BSG 1.30.2009 – “The Oath”
- One of the more interesting Ron Moore interviews can be found here. [Potential Vague Spoiler Warning]. Very interesting, in both good and not so good ways. One interesting fact:Â The idea of destroying the Cylon’s ability to ressurect has been in the plans since at least the second season.
Spoilers below the fold.
* Things have clearly picked up. After the place holders of last week and most of the first half of this season, I’ve been waiting for something to happen.
* The fleet has gone to a very, very dark place. Frankly, however, I have to sympathize with their frustration (but not the violence). I don’t care how “right” the Cylons’ criticisms of humanity are, I don’t care how much they’ve “repented” and seen the light. They fracking nuked the 12 colonies and comitted mass murder if not genocide. That’s not something you can overlook very easily. Admiral Adama should have anticipated this chain of events. (Apollo’s comments later in the episode show that at least someone understands this. Too bad it was weakly presented and too easily dismissed by the Admiral).
* Random thought: The algae planet from last season looked to have some landmass that was habitable – plus it was rich in a food source. Why don’t they go colonize there?
* Starbuck and Apollo – I still find that romance too forced.
* I have to say, a civil war like this makes little sense, considering how diminished humanity is. Did Zarek and Gaeta think that they could do this with no casualties? The mutineers seem all to willing to kill other humans. Seems like a rather dumb idea – save humanity from the Cylons by killing a significant portion of those who are left. Perhaps this is to show that the humans are no better than the Cylons, but frankly this is small stuff compared to what the Cylons did at the outset.
* I’m a little confused as to why the Admiral and Tigh stayed behind. There was no apparent need. My wife says: “What did they accomplish? Nothing. I don’t get why they stayed.”
* My review: Well, there are some things that don’t make sense, but it was tense and lots of stuff happened. I declare it the best of the season so far. Let’s see if they can deliver on the cliffhanger. My wife’s review: “I still don’t understand the end. Do they have a martyr complex?”
* On another note: I’m from Alaska, and that was not Alaska. That did not look anything like Alaska (I’m referring to the Wyvern commercial).
Posted on January 30, 2009, in Television. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
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oh my…
Do the Cylons have a point about humanity and its constant need for violence? Honestly, it seems that the Cylons don’t have to do much but just sit by and watch the humans kill each other off one by one. How sad. That’s what I would do (and what the Cylons have done to a point), just press the right buttons and watch the humans kill each other.
I’m catching up now with BSG (I just finished “Downloaded” from Season Two). The first two seasons are pretty phenomenal. But I think these humans are far too violent. Furthermore, even with a projection that humanity will die off in 18 years, I’m rather surprised at the suppression of relationships (Tyrol and Sharon, for example), and not a more panicked realization that the human race will be extinct in less than a generation. Surely you’d, at this point, forget relationships and start making babies as quickly as possible. Frederick Pohl wrote a great book that dealt with this subject called “The World At The End Of Time.” When you colonize a new planet with only a few thousand people, it’s time to hop to it like rabbits or the species will not survive. Natural selection has humans only being able to have one woman reproduce a limited number of times in her life for a reason. There generally isn’t a need for faster reproduction because humanity is generally in stable condition. But if humanity is in critical condition, natural selection won’t speed up that process. I’m actually quite shocked that the writers of the show didn’t want to go down this path with their story.
…then again, when hate is so powerful, a civilization can literally wipe itself off the face of the earth (or in this case, the universe). Take the Jaredites for instance. Gone they are. Because they just couldn’t live with each other.
I began to think this in season 3. As we draw near the end, it becomes more apparent to me that… everyone is a Cylon.
Every Cylon is programmed differently for no real reason other than to experience a role. Humans likely died somehow (war perhaps) eons ago. Cylons evolved themselves to continue a pattern of destruction and discovery. And thus thier cylce will continue.
Or, maybe not…
Thanks.
Yeah I’m with Dray. We’re moving toward the “everyone’s a Cylon” finale.
Except Baltar.
heh heh heh…
They can’t colonize the algae planet because its star went nova.
#6 – oh, yeah. I forgot about that little detail.
Definitely picked up. And it’s nice to see Baltar who has been sorely underused. (Please tell me they won’t forget about dealing with Baltar’s apparition)
That said while the mutiny makes zero sense I think they established that everyone is beset by nihilism. Suicide is high and no one cares. There’s high frustration and anger and people are just looking for a release – damn the consequences. This sort of thing is more common in human history than you might imagine.
During the second Jewish uprising against the Romans the Romans had driven the various rebellious groups to the temple. Out of some kind of respect (or at least that’s what the histories said) they allowed them the Sabbath day off before returning to the violence. So you had all the centurions around the walls and what goes on inside? Yeah, the various rebellious factions start fighting with each other. (So yeah, Monty Python’s Life of Bryan wasn’t that far off) I thought of that immediately when this plot line in BSG started up.
Adama and Tigh purportedly stayed behind to fend of the troops long enough for the ship to get away. But yeah, it didn’t make much sense. Especially had Adama just grabbed the President and jumped in the ship rather than hugging for a while. What the heck?
Dan, they did have a subplot about the reproducting angle. One problem they faced though was limited resources on the ships. But there was an interesting subplot in one of the season (I think the end of 2) regarding making abortion illegal because every kid counted.
While the algae planet went nova, surely there aren’t that few planets they could colonize?!?
I do agree we’ve moving to the “everyone’s a Cylon” finale but I don’t like it…
Clark,
Yeah, just finished season 2 and caught that. I would think that reproduction is of the greatest importance though if your numbers keep dwindling down, particularly by the constant harassment of the Cylons. If, truly, there are no more than 40,000 people left, dwindling supplies, and no permanent home, there truly is no hope for that species.
I’m also very disappointed in how they’ve written Gaius Baltar through the end of season two, particularly on the point of the settlement of New Caprica. The argument made by Roslin and her supporters is that they should keep going to find that elusive Earth, as if somehow getting there would stop the Cylons from simply doing to Earth what they had done to the other Twelve Colonies. Clearly the Cylons had the capability and power to destroy Earth just like they did the other twelve planets. I can see why I really would not have enjoyed BSG when it first came out, truly a product of its time. There is a clear political and societal bent in the show that is meant to demean particular viewpoints and to enhance others, as if one is always wrong and the other always right. I’m probably not going to watch Season 3 and 4 (the 13 minute “catch up” video suffices), particularly seeing the end result of their search for Earth in the latest episodes.
Good point on Baltar…what ever happened to his own personal #6 conscience sitting on his shoulder (and on his lap, and….)?
I still am not sure as to how Baltar survived the initial attack on Caprica…unless 6 has a fallout shelter for an abdomen, he should have died in the blast.
Oh well.
I liked this episode…but, you’re right, it sure looks like they are going the route of “we all have cylon DNA.” And, it could be a really crummy ending, depending on how they handle it.
I am pro-Baltar. He is still hands-down the most interesting character, and was the magic behind the first two seasons. I hope the remaining eps are Baltar-rich.
I thought the return of the weasely Baltar was pretty entertaining this episode. They had turned him into a sincere prophet with all kinds of revelations before — if they sweep all of that under the rug I may go all Languatron in the show…
I agree with Ivan’s wife, the end makes zero sense.
He was a sincere prophet of nihilism though. Kind of Nietzschean. Plus it seemed like a big part of it was the “polygamous” friends with benefits he was getting.
There’s a great Canadian-version trailer for this week’s new episode. Looks like Gaeta is gonna lose it.
I’m not sure where they are going with Baltar, either, but the key thing with him is that he is always reinventing himself and always trying to redeem himself. Going back to Season 1 and the visions of the opera house, I think the end of the series has something to do with him and one of the Sixes taking Hera to the “promised land†with the Final Five. I think everyone else probably dies.
I don’t know what Starbuck is, but she’s not a Cylon. Leoben sure did seem afraid of her, though. I think it’s also possible that the “Earth†they found was not our Earth, and that they have yet to find the planet that will ultimately become (or already is) our Earth. Although they showed our Earth in the season finale last year, notice how they never showed a similar view of the planet that the fleet arrived at in Revelations.
Another possibility is that there is some loop that keeps repeating itself (a la the Matrix), where the Final Five begin a civilization and then the other Cylons show up and destroy it. Notice we have never seen the Cylon homeworld. Maybe the Final Five figured it out the last time around, so there is the possibility of breaking the cycle. But, my guess as to the end of the series is that Baltar and Six flee somewhere with Hera and the Final Five, they call it Earth, and then they flash thousands of years into the future and it turns out to be our Earth, and they end with a shot of a Six walking around a major city in the red dress from the opening scene of the miniseries, as if to suggest that it’s all about to happen again.
THAT would be cool.
I do want to know what the Head Six is, though. It may have some connection to my theory above, that Baltar is meant to restart the cycle, kind of like Neo in the Matrix. Anyway, that’s my two cents on where this is going. I must say that I am liking how dark it is. Makes for good TV.