BSG and other thoughts
Feb. 19th, 2005 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiFirst, last night's BSG (1x07, but I didn't catch the title). Gaius Baltar needs to do something useful, and he needs to do it soon. I remain unconvinced that he should not simply be knocked on the head and shoved out an airlock. I think I would tolerate him better if I could see him as a genius as well as a dangerous whackjob. I might even be interested in his mental breakdown under those circumstances.
Actually, I suspect that the fact that I find this character so disturbing--and so completely unfunny, even when he does something that ought to be funny, like that whole bathroom scene, or his first meeting with Shelley Godfrey/Six--is a sign that the show's creators are doing a good job with him. He's a bomb, and the only question is when he'll go off and how much damage he'll do, and I find that I can never forget that. I get tense whenever he comes onscreen. I should say that I don't think Gaius is inevitable dangerous, but every decision he makes seems to me to make that outcome more likely. He could turn his situation around, but I've seen nothing in his character to suggest that he will.
As for Six (or Shelley), I'm confused, but in a good way. Was that Six in material form? Was she a separate Cylon? And if so, where did she disappear to, and did she know what she was? At the moment, I'm going to hypothesize that Shelley is not just a material form of Baltar's Six, but a separate individual; we've seen Cylons managing to get around Galactica security before this, although the information that they need to breathe may limit the number of her hiding places (if the ships need oxygen, the human models ought to as well). But if I could handwave the laws of physics, the notion that she's the material form of Baltar's Six would make more sense of her appearances and disappearances. It's also a good deal more disturbing, of course.
I still love Apollo and Starbuck, and am growing more fond of Tigh by the episode. Tigh is an interesting character, because he's not immediately sympathetic, but he's usually right, especially in his interactions with Starbuck; it would have been all too easy to leave him a caricature, but instead he's a person. I do worry about the "wrong but romantic" vs. "right but repulsive" dichotomy.
I am hoping, incidentally, that Starbuck's ability to fly the Cylon ship is a sign that she's a good pilot rather than a sign that she's a Cylon as well. (I'm not spoiled, but it seems likely to me that we'll have another major character revealed to be a Cylon at some point in the series.) Did no one else think to inspect the wires at the back of the cockpit, though? And wouldn't it be really dangerous to turn that thing on while everyone else is just sitting around it?
All in all, I wasn't thrilled by this episode, but that's because of my giant Gaius Baltar issues, and because it had insufficient Lee, Kara and Tigh. I did like Adama's response to Shelley's attempt at seduction, of course, and i wish I had more to say about Roslin.
That was a lot more than I thought I'd have to say.
In other news, the debate over authorial intent and the limits of canon can bite me. I've been thinking that it's time for a re-read of Cicero's De Officiis, because I keep worrying at the question of whether an action can be useful but not good. This is because I've been reading far, far too much X-Men fanfiction (comic and movie). I can already see where this whole train of thought is going, and I'm not happy about that. I do not want a new fandom with decades of contradictory canon, thank you very much.
I will probably update again today, as I'm leaving for Oxford this evening, and livejournal is an acceptable procrastination technique.
Actually, I suspect that the fact that I find this character so disturbing--and so completely unfunny, even when he does something that ought to be funny, like that whole bathroom scene, or his first meeting with Shelley Godfrey/Six--is a sign that the show's creators are doing a good job with him. He's a bomb, and the only question is when he'll go off and how much damage he'll do, and I find that I can never forget that. I get tense whenever he comes onscreen. I should say that I don't think Gaius is inevitable dangerous, but every decision he makes seems to me to make that outcome more likely. He could turn his situation around, but I've seen nothing in his character to suggest that he will.
As for Six (or Shelley), I'm confused, but in a good way. Was that Six in material form? Was she a separate Cylon? And if so, where did she disappear to, and did she know what she was? At the moment, I'm going to hypothesize that Shelley is not just a material form of Baltar's Six, but a separate individual; we've seen Cylons managing to get around Galactica security before this, although the information that they need to breathe may limit the number of her hiding places (if the ships need oxygen, the human models ought to as well). But if I could handwave the laws of physics, the notion that she's the material form of Baltar's Six would make more sense of her appearances and disappearances. It's also a good deal more disturbing, of course.
I still love Apollo and Starbuck, and am growing more fond of Tigh by the episode. Tigh is an interesting character, because he's not immediately sympathetic, but he's usually right, especially in his interactions with Starbuck; it would have been all too easy to leave him a caricature, but instead he's a person. I do worry about the "wrong but romantic" vs. "right but repulsive" dichotomy.
I am hoping, incidentally, that Starbuck's ability to fly the Cylon ship is a sign that she's a good pilot rather than a sign that she's a Cylon as well. (I'm not spoiled, but it seems likely to me that we'll have another major character revealed to be a Cylon at some point in the series.) Did no one else think to inspect the wires at the back of the cockpit, though? And wouldn't it be really dangerous to turn that thing on while everyone else is just sitting around it?
All in all, I wasn't thrilled by this episode, but that's because of my giant Gaius Baltar issues, and because it had insufficient Lee, Kara and Tigh. I did like Adama's response to Shelley's attempt at seduction, of course, and i wish I had more to say about Roslin.
That was a lot more than I thought I'd have to say.
In other news, the debate over authorial intent and the limits of canon can bite me. I've been thinking that it's time for a re-read of Cicero's De Officiis, because I keep worrying at the question of whether an action can be useful but not good. This is because I've been reading far, far too much X-Men fanfiction (comic and movie). I can already see where this whole train of thought is going, and I'm not happy about that. I do not want a new fandom with decades of contradictory canon, thank you very much.
I will probably update again today, as I'm leaving for Oxford this evening, and livejournal is an acceptable procrastination technique.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 06:10 am (UTC)Well, if it helps, in the deleted scene that's up at the SciFi website, it's Apollo who tells Tigh that Starbuck needs a job, some reason to get out of bed, and he's the one who basically says Tigh should go needle her because (unspoken of course) his own more loving efforts are not getting anywhere. Apollo knows his Starbuck VERY well (though I wish they'd stop cutting his limited scenes...)
no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 09:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 03:54 pm (UTC)You can follow this link to DL, rather than stream, the deleted scenes.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/captainapollo/10554.html?#cutid1
no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 07:30 am (UTC)I do like the idea of Lee and Tigh working together, though--and Tigh's persepctive on the Adama family must be an interesting one.
Yes, I think he's known Lee since he was a kid (the scene in the mini where Lee asks for the disaster pods, and Tigh says "you're the old man's son" ... Uncle Saul to the rescue. Ha!) and of course, he's a very good friend to Adama. I love Tigh, by the way - in all his crusty, impatient, alcoholic glory. He's so REAL! I love that we can have an antagonist to another character I love (Starbuck) who's not Evil or even completely wrongheaded.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 08:04 am (UTC)*points* *laughs*
I was a Marvel fangirl long long before I started watching TXF and I start watching TXF loooong before I started on-line fandom. (And honestly, now I've been out of current comics for over four years.) So I sympathize, but only in it looks scarey at first, but wait until you try it. All the source material and all the secondary characters and support for damn near any interpetation of characterization you could want.
The biggest problem for me is the cost - cable runs me $40 a month, so the cost of, say, BSG is almost invisible. When I was really into comics, though, I could drop more than $100 a month just on the current stuff.
I keep worrying at the question of whether an action can be useful but not good.
Is this another way of saying "It causes more harm than it prevents"?
- hossgal
no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 09:51 am (UTC)The cost is what kept me away from comics, growing up; I had a small allowance, and it wouldn't stretch to cover buying comics and doing things with friends. I did the obligatory Sandman thing while it was going, but dropped back out pretty soon.
Is this another way of saying "It causes more harm than it prevents"?
Kind of, but not exactly--an action that causes more harm than it prevents wouldn't be "useful" in this sense, either. It's a philosophical problem: basically, in the De Officiis, Cicero categorizes actions in two ways (he's building on Panaetius and Stoic ethics): good or not-good, and useful or non-useful. The basic question is whether an action can be not-good but still be useful (that is, that it can do good without being good, but "good" in this context is also a technical term). I need to go back and re-read before I can make this clearer.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 02:49 pm (UTC)For me it was that and that I couldn't find them. (Though perhaps I was just unobservant. At least one successful British comics artist lives in the town I grew up in, so they must have been available somewhere.)
I only really got into comics as an adult, once I had disposable income. Which I promptly disposed of. Mind you, that was a while back. I'm probably down to 5-6 titles a month now, and I tend to read them in batches every couple of months when I'm in the mood rather than gobble them down every week as they come out.
Safe journey, and have a good time in Oxford.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 06:22 am (UTC)In Halifax, I pass a comic book store on my way to the supermarket--I think the fact that it's on the wrong side of the street is the only thing keeping me out of it, at the moment. (Also, in the evenings it's inhabited by a serious-looking group of RPG people.)
no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 09:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 12:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 03:49 pm (UTC)have a good trip!
no subject
Date: 2005-02-25 07:01 am (UTC)I have been assured that there is a point to that storyline, but may I respectfully suggest that they get to it already?
no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-19 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-20 07:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-23 06:23 am (UTC)