Battlestar Galactica: Season 2 - SciFi US broadcast thread (1 Viewer)

[Mikah Cerucco]

Virus takes over computer of ship. Didn't I just see exactly the same thing on Stargate Atlantis in the previous hour? Hey, I wonder if the virus will succeed? Except I didn't. Maybe the Cylons will succeed. Nah. In effect, the episode had no suspense for me, so I didn't feel I needed to watch it to see what happened.

Drunker Tigh as leader? We all step up to the plate and do what we have to do, right? Either that, or we run an oil tanker aground.

Apollo as John McCain, reluctant, but effective, hero. I know who I'd bet on with machine-gun-bearing Cylons on the other side. Oh, and it isn't all that easy to do a head shot if you haven't handled weapons before. In fact, given the pressure they were under, it's pretty difficult period. I'd have preferred they just rig up some kind of explosion that didn't require them to have obscene amounts of luck and greater than reasonable skill. Madame President went positvely Zena.

Power signatures and radios? I'm actually not sure on this one. My first thought was how is she playing the radio with no power, but they covered that. My second thought was, "Will somebody pick up on that?" I didn't know if batteries give out perceptible power signatures. I did think it was a bit dangerous to have the radio playing for any Cylon that might pass in the area to pick up on. Overall, I let it ride.

Wheels. I think this is the moment I kinda went from actively being into the episode to passively watching it. The whole planet is basically empty of people, so Sgt. Lovesick could have grabbed any vehicle he wanted at basically any point. It just made sense that he'd avoid them so he wouldn't be easy to track. What changed?

Still no info on why Boomer did what she did. BTW, Sgt. Lovesick called her Cylon Sharon as if he thinks the one back on the ship is the real Sharon. It doesn't look like he's aware they're ALL Cylons. Starbuck has been on the ship recently enough to know this. I happen to think Boomer will be back to rescue them.

These things don't make the show unwatchable, but I'm hoping it will pick it a bit. Soon.

 

[David Forbes]

I don't know what you're getting at. She didn't even have a firearm. All she did was duck and cover, and was lucky that two shots fired at her missed her by inches, piercing only her jacket instead of her.

I think Helo still thinks there was a "real" human Sharon and that she was either killed or captured and "replaced" with this Cylon "fake." That's why he commented to Starbuck about her laugh being the same, etc. He was astounded by how good the copy was without realizing that the only Sharon he's even known has been a Cylon.

 

[Andrew Beacom]

Looked to me like the Presidents aide shot someone and a Cylon was covered in their blood yet they never covered who had been shot. I'm sure I didn't imagine that.

I'm also hoping that the expansion in episode count doesn't give us the same story in more episodes with more filler because the intensity is part of what made the first seaon so good.

 

[Eric_Connelly]

All these posts and no one wonders what the baby looks like?

I liked it, I did not care for the radio thing either and less for driving the Hummer.

However, at its "worst" its still better than whatever else is on.

 

[Michael Harris]

I, for one, don't mind the slow pace or breaking the show into three concurrent story lines. Since this season will be a full one, as opposed to the 13 of the last one, the producers have more time to tell the tale and flesh out the characters.

Last night's episode was top notch. I agree with a post above in that the Cylons on board Galactica played like a horror movie. In many ways, it was a military nightmare so why not play it out as such.

This show has taken many of the cliches of sci-fi and war movies and have injected new life into them. Great television.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

But BSG had established the storyline of the Cylon computer virus in the miniseries. I suppose it was just coincidence that Atlantis and BSG had that particular plot point in common on the same night.

I loved this ep. It had me on my seat the entire time. Those centurions are some scary mofos and I loved how, when Apollo and company first saw them, they ran like hell - no heroics just pure terror.

I liked how they finally explained why we haven't seen very many corpses on Caprica.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I'd bet on it being a coincidence. I almost went back and edited my post (before posting it) to say, "Of course that isn't BSG's fault..." but I forgot. Still, I'm only one viewer. I'm attempting to describe my viewing experience, not provide objective commentary on the "goodness" of the show.

I've already said it is a good show several times in recent days. If it weren't, I'd give up on it and move on. But the reality is I haven't enjoyed the first two shows of this year as much as I did previous episodes. It's easy to say, "I didn't like it as much." I'm trying to add a bit of explanation about things that may have added up to a less than examplarary experience for me. I also want to stimulate a bit of discussion about the show because I'm interested in what works and doesn't work (and why) for others as well.

A few more posts responding to other comments in the thread so far...

- I initially was curious what the baby looks like, but they're going to such lengths to keep us from seeing that I've moved on. I'll see it when/if they're ready to show me.

- I love character development, but I just don't feel the time is being used to effectively do that at this point. Most of what I know about the characters I learned in either the miniseries or S1. I have a little more useful background on Tigh now, but that's about all I can recall. The human moment between Starbuck and Helo didn't do much to tell me about either one of them.

 

[BrianW]

BSG is a great show. Why? I'll give you ten good reasons.

Top ten things we will never see on BSG:

1. Kids and their pets stowing away in the trunks of Vipers before they go into battle.

2. A teenage hacker modifying the Cylon computer virus so it can be used to save the day.

3. Cute robots. (That's cute in the fuzzy-wuzzy sense, not in the YOWZA-WOWZA sense )

4. Adolescents seeking valdation for their abominable lifestyle choices in the midst of battle.

5. Cylon Centurions having their heads blow up because they can't solve an unsolvable riddle.

6. The "adoption" or "domestication" of a Cylon Centurion as a result of the regret it feels for taking human lives. (The capture and reprogramming of a Centurion, however, is another matter.)

7. Baltar using phrases like "Bubble-headed booby" and "Oh, the pain, the pain." (Yes, I'm that old.)

8. The Standard Model being modified, for plot reasons, to include new particles whose existense introduces asymmetrical assertions which lead to the tensor matrices resulting in solutions that are infinite in magnitude. (Sorry, but this just really bugs me.)

9. Heros with secret identities. (Cylon sleepers, notwithstanding, of course.)

10. A spin-off series about the zany antics of a Cylon Centurion and a human sharing an apartment in New York City.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Good list, BrianW!

 

[todd s]

I enjoy the show...But, in what seems an attempt to be different from Trek. They seem to have swung too far with the desperation and hopelessness that people complained was lacking with Trek and most notably Voyager. I understand things are supposed to be grim. And I have no problem with that. But, the Galacitca was supposed to have been traveling with a skeleton crew. I know they restocked at a supply base. But, they are losing trained crew in large numbers each week. How many were killed in this last episode? I have heard the talk of Galactica meeting with the Battlestar Pegasus
So I hope they address the need for more crew,pilots and marines.
I also agree they need to move the stories along a little more. With a limited amount of episodes we need some story closure.

 

[PeterTHX]

Probably the same reason no Windows virus I know of can turn on my scanner, start my printer, and start playing the Galactica theme on a media player. Some stuff just has to be manually controlled.

In any case, certain systems are still isolated. Adama wouldn't allow them ALL to be connected. That was established in the pilot.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I still like the show, but I hope things move along soon. Let's get Starbuck and Helo (with the arrow), back to the Galactica already. Let's wrap up whatever they're going to do on Kobol, and let's move on toward finding Earth again. Oh, and let's get Commander Adama back on the Job.

 

[CaptDS9E]

I dont want them to speed anything up. As a big fan of DS9 i loved how even though one small story ended, the overall arc kept going on, and carried into the next. Battlestar is doing that as well but to a bigger extent. I'm glad they are using all of the cast and not putting the lower ranks on the back burner for the five or six mains. Everyone is involved. Every small charector gets time to shine and i look forward to every week

capt

 

[Steve Berger]

If you listen to the podcast for 201 , Ronald Moore tells you which episode gets everything back together again. I don't know if this would constitute a spoiler so you should probably get the 'cast from SciFi here and listen to it yourself.

 

[todd s]

Steve, I can't get the podcast to play. Can you tell us what he said? In spoilers of course.

Thanks!

 

[Jason Walstrom]

the second episode just aired of a 20 episode season. This is the show. Sure I want Starbuck back but if they want to take their time with her finding a ship and blasting her way off of Caprica in the compelling way they are doing everything else then they can take their time.

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Jason, it's just that, especially the stuff on Caprica & Kobol seemed real slow and, for lack of a better word, kinda pointless, in the last episode.

 

[Steve Berger]

With regards to the podcast fron 201.

They originally planned on rejoining the characters by episode 6 but it got shoved to episode 7


Personally I think it's a little too long . Babylon 5 stretched some of it's plotlines for seasons but you didn't always know it at the time. The characters were usually back together within a few episodes, interacting with each other.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I think it is more character building than anything and after the non stop action on the Galactica it was nice to have some quiet moments. This IS NOT (Thank God) Voyager or Enterprise ya know.


Did the President's Aid lose weight?

 

[Nick_Scott]

The virus never took hold.
When the power went out, someone said "must have been the virus", but that was BEFORE they knew Centurions were in the base.

But a virus CAN shut the power off. Have we forgotten that Windows virus from 3 years ago that would shut off your PC whenever it connected to the Internet?

Anything, I thought the episode was great. I wished we learned more, but the interesting things:
1- The skulls, and 6's explanation
2- Baltars dream.
3- Tigh sent the President BACK to prison.. nice

The ONLY thing I didn't like was the "exploding rounds".
They were powerfull enough to blow up the Centurions, yet 2 blew up WITHIN INCHES of Adama, and he wasnt even scratched.

And we still don't know who shot at the landing party. There is obviously a REASON for that. Its kinda like when you don't see a killers face in a horror movie. That ALWAYS means there is some sort of twist involved.

nick