Cavil was able to block the memories of the Final Five by killing them and replacing their memories/programming during resurrection, it's possible that he could have done the same for the other skin-jobs. Given the current number of skin jobs wandering around, that would seem to be a massive effort to kill and resurrect every unit. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that there were far fewer skin-jobs around during the time when Cavil would have killed and inserted the Final Five into the human society and that the current number of skin-jobs is a result of a military build-up prior to and during the war.
     
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Feb 18, 2009, 11:23 AM
 
Perhaps memories can be discarded at resurrection time, and Caval just waited for the remaining skin jobs to die of natural causes (age or anything else) for this data to be discarded?
     
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Feb 18, 2009, 01:46 PM
 
Quite frankly, it's been a bit difficult to get a sense of everything that has been revealed in the latest episode. Especially with so many theories being bandied about. I do have one question that has been puzzling me though.

Were the Final Five Cylon skinjobs from the very beginning ... or were they originally humans who effectively became Cylon skinjobs when they downloaded into those bodies after Earth was nuked?

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Feb 18, 2009, 02:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by OAW View Post
Quite frankly, it's been a bit difficult to get a sense of everything that has been revealed in the latest episode. Especially with so many theories being bandied about. I do have one question that has been puzzling me though.

Were the Final Five Cylon skinjobs from the very beginning ... or were they originally humans who effectively became Cylon skinjobs when they downloaded into those bodies after Earth was nuked?

OAW
They were Cylons who were built on Kobol. The series makes this clear when they say that the final five's people originally could only resurrect.
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Wiskedjak
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Feb 18, 2009, 03:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Perhaps memories can be discarded at resurrection time, and Caval just waited for the remaining skin jobs to die of natural causes (age or anything else) for this data to be discarded?
But, then you run the risk of a wiped unit being let back in on the secret by a not-yet-wiped unit. I think the only way you could reliably pull it off would be to kill off and resurrect every active unit at the same time.
     
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Feb 18, 2009, 03:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by goMac View Post
They were Cylons who were built on Kobol. The series makes this clear when they say that the final five's people originally could only resurrect.
Well they were descendants of the Cylons who were built on Kobol. The Final Five were originally born on Earth, as the cylons there had the ability to reproduce and had since abandoned resurrection technology. Ellen and the others were able to get resurrection working again just before Earth was destroyed.

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Feb 18, 2009, 04:15 PM
 
Originally Posted by ThinkInsane View Post
Here's a prime example of what I was talking about continuity wise:

I've been kicking around how the other skin jobs didn't know who they final 5 were, although they must have known them as number 7 was Ellen's favorite.
There could be a lot of explanations for that. The 5 could be observing the other 8 without their knowledge. You can have a favorite fish in a fishtank in your house even if the fish themselves don't know you (ever seen The Truman Show?). Alternatively, we know that the 6 cylon models (besides Cavil) have an odd in-built willful ignorance of the final 5, and we know that this willful ignorance was purposely inserted by Cavil during their construction. The nature of the willful ignorance could be that they interact with the final 5 but suppress their memories of doing so. It could also have been nothing more than a back-door Cavil left for himself to sneak in and "hack" them, after he had dispatched the final 5.

I don't see this as a legitimate plot hole.

I knew this wasn't going to be explained in the show, just glossed over. It's part of the story and should be included. I shouldn't have to look through blogs for an answer that should be in the show. And the writers know it too, or they wouldn't be explaining it. So many loose ends to tie up, and things are going to get missed.
Or maybe they decided to blog about it after they found out that SciFi wasn't going to keep funding them long enough to tell the whole story on the air. You can hardly blame them for that decision, I'm sure the writers would want to keep making as many episodes as possible.
     
Don Pickett
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Feb 18, 2009, 06:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
Are you saying that television shows with multi-season story arcs are exempt from creating stories with endings that cleanly tie together all of the plots developed during the course of the story?
I'm saying that the parallels some are drawing between creating a relatively short, single-authored work of fiction and a multi-year television program are ridiculous.
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tomato71
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Feb 19, 2009, 08:08 AM
 
My question is what happened to the Centurions that supposedly nuked Earth. Are they out there wandering the universe setting up fast-food franchises? Personally I think it would have been more compelling if the writers had had the humans from Kobol nuke Earth.
     
Wiskedjak
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Feb 19, 2009, 09:36 AM
 
Originally Posted by Don Pickett View Post
I'm saying that the parallels some are drawing between creating a relatively short, single-authored work of fiction and a multi-year television program are ridiculous.
OMG, you *do* think that television shows with multi-season story arcs are exempt from creating stories with endings that cleanly tie together all of the plots developed during the course of the story! Why? Because it's too hard for the writers to keep track of all the suspense-generating threads they create?
     
goMac
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Feb 19, 2009, 11:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by tomato71 View Post
My question is what happened to the Centurions that supposedly nuked Earth. Are they out there wandering the universe setting up fast-food franchises? Personally I think it would have been more compelling if the writers had had the humans from Kobol nuke Earth.
My impression was that they couldn't actually get off the planet, which is why the final five's orbital platform was safe...
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Uncle Skeleton
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Feb 19, 2009, 01:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by goMac View Post
My impression was that they couldn't actually get off the planet, which is why the final five's orbital platform was safe...
Doesn't that mean they should be wandering around on earth setting up fast food franchises? Why didn't the fleet find any of them?
     
goMac
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Feb 19, 2009, 02:05 PM
 
Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton View Post
Doesn't that mean they should be wandering around on earth setting up fast food franchises? Why didn't the fleet find any of them?
I dunno. Why didn't they find any Cylons on Kobol? It's possible everyone nuked themselves to death.

Why would the Cylons ever completely leave Earth if they're still around? Even the current Cylons set up shop on the colonies for a while, and I bet there are still some hanging out around the colonies.
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jokell82
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Feb 19, 2009, 02:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton View Post
Doesn't that mean they should be wandering around on earth setting up fast food franchises? Why didn't the fleet find any of them?
My guess is that after a global nuclear war there probably aren't too many places left to set up a fast food franchise. Let alone anyone around to actually set them up...

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Feb 19, 2009, 03:06 PM
 
But why would the Cylons blow themselves up along with the skinjobs. Kinda self-defeating, isn't it?
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goMac
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Feb 19, 2009, 03:09 PM
 
Originally Posted by PBG4 User View Post
But why would the Cylons blow themselves up along with the skinjobs. Kinda self-defeating, isn't it?
Sure, but so far all the wars the Cylons have started have been pretty self defeating, haven't they?
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jokell82
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Feb 19, 2009, 03:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by PBG4 User View Post
But why would the Cylons blow themselves up along with the skinjobs. Kinda self-defeating, isn't it?
Who said the skinjobs didn't retaliate?

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Feb 19, 2009, 08:53 PM
 
CBS Jumps for Crime Drama 'The Bridge' 'Battlestar Galactica's' Aaron Douglas will star
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-th...,1477819.story
     
mrtew
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Feb 19, 2009, 09:17 PM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
Are you saying that television shows with multi-season story arcs are exempt from creating stories with endings that cleanly tie together all of the plots developed during the course of the story?
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
OMG, you *do* think that television shows with multi-season story arcs are exempt from creating stories with endings that cleanly tie together all of the plots developed during the course of the story! Why? Because it's too hard for the writers to keep track of all the suspense-generating threads they create?
OMG you think the multi-season story arc is already over and it left you unsatisfied! I think it's just getting started. There are LOTS of episodes left including the huge final episode with about 20 surprise endings and you act like it should all be tied up in a bow by now so we can just sit around the rest of the season marveling at how the writers knew the end 5 years ago and kept it secret from us all this time. And yes I think it's ok to leave things unanswered or unanswerable in both books and TV shows because it makes them seem less like stupid corny afterschool stories and more like real life. And that's a good thing, not an apology on behalf of stoned, lazy, over-creative Hollywood writers.

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goMac
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Feb 19, 2009, 10:44 PM
 
Not to mention there is the comic coming from 4000 years before the series starts.
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Salty
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Feb 20, 2009, 11:08 AM
 
Problem is a lot of the fans aren't going to read that comic. It's not really fair to require people from one entertainment medium to pick up a whole new one just to get the end info about their series.
     
jokell82
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Feb 20, 2009, 11:33 AM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
Problem is a lot of the fans aren't going to read that comic. It's not really fair to require people from one entertainment medium to pick up a whole new one just to get the end info about their series.
I'm not going to read the comic, nor do I care in the slightest that I'll miss out on some background ancient history for the series. It's not necessary information, just a cool addition if you *want* to know.

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goMac
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Feb 20, 2009, 11:46 AM
 
Originally Posted by Salty View Post
Problem is a lot of the fans aren't going to read that comic. It's not really fair to require people from one entertainment medium to pick up a whole new one just to get the end info about their series.
Pushingdaisiessigh.
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Feb 20, 2009, 11:55 AM
 
I gotta say I agree with voodoo on a lot of the criticisms he's made. The latest episodes have actually been good and remind me a lot more of seasons 1 and 2 which I thought were great. If they'd done this like Babylon 5 with a 5 year arch, or something of that nature I think things would have worked a lot better. I mean yes they've had a five year arch but really I dono the fact that they had to figure out who the fifth cylon was gonna be just really makes me sigh. The original episodes were great, remember when you had that 3 running around the ship doing a news report only to have her pop up at the end and you're like whoa dude!

Honestly I wonder if a few of the writers left or changed cause after season 3 it seems like the new Caprica thing just changed a lot of the series. Now Herra seems to be a bit character when she was like half the focus of the show at one point. It just seems like they have jumped around way too much. There were so many things that were supposed to be important, and then they just ended up not being important in the long run.
     
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Feb 21, 2009, 12:08 AM
 
Okay which Eight was that supposed to be who wanted to leave? Athena? Where was Helo? That just confused me the entire episode.

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Feb 21, 2009, 01:25 AM
 
With only 4 more episodes to go, this episode didn't really seem to accomplish much.

I'm starting to get all turned around about which Cylons are which. With multiple versions of all of them running around it gets confusing.

Where the hell are Hera and Helo? Why did Adama give Baltar assault weapons? Is he nuts?

I also wonder what the hell the are setting up with all of this ship fixing stuff. They seem to be spending an awful lot of time dwelling on it.
( Last edited by ort888; Feb 21, 2009 at 03:07 AM. )

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Feb 21, 2009, 01:58 AM
 
Yeah, totally dissatisfying episode. Let's try to count everything that was wrong with it:

You have Ellen all of a sudden wanting to leave humanity behind, over an unrelated marital dispute. After spending thousands of years on a one-way trip to warn humans about the cycle, save them from a war of attrition, and trying to make the toasters appreciate humanity in general.

No explanation of how they even found the fleet.

Lee urging his father to accept Baltar's request to form a militia police unit. Instead of actually trying to deal with the root cause of the unrest.

That whole meeting/interrogation at the beginning, not trusting Ellen out of the room when they already have a bunch of other cylons crawling around in the ship.

Tyrol all of a sudden wanting to give up his promotion and leave Galactica after so much effort to save it and the admiral.

The old man getting more drunk than Tigh, and much more frequently too. And how many scenes did I need to see of him in the belly of the ship, concerned about the goop they're painting onto the beams; I get it.

Cripes, I could keep going, but you get the idea. Nearly everyone was out of character, and a bunch of scenes were awkward and forced. And once again, it's Michael Hogan left holding the bag and doing an amazing job of it. I just feel sorry for him having to recite Jane Espenson's love drivel at the end.

The series had so few episodes left, it's a shame this one had to be one of the worst ones yet. If this is what Jane is like at the helm, then I don't have high hopes for Caprica.
( Last edited by Visnaut; Feb 21, 2009 at 02:23 AM. )
     
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Feb 21, 2009, 02:30 AM
 
Yeah, I didn't like this episode also. Ellen truely showed her real colors. Shame it cost Liam life in the process. I believe it was her that caused Caprica 6 to have a miscarriage by playing with her mind about Tigh. Tigh didn't help himself by sleeping with Ellen in the first place.

Baltar is such a baller. I was wondering if he only talked to the mom w/ the kid for one purpose in woohoo her so he can sleep with her. I still like his character though. He gets more ass than everybody on Galactica combined.
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Feb 21, 2009, 05:35 AM
 
What the ****, Espenson? You didn't suck this bad on Buffy.
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Feb 21, 2009, 10:22 AM
 
Ellen seemed a little schizophrenic in this ep. Leader of the final five, purveyor of destiny, and boozy jealous skank. The only tense moment was when in Tigh's quarters when I thought she was going to knife Caprica. That may have been better and more shocking than the leadup to the miscarriage. It's like the writers decided it was a mistake to have Caprica get pregnant. So now all the pressure is on Hera again.

Did like Tigh's "why do I have to say love" speech too.

Otherwise, a lot of talkie talky that seemed disjointed. Why did Caprica and Roslin need to have the awkward chat in the hallway?
     
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Feb 21, 2009, 03:49 PM
 
Stupid Hulu.
Episodes 13-17 will be posted on Hulu the day after their TV broadcast. Subsequent episodes will be posted 8 days after their original broadcast date.
I was watching the next morning online until today. Now I have a to wait another week. Couldn't even find a torrent of it.

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Feb 21, 2009, 04:01 PM
 
We're on EP16.

Torrents are available everywhere the last episode's were.
     
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Feb 21, 2009, 10:04 PM
 
Is anyone else really insulted with the lack of medical progress that the show is at? I mean, they can travel faster than light. Traveling through the universe is no big deal. But they haven't developed a vaccine for pneumonia, still rely on antibiotics, can't prevent miscarriages, etc etc. It's frankly quite insulting!
     
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Feb 21, 2009, 10:20 PM
 
I think it's funny how they refer to the faults in the Battlestar as 'hairline cracks' when they are clearly around 25mm wide.

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Feb 21, 2009, 10:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by lexapro View Post
Is anyone else really insulted with the lack of medical progress that the show is at? I mean, they can travel faster than light. Traveling through the universe is no big deal. But they haven't developed a vaccine for pneumonia, still rely on antibiotics, can't prevent miscarriages, etc etc. It's frankly quite insulting!
I could understand some of that -- science is nonlinear. But the stuff out of character (Adama last night, for example) is just bad. Same with the Ellen Tigh character: she spanned the galaxy and multiple bodies and yet can't deal with her husband's new relationship. Someone who's supposed to have invented an entire race shouldn't really be that petty, right? Just stupid.

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Feb 22, 2009, 04:41 AM
 
Originally Posted by lexapro View Post
Is anyone else really insulted with the lack of medical progress that the show is at? I mean, they can travel faster than light. Traveling through the universe is no big deal. But they haven't developed a vaccine for pneumonia, still rely on antibiotics, can't prevent miscarriages, etc etc. It's frankly quite insulting!
In real life, we have a pretty decent idea about things that are light away, but still get surprised all the time by our own planet. Advancement in one area of human knowledge doesn't mean everything else suddenly takes a giant leap forward too.

Besides that, I don't think Cottle is supposed to be the forefront of Colonial medicine — he's just an experienced doctor who happened to be around after the holocaust. One of the original ideas of Galactica is that it's about rookies, burnouts and hasbeens on a decommissioned spaceship who are suddenly forced to do great things because everybody else has been wiped out. A lot of the technology on the show intentionally seems anachronistic to drive home the point that we're not on the Enterprise with some kind of technobabble solution to every jam.
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Feb 22, 2009, 05:15 AM
 
^ Yep.

They keep mentioning that the Galactica was already fifty years old when the series started.

This applies to the sick bay (and Cottle's career, probably ), as well.

The "wave mysterious devices at dying people and have computer-animated patterns rush over their skin and make them all well again" approach to medicine in Star Trek was one of the things that started really annoying me about TNG, fwiw.
     
Wiskedjak
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Feb 22, 2009, 10:59 AM
 
Originally Posted by Eriamjh View Post
Stupid Hulu.
I was watching the next morning online until today. Now I have a to wait another week. Couldn't even find a torrent of it.
Seems like some general neutering of Hulu going on. Looks like it was getting too successful.
     
Wiskedjak
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Feb 22, 2009, 11:19 AM
 
This episode left me really confused. Among other things, I didn't understand the last tight closeup of that beam we watched the 6 coat through the entire episode; were we seeing that the coating worked, or that it made things worse? It seemed significant to the director, but there wasn't enough context to tell me what we were seeing.

And, creating a militia out of a bunch of people who don't even know how to operate a gun, just so they can redistribute the food they pilfered and avoid a revolution and return Gaius (under the influence of a Head 6 who seems determined to foment revolution) to his position of influence in the harem that sent him away for his safety? Seems more likely to result in a revolution.
     
Wiskedjak
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Feb 22, 2009, 11:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
It's like the writers decided it was a mistake to have Caprica get pregnant.
Or, the whole point of getting Caprica pregnant was so that Tigh could say that the future is in a blended human/cylon race because pure human/pure cylon never works.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Feb 22, 2009, 03:19 PM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
Gaius (under the influence of a Head 6 who seems determined to foment revolution)
I was rather pleased to see them pick up the "imaginary friend" 6 again in this episode. Certainly a plotline that needs to be tied up and is central to what Gaius' part in all this is (I hope).
     
Wiskedjak
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Feb 22, 2009, 03:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot View Post
I was rather pleased to see them pick up the "imaginary friend" 6 again in this episode. Certainly a plotline that needs to be tied up and is central to what Gaius' part in all this is (I hope).
Agreed. My biggest question centers around the role that these Head characters play in the events. They certainly seem to be manipulating events. I wonder if these head characters are the reason why everything keeps happening the same way it happened before or if they're trying to stop they cycle.
     
Chuckit
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Feb 22, 2009, 03:53 PM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
Seems like some general neutering of Hulu going on. Looks like it was getting too successful.
I really have to wonder what runs through people's heads sometimes. It's like, "Hey, I've got a great business plan — let's make our products suck more!" And then they wonder why The Pirate Bay is growing exponentially.
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Don Pickett
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Feb 22, 2009, 04:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by Wiskedjak View Post
OMG, you *do* think that television shows with multi-season story arcs are exempt from creating stories with endings that cleanly tie together all of the plots developed during the course of the story! Why? Because it's too hard for the writers to keep track of all the suspense-generating threads they create?
Go and write a five season television show and then get back to me because, dude, because you're deeply uninformed.
( Last edited by Don Pickett; Feb 22, 2009 at 04:52 PM. )
The era of anthropomorphizing hardware is over.
     
Don Pickett
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Feb 22, 2009, 04:47 PM
 
Originally Posted by Visnaut View Post
Yeah, totally dissatisfying episode.
I wouldn't say totally dissatisfying, but Espenson has always been a crappy writer.

You have Ellen all of a sudden wanting to leave humanity behind, over an unrelated marital dispute. After spending thousands of years on a one-way trip to warn humans about the cycle, save them from a war of attrition, and trying to make the toasters appreciate humanity in general.
This I didn't mind, as it seems to be consistent with Ellen's personality. She has always been petty and selfish.

No explanation of how they even found the fleet.
I noticed this, too.

Lee urging his father to accept Baltar's request to form a militia police unit. Instead of actually trying to deal with the root cause of the unrest.
Bothered me, too. Seems like a cheap set-up for strife later on.

That whole meeting/interrogation at the beginning, not trusting Ellen out of the room when they already have a bunch of other cylons crawling around in the ship.
Didn't bother me.

Tyrol all of a sudden wanting to give up his promotion and leave Galactica after so much effort to save it and the admiral.
This didn't bother me. His character has been lost ever since he found out he was a cylon.

The old man getting more drunk than Tigh, and much more frequently too. And how many scenes did I need to see of him in the belly of the ship, concerned about the goop they're painting onto the beams; [i]I get it.
Espenson is just a mediocre writer, is all. I get the point she's trying to make--the ship as a metaphor for the fleet--but she doesn't know any way to tell it other than have Adama give long, lingering, drunken glances at his ship. She's just not that good.

That said, I still think Adama is dying.

The series had so few episodes left, it's a shame this one had to be one of the worst ones yet. If this is what Jane is like at the helm, then I don't have high hopes for Caprica.
I didn't know she was in charge of Caprica. I agree with you: with her at the helm it will suck. That said, she did pop off one or two funny lines ("How many dead chicks are out there?") and I thought Tigh's speech at the end in which he said pure human doesn't work and pure cylon doesn't work was well said.

I think Espenson's big problem is that she doesn't know any way to write other than BIG DRAMA then CLIFFHANGER then BIG DRAMA then CLIFFHANGER. In her episodes the characters are never doing things at a level other than top volume, which is annoying. One of the joys of BG has been the times when there were several plot threads running concurrently which all came to fruition at their own pace, which let the actors stretch some and inject some nice, low key performances. Espenson can't provide that. She's essentially a soap opera writer, and so everything has to be duh duh DUH!

My other big problem with her is that everything has to be wrapped up by the end of the show. So, instead of us getting to watch the characters of the final five debate with themselves and each other whether or not to leave, we had to have some dramatic thing at the end to solve the problem.

All that aside, I think it's interesting that the final five are the most human of all the cylons. It also seems that the more cylons are in contact with humans, the more human they become. I also noticed Ellen said the skinjobs didn't invent God.
The era of anthropomorphizing hardware is over.
     
 
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