TV Recap: Battlestar Galactica - The Son Also Rises

Source TV Blend

As those closest to her deal with Kara’s death, they are concurrently thrust into the trial of Gaius Baltar. Nothing like getting involved in the trial of the century to take your mind off the pain. But, as Admiral Adama told his son he’ll do his job. Lee is openly distraught over the loss of Starbuck, while his father tries to put forth an air of stoicism. It’s not easily maintained as chinks in the Old Man’s armour begin to show. In the end, a son rises from the shadow of his father.

Every man deserves a fair trial, and by extension full legal representation. The thing about using terrorism for justice is that justice is never served. Of course, some people do something so heinous that the ends seem to justify the means. But boy oh boy does that not beg the question, “How do you know they’re guilty?” Which is where trials come in. Someone aboard Galactica didn’t feel Baltar had the right to an attorney, and felt so strongly that they planted a bomb that killed the man. So, needing to attempt a fair trial a new lawyer is found for the good doctor.

I don’t think since Leoben has there been a new character introduced whom I like so much. Romo Lampkin is a delight to watch in his interactions with Lee. Due to his inability to cope with Kara’s death, even going so far as to berate a pilot he mistakes for her in a heart wrenching scene early in the episode, Lee is removed from flight duty and put on as Romo’s security guard. It turns out that Romo knew Apollo’s grandfather, Joseph Adama. The lawyer has many things to teach the young Adama, and I imagine many lessons come straight from Lee’s grandfather.

Basically Romo meets with Baltar for a while, dispenses some truths. Then he talks with Lee, more truthiness in the form of the finest dialogue this side of season 1. Then in a scene that is probably the best thing put on air by the ‘BSG’ writers in the last year, Romo meets with Caprica Six. It’s interesting to note that at this point he finally takes off his sunglasses. We see his eyes, and the emotion behind them. As he tells Six exactly what she wants to here, enslaving her in her very own lie, we can see in Lampkin’s eyes that he’s talking out his ass. We’ve been too engaged in the inner workings of the characters of the show that there’s been a void. Lampkin fills that void. He provides a breath of fresh air the show needs. And he does it with wit and an Irish accent.

Upon returning to his quarters, a bomb incapacitates Romo. Luckily a diligent marine is able to push him out of the way, thus saving his life. Now we move from great dialogue to great symbolism. It turns out that Romo is a klepto. Taking things from people, but not only because he likes to do so. There’s a purpose to his thieving. He takes the president’s glasses because without them she looks less serious, which can help in the trial. He even takes Admiral Adama’s button, noting that it’s tarnished unlike all the other officer’s buttons.

With Romo out of action, Lee meets with his father. The Admiral puts him back on active duty, but Lee refuses. He intends to work with Lampkin to help him with Baltar’s defense. The two argue over this, and finally when challenged by his son the Admiral walks away. Yeah, it’d be nice for Lee to follow his father’s path. But I have to say I enjoy him finding his own way. For the first time, Lee is no longer standing in the shadow of his father. Trying to be the great Adama. He’s made another choice, and is going to stick to it. At least, I hope he does.

So, another week ends. Kara’s death, while present in the episode, surprisingly didn’t overwhelm. I half expected everyone to be breaking down constantly and there to be a great funeral with an impassioned speech by the Old Man. Lee put her picture up on the wall, and that’s about the extent of her funeral. There’s still the distinct possibility that she’s not dead dead. So, why bother with a funeral? Then there was the bombing stuff. McCall ended up being responsible, but the whole plot line was a real down point for the episode. I love Callie’s passion, but her spewing Baltar’s rhetoric is a bit annoying. It’s like she’s becoming a priestess in the religion of Gaius Baltar.

What did you think of the episode? Will Baltar receive a fair trial? Will Adama lead the charge for fairness on the tribunal, or will he try and fry Gaius any way he can? Is Lee strong enough yet to stand up against his father?

Mindblowing 'Battlestar Galactica' season finale

source: Chicago Tribune

The 'death' of Starbuck and the mindblowing 'Battlestar Galactica' season finale
Given what happened in Sunday’s episode of “Battlestar Galactica,” you may have questions about Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) and whether she’s dead or alive.

I have questions too, but they’re different ones: How do the creators of this show keep coming up with such gripping season finales? And if fans are in a tizzy now, what will they think of the mindbending season finale? I can’t even imagine.

Sci Fi Channel sent certain members of the media the last few episodes of “Battlestar Galactica’s” third season. And it’s my fervent hope that nobody, including me, spoils the major details of the end of the season for “Battlestar” fans.

Having said that, we can now talk about Sunday’s episode, and I think it is safe for even those who like to avoid spoilers to check out a January interview executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick did with the Tribune. They said then that Starbuck would be involved in a “major event” with “lasting reverberations,” and they certainly were right about that.

Regardless of whether Starbuck is dead or not, it must be said that if there were any justice in the TV award-giving world, Sunday’s episode would win Sackhoff (more from here here) an Emmy nomination. The episode, which involved flashbacks to her life with her mother, allowed her to show her full range and not just do that rebellion thing that she does so well, but to play the rage and heartbreak of an abused child who still deeply loves her parent.

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2.0 and 2.5 Packaged Together!

Source: Tv Shows on DVD

Some fans of Battlestar Galactica believed Universial would release a 'Complete Season 2' set that would combine the 2.0 and 2.5 sets into one box. Unversal has said thtey had no plans to do that, but fans who didn't purchase the existing sets will save a bit of money thanks to the announcement of the 'Value Pack' coming May 8. The "Value Pack" includes Season 2.0 and Season 2.5 shrinkwrapped together, with a list price of 69.98. You may recall Universal did a similar thing with the first two seasons of Miami Vice. The content of the sets will be identical: same discs, same episodes, and same packaging, you just get a piece of plastic to hold the two sets together. Information from Universal indicates that this value pack will be available for a limited time.

Let's Kill All the Lawyers

Source: EW.com

On ''Battlestar Galactica,'' Lee has to babysit Baltar's court-appointed attorney, who becomes the target of assassination attempts

So, yeah. Kara Thrace is dead.

Her name's not in the credits. The survivor count is one lower than it was last week. The admiral is crying like a baby. Anders is drinking to excess and snapping limbs. And Lee's putting her picture on the Mausoleum Wall. It would be easy to say that Starbuck's death hovered over this episode, except that it didn't, really. Where was her funeral? For a show that devotes so much screen time to the formalities of ritual — personal, military, political — to skip something as crucial to a main character's death as a funeral ceremony? More fuel to the idea that maybe she's not dead-dead after all (and maybe that survivor-count decrease was due to Baltar's detonated lawyer).

But the new lawyer — him I like. Could be the accent — foreign makes it exotic, Irish makes it down-to-earth — could be the sunglasses (more on those later), could just be that a new character, one of substance, is a breath of fresh air on this show. The Galactica company is a great one, but it's so hermetically sealed. When we get a new face, he or she is usually a pilot we've never seen before, a miner, or just some nameless red shirt who's not gonna matter a bit to the story at hand. But this guy, this Romo Lampkin, he's slimy, he's hungry, and he's smart. (Mark Sheppard, who plays Lampkin, has done his time in genre TV, having guested on Star Trek: Voyager, The X-Files, Firefly, Medium, and 24.) And he's a petty thief, which is a great trait for a lawyer looking to steal a trial.

Didn't, however, buy the whole saboteur-assassin thing. The plot thread didn't pay off in any real way, other than to show that no one but the Colonial brass likes the idea of a Baltar trial. Oh, and to have Lampkin get injured by that keypad blast. But wouldn't it have been more interesting if Lampkin had planted that bomb himself as a ploy to gain sympathy from a hostile tribunal? As it was, those moments played like cheap dramatic tools to build suspense. And it didn't add much of anything that Kelly was the perp. The only real payoff of all that dross was the Sharon-Cally confrontation, which was worth its weight in skinny women.

Back to Lampkin, and the sunglasses. Shades have been used for years as a dramatic tool. The comic-book writer and Internet godhead Warren Ellis has a theory, one he came up with after watching this YouTube compilation of CSI: Miami teasers, in which the Carusobot almost always dons his shades before dispensing the One Liner of Justice. Ellis feels that the sunglasses are used to conceal emotion, to hide the inner workings of a heartless machine. ''To don the shades at the beginning of a story is the equivalent of Superman changing into costume.'' For Lampkin, however, the shades serve a different purpose. When he's wearing the shades, he's telling the truth. When he takes them off, when we can see his eyes, he's lying. (The omnipresent trench coat, however, just makes ol' Romo look like a bit of a tool.) When he lays on the Gaius-misses-you goop to Caprica Six, you can see the lie doing its job, making her believe in her own lie, the one she continues to tell herself: that Baltar still loves her. That exchange was some of the best Galactica writing I've seen all season.

In fact, it feels like the producers have settled on Lampkin as a totem upon which to hang some of their finest dialogue to date. Learning about the kind of man Joseph Adama was not only helped us understand the complicated relationship between Lee and Joe and Lee and Bill, but more about Bill and Joe. Every father is someone's son. We all exist in someone else's shadow and spend our lives trying to get out from under it. And it only gets that much harder if the shadow is both long and cast by someone you can't respect.

So, where do we go from here? Will Baltar get a fair trial? Should he get a fair trial? How far will Lee go to escape from his father's shadow? Will we ever see Starbuck again? If yes, when and how?

Baltar's Fate

Source: Buddy TV

This weekend is the beginning of the Battlestar Galactica three part finale that centers around deposed President Gaius Baltar's trial. Earlier, President Roslin pretty much promised us a Kangaroo court, but now Apollo seems poised to demand a fair trial for Baltar. What twists do the Battlestar Galactica writers have in mind? Will Baltar get a fair trial? Will a new Cylon be exposed? What surprise turn of events could lead us into the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica. Read on to find out.


Battlestar Galactica spoilers are pretty hard to come by. There are maybe a couple of good sources online, and the production itself is highly secure. Battlestar Galactica producers definitely know how to keep the spoilers from leaking. Some of the biggest clues have come from Battlestar Galactica producers themselves. David Eicks, for instance, made this very revealing comment to SciFi.com regarding the finale:

"I think the audience has to start by asking the question, 'What really defines a Cylon?' That's part of what Season 4 is really going to be dedicated to. And the tip of that iceberg will be introduced in the season finale."

Could this mean that the Cylons have created hybrids aside from the breeding project? One big reveal that is commonly known is that one of the secret five will be revealed to us during Baltar's trial and it will be someone we know. Some rumors suggest that as many as four of the final five are going to be revealed. Matt Roush at TvGuide had this to say about the finale:

"The twists in the finale will make you question everything you thought you knew about nearly everyone and everything."

That is a pretty wide sweeping statement! As for Baltar's fate, James Callis had this to say about season four (Source Wizard Universe)

I knew that the show was going to get picked up. I just didn’t know when and we don’t know how many episodes we’re going to be doing, but it is another phenomenal opportunity and gift. After this third season and the way that it ends, it’s so spectacular and exciting and gives us the most wonderful springboard for the next season, which can’t fail to be more exciting and more worrisome and more desperate and more apocalyptic. That’s the way we’re ratcheting up the tension, and you’re going to find out a few things that will be upsetting and exciting.

Certainly sounds like Baltar is going to be involved in Season four, or at least James Callis will be.

- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer

New Battlestar Cover Gallery 11

Source: Comic Book Resources

March XX, 2007, Runnemede, NJ - DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT today released images and information featuring the next issue of their hit sci-fi series NEW BATTLESTAR GALACTICA #11, which continues the companion "season" of the exciting comic book series from Greg (Planet Hulk) Pak and artist Nigel Raynor.

New Battlestar Galactica #11 will be available with covers by Joe Prado and Stephen Segovia, as well as interior artist Nigel Raynor and with another out-of-this-world Battlestar photo cover. Also, Battlestar fans should ask their retailer about the special "Cylon Silver Foil" edition of New Battlestar Galactica #11, featuring the art of Stephen Segovia!

The issue is available for PRE-ORDER now through your local specialty retailer.

Ragnar Wireless Episode 4 launched

Hiya All Episode 4 is ready here is the link:

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Until Next Week

So Say We All

SBR

Battlestar' heats up

Source : MetroMix (Chigago Tribune)
By Maureen Ryan
Tribune television critic
Given what happened in Sunday's episode of "Battlestar Galactica," you may have questions about whether Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) is dead or alive.

I have questions, too, but they're different ones: How do the creators of this show keep coming up with such gripping season finales? And if fans are in a tizzy now, what will they think of the mind-bending season finale on March 25? I can't even imagine.

Sci Fi Channel sent some media the last few episodes of "Battlestar Galactica's" third season. And it's my fervent hope that nobody, including me, spoils the major details of the end of the season for "Battlestar" fans.

Having said that, we can now talk about the March 4 episode, and I think it is safe for even those who like to avoid spoilers to check out a January interview executive producers Ron Moore and David Eick did with the Tribune (go to chicagtribune.com/watcher, hit the "archives" button and click on the "January" link). They said then that Starbuck would be involved in a "major event" with "lasting reverberations," and they certainly were right about that. But close watchers of the show have noted that the pilot's hand was on the eject button just before her ship exploded. Talk about things that make you go "hmmm."

Regardless of whether Starbuck is dead, it must be said that if there were any justice in the TV award-giving world, the March 4 episode of the show would win Sackhoff an Emmy nomination. The episode, which involved flashbacks to her life with her mother, allowed her to show her full range and not just do that rebellion thing that she does so well, but to play the rage and heartbreak of an abused child who still deeply loves her parent.

Sackhoff gave her most moving performance to date. The fact that "Battlestar" fans are in such a tizzy about Starbuck's alleged demise is a testament to what a great character she and the show's writers created over three seasons.

As far as the remaining three episodes of the season go, I can say without spoiling anything that they are, like Sunday's Starbuck episode, a rousing return to form after some uneven standalone episodes."The Son Also Rises" (9 p.m. Sunday, Sci Fi) sets the stage for Baltar's (James Callis) trial for treason, and we meet Baltar's lawyer, Romo Lampkin, who turns out to be a pretty fascinating guy.

The last two outings of the season, which concern the trial, are among the best work "Battlestar" has ever done. There are absolutely transfixing moments in those episodes, and in the season finale, Jamie Bamber (who plays Lee "Apollo" Adama) and Michael Hogan (who plays Saul Tigh) do some particularly fine work.

By the way, Sci Fi has come up with a cool online contest for "Battlestar Galactica" fans.

The channel has made dozens of clips and special effects from the show available at www.scifi.com/battlestar; fans can use this "videomaker toolkit" to create their own short films paying tribute to the show.

Executive producer Eick will select his favorite fan-made clip and it will be broadcast later in the season, which ends (with a wallop, trust me) on March 25.

Battlestar Galactica' president cuts loose

Source : Brandon Herald

There was a moment on "Battlestar Galactica" earlier this season where Laura Roslin, who as president of the colonies has almost unfailingly projected an air of calm, just kind of loses it.

It happens in the episode called "Taking a Break from All Your Worries," when she's confronting the traitorous Gaius Baltar (James Callis). Given all the suffering Baltar has contributed to - including but not limited to the extermination of most of humanity - it's maybe not a surprise that Roslin would fly off the handle.

What it was, though, was "fun," says Mary McDonnell, who plays the usually unflappable Roslin.

"I found it really quite wonderful to play because it was easy to play," McDonnell says. "There was an emotional ball of fire inside her regarding this man and his - duplicity. I was grateful to the writers and to Eddie (co-star Edward James Olmos, who also directed the episode) that they allowed her to cut loose like that. To me it just made her more human. And you know what? I don't think it's over."

That is probably good news for fans of the critically lauded Sci Fi Channel series, which is entering the final month of its third season (and was recently picked up for a fourth). Recent episodes have dealt chiefly with issues within the fleet, while the threat from the Cylons has receded for the moment. But it hasn't gone away.

"I think it's about rounding out the picture and allowing other stories to be told," McDonnell says. That said, though, she adds that "I think the complexity of our relationship with the Cylons can only get worse, or harder, or more complex. There's really no way out of that. We either have to fight each other to the death or recognize each other as not enemies."

That question is something Roslin has been trying to answer for herself for much of the show's run. McDonnell notes that Roslin was a "much more liberal thinker" before the Cylon genocide elevated her to the presidency - as secretary of education, she was 43rd in line to take the office - but the circumstances of her presidency have forced her to a more hawkish position.

Playing the role has also caused McDonnell to re-examine what she calls "the pacifist in me" to understand the sorts of decisions her character has to make.

"I tried to understand how someone could make the choice to kill. It's not something I really wanted to understand or support," she says. "I had to really go into myself very deeply and find out under what circumstances would I feel threatened enough to make that choice. And the truth is, if you're trying to save a civilization, you make that choice because to not make that choice, you feel like you're not doing your job."

McDonnell is unsurprisingly tight-lipped about the final episodes of this season, although she does offer that the two-part season finale, airing March 18 and 25, "are really maybe the best (episodes) we've ever shot. . . . We end up in a place that positions us for season four that I never could have imagined, ever."

The trial of Baltar will be part of the final episodes, she says. She also hints that there may be more to come in the deepening relationship between Roslin and Adm. Adama (Olmos).

"Well, something's going on," McDonnell says, laughing heartily. "It seems to be developing in spite of itself, or in spite of the situation. I think there's an attachment that's happened between these two people because they've been together in a position of parenting, basically, a small civilization. They've been through so much that there's an appreciation of each other, and you kind of grow close, right? Even if you don't intend to.

"That's the dilemma we find ourselves in - I think we're close and didn't mean to be. And I don't know what we're going to do with it."

Battlestar Video Maker

Source: Sci Fi.com
Sci fi has announced their video maker tool kit jam packed full of sounds and videos for fans to make their own videos with the chance to get their video played on an up and coming episode of the series.

Galactica Station's Review of Maelstrom

Marine Goobyrastor reviews the much anticipated and now much picked at episode 316 Maelstrom.

Oh God. Lee said it right. I love Kara Thrace.

And now, what to do without her? I know the question you’re all asking yourselves, cause I’m asking it too: Is Starbuck dead? Really, really, dead? I don’t know. You all figure that out for a bit, I’ve got to try and type a review past the lump in my throat. Thank God I’m not on the podcast this week.

I once had a discussion about the archetype of the “damaged woman,” and how the ostensibly strong Starbuck was really just another variation on this theme. My take on it was a bit more charitable to RDM, however. This Starbuck was just a more honest look at the “bad boy/girl” than the old series ever gave us. No one courts death with such a devil-may-care attitude unless they’re sporting some serious scars under the surface. And so here we are, and I was a little bit surprised at how effective Starbuck’s death was, given how intensely unlikable a person she’s been through nearly all of the third season. But this episode brings the circle of her character (nearly) to a close, showing from where the girl gets all her pain. We knew the story, of course. We heard Leoben and Simon talking about Kara’s childhood, the broken fingers, the suffering. But there’s something different when you see it. That shot of the little girl’s hand shoved into the doorjamb just killed me. And then the SOBs showed it again. Showing the abuse, physical and emotional, which this woman went through as a child, hammered home to me the reason that I never stopped loving Kara Thrace, even when she was doing some very awful things to people I like.

“Maelstrom.” For an episode killing off a main character, this episode was decidedly low-key. No great, important mission against the cylons. Just a simple matter of hiding from the bad guys until the ships could refuel. Starbuck didn’t die taking on all eight, she just... died. And honestly, that’s the way for someone like Starbuck to go out. Because we all expected a blaze of glory, right? And then, we’d be able to say “well, at least she died fighting the good fight.” This way, there’s more of the sense of loss that there should be when someone young and full of life dies.

If there’s one word that sums up this episode to me, it’s “foreboding.” Even to a spoiler-free sort like me, the way the hour played out convinced me that something very bad was going to happen by the end. The scene with Helo near the top, to show the two friends one last time. Then her and Apollo actually functional for a change, with him supporting her as a friend would, and only a hint of the sexual tension from before. Both nice little scenes, quite appropriate, but a bit too comforting, given the series we’re talking about here. All the time, my entire being was shouting that ”This is Battlestar Galactica! Something terrible must be about to happen!” Along the same lines, I’m pretty sure there were people, not watching the show, in a hole in Siberia, who figured our girl’s story was coming to an end after the first “what do you hear, Starbuck?” exchange since the miniseries.

The acting in this episode was top-notch; you could tell that the cast wanted their best to show for this one. That was some great stuff from Jamie Bamber, in the scene trying to pull her back and then after she was gone. Seeing Kara’s death from his eyes made it all the more painful. And speaking of painful, seeing Admiral Adama in tears, alone in his quarters, was nearly unbearable. Trust Olmos to end a show like this perfectly. Shame about the museum-quality model, though. Worth every penny? Well, so long as they can still find insurance.

But the show wouldn’t have worked without Ms. Katee Sackhoff. I mean, I can hardly imagine the series itself without Sackhoff. Starbuck has always been an enigma. This season saw her deconstruction, but never the moment of redemption that some where looking for. Instead, in “Maelstrom” we get Sackhoff acting the hell out of this poor, angry young Kara Thrace. The way she’s been playing Starbuck all season has been building up to this episode and this end. Not for a moment this season has Katee Sackhoff played Kara without making us acutely aware of her pain. And that’s a hard thing to do, given that she’s been hurting others pretty much non-stop since New Caprica. But even when she was pummeling Gaeta, in her worst moment, that pain was present. Thanks to Ms. Sackhoff. And that’s how the Kara we see here makes perfect sense. Whether or not you consider her actions suicide—and I do—she was certainly suicidal in this episode, making her peace with loved ones, accepting death. If Katee Sackhoff’s performance were not so consistent and so well done, from day one, it’d be harder to accept this aspect of the cocky Starbuck.

The premise of this episode, the way it was written and directed, make it somewhat difficult to review objectively. “Maelstrom” is well directed, in that the episode is cohesive, building up the emotions and pacing that it sets out to. It’s a well-crafted episode, but it’s sort of like a very nice pathway leading up to the museum door: If you don’t like going to the museum, you probably don’t care too much for the sidewalk leading up to the entrance. Fortunately for me, I liked where the episode went, and so was properly moved. The show wanted me to dread? I dreaded. It wanted to grieve? I’m grieving.

She’s gone. Will she return as a being of light? It’s possible; I’ve been convinced for a while that Kara would be our next guide, after Roslin, into the mystical aspect of this show, the realm of “this has all happened before and will happen again.” But barring that, and barring memories of her, I have a hard time thinking of a way for them to bring back Kara Thrace without it feeling like a cop-out.

I just hope they don’t try to tell us that the raider picked her up, cause that would make me mad.

Changing my rating system from U.S. type “letter grades” to numerical. So Maelstrom gets a 9.2, out of 10.

Source Gooby Rastor

Galactica Station's Review of The Woman King

Marine Goobyrastor offers his take on the much critiqued episode the woman king.

Well, we got it. The episode where Helo shows that he’s one of the good guys, kicking ass and chewing gum. And all the much maligned Helo-lovers can rejoice. Or they could have if “The Woman King” had been a better episode.

There’s a good story in this episode, somewhere, and there are a number of parts which I like. Sadly, there’s also something missing from TWK.

The show sets itself up for a fall right from the beginning. Or rather, before the beginning. The “previouslies” are nothing of the sort. Know how occasionally, the show will sneak in a deleted scene into this space, to set up a bit of the episode to come? Well this time, the entire A-story comes completely out of left field, with a couple of clips spliced onto the top of the show to make us think it’s not quite so big a leap. But... Galactica is still housing civilians? Really? And Helo’s in charge of taking care of them? I... guess.

Also, since when are the Sagittarons these uber-religious folk? Up until now, we’d only heard that about the Geminese (where have they been, I wonder?). If we’re going to accept the Sagittarons as fundamentalists of a sort, doesn’t that beg a number of questions, such as how they felt about Roslin “playing the religion card,” way back in early season 2? Or how about the religious aspects of the election? Maybe they only read the parts of the Scrolls of Pythia that say doctors are bad.

The setup notwithstanding, this episode does a number of things right. The scenes in the Agathon household are nice, if somewhat predictable. Sharon and Helo love each other, they don’t understand each other perfectly, he doesn’t want to be defined simply by his relationship to her. This is not incredibly deep stuff here. But it’s not irrelevant, either. If anything, the very normalcy of (most of) their relationship is a statement. If there’s anything off about these scenes, it’s that next to nothing is said or shown about the adjustments made because of Hera’s return. Neither on the mundane level, of Helo and Sharon learning how to cope with meeting the needs of an infant, at all hours of the day or night (munchkin didn’t even cry when someone was banging on the door. Is that a cylon thing, or what?), nor from the standpoint of Hera’s vaunted status as “the shape of things to come.” Has Adama forbidden observation of the child; has anyone asked Six what the plan with Hera was? Since her birth, we’ve seen next to no real indication of Hera’s importance, beyond the fact that the cylons seized her, and her parents wanted her back. Really, even if this show doesn’t want to reveal all it’s cards as far as Hera goes, it should at least start showing people as being interested in what she represents.

The way in which the others on Galactica react to Helo’s attitude is refreshing, too. Up until now, most of the antagonism directed Helo’s way was pretty obviously unfair. I liked how here, he brought things on himself by being, in Doc Cottle’s words, a “righteous ass.” Helo’s a moral guy, sure, but he can also be self-righteous at times. Sometimes, that’s a good thing, other times, such as during his spat with the Mrs., or his B&E into Cottle’s records, you can understand why the other parties start to lose patience with him. I like that much of the conflict in this episode resulted from Helo’s difficulty in working within the system. Special kudos to the scene between Helo and Tigh. The Tigh that Helo belted was the Tigh of “Torn,” and he certainly had a fist coming. Saul, meanwhile, was right on the money when he described Helo as being “on the outside, looking in.” He’s also more cunning and savvy than Helo, and it showed in this scene. “You’d better have the Doc take a look at that hand.” Nice. Round goes to Tigh.

But the best had to be the night’s one, great “frak yeah” moment, when Athena is visiting Six in her cell... and suddenly, the Baltar in Caprica’s head steps into frame! YES! Call him Head Baltar, call him Virtual Baltar, I call him awesome. Having him appear for even as brief a time as he did, and not even pouring any martinis, netted this episode a half a grade from me, just to know he’s still around.

But for every aspect which TWK nails, there seem to be two where it falters. Bruce Davison gives a good turn as the Mengele-like Dr. Roberts, but in the end, I still couldn’t really say why he did what he did. The Sagittarons were refusing help and dying for it, which seemed to tick him off. So he kills them? Uh, aren’t they going to die anyway? “I intervened because someone has to make the tough choices here.” What choices? I know racism isn’t exactly rational, but a more clearly motivated villain might have been nice.

The woman King, herself, is an important character to be sure, but hardly central enough to merit getting the episode named after her. It’s a shame because “The Woman King” is a great title for an episode. But she’s too much of a non-entity to be pivotal. Helo seems affected by her plight, but her grief and anger are too subtle, and involve too much that happens off-camera, to reach the audience in a similar way.

Admiral Adama’s few scenes left me puzzled. Not that Adama acted out of character, but I guess that I almost felt he was too in character. His last speech to Helo struck me as almost a caricature of Bill Adama. “There’s hate, and there’s allowing hate. We’re guilty of both...” He’s not dropping pearls of wisdom, those are anvils of wisdom.

Lastly, the show falls back on that tried-and-true device, the deus ex machina. Tigh and Cottle’s sudden arrival on the scene, backing Helo to the hilt, makes a certain amount of sense. Is it plausible that Cottle would have lied to Helo about doing an autopsy? Sure, Helo was bugging the frak out of him at the time. Could he have then decided to perform the post-mortem? Of course. But it’s not very satisfying drama, as it makes Cottle’s earlier lie an artificial-feeling tension builder.

All in all, a bit of a let-down of an episode. Not nearly as much of a loser as “Black Market,” or “A Measure of Salvation,” TWK manages to observe Helo’s character without really exploring it. The positives manage to bring the episode into passable territory, and it’s not quire as soapy as last week’s, but those wanting a return to the main plots of the war with the cylons and the search for Earth will have to wait a while longer.

Last thought: Zarek. Tom Zarek is pushing for martial law? That doesn’t sound right. Say, you don’t suppose he’s up to something, do you?

Grade: C+

Episode reviewed by Louie Brennan “Gooby Rastor.”

Bonus review: I like seeing the extra scenes, I really do. But they seem to be leaving some pretty important stuff on the cutting room floor! The scene between Helo and Adama may not have been quite as crucial as that between Caprica and Roslin, but still. I don’t have the answers, but it seems like they’re just writing too much for a one-hour show, and stuff’s getting lost.

Source: Gooby Rastor

Galactica Station's Review of Day in the Life

Cadet Bopone offers his thoughts on the 314 episode the day in the life episode.

Episode 315--"A Day in the Life" is an episode mainly of character development featuring looks at Chief Tyrol and Cally, Admiral Adama's anniversary of his marriage to the first Mrs. Adama (Lee's mother), and some nice scenes of Admiral Adama and President Roslin discussing legal points of Baltar's coming trial, but with a much stronger romantic subtext than we have seen previously. And we get a few glimpses of issues and items not dealt with much dating all the way back to the miniseries. And this is possibly the most Adama-centric episode of the series, with Admiral Adama being strongly involved in all parts of the show.

The opening of the show set the Chief's mood for the entire episode for me. He is obviously tired, feeling harassed, and kind of irritable. He and Cally are obviously overstressed, in part because Cally feels that the Chief is not making allowances for having a family. This being Battlestar Galactica, the two don't just have a fight, but end up trapped in an poorly repaired airlock. It seems that the Chief has gotten (temporarily, probably) ahead in Viper maintenance and has turned to trying to fix some of the many, many problems that our aging battlestar has due to her many, months of hard use with little or no down time. Machines and men break down under such stress.

Chief Tyrol's and Cally's problems are so much on their minds that even during a life-and-death situation, trapped in a leaking airlock, they cannot help but snap at each other. As the air trickles down to zero, a desperate plan is hatched to save them by blowing the outer door of the airlock and having them leap through space (without pressure suits) into a Raptor waiting just outside. Neither Cally nor Tyrol are particularly pleased with this plan but there is no time for an alternative. Cally and Tyrol make the jump and are rescued but both suffer damage from the explosive decompression and exposure to vacuum, Cally more than the Chief. (BTW-kudos to the makeup department for giving Cally burst capillaries while in the hyperbaric chamber--that is exactly one of the major effects one would see on someone.) When a crewmember brings Nikky to see his dad, Tyrol drags himself out of bed to Cally's hyberbaric chamber, showing Cally their son and promising Cally that things will be different between them in future.

Admiral Adama is greatly affected by the anniversary of his wedding to his first wife, Caroline. Col. Tigh, knowing how much this day affects Adama, tries to get him to take the day (or at least the morning) off, but Adama won't hear of it. And since this is Lee's mother, these feelings bring back to the front issues not dealt with in the show since Season 1 or even the mini-series. Again we see Lee's anger and resentment toward both parents. Adama again tries to push his personal feelings aside to hide behind the mask of command--a matter the "ghost" of Caroline. Much of the episode is Adama having a conversation with his dead ex-wife. Some fans may ask if Adama is "projecting" ala Baltar and Virtual Six (as the scenes are portrayed the same way with Adama blinking back to Caroline's house back in the Colonies), but it would be simpler to assume Adama is just remembering her as he last saw her and these memories bring back images of where and when that last meeting was.

An important piece of back-story comes out when Lee comes to his father to ask why Adama is acting so different today. It seems that post-divorce, Caroline developed a drinking problem and was to some degree (verbally or worse) was abusive during her drinking binges. Adama had been holding to an idealized view of his ex-wife and tries to avoid seeing her in such a negative light. The scene of Lee and his father talking about Lee's mother are some of the best Lee/Adama scenes we have yet seen, with Lee bringing out the hurt that he had avoided even thinking of himself for some time.

This episode also has some good scenes of Roslin and Adama. Roslin and Adama shippers should be most happy with the scenes with Roslin seeming to make excuses to get off of Colonial One and visit Galactica to spend time with Adama. The two dance around their mutual attraction with a discussion of the possible life each might have made if they'd stayed on New Caprica (sans Cylons, of course). Roslin also replays as scene from very early in the show where she gives Adama a mystery novel, repeating Adama's line that "the book was a gift not a loan."

Also during these scenes in the discussion of how to try Baltar, we have the clear implication that there was not any Colonial Federal legal or court system, except that perhaps of the Colonial Fleet's military system. Roslin in passing asks if Baltar should be tried under Caprican, Gemmenese, Picon law and points out that legal talent is thin on the ground in the RTF. She attempts to enlist Lee in setting up a legal system to try Baltar but Lee refuses, shouldering heavy burdens as CAG (even with the temporary lull of 49 days without an enemy contact). Adama accepts Lee's refusal but later in the episode sends Lee the law books of Joseph Adama (Lee's grandfather), which may be one of the few complete copies in the Fleet.

As with most of Season 3.5, we had a "bonus" scene at the end of the episode, with a longer version being available on-line. The scene while not integral to the plot was a nice comedic scene between Mr. Gaeta and Dee, where Gaeta speculates on why Roslin and Adama spend so much time together, implying that there is budding romance there, a prospect that the relative youngsters of Dee and Gaeta find funny and mildly disgusting.

Overall I give this episode a solid 8 out of a possible 10. The pacing, unlike several recent episodes, was good and felt right. I was a bit disappointed that we were given no idea at all how the Cylons have been reacting since "Rapture" nor was any visible sign given us of how much closer the RTF is to Earth. But still a very solid episode with good character development from characters we haven't spent much time with lately.

Source: Bopone

Galactica Station's Review of Dirty Hands

Marine Viper Tech offers his review on the 315 episode Dirty Hands.

Knuckledraggers Revolt

There is grit under your fingers. Your palms ache, sending stabbing pain up your arms. Your muscles burn, flames beat at your back like the workman’s whip. You have not slept in two days, relying only on protein rations and caffeine to maintain your awareness. You eat, sleep, bathe where you work. You may have a son or daughter; she probably works beside you, under the machines. This has been your life for two years since the Cylons attacked the Colonies, destroying your home, and any hope you have ever had of a better life for yourself or your family.

Anne Cofell Saunders (Lay Down Your Burdens, prt 2) and Jane Espenson (The Passage) co-write “Dirty Hands,” a story revealing the harsh working conditions in the Fleet and the stark realities about the nature of democracy in its refugee society. As a stand alone episode, Saunders and Espenson are able to skillfully reintroduce material that has gone unused since its introduction in “Colonial Day”. Walking through the beautiful gardens aboard Cloud Nine, Tom Zarek notes, currying favor with reporters, that the gardener “labors, but he gets no benefit!” Espenson and Saunders take this concept a step further, suggesting that not only are labors receiving little to no compensation for their work, but their jobs are being inherited by their children.

The knuckledraggers and blue collar working men and women, however, find a voice in the reluctant Galen Tyrol, who resumes the mantel of a union leader after the Second Exodus. As Galen investigates the working conditions aboard the fleet’s fuel refinery, Aaron Douglas portrays Tyrol as a man struggling with the realities of life after the holocaust, who desperately wants to help his people, but is unable to truly aid them without coming into direct conflict with his commander and the President of the Twelve Colonies. Staring down the line, aboard the refinery ship, his eyes grow wide, his mouth is agape as he realizes that children are working along side adults. Their hands are calloused from endless days at the machines. At this moment, Douglas shows Galen’s true motivation for representing the working-class, he does not want his son to follow his footsteps. He does not want little Nicky Tyrol to be knuckledragger, simply because he was knuckledragger. He does not want his son’s hands to be cracked, aching from the day’s labor.

Douglas gives one of his best performances, showing that he is able to act along side heavy weights Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos. When Tyrol disturbs the two leaders after dinner, he acts as a foil to the “aristocracy,” represented by Roslin and Adama, attempting to drive home the reality of the disenfranchised populace. In their role as the symbolic “aristocracy,” Olmos and McDonnell are aloof, casually dismissing Douglas’ soft-spoken Tyrol. Roslin will not allow her administration to become extorted by strikers, she will not allow a few disgruntled workers threaten the survival of remnants of the human species. Adama will not allow Tyrol’s deck gang to participate in their Chief’s general strike, calling them “mutineers” even threatening the life of his wife Cally, a “ring leader.” Olmos and McDonnell play their respective parts as cold, pragmatic leaders, slightly separated from the plight of their brethren. Sitting in the admiral’s opulent quarters, they are willing to allow others to get their hands dirty so they do not have to be sullied with the problems facing their society.

Interrogating Baltar, the source of this new labor movement, whose manifesto My Trimphs, My Mistakes has galvanized the yearning masses, Mary McDonnell plays Roslin in one of her more philistine moments, in spite of the fact, it can be gleaned that she secretly enjoys shaking down the former president cum war criminal. There is a glint in McDonnell’s eye as she coolly delivers the line about how she is so curious to find out how Baltar’s book ends. In a performance that harkens back to Roslin’s first Cylon airlocking and the torture scenes in “Taking a Break from All Your Worries,” McDonnell shows a side of Roslin that would have been a far cry from the idealist in the miniseries. Roslin is willing to strip search Baltar, a shell of man, in order to confiscate the remaining pages of the memoir. Always her hands are in her pockets, pristine, white, never allowing the dirt under her fingers.

While Roslin is characterized as a member of the Caprican oligarchy, Gaius Baltar in his memoirs paints himself as a humble, Aerilon farm boy, born next to a dairy, always dreaming of becoming a Caprican. James Callis, always the chameleon, shows yet another side of Baltar, the self-righteous revolutionary, making his way to inevitable martyrdom at the hands of ruling-elite. In a memorable soliloquy by Callis, Baltar reveals his native ancestry to Tyrol dropping his formal raised pronunciation for a harsher, rural Yorkshire accent, he describes the people of Aerilon as being treated “ servants, like labourers, like working-class.” Baltar invokes the harsh realities of the backwater colony with his gravelly accent. In currying favor with the Colonial populace, he hopes to wash his hands clean of the sins he has committed in the court of public opinion.

The vestiges of the old Colonial society are slowly slipping away, being replaced by a world in which familial and tribal distinctions play a key part in roles citizens play in the Fleet. “Dirty Hands” unlike its predecessor “The Woman King” shows the realities of life for the common citizen, a view rarely afforded from the cold, neon CIC, or the clean, organized desks of Colonial One. Galen’s mission to cure the ills of the working man, reveals the differences between the Twelve Colonies, a difference that has as much to religious dogma as it does class struggles. Saunders and Espenson’s script shines through the performances of Douglas, Olmos, McDonnell, and Callis, making this one of the stand out self-contained episodes of the third season.

Source: Viper Tech

Post-Maelstrom-Starbuck Interview

Source: Cort and Fatboy

In Katee’s exclusive first Post-Death-Of-Starbuck Interview, Rumors of Starbuck’s demise – are cleared up. Sorta. Kinda. Question Mark? Find out if Starbuck ejected, If there’s a “return” in the future, and what roles she’s already got locked down. Is it Bionic Woman? Is it Strawberry Shortcake? Is it a Lifetime Movie with Meredith Baxter Birney? The questions are answered definitively. Kinda. Mostly.

Listen now! (7:35min / 6.9MB)

Mother, May I

Source: TV Guide

Umm… what the heck just happened? Did kickass Kara Thrace just go gently into that good night? I mean, I get that she found peace and Not-Leoben helped her see the light and the way to find her true destiny and all. But out of all the ways I ever imagined Starbuck dying, this was the last possible thing I would have ever considered. She basically committed suicide. I always thought that someone as badass, argumentative and disobedient as Starbuck would go down swinging, or chasing down some toasters. I know the whole point of the episode was to show how she had changed and come to terms with whatever lay beyond for her in the place between life and death, but I'm still surprised.

In fact, I'm still in disbelief that she's actually dead. I know, I saw as well as Apollo that her ship exploded into pieces, but I'm just so shocked. I had heard the rumors that something was up with her, but seriously, I thought it might be revealed that she was a Cylon, or that the Cylons would recapture her or something. Or I was secretly hoping that maybe she was just lost for a few episodes or something, but this… this has me floored. I warned my boss Dan on Friday when I saw the trailer that I was not going to be OK at work on Monday if they killed off Starbuck. I had finally caved and watched the preview for this week on the Sci Fi site. After he told me that he found Starbuck annoying — and I glared at him — he said that like most trailers, if I thought she was going to die, that probably meant she wasn't. Yeah, he's going to be subject to one moody Angel come tomorrow morning.

I was doing OK — if you count sitting in stunned silence OK — until they flashed to Adama's face and then his destruction of his model ship. The woman he often treated like a daughter had clearly been troubled and he didn't command Lee to ground her. Instead, he and Lee both thought that whatever hallucinations and nightmares Starbuck was having weren't bothersome enough for her to need further help. In times of war, it probably seemed like a wise decision, but I'm sure that Adama feels guilty. The good admiral isn't responsible, but I'm sure he'll continue to be hit hard by this. At least their last exchange was a pleasant one — which, considering that it was Starbuck, probably should have been a warning sign. She gave him the tiny statue of the Goddess Aurora: the goddess of the dawn and the one responsible for fresh starts.

The younger Adama will probably be quite shaken for a while, too. Kara was right, their relationship had truly come full circle. After all they've been through, he was back as CAG trying to keep her spunky self in line. But the caring look he gave her when he offered to be her wingman seemed to speak volumes. Sure, he's happy now with Dee, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still care a lot about Kara.

And poor Sam, when he gets back from his trip he's going to be devastated. Whatever their relationship was, he obviously was still in love with her too, and really the only one who seemed to know the extent of her frakked up relationship with her mother. He tried to save her by taking her away for a while, but stubborn Kara won out, as usual.

And Kara's mother, getting to know her certainly shed a lot of light on why Starbuck grew up the way that she did. The former military woman toughened up her child by hitting her over the head with a broomstick, slamming her hand in doorframes and verbally berating her. I guess in her warped mind she thought that by pushing Kara she'd make her stronger and capable of fulfilling her capacity for greatness, but I've got to wonder if Kara's mother knew that in order for her child to fulfill her destiny she'd have to sacrifice her own life. And if that wasn't Leoben in her mind, who was it?

Will we ever get more answers about what Starbuck's destiny really is? Will she ever reappear in another form? Could it still be that she is a Cylon and will just download into another body? Or will her death somehow help the humans to find Earth? Or was the whole destiny thing and her need to die all just in her head, and what she really needed was psychiatric help, like Helo suggested? I'm guessing that since she did those paintings as a child, it probably isn't solely the latter, but on this show you never know. I'm just not sure that this show will be the same without her.

So for now, I offer up my moment of silence in honor of the late Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. May the gods be with her.

Childhood's End

Source: EW

Frak me, I didn't see that coming.

I mean, I'd heard the Internet chatter saying that something major was coming that had to deal with Kara Thrace, but I didn't quite expect, you know, death. (More later about whether I really believe she's dead.)

After indulging in some dream-time hanky-panky fit for an episode of HBO's Real Sex — and some refreshingly precise psychic action — the show put us back in the cockpit, somewhere we really haven't been too often in the second half of season 3. And we're in there with Kara, which just feels right. Before anything else, she's a pilot.

For me, the big moral point this whole episode spins upon is the idea that we are what our experiences make us, good or bad. Would Kara have been both the abject screw-up and the best pilot ever if she hadn't had the childhood she did? Not that I'm defending crippling child abuse — and that shot of her hand almost getting slammed in the door was one of the creepiest things I've seen in a while — but that hell helped craft the person that Kara is. Just as being the son of a military man and the grandson of a lawyer — and the son of an alcoholic mother — has left Lee with something of an identity crisis. (Executive producer Ronald D. Moore has said, on more than one podcast commentary, that Lee is one of the hardest characters to give shades to.) And I think my favorite part of the episode — maybe of the last three episodes — was when Kara and Lee were sitting on the landing gear of Kara's viper, just talking. Like old friends with a metric ton of history.

Looking back on this hour, it now seems clear that Kara did get to say goodbye to all the people who meant anything to her, in appropriate degrees. She got her moment with Helo, in the head. With Anders, who did his best to derail her crazy train. She got to give Admiral Adama a farewell present and to give a little adios to President Roslin. And then her Lee moment, with that great line about how after everything they've been through, here he is, once again, as the CAG with a hotshot problem pilot on his hands.

It also seems clear that Kara was the pilot she was — reckless, inspired, dangerous — out of some desire to prove to everyone (including herself) that she didn't fear death, that it held no sway over her. And in getting Kara to realize that she had never really confronted death, not in a really personal way...well, that's where the episode started to lose me.

It's always nice to see Leoben again. As a Cylon, he never seemed quite as bloodthirsty as some of the other models, and his actions toward Kara seemed to be coming from a place of truth. (A twisted truth, to be sure, but I think he thinks he was acting in her best interest.) For all of that, though, it was weird seeing him in the Clarence role in Kara Thrace's It's (Not) a Wonderful Life, showing Starbuck what her life was and what could've been if only she'd sat by her mother's side as she passed away. (Can I just say that I am so done with adventures inside our characters' heads? These strolls though the mental tulips are getting boring and repetitive.)

I'm all for Kara's having a destiny (and I love the way the producers tied that mandala painting in her old apartment into the Temple of the Five and now into that storm system). I just don't understand what her destiny is, other than to disregard orders and commit suicide by flying into a storm. I'm all for heroic sacrifice, provided I understand what the sacrifice is for. And here, I don't.

I will say, though, that I'm not terribly worried about never seeing Kara Thrace again. This is science fiction, where no one ever truly dies. Especially in a world where they can download.

What do you think? Was Kara brave or weak for surrendering to the pull of destiny? What is Leoben's true motive? Do you really think Starbuck's dead? (I suppose the opening credits of next week's episode — whether or not Katee Sackhoff's name is in them — will tell us for sure.)

TV Squad Review of Maelstrom

Source: TV Squad

There are shows that I watch where I can't stand when they rely too much on flashbacks to keep the story moving. Battlestar did this a bit too much in the previous two seasons, though they seem to be getting much smarter about it. This episode was one small example of that.

Now I'll say a bit of something that's spoilery if you haven't caught this episode. I'm a bit disappointed when the goings on outside the show - like casting and contracts - leads to strong hints to the fate of certain members of the cast. Then again, maybe only we nutcase fans of this show knew this information, while others are blissfully ignorant and surprised. Damn you!Seriously, why am I so disappointed when I've written Spoilers Anonymous posts for this show? Sorry, I digress.

It's been obvious since long ago that Starbuck was an unstable character. From her actions on deck and barroom brawls, to her toying with Apollo and seemingly enjoying Leoben's company, it was almost unnecessary to throw us yet another reason for her to become totally unhinged -- her dying mother she left behind. And let's not forget the entire situation at hand, with humanity hangling on by a thread and drifting through space basically on derelicts.

Young Kara, at first look, bore a close resemblance to Kacey, the girl Leoben used to fool Starbuck into thinking she was a mother. That could have been the point though, as Leoben obviously knew everything about her.

I'm actually not really sure what we're supposed to have walked away with in this episode. Like I said, Starbuck was screwed up, but suicidal-like? Really all that would make sense is that Starbuck turns out to be a Cylon, though I believe Ron Moore has said she's not one.

One logical step from this event seems to be the aftermath, as we've already seen in Adama's reaction. Though most likely I'm looking too much on the surface of things, and really the moral of this part of the story is that some or all of these people have predestined fates, some more aware of their own than others.

A few questions I'm left with: Why was Starbuck ready with her eject seat? Would that have saved her? We're not seriously supposed to consider she did pull it, are we? And what did Leoben mean by "all of this has happened before ... and will happen again?"

I'm not 1005 convinced it's time to say goodbye to Starbuck just yet, but it seems pretty likely. Well, at least they've put an end to Starpollo for the time being.

On TV, she's gone where few women have before

Source: Boston.com

Katee Sackhoff is looking for work.

The 26-year-old actress who portrays the fighter pilot Starbuck on the Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" series won't confirm rampant Internet rumors that her character will be killed in tomorrow night's highly anticipated episode "Maelstrom."

But Sackhoff will say that she's currently negotiating to star in an unrelated independent film, that she's not interested in doing new science-fiction projects, and that when she read tonight's script last fall, she was "blown away."

"No one is safe on this show," she said during a recent interview. "I was shocked. This is a direction of the show that is going to cause some ripples."

Adding to the mystery, executive producer Ron Moore said that Sackhoff completed her work for the current third season "well before" everyone else had finished filming in December. After tomorrow, there are three episodes left.

Moore said that tomorrow's episode is "very much Starbuck's episode. . . . It's a pretty heavy-duty event. It's a culmination of several things that we've been setting up over the course of three years. We always talked about the fact that she had a destiny, she's not like everyone else."

Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is not like many women on television, period. She is a hot-headed fighter pilot who is protecting a convoy of spaceships filled with travelers looking for Earth after their home world is attacked by a group of robots known as Cylons.

A top gun who drinks heavily and smokes cigars, Starbuck has a reputation for being tough. She punched a superior officer in the face during a heated card game, landing herself in the brig. She shot down a whopping five enemy ships during a battle to save some comrades. She tortured a captured Cylon during an interrogation. A married woman, she is struggling to end a love affair with a married man, Lee "Apollo" Adama .

"When I first got the role, I was a little intimidated," said Sackhoff. "Up to that point, I had always played pretty stereotypical blond roles. This was definitely a stretch for me. I wear high heels and dresses. I am a total girly girl. Now people avoid me at the gym."

Sackhoff faced heavy criticism initially when she landed the role in Sci Fi's 2003 "Battlestar" miniseries because the original "Battlestar Galactica," which aired on ABC in 1978 for one season, starred actor Dirk Benedict as the bad-boy fighter pilot who was Apollo's buddy, not his lover.

"The male pairing of Starbuck and Apollo was good. They were competitors. One was the nice guy, one was the rogue," said Chris Feehan, co-president of the Battlestar Fan Club . "It worked so well and then they changed everything around. I hate the new show," he said.

Sackhoff said the fan anger made her nervous initially. "If you watch the miniseries you can kind of see that I tried to overcompensate and make her too tough. By the time we got picked up for the first season, I was like , 'Screw it. I'm going to do what I want. ' I've thrown myself into it and it's become the most fun thing ever."

The actress created a character with a swagger in her walk and a slouch to her shoulders. Starbuck winks after saying something that will anger someone and sometimes makes a sucking noise out of the side of her mouth. Her laugh is loud and obnoxious. She's often drunk and always ready for a confrontation.

"Nothing is off limits to this character. She's pretty crazy," said Sackhoff, who was still suprised this season after reading a script and learning that Starbuck would sleep with someone else. "I'm like, 'You've got to be kidding me. Again? Really?' The big joke is that at one point we'll need to have a day of sex scenes with Kara Thrace just to put in the bank because eventually she will sleep with everybody."

Adam Solomon, a computer systems administrator who lives in Brookline, loves the fact that Starbuck is a stereotypical fighter pilot who "drinks and whores around" yet she's a woman.

"I remember how upset I was when Starbuck was trapped in the house with the Cylon Leoben ," he said, referring to an episode in which Starbuck was held in a jail cell that looked like a home while Leoben attempted to woo her. "I was upset because they were forcing her into a traditional gender role. Then she killed him with a steak knife."

Starbuck, of course, is not the first woman in science fiction with some brawn. Sarah Connor in " Terminator 2," Ripley in the "Alien" movies, and Trinity in "The Matrix" trilogy could all throw a good punch. "These were women who were not conventionally feminine. They were incredibly physically fit and they could wield guns," said Leigh Hallisey, a lecturer in popular culture at Boston University. "Starbuck is the next generation. She uses sex for recreation and stress relief. She cheats on her husband. She's sweaty and dirty. She's not a great person. But she's also very attractive because she's outrageous."

Sackhoff never planned to be a Cylon-trouncing actress. Growing up in Portland, Ore., she was an athlete who swam and played soccer year-round. "The Olympics was a goal and definitely swimming in college was a goal," she said. "I was planning that whole athletic slide into Stanford rather than actually getting a 1450 on my SATs."

After injuring herself, Sackhoff -- the daughter of a teacher and a developer/architect -- had to find a new dream. "I looked at my parents when I was 17 and I said, 'I'm moving to LA,' " she said.

Her parents allotted her an allowance as long as she stayed enrolled in Santa Monica College. Two months after arriving, Sackhoff began landing small parts in teen series and movies, such as "Fifteen and Pregnant" with Kirsten Dunst.

She earned money on the side waitressing at the Saddle Ranch Chop House, a western-themed bar with a mechanical bull in West Hollywood. She auditioned for the Starbuck role when she was 22. Moore was sold by her personality. "She's a live wire. When she's happy, she's really happy. Her laugh is really loud. She hasn't hit anybody but I believe she could," he said.

With her "Battlestar" work on hiatus (permanently or not, she won't say), Sackhoff is attempting to vary her image by pursuing work in film. This spring, she will appear in "White Noise 2: The Light," a thriller about a man who can identify people who are about to die. Sackhoff plays a nurse who is saved by him. This week, she leaves for Canada to shoot a Lifetime movie titled "Be Careful What You Wish For," which follows a high school student who magically turns 35 and discovers she's marrying her high school crush.

Sackhoff isn't sure what's coming after that. "I have no preconceived notions about my career," she said. "I don't want to be famous. I just want to be able to keep acting until I'm old and gray."

Starbuck's Tailspin: More Shocks to Come

Source: TV Guide

Although the February sweeps officially have been over for several days, Sunday night sure felt like a sweeps extravaganza, with game-changing episodes of two major series. Both pivotal hours, of Sci Fi’s Battlestar Galactica and ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, dealt with the fate of daughters whose respective departure and arrival is setting off shock waves for their unconventional families (the Galactica crew and the Walker clan).

The episode that undoubtedly will cause the largest stir in TV fandom was Galactica’s riveting and ultimately devastating journey into the metaphysical, as Starbuck (a brooding, tormented Katee Sackhoff) finally faced and embraced her destiny. Which meant, in a series of visions and hallucinations guided by the specter of the not-quite-Leobon as if he were the Ghost of Psychodramas Past, that Kara had to confront the soul-crushing memories of her abusive mother, who instilled in the self-destructive Starbuck a belief that suffering was good for the soul. Nobody suffers on Galactica as memorably as Starbuck, and in this final act that took her from “emotional basket case” to a martyr for purposes yet to be determined, this frakked-up hero leaves nothing but suffering in her wake.

I’ve seen the remaining three episodes of this season, and without giving anything away, I can tell you the shocks just keep coming. Next week’s episode picks up two weeks after Starbuck’s death — the survivor head count has dropped, notably, from 41,400 to 41,399 — and it’s hardly a surprise to learn that no one (Adama, Lee, Sam, even her longtime nemesis Tigh) is taking the loss well. The “celebrity trial” of Baltar (“the most hated man alive”) looms and occupies much of the rest of the season, resulting in some of the most potent courtroom drama I’ve seen on TV in ages, pitting father against son (Adama vs. Lee, yet again) as more revelations in the testimony threaten to tear apart this beleaguered society of military and civilian survivors.

In the prosecutor’s opening statement, as the two-part finale begins on March 18, the haunting question “How do we measure loss?” is repeated. Loss, mortality, spirituality, justice and ethical behavior in an epic battle for survival: These themes resonate throughout Battlestar Galactica, transcending the categories of sci-fi and cult TV, which is why the explosive demise of Starbuck didn’t play out like just another calculated TV death. (See 24.) Anyone who thinks Starbuck’s ultimate destiny (a phrase repeated so often I sometimes felt I’d stumbled into an episode of Heroes) was to disintegrate into a million little pieces doesn’t know this show. Anyone who can figure out who and what was waiting for her on the other side, and why, is welcome to explain it to me. And I guarantee nobody will be able to predict the twists in the March 25 season finale, which will make you question everything you thought you knew about nearly everyone and everything. My jaw is still smarting from gaping in astonished disbelief.

The wait between seasons is going to be excruciating.

And now I'll drastically shift gears from space opera to earthbound soap opera, because I couldn’t let Sunday’s exceptionally entertaining episode of Brothers & Sisters go without comment. This was the episode in which the Walkers all came to grips, and occasionally came unglued, in the wake of learning about the bastard half-sister (Everwood’s effortlessly appealing Emily VanCamp as Holly’s daughter Rebecca) who qualifies as a pretty major skeleton in the Walker family closet.

This first season has been all about exposing the secrets and lies of this seemingly successful family, no matter the wrenching cost. The sparks were ferocious indeed and emotionally wrenching when Saul finally caved and told Nora the truth. Ron Rifkin and Sally Field, how great are they? Kudos to this show for giving these splendid veteran actors such juicy scenes to play.

One of the other things I admire most about Brothers & Sisters is how, even when characters do bad things, they’re not painted with the melodramatic brush of low villainy. Dynasty this isn’t. Thankfully. So it’s impossible to hate Sarah (the terrific Rachel Griffiths) even when she does something despicable, like lowering the boom on the unsuspecting Rebecca when she innocently shows up to see her mom’s workplace, all to get revenge on Holly, whom Sarah irrationally has cast as a bad guy. True, Holly’s reaction to the emotional mess that ensues is all dire threats and recriminations. But she really was the victim in this scenario. Maybe Justin will be the peacemaking mediator. His gesture of goodwill toward Rebecca, in a lovely getting-to-know-you scene that closed out the episode on a grace note, assures us that the family will survive this latest curve ball.

It won’t be easy, because what fun would that be? And let there be no doubt. Brothers & Sisters is great fun. Predictable at times, to be sure — you knew it was over for Kevin and Chad when Kevin foolishly called the Drudge-like Internet gossip to try to bully him — and it’s neither as ambitious nor ultimately as important as the classics of romantic family drama produced by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (thirtysomething, Once and Again). But it’s the perfect escapist hour for Sundays at 10/9c, giving me just the jolt of watercooler buzz I need to start the work week.

And it’s a lot less heavy than Battlestar, which on those weeks when I don’t get preview screeners is a real chore to squeeze into an already cluttered night of TV. I hope when the next season begins, Battlestar will move back to Fridays, where there’s less competition and we get an entire weekend to digest the provocative, profound events as they unfold.

Battlestar Galactica - A Starbuck Shaped Hole

Source: Buddy TV

For months, Internet savvy Battlestar Galactica fans have known that today, March 4th, was an important day for the beloved Kara “Starbuck” Thrace. The rumors were that after this episode of Battlestar Galactica, “Maelstrom”, one of our characters would be leaving the show. Smart money was Starbuck, as inconceivable as it seemed. As the date grew closer, many Battlestar Galactica fans looked upon the copius Starbuck death rumors as red herrings, disinformation to shield us from a more shocking departure for Starbuck. Surely, the brilliant minds behind Battlestar Galactica would not merely kill Starbuck. If she were to exit, it would be in a way that resonated with hope for her return, and left her in an intriguing place for the story. Read on to find out if the rumors were true, and if so, was Starbuck done justice.


First lets dispense with the low point of the episode. Starbuck did, indeed, die. Her death was not at all a part of a plot device that we can expect to see played out later. If they did happen to bring her back at some point, it would be one of those Bobby Ewing moments. Starbuck has been reduced to little more than stardust at this point.

Now, Battlestar Galactica fans will no doubt be mad that Starbuck’s candle was snuffed, I’m a bit annoyed myself. Unfortunately, that might eclipse the truly remarkable aspect of this episode; the finely nuanced story of how Starbuck came into her reckless ways as the product of abuse and a childhood, and adulthood, devoid of parental esteem. Too powerful to merely summarize, it is a story of deep affect which should overshadow any fan boy disappointment over the loss of a beloved character.

The story of eye of Jupiter took a surprisingly forced turn here though. We’ve been wondering for weeks what her connection was to the mysterious sign. As it turns out, there wasn’t. Starbuck dies by flying too far into the gravitational pull of a gas giant, on that gas giant she sees a storm system which looks like the eye of Jupiter. This sets off a series of hallucinations and bad dreams where Starbuck is reunited with her Cylon keeper from New Caprica who takes her, and us, on a guided tour of the gloomy, nicotine stained walls of her shattered childhood governed over by her oppressive and brutal mother.

In these bizarro portions of the story we have the seedlings of a larger event, talk of preparing Kara for the space between life and death. That is Cylon talk, isn’t it? Could there in fact be a larger story ahead after all? We’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

In the meantime, according to the previews it looks like Apollo will be Baltar’s defense attorney, so there will be plenty of drama there to fill the Starbuck shaped hole in Battlestar Galactica as it speeds towards its finale later this month.

- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer

Episode 3.16 - "Dirty Hands" Review

Source: UGO

"Chief Tyrol has been one of my favorites because of the realism he brings to a show about spaceships and robots." One of the ingenious new decisions that Ron Moore did when he reimagined Battlestar Galactica was in making a new character that showed the point-of-view of the people that maintained the Vipers. Ever since his introduction in the miniseries, Chief Tyrol has been one of my favorites because of the realism he brings to a show about spaceships and robots. Unlike the engineers from the original Star Trek, the "knuckledraggers" in the BSG universe get dirty, wear ugly uniforms and don't get to sit in command and give orders. Their jobs aren't glamorous and they don't get a pat on the back shooting down Cylons, but without the ground crew the Galactica wouldn't have a chance at survival. By extension, the people working on the rest of the ships in the Fleet are like the Galactica's crew, but the big difference is that we don't get to ever see or feel their presence because they aren't represented by a character like the Chief. Top Gun could've used a Chief Tyrol, don't you think?

"Dirty Hands" gets back to showing us the greasy side of flying spaceships. It also brings back the major role of the Chief that we haven't really seen since "Flight of the Phoenix." Chief Tyrol is a leader for the common man, the ones that do the repairs, pump the fuel and service the ships in silence. But with limited resources and supplies and the constant threat of death awaiting them, we haven't as yet gotten a good glimpse into what life would be like for the rest of the Chief Tyrols in the Fleet. Writers Anne Cofell Saunders and Jane Espenson show us that there's still plenty of drama to mine from the series without needing an imminent Cylon attack to deliver it.

In fact, the absence of the Cylons have given us the best two episodes of BSG since "Exodus Part II," getting us back into the groove of showing how the dark side of human nature will eventually surface and screw things up if it's left unchecked. Saunders and Espenson's script also fills in some of the blanks about the Colonials' former way of living and class system, further fleshing out the background mythology of the show and using it to give us a good story about the overlooked working class. For an episode that didn't use several of the main characters (no Apollo, Tigh, Athena, Dualla, Gaeta or Helo to be seen), "Dirty Hands" did a fantastic job of delivering old-school BSG conflict and drama. I did think that Adama and Roslin's characterization was a little too harsh at times, but I can forgive it; the writers needed to get the conflict across in a short space of time and it wasn't too far of a stretch to see the President and Admiral borrowing a chapter from the Helena Cain style of leadership handbook.

The B-story about Baltar's Lenin-esque book plays off well from Tyrol's Norma Ray impersonation and it's going to be interesting to see where the writers take this. Baltar's incarceration and his underground book now have parallels with Tom Zarek's history, making him a leader for the disaffected class and a dangerous opponent to the official government. Are the BSG writers thinking along the same lines for the evolution of Baltar as they did for Zarek? Just how many tricks does Gaius have up his sleeve, anyway?

Nice touches: the detailed CG models of the tylium ship - it's always great to spend some time looking at another ship in the Fleet; the Chief stopping work and calling a strike; Baltar's Aerelon accent; Adama offering to share a Galactica bed with the Prez; and Seelix is a nugget!

If the rumors are true, next week someone isn't coming back for the rest of the season.

UGO Rating
Direction: B
Writing: A
Performances: B+
Visual Appeal : A-
Overall: A-

Original Air Date: Sunday, February 25, 2007 - 10/9c

Interview with James Callis

Source: Chud

Battlestar Galactica’s Gaius Baltar is probably one of the most complicated characters on television. After his betrayal led to the destruction of 99% of humanity, Baltar ended up becoming president of the remaining survivors… before surrendering them to an occupying Cylon army. After spending some time living with the Cylons, Baltar is back on the Galactica, where he’s about to go on trial for crimes against humanity.

James Callis, who played Baltar, appeared at the New York Comic Con this past weekend along with the Cylon in his head, Tricia Helfer (look for her interview tomorrow!). After a quick press conference – Callis reveals that he expects to be in the Battlestar Galactica DTV movie, but in a small part as he thinks it will focus on a new set of characters – I managed to steal a couple of minutes with the man who plays a character who from week to week I either hate or find myself reluctantly rooting for.

You’re playing a character for a couple of years and then the writers spring the one year later thing on you. When you come back, how much do you know about what happened to Baltar in that missing time – do they tell you or do you fill in the gaps on your own?

This story is by way of telling you: one of the first jobs I did in the UK was a thing called Soldier Soldier, and I was asked to be a major. At the time I was 20 years old and I don’t think you could be a major in the British Army unless you were 40. I was like, how is anybody going to believe that I’m a major? The answer was that they stick you in a green suit, somebody will come in and call you major, and that’s it. So what we show you, what we present – that’s how it works. So in that scene, there was no real discussion. It was like, the camera’s going to move in, it’s going to move out, and that’s it. It’s done for you already – the audience has created the illusion by being part of it. He’s gone to the dogs, and so has New Caprica.

But for you as actor, you didn’t have to create the whole story for yourself?

I just jump in.

Is that the kind of an actor you are in general?

Yes. It’s funny – I was in a play, actually, in London, and the director just sprang up one day and said, ‘What [was your character] doing when you were five years old?’ And the actress was like, ‘When I was five I was playing with my shoes.’ Fucking hell, it was like she was a robot! They came to me and said, what about you? I’m not thinking about that! I’m in a play, and it’s about the play. If you want to waste time chatting about that crap when you’re five – maybe these things have a relevance, but oh dear. I think all of that stuff is done just to employ people. I don’t get it myself. It’s Method to a crazy degree and I don’t have the stamina to do that.

Where do you see Baltar’s story ending?

He’s going to die, I imagine.

He has to.

Yeah, he has to. He has to die sooner or later. You can’t avoid that, and I don’t know how much longer you can avoid it. It was Tom Stoppard who said, and he was talking about tragedy, ‘The good end unluckily. The bad end unhappily.’ I would imagine that Baltar’s end is going to be pretty unhappy.

We’re going to see Baltar’s trial soon. The show so often references history and current events – were you looking at other political trials for that? Maybe the trial of Saddam?

Yes I was. Yes I was. It was one of the reasons I was allowed to keep the beard. They didn’t want me to keep the beard and I said, ‘Have you seen pictures of Saddam?’ He looks like a guy who was pulled out of a fox hole. Actually, I wanted to look like Lazarus returned from the dead when I came back to Galactica, and I felt that the beard was a visual sign that he’s come back from the dead. He’s a changed individual.

There was one comment Saddam said in his trial; somebody came up and said, ‘I saw it all. I was there in the village when you ordered your troops in and killed all of these people.’ And he sat there – I wanted to do this – and he took the measure of the man, and said, ‘Who told you to say this?’ I thought it was amazing because in that one thing he hadn’t denied, he hadn’t made an affirmative – it sets up more questions. I thought it was amazing! So I tried to bring some of that. You’re on trial for your life and it doesn’t look good, are you going to try to be a wind-up toy and keep everybody amused? No, the buck stops, and fuck off. I think Baltar in his trial… he knows what he’s done, and thinks everybody else does. It’s all over for him, and he’s not about to play Mr. Nice Gaius in that way.

So we’re going to see a harder Baltar at the trial?

It’s after his torture, so that’s the thing. It’s not the trial. To be tortured by the Cylons he can slightly understand, but to be tortured by his own people in this way… He has a grievance and a grudge. And as well, he tried to kill himself, which is almost the only redeeming thing Baltar has ever done. Once you’ve gone through that and you’re alive, you’re a changed individual.

That episode was great, especially where Roslin threatens to put you out the airlock. That was directed by Edward James Olmos – is there a different dynamic when a fellow castmember is directing?

It’s different when Edward directs because I would do anything for him. He’s brilliant. There was a bit in that scene in the corridor and he was like, I want you to do the stuff about the man on the wall and everything, and I want you to feel this way, and I was like, I don’t feel that. He said, ‘You have to get the sympathy out of Mary, she has to wonder if she really wants to airlock you.’ I said, no, I don’t want to do that. I said, ‘You’re a man. I’m a man. What do you feel like when someone is fucking pushing you?’ And he said, ‘Then I want that! Get mad, get crazy! Get really in her face! Lose it!’ We did one take, and he said, ‘No! More furious, James!’ And I saw it played back and I was like, yes. He’s not just a brilliant director of actors, his mise en scene – the way everything looks together – he’s a brilliant artist.

2007 Reader Awards: Best TV Show

Source: Box office Prophets

Best TV Show is always my personal favorite category both because I watch more television than movies and because the same shows are eligible each year, making year over year trends interesting to examine. After two years as the readers' number one show, Lost was
edged out this year by The Office by a slim 2 percent margin. Less than 2 percent behind Lost in third position is the highest ranking new show, Heroes. After a small drop to 24, the voting falls off precipitously to the rest of the field. Arrested Development was off the air by mid-February 2006, but still received enough love to place it atop the heap of also-rans in fifth place. Battlestar Galactica repeats as the readers' favorite cable network show improving to sixth place overall to boot (from 9th), and in 13th place American Idol wins top reality genre accolades, also up over last year where it placed out of the top 15.

Besides the big jump for The Office (13th last year) and those others mentioned above, shows trending up in reader esteem compared to last year include House, Entourage, Ugly Betty, and South Park. Showing signs of slipping are shows like 24, down to fourth from second last year, and Scrubs, down to eighth from sixth last year, as well as Grey's Anatomy, Veronica Mars, and Family Guy. At least those shows can claim inclusion in the top 15 as their consolation prize, unlike popular 2006 entries that received much less attention this year such as Desperate Housewives (fifth last year), My Name Is Earl (tenth), The Simpsons (11th), The Daily Show (12th), Gilmore Girls (14th), and Nip/Tuck (15th).

Reviewing the Calvin Awards for Best Television Show, the staff matched up with the readers on Battlestar Galactica (our numero uno), The Office (second), Entourage (fifth), Veronica Mars (sixth), and Scrubs (seventh). We responded better than the readers to Friday Night Lights and My Name Is Earl, while reader favorites like Heroes and 24 left us flat.

Finally, this year we're declaring the network competition a draw between NBC and FOX. FOX placed more shows (five) inside the top 15 readers' selections than NBC (three), but the Peacock makes a good argument for quality over quantity with two of the top three choices
overall. One thing is for sure, though – CBS sucks.

Best TV Show
Position Show Network
1 The Office NBC
2 Lost ABC
3 Heroes NBC
4 24 FOX
5 Arrested Development FOX
6 Battlestar Galactica SCI
7 House FOX
8 Scrubs NBC
9 Grey's Anatomy ABC
10 Veronica Mars CW
11 Entourage HBO
12 Family Guy FOX
13 American Idol FOX
14 Ugly Betty ABC
15 South Park COM