Comment Stream

Re: BSG S4: Guess What's Coming to Dinner?

(Gaeta's Lament:

Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
With my three wishes clutched in her hand
The first that she be spared the pain
That comes from a dark and laughing rain
When she finds love may it always stay true
This I beg for the second wish I made too
But wish no more
My life you can take
To have her please just one day wake


Does it mean something? I'm guessing yes, at least in a vague suggestive sense. )

@Brendan: Good call putting this together, I was wondering the same thing. Reading it all together, it does seem awfully like it's coming from Renegade Six's perspective... as best I can interpet it...

Three is asleep, boxed, cold-storaged, "in the shirt of man" - like being dead, as humans die? Everything hinges on her, though, knowing the faces of the five. Renegade Six expresses the need to be mortal in order for life to be meaningful... spared the pain of immortality? Here's the clincher for me: Six has visions of Hera, and Three said that when she held Hera she would know true love ("This I beg for the second wish I made too")... then there is no third wish. But there is Three, who needs to be woken up, and Renegade Six dies at the end of this episode (My life you can take, To have her please just one day wake).

Re: BSG S3: Crossroads, Part 1

I hate to say this but I'm becoming very disheartened by Admiral Adama. Here is a man who single-handedly saved the remainder of the human species, calmly and coolly handled all of the shitstorms that arose in the aftermath for two years, and suddenly seems to have become a hard-assed bastard who cares more for his position of authority than the actual well-being of the people around him. The only credit I can give this is that it largely was foreshadowed by his 'realization' in Unfinished Business that he shouldn't be friends with his crew. I think it's crap.

What happened to the man who stayed behind to find Starbuck at the risk of the fleet, and said if it was Lee he'd never leave? He was simultaneously too human to be a good commander, and the best man for the job for that very reason. As the military man in charge of the remainder of humanity, we saw what his soft touch was really worth when Admiral Cain appeared on the Pegasus. He seems to have gotten his panties in a bunch because he let people settle on New Caprica instead of remaining a hard-ass and blames himself for their inability to defend the planet, but he only allowed a couple of people to go based on personal feeling - obviously most people would have been gone regardless and they would not have been any more prepared to fight off the cylons.

This marks a significant loss of the qualities which made Adama a great and interesting character. A man who threatens to murder Cally in cold blood rather than listen to the concerns of some strikers is no better than Admiral Cain.

Otherwise, a great episode, and I ultimately have to side with Lee. Baltar is not guilty of any of the things the prosecutor claims - he did not actively seek the deaths of anyone. He is not a murderer. He is just a truly pathetic man.

Re: BSG S3: Dirty Hands

Roslin's about-face was slightly awkward, but still pretty believable from the "we can't cave to extortion" angle which is completely consistent with her surprisingly-hard-line stances throughout the series.

Adama's actions were completely unreal, threatening to shoot Cally!? His argument about obeying orders was sound and well voiced, but threatening to kill a pretty much innocent woman as a means of coercion is unprecedented and uncharacteristic. This was the only scene I found unbelievable.

Still, it's the best episode since Collaborators and for that, I am thankful - most of season 3 has been rather disappointing in the shadow of the first 2.

Tyrol has always been one of my favorite characters, and this episode completely sells me on that opinion.

Re: BSG S2: Fragged

I had the same thought as Max, and I think it makes the most reasonable sense. The scene where Tigh apologizes to Adama IMMEDIATELY before declaring martial law, only makes sense in this light. He already messed things up, he just learned that Adama will live, and he's made comments before like "if they don't hate the XO he's not doing his job". He's made good command decisions while under the influence before, so I don't think his drinking is meant to imply that he's suddenly making bad choices willy nilly.

It's a highly questionable decision, but without releasing the president he has little choice. Once Adama comes to, he will set things right and people will see him as the rightful and trustworthy commander of Galactica.

Re: DS9 S5: Children of Time

Lots of excellent points have been made and this episode certainly deserves extended discussion. It is simultaneously a great and extremely flawed episode.

Here's what I see as a real problem, and I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned...

This should have been an episode about Sisko. He was the ONLY person in a position to actually make the ultimate decision in this episode. I was completely absorbed in thought about his situation, but I think it all really came down to this: (Sisko: I want to go home as much as you do, Chief, I'm just listening to what everyone has to say / O'Brien: So we're not actually considering this? / Sisko: No we're not.)

His obligation was to his crew, and all the argumentation about alternate timelines here proves that there is no clear answer in the Star Trek universe as to what will happen as a result of their actions. I was beside myself when a crisis of conscience on O'Brien's part suddenly became Sisko's decision to give up the lives of his entire crew. Even if his reasoning had been addressed I doubt I would have bought it, but not addressing it at all completely steals the wind out of the sails of this episode.

Re: DS9 S3: Family Business

Though this episode deserves some credit for finally introducing a female Ferengi to counter the mounting mental image of the females as mindless, submissive waifs as perpetuated by male Ferengi.

Re: DS9 S3: Family Business

Sexpun makes an entirely valid argument. Regardless of this, I also find episodes centering on the Ferengi dull and uninteresting. At least so far in DS9, the only non-human species which have received as much attention as the Ferengi are the Bajorans and Cardassians, both of which have a lot more dimension than the Ferengi. This, I believe, is why DS9 is far superior to the other series. Klingons, Vulcans, and Romulans are generally more interesting to me than Ferengi, but the Cardassian/Bajoran element of DS9 blows all of them out of the water. In the context of DS9, Ferengi-centered episodes often seem uncreative and dimensionless.