Battlestar Galactica:Season 2; Part 4 NSCR/8.5.05

About Starbuck...

LightPhoenix said:
A lot of people have expressed this sentiment, and I don't necessarily disagree. I think the intention is that there were better people at all of those things out there. They just all died when the Cylons attacked - I'm sure they struck military targets first. Starbuck is no doubt a very talented officer, and her ability to do most things better than average, especially with most of the humans dead, makes her better than most. I don't think the show has done a good job of explaining that, but that's the impression I got.
Interesting way to look at it. I basically agree. She may come off as being nearly the best at everything but the show has most certainly shown us that she is a train-wreck of a human being. She barely feels joy at any time. She got her first love killed. She screws up every single personal relationship (friend and family) she's ever had (betrayed the Adama's a few times now).

So, best at everything? I think not. The show needs to have someone who can just about always get the job done but that character gets to suffer in the process. I meant, c'mon - she hasn't even gotten to dogfight in a raptor for nearly 10 eps now.

LightPhoenix said:
Also, IMO they gave the impression that the "pro" she played wasn't actually that good.
I certainly got that impression. I also got the strong impression that the two of them have a nice set of sexual tension going. The game was just her way of flirting. Girl certainly doesn't play by the rules.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Steel_Wind said:
So who is to blame for all of this?

Adama is to blame. He arrested the President. He is the quintessential military man who values loyalty above logic. Colonel Tigh has no place being the executive officer of the Galactica. He never did.
Um, actually the Cylons are to blame for all of this. ;)

The show is much smarter that "it's X's fault." Roslin knew darn well that she was risking her credibility by sending Starbuck on that mission. She knew that it would spark Adama into a situation and put them at direct odds. So who's "fault" is it for the current situation? Everyone's fault. They are at war and on the run. It's bound to happen. Both leaders want the best for humanity but they have different ways about doing it. When they work together they are at their best but that's not going to happen anytime soon.
 

I don't really get people's thing with Starbuck. She's just like the original, only a woman. Is that it - a woman in what is traditionally a man's role? Otherwise she seems like a really fun, if ugly, woman and a true warrior spirit.

Man, I was hoping Adama would set everything straight when he got up, but the preview doesn't seem to indicate this.
 

Elf Witch said:
I still think Starbuck is a b**ch. She is just so unpleasant. And of course she is not only the best pilot ,shot fill in the blank but she can win a pyrmid match against a pro. Oh yeah right she could have played pro but for her bum knee. She is such a Mary Sue type character.

Well, her being a top notch athlete doesn't seem that unrealistic to me, especially not in a sport that requires hand eye coordination.

She's a top gun pilot. The physical requirements to be a jet pilot disqualify most immediately.

Hand-eye coordination, reflex speed, reaction time... a top pilot like her basically *is* a professional athlete.

Chuck
 

Safana Cain said:
I don't really get people's thing with Starbuck. She's just like the original, only a woman. Is that it - a woman in what is traditionally a man's role? Otherwise she seems like a really fun, if ugly, woman and a true warrior spirit.

Man, I was hoping Adama would set everything straight when he got up, but the preview doesn't seem to indicate this.

No she is not. The only thing they have in common is that they are both pilots and they smoke cigars. The male Starbuck was charming and did not go out of his way to insult people like the new one does. He was not a train wreck on relentonships either he maintained one with Cassie and even with Athena. He never betrayed or hurt Adama.

They are nothing alike.
 

LightPhoenix said:
I don't think they really cared. I don't think they were really going to keep Boomer alive. The only information they got from her was through Baltar, by almost killing a human. Even with such an extreme act, she couldn't provide anything more useful than a number. Dead, they can dissect her and learn a helluva lot more about the human-form Cylons than they could alive.

Except that they already have two dead anthroform Cylons on board...the guy from the space station that Adama killed, and bits of the one that blew himself up in the beginning of the witch hunt episode.

Of course, a live one to study is potentially much more useful. But, at the same time, it's going to be incredibly dangerous, too. The anthroforms seem to be much tougher and stronger than baseline humans, such that examining even a subdued, cooperative one like Boomer would put any techs at incredible risk. After all, at some point, the underlying Cylon might come out to play and rip the techs' heads off.

Odds are, then, that the best (if ickiest) way of getting useful information about a live anthroform is to do quite a bit of vivisection.

Brad
 

About Cylon numbers:
8 remaining Cylons aboard the Fleet make sense, I think.
There are supposed to be 12 models. The fleet does already know the models Boomer, Shelley Goodfrey, Leoben and Doral, that means 12-4 = 8. The only way to identify a Cylon now is either by a working Cylon Detector (that is not manipulated by Baltar) or by him doing something to directly identify him by actions. Comparing photos will fail then...

I still doubt Tigh´s wife is a Cylon - unless maybe Moore & co have decided that the humans "great gift" is murder, and the Cylons gift is manipulation and deciption. I tend to think both are human talents (at least if I am in a cynical mood, which luckily doesn´t happen to often).
I hope Cally is not a Cylon, and I don´t believe so, especially since she now will be in trouble...

About Adama and Roslin:
I think both have good reasons for their actions, and unfortunately, only one of them can be right. Either there are gods, the prophecies are true, and Roslins plans must be followed while Adama has to step back behind her, or she is mad and has to step down and Adama has (or had) all the right to force her to step down.
But there is a way out of this, though it´s a long way - both of them have to come to a mutual agreement that fighting each other will do no good, and have to reach a compromise between religious beliefs and military needs - how this would work exactly though is a lot more difficult to say. But I think if they can both work together, they will be a great team.

About Starbuck:
The original Starbuck was basically the typical flawless hero of its time. His character would be boring by today´s standards - probably most wouldn´t simply care for such a character, and he wouldn´t add much in terms of the shows drama.
The new Starbuck is based on the old, except that she is no longer entirely flawless. She might be technically perfect (brilliant pilot, player, athleth and sniper), but she lacks in the personality and emotional department. This allows for some interesting dramatic developments, but unfortunately it leads also to a controversial character with unlikable attitudes. Personally, I like the new Starbuck, even with all her flaws.
Basically all of the original characters have been changed this way in the new Galactica, but for Starbuck it often seems more apparent, probably due to the kind of the flaws she has.

About the destruction on Caprica:
If I remember correctly, they noted in the mini-series that nuclear bombs were detonated in the upper atmosphere of the planets. I think the Cylons primarily relied on the radiation to kill the population, trying to keep the infrastructure in a good shape.

Other aspects of the episode:
Finally we see some resistance on Caprica.
 

John Crichton said:
About Starbuck...

{Starbuck and the pyramid player}

I certainly got that impression. I also got the strong impression that the two of them have a nice set of sexual tension going. The game was just her way of flirting. Girl certainly doesn't play by the rules.

There was that. But Starbuck's going to take his band of rebels away from him, and I think the game was part of trying to get him to concede gracefully.
 


drothgery said:
There was that. But Starbuck's going to take his band of rebels away from him, and I think the game was part of trying to get him to concede gracefully.
I could see that happening. She could try and work with them as they probably want off just as much as she does. Some of them may have family still alive in the fleet.
 

Remove ads

Top