BSG Monday - The Passage
HooooooooYEAH! THIS is why we watch BSG. Allright, it's why I watch BSG. I had high hopes for this one, being written by a talented and prolific Buffy and Angel writer, Jane Espenson. (She'll be doing another one on the back half of the season.) This episode was harrowing from almost the first minute. The episode it will be compared to will be "33", I'm sure. They have the same sort of "fleet's in trouble" self-contained structure.
EyeTigh is back in the CiC. And he even gets a mostly warm welcome. (Mostly. More on Felix and ADA in a moment.) I'm getting to where I can watch an episode and spot the scenes that went un-cut (usually really great, textured, character scenes) that caused some huge chunk of PLOT to wind up on the cutting room floor. Coming soon to "Previously on Battlestar Galactica". Well, that's one way to do it. This week it was "Paper shortage." Boy it's good to see EyeTigh and Wild Bill getting along again. Not saying ET isn't still crazy and I'm sure he'll continue to be out-scary anyone in the fleet.
Kara gets more great scenes. Lee mostly doesn't (ok, he had good stuff with the pilots). Is she really THAT much more fun to write? I know, it's a Kat-centric ep, so that automatically brings Starbuckbuckbuck into the mix.
I hope they do something cool with Felix again soon. They seem to be setting him up for it. ADA hasn't had more than exposition this whole season! Can we have a little bit of fallout from Unfinished Business please? Unfinished Unfinished Business?
But enough about the Gang. This was first and foremost the Nuggets' episode. It's been a long run from "Act of Contrition". And this show has done a terrific job of filling up the corners with this crowd. You see them here and there and you tend to remember who they are. It's fun to go back to the early episodes and see the first time you knew who Deckhand #4 was before his tragic death on Kobol. I remember coming back to the Fleet in Occupation and seeing the Nuggets running the show. It was the first really hopefull moment of the episode. And Kat got to be CAG.
Kat. She shaped up to be a really nice foil for Starbuck. (Starbuck's goodbye was perfect. Nice to see that the writers still don't pull punches with Kara. She's an awful person with a heart of gold.) I could have done without the "Secret From Her Past That She Just Can't Live With" cliche - it pretty well marked Kat for Death the moment it came up. She had enough history that they didn't need to make up more. I could have seen her making the same decisions without it. Heck, her "ashamed" speech from Final Cut was enough to motivate this episode.
As awful as it was watching Kat get put through her paces the moments I remember even better from this episode were with Hotdog. That's right, the real life Lee Adama (Edward James Olmos' son). Whereas by the time she died (and it was a fantastic death) you saw Kat's demise coming from a battlestar away, I really didn't know what was going to happen to Hotdog. (Someone is transcribing the flight roster we saw with all the pilots' real names even as we speak, I'm sure. I think HD's last name is Costanza.) Every time they made a run you just KNEW something awful was going to happen and they nailed you to the wall with it every time. Somehow they managed to really communicate what was on the line with this episode. It never felt "safe". Might as well have put "Written and Directed by Joss Whedon" in front of it.
BTW, Ron Moore talks about radiation sickness being Helo's Big Fear after three months on Cylon Occupied Caprica. I didn't really get that from the ep. Nice idea though.
Well, see you next week with The Eye of Jupiter - the mid season finale. Gut-wrenching cliff-hanger to follow, no doubt. Then we come back on January 21 for the new Sunday Night Galactica. Boom boom boom.
EyeTigh is back in the CiC. And he even gets a mostly warm welcome. (Mostly. More on Felix and ADA in a moment.) I'm getting to where I can watch an episode and spot the scenes that went un-cut (usually really great, textured, character scenes) that caused some huge chunk of PLOT to wind up on the cutting room floor. Coming soon to "Previously on Battlestar Galactica". Well, that's one way to do it. This week it was "Paper shortage." Boy it's good to see EyeTigh and Wild Bill getting along again. Not saying ET isn't still crazy and I'm sure he'll continue to be out-scary anyone in the fleet.
Kara gets more great scenes. Lee mostly doesn't (ok, he had good stuff with the pilots). Is she really THAT much more fun to write? I know, it's a Kat-centric ep, so that automatically brings Starbuckbuckbuck into the mix.
I hope they do something cool with Felix again soon. They seem to be setting him up for it. ADA hasn't had more than exposition this whole season! Can we have a little bit of fallout from Unfinished Business please? Unfinished Unfinished Business?
But enough about the Gang. This was first and foremost the Nuggets' episode. It's been a long run from "Act of Contrition". And this show has done a terrific job of filling up the corners with this crowd. You see them here and there and you tend to remember who they are. It's fun to go back to the early episodes and see the first time you knew who Deckhand #4 was before his tragic death on Kobol. I remember coming back to the Fleet in Occupation and seeing the Nuggets running the show. It was the first really hopefull moment of the episode. And Kat got to be CAG.
Kat. She shaped up to be a really nice foil for Starbuck. (Starbuck's goodbye was perfect. Nice to see that the writers still don't pull punches with Kara. She's an awful person with a heart of gold.) I could have done without the "Secret From Her Past That She Just Can't Live With" cliche - it pretty well marked Kat for Death the moment it came up. She had enough history that they didn't need to make up more. I could have seen her making the same decisions without it. Heck, her "ashamed" speech from Final Cut was enough to motivate this episode.
As awful as it was watching Kat get put through her paces the moments I remember even better from this episode were with Hotdog. That's right, the real life Lee Adama (Edward James Olmos' son). Whereas by the time she died (and it was a fantastic death) you saw Kat's demise coming from a battlestar away, I really didn't know what was going to happen to Hotdog. (Someone is transcribing the flight roster we saw with all the pilots' real names even as we speak, I'm sure. I think HD's last name is Costanza.) Every time they made a run you just KNEW something awful was going to happen and they nailed you to the wall with it every time. Somehow they managed to really communicate what was on the line with this episode. It never felt "safe". Might as well have put "Written and Directed by Joss Whedon" in front of it.
BTW, Ron Moore talks about radiation sickness being Helo's Big Fear after three months on Cylon Occupied Caprica. I didn't really get that from the ep. Nice idea though.
Well, see you next week with The Eye of Jupiter - the mid season finale. Gut-wrenching cliff-hanger to follow, no doubt. Then we come back on January 21 for the new Sunday Night Galactica. Boom boom boom.
No comments:
Post a Comment