UNCUT REACTION - Battlestar Galactica S1E6 - Litmus
Added 2024-06-25 12:00:10 +0000 UTC
Comments
This reminds me of TNG's The Drumhead.
Keith S
2025-05-02 01:52:15 +0000 UTCGlad I found you all reacting to BSG. And thank you for doing so. It's fun to watch it again with some folks who haven't seen it but appreciate the story and unique pathways the creators paved for us. BSG is my fav. syfy series. Why? The writing is impeccable (for the most part). The over arching arc and themes of the series throughout the 76 episodes is epic and universal. Religion, values, mores, love, & loyalty, bound within our protagonist's desire to survive (and rebuild) and our antagonist's desires to find humanity via their creators who denied them of it. The acting and direction is quite remarkable. The show is well cast and each character or small group’s of characters have their own redeeming and long lasting qualities. Very Aristotelian in structure, with a classical feel in delivery and production. The music is, I think, some of the best underscoring of any syfy series. And of course, the cast, as you mentioned, is quite remarkable. You can tell the directors pushed for excellence while still and yet allowing for those experienced performers like Edward Olmos, Mary McDonnel, James Callas, Katie Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, Jamie Bamber, Grace Park, and Michael Hogan (and many others) to bring their skills to the table without muddying the waters with heavy “creative muse”. In others, from my vantage point, often times the acting stood on its own and kudos to the directors for allowing it to be so.
tempest
2025-01-13 04:15:37 +0000 UTCRon really put together a killer episode here and I like his writing style. It’s recognizable it’s like 6° of separation from Star Trek.
Thicketdweller
2024-08-18 07:41:48 +0000 UTCThis was put down in rating, but I think it gives many clues of life to come. My favorite line was "Don't make me angry G, you would't like me when I'm angry." -Direct Incredible HULK quote
Zee Doctere
2024-07-12 21:21:25 +0000 UTCTrue, but this as Adama (and the President) saying, 'Yes we have this structure, but it only goes so far...the world ended.'
Zee Doctere
2024-07-12 21:18:21 +0000 UTCActually they were contrasting city and forrest. Hued down yellow green vs. City base colors. It was an editing filter.
Zee Doctere
2024-07-12 21:14:47 +0000 UTCThank you. This show is so true to the real military, they must have used advisors like Stargate.
Zee Doctere
2024-07-12 21:13:02 +0000 UTCYou would be amazed what sudden surges of power can do to people unaccustomed to wielding the responsibility that comes with that power. Don't even have to be stupid, it happens all the time.
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2024-06-27 03:46:25 +0000 UTCGoing to be a while before we can fully compare BSG vs TNG's take on this theme ... but in general this investigation/trial certainly met the bar Trek in general has set for these types of episodes, and even added a little. Great episode.
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2024-06-27 03:42:09 +0000 UTCI actually have some sympathy for Sgt. Hadrian. Yes, she was going too far, but the chief wasn't wrong in pointing out that the weapons locker theft fell under her responsibility. Not only did the guard and bombing victims die, along with all the injuries, but equipment she's in charge of was used to do it. That makes her look bad, but then when she's assigned to investigate she finds the chief and Boomer have been having an illegal affair and not only did the whole deck crew lie(inconsistently at that) to protect them, but one of them left the hatch open either through intent or incompetence. On top of all that, she finds out a critical piece of security intel was kept from her by the senior leadership that might have prevented the whole thing from happening. It's hard to blame her for being pissed. I understand why Adama put a stop to it, and it's a great moment for him. It was going too far and becoming more about finding a scapegoat than actual justice. Adama has a right to be pissed as well. Adama may have allowed Sharon and Tyron to get away with it, but there is a big difference between when they were serving on a soon to be floating museum and when they're safeguarding the last of the human race. The got careless, and one of Tyrol's men paid the price for that. That whole ending scene was like when a kid screws up and someone gets hurt, and the dad just looks at him judgementally and says "you did this". And yes, it always bugs me how completely out in the open the cylons are while spying on Helo. Just have them looking out some dark window or some such.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-06-27 00:29:54 +0000 UTCTricia Helfer always amazes me for someone who hadn’t acted much before this she is so good
AzoriusMage
2024-06-26 18:25:38 +0000 UTCWelcome James! I had just finished tomorrow’s reaction when you signed up so you’ll be added to the list for the next video. Remember to send us a message with a movie you want to enter into next week’s reaction lottery!
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-26 03:11:26 +0000 UTCBetween Trek, BSG, and now GoT, y'all got me. I spent the last year watching your YT uploads, you deserve my patronage sirs. Edward James Olmos is so damn good, and can prop up even the wonkiest episodes. That being said I think everyone, even Sosinus, did a really good job. It also gave us a lot of character development on Tyrol who is one of my favorite characters in the whole series. I think y'all are being fair with your criticisms but it is good to keep in mind that this show predates the uptick in quality of cable shows. I think the success of this show actually helped us get lots of the stuff that came after, like early season TWD, Madmen, and even GoT to an extent. The cable networks saw that there was an appetite for grittier genre TV and after this you see them trying out more and more shows that wouldn;t have gotten greenlit. I love me some Stargate and Babylon 5 but there is a layer of the delicious Sci-Fi trope cheese in those that this show comes at from a different tack. All of the Helo/Sharon stuff on Caprica pays off eventually but y'all are spot on for the wonkiness of the delivery and pacing of that storyline.
James W.
2024-06-26 03:02:11 +0000 UTCI think once Tyrol pointed out the whole thing was an internal security frak up, she was determined to not be at fault. Even if there was Cylon collusion, her lax security measures didn't catch it. Blaming Adama for keeping it quiet shifts the blame.
Nolan
2024-06-25 23:16:06 +0000 UTCHahaha
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-25 22:04:24 +0000 UTCWell, I'm enjoying this so far. Memories are spotty, but I think overall this season was pretty dang good. Like you guys, I was always frustrated by the Baltar character to the point of hating him for being so lame. "For cryin' out loud, DO something or get caught! You're a whiney man-baby!"
Collin Freeman
2024-06-25 21:32:41 +0000 UTCi always found the master of arms a stupid women, she got a little power and it went to her head, to go after adama, who was the default leader of the military, who had effectively absolute power in the fleet, was insanity she would never have succeed ,
Dark Kronis
2024-06-25 20:57:43 +0000 UTCSomething helpful for understanding the hierarchy: All officers are superior in rank to all enlisted personnel. Tyrol is a Chief Petty Officer, and therefor superior in rank to Sgt. Hadrian. But ALL commissioned officers are superior to both. That's why Crashdown had authority to question Hadrian, and why she called him Sir despite him looking about 16 years old. As a Lt., he is the highest rank present in that situation. Anyone ranked Ensign or higher is a commissioned officer. Everyone else is enlisted.
Aaron Wells
2024-06-25 19:08:35 +0000 UTCJust going to keep pointing out that Boomer was wet BECAUSE SHE WAS PLANTING BOMBS IN A GIANT *WATER TANK* /troll :)
Aaron Wells
2024-06-25 18:44:23 +0000 UTCThe weird lighting in the downtown Caprica (Vancouver) this time was probably done to obscure the other buildings in the background, in case a random person appeared in a window or something, to make them less visible. It would have been prohibitively expensive those days to digitally remove things, so they probably had to shoot that sequence near dawn in the summer to reduce the chances of seeing random people or vehicles. That's also why the downtown shots prominently have the Scotiabank logo on one of the buildings because it would have been too expensive to remove the logo in post (most US viewers would not recognize it and just think it was an alien symbol, but it is funny for Canadian viewers because Scotiabank is a big bank here). I believe these days those same things are super easy and cheap to do.
Michael Ducharme
2024-06-25 18:21:10 +0000 UTCRolling Stone needs to remember….
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-25 18:05:38 +0000 UTCFor some reason this episode never rates highly when sites do episode rankings. Rolling Stone: "A bit of a stinker of an episode, to be honest. The Fleet establishes a tribunal to weed out Cylon collaborators. Tyrol is questioned given his proximity to the water recycling attack from earlier in Season One. Then Adama shuts the tribunal down. It’s going for a big swing both politically and morally, tackling a question about whose right it is to bring justice, and how far we go as people to protect our peers. The execution, however, just isn’t there." I liked it.
Ken R
2024-06-25 18:03:19 +0000 UTC😵💫
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-25 15:46:01 +0000 UTCIt was specifically an independent tribunal...not just a regular investigation...hence she could order him to testify etc
Derek Orr
2024-06-25 15:45:41 +0000 UTCSam W's character has authority ...he is a Lieutenant, an officer. The Sergeant is enlisted.
Derek Orr
2024-06-25 15:44:53 +0000 UTCSo I know a lot of things and a lot of spoilers, but... no spoilers... Melinda Snodgrass and George R R Martin were good friends. He probably read THE MEASURE OF A MAN before anyone in the TNG cast.
A G
2024-06-25 14:55:49 +0000 UTCYeah ... you guys have caused me to watch all of the series again. But I burned through it so fast and back to the first season and i'm totally here.
A G
2024-06-25 14:48:45 +0000 UTCI think Adama erred is appointing Sargent Hardian to conduct the investigation in the first place. She's the Master at Arms of the Galactica with both the stolen G4 in "Water" and the suicide bomber in this episode falling under her area of responsibility. Adama assumed her moral character was greater than it was. She fell in to the witch hunt trap covering her own failures.
EnigmaticPenguin
2024-06-25 14:28:39 +0000 UTC
