Ron Moore Interviewed

An interview with Ron Moore regarding the aftermath of the series 3 finale aired this past weekend. Spoilers abound for those who haven't seen the finale.

Overall it doesn't say too much about what will happen in series 4, but that seems to be chiefly because Moore himself hasn't decided what will happen in series 4.

Crossroads

Tonight marks the third season finale for Battlestar Galactica and what can I say about it but WOW. The latter half of this season has been pretty meh to be honest, especially compared with the first half, but the finale makes you forget all about the drudgery.

I called it -- twice, really -- quite a long time ago about what would happen in the finale. It's honestly not that much of a stretch given what transpired early in the season, but nonetheless I still have a well-deserved sense of smugness now that I know I was right. The reveal at the end of the episode was surprising, and frankly I don't completely buy it as being real, but at least for now we have to look at certain characters in a different light.

One thing I love about teh interwebs is the speed with which information can get out there. Battlestar Galactica finished airing not long ago on the Sci Fi Channel, and already the Wikipedia article on Cylons has information about what went on (note it contains spoilers). So lovely.

Thus ends another season of Battlestar Galactica, and frankly that's a good thing. I'm overly anxious and excited about what next season will deliver, especially since it's going to be the longest season yet (about which I have mixed feelings), but with the slow pace of the latter half of series 3, I think I can handle the wait just because I fear more filler crap in the extended season.

For those who watch the show but haven't yet seen the finale, don't give up on it even when it's slow and lagging early on... stick with it, it's worth it.

Athena

So Sharon has a new callsign on Battlestar Galactica, and the Cylons are in a pickle.

I've just watched the latest episode and wow was it fantastic. The highlight of the season was still two weeks ago, but this week's episode runs a very close second. I really liked some of the after effects of the occupation, namely the split between those who were on New Caprica and those who weren't. It seemed like a very natural progression and circumstance; one would expect that sort of polarity to surface considering both sides had their own struggles and they feel trivialized by the other side who cannot understand their perspective. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Tigh and his statement to Adama after their confrontation.

The whole Baltar/Cylon storyline is also playing out strangely... most of it is to be expected (such as Baltar's drive for self-preservation and doing/saying whatever he needs to in order to survive, such as glossing over the discovery of the 13th Colony's device on the dead Basestar), but a couple things made me stop and think (or cringe). Firstly, the hybrid Cylon... wtf?! She completely reminded me of the controller chick from "Bad Wolf" (Doctor Who; season 27, episode 12). Secondly, the dismissal of the other 5 Cylon models smacked of laziness when it was first mentioned. Laziness on the part of the writers to come up with something better (read: good), that is. I have no doubt in my mind that some or all of the last 5 will get at least explored, if not shown, this season (even if only as a cliffhanger leading us to season 4), but it makes me wonder just how it will be accomplished.

I've purposefully not gone into great details about the episode since I'm too lazy to bother with containing spoilers as I did with my last comments about BSG... so, this is what you get.

Battle-frackin'-star Galactica

I just finished watching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica (season 3, episode 4). The short version of my response to it is WOW. What an episode. The thing had everything: It was an emotional rollercoaster, there were some winks to the past, and we got some serious plot progression out of the way (with some interesting new plot points begun).

In the interest of mitigating damage, I'll be hiding the spoiler-ridden remarks below. Highlight the space to see the words.

-- BEGIN SPOILERS --

This episode almost brought tears to my eyes with some of what went on. The homage to Living Legend (Part 2) from the original series was fantastic and slightly unexpected. I expected the Pegasus to jump in to aid Galactica against the Cylon Base Ships, but Apollo's remark of going between the Base Ships choked me up when it made me flash back to Lloyd Bridges doing the same thing 28 years ago. I was very, very sad to see the Pegasus get destroyed, especially since I thought the events at the end of Living Legend were so poignant, and this episode strayed from that resolution. In Living Legend, the fate of the Pegasus is unknown at the end... and while I always thought (back in the day) it might show up again, Battlestar Galactica was cancelled (for all intents and purposes) and we never knew what happened to Cain and his ship. All that being said, perhaps it's not such a terrible trade-off to have the Pegasus get destroyed since it meant the demise of two Base Ships. Plus, the name of the series does contain the word "Galactica," not the word "Pegasus" after all.

The effects shots of the Galactica jumping intra-atmosphere and launching the Vipers, then jumping away, were phenomenal. It looked so damn cool I watched that 45-second sequence about 6 times before moving past that point in the episode. From a dramatic perspective, it was wonderful to see that sequence. It was also a really cool action sequence with Galactica fighting time and gravity to pull off the risky gambit.

As for the rest of the story, it wasn't much of a leap to learn that Starbuck's child wasn't hers after all. Given the timeline of the series there simply isn't enough time to have a child of that age come from any genetic material that may have been taken from her at the farm we saw in early season 2. One could put forth the argument that perhaps genetic engineering was in play by accelerating the gestation or something similar, but it seems unlikely such technology would be in the hands of the Cylons. Even if it were, and they were constructing a hybrid child, I would think they'd let "nature" take its course and have it develop properly and in its own time given they would both have no idea how to engineer such a creation, as well as it would be blasphemous under their religion to play God.

It was also initially unclear (at least to me, and probably deliberately unclear in general) as to whether or not Tigh killed Ellen. One gets the impression he did considering what was said to him by Anders, but ultimately the point is moot as to whether he killed her or simply drugged her as she was left to die on New Caprica if she was indeed simply drugged. I'm not sad to see the character go as I always found her more annoying than anything (especially in episodes such as "Sacrifice").

It will be interesting to see what happens with Baltar... presumably he and Caprica are staying on New Caprica with whatever Cylon force remains behind with Hera. Or, if the Cylons are going to be leaving (which ultimately seems more likely, if for no other reason than to continue chasing Galactica), presumably he'll go with them just as the Colicos version of the character did in the original series.

PROGNOSTICATION: I predict a Hera storyline will form the basis of either the season 3 mid-season cliffhanger, or the overall season 3 cliffhanger.

Lastly, while I'm sure it will happen sooner than later (either in the opening credits, on the whiteboard as before, or being overtly stated), I thought it would have been nice to see or have announced a population count at the end of the episode. That would have shown just how bad an idea Baltar had by mandating migration from the ships to the planet at the end of series 2, and been the basis of Laura's actions in her next term of office. Nonetheless, that information will be known soon enough. It would have just fit nicely and "felt right" being stated at the end of this episode.

It's just nice to be done with the New Caprica storyline. I wasn't a fan of it before, and the 6 episodes we had of it were more than enough in my books. Still, this was easily the best epsiode of this young season. I can hardly wait for the next 6 episodes before the show goes on hiatus.

-- END SPOILERS --

So, for those reading the spoiler segment, there you go. There are my thoughts. For those skipping over the spoiler segment because you haven't seen the episode (or don't care for the series), well, here we are.

A job well done Ron Moore & co. Keep it up.

Smallville

Is it just me, or is Smallville really, really getting good again? It was so lackluster for so long (it was somewhat trying getting through the Season 5 DVDs over the past couple weeks), but the whole Green Arrow/Justice League buildup is getting good. The whole Lana going bad thing is getting good. Lex being even more duplicitous is getting good. The Chloe/Jimmy arc I don't much care for, but only for reasons of jealousy (damn that Aaron Ashmore!).

Mind you, it still baffles me as to why Aaron Ashmore was cast as Jimmy when his twin brother was a villain in an earlier episode. Can casting in the Vancouver area be getting that desperate already? We've already got (at least) two crossover actors between Battlestar Galactica and Smallville (one far more minor than t' other). At least, that's just in season 5! There are no doubt others I've either not noticed or about which I've already forgotten. Not to mention the plethora of other series produced in the area, all dipping in pretty much the same casting pool.

The season 6 opener bothered me a lot, considering the 5th season was spent building and building and building on the Zod story line, and then we get a crappy Russell T. Davies, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am deus ex machina end in a hurry. It was such a let down. However, some of the things introduced in that same episode (Raya, the phantom zone, etc.) will at least come back into play heavily in this season, and if done correctly can be very interesting plot points. At least, let's hope it's done right.

Way past bedtime

It's after 4am as I begin to write this, but I would like to get something going with this thing, and the only way to do that is to actually sit down and write something. So, with nothing better to talk about, I'll run down my day. It was actually one of those few days where I did something other than laze around and watch movies or the like.

After I got up and ate, I watched last night's Battlestar Galactica. I was highly disappointed at how the second season ended, moreso after watching it again on DVD, but I'm starting to like the New Caprica thread that was introduced (now that it's getting fleshed out a little bit). I'm on the edge of my seat to see what happens next, although there's a good chance I can guess what's going to happen (at least in part), if for no other reason than there are only so many ways this plot line can play out.

After that, I grabbed the iPod and the MacBook Pro (after spending 3-4 hours reinstalling Windows XP, updates, Office, etc. last night) and trundled off to Dave's place. I didn't want to bring the laptop, but I was meeting Paul there and we had sort of talked about maybe playing some Rise of Legends over there. I guess Dave recently got a new video card (GeForce 6600), which was a good thing as his machine ran RoL like crap the last time I was over there with Paul and our respective MacBooks. Alas, although I didn't see RoL in action, Dave said the new video card wasn't much better than what he had before (whatever that was... I don't remember what the old card was, and I didn't ask). As it turned out, I should have listened to myself and left the MacBook at home as we never did get around to playing any RoL. We did, however, play craps for a while. Rob H. was also there, and with Dave playing croupier the three of us proceeded to battle it out for play dough at Dave's craps table. Initially all of us had a good early run, myself more than doubling the initial stake (which is something that rarely happens for me... I tend to play conservatively and never fare overly well), Paul making a bit, and Rob cleaning up on Paul's 6 successive 7's coming out, laying big money on Big Red and getting paid big time. Starting with a $100 (play money) stake apiece, Rob quickly ran his stack up to over $2500 before giving most of that back on some unfortunate rolls (made by all of us). By the time we stopped playing, I had broken even, Paul was up about $500, and Rob was up a little over $700. I took over the dealer role for a bit so Dave could play, but he blew his wad in a short amount of time, making him the loser overall I guess.

So, after that, we settled in to some GameCube action. Since buying a 360 half a year ago, I've barely touched my Cube, so it was nice to revisit some games. We started with Super Smash Bros. Melee, a game I never really cared for, but after some embarassing deaths I eventually won a few matches in a row to salvage something out of the experience. The biggest thing to know about that is to not play Dr. Mario, as he royally sucks. So, after the Melee action, a few matches of Mario Power Tennis came about, with Paul and I versus Dave and Rob. Save a few games, Paul and I cleaned up, ultimately not losing a single set. After that, Rob left for a date, and Paul and his girlfriend Soonil (who came by later) headed out, so Dave and I broke out the Donkey Konga and bongoed it up for a good couple of hours. Thanks to me, he's now finished off the gold status for Duet Chimp mode. We tried to make some similar headway for Gorilla, but failed miserably. I don't think we got a single Gorilla song done on gold. Oh well. It'd been a while since I'd played the game, and I still have my touch.

After all that, I headed home (catching some good luck with timing and buses), grabbed some supper, and settled in to some more TV. I had a back episode of the Professional Poker Tour to watch, so I watched it; as well, Warren (a friend from way back when) and his buddy released their latest Doctor Who podcast, a commentary for the series 2 finale, so I gave that a listen (mainly as an excuse to rewatch the episode). I still don't overly care for the episode, but their commentary was enjoyable. I wound up going on a bit of a tirade on Warren's blog about some things they brought up, but it was all meant well.

So, after that, and after finishing off some downloads (the latest week of Corrie, yay!), I've arrived here, and now that that's happened, it's time to crash.

hasta la vista