Boxed Set, Vol. III: "That Can't Be Good..."
A topic for the discussion of Farscape, Smallville, and Due South. Beware possible invasions of Stargate, Highlander, or pretty much any other "genre" show that captures our fancy. Expect Adult Content and discussion of the Big Gay Sex.
Whitefont all unaired in the U.S. ep discussion, identifying it as such, and including the show and ep title in blackfont.
Blackfont is allowed after the show has aired on the east coast.
This is NOT a general TV discussion thread.
I love Starbuck's insane troll logic that cheating isn't breaking a marriage vow. Don't get me wrong; I think it's abhorrent, but that's what I love about it. It's one thing to have her all broken and angry-pouty-screwed-up-cakes. It's another thing to let her act in a way that is unsympathetic. It's a great writing choice, and makes her character so much richer.
Lee's attitude seems to be very specifically about Not Cheating On His Wife, rather than being about Not Hurting Dualla.
I didn't give that much thought. I was just thinking it was good characterization that they had him taking (basically) the same stance he took in the "I LOVE KARA THRACE," flashbacks -- let's just come clean and get this over with.
I'm not really sure how I feel about the whole Final Five Cylon plot thingy. I love Baltar/D'eanna, but I think I'd have been happier if I could have had it without the spiritual element, or at least without Baltar seeming to buy into it as much as he is.
Last night was, for me, one of Baltar's more interesting episodes (the others are probably all from what I've seen of season two so far, with him trying to care for the abused Six aboard the Pegasus, and being concerned about Sharon). I get a little tired of the Baltar porn show. I also get a little tired of the Baltar-is-so-self-involved show. I mean, I get that self-concern is his primary motive, but sometimes, it almost seems overdone to me.
I loved that he was having feelings about seeing humans, possibly for the last time in the same episode where he and Three completely shut her out. He was sympathetic one moment, and a bastard the next.
I take it people didn't like Anders, for a while? Watching it all so quickly, I've really come to like him. What didn't work about his character, for those of you who watched in real time?
My beef with the Baltar-thinks-he-might-meet-the-Cylon-god thing is that we haven't seen enough of him this season for me to completely buy the transformation. Up until now, the only time we've ever seen him be even remotely open to having a spiritual side is when he thought he was about to be executed for treason, and even then he was mostly praying to the Six in his head. It's just not in his nature to believe that kind of woo.
I've always liked Anders, and I'm pleased that he's gotten some screentime of his own this season. Last year he was pretty much just Starbuck's boytoy.
I can't remember now why I initially didn't care for Anders at first. I don't think I hated him as much as some, maybe it was more how Kara was pining for a character I really hadn't gotten to know, and maybe it was flavored with the misconceived notion that we'd never see him again, that he was a throwaway character, and yet I had to deal with all that Kara had invested in him emotionally.
But maybe that's not right, cuz now I just like him and have a vague memory of once upon a time
not.
My issue with this season of Who is that, yes, he got the big intro in Christmas Invasion, but he's still a new Doctor. You don't do an outsider episode until your main characters are pretty well-established. Similarly, the effect, IMO, of the 50s ep was diminished because we, the audience, don't have What The Doctor Looks Like in our heads enough for it to be suitably jarring.
Rose has been bouncing all over the place, to me, this season, and, on the whole, been a lot less relateable. I actually rather liked Fear Her (especially Rose figuring so much out mostly on her own), until we got to the Doctor carrying the torch. That was a bit much. They're hitting a lot of the wrong irreverent notes--and I like irreverence.
You don't do an outsider episode until your main characters are pretty well-established
This never occurred to me. I mean, I don't care how many episodes we'd already seen with this doctor--the story just wasn't that interesting. I wasn't caught up in their plight, I didn't feel any excitement or anticipation of the resolution except insomuch as it would get me back to the far more charismatic and entertaining Doctor and Rose.
Plus there was the tile-fucking. Okay, that could have been a creepy and weird coda, but there was nothing worth codaing.
And, while I'm disagreeing--I didn't find the Doctor carrying the torch irreverent. I found it kinda sweet. Sentimental old fart.
My main issue with this season (and would have been an issue with last, except this one seemed much worse) is the amount of time spent in the UK/in the last two centuries/with humans. Seeing the Doctor be a sap for human stuff like that made it (briefly) seem more justified. Not justified enough, but it was something.
My beef with the Baltar-thinks-he-might-meet-the-Cylon-god thing is that we haven't seen enough of him this season for me to completely buy the transformation. Up until now, the only time we've ever seen him be even remotely open to having a spiritual side is when he thought he was about to be executed for treason, and even then he was mostly praying to the Six in his head. It's just not in his nature to believe that kind of woo.
Yeah, I can see that. There have been a few times He was into the woo, though. He has seemed to waffle between not believing in woo at all, and buying into it a little (although, definitely most of his time is spent on the non-woo side).
He was really caught up in Six's Baby prophecy in season 2 though, and I've interpreted the finding Hera (on New Caprica) as what has pushed him that way. When they were on Kobol (when he killed the Lt.) he was a little woo-inclined, too.
Mostly though, I'm just glad to see him do something other than the porn show. At first, I thought it was marvelous that he had this whatever-it-is with a Six that I didn't even know was real, but I got a little tired of it, probably around the time Starbuck walked into his lab on Galactica, and he had invisible Six bent over the table (season 1, or two -- I can't remember). And I get tired of him always being reminded how self-centered, and interested in self-preservation he is. I get it, already. Doesn't he have any other feelings.
Edited, because people were talking to me, and I made no sense in this post, at all. Hopefully, there's a little, now.
I like how Starbuck and Lee's ideas of what they should be doing about the affair are both totally in character. Starbuck always wants to bend the rules and some of that is what Lee finds attractive in her -- and Lee he always wants to play by the rules. So, it puts them in a ridiculous place but I do hope that Starbuck wasn't trying to maneuver Sam into a position where he might be killed. She knows his capabilities and he is exactly the person who should be leading the civilians.
I also think that Sam is right -- they should be using guerrilla tactics because the Cylons are by far the larger force.
As a character Anders improved incredibly this season -- because he was given stuff to do and he was good at it. End of last season, he wasn't doing much of anything. I find it hard to believe that he is okay with just hanging out on a ship somewhere not doing anything, you know?
Lords of Kobol, there's no hope for my earlier post. Sorry for the mess.
You don't do an outsider episode until your main characters are pretty well-established.
Maybe the assumption is that the Doctor is well-established regardless of who is currently playing him. He has the full depth of the canon behind him. Rose is on her second season, so she'd also qualify.
Maybe the assumption is that the Doctor is well-established regardless of who is currently playing him. He has the full depth of the canon behind him.
This is how I looked at it, especially seeing as DT's portrayal of the Doctor draws on so many aspects of previous characterizations. I suppose it might not work so well for those who have not seen much of the Old School Who, or if they had, were not yet completely won over by the New Who.