UNCUT REACTION - Battlestar Galactica S1E4 - Act of Contrition
Added 2024-06-12 02:15:10 +0000 UTC
Comments
Yes those soldiers exist, but those are not people I want to watch on a TV show. I watch TV shows to see people I look up to, that inspire me. Not losers and assholes. Which is exactly why I never understood why people liked "Breaking bad" as a show. Why on Earth would i want to watch a show in which EVERYBODY is dispicable and a loser? That's why this show is just not for me. I don't like anybody, I don't respect anybody, and it's all just depressing. That's not what I watch TV shows for. Have a character study can maybe make that work in a 90minute movie for me, but if I'm to follow characters over multiple seasons, I actually need to like spending time with them. I have served, and I've met officers that were totally backstabbing or incompetent dickheads. I don't need a TV show to remind me of people like that.
Andreas Schmitt
2024-06-25 18:09:30 +0000 UTCFirst you do actually understand the history of the world has plenty of examples of soldiers (not to mention military leaders) who are immature, emotional, uncontrolled, irresponsible, and insubordinate. Sorry but thats reality. HEll we have had some that under today's understanding of mental health would be certifiable insane. Now of course to thrive in the military with those attitudes isn't super common. It does happen, but not common. Usually you require something extra to do so. Things like having connections. Things like being exceedingly gifted in your job. Things like having exceedingly poor command structure above you. Or things like we are so desperate we will take anyone. Clearly the case of we are so desperate we will take anyone isn't the factor as she is like this before war broke out. And the last Cylon was ended before she was in service. But look at Major Greg Boyngton (and no I am not referencing the TV show which had no real connection to history). He was nearly court martialed, he fought with other officers, he was considered by those in the Flying Tigers to be a drunk and a liar. He had contempt and conflict with his commanders, and he would disregard command at times. Now the pilots in the Flying Tigers didn't trust him. So clearly not showing any leadership ability there, But when he commanded the Marine Flight Squadron 214 (Black Sheep Squadron) his pilots loved him. And he proved to be an exceptionally capable leader of at least this squadron, And considered one of the best fighter pilots in the Pacific theatre during World War II. Thats just one example. And in this episode here (since you mention she would put her pilots in jeopardy), we see only her second time in direct combat, and the only time we see her in charge of a unit to date on the show. She isn't a flight leader. Not before the attack nor after (that is now Captain Adama). Yet she immediately gets the cadets back towards Galactica and best speeds. She analyze the situation that they won't make it back in time. And she stops to fight to slow down the attackers to allow her cadets time to reach safety. Her training tactics were pretty spot on for engagement. And when one returns she makes sure to cover him to give him the best chance of safety . So the only example we have of her leadership skills in combat, sorry they seem to be perfectly fine (so far). As for ejecting, you do realize she has already made it through the atmosphere reentry when she ejects. And that the ship's motion is vastly slower at this point. You can see this visually represented in the show by no fire being on the frame of the ship. No perhaps the color of the atmosphere versus Earths gives that illusion, but when she hits the atmosphere we absolutely see flames, when she ejects the ship is rotating, and no flames anywhere. Then since we hear later that the atmosphere is thick it means you get more resistance or drag, that slows you down. Of course then you have two other factors to worry about, pressure of atmosphere depending on how think, and what is the mass of the planetary moon she is landing on. Moons can be big but also tiny. We can assume a rocky core. But without the size to give a range for gravity, there can a be a significant impact on your free fall speed. From fairly slow, to exceedingly fast. Visually it's presented as fairly slow. So that the only data one can reasonably work from. Now depending on the speed she is traveling at, there would be still some level of friction. Even an orbital diver gets some level of friction, but this is a. show that has technology more advanced then what exists on earth. How do you know how much heat resistance that suit can take. I would naturally make the assumption its greater that what our technology can produce. As such it's utterly illogical to make the assumption thats its not possible. Simply put without knowing the technology they have, without knowing the atmospheric thickness, pressure, and gravity of the moon she is falling into, one can make any such statements on if it's possible. The show provides enough visual and audio information to make it at least possible. I mean literally 100 years ago, most people (and educated ones in this field) thought it wasn't possible to break the sound barrier, That it was a fatal dream. Yet less than 25 years from that point it was shown to be absolutely possible. Now those points aside, you can absolutely not like the character. Thats completely subjective. And she absolutely has character traits that are unlikeable. No question there. In fact you can of course dislike all the characters. There is nothing wrong at all with that. For myself, I can watch the Sopranos, a show that is exceptionally well written and acted, yet I really struggled with it as I simply couldn't form an emotional connection to any of the characters. So I absolutely can fully understand that. And if that doesn't happen it make it very difficult to really enjoy a show. I also had a hard time with the drone. I can understand why they did it. Wanting a mass casualty event but not from an attack (but from an accident). For story purposes it works but logistically it would indicate and extremely hazardous method for handling munitions and would have likely over the decades had many, many such accidents occur with a large system wide fleet. That point I 100% agree with. Now dropped munitions, where generally you might have just a safety pin that has to be removed is believable. But you would need to arm device, and launch. And I would assume unless used from inside Galactica this would be remote control from a cockpit. Versus things like the Flying Fortresses having a crew person manually removing pins, before they are dropped. Thus I would expect them to be harder to engage on a manual basis.
Mark Wood
2024-06-25 18:04:13 +0000 UTCWatching this late because I kinda already lost motivation but... yeah... this show just isn't for me. I still don't care about any of these characters, and this feels like poor man's wing commander more than a Battle Star Galactica. (and those games had me care more about the characters tbh) And the show still manages to pull these ridiculous nonsensical things. A drone, missile whatever will not just fly off if it falls to the ground. They have safety pins, and electronic triggers for the boosters. They are not stored ready to launch.. because guess what... people aren't fuckng stupid. Anybody that has ever been in the military knows how these have safety pins, to the point that the little tags that hang off them (so they're not left in my mistake) are collectables among air force and navy guys. So that was absolutely retarded for a show that's supposed to take itself so seriously. And why on earth would you eject during a hot athmospheric re-entry?? Does she think he fucking flight suit will survive those thousands of degrees better without any kind of shielding around her? What a ridiculously bad episode. Yes the emotional scene was well acted, but quite frankly, this disqualifies Starbuck as a solder and she should be stripped of any rank or responsibility immediately. I wouldnt give a flying F if she's a good pilot, she's obviously not leader material. Having her in command is like putting Maniac from Wing Commander in command. A hothead that gets people killed. I have zero idea what is supposed to be likable about her. She's immature, emotional, uncontrolled, irresponsible and I have zero respect for her as a soldier. She's insubordinate. Fine.. that works for a character that's a soldier that's SO good that they can afford having a loose tongue. but she's also irresponsible, a horrible leader, a horrible example for the other pilots and overly emotional and can't handle things. This is the last person I'd let near a cockpit. Yeah sorry... this story isn't for me. I don't like any of these characters.
Andreas Schmitt
2024-06-18 22:40:05 +0000 UTCYeah, in intro scene where there is a montage of various clips one of this clips involves a lot of Cylon Raiders moving veeeery slooooowly. I think originally it was a shot from miniseries that was showing lots of raiders appearing on the screen to attack the disabled fleet. It would be shown sped up. But in intro it is in it's original rendered speed which basically makes it look like a slow mo. Not to mention those Raiders feel like they are moving through honey or something. Typical instance of clip shown in 2 different speeds in 2 different places. But also shows that early on raiders could be on screen for very short time only and were mostly flying very fast. Because if they wanted to show more intricate movement of dozens if not hundreds of raiders, they would have to render more frames. For which there was either no computational or temporal budget.
Jan Negrey
2024-06-16 02:23:30 +0000 UTCWhen I first watched BSG and saw the opening credit scenes, my first thought was "Mission Impossible." On the original "Mission Impossible" tv series they would show quick scenes from the upcoming show over the iconic burning fuse, hoping to get people interested so they wouldn't change the channel over to "The Lawrence Welk Show" or "Get Smart." Maybe the BSG showrunners have happy memories of MI and decided to emulate it, but it seems an outdated way of garnering audience interest.
Jeff
2024-06-15 20:53:23 +0000 UTCThose are less about informing the audience what happened, and more about telling us what Kara is thinking about. Every flashback is tied into her relating something in the present to her past. One could even go so far as to argue the reason we keep flashing forward to her crashing at the top of every act is actually the present, and she's just reflecting on recent events as she struggles to survive.
Nolan
2024-06-15 03:17:34 +0000 UTC"Nugget" = a chunk of unrefined precious metal, particularly gold. If you work on it and refine it, you might end up with something valuable.
Aramis Calcutt
2024-06-14 20:54:53 +0000 UTCslow raiders?
Derek Orr
2024-06-14 18:03:50 +0000 UTCI don’t find it as much a spoiler as most seem to. It’s a half second of a bunch of random moments. It’s not like the TNG teaser, which would’ve said “Starbucks past comes back to haunt her” *shows her telling Adama about Zach*
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-14 10:22:13 +0000 UTC;)
Jan Negrey
2024-06-14 09:45:51 +0000 UTCagreed
Jan Negrey
2024-06-14 09:45:42 +0000 UTCI would be fine with 1 ambiguous flash forward. 5 was a bit excessive. I'm unsure of the reason, but I assume it is because it's a 2 parter, so they might want you to remember that for part 2? Even if that is the reason, there was a way to less overdo it. But it was still sort of a bottle episode so they padded with their non-existent budget (I literally think that the reason we saw it so many times was to pad the run time, to have as cheap episode as possible so that some money could be saved for later). They already spent money on "better" CGI than it was in mini-series. Sadly 2004/2005 was couple years too early to do that type of CGI on a budget. It's still good enough that it doesn't pull me out of the story (like here where starbuck is falling on the planet, it's a bit obscured by atmosphere - so they try to hide it a bit). But if you compare it to opening which is like 15 FPS (from miniseries scene) - that looks worse, even though models technically look better. Those "slooooow" Raiders do pull me out, but I know a series so I just chuckle and pretend I didn't see it.
Jan Negrey
2024-06-14 09:43:34 +0000 UTCSome of the cuts like Starbucks ears lips didn’t really seem necessary either. The final flashback with her and Adama.. just seemed sudden.
Philbot
2024-06-14 04:01:22 +0000 UTCYeah that flash forward thing is a proper 00s editing conceit. It does happen a few more times if I recall and is just as unnecessary 😂
Jon1701
2024-06-13 22:39:31 +0000 UTCThis was the episode that hooked me into continuing to watch the rest of the first season. I found the miniseries good, but then the first three episodes I liked to varying degrees, but they didn't knock my socks off. If I were to order the first five (I watched the miniseries when it aired in two parts) the order would be: Miniseries Part 2 Miniseries Part 1 Ep 3 Ep 1 Ep 2 I was not fully invested in any of the characters until this episode. The level of acting Edward James Olmos displayed during that scene with Starbuck sold me enough that I wanted to at least see where season 1 was going. The way you can tell the emotions Adama is feeling throughout that scene without the need for any verbalization was an incredible piece of acting. I actually liked the flash forward bit, probably because I didn't know who it was supposed to be. I was pretty lost story-wise in the first season so when it was revealed it was Starbuck it had a larger impact on me.
LMPGames
2024-06-13 15:53:10 +0000 UTCI know you're getting inundated with comments telling you Boomer was soaked from planting bombs in the water tanks, but that's bullshit. The real reason is the same reason that she's hooking up with Tyrol...........he can make any woman wet😎. But seriously, this is a great episode. EJO is a hell of an actor, and there are plenty of examples throughout the show. A few other cast members may surprise you as well. I feel kind of bad for Lee feeling like he betrayed Starbuck's confidence thinking his dad already knew. Telling Starbuck to walk out while she still can sounds pretty harsh, but you gotta think what's going through his head at that moment. Not only did he just find his son's death could have been avoided had she not let her personal feelings cloud her judgement, but he's probably also thinking about how his relationship with Lee was basically destroyed by Zak's death. Lee blamed Adama, and he likely blamed himself almost as much, but now he's realizing this whole other factor is at play with Kara passing Zak when he wasn't ready. I'm not too bothered by the flash forward segments, but that's because I know the episodes already. From the perspective of a first time watcher, I get the criticism. Might have worked better with much briefer flashes that don't make it entirely clear what's happening. I also think it's a ballsy choice this early in a series where there are no reinforcements coming to kill off almost half their pilots. Like in a Star Trek show, killing off some redshirts is pretty low stakes because they'll just get replacements at the next starbase. But here, they don't even have enough trainees to replace the pilots they lost, and that's if all of them make it. Nobody else in the fleet even has any flight experience so there are THE best candidates, so they're kind of writing themselves into a corner with how many times they can have a pilot killed in the future. As for the nuggets thing, I think it's probably because pilots get their "wings" when they finish training, whereas trainees are "chicks" since they're still learning to fly, which leads to calling them "nuggets". It's just military slang, but yeah it's a real thing.
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-06-12 17:53:42 +0000 UTCI don't think this is really a spoiler, but Boomer was wet in that one scene because we're supposed to suspect that she planted the bombs in the water tank.
Evan Guthrie
2024-06-12 16:06:17 +0000 UTCSAME! I simply don't get why you show what is about to happen in that episode. For J&A to be so touchy about ST spoilers, they have no problem literally watching the spoiler scenes LOL!!
StonyD
2024-06-12 15:45:31 +0000 UTCSee Also: LOST
StonyD
2024-06-12 15:44:23 +0000 UTCThis might be my favorite episode of BSG04. Powerful character development, military professionalism, real stakes, and fantastic acting. Overall I'm not a big fan of this series, but this episode and Season 1 overall are quite good.
Lovok
2024-06-12 14:34:10 +0000 UTCNo Column! The show is flawless and if you disagree you’re an idiot who loves dumb Marvel movies!!
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-12 14:31:56 +0000 UTCThey can be creative and still a “bad” choice.
Column Meanie
2024-06-12 14:21:55 +0000 UTCWhen we first watched this we would turn away during the opening credits so as not to be overly spoiled. Always hated the opening teaser. Never understood why the powers that be felt the need to include it.
Column Meanie
2024-06-12 14:20:24 +0000 UTCAccording to Ronald D Moore, but old worn equipment killing pilots scene was inspired by the USS Forrestal disaster during the Vietnam War. (1 min recap video bellow). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdI7L2c4XSk WW2 bombs being used when the US was running low on modern munitions combined with lax safety procedures killed 134 men, including the entire firefighter section because of the low cook-off temperature of the old weapons after the initial rocket fired.
EnigmaticPenguin
2024-06-12 13:20:12 +0000 UTCGood episode, the acting is certainly top notch in this series. Love to see that thumbs up :-)
Felicity Hudson
2024-06-12 11:18:49 +0000 UTCOut of Gas did it wonderfully
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-12 11:14:26 +0000 UTCI like that interpretation
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-12 11:13:03 +0000 UTCAh, nice to see “dumb Marvel movie” continuing its reign as the biggest internet comment cliche of all time.
Josh (Target Audience)
2024-06-12 11:06:07 +0000 UTCThe three time line at once thing was a late 90's early 2000's thing I think, at least it seems that way to me. I think of Firefly episode Out of Gas. In fact Firefly had a lot of the end shown in the beginning writing. I think it is something you like or not. I do like it. I like sometimes showing where does the story ends up so I am not confused on guessing and only need watch the how we get there. But sometimes I like the guessing part too so it is subjective.
Prof Moff
2024-06-12 09:55:58 +0000 UTCAgreed highly. I was just hoping to make the guys feel better. :)
wildhunt1973
2024-06-12 06:46:05 +0000 UTCDisagree entirely. There is nothing confusing about any of this. With even the slightest payment of attention, its really clear what's happening as the plot unfolds. Gotta remember...this show was made before everything was dumbed down by Marvel movies.
Aaron Wells
2024-06-12 06:43:51 +0000 UTCRefers specifically to the rank insignia of a 2nd Lieutenant/Ensign, which is a single gold bar. "Nugget."
Aaron Wells
2024-06-12 06:41:12 +0000 UTCThe flashbacks aren't "bad". They are a wonderful creative style. You just have to pay attention as the story is revealed, instead of wanting it all explained up front in an exposition dump like a dumbed down marvel movie. This episode is EXCELLENT.
Aaron Wells
2024-06-12 06:39:24 +0000 UTCMan, Josh, you really aren't helping yourself by bringing up that "Why was she wet" in a second video. 🙃 This is a very flashbacky episode. In a way, the whole thing is a flashback from Starbuck in her Viper, flashing back to the hangar bay accident, which causes Starbuck to flashback to Zak's funeral, in which she flashes back to telling Zak he passed.I suppose I can't blame you for getting a little lost. One thing I think to keep in mind is that usually when this show does flashbacks, it's not just a narrative tool to tell the audience about the past, but to show what the CHARACTER is thinking about. think of Lee back in "Water" he looks in a mirror and suddenly we're seeing him shoot down that ship. It's not just to remind us about that, but to show what he is thinking of. This episode is just that on a grander scale. So yes, we see some scenes and moments repeated often, but it to get into the character's heads a bit. Adama in the miniseries asks Lee how Lee's mother is, to which Lee respondes :Getting Married," so it would follow that Adama is divorced. As far as the flash-forwards I wonder if that's another casualty of HD televisions. I think back then it was thought that we wouldn't be able to tell who was in the cockpit. Her helmet lights were off, her face not illuminated. I think the were trying to push the tension by making it unclear who was in the cockpit. Unfortunately with clearer picture, it's obvious who it is in that Viper, killing the suspense.
Nolan
2024-06-12 06:03:28 +0000 UTCI never thought about how bad the flashforwards were in this, and you are completely right. I think if they had maybe not shown it was Starbuck, made us wonder, then we see Hot Dog go back to save her, maybe they could have made us think it was at least him crashing. Then to show it was Starbuck at the end might have worked better. Who knows. But you did bring up a valid point that I never thought about.
wildhunt1973
2024-06-12 05:37:40 +0000 UTCOne thing I noted this time watching (and wouldn't have if it hadn't been for you two talking about it) was that in the last flash-forward to the ejection scene, right after the intense conversation between Admiral Adama and Starbuck, they make a point of showing the character's face through the visor, and it's clearly not Starbuck, but still left unclear who the other one in the crash is. Probably a bit too subtle, but that ratcheting up of the "who else is it involved in this?" I think was well done.
SageGreenGoat
2024-06-12 05:27:27 +0000 UTCI had heard a discussion on this two parter where the writers said that the ship going down was symbolic of how Starbucks life was crashing leading up to the flight with the pilots dying, the recruits not doing well and that scene with Adama. I still think they went back to it too much and we could have lived without it. In the miniseries they said Adama’s wife had gotten remarried and he said they had met and settled things to part on good terms. Of course it is assumed she died in the Cylon attack.
Jonathan
2024-06-12 05:23:15 +0000 UTCGreat reaction! This was one of the episodes that really got me hooked the first time - I had to watch the continuation right away, and that was the moment I realized I loved the show.
Michael Ducharme
2024-06-12 04:40:12 +0000 UTCWith all the flashbacks I wonder if the writers thought we would misinterpret the ejection bit as another flashback and then be super surprised when, oh wait, it hadn't actually happened yet. But it didn't hit as a surprise to anyone I knew watching it at the time either.
#MaxwellDidNothingWrong
2024-06-12 04:26:46 +0000 UTC"She was wet from planting bombs in the water tanks" is going to be the "he was going blind from the radiation" of this show🤣
Timothy Nikiforovs
2024-06-12 04:24:37 +0000 UTCEJO was very anti Sci Fi alien of the week, but he was sold on the parallels he saw between BSG's concept and Blade Runner, and what it speaks to about the human condition. His commitment to this series was 150%, and it was apparent up to the last few minutes of the show.
Steven Portillo
2024-06-12 04:14:53 +0000 UTCHot Dog is played by Bodie Olmos, Eddie's son.
MertzRocks
2024-06-12 04:14:47 +0000 UTCHe was an Oscar nominee previously, I'm glad he wasn't one of those "I don't do TV" movie stars. No way is Tom Cruise going to lower himself to do a mere tv show.
Ken R
2024-06-12 04:12:04 +0000 UTCThe cockpit was a flashforward because I guess we are to know she is supposed to abandon ship, and this is the events that led up to it, the fight was not meant to be the main course or what we are worried about I think. Going back to something J said at the beginning, Boomer was soaking wet aboard Galactica and discovered first a bomb in her duffel bag, then 6 more missing from the small arms locker. An explosion went off in the water tank, and Cally found the charred remains indicating an explosion. Boomer does not know she is a cylon and has no idea how the bomb in her bag got there or where the missing ones went, but draw your own conclusions. The doctor is great, the actor sadly died about 5 yrs back. On a different topic, J indeed does have an insane memory for titles. and knows episode titles of TOS I don't know, but the funny part was when J was trying to rattle names of actors off, it was A who had them all to finish J's thoughts.
Ken R
2024-06-12 04:02:23 +0000 UTCAll the actors gave up the goods throughout BSG's run, but Edward James Olmos absolutely acted the hell out of this role from front to back. There are at least a dozen Oscar caliber scenes with Adama I can think of off the top of my head over the course of BSG that should have gotten him nominated for everything.
Steven Portillo
2024-06-12 03:58:28 +0000 UTC"Nugget" is actually a real life term for novice aviators that the show borrowed: https://www.thehistoryreader.com/historical-fiction/naval-academy-nuggets-p-t-deutermann/
Michael Ducharme
2024-06-12 03:49:28 +0000 UTCThe actor who played Galactica's doctor was the real-life brother of the actor who played the doctor in the miniseries who gave Roslin her cancer diagnosis.
Michael Ducharme
2024-06-12 03:39:36 +0000 UTCJosh! Boomer was wet in that previous episode because she'd gone into the water containers to plant the bombs. The Boomer on Caprica with Helo is a different copy who knows she's a Cylon, and what they're going through is occurring simultaneously as the rest of the story on Galactica. And there was no "Baltar switch"; that was your captions putting the wrong name up for the Cylon named Doral. I totally agree with you guys about the unnecessary "flash-forward" to Starbuck's Viper crashing. This was a WAY overused director's (or editor's) gimmick from that time which I guess was meant to build tension but actually achieved the opposite result. This was also in the same period as the tv series "Lost" which used flashbacks and flashforwards to great effect (usually), so maybe they were trying to mimic that style. IMO, this show succeeds best when it just lets the actors do their jobs. Edward James Olmos is continually amazing, and the character of Chief Tyrol, played by Aaron Douglas, grows increasingly engaging and multilayered.
Jeff
2024-06-12 03:27:35 +0000 UTC
