UNCUT REACTION - Battlestar Galactica S1E7 - Six Degrees of Separation
Added 2024-07-09 12:00:10 +0000 UTC
Comments
I like that critique about the how they do a good job of balancing the serialized/episodic format, especially considering at the tiem episodic was still the norm. Nowadays with episodes orders being half or less of what they used to be, some show suffer for the lack of space to grow their characters and story. the only other show that some to mind that handled it similarly well was The Good Wife, that show had an arc it was servicing but it was still masically a procedural. What I went with when this aired is that Shelly was real. I think she just like airlocked herself or escaped after that ploy didn't work. She didn't just bamf back and forth like magic in/out Gaius' head during this episode. She was a sleeper that activated for exactly the reasons theyend up with and Gaius' messed up delusional 6, or whatever that is, always reframes these serendipitous happenings to his best advantage because he is a narcissistic weirdo and it is just his guilt at having been duped into betraying his own people that drives it. But also, it is kind of magical thinking, this show rides that line and sometimes it blows my immersion so I lean towards Occam's razor and just go with the more rational explanation. The 6 in Gaius' head is something that still confounds me, even having watched the whole show multiple times. As far as the Boomer thing, I think her sleeper program is eroding under not only external scrutiny but her own actual desire and attachment to her fabricated life. Her programming is warring with what she has believed was her reality. Also, the Raiders, Toasters, and Skin-jobs are all just different models, they don't morph into each other, and there is a hierarchy like Boomer intimates. Just think, iPhone, iPad, iPod, HomePod.
James W.
2024-07-13 00:00:27 +0000 UTCSeason 1 of 'Heroes' was so damn good. The dip in quality after Season 1 was crazy.
Ca$hWednesday
2024-07-10 14:07:40 +0000 UTCWas Shelley Godfrey a Cylon? A real person who maybe the cylons based the Six image on? Or was she just Baltar's Head!Six manifesting in the real world? I feel like this episode came at just the right time for you two, just as you were getting annoyed by the gimmick of Baltar, so does he. As for characters getting spotlight episodes while others get sidelined for a week, recall that Ron Moore cut his teeth on TNG in season 3, which I'm sure you've noticed also does this same thing, where an episode has a focus character and other get pushed to the side. That is a writing style Micheal Pillar introduced to the show, and it worked pretty effectively. But it's also what RDM knows well. I guess what I'm saying is that, from TNG, through DS9 and eventually to BSG, RDM has been a big part of those shows, so... it's a style that will probably stick around for quite some time on this channel.
Nolan
2024-07-10 04:30:00 +0000 UTCWell, you've been asking for a Baltar episode, and you finally got one. I knew you'd appreciate "no more Mr. Nice Gaius" as well. Even with as tense an episode as this was for Baltar in particular, they still managed to squeeze in the humor. There's actually a few times where there will be some really intense or dark episode and something just randomly makes me burst out laughing when I least expect it. Also "you forgot to wash your hands!!". That was me so much as a kid🤣. I suppose there are a couple ways to interpret this one. Could it just be that the cylons(Head Six and Shelley) arranged this whole thing under the guise of "God's will" to back Baltar into a corner and get him to turn to religion, through which they can then control him? Or was there actually divine intervention, and there's no relation between Shelley and Head Six, and the latter only stopped communicating because Gaius wasn't buying into the religion? As to how Godfrey got off the ship, well we know from the miniseries that cylons just "revert to checkpoint" when they die, so I have a theory that she lost the marines tailing her and simple ejected herself out an airlock. I suppose that might trip an alarm in CIC, but maybe there are garbage disposal tubes that wouldn't register an alarm. She dies, and wakes up somewhere else in a new body. I imagine even after being exonerated, Roslin and Baltar will never quite look at each other the same again. She basically told him "I knew it was you" for an event that never even happened. Sure he WAS responsible for the Cylons getting into the defense mainframe, but he had absolutely no way to know Six was a cylon until the attack had already started. There was no deliberate treason on his part. Finally, Helo and Caprica Sharon. Yeah, it's a slow burn story. You could probably tell their whole story over the season in 1 dedicated episode, but I think they do it this way to keep the continuity of everything lined up. It would be jarring to have a whole episode of time jumps and try to figure out "what was going on in the fleet at this time?". They're just making sure we don't forget about them.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-07-10 04:21:54 +0000 UTCBefore the attack on the colonies, Baltar didn't know that Number 6 was a Cylon. In the miniseries, she explains to him that she's a Cylon, at the same time that she's telling him the attack is about to happen. So, he's still a traitor in that he gave an unauthorized person access to the defense mainframe, but he didn't actually know she was an enemy, much less a Cylon. He thought she was a defense contractor who wanted to know the secrets so she could give her company an edge when competing for contracts with the government.
Jeff Cornell
2024-07-10 01:24:56 +0000 UTCJust before the war broke out, Secretary Roslin and a bunch of press left the capitol city on Colonial One to attend the decomissioning ceremony for Galactica. It was a big event - the last of the Battlestars from the 1st Cylon War finally being retired. There was even a dedicated PR rep assigned to guide the press around the ship for the event - the Cylon Doral that got left behind at Ragnar. That's why there's so many people at the press conferences on Colonial One.
Blaine Martin
2024-07-10 01:08:08 +0000 UTCThey can't drop anything because everything is important. That ship was only on for a minute or two but those were needed to get Boomer to interact with it. If you drop that then how do you get her to the next step? Helo and Sharon again here too, if you don't look in on them for a few minutes then how do you get to the place where he is falling in love with her, as well as whatever her thoughts are toward him beyond "cylon bad, human good"? Of the remaining 5 eps, I'd say the 4 best are in there with one clunker; next week being one I really like a lot. And I'll say it again: those who dismiss the Helo story are momentarily confused.
Ken R
2024-07-09 22:15:52 +0000 UTCA little bit of trivia. Showing quick scenes of the episode in the opening credits was Ron Moores homage to Space 1999, another short lived sci fi series from the 70's. It's one of my favorite TV intros as well. https://youtu.be/4SpX8bVEmJo?si=PuFq1nKNwFVYGCK6
Ross Bischoff
2024-07-09 21:52:22 +0000 UTCYeah no doubt! It hurts because of how compelling the characters and their origins were. The first season on a first watch was so good.
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2024-07-09 21:33:38 +0000 UTC15:34 He's talking about a "drop the pants" kind of a shot, not the "roll up the sleeve" kind.
Dmitriy.0
2024-07-09 20:27:14 +0000 UTCTo be clear, I don't mind episodes of shows or films that end on a depressing or sad note, or don't have things tied up in a neat little bow at the end. But after watching this series for 3 seasons, what seemed like the relentless 'can never win or catch a break' and hopeless atmosphere of the series made me feel so depressed that I had to back away and stop watching it.
Collin Freeman
2024-07-09 20:26:48 +0000 UTCThis is a great Baltar episode, one of the better episodes of Season One. There is a reason they keep stringing along the Caprica storyline with Helo and Sharon slowly with just a bit every episode rather than leaving it out of some. Unfortunately I can't give any more detail until you guys get to the end of the season.
Michael Ducharme
2024-07-09 19:58:43 +0000 UTCI find it interesting how media affects people differently. For me, stressful/depressing media is often cathartic and/or a distraction from the stresses of my life, but some people seem to want more optimistic or lighter material to be that escape. I think it’s similar for music tastes also. Neither is more correct, it’s only preference, but I find it fascinating
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-07-09 19:14:11 +0000 UTCI do think season 1 is pretty good as a one-off origin story for the world of the series. All the characters are left in fun imaginative scenarios that you can fill in with your head and ignore the rest exists 😆
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-07-09 18:51:08 +0000 UTCYou mentioned 'Heroes' at the end. "Save the Cheerleader, save the world." I hate serialized shows that purport to 'have a plan' but then clearly don't. The viewer suspends disbelief on faith that the 'mystery' elements are well thought out elements of some cohesive grander narrative that simply hasn't yet been fully revealed yet, only to feel betrayed after tens of hours of investment when it becomes clear the writers have no idea where they are going or how to tie it all together in the end because they didn't have a plan and in fact lied to you at the beginning. I could never finish Heroes either. And it's impossible to rewatch because 90% of the fun is the belief that all these disparate plot lines will tie together eventually. When you know they don't, it falls flat.
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2024-07-09 18:36:00 +0000 UTCI dont understand people find it depressing….its just powerful and intense because of the circumstances. I find a movie about crime or horror or about a serial killer or whatever to be depressing
Derek Orr
2024-07-09 17:27:25 +0000 UTCExactly. This is a realistic show about a society not really much different than ours.
Derek Orr
2024-07-09 17:25:42 +0000 UTCIf she got wet 😂
AzoriusMage
2024-07-09 17:19:47 +0000 UTCYou'll get a more detailed explanation of Cylons and their belief system soon.
Angelaina Marie
2024-07-09 15:21:00 +0000 UTCRon Moore gave the cylons some characteristics and went against the grain in several ways with this series. Ironically, in the BSG universe, the cylons are monotheists (God-believers) whereas the humans are polytheists (the Lords of Kobol). That is one aspect I always found fascinating with this series.
Collin Freeman
2024-07-09 15:16:19 +0000 UTCSo I noticed that Boomer had paint on her hand before she opened the locker. Never noticed that detail before.
Julie Carter
2024-07-09 14:23:27 +0000 UTCThat is what makes it good no shiny happy ending every episode with the crew sharing a joke on the bridge. I love Trek and I love BSG they serve different purposes
AzoriusMage
2024-07-09 13:57:19 +0000 UTCAlex mention of how depressing these episodes are is why I eventually gave up on the series.
Collin Freeman
2024-07-09 13:20:48 +0000 UTC
