Battlestar Galactica: The Son Also Rises...

[fajrdrako]

Another wonderful episode of Battlestar Galactica, better than some because it featured my favourite characters, Will and Lee Adama. And both as I like them, at odds, and so very much alike.

As bonus, we got:

• Rather little of the characters I don't like, like the Chief and Cally and Roslin, and what we got of Roslin was good.


• Lampkin! What a fascinating character. His dialogue had me captivated, especially his dialogue with Lee. And his kleptomania. What's his agenda? I loved Mark Sheppard as Badger in Firefly, and he's even better here. I also love his conversation about Lee's grandfather.


• My heart aches for both Lee and Anders. Not that I believe for even a minute that Starbuck could be dead. She is surely both immortal and invulnerable. But the grieving is magnificent - especially with Will Adama. The relationship between him and Kara has always been one of my favourites in the show, second only to his relationship with Lee. (And the relationship between Lee and Kara, a close third. Even though she treats him like dirt.)


• Interesting development of Baltar - the conversation between Lampkin and Six was very intriguing too.


• So much terrorism! But it makes sense that Athena would be the victim of attacks.


• I love our glimpses of Helo.

Comments

[battle-of-one.livejournal.com]

I really love Sam and I love he and Lee's interaction over this. I just love this show so much and can't help thinking that they are doing with it exactly what I wanted in my books. It's a realistic, human portrayal of war set against a backdrop of space that only works to highlight very real issues.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

really love Sam and I love he and Lee's interaction over this.

I agree absolutely. Both men are wonderful, and the characterization continues to be intense, convincing and intriguing. They remain in character and yet the stories and the characters aren't predictable, I can't be sure what is coming up. I love it when a TV show can do that.

can't help thinking that they are doing with it exactly what I wanted in my books.

I confess, I have more than once pictured the Macedon in the style of Galactica, but little grubbier and simpler in its architecture, more like a present-day battleship. In particular I have pictured the soljets in uniforms and armour very like those on the Viper pilots.

It's a realistic, human portrayal of war set against a backdrop of space that only works to highlight very real issues.

Yes. Amazingly done for American television. Your books have the advantage of an interior view, a more complex situation (e.g., three sides to your conflict instead of only two, even if you don't allow for the psychological levels of storytelling). The TV show has the advantage of good acting. I think actually, you win, hands down, in the quality stakes, but that might just be betraying my prejudice for prose over television. And much as I adore Lee and Will Adama, Starbuck, Anders, Helo and Boomer/Sharon/Athena, I prefer Cairo, Niko, Jos, Ryan, and Yuri. Et alia. And I prefer the implications of your situation with aliens and pirates over the comparatively artificial reality of Battlestar Galactica with the Cylons and the search for Earth.

Oh dear, now I feel as if I'm being unappreciative of some amazingly good TV. Rephrasing a little... I think that brilliant writing and good acting have raised a rather silly plot situation above itself, injecting extremely good characterization and powerful themes into the show to make it something remarkable.

I do think, however, that the show's take on religion has so far been unconvincing (especially where the human religion is concerned) and sometimes the use of Cylons has been confusing to the detriment of the plot.

This of course doesn't stop me from being eager for the next episode, and biting my nails over Starbuck's possible fate.

Isn't she a wonderful messed-up hero?