(no subject)

[fredericks]

On Battlestar Galactica 3x04:
I'm on the record as a staunch Ellen Tigh hater. If there was a fanclub I'd be member #1. That's why it pains me to admit that Season 3 made me feel for the woman. What she did was wrongwrongwrong, but it was what she felt she had to do. Then she drank the Flavor-Aid and bid us all goodbye...and I'm going to assume she's not a Cylon because of what transpired between her and Cavil. I teared up with Saul, dammit.

Liked this episode a lot. The fights were shot rather well, and Galactica jumping into New Caprica's orbit and then dramatically jumping out? Completely hot. Even though I enjoyed the battle I really don't understand how two battlestars and a hand full of Viper pilots (many of them with no previous in-combat training, as I'm going to assume more pilots than Starbuck decided to head on down to the planet) managed to overpower the entire Cylon fleet. I know Adama's plan was ingenious but it still struck me as waaay too easy. BUT brain shut off when things go *boom*. Boom boom!

More this episode - I was convinced for the first time that Lee/Dee actually works. Unfortunate, as the Lee/Kara space drama will doubtless continue, but Lee actually referred to Dee as his wife. What is up with Dee spouting all this bloody wisdom, though? Every Commander should have an XO with reason but Dee's been stuck in the role of Adama wrangler since S1...when she wasn't smooching with the obviously outclassed Billy, of course.

Gaeta Gaeta Gaeta. Dude had a chance to kill Hitler Gaius and decided to back off. Why didn't he go with Gaius to make sure the man was actually going to find the nuke instead of just trying to make a run for it? Lazy writing that, forgivable only because Gaeta continues looking quite edible as the not-so-secret inside source. That Xena didn't hear little Hera's cries while Gaius and Six did? also another bit of ridiculousness. What's going on there with the babe and the Cylon?

Another anticipatory wtf - Leoben and Kara. Now that their time on New Caprica has come to an end I find myself wondering what precisely Leoben thought he was doing and why he was allowed to indulge himself while the other Cylons frakked up humanity at large. He stole a child and put up with being killed six times just to get Kara to kiss him? Non-Flowbee'd Kara was certainly comely but not worth all that time docked in the resurrection chamber. So now we have Captain Starbuck hearing her maternal clock tick-tick-ticking away...uhm, okay? Not really sure what the writers plan on doing with that one. I do think Anders needs to go, though; the man's a placeholder.

And now we're back on Galactica (and hells no I didn't think they'd sacrifice Pegasus, but part of me was convinced the writers would have had balls enough to destroy Galactica). I cheered Adama along with the rest of the Fleet and then cheered even more when he removed his awful porn 'stache. The fallout from the occupation will make for spectacular television. I sort of want everything to go back to the comfortableness of previous seasons, but now we have to deal with the integration of officers from another battleship (again) and those officers from New Caprica have to figure out where they fit. I want to see Gaeta back at the wheel and Starbuck in a Viper cockpit, but something tells me those things aren't going to happen soon. And the million dollar question: where is Gaius?

It's not quite Friday without a FridayFive. I'm a little bit put out, I have to say.

I've been reticent lately. Sorry about that. I've been reading, though, and sending lots of congratulatory vibes (two marriages this week alone; y'all are impressive).

I finally got through to the nursing recruiter I'd interviewed with and arranged for a follow-up interview with a manager on a general med-surg floor on Monday. That she didn't dismiss me outright after my horrible (IMO) initial interview is something to be happy about, but I do wish I'd been able to meet with one of the managers from a neurology floor. Thing is, this hospital pays less than hospitals in NYC and the nurses aren't unionized. I'm half-convinced the lack of unionization allows for pay differences depending on where in the hospital one works, so general med-surg would pay less than neuro or oncology or an ICU (not that I'm interested in the latter two). I shouldn't count my eggs and all that jazz until after the interview (which I'm not confident about at all, btw) but I do hope I get into the other place I have lined up to interview for on Thursday. I have heard not-too-promising things about the turnover and the staffing there *but* the pay is stupendous and the union benefits look great. Meh. I'm counting again.

This weekend there will be lots of studying and job searching, with the occasional panic attack. Goody goody.

There's some lovely weather this evening. Crisp autumn nights are only beat by lightly snowing winter evenings in my book.

Comments

[rwarner.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I'd not watched last week's episode yet as I was out camping last weekend, so I watched them both back to back. I was not surprised at all that they killed off Ellen - I'd heard that somebody "major" was not going to survive the occupation, and Ellen's plot thread seemed to have no other logical conclusion than her death. I did feel bad for Saul though, and I can sorta understand where Ellen was coming from to do what she did. Love can make you do some crazy things, especially if you're being manipulated by a toaster. :)

The reveal about the kid - that struck me as way too contrived. With all of the people that evaced New Caprica to Galactica, the odds that the kid's real mom would be passing that exact ship at that exact time....very low. The whole thing seemed poorly designed to set up a motherhood story arc for Kara for the season. Just struck me as off.

Where's Gaius? I figured from the end that him and Caprica Six pulled out with the other Cylons. What intrigues me about him is one of the scenes they showed two weeks ago from an upcoming episode: Gaius asking Six "Am I a Cylon??" I don't know why I'd never considered it as a possibility before, but it certainly makes a lot of things make sense.

Good episodes, but after the first two I was a little underwhelmed. Still the best show on TV though. :)

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Ah. See, I hadn't heard the major character death rumor but after Anders more or less spelled out Ellen's death sentence to Tigh the question to me was whether or not he'd be able to carry it through. The death wasn't as devastating as Tigh's reaction at the time and upon his arrival on Galactica. Will he return to the bottle? Will he be Galactica's XO again? And that my dislike of Ellen was put on hold for four episodes.

With all of the people that evaced New Caprica to Galactica, the odds that the kid's real mom would be passing that exact ship at that exact time....very low.
I'll grant you that the reveal as shot was *very* contrived (there were a number of contrivances in this episode: the finding of Hera, Anders not being able to find Kara when she went back for Kasey, Anders not coming upon Kara until after Leoben'd been dispatched), but it stands to reason that if Kasey had been kidnapped by the Cylons and her mother had survived with the Fleet working to identify who'd managed to make it off of New Caprica and reunite families her and her mother would have been reunited eventually. I gave the writers the benefit of the doubt and ran with the basic set-up of Leoben playing Kara like a fiddle. The "why?" is what really prevents me from being irked with the whole thing, as it does come off as a bit of a waste of time. If we're not given some sort of explanation for why Leoben was left to his own devices while the other Cylons were ruling humanity I will be plenty pissed.

What intrigues me about him is one of the scenes they showed two weeks ago from an upcoming episode: Gaius asking Six "Am I a Cylon??"
How *can* he be a Cylon? He certainly wasn't at any of the Cylon conventions and if the other Cylons knew he was one of them threatening him with death would be a bit silly, no? I think the writers played that card for shock value back in S2 and if they do try to pull it out again it would call for an entire episode of explanation. Just not worth it.

Who may be a Cylon? Roslin's aide, Tori. She "lost" baby Hera, huh? Bull-frakkin'-shiite.

I didn't catch the last half-hour of last week so I'm unsure what I missed going into this week. I really enjoyed the first two episodes but wasn't thrilled with what I did see of last week. The boom scenes from this one won me over to the point where this was quite enjoyable.

[brooklynknight.livejournal.com]

Who may be a Cylon? Roslin's aide, Tori. She "lost" baby Hera, huh? Bull-frakkin'-shiite.

We SAW her send off May with the baby though. She wasnt supposed to stay with her, the guards were. They were assigned to seprate ships (which was done).

Ros said that baby was more important to Humanity then she was, then SHE shoulda kept the two of them with her crew, not sent them off alone.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

True. Sloppy writing or bad foresight on Roslin's part? Meh.

[brooklynknight.livejournal.com]

They didnt overpower the entire fleet. Not by a longshot.

First off Lee left all his pilots (and i really hope as much spare parts and equipment as he could) with the civilian fleet.

I'm not sure how many pilots Adama had but it wasnt many. I counted maybe 10 launches into the atmosphere (that scene was fraking incredible by the way!)

The Cylons also didnt leave their entire fleet in orbit. They had 4 base stars around the planet, thats it.

The Goal was escape, well most, most not all, of the colonists escaped and 3 base stars were destroyed by Pegasus. 1 by Suprise, 1 by direct ramming, 1 by debris.

They lost the biggest resource they had, the most advanced human ship left, which had FACTORIES on it to replenish their resources. Right now they are worse off then they were in 33.

Gaeta backed off because he wanted to give that son of a bitch one last chance to redeem himself. Geata is a moron, what can you say. He's an idealist Baltar was right about that.

We knew from day one that Gaius would end up with the Cylons and the Pegasus would be destroyed, it was just always a question of when.

Kick ass episode, felt like a season opener. Next week, revenge against human traitors.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

The "fleet" I was referring to were the Cylons. Poor phrasing. I find it hard to believe that two battlestars and no more than thirty Vipers could successfully hold off enough Cylons to get the bulk of New Caprica's population off the ground. Obvously it happened in the episode and to argue realism in a show about machines that can mimic human life and resurrect themselves is walking the absurd but I'm allowed, dammit. I was sort of hoping Roslin's dry erase board o' human population would show up at the end so we could figure out exactly how many people survived but I figure it'll make an appearance next week sometime. A tally of lives and ships would be nice.

They lost the biggest resource they had, the most advanced human ship left, which had FACTORIES on it to replenish their resources. Right now they are worse off then they were in 33.
If they choose to tackle the loss. The issue about where precisely food's been coming from was never brought to light, was it? There was some vague handwaving about regeneration way back when but nothing specific. The only real resources that have been addressed on the show were water and tillium.

[brooklynknight.livejournal.com]

I dont know what to tell ya. I feel that their escape was completly plausible. They werent there to fight, they were there to distract.

If the Base Stars ignored the Battlestars and simply attacked the colony from above, then Adama would have failed.

As much as the Cylons want to "be human" which really is what they are trying to do, they arent. The majority of them are programmed machines, that react by threat assessment.

The Humlons or Cylmans or whatver, were so caught up with the insurgency that they were cought completly off guard on the planet with Adamas arrival. It seemed to me that the entire thing took an hour.

I mean c'mon lets retrack what happened.

The Cylons see TWO base stars and send the majority of their space forces after them. (Advantage 1) By the time they notice its a decoy Adama has jumped into the atomosphere to safely dump his fighters behind enemy lines. (Advantage 2). The fighters never faced the Basestars, they faced the raiders in small dog fights and provided Airial cover for the colonial ships to leave. You'll also note they FTL jumped as soon as they were a few hundred feet in the air. They never got in direct weapons range of the base stars to be a threat.

Meanwhile, the 4 stars are concentrating on Adama and the Galactica. At this point he's lost. He always intended to lose. He knew the ship would be shot to hell from his atmosphere dive. He bought time. (Advantage 3). Then came the Pegasus, completly suprising the Cylons and Destroying a Base star. The Cylons shift to a new priority target that clearly has better weaponry.

(I notice that the Galactica seems to be more of a "defensive" ship. While it packs a punch its more designed to take a beating and cover fighters, while the Pegasus had far more emphasis on actual attack power).

This gives the Galactica time to fix its FTL and escape, at which point they set the pegasus to ramming speed and abondon ship.

All these events happened at the same time. The Humans never faced the entire Cylon fleet, and the Cylons never faced the entire Human fleet either.

As for food. Well I assume their original food source was 2 fold. A. Hydroponics. B The vacation ship that blew up at the end of Season 2.

I'm pretty sure Hydroponics were mentioned at SOME point between the miniseries and now.

On New Cap they obviously farmed it.

[1x2foralways.livejournal.com]

Damn the Friday Five for being all late and stuff. :(

Hope you get rid of all this stress soon. I know how much it can drag one down.