So Earth has finally been revealed....

So after almost 5 years of waiting, we finally got to see the crew of Galactica make it to Earth, and surprisingly, much earlier than I think most of us expected. Of course nothing this substantial is ever given to an audience this early without a price, so with half of the final BG season still yet to be seen, was it really a surprise to anyone when Earth was revealed to not be the beautiful utopia that everyone was hoping for?

I must admit, over the last few years, I had been wondering just what kind of Earth we'd see in store for our characters on BG. Initially, I wondered if it would be much like the original series, where the crew of Galactica lands on present-day Earth, though the whole concept of that seemed a bit silly with the style of today's science-fiction. The other common theory was that perhaps they'd land during the dawn of mankind, and would be the catalyst that kicked off civilization as we know it (much like the aliens in the film STARGATE). Heck, I even toyed with the idea that maybe they'd be landing on Earth in the 1960s after the end of last season (I couldn't shake the notion that there had to be SOME reason they used "All Along the Watchtower" to bring the hidden cylons together)! Though the big Earth reveal has finally come, and shown us a planet not unlike the one Charlton Heston found himself on in the 1968 classic, PLANET OF THE APES, where mankind seems to be a distant memory.

Putting together all the pieces however, this reveal of a post-apocalyptic Earth really isn't that surprising. For Earth to be a "legend" to these people, it would only make sense that they were originally from it in a time long ago. The fact that it seems we're quickly on the way to wrecking our planet enough so that it will no longer support human life would also suggest that for our species to survive, we'd likely have to set out into space and find other planets to inhabit ourselves, so the notion of completely forgetting about Earth enough over thousands of years until it simply becomes a legend is not a far fetched one.

It will be interesting to see where they go with this "ravaged Earth" concept in the few remaining episodes to come. Are the people of Galactica truly the first ones to return to Earth in eons, or is their perhaps another civilization that is still there in hiding somewhere? Will Earth remain the end destination for our heroes, or will they take to the stars once again, doomed forever to an existence on the move in space? And for frak's sake, who IS the final cylon?!? It's painful to think that we've got over half a year until these questions will be answered for us, but let us hope that BG can go out with as much of a bang as it came in with!

For those who want my more detailed thoughts on the mid-season finale, you can view my latest Overcast, the preview and link of which you'll find below.

-Tim


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What the frak was up with Romo's cat?

Hey all,

So after two weeks we FINALLY got another episode of BG, and while it was ripe with lots of interesting dramatic bits and reveals (totally saw that "Lee as President" thing coming), there was one scene that just confused the frac outta me!

When Romo Lampkin ultimately decides that Lee is the best choice for the Presidency, he's talking to his cat, and then walks out of the room. In the very next scene, he meets with Lee in the hallway to tell him the news, then threatens to kill him, and explains to Lee he's lost faith in mankind, as evidenced by the fact that someone "killed his cat."

Now, we just saw the cat alive in the previous scene, but Romo shows Lee a bag which contains a dead cat, where Lee says "it looks like it's been dead for weeks." There's the slim possibility that this exchange could be taking place weeks after the previous exchange, but since Lee is wearing the same shirt he was when talking to his father just a few minutes earlier in the episode, this seems unlikely.

So what does this all mean? Well, my best guess is that Romo went a bit nuts, and we were seeing the ghost of his cat (which would explain Lee's comment about the empty food bowl part way through the episode). I'm not sure though, as if that was the case, the whole thing seemed to be presented in a fairly subtle way, and came off a bit strange. Anyway, as per usual, you can find my deeper comments about the episode posted in my Overcast commentary, the preview link of which you'll find below:


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Sympathizing with the Skinjobs

Much as I had thought, BATTLESTAR overcame its slow patch this week with one hell of episode, which I found mostly interesting for its new insights into the cylons. Most of the best parts of this season so far have been the bits focusing on the "cylon civil war," and this week's episode was no exception.

The big arc of the episode was the beginnings of an alliance between the cylons (or at least half of them) and the humans, but what I found most interesting was the further exploration of the connections between each of the cylons within a particular model. The most heartbreaking scene was perhaps seeing Natalie (the primary Number Six this season) being put in a position where she has to kill one of her sister Sixes, much like how Tigh had to kill his wife in Season 3. Also intriguing was seeing Athena confronting her old cylon sisters after her defection, and how she has inspired them in a way.

All in all, a very interesting episode, that has me wondering even more where they are ultimately going with the end of this series. Can't wait for next week!


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Bring back the plot!!!

So the last couple BATTLESTAR episodes have left me a bit frustrated as of lately, for while there's been a great deal of intriguing character interaction going on, there seems like there's been little in actual plot advancement. This could be simply due to the fact that there are so many plot threads being juggled at once for the moment (resulting in a lot of key characters barely appearing, or not appearing at all in certain episodes), but part of me can't help but worry that the BG writers may simply be dragging their feet in getting to what we as fans like to call "the good stuff."

I can't help but be reminded of the show LOST, a show which I felt held promise with lots of compelling characters and narratives on the 1st season, only to completely bore me to tears the 2nd season by stalling with the introduction of several new characters who were killed off almost as quickly as they were introduced. In fairness to LOST fans though, I have not seen the 3rd or 4th seasons of the show, and wouldn't be surprised if it got its footing back eventually.

Unlike LOST however, BG shouldn't be trying to put in "filler" episodes at this point, as we're in the final season. This is gonna be it, goodbye, finito forever! Shouldn't every episode count for something a bit more? I don't need my jaw to hit the floor with every one here necessarily, but it would be nice if enough were going on in each episode that I could give people an interesting synopsis of what happened this week when people ask me about the show. I am a true believer though, and have total faith that Moore & company will pull things together and deliver one hell of a finale for us. Season three faltered in a similar fashion mid-season, before finding firm footing again in its finale.


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4th Episode of the Season....

Well, focus this week once again shifted back toward Baltar and completely away from Starbuck's quest and the cylon civil war stuff (is it just me, or are there just too many plot threads happening at once these days?). Truthfully, what had my attention the most this last episode though was the intriguing interactions between Tigh and Number Six. Tigh is still obviously grieving the death of his wife (to the point where he'd even see Ellen when occasionally looking at Six), and Number Six seems to be the only person he can confide in. This is quite the dramatic character shift for Tigh (though finding out you're a cylon can make a person change in a lot of ways I suppose), and his interactions with Six on this episode are making me wonder if there's a potential relationship there between these two. They're both clearly wounded people (or...err...machines), and seem to be sharing a connection that could lead to a possible romance of some sort, which I think would be a rather fascinating and unexpected direction for things to go. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

As usual though, you'll find my more in-depth comments about the episode up on my overcast for the week, and my preview below to give you guys a taste. Enjoy!


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Another character lost...

Usually at least once or twice a season on BG, there's an episode that hits us like a sledgehammer, because the writers will prove that they have the guts to kill off central characters that the fans actually care about. On second season, we lost poor Billy Keikeya and Crashdown, with third season, it was Kat and Tigh's wife, Ellen. Now with the 4th season, we've lost a character we've seen from the beginning of the series: Cally.

I always felt bad for poor Cally, because she was a kind soul, who has just had notoriously bad luck over the course of the series. We watched her over the first season, obviously infatuated with Chief Tyrol, but unable to do anything about it since the Chief was involved with Boomer. Then Boomer was revealed as a cylon, and we watched Cally stick by the Chief, even when he beat her in a crazed rage while coming out of a fevered dream. Things seemed like they might go Cally's way at the end of season 2, when time jumped ahead and we saw she was married to the Chief and they had a child together. Though this happiness was all too brief, as the cylon invasion of New Caprica turned their lives upside down, and Cally found herself nearly executed in front of a firing squad.

But somehow Cally managed to escape death and reunite with her family and friends aboard the Galactica once again, only to now get the horrible bombshell of information that her husband, whom she has stood by so unfalteringly, is in fact a cylon. The knowledge of this information sadly cost Cally her life, and she will be missed. Though I fear her death may be only the first of several heavy blows we're likely to get this season, and who will be left standing by the end of this series is anyone's guess.


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2nd Episode of the Season

So this week's episode was another interesting (albeit short) one for the new season. Clearly since this is the last season, the writers of BG have thrown out the stand-alone episode mentality that seemed fairly prevalent in the second-half of season three, and are instead hitting us with a series of cliffhanger episodes that each keep segueing into the next.

For this week, we saw just how far poor Starbuck could fall in her desperate quest to get her peers to believe her stories of Earth. We saw Lee Adama leave Galactica, and his (apparently now former) wife Dee behind. And we even got to see the genesis of what will likely turn out to be a civil war among the cylons.

In short, things are getting dark on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, very dark, and it's likely only going to get worse for our poor characters, at least until the end of the journey is reached, and earth is hopefully, and finally found. But much like Baltar seems to have with his newly-discovered "one true God," I have faith.

(And of course, you can find my more in-depth commentaries of the show at www.overcastmedia.com, the preview for this week's episode which you'll find below.)


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